"Oh!"

Well this is where the blog began in the first place.  A video of Molly saying "oh".  Now Maggie has accomplished this milestone.  I give you the "Oh" video, complete with my dorky baby talk, just like last time.

As if there isn't enough whining in my house, I'm going to add to it myself.  Normally I only write about the little ones, but something so traumatic happened to me today that I just can't stop myself from writing it down.  Jonny has given me a hard time about making such a big deal about this and I told him that I have 24 hours to get over it, so I thought I should get this down quick before my 24 hours is up.  Yesterday, while Molly and Maggie were napping, I went to take the garbage out which means that I went to throw it out Mere's window which is directly above our dumpster.  When I unlocked the window, the top portion of the double hung window slammed down on my fingers and trapped me there.  I guessing it's hard to visualize since most people don't have double hung windows, but just know that it hurt and I wasn't able to move.  I was completely freaked out since it was around the time that the girls would be waking up and I had horrible visions of all of the terrible things that might happen when they did and I wasn't there.  I also started to worry that I might have broken something or worse yet, that somehow, lack of circulation would result in the loss of my fingers.  I envisioned my future self clutching a bag of my finger bones that I would wear around my neck for luck (that's a joke for Mere and Chris).  Thankfully it wasn't too long before the lawyer whose office is across the alley came walking by and he was able to call the Paint Store and my dad was able to come up and get me free. I guess fear led me to overreact about the severity of the damage to my fingers because after only an hour or so, they seemed to be back to normal except for a small amount of swelling/soreness.  Looking back on it now, I feel a little ridiculous about how upset I was about the whole situation. I do think Mere should be glad that this didn't happen to her at night when no one would be in the alley, at least no one with a cellphone. I'm just extremely grateful that it was all resolved before nap time was over, that would have been bad.
I'm also grateful that Maggie has become quite the happy girl, full of smiles and coos.  Not that you don't love your children right off the bat, but all of the work you do for them really starts to seem worth it when they give you that little bit of encouragement through a little smile.
I couldn't get a picture of them both smiling at the same time...that's how it goes. 

Maggie is just ridiculous.  Yesterday I laid her on the bed to hang out while I was folding clothes and she just passed out.  Then later I was changing her diaper and I walked away to get something (please don't call CPS on me) and ten seconds later when I got back:  ZONKS.  This ability to sleep, just because she's tired is so foreign to me. I love it, but I'm trying to not get too excited about it.

Meeting Maggie Mac

This weekend we had company!  Maggie got to meet her Uncle Chris and her Aunt Stephanie for the first time.  Very exciting stuff.  She seem to like them as far as we could tell, no hysterical crying (as if a child of mine could be capable of hysterical crying).  We were especially impressed with Chris' ability to utilize the Happiest Baby on the Block techniques that we had taught him to calm her down when she became slightly fussy.

Molly was also very excited to see them.  For weeks before, we talked about how they were coming and how much fun it was going to be.  She would ask about them constantly and always wanted to know how much longer it would be.  At one point she even told me that when they showed up, she was going to give them BIG hugs and kisses and that with Chris, it was going to be scratchy.  That really impressed me because she had somehow remembered either from a past meeting or from pictures that he had facial hair.  So fast forward to their actual arrival:  Molly the mute.  The child that never shuts up, who will talk to complete strangers about our grocery store purchases, wouldn't talk to her own family.  After about an hour of hanging out in their presence though, she recognized them as more people to do her bidding and warmed right up.
Our main activity, other than eating and doing Molly's bidding, was swimming.  She's getting pretty good!

Think Gran is ready?

Blast Off!

Center of attention

So thanks to them for coming down and visiting, we can't wait to do it again!

Stunt Double

I really think Molly might have a future as a stunt double.  The other day while triking, Molly biffed it and rolled her trike into the grass.  She then decided that it was pretty cool to do that and tried to perfect her fall, and even add a few extra dramatics, just for fun I guess.

 Another stunt she's been pulling on us is her crazy climbing habits. Although she's been able to climb pretty well for quite sometime now, she's starting to think of new clever ways to use it.  The other day she kept going on and on about the "blue one!" (a blue dum dum lollipop).  I had given her a red one earlier in day, but she really wanted the blue one.  Since I wasn't going to give in, she waited until no one was paying attention and took care of it herself.

Victory="Blue One!"

She also utilized her climbing talents the other day when I was giving Maggie a bath.  I have been letting her help out by putting her into the big tub behind Maggie's little tub and letting her help wash her hair.  She's usually totally into this, but on this particular day her feet got wet or something distracted her, I'm not sure what, but she wasn't going to help anymore, so instead she started screwing around in the bathroom.  So I'm paying attention to the infant in the tub (as I should be) but meanwhile the two year old is climbing into the pedestal sink.  She let's me know by yelling "I'm stuck" (she hasn't figured out yet that it's harder to get down than it was to get up).  Since I can't leave Maggie, I tell her she's going to have to wait until I'm done.  No problem, she just take a fully clothed bath in the sink.  Good times.

Maggie is still an awesome baby.  She hardly cries and if she does, she has a good reason for it.  Molly was the same way, but she was just always awake.  Not so with Maggie. She doesn't sleep as much as she did a week or so ago, but she's still way more into sleeping than Molly was at this point, which makes life easier for sure.  Lately she's been smiling more frequently, but I haven't been able to capture it in a picture yet.  Here's a few pictures of her with pleased looks, but not exactly full on smiles.

She's changed so much already.  Not sure why that surprises me, but it does.  At her 1 month appointment she was 9 lbs and 14 ounces, so she's growing like a champ!
In other news, we have visitors! so expect a post about that soon.

When I Paint my Masterpiece

keeping the kiddo entertained has become slightly difficult since Maggie was born.  One problem is that we're always at home and always inside (too damn hot) which is really no fun at all when you're two.  Another problem is that nothing is ever enough now.  I feel like I probably actively play with her more now just because I'm trying to compensate, but it doesn't matter to her, she's gonna make me pay.  One of our latest activities is painting.  I bought finger paints awhile back but I didn't break them out until the other day since I was a little afraid of what the results might be.  Actually it wasn't that bad since she can kind of be a priss when it comes to getting messy (not sure where that comes from).  Here she's using her fingers, but now I have her using brushes since it's cleaner and she thinks it's more fun that way anyhow.

Molly and her masterpiece

"We can dance if we want to..." My dad thinks we're safety freaks.  Really it's my mom who is the worst, followed by Meredith.  The other day he told Molly she could drive with him when he went to move his truck from the street to the parking lot.  I said it was fine, but when he came back in with her, he had her decked out in his construction site delivery garb.  I suppose this is just as good as a car seat.

 Instead of "Cheese" I made her say "Safety First!"

I haven't really taken any pictures of Maggie with my family.  Whoops!  Sorry Maggie, but I was too busy feeding you every hour.  I did manage to get a picture of her today with Aunt Meredith.

I keep waiting for the awesome sleep habits to stop.  There have been some signs that it could end soon and it's probably only a matter of time before you see a blog post titled "The Honeymoon's Over" but just when I think I'm screwed she'll do something like just pass out by herself when laying on the floor.  Molly never did stuff like that, so I'm still sort of holding out hope that she'll be a better sleeper than Molly.

Fancy Pictures

We cashed in on my contest winnings the other day and here are the results. I think they turned out really cute. Of course Maggie didn't let us get any "sleepy baby" pictures, but that's okay, she looks cute and alert. She usually is a sleepy baby, so I thought for sure she would be passed out the whole time, but I guess she wanted to be part of the action.

Public service announcement:  Don't actually let your baby hang out in an old suitcase.

This is part of her "tiger" series...ROAR!

Molly holding Maggie,making me nervous.  Our hands have possibly been photo-shopped out of this one.

Kisses for Maggie.  But seriously, why can't she kiss?  She can do almost anything, but instead of puckering, she just slams her face into whatever or whoever is lucky enough to receive one.

 

 Such a little ham

So a big thanks to Laurie Brown , they turned out super cute!

My Giants

I'm sure lots of people have experienced this when adding another kid to their family, but I swear that Molly has gained 10 pounds and grown a foot overnight. She seems SO big now and I'm having a hard time imagining that I was picking her up and lugging her around while pregnant. So Molly seems to have grown crazy amounts, but Maggie really is growing like crazy. She started out at 7lbs, 3oz. by day 4 she was only down to 7lbs, 1oz. (which is really good for a breastfed kid) then only a week later she was up to 8lbs 3oz. that seemed like so much to me, but I guess I just had forgotten how much they grow in the beginning. So I know that she's up to 8lbs 3oz because we went to the pediatrician again after the 4 day check up. Jonny and I had our first time parents freak out...we just did it with our second kid. To be fair, my mom helped fuel it too. Most people who have taken care of a newborn probably know that they sometimes breathe like they're drowning. It has something to do with their esophagus's and how they're still cartilage, blah blah blah. Molly used to do it a lot when she was sleeping and it drove us nuts because it's hard to sleep when you have a drowning baby next to you. So the other day, Maggie started doing this while awake and it was at least 10 times worse than Molly ever did it, but then she fell asleep and was fine, so I didn't worry about it. Later when she woke up though, she started at it again and again it sounded terrible. This time my mom was here and she thought it sounded worse than she'd ever remembered any baby sounding and since she's the one who always talks us down from these sort of things, we decided that we should just go and make ourselves feel better. Of course she's fine and it's just that whole normal, abnormal newborn breathing thing and some kids sound really really bad and of course she has never done it again. I'm glad we got that out of the way, I hate freaking out about things.
So I haven't taken many pictures lately but here's a couple cute ones.

My little beefcake.

The giantesses