Procrastination...

Okay, so one of my biggest character flaws (although there are many) is procrastination.  I have always been one to say, "Oh, I will do it tonight."  Or, "I will do that tomorrow when I have more time."  Yes, I was one of those people who were in the library at college until I was kicked out trying to get a paper done the night before it was due.  I HATE that I am like that, but it seems to be a hard habit to break.  I am doing better these days, though.  Having kids helped that a lot.  Kids don't wait for anything.  I can't say to Liam or Leila, "I know you are hungry, but I don't feel like feeding you now, so I will do it later."  So that is helping me.  And I definitely cannot put off laundry, because otherwise it would be so overwhelming.  It is already bad enough, and I do some each day.

Anyways, I say all this to say that my procrastination has finally gotten the better of me.  You see, when Matt and I first got married, a couple months later, we bought a new computer.  Nothing fancy, just what we needed for our little projects and stuff.  So, once we had Liam, we entered the exciting world of digital photography and kept all our pictures on our handy dandy computer.  Now, I am a procrastinator, but a good character trait (I think) of mine is that I am organized.  My pictures were all organized by the kids age by months.  I also had a title for almost every picture, because it drives me nuts to see something like "100454" underneath the picture.  I would much rather see something like, "Daddy time" or whatever underneath.  So I had literally thousands of pictures all neatly organized on our computer.

Now, a few months ago, I had the thought that I really should back those pictures up.  So I tried to save them to a CD, but for some reason it would not work.  I even called my brother for help, but he could not figure out why it would not save for me.  So we then decided to buy a flash drive thingy and I would save them all on that.  But, we had to wait until we had the extra money for it.  Which we did get a few weeks later.  So, we had the flash drive for probably about 2 1/2 months.  I kept thinking, "I really should save those pictures.  I will do it tomorrow."

Well, you guessed it.  I never did.  Even last week, I had the strong impression that I should do it, but I got sidetracked with the kids and never did.  Maybe God was trying to tell me to do it.  I don't know.

Last Sunday, we came home from church and I was going to check email, when, lo and behold, the computer would not turn on.  I think I knew right away that something was permanently wrong.  I told Matt and he came and tried, and a blue screen came on that said something had failed.  Well, you now know that our hard drive crashed.  We took it to the "doctor" who is still trying to recover our pictures, but it is not looking too good.  I cannot tell you how upset I am.  But, it is all my fault.  I knew I needed to save those pictures, but never did.  I knew our computer was starting to act funny, but didn't make it a priority to save the important info.  It makes me sick to think of all those pictures, those memories gone.  The first smile of Liam, the first time he sat up.  The pics of us in the hospital with each child.  I feel so sad to know that they are probably all gone.  There still is a small glimmer of hope that he can save at least some of them, but I am not getting my hopes up.  I just keep reminding myself that, I may have lost the pictures, but I still have my children, and pictures are just an earthly treasure that will not last for eternity.  

One good thing that came out of it is we were able to get a new computer.  We were planning on getting one this year anyway, just maybe not this soon!  But that is okay.  The new one is great and we love it!  So please, all you out there.  Learn from my mistake.  Go, right now, and back up ALL your pictures and anything on the computer that is of any importance.  You will not regret it.  Trust me.  You don't want to be in my position.

On a different note, we are now one week and one day diaper free with Liam.  Overall, it has gone great.  He stays dry almost every night all night, and wakes up from naps dry.  He goes pretty much ever time I put him on the potty, and the accidents are few and far between.  We have had a little "hiccup" the other day, which freaked him out a little, but I think we are slowly getting over it.  On Wednesday night, we were about ready to leave for church when Liam had a #2 accident.  For some reason, he totally flipped out and would not go on the potty, but rather screamed for a diaper.  He did that almost all day Thursday.  It was a LONG hard day for me, having to deal with his hysterical screaming.  I guess seeing his mess on Wednesday really upset him and made him afraid.  We just kept reassuring him that it was okay.  Yesterday and today are much better.  I am so proud of him.  His chart is all full of stickers.  We ran out of room on the train tracks, so now he just puts them wherever he wants.  He loves to count them, even though he can only count to 20 and there are about twice that much or more.  

I wholeheartedly recommend that anyone going to potty train their child to just do it cold turkey - no pull-ups or anything.  I know that the first day or two is a lot of laundry and messes to clean, but I truly believe it is worth it.  These kids are smart, and know the difference between underwear and pull-ups or diapers.  So, that is my opinion, whether you wanted it or not!

So, I haven't given much of an update on Leila in a while.  She is doing great.  She has her first two teeth.  They came in couple weeks ago.  She can sit up on her own, and is scooching across the floor.  She will pull herself where she wants to go with her arms and drag her legs.  Or, she will get up on her knees, and almost stand on her head and scoot that way.  It is funny to see.  She is such a wiggle worm.  She never stays still.  She had a check-up last week and all looks good.  She is on the lower average for her weight, but still in the healthy range.  The dr. thinks it is because she is such an active girl.  She said that babies who weight more cannot move as easily, so then don't burn as much calories as fast.  But Leila is so skinny that she can roll and scoot all over which she does!  She is really, really long too.  And very strong.  The dr. told us she will not be surprised if she is an early walker.  Already, Leila can stand up and hold herself up if you put her by the couch or by the coffee table.  Whew.  I thought I was busy now, but it is getting even busier keeping track of not only Liam, but Leila and her trying to put everything in her mouth and scooting everywhere!  Liam walked just a few days after he turned 11 months, so we shall see if Leila is like that too.

Well, I think that is all for now!  Have a great day!  And SAVE YOUR PICTURES!!!!!!!