3rd Time's a Charm!

I finally got around to taking some pictures of Miller in the gown she was baptised in. It's a good thing, too- I could only button 2 of the 3 tiny buttons on the back! My great-grandmother made this gown for my dad, and I, too, wore it as a baby. It's hard to believe 3 generations have worn this little gown. It's in almost perfect condition- guess they don't make 'em like they used to!

I Eat Breakfast with Superman

Too Important Not to Share

For most of you, it's too late, but a friend of mine with a 3 year old little girl and almost 1 year old boy/girl twins sent this program to me. We should all be required to complete this before giving birth! Thanks Holly!

Thinking of Having Kids?Do this 11 step program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Miller partied a little too hard this morning!

Happy Birthday, Poppie!

On Easter Sunday we also celebrated my granddad's 86th birthday. (Top to bottom, left to right: Poppie & his cake; Poppie, Phil, & Wilson blowing bubbles; Wilson; Wilson & Granna finding Easter eggs; John, Phil, & Wilson putting together some puzzles.)

Happy Easter!

Wilson dyed eggs and made cookies with Granna to celebrate.

What Would You Do for a Bag of Gummie Bears?

Wilson will be still for a few minutes and take some decent pictures with his sister! Enjoy -

Milliesizing

His One True Love

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Last night Phil and Wilson took advatage of the bad weather rolling in and went to the park to try out Wilson's new Buzz Lightyear kite. From what I hear, it went to infinity and beyond.

They Really Are Sweet

when they fall asleep at the same time! Too bad they both woke up as soon as I brought them inside.

Look Out World . . .

. . . I'm accessorizing!

Miller is proudly showing off her first barrette/bow! I "fixed" the color in the last one to get a true white on her shirt- it made her skin kind of blotchy, but if you click on the picture to enlarge, you can see how red her hair is getting.

And here she is doing her impersonation of her Whoozit (the toy hanging on the car seat).

We Miss Uncle Bruce!!

We had a rare treat this weekend. Phil's Uncle Bruce was in town for the day and he and Phil's grandparents had dinner with us Saturday night. Here are some photo highlights as well as video of the boys wrestling. Papa attempted to get in on the action a little by trying to tickle Wilson, but he settled for singing Jesus Loves Me to him later while Nanny accompanied him on the piano. (Unfortunately you can't see Wilson because he was still wound up from the wrestling and is rolling around on the floor and the microphone on my camera only picked up on the end of the song, the rest was over shadowed by Bruce's riveting discussion of vertebrae . . .)

Easter Egg Hunt

Thursday we hosted Wilson's preschool class's Easter egg hunt. We all had so much fun!

(click on the collage to see it up close)

Everyone Else Is

Since everyone these days seems to be taking up photography as a hobby, Wilson has decided to jump on the band wagon. When we moved we found an old Polaroid camera that he's been playing with. You're cordially invited to review his portfolio:

What's Wilson Been Up To?

He built a snowman with his Daddy

He played with his dump truck in the freezing cold while still managing to look super cool

He's really gotten into this little Lego Duplo train this week. One morning he started chattering about a tanker that he'd built and I was kind of only half listening. He finally got me into the playroom to show me the cutest tanker ever built. He'd gotten an old milk container, laid it on its side and began imagining it was a train tanker car. Later that afternoon he hooked his battery operated dinosaur to the train and had it pulling the whole thing around the house. What a guy!

Wildlife Update

Well, we all should have know it wouldn't end with the deer scampering into the woods or the squirrel high tailing out my back door. The latest installment is a robin who is obviously suffering from some sort of mental illness. Have you ever heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome? I submit the following as back up for this statement.

This bird has discovered the window in our bathroom and for the past 4 days has repeatedly thrown himself at the glass ALL DAY LONG! You can imagine the fun this is for Jack. Fortunately we intend to remove the wallpaper in the bathroom- he has begun the scoring process on that wall as he makes vertical leaps towards the window in an attempt to catch the bird. Our only reprieve is a squirrel and a flock of wrens. The squirrel periodically naps in the holly tree outside the window and keeps the robin away and the wrens come to snack on the berries still growing there and apparently are some sort of threat to the red breasted one.

. . . . . .

Jack is apparently suffering from the even greater lack of attention he's receiving due to our newest addition. His latest tactic in trying to get our love is to steal our children's beds.

Jack, busted, hanging out in Miller's playplace

Now, he's been found in Wilson's sleeping bag with Lion, Rocko, and Silky Soft

(the white fuzzy thing at the bottom of the photo is HIS BED!!)

Neosporin & Coban

What are . . . two smells that now absolutely nauseate me?

In case I haven't seen you in a couple of days, my right hand is covered in the above and the smell of both is driving me nuts! Last Thursday night I was cooking and terribly burned my right hand.

FAQ's:

1. What, were you deep frying something?

No, I had 2 tbls of olive heating in a skillet. When I put our pork chops in to cook them, they immediately began sizzling and all of the oil came back out on my hand.

2. Does it hurt/can you take pain meds?

What do you think and yes. Actually, the pain is not too bad, now. It was awful that night, but by the next morning the 1st degree burns were completely better and a left over pain pill from Miller's birth took care of the pain while I slept. I'm taking nothing now as there's very little pain. Only the areas where skin has peeled up and the new skin underneath is still raw.

3. Did you get it in cold water quickly?

Yes, but unfortunately the worst part of the burn burned so fast and deep that by the time I had gotten to the sink the part that was the worst had already lost feeling. So I was concentrating on getting the part that hurt in water, not realizing that a whole section was crispifing right in front of me. When I did turn my hand over and saw the rest of the burn I immediately got it under the water as well. I kept it under for probably another 10-15 minutes and then off and on for another 20 or so- it was the only way to not be in agonizing pain.

4. It's a good thing your father-in-law's a hand surgeon, I bet he's been a lot of help.

He was great the hour after it happened. He came over and got the hand well dressed. Then he hopped on plane for Hawaii not to be seen for two weeks. Really- enjoy your trip, no need to feel guilty that you left your grandchildren with a wounded mommy. (just kidding, I really do hope y'all are having a FABULOUS time :) His nurses were also a huge help the next day. They called to see if I needed any help getting it re-dressed and even got to see it at its worst and drain the ridiculously large blister that had formed by then.

5. So it's a good thing your mom's in town, bet she's been a lot of help.

Yes she came over first thing Friday morning and stayed with us most of the day. Which was a huge help because I couldn't hold anything in my right hand except the afore mentioned ridiculously large blister. Unfortunately that day and everyday since she's really been feeling under the weather, so we've tried our best to stay away and let her get some much needed rest. Hope the black lung heals soon, Mom.

6. Was it your right hand or left?

Right

7. So, you can't do anything can you?

Well, I'm sort of bi-lingual. I can do a lot more with my left hand than you'd think. So far so good.

8. How big is it?

The lower half of my palm and the upper part of my wrist with a few small spots on the top of my arm.

9. Do you need any help?

I really appreciate all the offers we've received. We have great friends that are actually still calling to bring meals to help out with the new baby and others that are bringing us seconds from the meals they've made for another friend who has recently had a baby. It's so wonderful to have such a family of friends that have been able to step in when our family has been out of pocket regardless of the fact that they themselves have small children, babies and busy lives. We love and really appreciate you all!! All that to say, we're well taken care of for now. My biggest frustration right now is getting out to run errands with both kids and only one hand. So far Phil's been able to take care of things on his way home from work, but I might take someone up on some child care at some point!

10. How long will you be in a bandage?

I wish I knew!

11. Make sure you keep it clean.

Okay, I'll stop rubbing stuff in it.

Happy 2 months, Miller!

Miller wearing one of her mamma's baby dresses- one the few we've been able to share since I was a summer baby. Thankfully it was in the 70's one day last week so we played dress up while we could!
This was taken yesterday afternoon after having her 2 month check up. She had to have her shots and was very pitiful that afternoon. I was an awful mamma and forgot to have infant Tylenol on hand. Thankfully Big Daddy came to rescue and went and got us some (I am currently unable to take both children anywhere easily due to the temporary loss of my right hand in a cooking accident- more on that in another post!) She was just laying there kind of whimpering, but as soon as you'd talk to her or smile at her, she'd smile right back. She is really a different baby these days- much, much more content. There are actually times that Phil or I have had her with us and forgotten. We'll remember she's around and assume she's gone to sleep because she's so quiet, but then you'll look over and she's just happily laying or sitting and entertaining herself with her hands or other deep thoughts. She desperately wants to suck her thumb, but most attempts at getting the fingers in the mouth wind up with fingers in the eye. She is absolutely in love with the bugs in her play place and appears to be reaching out to them and playing with them when she gets her hands on them- too much fun! So, she came in yesterday at almost 12 pounds and a little over 23 inches long- 75% all around. The doctor gave her "a 100, A+ all the way around" and "no need to go see the GI specialist anymore"- which reminds me, I need to cancel that appointment. Yea, Baby Miller! (She is also beginning to show a preference for "Millie"- she smiles real big when you say that instead of Miller.) Oh, and her hair is turning very red- very similar to the color of Wilson's when he was born.

Miller's Baptism

What a wonderful day for our family. We missed all of you who weren't able to be there! Upon entering the church, Wilson asked, "Where's the creatures?" After further investigation we found out he was enquiring about the whereabouts of our PREACHERS! Out of the mouths of babes!