3am

At 3am this morning, Kayliana started yelling urgently, "Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!!!"  I rushed in to her room to see what the problem was.

"What?!" I panted half-asleep and also a little alarmed with the urgency with which she'd been yelling.

As calmly as could be, she said, "I love you so much."  Like this is a totally normal thing to scream for at 3am.

I half-chuckled-groaned and responded, "I love you so much too, but let's not yell at 3am to tell me that, k?  Let's have you go potty since we're up."  I toss back her blankets and my hand hits something kinda hard.  Huh?

On top of her footy pajamas, Kayli was wearing the still-too-big-but-she's-desperate-to-wear-them pair of pink cheetah-print boots she'd received as a birthday present.  Also, perfectly normal at 3am on Wednesdays, apparently.  (For the record, she hadn't been wearing them when I'd put her to bed.)

My mom has told me the story of when I was four and had gotten a pair of shiny black Mary Janes.  When she tucked me in for bed that night, something told her to take a peek and, sure enough, I was sporting my new shoes in bed.  Like mother, like daughter.

2015, here we come!

Christmas has come and gone.  New Year’s is over.  I’m still kind of in denial though.  The Martin home has yet to be de-Christmasified.  But that’s allowed – it’s just Epiphany today!  I’ll probably slowly start tomorrow, but honestly, for some reason, this year, I did NOT get my fill of Christmas music and magic.  I may keep on keepin’ on with the music for a while yet.

We had a good Christmas.  I think maybe my expectations (as often happens) made it a bit of a letdown though.  Last year was so horrible (seeing as my dad had died just a month previous).  Obviously this year was better than that, but it still wasn’t totally awesome.  The kids – well, the two younger of the three – were insanely cranky.  Like terrible grumpy aliens took over their bodies cranky.  I don’t know what was going on there.  It’s hard not to let that start to get you down.  You want to scream, “It’s Christmas, for crying out loud! BE MERRY!!!”

Post Christmas, things did look up.  Mike and I took my mom to see, “A Christmas Story, the Musical” at the 5^th Ave Theater.  It’s my parents’ all time fave Christmas movie (they even received a leg lamp one year that my brother had made).  That was super fun.  Then on Sunday, our annual Camp Christmas began.  Jason, Rebecca, Jason’s daughter Adrienne and their 4 kiddos moved in for four nights-five days.  Most people think this is nuts.  Most don’t understand.  When we told the kids that they’d be staying for four whole nights this year, Zach whined.  (‘Cuz that’s still not long enough.)  When it was time for them to leave (after five days of togetherness, playing games, hanging out), one of their kids cried, “But we didn’t get to play!”  This is just how we roll, these two families – no time together is ever time enough.

New Year’s Eve was party central.  Adrienne stayed here to put all of the kiddos to bed (and did a great job) while Jason, Rebecca, Mike and I went with Rebecca’s family on a party bus in Seattle.  We went to a bar (that we proceeded to OWN) and then went up Queen Anne hill to watch the fireworks at the Space Needle.  We ended the night at Dick’s Drive-In and an insane amount of burgers, fries and milkshakes at 2am.  We partied like rock stars. 

What will 2015 bring?  We’re already off to a good start.  Mike and I had a date night courtesy of dear friends, Jason and Julia, on Saturday.  We used the time (sans kids) to talk about the upcoming year.  We’ve got to figure out Kayliana’s next school year’s pre-Kindergarten plan SOON (which seems crazy and as if I’m figuring out who she is as a human being…like now. No pressure).  She got to start the year with a beautiful new bedroom set that we got from friends!  Matthew just started baseball (we finally bit the bullet and bid adieu to our local drama politics-filled league and moved to the bigger one in Bellevue).  They do an awesome job of providing equal prep/practice time for all kids at the local batting cages with all coaches helping all kids equally - what a concept!  Zachary starts an acting class next week that he is SO insanely excited about.  Mike’s busy with some work projects and continuing to get my website ready for on-line registration for my classes and birthday parties!  I’m excited with my new found life plan to be the princess I was always meant to be.  I need to get my Elsa dress altered and schedule a photo-shoot with my friend Andrea, and then I’ll really be ready to rock the 2-6 year old birthday party scene.  We’re working on some house projects – including getting a gas fireplace insert in the next month or so (which I’ve always wanted and is abnormally exciting to me).  We’re hoping to go to Spokane in April to see Mike’s family (and attend an Engaged Encounter meeting).  We’ve got a trip to California planned for the end of June and a camping trip scheduled with Jason and Rebecca for August.  

All good things!  And thank you, GOD, for getting us through 2014 and that it's behind us!