I have to say that it is intimidating reading everyone else's wonderful posts with great pictures and themes that all tie in, etc., when I can hardly string two related thoughts together these days...PS How DO you guys do it? This post took me a week to write!
I think I'll start with a "Brotherly Love" category. This past Sunday, I was upstairs getting ready in the morning and one of the boys (I don't remember which one-how many kids do I have now?) came running up with the camera to show me this picture that they had taken,
completely on their own, without any prompting. Apparently, Ben made the sign and posed, while Josh shot the picture. Thank goodness the boys are helping me document these milestones, otherwise who knows if it would ever get done?Josh also happened to get one of himself..............
And of the new microwave (that sat for 6 days in the box because we were too tired to try to install it, then took 6 hours over 2 days to install because the instructions with the poster-sized
template to place on the wall got "mislaid" permanently in the recycle bin -not really the way I'd like to go green.........)
At any rate, I wanted to share some of the shots that illustrate how much the boys are enjoying their baby sister.........
Homecoming!
Gracie's first bottle
And she loves them as well, but does, at times, display a bit of annoyance at their lack of respect for her personal space. Josh always addresses her right up in her face, in a super-high tone of voice that makes us all cringe a bit and more than once I've heard the boys have this conversation with Gracie in that same tone ..."Hiiiii baaaaby Graaaace, III'm your big brother Jooooosh. I'm your niiiiice brother."
"Oh, no Graaacie, don't listen to hiiim, III'm your big brother Ben, III'm the nicest brother." And so the competition continues.....:)
The boys have also suddenly become very modest with Gracie's arrival. Anytime she comes near them while in the tub, etc, they say "Mom, turn her around, I don't want her to see!! ;)
Josh's face lit up when he came into the nursery the other day-he immediately reached my pile of nursing pads and goes, "OOhhh, sanddollars!!" until he actually felt them....
Josh is famous for goofing up words now and then, especially the words "pimples", "dimples" and "nipples". (Should I be putting an asterisk in that last one somewhere?) You probably see where this is going......Last year as he was posing for his school picture I said to him, "That's a great smile, Joshy, I can see your dimples!" Shock and embarrassment came on his face and he brought his hands to his cheeks and said, "What Mom?! You can see my pimples?!!"
So, as the boys were getting used to the whole nursing thing early on, Josh just had to ask, "Mom, she REALLY gets milk from sucking on your PIMPLES?!" :0
And one more nursing-related anecdote: Gracie was laying on the floor and when I turned around Josh had wrapped her up in her blankie. Must be that the points in the blanket reminded him of Dracula's cape or something because he goes "OOOhh, Gracie, now you're a scary baby vampire!" "Look Mom, she says, 'I vant to suck your milk, I vant to suck your milk!'"
Here are a few Gracie facts at 8 weeks:
-She has dimples (!) big blue eyes, HUGE cheeks, not much hair (a mullet right now, to be exact), and long beautiful , hopefully piano-playing fingers-She says "Ah-gooo" and "Ah-woo"
-Is very smiley, and were expecting a giggle anyday now
-Loves, loves, loves her nursery, esp. laying on her changing table and looking up at the light
-Can fall asleep on Daddy's shoulder in a heartbeat
-Has many, many very silly nicknames, too many to type and some too goofy to even try to spell
-Hates the hiccups! She got them at least once a day in utero, and still gets them daily. I know when they're coming cuz she'll let out a whimper as if to say, "Oh no, here they come again!"
-Likes to suck her thumb. I find this so adorable for some reason, possibly because it's such a novel thing in our house. Ben wanted so badly to suck on something, but spit out everything we tried. Josh was a plug-man all the way, until the "plug-fairy" came one night and exchanged it for something special when he was 3. Gracie usually won't refuse the plug unless she's really upset, but will spend most of her waking time trying to get her thumb in her mouth lately. Hmmm, this might be handy-aside from the possible germ-factor, they are always handy and there are 2, to boot!
Here are a couple of our favorite outfits...........(It's so fun having a girl! At least while she'll let me dress her!) I rotated these pictures but they won't save that way for some reason....
Thank you Great Aunt "Minnie"!! OXO
Thank you Great Aunt Sherry! OXO
And finally, most importantly, this is a banner that the boys made for Nana last week. We were all very worried about you and are so relieved to hear that all is well! Can't wait to see you! OXO
