Cloudy with a chance of grump

Before I begin, I want to post something non-grumpy. The photo of Allie that I entered into the People's Choice photo challenge over at I Heart Faces on Monday was selected to move on to the voting round. Realistically, I don't expect to make it into the top ten but I am happy to have been chosen for the voting round! You can check out that contest by clicking here. (I am #40.)

Okay, now onto the real post.

The past two weekends have been busy, busy for us with events and outings. Two weeks ago, Grammy and I brought the girls to see Disney on Ice along with my sister-in-law and nieces. My sister-in-law was able to score awesome seats through a presale so we were only seven rows from the ice. I probably don't have to say this - it should be obvious - but the girls LOVED the show. They sat and watched in awe the entire time. There was one somewhat frightening scene during Tiana's story but the rest was pure joy. (Again, I'm excited for our return trip to Disney next year.)

Anna is currently going through a bit of a rough patch. We hope that it is a phase. A four and a half year old phase. But a part of us fears that it may be a side effect to the medicine that she needs to take three times a day for her bladder. The medicine that other parents of children with spina bifida know all too well. I hate that medicine. I hate that without leaps and bounds in science, she will be taking this medicine forever.

Anna is easily agitated. Our first thought is that her behavior is shunt related (as in a shunt malfunction causing her head to hurt) but when we question her about her head, she tells us that is doesn't hurt. That nothing hurts.

Allie is in the middle of a phase right now as well. She becomes quite upset if her sisters talk while she is talking. Or if they happen to answer a question or point something out before she has the chance to. This has caused major meltdowns but we can always pinpoint the cause. With Anna, we cannot.

(How ironic that I am posting this tonight. From the second I arrived home this evening and continuing on until I tucked the girls into bed, Anna was in the best mood. I cannot remember the last time I have seen her this happy for that long, especially at night. She has slept two nights in a row in her own bed without waking up looking for me. I could theorize until I'm blue in the face but I hope this is just a phase that will be ending soon.)

This past Sunday, we attended the christening of Baby Patrick, the girls' most recent cousin. Well, their cousin's son really but we still say that he is their cousin. The girls were very well behaved at church. On our way back to the van, I told Rich that I wanted to try to take a picture of them against the stone wall that ran along the sidewalk. Others who had left the church after us were walking down the sidewalk towards us so I rushed the girls into position.

Allie and Em are saying, "On, no. Hurry. There are people coming."

Anna would not cooperate. Not only would she not cooperate, she was in a weird quiet mood.

After church, we headed to the family party. The girls simply adore Baby Patrick and are so gentle with him. Here are some pictures of Anna and Patrick.

The girls were super shy because of all the people in attendance. Emily told me that she wanted to talk to Jen (her cousin) but then did this whenever Jen asked her a question.

There were quite a few grumpy moments on Saturday and Sunday for all involved so whenever I glanced outside, I would say, "Looks like it's cloudy with a chance of grump."