Sleepless

To bed at 11 after a (no nap, even in the car) full day playing in the pool, and up at 8 to water grandma's garden and play in the backyard. Now, over 1/2 way through our 2 hour drive home, at 1:30 in the afternoon, she's wide awake but CRAZY tired. Is it possible that she really won't sleep on this drive? Not only possible; it's probable. But nobody ever believes us!

Sick Day

Violet is under the weather to put it mildly, so we've canceled our plans for the end of the week. Here's a peek at our exciting day at home!

Our "recycling guy" (can you see his matching hat in the picture?) gets a royal greeting every morning, by Violet and our downstairs neighbors. How cute must that look from his perspective? Kids lining up in the windows wearing their hard hats looking for a wave and a "beep beep!"? TOO CUTE

Violet looks really sick here, but it's mostly concentration. I came out to find her struggling to breastfeed her baby while using a cover. She needed help tying it, and was getting agitated because her baby was hungry.

Chef Violet:

Sous Chef (or main course?) Daphne:

Violet's new hiding place. I almost had a heart attack when I couldn't find her (she hadn't announced that she was playing hide and seek).

That's a little bit of what we did today. Violet, proving that she is really sick, also took a three-and-a-half hour nap. Poor baby. Hope she feels better by the weekend, and I hope that Daphne avoids this one.

Toes and a Four Month Appointment

Daphne got her toes last night! Look how cute she is eating them:

Also, today was her 4-month well baby check up. She is just marvellous acording to her doctor! She weighs 15 lbs. 4.4 oz., which I believe is less than Violet did at 4 months. Speaking of sweet Violet... when Daphne had to get her shots, Violet got very anxious for her. As soon as Daphne started crying, her tears were met with Violet's empathetic sobs. It was so very sad! I'm afraid that Violet was more distressed and shed more tears than Daphne. And I think that smothering her sister with kisses and sobbingly saying, "It's ok, Daphne!" was more for her own comfort in the end, though as usual attention from her big sister delighted Miss Daphne.

Three.

Working on numbers and wearing the "animal hat" that she will NOT let me remove. That's what you do when you're three.

My Gym

Who needs fancy workout equipment? I do. This workout equipment if faaaaancy!

Daphne Made a Choice!

...and some other fun things Daphne.

Choices

Last night little Daphne made a choice, and I can already see where this is going. My snuggly little infant is starting to assert her very own personality, and I love it! While the rest of the family was eating dinner, Daphne (seated in my lap) spied a shiny purple bag on the table and launched herself towards it, quickly grabbing it with her chubby little hands and bringing it immediately to her mouth. Thinking I'd just give her something else to chew on I grabbed one of her headbands and replaced the bag in her hands with that. (I know, great parenting. Couldn't be bothered to go find a real chew toy.) Well, she tried that headband, spit it out, threw it down, and once again dove for the shiny bag! She got it, too. Amazing. Four months old and already capable of making a choice in her little mind and acting on it. Such a little smartie, already knowing what she wants.

Sleep

Within the last two weeks Daphne has finally started to take a paci. We've seen a marked improvement in her ability to fall asleep on her own, and she can even be coaxed back to sleep from time to time by replacing the paci. But last night, oh! last night!, I fed her, rocked her and sang to her, then put her in her crib while I put Violet to bed. I had to go in a couple of times to replace her paci, but in the end she fell asleep BY HERSELF with no actual crying (just a little fussing when she lost her paci)!!!!! And she stayed that way from 8:30 until 4am when she ended up in our bed as usual, because I'm too tired to get up and nurse her in the chair then put her back in her bed. A-MAY-ZING. She's gone down for both of her naps like that today, too. Wow. After 4 months of no sleep and no plan except to push her for hours in her stroller to make her sleep, this is a huge breakthrough. It feels like we're *just* about to get our lives back. WOO HOO!

Toes

She found them! But she hasn't eaten them, yet. SO cute watching her roll around holing on to those fat little feet, gorgeous legs in the air!

Daphne, 4 Months

Happy four month birthday, sweet Daphne. Sweet, beautiful baby, with a little bit of 'tude.

Daphne grabs things!