Gabriella's Dedication

Gabriella's dedication at church was this weekend, and my parents and Will's sister Kim were able to make it in for the occasion. The kids did really well up front, despite the fact that they were all getting cranky by that time. It was funny to hear the collective 'awwwww' when our pastor held her up. Then they prayed for her and after the 'Amen', everyone started laughing. I looked up to see Gabriella grabbing a handful of his nose. He announced that she had already found his beard during the prayer.





Will's parents had planned to come for it, but Joe & Gwen had their baby and needed some help with their boys. Congratulations Joe & Gwen!! We are so happy to hear that little Isabella is doing well!

In other news, Baby C chewed through two more pacifiers, so we reluctantly took them away and expected a couple of very long nights. It was a non-event, though, and he did fine from the beginning, which was a really nice surprise. He is walking everywhere now and is enjoying his newfound ability to chase his big brother around.

The other day, we let Graham get out of his highchair and he ran over to the couch. He stayed there for several minutes and we finally noticed that he was perched in the window, licking the window and watching the cars go by. Cheap entertainment.

What a week.

It has been a rather strange week. All three of the kids have been sick, so it's been a thrill-a-minute, especially at night. For instance, last night, Graham was up 6 times, Gabriella got up twice to eat, and Baby C screamed for 45 minutes straight. Maybe this lack of sleep is the cause of Graham's random behavior. The other day, I heard him close the trash can lid and discovered that he had just thrown away a $20 bill. Thursday morning, he tried on three different shirts before deciding he'd rather go shirtless and wear a hat instead. Yesterday, I had to cut a bucket off his head because he had pulled it down over his face like a feed bag and couldn't get it off.

I was holding Gabriella last night and we noticed her shadow on the wall. Check out her faux-hawk:





And here's the real thing:

Easter 2010

Although we didn't get to be around family again this Easter, we still had a good time with the kids. We went to church on Saturday night and tried to get pictures of them in their outfits before we left. We have a nice pictorial series of the two boys together, the two boys with a screaming Gabriella, Graham throwing Gabriella off his lap, and the two boys plus my arm (rescuing Gabriella). Who needs a video camera? Here's the one before Gabriella's departure:



The next morning was Easter, and we had the kids go out into the yard and "find" their baskets. Gabriella just sat on my lap and squinted into the sun.



Baby C was excited by his animal crackers and never noticed anything else. Graham discovered his bag of "digadigadees", which is how he pronounces jellybeans, and then busied himself with Baby C's basket.



All in all, it was more successful than last year, when Graham just barked at the neighbor's dog.

That afternoon, we went to a friend's house for dinner and an egg hunt. Again, Gabriella squinted, Baby C was fixated on one thing, and Graham was more interested in everyone else's basket. Here he is a moment before he ran off with his friend Lincoln's bunny:



Hope you all had a happy Easter as well!