Thing the First: Your eight-month-old sitting on the living room floor, munching away on… something.
Thing the Second: Your five-year-old holding a wad of your two-year-old’s hair.
Thing the Second necessitated a trip to the hair salon to do something about this:

I’d say they did a nice job.

Though, the divine miss M seems to be pooh-poohing the […]

Special guest blogger: the divine miss m
Today Mommy and I made brownies. After Mommy put them in the oven it was time to put baby J down for a nap. So she gave me a spoon to lick and told me to put it in the sink when I was done, then go upstairs to […]

“Portrait of My Brother”
little she-who-is
marker on white board, 2008
———–
I’m in a writing workshop this week at Downtown Cathedral. There are three workshop leaders—I am in BBT’s group. (Those who care already know; those who don’t know, don’t care.)
We have each morning free to write, then there are afternoon group sessions, individual conferences with our […]

We got a new vacuum cleaner.

Today was R’s company picnic, which was fun for the whole family, but we are paying for it tonight. The kids were strung out. J-man is not settling well.
We always try to leave events right when the kids are at the crest of Fun Mountain. It’s silly to leave way too soon just so […]

The toddler and the baby are ASLEEP AT THE SAME TIME!!!
Make your guesses here as to how long that will last.

Quotable Quotes from C, Dessert Edition…
“Cake is cake.”
“Whenever you say banana pudding, it’s going to make me dream of banana pudding and how good it is.”
Speaking of Mental Processes…
Apparently, sometimes unpleasant stuff comes into C’s head unbidden. Usually it’s the stepmother in Cinderella. She’s working on how to train her brain to think of something […]

Just got back from a few days away with some church friends (young adult group). We sat and watched the snow fall, played with the kids, went snow-tubing, and ate. C loved the tubing and I was so proud of her. She is rather cautious by nature and every time was at the top of […]

Dear Big Sister M,
Thank you for the wakeup call this morning. I can think of no better way to say “Up and At ‘Em” than inhaling and exhaling into a harmonica 18 inches from the head. It’s like “Reveille” for the toddler set.
I appreciate you not wanting me to sleep the day away. Though I […]

First, we are all doing well here. J had a visit with our ped today (our practice doesn’t go to the hospital where we delivered) and he’s fine, though they want to test his bilirubin again tomorrow morning. He’s also lost right at 10% of his birth weight, which is as much as they really […]

In the car after dinner, playing hide and seek with the moon*
covering eyes
mun,
doo,
dee,
[skips four and five]
siss,
mennen,
eight,
nie,
ten,
nennen
tel
duh-dee
fuh-dee
fee!
[uncovers eyes, looks out window]
Deh is!
*Yes, I am serious. She brings the Cute.

Having a toddler who is wide awake waaaaaaaaay before you need to be is kinda like this:

You can sleep when you are dead.

little she-who-is: G-mommy, my baby has leprosy! How can I make it stop? Her nose is about to fall off!
———————-
The girls are having a great time with G-mommy, or as the divine miss M calls her, Me-Mommy. They’ve spent the day playing hide-and-seek and hospital (see aforementioned) while R and I picked up the bassinet […]

More cute M vocab:
too-toos (tissues)
gih-gap (giraffe)
da-da (MaDear) (who she pretends to talk to on the telephone)
She loves pretending to talk on the phone. And serving “tea.” And putting her babies to bed. And singing old McDonald, and songs of her own devising.
And she knows all her colors…!
The upshot of M’s elbow is, we were walking […]

[The room-sharing is going very well, by the way.]
So this morning C didn’t want to get dressed—cozy bed and all that—so I suggested she get dressed under the covers. I told her about getting dressed in my sleeping bag while camping and how the sleeping bag kept me warm in the chilly tent. She […]

So after getting C’s room in order to welcome her little sister, and having a perfectly uneventful bedtime, complete with pictures and stories and drifting easily to sleep…
It was the night from hell.
M woke up at 11:30 screaming NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Over and over. Lather, rinse, repeat every 20-30 minutes for the […]

who had the divine miss M by the hand as I was rushing around trying to find her*:
I was too relieved to say thanks, so, thanks. A lot.
*longest 90 seconds of my life

photo from here