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.
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:
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:
In the last six weeks, we have had two birthday parties with two out-of-state trips, Baby C began getting about 8 teeth all at once, Gabriella has decided to stop sleeping so well, and Graham has begun potty-training. It has been a crazy time.
Baby C's birthday party at my parents' house was a lot of fun. We filled their inflatable swimming pool with balls and had a slide for them to jump off into the pit. I tried another pinata, and again, nothing came out when we pulled the string, so I think we're done with pinatas for now. Baby C's Great Grandma and most of my aunts and uncles were able to make it, which made the day more special. It seems strange to post pictures of his party when he can't be in them, but here are a few (very small) images:
Gabriella is rolling over all the time now, and as a stomach sleeper, this does not make it easier for her to get to sleep. She is still a sweetheart, though, and it's been so much fun watching her grow. She has just begun to grab at things and suck her thumb. Baby C loves to bellyflop on her when she's playing on the floor, so we have to be careful. She has an uncanny ability to sound like a tomcat sometimes. This is a rather uneventful video, but you can hear how loud she is...
Here's how we go on walks. She refuses to keep her hands inside Will's coat.
And here's how we found her one morning after she had been talking for half an hour:
Graham is starting the potty-training adventure, and so far he seems to do okay. We're bribing him with a Skittle each time. Unfortunately, he prefers for me to put it in his mouth using the bucket on a small tractor. This tractor phase is getting ridiculous.
At his two-year appointment, the doctor said he is growing fine, but he is right at the minimum in his ability to speak. SO... At the end of March he'll be starting speech therapy. I think what we learn will be useful for Baby C also, since he seems to be a little behind also.
Here's our ghetto slide, which he and Baby C loved playing with:
Here's Graham at his birthday party. He had so much fun at the farm that weekend, and he did really well at the party, which was a nice surprise.
Here's our house afterward:
He and Baby C got a mudpie maker that they played with for 2 days straight (even without the mudpies).
Here's what the basement looked like after Graham "helped" Will paint his birdhouse last weekend:
Will took the boys outside to play in the snow this weekend. Here's a shot of Graham after he had just decapitated their snowman:
Here he is eating the stale popcorn that Will had just thrown out for the birds:
Baby C enjoyed his trip outside for a few minutes, and then I think he got cold. He's |this close| to being able to walk more than 4 steps at a time. The problem is that he loves lunging forward and being caught. We haven't figured out how to get him to stop doing that (besides the obvious solution of not catching him anymore).
Gabriella has found her voice and loves to squawk as loud as she can. It almost sounds like she's crying, except for the fact that there's a smile on her face. She's still a good sleeper which makes my job so much easier.
And finally, I got a surprise when I went to make an English muffin today. This turtle magnet was in the bottom of the toaster:
Graham walked into the kitchen where I was working on Sunday night. "Are you watching the Super Bowl with Daddy?" I asked. "Can you say Super Bowl?" (He couldn't.) I turned back to the counter, then saw him carry something back into the living room with Will:
I guess he thought Will's bowl wasn't super enough.
That night at 1:42am, Baby C threw a party. He was squealing and laughing and bouncing with someone--when I went in, I found out that it was the animals on his sheets. He abandoned his friends and went back to sleep when I gave him his pacifier.
I should not complain about snow because ours isn't much compared to some parts of the country. It does make birdwatching more fun, though. Cardinals have been to our feeder more in the past few days than they have all season:
Will, Graham, and I were eating breakfast together on Saturday morning while watching a DVD about Missouri's outdoors (thanks, Aunt Melba & Uncle Jim!). There were some divers exploring a spring that had formed underwater caves, and one of the divers commented that they even saw some blind cave fish.
"You know how you can tell that a fish is blind?" Will asked.
I sat and thought for a moment. Was it something to do with their eyes? Were they white because it was so dark that it didn't matter what color they were? Will knows a lot about fish and he had seen the DVD before...
