Mommy, will I ever be a beautiful mermaid?

Isabella has asked me this daily for about a week now. "Mommy, do you think I will ever be a beautiful mermaid?" or "Mommy, I wish I could be a beautiful mermaid." I've tried convincing her that she doesn't have to be a mermaid to be beautiful; that she's already beautiful!

A couple days ago Walter was sweeping the kitchen and she said, "mommy, is daddy allowed to use your broom?" Haha--anyone is allowed to use my broom!

Speaking of cleaning, this place is a disaster. Last week I was on the phone trying to schedule for someone to come clean my house because I'm just overwhelmed and once I get started someone starts complaining or needing attention...blah, blah, blah...well, then Walter decided to start tearing apart our kitchen. Which is great, but there wouldn't be any point in paying someone to clean when each evening the kitchen becomes more of a disaster. The good news is, I should have new countertops by the middle of next week. The bad news is that right now it looks like this:

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Last night Walter and I got into bed and we were talking about how Isaac has changed in the last two weeks. He's talking more and follows us around the room with his eyes; he's laughing and is happier in general. As we were talking I said, "man, something smells. Oh, it's just the dried spit-up on my shoulder." Then I was sharing evidence of how I am losing my mind: almost every time I've taken dirty clothes to the washing machine, I've opened the fridge to put them in there instead of the washing machine, and I'm pretty sure I forgot to brush my teeth yesterday (GROSS!), and recently I told Walter I was glad that Isaac has blue hair (yeah, I meant to say blue eyes). I guess that's what happens when you're sleep deprived. Last night I think I actually fell asleep on the toilet for a few minutes. Haha!

Isabella has kept herself entertained by pretending she is a mermaid. She drags herself across the hardwood floor and says that she is swimming. She also follows Walter around helping him with his "project" as she calls the kitchen remodel. When Walter and I were discussing the countertop update, I didn't realize that this would include a TON of electrical work. Today I had to leave the house because he and his dad were drilling holes and cutting apart the wall behind the sink...too much for me to handle.

Yesterday Isaac woke up from his nap and was incredibly crabby, so, knowing me, that meant we needed to leave the house. Where did we go, Jared's (that's right, the jewelry store). And no, I wasn't going to pick out new jewelry, I just really wanted my rings re-sized. You would have thought I dropped Isabella off in heaven. She kept going from case to case exclaiming how beautiful the rings and necklaces were. At one point she said, "mommy, look how many (diamonds) are on that one!" Oh dear! I was thrilled that it was free to have my rings re-sized (due to the extended warranty). Yay! Seriously I can't get over that--I was so excited! And it only took one day to have them ready.

Here are a some pictures from last weekend. I tried to photograph the butterflies and hummingbird in my dad's garden, but next time I'll need the tripod for a clearer shot. Enjoy!

(do you see the hummingbird?)

(She doesn't travel light--this is what she brought to playgroup on Monday)

Lately I've been in love with the clouds and the amazing sunsets we've had. Several nights in a row I raced over to the parking lot a few doors down from us so that I could try to get pictures. Trust me, you only have seconds to do this, so these were the best I could do. They aren't very good but I love the colors regardless

of how blury the photos are.