For the first time.

Being parents. We still don't know what the H we're doing.

Jake took the girls to "go get ice cream" tonight and came back with about $30 worth of stuff. Ice cream and candy and gummy bears and cookies. To make their own shakes they said in their high pitched voices.

I was annoyed at first but after their shakes I put them to bed and ate oreo cookies and watched Losing it with Jillian. Not bad, I say!

Man, we've got some major messes at our place. I cleaned out our van with a shop vac. That is extremely extreme. There's cracker and chip crumbs everywhere, and when the girls feel fancy, there's even shredded wheat under our living room rug. Along the edge. Creating a small crunchy hill. I promise, I do tell them to eat at the table at least twenty times a day.

Today I walked in the bathroom to find Lillie repeatedly attempting to flush a large Tinkerbell doll down the toilet. Good thing she was large (the doll).

I washed her with soap and then let Ruby know about the goings on. She didn't seem at all concerned or amused. Something in between, like a smirk mixed with a shrug.

While the girls were out with their daddy on the 8 o'clock sugar run, I stayed home with my baby and gurgled sweet nothings in her ear. I am not kidding, as soon as they were out the door, I grabbed her little body, took long strides down the hall, laid on my bed and talked to my baby. It's what I craved. She obliged and smiled all the way 'til 8:30.

And on this windy Wednesday evening, when temporary calm still blanketed our tiny little house, I started to tickle her neck and do you know what she did?

Do you???

She laughed. For the first time. From her ribs to her chest to her throat and then back down again, she laughed.  It truly, truly, truly, never gets old. My Matada.