An awkward re-entry into blogdom so that my 3rd daughter doesn't feel like she's getting gypped.

At first it seemed like I was just taking a little hiatus from blogging. Who doesn't, right? And then more time passed and it seemed easier not to. And THEN before I knew it there was so much time in between that it's now made for an uncomfortable re-entry back into a culture that I'm not even sure fully exists anymore. ...Do people even blog still? Has everyone moved on to a newer trend? I wouldn't know—because not only did I stop blogging but I've also stopped reading blogs, so, I mean, for all I know blogging is so 3 years ago and heavens to betsy—how embarrassing would that be?

But I had to show up here today because I was starting to feel guilty that my 3rd daughter was getting no air-time. Kind of like home videos of old where the 5th child—me—got a total of 3 appearances while the oldest brother got hours and hours of footage—all while he laid helplessly on a blanket as a baby. Ridiculous!

So with that said, I give you Giles baby 3—lying helplessly on her blanket:

Meet Norah Jean Giles. Born on Valentine's Day if you can believe it—February 14, 2015. She rounded out the Giles crew to 5, weighing a dainty 6 pounds 15 ounces—and I've already forgotten her length and what time of day she was born.

Those poor 3rd babies.

I really do feel for 'em, being a 5 and all. I mean, it's no secret that after Clara was one month old we had already managed to pile up a million digital photos of her. So far for Norah, we've got around 20.

However, she fits right in around here. We think she's lovely. And boy howdy if C and M don't just love her to shreds. (I've shortened their names to first initials out of the total convenience it brings!)

Some fun facts about Norah:
• She is the noisiest eater. I worry we'll never be able to take her in public. She hums, purrs, grunts, gurgles, whirrs, trills and warbles. (I may or may not have looked up some words in the thesaurus...)
• She only spits up out of her nose. Why spit up out of your mouth when you could go through a much more innovative and uncomfortable outlet? All the new newborns are doing it these days.
• And since she's only 1 month old, that's about all I can come up with for fun facts.

And since I haven't blogged in over a year, here are some fun facts about the C & M.

• Maren is 2 1/2. She's the class clown of the household—and she knows it too. She thinks she can get out of anything by being funny—and often does.
• Maren repeats everything that Clara says and does. EV-ER-EE-THING. I can assure you that this is no exaggeration.
• She loves to sing and her voice is the cutest to hit the town since 1979.
• She's got quite the knack for running into walls.
• She often pronounces things wrong, just as normal 2-year-olds do. My personal favorite is "cock-a-noodle-noo."

• Clara will be 5 next month. She attends preschool and thinks she already knows everything.
• She's always asking me to put pigtails in her hair, and then I counter by telling her she's getting too old for pigtails. But in the end she usually wins with pigtails because I eventually remember that I don't know how to do anything else. If there is one thing I specialize in, it's uneven pigtails.
• Clara asks a total of 30,000 questions a day, give or take a few thousand. And I have to be completely forthcoming here—a lot of times they're really dumb questions. Sometimes she asks just for the sake of having something to ask. And she often already knows the answer—and I know she knows the answer because she's already asked the question at least 29 times that same day. So yeah. Whew.
• Homegirl has gotten tall!
• She loves to build. She makes the most amazing creations with Magna Tiles. I'm convinced that Magna Tiles are the best toy in this entire world.


So there. That's all out of the way. It wasn't the most magical of re-entries, but if you must know, there is a circus of little girls surrounding me and this was the best I could muster under my circumstances.

We'll feature you again, Norah, when you're about 5 1/2.