Family Update

Zivah will be two months old on Tuesday. Such an occasion is an excuse to borrow my brother's camera and take way too many photos of the kids.

Check out Z's chubby thighs.

She is a baby of a million different looks. It all depends on how gravity is pulling on those cheeks.

Here she is rewarding her mama with a smile and display of excitement.

She is happiest right after a feeding and a diaper change. We have our best moments at the changing table. That's when we talk... or rather, I talk, and she throws in an 'oo' or a little screech here and there.

Early on, I figured out that her skin was sensitive to regular wipes. Her little bum would get beet red, and when I wiped her, she would cringe and make this creaking/strange bird screeching noise, telling me she didn't like the way it felt. Thankfully, there is no more diaper rash.

She spits up a lot. She still cries when she has gas. She has started sleeping for a six hour stretch most nights. I'm not used to that (as Finley and Joe both did two four hour stretches at night), but I won't complain. She likes to watch her mobile slowly spin, and usually starts to fuss as soon as the animals stop moving. Sometimes she is content to just sit in her infant seat. Sometimes she's not. Sometimes she'll take long naps in the morning. Sometimes she won't. Z is my random baby. I never know what our days will look like.

Finley requested a cape the other day. She watched a few episodes of a cartoon called 'Word Girl.' She's upset because I won't let her watch it anymore. Word Girl lies to her parents to hide the fact that she is a super hero. That's not okay with me. If Finley was a superhero, I would let her go fight the bad guys instead of clean her room. She wouldn't have to lie to me. Anyway.

Finley wanted a cape, so scrounging in the scrap box, I ran across a section of skirt I had to cut off the one I made for Finley several months ago. (It would have fit an elephant it I hadn't cut some of it off.) The scrap would make for a perfect cape, except, as Finley pointed out, there was no pink. So I sewed on a pink star.

As soon as I finished, Finley ran outside, wearing the cape. She told me she needed to wait for a big wind so that she could fly. I have the feeling that she won't wear it that much, now that she's realized this cape won't really make her fly. Reality is so disappointing.

Reanna is back in the swing of dance and home school. Well, sort of. This week she is on vacation with her mom, so I don't have any new photos of her yet...

Here is hot-rod Joe. I think Joe would ride his bike 24/7 if allowed to, stopping only for bananas and Ovaltine. He has worn out the front tire of his trike by slamming on his 'brakes' and skidding to a stop. (Look closely in the red circle below.) There is now a nice thumping as he rides along. We are trying to figure out how to repair or replace the tire.

I took the morning off. When I was gone, Chris left the kids in the basement as he worked on putting up the last two closet doors in our room. Soon, Joe came upstairs, carrying his diaper, saying that he had pooped. Chris panicked. There was no poop in the diaper. There was no poop in the toilet. Joe led Chris to the storage room in the basement where we had stored the training potty after the stale, stinky pee incident. He had pooped and peed in (and all over) the training potty in the basement. Way to go, Joe.