A Splash of Blue

After what felt like forever, we finally added some blue to our pink-heavy household.  Quintin James Anderson was born April 9, 2012 at 7:08 pm.  He weighed in at a healthy 7 lb. 15 oz. and was a tall baby at 21 inches long.  it's a good thing he came a week before his due date or he could have been one huge little guy.  His birth was a lot faster than his sisters' births.  I only pushed for about 20 minutes before he came popping out.  We're pretty sure it had a lot to do with me not having an epidural this time around.  I shared the story on my other blog, but haven't ruled out the possibility of rewriting it here to see how my perception of things changes over the course of a few weeks.

Just after birth

Quintin has been a really good sleeper for the past few days.  Almost too good a sleeper.  I have to wake him up at night to eat sometimes.  He's still getting the hang of nursing.  Quintin is also a very gassy boy.  I think he swallows a lot of air.  And boy does it smell when he passes it.  Hopefully my milk will be in fully before too long.

Angel baby boy

Ellie and Maya are just loving Quintin to death.  Maya would probably smother him for real with kisses if I weren't there to curb her enthusiasm.  He seems to be fairly patient with everything.  Quintin may also be the first of our kids to voluntarily take a binky.  We can hope.  For now that's all there is.  We love this little dude and look forward to integrating him into our lives.  Now I just need to think of a new name for the blog...

Update of the Girly-pies

As my due date for our little boy approaches I figure I should record some things that the girls are saying/ doing before I get completely overwhelmed with #3.

First day of Primary

Eliana is now 3 1/2 years old.  Our biggest project at the moment is potty training.  We've been working on that for over a year now.  I really don't want three kids in diapers, but it's looking like it will be that way for a while.  My mom told me I was Ellie's age before I potty trained and that makes me a little less discouraged with the process.  She knows how, she just doesn't consistently choose to go on the potty.  We got her a potty watch to help remind her.  It's probably a better reminder for me so I can make sure Ellie goes.  The novelty is wearing off, though I think she still likes it.  She just doesn't insist on always having it on her wrist anymore.

We certainly have a little performer in Ellie.  We gave talks in church a few weeks ago and Ellie was also able to participate.  She loved it.  She's asked when it's her turn to speak in church again.  The same holds true for singing and, well,  pretty much everything she does.  We were at my parents house recently and the girls were enjoying playing on the slide.  Out of the blue she started calling out, "Ladies and gentlemen, is you ready for a show?"  Then she went down the slide on her tummy.  For another ten minutes after that she announced every time she, her sister, or her cousin were about to go down the slide with, "Is you ready for a show again?"  It was funny.

Another of Ellie's favorite activities is jumping.  Always has been, probably always will be.  New activities include bike riding, wanting to help with EVERYTHING, running around like a demon, and playing with my makeup.

Ellie is also our little comedian.  She doesn't know it, but we find her rather hilarious.  My favorite gem that's come out of her mouth was when she told me, "I'm being a princess.  I dancing and singing and shaking my bottom."  Ellie also remains convinced that we will go to the dentist to get her baby brother out.  She has a dentist appointment yesterday and that didn't happen.  I think the dentist was pretty happy about that.

Playing at Discovery Gateway

Maya just turned 18 months old a couple of weeks ago.  My joy that she is now in Nursery is unparalleled.  She's been there twice.  It's nice to be able to pay attention in my classes.  It seems that she's done well, though I have heard her give her signature I've-been-betrayed cry when she realizes I've left the room.  No one has ever brought her back to me, so that's something.  I used to be so sad that she was growing up so quickly, but I think with the baby's imminent birth I've been wanting her to grow up (read: be more independent) a bit faster.  She's going to have a rude awakening when baby brother comes on the scene.  Her favorite place to be in either in my arms or on my lap.  Sorry kiddo, that space is going to be reserved for a nursing baby.  But I do like the snuggles she so readily gives.

Painting the table with Ellie's extra milk and cereal

Where Maya used to be a really mellow and somber-faced baby, she is now a ball of happiness.  I love the way she smiles with her whole face.  I hope that's something she will keep as she grows.  Smiles are abundant, but she saves her real laughs for when she's really amused.  Eric and Ellie are both pretty good at getting them out of her.

"Helping" with the laundry

Favorite activities for Maya include drawing, climbing, taking books off of shelves, sitting on my lap, sabotaging the computer, and getting up at least twice in the night so she can sleep in my arms.  That's another habit that will have to go.  Maya's favorite thing, though, really is drawing.  She's learning that the walls are unacceptable drawing places and thinks that her skin is a suitable replacement.  She's our little tattoo artist.  Hopefully she gets that out of her system before too long.

Another good use for Pull-Ups: helmets

Ellie is finally starting to progress a little with potty training.  I don't relish the idea of three kids in diapers so this is a blessed change.  There's a lot she still needs to work on, but any forward movement is good.  It's been a long, frustrating time in coming.  I think the real trick was getting her a potty watch and rewarding her with chocolate Robin Eggs.  Ellie is very excited whenever she earns "a widdle tiny chocwat egg."  Maya is also really fascinated with the potty, but she's not ready to train yet.  She just likes to sit on it.

Both of the girls are looking forward to having a baby brother.  Ellie can't quite pronounce his name and people think we're naming him Gordon.  His name will be Quintin.  Both of the girls kiss my tummy frequently.  Maya likes to lift my shirt for better access and to see "Bee-bee!"  Ellie frequently predicts when he will be born, but I think that's mostly because there are things she knows will happen after he's born.  It's a treat to be mommy to these sweet little girls.  I may get frustrated quite a bit (what mom doesn't?) but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Big girls at the dentist's office.

Maya in Christmas dress and coat

Ten Months (Maya)

It's been a while since I've updated about either of the girls.  Now that they are both so close to their birthdays it's time to start again.

Maya is such a sweet baby.  She still likes to cuddle me every now and again and I just LOVE it.  Sleeping at night has gotten a little better.  That endears children to their parents.  Maya has been going to sleep a little later and we need to work on that.

I'm hoping Maya's hair is starting to show signs of curling.  We'll see.  If not, it will be nice to have baby hair that is easier to comb through than curly hair is.  There rest of Maya is growing up pretty well.  She hasn't yet taken her first unassisted steps, but she does enjoy cruising along on the furniture or on a lounging parent: whichever is more available.  Her steps are getting a little faster and her valance a bit more steady.  I'm actually kind of excited for her to learn to walk.  I just don't want her to grow up.  I'm loving her babyness.

A favorite game of Maya's is what I call Climb and Drop.  She'll climb up the arm of the couch then fling herself down to the cushions we sit on.  It entertains her to no end.  Maya also enjoys spending time in the water.  Baths are great and she also loves the dishwasher.  I have no idea what the appeal is, but maybe it will mean she'll want to do dishes in the future.  I can dream, right?

Maya's Baby Contest

The Giggle!

I've been trying to capture Maya's giggle on video for a while now.  I wanted a record before it disappears.  I know it's probably cuter to me because I'm the mom.  That's okay.  It still makes me laugh every time.  It's a full nine seconds of joy for me.

As a matter of explanation, this is a favorite game of Ellie's to make Maya laugh.  I don't know how Ellie came up with it but it's pretty messy.  She bites off a piece of paper and spits it on the floor.  Maya proceeds to laugh hysterically.  This is the first I've been able to catch it on video.  I'm sure the laughing would have continued if she hadn't fallen over.  It always does.

Who Looks Like Whom?

Quite a while back I did one of the look alike things with the picture of the baby and the parents. Ellie looked equally like Eric and me.

I decided to try it with Maya to see how it worked with her.

Maya also looks equally like Mommy and Daddy. I love to hear people's opinions because it always fairly equal about who she looks like.

Because children's faces change over time I decided to see how Ellie compares to us now. The face detector they have is apparently really bad at finding Ellie's face in a picture, so the first one I could get to recognize her face is almost a year old.

Now she looks 6% more like Eric. Maybe I'll have to try it again if I can find a more recent picture of her that the site will accept.

Eight Months (Maya)

This month has been a really fun one with Maya.  She's getting up on her knees quite a bit more to try crawling, she's very vocal, and she's happy as can be.  Recently she's learned how to play peek-a-boo and that is endless fun for both of us.  It's about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I'll post a video of it at the bottom.

Maya is measuring 28 inches long (about 83rd percentile).

Crawling is still of the army variety, but Maya keeps on trying to get onto her knees for real crawling.  She can get one little knee move out before she just starts pulling herself along again.  She's getting really fast.  Maya is also just starting to take notice that she can pull up on things.  It's mostly me so far.  Right now Maya can't get up very high.  She still struggles with putting herself in a sitting position on her own, so I'm not sure that she has the strength to really pull herself up just yet.  As soon as that happens I'll need to look out for her to start walking.  Yikes.

We're kind of wondering if Maya is differentiating between when she says "mamama" or "dadada".  Most of the time she says the latter.  It's just funny to watch her saying one or the other while looking at the corresponding parent.

Maya got her third tooth the day after she turned eight months.  Looking inside her mouth I can see the line of the jagged edge that will be her fourth tooth.  It's really close.  I expect it in the next day or two.  it should make nursing interesting.  I'm hoping she doesn't figure out the bite-and-pull trick that her older sister did. Ouch.

Thirty-One to Thirty-Three Months (Eliana)

So quite a while has passed since I've updated about Ellie.  Where to begin?  Well, Eliana seems to be getting better at pretty much everything she does.  Recently Ellie has been going through what I call a speech spurt.  It happens every so often and is characterized by new words, longer sentences, and a proud mama.  It is highly noticeable right after she is spoken to.  Ellie is an excellent parrot.  It's a good thing we don't say nasty words to each other in our house.  However, she did learn that the file/pumice thing used for a pedicure is a "foot grater".

We're working out issues with bedtime.  Ellie used to be a stellar bedtime girl but has recently decided that bed is not something she wants to do.  Two hours of putting her back to bed after she's gone down is not acceptable.  We've tried what seems like everything and are still searching for the answer.  Things are getting a little better, but there is still a ways to go.

Ellie loves to jump.  A lot.  That's nothing new.  The only difference is how much more daring she in becoming.  I have to watch her like a hawk at the playground so she doesn't leap off something she shouldn't. I'm hoping that her recent leap out of a shopping cart and subsequent crash to the tile floor taught her a bit more caution.

We realized not too long ago that Ellie can count to ten on her own.  I don't remember teaching her that so it was pretty cool.  Maybe if I actually works on the ABCs she'll be able to get those down.  We were really surprised by the whole thing.Her speech is becoming more complex and her vocabulary is expanding rapidly.  We've been having fun recently with Baby Signing Time videos.  Right now she won't do command performances of the signs, but she will occasionally decide to add them in.

One big surprise we got recently was when Eliana started counting to ten.  I haven't worked with her on that much, so it was quite the shock when she popped off with it one afternoon.  Sometimes she'll just count for fun.  My current project with her is to show that counting can stop before reaching ten.  For example, when we were playing a game that has four balls she continued to count them over again until she reached ten.  I'm hoping the concept will sink in soon.  Either way, I thought it was neat thing that she counts.

Ellie's also learning ABCs.  We started to sing the ABC song a few days ago and I'm surprised with what she remembers.  Sesame Street helps quite a bit.  I love Netflix.

We've been having fun trying to be sociable.  Ellie certainly loves it.  Play group is something she looks forward to every week.  I think Ellie really craves time with other children.  Last week we went to the park and she found a new friend there.  I was a little creeped out when one of the dads at the park looked at my daughter and said, "You have one more minute before we need to go home, Eliana."  It didn't take long for me to realize that Eliana's new friend was...Eliana.  They'd been running around holding hands and playing. It was pretty cute.

Let's see...Ellie is still very much into princesses and pretty dresses, but not into potty training.  We had another false start with that recently.  She really wants to wear her princess panties, but I'm not sure she really gets it yet.  I think she assumes that underwear are the same as a diaper and it won't make a mess if she goes in them.  She doesn't seem to like letting it fall into her potty (I think that the problem, anyway) and seems to just let her panties catch it.  Every time I put a new pair on her she wet them within a minute.  I think the learning curve on potty training is pretty steep.  Especially for me.

Easter was FUN!!!  My in-laws got some chicks a week or so before Easter and Ellie loves them.  She keeps asking to see the "beebee chicks" whenever she remembers.  Eliana got in a few good egg hunts.  Mostly she liked to open up the eggs.  It was Mommy who wanted the stuff inside.  All the pictures on this post are from Easter and its festivities, except for the one where she looks drugged/evil.  We made Easter cookies that didn't turn out how we thought, but it was a good idea.

It's hard to believe that in only three more months Ellie will be three years old.  How quickly time passes.

Six Months and Seven Months (Maya)

I couldn't do a six month post very well because there aren't any working cameras in the house.  I've also kind of lost the will to blog.  That has shown with the infrequency of my posts.  So now Maya is getting her first combination monthly post.

Wasn't I pregnant just a couple of weeks ago?  Time flies when you're having fun, as well as when there are two children to chase.  Maya is so much fun to have around.  In the past two months she has become very talkative and very mobile.  She can do the slapdrag with the best of them.  She's just starting to get up on her toes, so I think real crawling may not be too far behind.  Maya likes to babble and I like to think she's been saying "mama" off and on.  Mostly she just blows raspberries and has a grand time with that.

In other physical development news, Maya is sitting up pretty well.  She's fairly steady, though she still topples quite a bit.  I've been looking forward to this bit of development because it will make entertaining her so much easier.  I'm sure she will still prefer that I hold her, but that's just too bad. ;)  The slapdrag has been a great thing for me as far as entertainment goes; she loves to do it and I love to watch it.

Maya's giggle is an elusive thing that is difficult to capture but well worth the effort.  She's full of smiles, but her giggle takes a bit of coaxing to release.  I'm still hoping to capture it on video.  The little laugh/grunt is adorable.

Maya remains a momma's girl.  I can't say I don't love it.  Miss Maya is my sweetie pie.  It might get a bit tiresome to have her on my hip all the time, but it's very sweet.  I love that little girl.


Measurements at the doctor's office showed a slight increase in her weight percentile and a small loss in her height percentile.  I'll have to get the numbers when i go back for her 9 months checkup.  She's very healthy and doing well.  Maya's two teeth are pretty cute and she's getting two more on top.  Slowly.  Maya is chewing on everything she can find, but that's fairly normal.  We've just started putting her the walker.  She thought that was pretty good stuff.  It's nice to have another way to entertain her.

Hopefully she'll get better with sleeping through the night.  We're crossing our fingers on that.

Maya is a great little eater.  She sucks the food right off the spoon and asks for more.  We are happy to oblige.

Before too long I'll be updating about more new things that she's doing, but for now I want my baby to just stay my baby.

No Camera!!!

So I haven't posted anything of the girls recently because we're low on pictures.  How can that be with two adorable girls?  The answer is that the older of the adorable girls has any affinity for any "cammer" she happens to see.  She has successfully broken every camera we have in the house and I need to take them in to see if they can be repaired or if I need to shell out the money for new ones.  I am not happy about that.  So, until I can access the pictures I did take I will leave you with the post I put on the other blog.

I've mentioned a couple of times that makeup is my new hobby.  That came from a blog called Classy Cosmetics.  She's such a cute girl and very sweet.  Her blog is a great way to learn about techniques and products.  She's also got a giveaway on this post that looks great.  I've always wanted to try MAC, but it's a little pricey for me.  So go to her blog, become a follower, and comment on this post that I'm the one who sent you.  She really is a lot of fun.  Just make sure you go there before the 17th so you can enter the giveaway, too!

Five Months (Maya)

Maya is growing beautifully.  She certainly gets more beautiful by the day.  She is so mild and calm.  Sadly, she has been kind of sick for the past couple of weeks.  Maya is better now, but she had us really worried for a while.  The worst it ever got was a snotty nose and a hoarse voice that scared us pretty good.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that her sister has pneumonia at the same time.  We didn't want to deal with that at Maya's age.  After two trips to see the doctor we finally just let the sickness take it's course.  Thankfully, she's just fine.

Lately I've been a little concerned that Maya has not started rolling over.  Other babies I know of have rolled over and Ellie had it pretty well mastered by this age.  Then I remembered how often I actually put Maya down on the floor...not so often.  She can't learn to roll over if she doesn't get the opportunity.  I'm working on that. She may have rolled over once when I wasn't looking, but it's also likely that her big sister was helping her.

Maya has seemed a little extra hungry and fussy lately.  I was pretty sure that she was teething and I thought I could see a bit of tooth starting to come in on the bottom.  Nothing came of it and I kind of let it slide and thought maybe I was wrong.  Today (the day after she turned five months) I looked at her gums again and it is quite clear that she has both of her bottom front teeth coming in.  I'm thinking the extra hungry was her teething.  She won't take a pacifier, so Mommy gets to be the teething apparatus.  That's going to change.

Maya had her first Valentine's Day this month.  I don't think she really noticed or cared, but I certainly had fun.  I put her and Ellie in matching red dresses and gave lots of snuggles.  I just don't think it gets much sweeter than that.  There will be lots more of that in the years to come.  I couldn't be more excited.  Next month will have St. Patrick's Day and I'm excited to put her in the little green romper Ellie wore on her first St. Patrick's Day.  I love cute hand me downs.

About a week ago I introduced Maya to her feet and I think it's a love for the ages.  Time spent on her back is no longer so odious as it once was.  It's really fun to watch her trying to sit up to reach them better.  I've included a couple of the "outtake" five month pictures showing her grabbing at her toes.  There are even more on my camera that what I've posted here.

Hopefully all the discomfort of teething will end shortly and Maya will work on sleeping through the night.  A mommy can hope.  Either way I love this little girl to bits.

Thirty Months (Eliana)

Two and a half.  Sigh.  My baby is growing up.  Ellie may have a little sister, but she will always be my baby.  In the past few weeks she has been asserting her independence more and more.  Naps are becoming a thing of the past.  If I put her down she just gets back up.  We're working on that.  It happens at night, too.  She just gets out of bed less if she hasn't had a nap.  I'm not ready for her to give up naps, but I'm not sure I have much choice in the matter.  Maybe once it warms up and I can take her outside more she will use up enough energy to require a nap again.  I can hope.

Another fun/frustrating show of independence is when Ellie gets things for herself.  She will usually ask me for whatever she wants.  If I'm busy I'll tell her to wait just a minute.  She then asks me again two seconds later and I repeat the same answer.  After the second request she just does it herself.  That generally involves pulling a chair over to the counter and getting whatever she wants from there.

Ellie continues to be a great big sister.  She likes to hold Maya's hand and give her kisses.  She becomes very distressed if I leave Maya with anyone else.  Ellie enjoys pointing out Maya's body parts and "tickling" them.  It usually doesn't make Maya cry, but sometimes Ellie isn't very gentle.

Dressing up is the only way to go for Ellie.  Sometimes I have to hide her dresses if I need her to wear something else.  She is highly talented at stripping her clothes off and bringing me whichever dress she wants to wear.  More often than not I let her wear what she wants.  The pictures below are an example of that.  In the last one she's wearing her dress, a pettiskirt, and one of my maternity shirts.

We love our little Ellie and look forward to all the time we have with her.

Four Months (Maya)

ti

Our little slice of heaven just turned four months old.  It's been a busy month.  She had her first Christmas and New Year's, as well as her first "road trip" to visit her grandparents.  "Road trip" is in quotes because it was only a three hour drive.  No biggie.  We didn't even snap a single picture while we were there.  We did, however, stuff the car so full of gear and clothing that there wasn't room for anything else.

Maya is getting really good at twisting her body around to see things, no matter what position she's in.  She not rolling over yet, but she can redirect herself to get another view of the world.  I'm not sure that Maya understands what she's doing just yet, but she'll get there.

She weighs 12 lb 2 oz (looks like about 25th percentile, but they told me it was closer to 50th) and is just over 25 inches long (95th percentile).  It looks like she's following her sister's growth pattern.

Giggling is happening more frequently.  When Maya's really amused it's almost a growl rather than a giggle and it's pretty cute.  Her big sister is better at getting her to smile and laugh than anyone else.  Maya is also using her voice quite a bit more.  She makes the sweetest baby noises.

Maya's hair seems to be growing in much lighter than what she was born with.  It happened the same way with Ellie and now I'm excited to see if she gets curls or if her hair remains straight.  They both have their pros and cons.

I was interested to read back on Ellie's four month and see that the two share the same sleep problems.  2 am-6 am is a vicious time to not sleep well.  For me.  I don't know if either of the girls give a hoot about how Mommy sleeps.  Maya isn't in the crib yet because I like  the proximity of the crib to my bed.  I prefer not to have to go to another room in the middle of the night.

Maya is growing well and, as always, we're happy to have her in our family.

Twenty-eight and Twenty-nine Months (Eliana)

How does time pass so quickly? Ellie is growing up so quickly that it takes my breath away. It seems like I was bringing her home from the hospital yesterday and now she is a tall and agile little girl. We just started a class called Tumbling Tots. I thought it would be fun Mommy-Ellie time so she can have a bit of me for herself. She loves it. She also the tallest kid in the class. Two of the other kids are older than she is.

Ellie seems to be loving her little sister and taking more interest in her. Watching the two of the interact is probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen. No one can make Maya giggle like Ellie does...and she loves doing it. When I dropped Maya off with my friend for the first Tumbling Tots class I was surprised by Ellie's reaction. She was very distressed that I was leaving her little sister somewhere and driving off without her. Despite my reassurances that we would get Maya after class, she called out for her sister until we got into the class with all the toys. It's heartwarming watching them together.

Ellie loves all things princess and will repeat "princess...dress" whenever she sees one until she is satisfied that we have all noticed the princess and her dress. She loves putting on her pretty dresses and twirling. "Princess hair" occassionally works as my bribe to get her to let me do her hair, but she's pretty much grown out of that. We got her a singing Belle doll for Christmas and she has thoroughly loved it ever since. The picture shows her asleep in the car the day she got it.

Meals are a difficulty. I don't know why Ellie refuses to eat, but that's a pretty common scenario around our house. Meals and snacks are often refused and it's a struggle to get her to eat. Sometimes she even refuses to eat things we know she loves. Some days are good eating days and others are like yesterday,when all she ate was goldfish crackers and one bite of her grilled cheese sandwich. The doctor assures us it's normal, but I can't wait for this phase to pass. I have no idea how Ellie continues to grow. There are certain things she'll ask us for, such as cheese and chocolate milk, but we try to give her a more varied diet.


Other children are another favorite thing of Ellie's. She loves having playmates.

Most of the other things for this past month were Christmas things, so hopefully I'll be able to do a post including all of that.

Three Months (Maya)

Cuter and cuter by the day.  At three months she has started to look very much like her own little person.  The newborn look is completely gone.  Maya continues to be a chill little kid, which is great.  She is starting to get a bit more fussy recently, making me worry that she's not getting enough to eat.  The easy fix for that would be to give her a bottle, but she's decided that those have gone out of style.  We're working on it.

The hair on top of Maya's head has grown back and we're trying to figure out if we're getting another blondie or if it's a light brown.  She has the most gorgeous brown eyes and is very expressive with them.

I didn't measure Maya's height this month, but she weighs in at just over 12 pounds.  That puts her (from the best I can tell) at the 50th percentile.  I'll let the doctor measure her height at the next appointment.

In Maya's third month she celebrated her first Thanksgiving.  We gave her an enormous bow to wear to show her Thanksgiving spirit, but she wasn't a big fan of wearing something bigger than her face.

Maya's body movements are slowly becoming more deliberate but she still has those sweet, random baby movements.  Her drooling has picked up and I'm hoping that is not associated with teething.  Her daddy and her sister were early teethers.  There's already enough pain that goes with nursing Maya (she's...enthusiastic) that I'm not ready to add teeth to the mix.

I'm still a little sad whenever Maya reaches a new monthly age because I want to keep her as my precious little bundle of baby cuteness.  My comfort is that, if she has to grow, she is growing well.  Maya also loves her mommy and prefers me to anyone else.  I am the one with the food, after all.  She also loves her big sister and giggles beautifully when Ellie jumps for her.

Enjoying her bath

Wearing her cute new jumper

Two Months (Maya)

This month has been a big one.  Maya has gone from looking like a newborn to looking more like baby Maya.  Her baby acne is gone (hallelujah!) and the hair I scrubbed off her head has grown back.  She's starting to coo, which is a sweet accompaniment to her smiles.

Today was shot day for Maya. It continues to be very sad. Her little thigh is bruised and she's pretty cranky.  The plus side is that she was weighed and measured, so I have a good idea of how she's growing.  Head circumference was 75%.  She weighs 10 lb 12 oz, which is 50th percentile.  She hadn't eaten for four hours, so I'm curious what her weight would have been if she hadn't just finished a long nap.  Maya measured 24 inches long, which is 95th percentile.  She may end up taking after her sister and grow to be tall and lean.  Poor girl. Insert further sarcastic comments {here}.

Beyond smiling and cooing there's not much development to report.  Now we move on to pictures.

Watching a movie with big sister

I think she looks like my older brother's baby pictures in this one.

First recorded smile

Everyone has to deal with less-than-flattering pictures at some time.  Maya's time has come.

First Halloween.  She was the sheep to her sister's Bo Peep.

I just thought she looked cute here.

Just after messing a diaper.

In her blessing dress.

This little girl is a blast to have around!