Three Months

Lollypop!

You are three months old today!  What a sweet girl you are - and getting so big.  When your Aunt Amy held you a couple of nights ago at Tooter's birthday party, I realized just how much you have grown.

Your clogged tear duct has cleared up!  Since you were born, your left eye always looked as if you were coming down with pink eye, minus the actual red eye part.  You would get the gunky stuff every morning, and a few times during the day.  Your doctor told us to just massage the area and wait.  We did, and you are finally clear of all that stuff.  Yay!

Your head control is getting way better.  I was "riding horsey" with you about a week ago, and you were holding your own head up so well!  And you can pick your head and your shoulders up now when you're on your tummy.  You're not exactly pushing up with your arms to do it, but still using your back and neck muscles to lift everything.  What a strong girl!  You'll be pushing up before I'm ready for you to do it, I'm sure!

You smile all the time and you have this short giggle that you will give us now.  At times, when we're just talking to you, you'll let out a giggle to let us know when we have tickled your fancy.  I'm so looking forward to the "real" baby laughs that I know are on their way!

You still have a love-love relationship with the ceiling fans in the house.  You love them.  They're just brilliant to you.

But probably my most favorite thing you do right now is give us the in-love-with-us looks that make me absolutely melt into a mushy puddle.  There are times that you will look at us with this soft, dewy smile in your eyes that can only be described as a baby in love with her parents.  And I can not tell you what this look does to melt our hearts.

Oh, sweet girl.  You owe so much to your big sister and brother.  I can assure you, I was nowhere near as understanding and relaxed about baby-things with them.  I sincerely didn't know how to truly enjoy a baby with sweet Poodle.  I was only slightly better with dear Tooter.  But they taught me, by the grace of God.  And I learned a little bit.  And now you are the lucky recipient of a more aware Mommy.  More aware of the fleeting time we have when you're little.  More aware that "this too shall pass", both the easy and the hard.  More aware that the purity that shines from your precious face doesn't equal a sinless soul.  But that it does equal an innocent child who is depending on our example to learn about behavior.  And love.  And most importantly, God.

I was talking with Daddy a few nights ago about that Sunday morning at church when he and I were sitting in the fellowship hall, waiting on the OB's office to call us back, thinking that we were never going to meet you.  Oh, God's mercy is overflowing in our life.  We have three wonderful children (and a most precious marriage) as proof of that mercy.  And Love.  Your being here reminds me of that.  And that is a blessing unto itself.

We love you so very much!

Four Years

My sweet Tooter Pooter,

You are a big four year old boy today!  I still remember every minute of the day you were born, and can not have wished for a better little man to call my son.  Your daddy and I are so proud of you - we are proud of the way you are growing and overcoming your obstacles and using your beautiful abilities.

Just born - 2 days old.  Poodle is 2 years old.

You are still struggling with your eczema.  It's not much better, but we are getting better with dealing with it.  And if that's the worst thing you have to medically encounter in your life, then you're in good shape.  Other than some scars here and there, it's not leaving too much of a mark on you.

On his way home from the hospital, in his daddy's going home outfit.  He barely fit in it!

Your communication skills are getting better!  You're definitely not completely up to age-level yet, and you struggle with finding words to explain what you want and need.  Sometimes, you mask it by arguing with us, when in reality, you just don't know what to say to us.  Of course, sometimes you ARE just arguing.  ;-)  But you get better every day.  In a few years, I suspect you will have this vocabulary stuff all worked out.

One year old.  Wearing the overhauls that Papaw gave to Jmk when Jmk was a baby.  This doesn't do justice to just HOW fat he was, but it's one of my all time favorite pictures of him.

In the past year, you've learned to ride a bike (with training wheels of course!), and you've taught us to duck when your bat makes contact with a ball.  You're so coordinated and talented.  Just like your daddy!  You are ALL boy - you run everywhere you go and you have an endless supply of energy.  Thankfully you haven't started bringing critters in the house yet.  Ha!

You are such a sweet, loving boy.  You're a great snuggler, but you've put the kebosh on most of the kissing that Mommy likes to do.  :-D  Your big sister is your best friend ever and you want to be with her all the time.  Y'all can argue, no doubt.  But there is also no doubt who you love to play with.

Two Years Old

You sit through church beautifully now!  You know all your letters and numbers and can write most of them.  You love to write your name and other names in the family.  You've begun asking "what's this word" which I can only assume is a very early prelude to reading.  We're not really working on that right now, but you may be wanting to start before too much longer.  And you're finally potty trained!  Woohoo!  (You even get through the night all dry sometimes).

You're still a REALLY picky eater!  (I'm sooo getting my payback for being picky when I was little.)  There's not a lot you'll eat, but at least you do and can eat.  There are plenty of little ones who can't because of some difficult illness.  We're grateful for your overall good health.  And your beautiful smile. And your huge, bright, sparkly blue eyes.  And your random "I love you"'s that never fail to make us smile and melt.

Three Years Old

You love Spiderman and Cars and movies and your family and football and soccer and helicopters and planes and popcorn and smoothies.  (Not necessarily in that order!)  You play at PBSkids on the computer and can tell me more about dinosaurs than I thought I'd know at this stage.  You also play at Barbie.com for which you can thank your big sister.

You loooooove Lollypop.  She's "the cutest baby in the world" according to you.  (Hard to argue with that one).  Your adorable face makes her smile so big and you love holding her and petting her head.  I love hearing you say "awww, she's sooo cah-yute".

You're as different as night and day from your big sister, and sometimes you're just like her.  I love to look at your face, and I can already see tiny bits of the all-baby face starting to disappear.  It makes my heart sad.  But, thankfully, it's not all gone yet.  Especially when you're resting.  Then you're all baby. :-)

Almost Four Years Old - from July 2009

God was so good when He gave us you.  We love you, son.  Happy Birthday to our delight!

When you're educated at home...

...you can wear whatever tickles your fancy that day! (This was Tuesday's contribution to fashion).

I wanted to give a special shot-out to my mom for helping so much with school/baby things lately. Up until a few weeks ago, I was barely having to leave the house with Lollypop, because Mom was taking the older two everywhere for me. It was nice being spoiled! But I finally manned up and started handling things myself. :-)

However, school field trips are another matter. We are blessed to have a very active, very busy homeschool group. There have been a couple of events lately that made me nervous; dealing with all the kids was going to be tough.

But, at the corn maze last Friday, Mom held the baby in the van for four hours straight while I walked around with the older ones. Yesterday, she held and fed Lollypop for five hours during our Fall Festival party, so I could be outside with the kids.

That's huge!

Thank you so much, Mom, for helping me educate the kids by being a support system. It means more than you know!

Mallory, BFF Spencer, and Poodle at the Fall party

For the Beehive

I know, right?!?

No, I didn't take this one.  I wish I had!  Stacey Williams took this totally spectacular picture of Tooter at our homeschool group field trip to a Corn Maze/Ranch this past Friday.  I had to share it because photoshop is usually involved in this cool of a photo.  Yet, this is what came out of her camera!  Extraordinary picture.

Anyway, I'm joining a ceilidh at The Beehive, so here's my most recent favorite poem.  I never would have read this one if it wasn't for the booklist at Ambleside Online.  I'm not really a "poetry" kind of person, (my degree is in math and my art preference is ballet), so I took notice when this little poem tickled my fancy.  May we all find a little Fairy Bread this week!

Fairy Bread

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Come up here, O dusty feet!

Here is fairy bread to eat.

Here in my retiring room,

     Children, you may dine

On the golden smell of broom

     And the shade of pine;

And when you have eaten well,

Fairy stories hear and tell

Punkins and Princesses and Spiders, Oh My!

Oh, Halloween.  That much discussed "holiday" that brings bags of sugary diet-busters into one's home each year.  Oh how amazing it is to show up at a neighbor's house, cheerfully utter three magic words, and receive some tiny treats that make little ones giggle with excitement!  Back in my day, of course, there were always those cool houses that would give out popcorn balls - remember those?  Can't do that in these different times, but we have our memories.  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to make my kids some?

ANYway, little Lollypop (you know, the one we used to call Sparkie on here) was a punkin, but she didn't actually join the intrepid trick-or-treaters.  It was a bit chilly, and we didn't want the wee girl to be uncomfortable.  Besides, it's not like she has any idea what's going on.  Really.  So, MooMoo "had" to stay at our house with her so I could go out for a little bit with the other kids.

Poodle was Princess Aurora, something she had spent months saying she wanted to be.  (Whoever had the genius to market all these Disney princesses the way they do now wasn't paid enough for his or her idea.  I'm just sayin').  Tooter was Spiderman - or as he says:  "SpiderName!  Scawy!!!  He kept that fabric mask on for a great deal of the evening, which surprised me.  And they were so glad that their sweet cousin, Audrey, was able to go around with them.  She had a blast as Princess Audrey and was amazed that people kept giving her candy!  Brilliant!  Every time someone would tell her she looked beautiful, she would make this low and slow bow that was so cute.

We managed to keep the busy candy-seekers from eating too terribly much of their loot, but they did sugared up a little bit when we all got home.  Poodle quickly changed into her pj's, and Tooter shed his spider skin pretty quickly as well.  But Princess Audrey reigned through the whole evening!

The next day, we went to SueSue's house after church to visit with some family who hadn't had a chance to meet Lollypop yet.  Aunt Jennifer loved and snuggled on her as she likes to do with these babies. 

And Robert and Megan finally got to see her as well.  Lollypop flirted her little heart out with Meggie - loved her!  And Mr. "I'm not good with babies" was a natural with her.  He snuggled like an old pro.

It was a fun, good weekend - although I'll admit to being tired when it was all done.  One might say that I'm getting o-l-d.  One might be correct.  ;-)