July 31

Chris went back to work today, but just for a half-day, in the morning. It would have been fine if Caleb and Daisy had been cooperative, but they were both out of sorts and uncharacteristically naughty this morning. And then Daisy shrieked for two hours instead of napping. But whatever.

I was able to overlook all of that because tonight was Book Club night!

More importantly, it was Lily's first Book Club!

The girls surprised us with a rainbow cake (in honor of Baby Rainbow) and all kinds of books for Lily, so she doesn't have to be stuck reading crummy old books all the time. It was really sweet.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, but I snapped this group shot of Lily's first Book Club.

OK, so it's not the best - half the people aren't even looking at the camera. Alright, it's actually a terrible picture. But still. There's sweet Lily, smack-dab in the center!

Happy First Book Club, Lily! I hope that some day you have a book club of your own that you love as much as I love my Book Club!

July 30

It was a gray, gloomy day today - definitely not a good day for picture-taking in my house that already lacks great light.

However, I did catch this one moment of sunshine, right after Daisy woke up from her nap:

The first thing Daisy wanted to do was hold her baby. Lately Daisy has been very camera-shy (read: completely ridiculous about having her picture taken), but when I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her holding her sister all by herself, she shyly whispered, "Yes." She was so proud to be holding her sister, who she loves so much.

Sweet girl.

*sigh*

Will they always love each other like this? Probably not, but I hope in the long-term they do. Meanwhile, I have thoughts of future hypothetical theoretical Baby #4 in the back of my mind, and I'm thinking about Daisy and Lily sharing a bedroom. I wonder if they'd like to share a big bed, like my sisters and I did when we were very young...

But I'll try not to get too far ahead of myself. Right now is special enough as it is!

And Chris just handed me his cell phone; apparently he's been taking pictures of his adventures with the kids all week.  If you've already read previous posts, you may want to look back over the past week (as far back as the 23rd!), because I'm about to update some of them with pictures from Chris' "Daddy Day Camp". It's appropriate that I do it tonight, because today is the last day of Daddy Day Camp. Chris is going in to work tomorrow and Thursday morning (he doesn't dare try going in Friday morning, since it's our 11th wedding anniversary!), which means I'm on my own with three kids. We'll all sorely miss having him home with us, but I suppose someone  has to pay the bills...

It rained overnight, so this morning when Chris took the big kids to visit a new park, they both wore their rain boots. Caleb made friends with another four-year-old who happened to have a soccer ball.

I can only assume that this is my sweet darlings splashing in a puddle. Too cute!

Lily and I were waiting for our family on the front porch when they returned, and we were rewarded with copious amounts of hugs and kisses.

Lily is still everyone's favorite!

Any guesses how long before it takes her novelty to wear off? I'm thinking as soon as Daddy goes back to work and they realize that Lily is taking up most of Mommy's attention and time, they will start to resent her a bit...

Tonight was a rare night that our children ate all of their dinner without fussing, fighting, or complaining, so Chris had time to take them to the lake for a run afterwards.

Though Daisy's avoiding the camera, I'm guessing this was before she fell climbing out of the BOB and scraped her forehead, chin, and knee.

Oh, and skipping rocks at the lake! When they returned, I asked Daisy what she saw. She replied, "Rowboats. We saw rowboats. We did not see any sailing boats!"

I love that she always tells me what she didn't see, or didn't do, or didn't happen, in addition to what did. The girl is definitely thorough!

July 29

After a slow week before Lily's birth, and an even slower week after, our schedule is starting to pick back up. Today, we got to meet Caleb's preschool teacher. He starts school in just two weeks! Luckily, Caleb is really excited to start school, and his teacher seems really nice. It should be a good year!

After Miss Amy left, Chris won "Daddy of the Year" for getting out our Play-Doh basket. I put it away a month or so ago, because the kids wanted to do nothing but play Play-doh all day, every day. I got sick of all the Play-doh mess, so I put things away for a while. It just turned out to be a long while! The kids were thrilled when Chris got the basket down again!

Even Lily got in on the Play-doh fun! Well, not really...

Later, Daisy took another looong nap. While she slept, Caleb snuck in some special snuggle time with his sister. 

He wrapped his arms around her, and said, "I just can't stop loving and snuggling and hugging and kissing her! She's so beautiful!"

I agree, kiddo.

He really loves his Baby Rainbow!

Then Caleb asked Daddy to come have a "family snuggle". They are so sweet!

*sigh*

I hope Lily is always this adored by the men in her life!

July 28

Lots of fun things happen today, but I only managed to take one picture.

Sorry.

We took Lily to church for the first time this morning, and she behaved perfectly. I wore her in the Moby wrap on my chest, and during the 90-minute service, she let out a total of three random squawks. I think that's pretty good for her first time at church!

We napped and nursed all afternoon, and Chris took Caleb up to the top of our street to ride his bike in a flat area. Here are some cell phone pictures Chris took of that:

He's doing pretty well! I think he just about has the pedals and brakes figured out!

Later, a friend from MOPS brought us a delicious meal from our very favorite restaurant, and then my parents stopped by for a surprise visit! We shared leftover birthday cake, and Mom snuggled a very sleepy Lily while Caleb and Daisy competed for Grandma and Grandpa's attention.

It was a pretty good day.

But all you get to see of it is this:

A sweet, snoozing Lily.

We got an Arm's Reach mini co-sleeper for her (don't worry - it was a Craigslist find, at a bargain price!), but she seems to prefer our bed. At this point, I can't say that I mind, but I think in a few months I'll be glad that she has her own room. We're just still using that room, and Daisy is still using the crib.

But since I can't leave you with just one picture, how about some of the pictures that Amber took of Lily the other day? Prepare to die from cuteness overload. (I've left out a few that are on her birth announcement, so you'll just have to wait to see those...)

She's a sleepy one!

(I think this one is my favorite. It's the epitome of a peaceful, perfect baby!)

Isn't she lovely in her little flower headband? Amber made that. She's a woman of many talents.

Oh! Her darling little bottom!

And then we took her outside. She didn't seem to mind the breeze at all!

Oh! Those cheeks! Aren't they darling?

Love this girl!

Amber tried to take pictures of all three kids at the beginning of the photo shoot, but Daisy was being a typical two-year-old. Caleb, however, was eager to have his picture taken with his new baby!

Luckily, just as Amber was getting ready to leave, Daisy decided to cooperate. She's kind of a stinker. (I think she gets it from her mama.) 

But she's so darn cute that I have to overlook her stinker tendencies!

Many thanks to Amber for these priceless photos. With photographer friends like her and Sara, I think I could put my camera away and never take another picture! Don't worry, though... I'll keep at it!

(Also, I love that this post has the full spectrum of photo-quality in it: cell phone pictures, crummy DSLR pictures, and lovely, full-frame DSLR pictures!)

July 27

Today was important for two reasons:

1. It was Chris' 32nd birthday.

2. It was Lily's first bath!

I feel a little bit bad that we waited until she was 8 days old to give her a bath, but she just didn't seem to need one! But during nap time today, Chris decided Lily was ready. Since Chris has given each of our kids their first baths, he gets to be the decider about things like that. Lily actually did pretty well!

No, she's not crying. It's a pre-bath yawn. Apparently she found bathtime preparations to be quite dull.

Ah! Look at that sweet, naked baby!

Chris has his baby-washing technique down pat!

Oops. Lily didn't like the actual washing of her body. Poor thing. But then, they never do. Remember Daisy's first bath?

But just like Daisy, Lily really liked the hair-washing part.

And her favorite part was when Daddy rinsed her hair under the faucet.

There. A clean, happy girl, all bundled up in her towel.

And just for fun...

Caleb after his first bath,

And Daisy after her first bath.

Funny, isn't it? I'm pretty sure Daisy wins for "Most Dramatic"

But the bigger event was Chris' birthday. Having a week-old baby really put a cramp in any festivities we might have had, but Chris didn't seem to mind. I made banana bread the night before, and he fed it to Caleb and Daisy for breakfast, calling it, "Banana birthday cake".

Then he took the older two on a long bike ride.

After naps, they went to the library, the local high school track to run/play in the grass/play in the sand, and then a quick visit to his parents. Here are some cell phone photos Chris took of the kids at the track:

Apparently Caleb tried the long jump today!

Daisy, however, simply enjoyed playing in what she thought was a giant sand box.

For dinner, we splurged and had some pizza from Cecil Whittaker's. They have a gluten-free pizza that the kids can eat as a special treat. Though dinnertime has been really challenging lately (the kids are in the midst of a really picky/uncooperative phase when it comes to dinner), they eagerly ate their pizza and asked for more. Perhaps it was the promise of birthday cake that got them eating...

Yep. I made Chris a real, made-from-boxed-cake-mix, preservative-filled, sugar-filled, chemical-filled birthday cake. And we let the kids eat it, too.

And it was delicious.

Lily was happy to partake in the festivities in any way she could.

Caleb eagerly sang, "Happy Birthday" to his Daddy.

Chris blew out both candles in a single breath!

And Daisy was just delighted by the whole thing.

Happy Birthday to the best husband and Daddy we could have ever hoped for!

(I just headed to bed, and found this. Couldn't help but put it on the blog. He's a good man, that husband of mine!)

July 26

Lily and I got to spend another morning relaxing in the quiet house, because Chris took Caleb and Daisy to the zoo. Daisy reported that her favorite part was the penguins, that they were stinky, and that one jumped into the water and it splashed her! Here are some of Chris' cell phone pictures:

(I'm not sure what Caleb is doing here - perhaps running? Jumping? Narrowly avoiding being hit by that golf cart?)

In the afternoon, Grandmother and Sally came over for a visit! Lily wasted no time making herself comfortable on Grandmother...

She slept like this for thirty minutes. Or maybe it was an hour? I have no idea. All I know is that you are looking at one content little girl!

Later, my friend Jessica and her daughter Stella came over with a delicious meal. This isn't a flattering picture of either Daisy or Stella, but it was so cute. The kids were thrilled to see Stella, and Daisy was adamant that she was going to read Stella a Superman book. It was too funny!

And now Lily is crying, and it seems that Daddy just can't do the trick. Off to work my magic...