I know less is more. This post full of pictures does not qualify for "less is more" standing.

This one is obviously blurry, but I thought it was cute enough to make the cut, anyway.

"I'm hugging the fwowews, Mama."

Here's the flowering tree from our yard, Mom.  What is it?

Telling me to take just ONE picture!  After I'd taken around 100 already.

Seven-Week-Old Baby Maci

If you start at her armpit, you'll count five creases until you reach her little hand.  That's four delicious rolls per arm.  As I mentioned in the last post, she's now wearing anywhere from 3 month-9 month clothing, depending on the brand.  3 month is a bit of a stretch now with the bulkier cloth diapers.

Trust me, if you saw these cheeks in person, you'd want to squish her, too.  

In other, less interesting, Daly-related news, I discovered I do still love him.  More than I thought, anyway.  I mentioned last week that we started letting him venture into the great outdoors.  Well, Friday he was let out for the umteenth time around dinnertime, except he didn't come home.  All night.  I stayed out in the living room until 2 am waiting for him to meow at the door ( I slept while waiting), but he didn't come.  Saturday morning I started to imagine all of the terrible things that must have happened to him.  I made two calls to animal control.  I battled growing guilt.  So you can imagine how quickly I jumped out of my seat when I heard him meow at the door around 11:30 that morning.  Sweet relief.

Swings, Frog Boots, and Rapunzel

Got a swingset off of Craigslist for $75! Gabe and Charlie (thank you, Charlie!) picked it up and re-assembled it on Saturday.  It fits great off to the side of our backyard and I have a perfect view of it out the kitchen, too.  P.S. It's been in the 70's for the last few days, so it's already getting some use.  I think a sandbox will go perfectly under the platform area.

 

This is what happens when you ask a three year old to lift her dress a little to show her frog boots.  This Rapunzel dress and her frog boots make up her daily uniform these days.

Thank you, Stivers, for giving Ellis these figurines.  She L.O.V.E.S them.  There is rarely a moment when one of them is not being played with.

Big Week

It was a big week for Miss Mace.  She rolled over once from her stomach to her back.  I don't expect it to happen again for a long while, but just to get it on the record for her, she first rolled over at 6 weeks.  She giggled for the first time.  I was holding her hands and lifting her arms up "over" her head while saying, "Yaaaay, Maci!" and she was grinning from ear to ear.  Before long her grin overflowed into a few giggles.  When I tried to get her to do it for the video camera and for Gabe---nuthin'.  She started being okay with some naps in her bed or in the swing.  The large majority of the time I "wear" her in the beco carrier, but she's starting to let me separate while she sleeps in small amounts.  Every little bit helps (restroom breaks, emptying the bottom rack in the dishwasher, picking up toys, laundry...all easier without a babe strapped to your chest).  And we made the switch to cloth diapers, officially.  It's going well.  That's all.

**Just remembered one other thing that helped make this a big week developmentally for Miss Mace.  She has started consistently sucking on her right fist.  Now that's all.

Now some pictures.

Ellis came home from the hospital right after turning 6 weeks old.  She weighed less than 5 pounds.  Maci...is sleeping in  nine month jammies tonight.

Maci is 6 weeks old and Ellis is now wearing brassiers

This little girl has been full of smiles for us lately.  She's giving them out left and right---to people other than just me.  :)

 In Daly news, he's been set free...in a way.  I decided last weekend I was tired of him scratching the screen door while we were in the backyard playing, so I let him out.  He's nine (I think?) and he's been captive long enough.  He came home just fine after exploring for awhile.  And when he comes home he loves the attention I give him (he's normally covered in dirt so I "pet" him with a damp paper towel).  That tells you how starved for attention he is these days---purring while being rubbed down with a WET paper towel.

Explaining to me that when she's grown up this bra won't fall off of her.  I told her that putting the straps over your shoulders will also help.

Realizing it goes under your clothes.

While driving both girls home from a birthday party on Saturday (by myself) we ran into bumper to bumper traffic.  It was at that point that I realized I'd forgotten to have Ellis go to the bathroom before we started our long trek home (half hour minimum in good traffic).  A few minutes later she said she had to go to the bathroom.  I pray she'll make it home.  Maci wakes up and panics (her typical reaction to finding herself strapped into the car seat) and proceeds to start screaming for her life.  Then Ellis yells out.  I semi-frantically (while trying to SOUND calm) ask her if she had an accident.  She responds:  "NO!...YES!  In my mouth!" Whaaa?...OH. NO.  I catch a whiff of vomit and look in the rear view mirror to see her covered in it.  So helpless.  So smelly.  By the grace of God they both fall asleep within about 10 minutes.  One covered in her own vomit.  The other covered in her own sweat (the result of screaming for your life for 10 minutes). 

...........

Ellis has been pretending to be a Mama lately.  This makes me the "little one" that she puts to bed, reads to, gives a drink of water to and gives a goodnight kiss to.  Over and over.  And over.  A few days ago she then added waking up and serving me breakfast at the kitchen table to the mix.  I'd been pretending to go to bed in her bed for so long by that point that I was practically asleep (I like to be as realistic as I can be when playing make-believe).  So I said I was a baby and she could feed me my breakfast in bed (??? I was being lazy).  She stood there for a second (probably deciding how to handle her difficult kid).  Then she lifted up her shirt and shoved my face against her stomach to nurse me.  I couldn't stop laughing.

sisters