L-O-V-E spells BETHANY!!

That's right folks. My sissy, Bethany, came to town to visit--which you know translates into me being high as a kite for the week leading up to her arrival and during her stay, and then sends me plummeting into the bog of eternal stench for weeks after she leaves. And so, if you do the math, you can guess how I feel right now.... Yep, the stench part. In fact, I just saw Leah rummaging around in the couch cushions and crunching up something she found therein, and all I could muster was a half-hearted whisper shout that was supposed to be "help!" but sounded more like "hwarp!" from the little nest of blankets where I'm currently roosting in my big recliner chair. I'm not sure who I was expecting to come help me anyway because Sam's at class. Maybe I thought little Eve would spring from her bouncer and wrestle Leah's little treasure away from her... anyway, the point is I miss my sistee.

I blame you.

Not really. But kinda. Actually, I'll just make an executive decision to blame Sam.

Now I will show you pictures of her.

Oh, and if you'd like to see her first trip to Chicago, you can look here. We were a little bit more adventurous that time around, but that's just because I wasn't in a postpartum coma.

Upon arriving, Bethany brought Leah a princess nighty. Unfortunately, it was one Leah already had... and so instead she gave her this fancy book.

And adorned her with jewels...

And we kept the nighty anyway.

We had to start off with a bit of the Chicago good life in the form of deep dish pizza. Which, because I've been depriving myself of all things yummy since Eve's birth, tasted like straight manna and I had no choice but to rub the leftovers all over my body.

Even though Bethany grew up in Idaho like the rest of us, her time in Arizona has turned her into quite the wuss (minus the "w" and add a "p" for the full effect) when it comes to cold weather. She would pretty much tremble and quake even looking outside. Because of this, we left the house a total of three times. One of these little ventures was a stroll to Dunkin' Donuts to get white chocolate hot chocolate... which, I will tell you right now, is the single most delicious drink in the world and I demand you get one immediately. And then you will worship me for leading you to it.

Bethany snapped this shot along the way and I think captures our little urban life quite nicely...

One of the glorious things about the women in my family is that they all have "the touch" with my children. Which means there is basically a clone of me around when dealing with them. So Bethany spent much of her time holding my second little gremlin and making our home peaceful and glorious in general.

We left both babies with Sam and treated ourselves to our traditional matching pedicures.

It was a nearly perfect afternoon, except it took longer than expected so when we got home Sam was sweaty and crying and bouncing a hysterical Eve on our exercise ball while trying to simultaneously run the vacuum cleaner. He's a good boy.

On our cab ride home. No, no that's not quite right, Vanessa.

There you go. That's better.

It was a glorious trip, indeed! And, now that you've seen how awesome she is, I know you are all sinking into a post sister funk right a long with me, so I'll brighten your day with a shot of this little Tuna smiling. Because she's brand new at it. And I think she may have a dimple...