Kathryn. Real.

Ellis just placed his hand very gently on my right boob and said:  ”Is this Tiny’s head?”

I have officially reached the point at which a shower, alone, while my child is supervised by another adult feels like I’m being pampered at the spa.

We got about 6 more inches of snow last night.  It’s madness I tell you.  This is completely a-typical weather for our area and frankly, I’m done with it.  According to the forecast we’re getting more snow this week.  I may never be able to leave the house again.  Also, we all have colds.  I ran out of “fun stuff to do at home” about 5 days ago.  We’ve made cookies, we’ve decorated the tree over and over again, we’ve painted, we’ve written letters (H, X, and M, so far!) we’ve had Lego battles, we’ve played in the snow with our runny noses, we’ve even made our own bean bags.

Last weekend the sun finally came out and I forcibly removed my family from the house.   We had donuts then drove down to the beach which had about 7 inches of snow on it.  It was freezing, but totally beautiful.  There are about 400 pictures from the last few days up here.  I’ll probably post more today because I’m fascinated by the sheer volume of it in our yard.

I think The Belly grew two inches in a week and a half.  Insane!  But so far I’ve managed to avoid any new stretch marks.  Here’s hoping she’s a (reasonably) petite little flower.

From Iris

Iris was my Latin name in high school.  It means Messenger of the Gods or, Rainbow.  Both of which I think are perfect for our little girl.  She already has my chin.

Here, her fingers are up by her forehead.  Look at that tummy!

From Iris

Here’s her foot.

From Iris

2:00 - Ellis and I finish making cookies and come downstairs to watch “Home Alone”.  Yay for snow days!

2:03 - Oops!  Can’t crawl in bed a watch a movie because of DOG PUKE ON THE BED

2:05 - I get the sheets off the bed while Ellis spills an ENTIRE CUP OF MILK ON THE CARPET!

2:06 - I try not to scream at my furry and not so furry children and say through gritted teeth “Maybe you could go play in your room for a few minutes.”

2:10 - Walk up stairs to laundry room (heavy breathing from cookies and fetus) RED ALERT!  RED ALERT! WE ARE OUT OF LAUNDRY DETERGENT AND WE ARE SNOWED IN!.

2:11 - Find some color safe bleach and use this instead.  That will work right?

2:15 - Glance out the window and see a young deer in our yard!  But something is wrong, he’s limping….OMFG HE’S MISSING A FOOT!  ONE OF OUR BACKYARD DEER HAS LOST A FOOT.  HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?  POOR BABY DEER!

2:15:30 - Commence with complete hormonal breakdown.

2:30 - Hear Ellis come up the stairs and quickly pull it together.

2:40 - Clean up spilled milk and Mother-effing dog puke.

2:45 - Realize there’s only one place to bitch about this ridiculous snowball of a half hour.

You’re welcome.

Iris Genevieve Tschoepe

Iris - because we really love it

Genevieve - because Kent’s mom’s name was a shortened version of this and he didn’t want to use her exact name.  and because we really love it.

I preferred Genevieve Iris because it flows better, but then her initials would be GIT.  So Kent won out.  Hooray!

I’m completely exhausted from all the anticipation.  Time to go relax!

Girl!  With two arms and two legs and a normal looking everything.  We are all thrilled, and currently fighting over names.  I am beyond relieved at having finally seen her.