Ask, and Ye Shall Receive

My big, amazing, three year olds.  I love them so.

Today is my twins' third birthday.  Which is stunning, and impossible.

No freakin' way have I been a mom for three years.  Not possible.  Ridiculous to even think it- just yesterday I was dealing with SI's eyebrow cradle cap, and DD's horking up milk through her nose in her sleep.

This was a regular sight first thing in the morning when DD was RH's age.

And yet, here we are.  But I'm not going to write about that right now.  Right now, I'm going to write about a little promise that I made to you, my lovely readers.

Remember how I posted a few videos of me and my kids dancing?

Remember how I said I'd do that every week, and that if you'd send me suggestions for songs I would use them?

Now, I know I don't often explicitly invite comments.  It's not that I don't love them- I do.  And I know I'm DREADFUL at responding to them.  But I LOVE comments!  I just don't respond to ANYBODY!  Not phone calls, not emails, nothing.  I'm practically a hermit.  (Granny- I love you and I'll get back to your email about the girls' birthday soon!!!!)

But I read them.  And I heed them.

Which is why, when via facebook, email, and comments, 90% of you made the exact same request...

Well...

What else could I possibly do?

(If you don't want to be subjected to my ranting, just skip to the bottom of the post now.)

Because, you see, I love you.  I adore you.  I am constantly humbled by your kind words, by your thoughtful responses, and by knowing that you just stopped by this little blog for a bit.  Here- let me show you something...

For those of you unfamiliar with the Blogger interface, that's a graph showing how many hits my blog has gotten.  Ever.

There's one gigantic spike- that's from June of last year, when my post about the first Chicago Slutwalk was picked up by Shakespeare Sister and a few other sites.  I was flabbergasted, and shocked, and so honored.  And for some reason, since then, more and more people keep stopping by.  They keep subscribing.  Keep dropping a line here and there.  And this month, something very strange happened.  For the first time, I've gotten more hits than I got when Shakespeare Sister was referring people over.  There were more than 10,000 views on my blog in September.

Of course, I know that most of those aren't people who are dropping by to read.  Most people find this blog by googling things like "abortion pictures" and "fat Jewish girl boobs."  Really.  (BTW- thanks, Google.  You are DEFINITELY helping with my self esteem issues.)  I'd say that two thirds of the people who stop in this blog are sorely disappointed by what they find- no pictures of abortions (ick) and no pictures of fat Jewish girl boobs.  Well... I hope, anyway.

But that means that about a third of those hits are people actually reading this absurd thing I've created.

...that's more than three thousand hits.

That's about 100 hits a day.

That's dozens of individual people, mostly strangers, who are connected to me somehow through this amazing technology.  Who I am connected to.  Who say sweet, thoughtful things, and laugh at our hijinks and cry at our sorrows.

And that?  That's amazing.  There are no words... I just can't believe that you all care what's happening to me and my family, that you all take time out of your days to find out what's happening in mine.

I feel such a sense of community, and so loved...

And as I've been dealing with some pretty aggressive PPD (yes I know, I've been keeping secrets from you.  An explanation is forthcoming), each day that I log on and find out that another stranger is finding some kind of joy or solidarity in my words...

It's made my days immeasurably brighter.  Thank you so much.

Which brings me back to: this.

I love you guys.  I do.

And that is why I shall now utterly humiliate myself for you.

Enjoy, and again... thank you.  <3>