The Dayton Houghs: Catching Up: Take Two...Franny and birthdays

Ok, I'm on a roll!! Two blogs in one day?!?! I am going to cover the birth of my beautiful niece Francesca Elaine. While Jess was in the hospital giving birth to her third sweet little girl, I had the fun honor of keeping Isabella and Abby. Gianna and Hannah loved having "little girls" around (because they are sooo big). There were battles as to where everyone was going to sleep until I finally caved in and tucked all four of the little girls into Hannah's bed. Coley had to sleep beside them in Gianna's bed, so that they could see her. Apparently if she was sleeping in her top bunk, it was too far away for them to feel safe. I liked her there because if they were scared or crowded they would just crawl in bed with her instead of roaming the house at night.

While they were here we did lots of fun things...like bubble baths....

(here is Hannah in disguise as either Pap-pap or Santa. We couldn't decide. )

We had manicures and played dress up. Here as a picture from lunch time. Note the fabulous clothes, not to mention a super hero or two.

Batman is a big fan of mac and cheese!

Isabella was a lovely princess.

Abby went a little bit more rock and roll as Hannah Montana.

Gianna went old-school in a dress that I wore as a flower girl when I was her age.

Hannah was a little bit disappointed that she had to go to school while the girls were here, but she managed to smile for the camera.

Miss Francesca arrived in true girly fashion, when she was good and ready. I took the girls to see her the next day. I was dying to go, because I couldn't wait to see her myself! After we had dinner the following day I got the girls ready and we were off to meet the newest little Thompson girl. It would have been fine, except that Abby is apparently terrified of my big 12 passenger van and completely freaked out. The kid hadn't cried the entire time I had her, until then. Crying is a very understated description of the poor things reaction to riding in my van. She was a mess. She finally fell asleep, unfortunately it was about 3 minutes from the hospital. Sooo, instead of being a nice happy nap, it did more damage than good. She cried the whole way into the hospital. I had to carry her, becasue she was so upset, which was fine until we got to the elevator. My dear sister in her excitement of the impending birth of Francesca, forgot to mention that Isabella is deathly afraid of elevators. I don't mean that elevators make her a little bit nervous or uncomfortable. I am talking she turned white and was shaking and I had to literally drag her into the elevator, which was no small task considering that I was still holding Abby. I didn't know what else to do. There was a gentleman who was holding the door open for me as he got off I was trying to get the girls on the elevator. Isabella was even grabbing on to him! I looked at him and said, "I'm sorry!" He looked very sympathetically at me and said, "Not as sorry as I am for you!" When we got to the maternity floor we all very thankfully got off of the elevator and headed towards Jess' room. We walked in and instead of being excited to finally meet the baby, they just wanted Jess to take them home. I felt so bad for Jess. I am sure that she wanted their introductions to be sweet and meaningful and something that could look back at warmly. Yeah... not so much. They stopped crying and looked at the baby, but that was about it. Casey took them home and I got to snuggle that baby all by myself, while chatting with my sister for a while. It was so much fun to hold that tiny little body full of warmth and promise. Her little hands were so tiny, her skin was so soft, her little hair so fine. It made me a little bit sad, becasue my own sweet little baby had turned into a giant! He is still supersnuggly and soft and sweet, but he seemed huge! As any addict, (come on, you all know that I am addicted to babies! Duh! that's why I have so many of them!) I knew that I needed to get away from the baby as soon as possbile or I don't even know what would happen. My uterus might have exploded or I might have tried to make a run for it! That wouldn't be a good idea since I would have been caught thanks to the car alarms that they equip babies with in the hospital. I reluctantly gave my sister back her baby. I knew that I needed to go home a snuggle my own little ball of promise, even if he was now huge!

Shortly after little Francesca (also know as Francessica by my kids, or Franny Annie or Frankie or Francie) came home, my crazy sister had a birthday party for the girls. All three of her girls are born in the beginning of November, which is good party -wise. It only makes since to consolidate, but bad when you have to do it right after you give birth! The party was nice. It was the first time that my kids, other than Coley got to see the new baby. There was much fuss over how sweet and cute and tiny she was.