May 20

I'm still not quite sure of Daisy's haircut, and I'm terrified to get the scissors back out and fix it. I'm afraid I'll pull a Fibber McGee and she'll end up bald...

We went to church this morning, and now she may have a low-grade fever. Coincidence? You decide.  

Or it could be teeth. I have a feeling she's working on those top two teeth, but she won't let me poke around in her mouth to know for sure.

But she wore this darling dress - a birthday gift from Grandmother - to church today, so it's all worth it. The dress is technically too big, but I love it so much that I have a feeling the girl will still be wearing it when she's Caleb's age. By then it will be a tunic, not a dress. Because really, even if we have more girl babies down the road, it wouldn't feel right to put daisy dresses on a non-Daisy. So Daisy needs to wear the heck out of it.

She gets her eyelashes from her daddy.

It was hot today, so we broke out the swim gear and the water table. Poor Scooty McScooterson can't wear a normal swimsuit because she snags up the bottom with her scooting, so it's board shorts and a rash guard for her. It's probably better in the long run - more sun protection, more modest. Right? 

Did you notice my other concession to the scooting? Leggings. I bought the girl all kinds of sundresses on clearance last summer, imagining her toddling about in them. But sundresses = bare legs = chewed up thighs for my poor girl, so leggings it is. I just need to stock up, because they get dirty/holey/snagged pretty fast.

She'll walk eventually, though. I won't have to put her in leggings forever.

Right?

May 19

Apparently when I don't post on the blog for three days, my mom goes into full-on panic mode. And panic mode is exacerbated when my last post made a passing reference to Daisy having a low-grade fever. By the time Mom got me on the phone, her imagination had Daisy in the hospital and me angry at her for making Daisy sick.

Everything is fine. 

I am just lazy. I may skip a day or two here and there, but everything is fine. There is no need to panic unless I tell you to panic.

Speaking of panic, today I just happened to decide to give Daisy her first hair cut. It was a whim, really. And I did it. I'm still not sure whether it was a good idea or not, but what's done is done.

Here are some before shots:

Her bangs are always in her face because she won't keep a clip in her hair.

And then there's that baby mullet. Those little curls have just started forming, and they're the only thing that made me hesitate about cutting her hair. (Well, that and the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.)

But I did it. I popped her in the Bumbo chair to keep her still, turned the TV on in the hope that it would distract her, took her clothes off, and sprayed her down.

Every time I got ready to make a snip, Daisy stuck her little hands up into her hair. I gave her a spray bottle hoping that it would keep her hands occupied; it didn't work. The TV was worthless, too. It was a disaster.

The end result? It's kind of a little pixie cut.

Clearly she disapproves.

She was very angry about the whole situation.

Poor girl. But it will grow back, and it's already growing on me. Maybe tomorrow I'll work up the guts to tidy it up a bit.

May 16

Today was a beautiful day, so I took my darlings to our neighborhood playground after their afternoon naps. The playground is perfect for Caleb, but Daisy still doesn't have much to do there. Luckily, she's usually happy to play with the mulch. After Caleb had made the playground rounds today, he hobbled over to the spot where I was camped out with Daisy. I looked up and, about to scold, asked why he had removed his shoes. Caleb's response? "I want to be barefoot and play in the mulch like Daisy!"

Oh, boy. That kid already knows how to melt my heart.

These two adore each other. They're happiest playing side by side.

I asked Caleb to tell Daisy a secret. 

He leaned in close and whispered something I couldn't hear. Then he sat up and said, "Mommy! She said she loves me, too!"

I guess his secret was a whispered, "Daisy, I love you."

*sigh*

My girl in a pensive moment. She's had a low fever for the past 24 hours. No other symptoms, and it may very well be better by now.

Yesterday she said her first two-word phrase: "Mama! Ball! Mama ball!"

She had just discovered a little red ball in the grass of the front yard. I'm not sure whether she was excited about her discovery and wanted to share, or if she wanted me to go get the ball for her. Probably a little bit of both?

Also, I don't think I ever shared the results of that dreadful doctor appointment. It turns out that Daisy is fine.  Mildly anemic, but we just need to focus on feeding her iron-rich foods. All of her other labs came back totally normal. The doc will refer us to an immunologist if we want, but I think I'll probably let things be for a while. 

The doc also referred us to First Steps for therapy for Daisy's gross motor delay. A lady came out to the house two days ago to begin our file and give me some information - it seems like a great program! In the next few weeks, a therapist will come to the house and spend two hours with Daisy to evaluate her and determine if she's eligible for the program. She has to have a fifty percent delay to qualify, meaning she'd have to be functioning at the level of a six-month-old. Unfortunately (fortunately?), I don't think her delay is that severe, and I don't have high hopes that she'll qualify. But there's always a chance that the therapist will see something significant enough to push us through, anyway.

So. Daisy is fine. Fine, fine, fine. I may have been a bit dramatic about the whole situation. Sorry to do that to you. Since I'm never dramatic, I'm sure you're surprised. Right???

May 13

Last Mother's Day, I had a four-day-old baby and a not-quite-two-year-old.

It's funny how much difference a year makes!

This year, I still woke at the crack of dawn. But this time, we gathered up the kids and went out to breakfast.

After church, we had a picnic in the backyard.

Then the kids and I all took long naps.

When we woke up, I went to Target by myself and drank a chai tea latte while I shopped.

When I got home, I found that Caleb had colored me a special card, after first peeling the papers off all of his crayons. 

He also demonstrated his bicycling skills.

(Don't let the picture fool you; he was stationary. He has no idea how to make that thing move, and it's much too big for him. But our sidewalk is a gradual downhill, so eventually he rolled a little bit.)

At dinner, my one-year-old revealed that she can totally handle corn on the cob.

(I had cut pieces of corn off for her, but she had no interest in those. She kept grunting and reaching for my grilled corn cob. Finally I gave it to her, and - surprisingly - she did a pretty great job! I'm especially surprised, considering she still only has two bottom teeth and no top teeth!)

Daisy also showed us that she can use a fork. In fact, she prefers to use a fork.

Sometimes she still "helps" the fork with her fingers, though.

Chris grilled us a yummy dinner,

and grilled us s'mores for dessert.

It was Caleb's first s'mores experience. I don't think he fully appreciated it.

Daisy didn't partake, though I did give her a graham cracker to keep her from crying.

Chris surprised me with a special Mother's Day gift: 

an emerald ring to celebrate Daisy's birth! He had it custom made to go with my ruby ring that celebrates Caleb's birth. What a good man I have! It's just a shame that Daisy was born nine days past her due date; if she had come in April, her birthstone would have been diamond. Instead, I'm stuck with Christmas colors. (Ha! I'm completely ridiculous to be complaining about jewelry! Also, we can easily fix the problem by just having a few more children. Then no one will notice the Christmas colors.)

My mommy spoiled me, too. She got me this set of lovely antique crystal dishes. They make my ice-cream eating feel pretty darn fancy!

Happy Mother's Day to me, and to all of the wonderful moms in my life.

May 11

Today was a long day, but so much fun! The kids and I celebrated Mother's Day with my mom and dad at the Botanical Garden where my dad works. Caleb was so excited that the first thing he said when he woke up this morning was, "I want to go to the Pa'tannical Garden!"

At the garden, they're gearing up for a lantern festival that looks a-mazing. Caleb was pretty impressed by this Fu dog.

Here he's too busy showing Grandma all of the fun stuff to smile for a picture.

Caleb and Grandpa chased a bunny (Peter Rabbit, according to Caleb) in the Iris garden.

In the Children's Garden, Daisy discovered Caleb's sunglasses. She grunted and pointed and fussed until I put them on her face.

Then she immediately took them off. What a stinker.

But then she fussed until Grandma put them back on...

and boom! She whipped them right back off again.

Apparently she really wanted to do it all by herself.

I'm pretty sure she was just happy to be playing with Grandma.

Daisy has really mastered the pointing thing. Also, her language is really blossoming. Today she started saying "bird". Her other words right now are hi, bye, mama, dada, cat, dog, eye. She's working really hard to master the "s" sound, and has started mimicking me a lot. What fun!

Soon we discovered the best part of the Children's Garden - the splash pad. 

Only Caleb wouldn't go near it. Three ten-year-olds were playing, and he wanted to wait until the girls left. He was terrified! We tried everything to convince him to try it out, because we knew he would love it. Finally, Caleb said he wanted Grandpa to splash with him.

My dad was downright giddy when Caleb insisted that Grandpa play with him. With the slightest provocation, he became a big kid, splashing and playing with Caleb. Caleb was delighted!

Daisy was fascinated by the water.

She tried desperately to grab it, but was upset when her attempts were successful.

I love this girl.

And this boy. This soaking wet, goofy boy.

I tried putting Daisy down to let her explore the water, but she was completely uninterested. She scooted right back over to me and raised her arms to be held.

Caleb's last request before we left the garden was to see the "wind wheel". Near the wind wheel, we also found some musical instruments. Caleb and Grandpa had a pretty nice jam session! 

I'm not even kidding when I say that I'm pretty sure Caleb managed to somehow play "Chopsticks" on the marimba. It was crazy!

Then we dragged one wet child, one tired child, and one excited grandpa out of the garden to eat lunch. Daisy fell asleep in the car on the way home, but Caleb was wide awake. Luckily, my blessed, blessed mom put him down for his nap. It was only three hours late!

After dinner, Chris and I took the kiddos on our first family bike ride. See? A long, but fun, day.

May 9

I'm so exhausted; it's been a long day.

Around 11:30 this morning, we popped the kids in the car and headed to Columbia to meet with Chris' grandmother and about half of his aunts and uncles. We haven't seen Grandmother in nearly a year, and she has Alzheimers, which is slowly stealing all of her memories.

It was a lovely visit, though. Short, but sweet. The kids slept almost the whole way there, and Daisy slept most of the way back.

Caleb insisted on wearing his "Snazzy Hat", a gift from Aunt Maggie a long time ago. When we arrived in Columbia, the first thing Caleb asked was, "Where's Maggie?"

Ah. There's Maggie! We don't get to see her nearly enough. There's also a Grandmother in this picture, a little bit of Molly, and a hint of Chris. Also, a smidge of Carson. (I think. Or maybe it's Trey. They were wearing matching hoodies.)

Grandmother, with four of her eight children. It's a beautiful family!

Grandmother with Chris and the kiddos. Do you remember that we named Daisy after her? Grandmother's name is Kathleen, and that is Daisy's middle name. Unfortunately, Daisy wouldn't cooperate for pictures, and she definitely wouldn't allow Grandmother to hold her.

 Caleb loved her, though!

When we arrived back home, I asked Caleb about our visit. He said, "I liked that girl."

"Which girl?"

"That old girl."

"You mean Great-Grandmother? You liked Great-Grandmother?"

"Yes. I really liked that old girl."

After lunch and visits, we stopped by a cupcake shop before we hopped back in the car. Why not load the kid up on sugar before a two-hour car ride?

Caleb and Daisy were both delighted by the cupcakes. Daisy is so excited because Chris is about to feed her a sprinkle.

Caleb was thrilled with his cupcake, and contemplated how to eat it for a while before finally making his move.

At last!

Yum!

Delay? What delay? This girl can totally stand... for about ten seconds.

But today she did get to seated on her own! Hooray! 

We meet with the therapists next week.

I know it looks like the car is moving, but I promise it's not. I had Daisy in the back seat so that I could nurse her. She finished eating and was excited to look out the (open) window.

Two hours later... 

We met my family at (yet another) restaurant to celebrate my dad's 59th birthday. Daisy was enthralled with Grandma's phone and the videos on it!