Buddies

The process of assembling this little box took embarassingly (is that a word?) longer than it should have. I just blamed it on Emma and Shelby after hearing that Chucky put together multiples of these in less than two hours. Emma's room is full of these now, soon to hold some toys relocated from our den.
Emma and Shelby really are buddies, and Libby is joining in the friendship, too. I've never heard them laugh so much as they do when Shelby does silly things. Shelby is the original "baby girl."

Amaryllis 4, The End

The amaryllis bit the dust. It go so tall and heavy that it fell over, off the table, into the floor. Dirt everywhere. Flowers wilted. Dead. I just threw it in the trash. Emma cried real tears. How disappointing!

A day with mommy

Ghee and Pop-pop are still in California and I didn't have anything pressing to do at work, so after we dropped Emma off at preschool today, Libby and I spent the day together (she usually spends the day with Ghee). It has been wonderful being able to really pay attention to her. I think she misses her full-time entertainer, though!

Christmas in October

For Christmas 2006, Chucky gave me a television to be installed under the kitchen cabinet. Yesterday it was installed. It also plays movies, CDs and the radio. Chucky said, "There. Now you can watch TV for the fifteen minutes a day you spend in the kitchen." I ignored that, 100 percent sure it was a joke. Okay maybe 75 percent sure.

Statistics

Libby's 6 month checkup, October 22, 2007
Weight: 17 lbs, 8oz (75-90%)
Length: 26.5 inches (75%)
Head circumference: 41.5 cent (25-50%)
Well, well, well. We have a big baby. Who knew? Emma was always in a high percentile for her weight, and a low one for her length (short and fat). So Libby is big, but at least she's tall enough to carry it well.
Her mother is happy to report that all but 2 or 3 pounds of her pregnancy weight is gone. For some reason the hips and thighs have stayed wider and the pants and skirts won't zip up. Does this ever get better?

Amaryllis, week 3

Fridgewatch

http://www.fridgewatcher.com/ A peek into the heart of a family - their refrigerator!
Here is a picture of mine - I'm not putting this on here to show everyone, but because I think it will be fun for me to look back on in a few years! We have another one in the garage that contains juice boxes, beer and a freezer full of beef. Really all a person needs to survive.
Inside Freezer
Freezer door
Top half of fridge
Bottom half of fridge
Inside the fridge door

Six Months Old

Libby is six months old! I can't believe it! Once the first two months went by the rest seem to have flown. I already wish I had taken more pictures and used the video camera more. Libby can sit up for very short amounts of time. She can pick up just about anything and bring it to her mouth, including Emma's hair. Emma never did that, so we are new at remembering to keep small things away from her. Emma likes to put stickers on Libby but they end up in her mouth, and Emma does not deal well with being told not to put stickers on her sister! Libby eats two or three jars of baby food each day. She gets upset if I try to skip one and give her a bottle instead. She likes her food! She is not on a schedule during the day, she still just takes naps whenever she can, but she needs to be in her bed. If she falls asleep somewhere else, like the floor or her carseat, the nap only lasts 10 or 15 minutes. She wakes up happy, though, and I am thankful I can still take her places whenever I want to. I don't feel restricted by her naptimes. Emma was a different story. We didn't dare interrupt her nap or we would have a cranky monster to deal with. Libby can roll over and generally does not want to be on her belly. She is interested in watching the dog, I mean dogs! Phoebe is still with and I think Libby will miss her when she leaves.
Libby slept through the night last night. The past few weeks I have been letting her fuss during the night. Some nights she doesn't fuss at all, and other nights she'll fuss for 20 minutes. She hasn't woken Emma up yet and Chucky tells me it's mean - but I don't see him jumping up to take care of her. And she's not crying and screaming, she's just fussing. To him there is no difference, but to me those are the three levels of crying! It's working because she has slept through the night several times. Last night she slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am. Usually she's up around 6:30 with a very stinky diaper but today I got to sleep in. It's still dark outside around 7am so Emma has been sleeping in, too. When daylight savings time ends I'm sure we will all be up with the sun.
It has been very interesting to see how different Emma and Libby are. From the time Libby was a month old, I could tell that she was more laid back. People say, oh it's because you're more relaxed the second time around, or just that "it's a second child thing." I really don't think so. Their temperaments are just different. People say boys and girls are so different, but I think it's their temperament, not their sex. I have a friend that has two boys, and her first one is laid back and the second one is crazy busy fussy. It's all just a mystery, and a miracle.
We have a sleeping, grinning cutie pie of a baby girl. We are so blessed.

Here are some pictures I took of the girls together. You can see as time progresses, they are less interested in the camera and more interested in . . . well . . . anything other than the camera.

Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle little star, do you know how precious you are?

Do you have a three year old? Do you sometimes leave the house with stickers on, only to discover when you return home that you have been wearing a sticker on your shirt in public for hours? Or maybe on your leg or someplace worse?

Pumpkins and punkins

Libby-5.5 months Emma-6 months
They were born only three weeks apart, but Libby weighed a pound and a half more. She is bigger and longer than Emma was! The clothes Emma was wearing at 6 months old are already too small for Libby.

Emma, a very strong pumpkin carrier.

I took this picture with Libby in one hand and the camera in the other. It's a heavy camera and I couldn't get it all the way up before she passed me by. It turned out to be a really neat shot - sometimes mistakes are good.

Terry and baby Ashton.


Price and Linton


Two precious punkins.


Our weekend:
We had another all girls weekend as daddy finished up his two weekend golf tournament. Saturday we went to a small arts festival in Deltaville. Libby may as well have been a little baby doll in the stroller, she never made a peep or needed a thing. I can't remember an outing with Emma where there was such peace. Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch with Sharon, John, Linton and Garrison Robins and Terry, Brent, Price and Ashton Whitaker. Those four little boys need some girls around sometimes! Libby again was an angel in her stroller and tolerated being plopped in front of the pumpkins and even found some hay to eat! Also, this weekend mommy went out for dinner twice!
Ghee and PopPop dropped Phoebe off to stay for two weeks and Susan returns late tonight. I will be happy when everyone is safely home.

Amaryllis, week 2

Pretty in pink

I took a few pictures of this because they looked so cute together in their pink shirts. This was the only one in which Chucky's mouth was not also open!

Tball, last game

Emma finally let me take her picture this week. This morning she said she didn't want to play tball anymore, so I guess five games was the perfect amount. Here we are in the dugout after the game:


Here's Emma getting her trophy from coach Sharon:


And here's Libby in her tball cheering seat, where she sits happily week after week:

Amaryllis Project, Day 1

Here's why I'm tired:

I have been feeling so tired lately I haven't taken many pictures. And when I do try to take some, Emma covers her face and tells me to put the camera away. Here she is hiding her face in the tball team picture. That's me in the back holding her!

2007 Southside Sentinel Headliners
Sharon, Linton, Pierce, Joseph, Terry(hiding), Abigail, Kate and Emma, Sarah Paige, Courtney, Nicholas, Katie and Peyton in the grass.

Today I took Emma to the state fair. I forgot my camera. I had the feeling I had forgotten something this morning, but at the time I figured it was Libby I was missing. I think Emma rode every ride there, including a $5 pony ride. I led the pony and it nipped at my leg every tenth step or so. I spent the entire time bracing myself to be attacked by a pony so I have no idea if Emma enjoyed it! She and her friend Ashtyn got $5 balloon fish on sticks that Emma used to annoy her friend on the way home. Emma also threw a tantrum in McDonalds because Ashtyn got on the potty first! They were actually pushing each other. They did have a great time, though! The giggled together on the rides and shared some snacks. Life is never dull with 3 year olds around!

Tomorrow is our last tball game. I told Emma tonight that tomorrow is Saturday and Saturday means tball! She whined and said she didn't want to play that anymore! Perfect.
At preschool, she has gymnastics on Tuesdays and Kindermusic on Thursdays. She doesn't tell me much about Kindermusic, but she shows me all her new tricks on Tuesdays. She can do a summersault, a bridge, and the butterfly. She uses words like straddle, and point and flex! She is so big.
Libby is getting too big too fast. She loves her baby food, and sits at the table with us for meals. She laughs and gets so excited her arms and legs flail and it shakes her whole body and head. I don't want to forget that. She thinks peek-a-boo is hilarious, and when I bring her into the bathroom upstairs she smiles and flails her legs and arms in anticipation of bathime. When I peek over her crib in the morning, she smiles at me and sighs. Her hair is growing back in . . . and it's still red. I think of her as my last baby and it makes me sad . . . and at the same time I feel so blessed. It's all too good to be true.

Libby Dreams

One night this week: Libby to bed around 7:30pm. Libby awake and fussing at 1:30am. Pick her up. Asleep as soon as I get her in my arms. 2am - repeat. 2:30am - repeat. 3am - give tylenol and teething gel. 3:30 - pick up baby, being to our bed, lay with her and rock her in my arms every 30 minutes or so. 6am - feed her a bottle, put her in the bassinet in our room, where she sleeps until 9am.
The next day: I see white puss-looking stuff in her ear. Take baby to doctor. Diagnosis - water got in her ear. It's not painful and not puss - just wax. About the night before: baby was dreaming. She'll just have to figure it out. Great. Totally worth the 2 hours out of my day for that trip to the doctor. Totally.

A new van!

So, I got a new minivan. One that has a navigational system. And if you know me at all, you know I am one person on this earth that truly needs this service. Last week we wanted to go to Williamsburg, and it took us to Newport News. Garbage in, garbage out. Can they make one of these things that just reads my mind?
I also have moved Emma to the third row in the minivan. This may not last long because I can't reach her to pass her drinks, snacks or to receive various items from her that need fixing or pieces of trash she wants to pass to the trash bag up front. I've had it two weeks and it already needs to be cleaned. Anyone know a good car cleaning service that comes to your house or something?