July 20

Today we hopped in GREAT Aunt Maggie's van (which may have drawn Chris over to the dark side - the side of minivan owners) and drove to Columbia to celebrate Chris' grandmother's 80th birthday. 

Grandmother's Alzheimer's is progressing; when we saw her a few months ago, her memory seemed to be on a five-minute loop. Now, she will repeat herself every thirty seconds or so. At this point, even her children are strangers to her. But she is healthy, optimistic, and happy.  Though her memory is gone, her personality is mercifully intact. Today we saw that her love for little ones remains strong, and she still has a gift for connecting with children.

She didn't know that Daisy was her great-granddaughter, and every few minutes someone reminded her that Daisy was Daisy Kathleen, after her. But oh, how she adored Daisy! And the adoration was mutual - if Daisy had napped at all today, I'm sure they would have been inseparable. As it was, they played games across the table.

Grandmother, making silly faces at Daisy. Though Daisy looks skeptical here, she soon began laughing.

Chris and Daisy, giggling at Grandmother.

This sweet girl. At first, she only wanted me.

Once she warmed up, though, she spent some quality snuggle time with Caleb. That goofy overbite smile is a sign that he was really, really happy. Do you see how he's wrapped his arm around her and is holding on tight? Do you see her grip on his shirt? This was some serious snuggling. Too sweet!

The birthday girl. Even at 80, she is still lovely.

She also still has her notorious sweet tooth. Her eyes lit up when she saw the birthday cake, and when we said that it was for her, she beamed.

Meanwhile, Daisy's clever Grandmother brought books and toys for the kiddos. You can tell she's a seasoned, professional mom!

Maggie and her oldest, Matt. They are so sweet. I can't even begin to think about Caleb being a grown man some day. But when that day comes, I pray that he will snuggle me like that. (tearing up a bit here...)

Curse this yucky lighting - I really wanted some better pictures from today.

Kathleen; her firstborn, Dan; his firstborn, Chris; and his first- and second-born children. Pretty cool, huh?

July 18

I am a day behind on blog posting because this early-morning boot camp is... well, it's kicking my butt. The exercise is great, and leaving me sore in that wonderful way that only happens when you work hard. But it's the getting up at 5 am part that is rough. I'm sacrificing two full hours of sleep each night to do this boot camp, and I'm not pleasant when I'm tired. Maybe I should start going to bed 45 minutes ago.

Regardless, it was a fun day. I gave the kids home-made biscuits with jelly as part of their breakfast. Daisy likes jelly.

She really likes jelly.

I'm not sure if she actually ate any of the biscuit, or if she just used it as a vehicle for the jelly.

Also, if I didn't know how much she loved jelly, I would seriously wonder if she actually consumed any of it, or if it all ended up on her face, hands, hair, jammies... you name it.

This is what one seriously happy girl looks like.

Now, for a seriously happy boy. 

You wouldn't think a popsicle made of carrot juice and strawberries would make a kid this happy. But it did.

I was smart to let him eat it while wearing his swim trunks. A quick spray-down with the hose and we were good to go! 

And this? 

This is my children playing catch together. Really. It was a totally organic moment: I was sitting at the banquette, reading the paper and drinking my coffee while they played. Then I heard giggling and "Ball. Ball. Ball. BALL!"

I looked up to see my sweet babies playing catch! They actually managed the back and forth tossing for five or six throws before the moment fell apart. 

I was quite impressed. Things like this are good for a mama's heart.

July 17

Caleb had his three-year checkup with the doctor today, but somehow it was this girl who ended up getting poked with a needle.

But before we talk about Daisy, let's talk about Caleb.

He clocked in at 29.7 pounds, which is in the 25th percentile, and 37.75 inches, which is in the 50th percentile.

He passed all of his developmental tests with flying colors - the doctor asked if he was speaking in three to four word sentences, and I just laughed.  She asked him to count to three, and he went ahead and counted to four. (I'm sure he would have kept going, but we were counting wheels on a truck and there were only four.)

She did determine that Caleb is, in fact, tongue-tied, just like Daisy was. Apparently this only happens in 3-10% of children, but both of mine have had it due to strong familial tendencies. Right now, Caleb's bottom teeth form an inverted V because of his short frenulum. Of course we can eventually get braces to straighten out those teeth, but the tongue tie will cause them to continue to pull inward. Later on, he could also develop speech difficulties, neck and jaw pain, other dental issues, or migraines. So. The doctor was willing to address it today (it's a 2-3 minute procedure involving a dental laser), but because Caleb is so cautious and sensitive, I decided to wait a bit to do it. That way we'll have time to talk about it and prep him emotionally for the event. It won't be fun either way, but hopefully he won't be traumatized by it.

And since we were at the doctor's office, I went ahead and weighed Daisy. 

*whomp-whomp-whoooommmmp*

17 pounds, 5.6 ounces.

Two months ago, she was 16 pounds,13.8 ounces.

So in two months, she's gained half a pound. I was excited about that progress, but apparently that's not good. Last time, she was in the 9th percentile, and now she's in the 5th. And those percentiles are based on the World Health Organization's charts, which also include starving Ethiopian babies. Because of that, and some weird diapers she's had lately, and the fact that we still don't see the immunologist for another month, our doctor ordered another round of blood work. This time, she re-tested Daisy's immune response to the pneumococcal vaccine, re-tested Daisy's iron level, tested for celiac disease, and ran a panel of tests that are routine for underweight babies.

Because, you know, my baby is underweight.

Our doc threw around the term "failure to thrive" a few times, until I cried out, "Don't say 'failure to thrive'! She's thriving! She's just skinny!" She agreed that, though clinically appropriate, it was not an accurate term for Daisy's situation. 

I know it's just a term, but sometimes the labels are harder to deal with than the actual situation.

Because this girl is thriving. She rocked her blood work - just whimpered when they stuck her, but didn't cry until they tried to put a band-aid on her arm. Apparently she's not a fan of Scooby Doo.

She may be underweight, but I love her!

July 15

We had a fun Sunday today. Nothing exciting; just fun.

Daisy and Chris stayed home from church, so I got to take Caleb. When we returned home, Caleb was asleep in his car seat and Daisy had just finished napping and was ready to play. No break today!

Luckily, Daisy was content to sit in Caleb's little chair and play with a tissue for a good thirty minutes. Really, "content" is an understatement - she was delighted to play with that tissue.

Balancing it on her foot.

Now it's a hat.

She is so goofy!

Pretending to blow her nose.

She loved that tissue until she had shredded it into a hundred little pieces.

Also, isn't her lopsided, three-toothed smile hilarious? 

When Daisy went down for her nap, Caleb chose to use his watercolors for the first time. They were a birthday gift from Grandma, so he decided that his first painting should go to her.

When he finished painting, he asked me, "Will you hold me?" Thinking he wanted to snuggle, I scooped him up. Then he said, "Will you hold me and take me outside and into the street so I can put this in the mailbox and send it to Grandma?"

I was totally caught off guard by his thought process, which was quite detailed. So even though he didn't want to snuggle, I was pleased with his thoughtfulness.

And as soon as he finished Grandma's painting, he started one for Grandmother.

(I think Grandmother's turned out better, but let's not tell Grandma!)

July 14

Caleb and Daisy took weird naps today, and ended up being done napping much earlier than usual. Since we rarely have afternoon time to play, Chris and I decided to take the kids on an adventure. We loaded them in the car and headed downtown, to Citygarden.

We prepared Caleb by warning him that there would be lots of loud, splashing kids. Things like that make him really uncomfortable, but I've found that he handles it well if he has time to get used to the idea.

He did great.

It helped that there weren't nearly as many loud, splashing children as we anticipated.

They all had so much fun splashing in the fountains!

A lucky mama, I am.

Caleb was particularly fond of the waterfalls.

Though it looks like Daisy is scowling in most of these,  I promise she was having a great time. See how she's kicking her feet and splashing here? She really did love it.

This is one of my favorite recent photos of Caleb. He was doing a little crab walk around the fountain so that his shoulders would be under water. Funny boy.

These aren't the most attractive shots of my girl, but it was so funny. She kept trying to catch the water splashes in her mouth. Every time the fountain soared, she'd lean forward and open her mouth as wide as it would go.

Do you see how Chris is laughing? It was so funny.

See? She's enjoying herself!

She'll have so much more fun here once she's walking.

Sweet darlings!

July 12

This morning we met my mom, Emily, and Max for breakfast. Caleb ate a biscuit with gravy, a scrambled egg, a pancake and a half, three sausage links, fruit, and a glass of milk.

I felt like I had birthed the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Then Mom watched the kids while I went grocery shopping - by myself! When I returned to pick them up, neither child wanted to leave. Caleb kept asking to stay, and Daisy clung to Grandma. I love that my children love both sets of grandparents so much!

After naps, we had an impromptu photo shoot on the front porch.

Caleb was surprisingly cooperative.

These pictures are so him.

Daisy even got in on the photo-shoot action. I put a cute flower clip in her hair, but it only lasted for a few shots.

My girl.

This was when I asked Caleb to stand next to me and make silly faces.

Then he climbed back on the bench, put Daisy in a choke hold wrapped his arm around his sister, and smothered her in kisses.

I love these kiddos.

July 11

After dinner this evening, we all headed out to the driveway to play with one of Caleb's birthday gifts.

Grandmother and Grandad got him a Stomp Rocket, Jr. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever. Caleb loves it. Daisy loves it. Heck, we all love it!

Do you see the look of delight and anticipation on Daisy's face as she prepares for Caleb to stomp the rocket into the air?

Daisy will even scoot up to the stomping pad and try to stomp it with her delicate little feet. It's pretty funny.

Also funny? Watching Caleb's facial expressions as he stomps.

He's so proud of his stomp-age!

This is not even posed. It's an actual action shot of Caleb stomping, and I am laughing out loud as I type this. It's especially funny because every.single.picture I have of him stomping looks like this.

Daisy has made lots of gross-motor progress the past few days! Check this out:

Go, Daisy, go! 

(Well, she's not actually going anywhere yet, but she's gaining confidence and learning to balance.)

She knows she's on a roll, too. Yay, Daisy!