Sharing

I hesitate to share these pictures, because I genuinely do not want to be "that Mom". I don't want to violate the rules that Jesus Christ set forth for us in Matthew 6:1-4. But, because a friend (thanks Kat!) shared this idea when her daughter did it, the thought was put in our hearts to do it ourselves. That's why I'm going to share this with all of you. Because I'm glad someone told us about the idea.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't think I would have come up with this idea on my own. But it was such a great experience. The original idea came from Bridget's 6th birthday party, when she had her guests bring food donations for a local animal shelter, instead of bringing presents. (As you know, between parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, kids get a LOT of birthday presents right there!). I talked with Bear about doing something like this for her big birthday party, but instead of the animal shelter, we could collect food donations for a new food pantry that a local church in our area had just opened months before. After she was assured that she would still get presents from us and her grandparents and her aunts and uncles (she IS only 6, after all.... presents on your birthday are just - well - important), she really looked forward to her friends bringing the food donations.

We went a few days ago to deliver the bags of food to this new Care Center. Like I said before, it was a special experience. Especially because Poodle was allowed to help stock the food on the shelves! It was a really beautiful way to cement in her mind what she was doing and had done. The people volunteering there were as kind as they could be, and the whole process was truly a gentle one. I'm so glad Bear was willing to do this. We were blessed to be a blessing, I hope.

And even NoMan got in on the act - although he didn't really know what was going on. He just wanted to be like Poodle.

Two Months

Sweet Lollypop!

You are two months old today, and oh, how fast the time is flying by.  I am holding on so tightly to each minute with you.  Yet the days still zoom past me like a teenager in a Mustang.  I think about things like that in only 4 short months, you will be trying solid foods for the first time, and I want to beg someone to slow down the spinning earth.  But, that can't happen.  So we will just continue to try to enjoy every minute.

You are such a happy, precious little girl!  Despite what seems to be reasonable, you laugh already!  It's not a regular laugh, but more of a burst of sound when you are smiling and looking at something that pleases you greatly.  Like Daddy's face, especially.  Poodle and Tooter are always good for a smile from you also.  And when you catch Mommy's face in a mirror (which you just began doing), I get a huge grin and even a "laugh" myself.

Your head control is getting better every day and your hand control is starting to seem a tiny bit more "on purpose".  You are beginning to grasp with your hands and my hair is usually the victim of the random grabbing.  You LOVE to eat, as evidenced by the multiple chins ::grin::, and you get downright tickled sometimes when you get settled in to eat.

You're sort of hit-and-miss with a pacifier, and will suck on your fist sometimes instead.  You've been a good girl at church so far, and love to hear the congregation sing.

You have days when you won't nap correctly for love or money.  But, like Daddy reminded me, you may be like PoodleBear, who never could nap very well when she was working on a new "trick" like sitting up or walking, etc.  We can't figure out what tricks you could be working on at this age, but maybe it's nothing more than you're starting to recognize your family, and you just can't sleep because of it some days.  :-)

Although, most nights are wonderful.  You wake up only to eat and then you go right back to sleep.  Of course, you ARE getting to sleep with Mommy.  So that probably helps a lot.

People ask who you look like...  we like to say that if you put Poodle and Noman in a blender, what would come out would be you.  You have pieces of both of them, but like PopPop insists, you just look like our sweet Lollypop.

We love you honey and can't wait to see what the next month will bring!  (But please, can't someone slow down time a little bit?)

For Grandmother

Jmk's grandmother is having a birthday next week, and I wanted to get a picture of SueSue and the great-grandbabies for Grandmother. Here's what we got. It's so sweet!

Where oh where have the zoo monkeys gone?

They're still here!!!

No, really. I can barely get pictures off of the camera these days. The blog is seriously suffering. Shoot, I don't know how in the world I'm going to find time to actually get the photo albums made for the grandparents this year. Yikes.

But here are some new pics to help everyone keep up with the fast-growing weed that we call our baby.

I guess if we were going to mail out a birth announcement, this might be the picture that we'd use. These days, with blogs and Facebooks and emails, there's almost no need for a picture laden birth announcement other than for tradition's sake. Jmk took this one - she was a couple of weeks old.

Poodle with two of her friends at her birthday party a couple of weekends ago. This is Spencer and Lydia. Darling girls, both of them!

Poodle and Bridget, at the party. B is the daughter of my sweet friend Kathleen. We don't get to see them enough, but the girls have fun when they do get to hook up!

Tooter, right before being tossed in the air by Daddy. Yeah, he didn't have any fun at the party. Not at all.

See, now, if I were cool and knew some basketball terms, I could add a witty and sports-themed caption to this picture that would brilliantly describe what he's doing.

But I'm not. And I can't.

My poor mother and sister are cringing right now. They both played basketball. I embarrass them.

Audrey loved this car. Loved it. It was the bomb.

A reminder why I call them monkeys and this place the Zoo. Ahem.

The week after Poodle's party, the Toot man and I weathered a horrid stomach virus and then I developed mastitis. Loads of fun. This was followed by Jmk's birthday last weekend. We were tired from either being sick (me) or from taking care of sick people (Jmk). So there wasn't a whole lot of celebratin' going on. But Lollypop did don the onesie her sister wore 6 years ago.

(unfortunately, I was a day late getting it on her, because the sieve that I call my brain didn't remember the onesie until the day after his birthday. Bad wife).

We tried to get them in a similar pose, because the sisters have moments of looking like twins. But we couldn't do it this time.

The beautiful Aunt Amy with Sparkie. This little baby was all snuggled up and soooo comfortable!

I know we've always said Poodle is a mini-me to Amy. And she is. But, MAN, is she not a mini-me to Sue Sue in this picture??? Wowie.

Buncha gorgeous girls in this picture!

And now, just some more pictures of the wee'est one, a.k.a. Lollypop. Or Sparkie. I just love her smile. :-)

Her eyes are still developing their color, but they are looking like they're going to go blue like the other two. She's also going to be all squishy like the other two were as babies as well. Love me some fat babies!

This is a little lovey brought back from Scotland by MooMoo and GaGa. It's as big as she is!

Last picture, and I'll probably disappear for another two weeks. :-) I start so many fabulous posts in my head during the day, but none of them make their way to the computer. You'll just have to believe me that I have brilliant and witty things to say. You believe me, yes?

Oh! And one more thing! Lollypop has laughed. Seriously. I know a 6-week old baby shouldn't, wouldn't laugh. But Jmk was talking to her the other night and blowing in her face or something like that, and she was grinning at him.... and he gave her some big eyes... All of sudden, she let out this blast of sound with an open-mouthed, squinted-eye, joyous smile, and I would put money on that sound being a laugh. I'm just sayin'.