1 + 1 = 5, a lesson learned: My little girl is now THREE months old. During those three months i have learned one very important fact. (aside from the fact that my little girls are the cutest ever!) 1 + 1 = 5. Yes, my friends, your math teacher was misleading you, possibly intentionally (but i'll leave that "intentionally" part for another conspiracy theory post...). Adding a second child to your home does not make taking care of the two children twice as difficult, it makes it FIVE TIMES More difficult. I'll admit, i may have been a bit naive. I THOUGHT that after one kid, subsequent children would be less difficult, or in other words, less exhausting per additional child. I figured having one kid was the big change, and subsequent were minor alterations in your course. Man, was I wrong. What i failed to realize, when you have ONE kid, you can pawn her off on your wife when you've had enough, and she's ready and willing to take over. Not so when you have two. There is still another child needing attention. Before, you could have ONE kid (your only) in a bad mood. Now, when one is in a bad mood, they're BOTH in a bad mood. And the worst part? They FEED off each others bad mood, and make things worse for everyone within a 2 mile radius. When one kid is finally so exhausted because she has not been sleeping at nights that she will finally fall asleep, the other will take the reigns and make sure you get even less sleep than the other had allotted you. Sometimes waking the other sleep deprived child up in the process, making an even more "Interesting" night. Then there is the exhaustion that comes from two children needing constant attention, the fact that they never take a nap at the same time leading to you NEVER getting any down-time, and trying to make sure the older one doesn't sit on the younger one's face. Yes folks, I have been late to the party that many of my esteemed friends and acquaintances have already attended. I have now realized what i should have known all along. 1 + 1 does indeed = 5.

Palmer Updates

I thought I'd update the blog and let you all know what is going on with the Palmers. Knowing that I had taken a bunch of pictures, I put the SD card into the computer and...discovered that Brent had taken them off. I'll be honest; I know the pictures are someplace on the computer, but I never have any idea where to find them. So this update is sans pictures.

As for me, I am doing well. Much better than the last time I got on here and ranted. :) I am feeling much improved. There was a point where I was sure I would never feel back to normal, but now I feel like that is possible. I'm pretty darn close to being back to new--probably 85%. Yay!!

Addy is doing well, also. We get lots of questions regarding Addy and her new sister--Is she jealous? Is she coping well? Brent and I think that Addy is much happier now than she was a month ago. Some of it may be her growing up, and some of it may be that she hated being dropped off at a babysitter, so now that I am home full-time she has nothing to do but be gleeful. Okay, that last part isn't true, but she is generally happy, smiling, and laughing the day away. We are glad to have Happy Addy back.

Mari is also doing well. She was blessed by Brent on Sunday, and it was a beautiful blessing. I know it was from the Spirit, but it also made me excited to hear a blessing that encouraged her to be close to the Savior, and to love all man. That's what I want for my children. That's what I want for myself.

I'm slowly easing into a routine for myself and the two little girls. I decided that I wanted to break up cleaning so I didn't have to do it all on one day. For example, on Monday I wash the floors. (I picked that chore for that day because it is my least favorite. Might as well waste it on a Monday, eh?) We almost always go for a walk around 11 am. I try to make sure each girl has some time where I focus on her. And things are slowly getting easier.

As for Brent, he's got a little bit of stress in his life, as a loved one is having open heart surgery on Friday. I'm trying to figure out the best way to support him. We're hoping that things will go well.

And I'll try to have pictures for the next post. :)

Little Girl

Well, you now have heard about the disaster that happened with (what appears to be an enormous amount of detail thanks to my wife's VERY detailed post) our child's birth and the Jaundice that put her in the NICU. I happen to have a couple pictures that I can upload that i took with my 8 year old phone. I haven't had time enough to post the pictures taken with the REAL camera. So they're not very good, but better ones will follow. So, if you wanted a pretty face to help cover up the other mental images you now have, here she is. The one with goopy eyes, is the antibiotic they put on right after birth.