* pix of maisie *

Mommy holding Maisie for the first time.

Daddy holding Maisie for the first time, and finishing her first bottle feed that Mommy started.

Maisie gets her hair washed.

Sweet little sleeper.

Big yawn.

Eyes open.  What a little beauty!!

Our social worker Kim, meeting Maisie.

She's such a tiny little munchkin!

This was Maisie's 'leaving the hospital' outfit...definitely not the cute little flowered one I had brought.  But everything I brought is way too big, except for this sleeper.  It was one that Aunt Marissa had passed along to me in Cauthen's baby items.  I grabbed it at the last minute because I noticed it was a preemie size and thought it could prove helpful.  Helpful, yes! It's the only thing that came close to fitting her.  We stopped by this great consignment store recommended to us and bought her a few preemie/newborn sized onesies and sleepers.  I washed them this morning, so she now has clothing she can wear! 

And lastly, Maisie's favorite sleeping position--one arm by her ear, one across her chest.  She's laying on the baby blanket I crocheted for her.  Glad I made a warm one, it's snowing up here in the mountains.

meet our sweet little maisie!

She is a tiny little peanut at only 5lbs 1oz, and just as cute as can be!  The internet connection here is soooo slow but hopefully tomorrow we will have a faster connection and we will be able to add some close ups of Maisie. 

We arrived at the hospital literally as she was being born and walked into the nursery as they had just wheeled her in.  We have been holding Maisie and snuggling her ever since!  All the paperwork has been signed and she is legally our daughter, though the moment we saw her in our hearts she was our daughter. 

We have quite the exciting tale of why we flew out early and how we finally got here, and I can't wait to write it all down here--quite the recounting of God in the details and sovereign over all!  BUT, a little birdie just told me that somebody filled her diaper.  Duty calls.  :)

how caleb makes his bed in the morning

an heirloom for baby

When Maddie was born, Nana knit her a lovely christening gown, which she wore at her dedication at church.  I had recently pulled it out along with the other baby items to have it ready for our new little girlie's dedication to come.  BUT, I didn't realize that Nana was crocheting me another one! 

 Isn't it lovely?!  I think my favorite part is the 'pineapples' on the end. 

An adorable bonnet to match. The work is so intricate.

 Nana, thank you for another special heirloom!

 And, of course, I just had to reminisce and include Miss Maddie six years ago in her lovely gown and bonnet made by Nana.   

(She was such a cute, pudgy little thing with lovely, dark blue eyes.)

double hat day

For reasons only known within his little boy brain, Bobe decided he wanted to wear his sweatshirt hood AND his hat.

He looked so funny running around out back. When I decided to take his picture, he decided it would be a fun game to run away and try to hide from me so that I couldn't get his picture. I couldn't decide which looked goofier, his front side or his back side.

nature observation: tulips

Two days ago on a lovely sunny day, I took the kids outside to do a nature observation.  We did the backyard tulips that day, and the following morning we did the front yard tulips.

Maddie added a few dandelions in the background.  Maddie's not really into drawing, so I particularly appreciated how she drew the red tulip looking into it.  You can see the detail of the yellow and black-tipped pistils and yellow stamen.

And you gotta love her "twolup" spelling.  :)  This is independent writing for her, so I'm not there helping her spell.

 



This is Caleb's observation of the front yard tulip, which still hadn't bloomed.  He is such a little artist observer.  The bud is green with a pink line right up the center where the petals separate, just like he drew. 

He is so particular with his color choice as well.  You can see at the very bottom where he was testing colors to make sure he got just the right one. Our mulch in the front is a faded black mulch, so he added a little blue in as the plain black was too dark for him.

Caleb wrote all by himself, with me spelling for him as he really can't spell anything right now.  This was one of his first times writing sentences in cursive.  He did so well!

 I sat down with them and did my own observation.  I pulled out my ancient acrylics, which I don't think I have touched since before Caleb was born.

My background is too heavy and leaves much to be desired, but if I am still hanging around for another few days waiting for our phone call, I think I'm going to re-tackle it and see if I can improve it!

tulip fish, anyone?

Mommy, can sometime we haff tulip fish?
Tulip fish? What's tulip fish?
TOO-LIP FISH. You made it.
When did I make it?
Not now. You made it a diffwent time.
I made the tulip fish?
Yeah, a diffwent time. You made it like a, like a hundwed years before. Like a hundwed, no a thooousand years before.
Oh...hmmm...so it was fish that I cooked?
No. It comes in a wittle fing. (shaping hands)
OH! Tuna fish!
Yeah. Can you make it some time?

still waiting

Our birthmother was 2 cm dilated last week and getting sporadic contractions. Tuesday afternoon the social worker called us to let us know that she is 4 cm dilated and of course still getting contractions. Needless to say, we are so antsy!

We almost just up and flew out early Wednesday morning, because we know that if we get a call that she is in labor, it is highly unlikely we will arrive in her state in time for the birth (we've got a 6-7 hr plane trip). But the case worker and social worker said that this doctor won't do anything to bring on her labor because according to him she is early (according to her original doctor she is due now). In light of that, they said we could be waiting for days.

So here we still are at home, staying up a little later every night just hoping for a call, packed as much as we can be. Even the kids are on edge. For two days, Caleb has been saying, "Mommy, I just want you to goooo." Hopefully soon!

progress

It's so easy in the day-to-day monotony of school to forget where we came from. Today as I looked at Caleb's worksheet, it kind of hit me. Wow, we've come a long way this year.

At the beginning of the year, it required a fair amount of effort on both our parts for Caleb to complete ONE worksheet, and even then it was only worksheets of numbers because he wasn't interested in anything else. He still didn't know all his letters, not to mention the sounds, and could only write a few print letters.

Now, here we are coming to the end of the school year and Caleb can complete a worksheet like this by himself in just a few minutes. He is learning cursive wonderfully. He regularly does 3 or 4 worksheets every morning as a part of school (and actually likes doing them). Caleb knows all his letters and is reading. And his love for numbers has only grown!

It has been a good year; God has been faithful.

caleb's card

Caleb decided to make a card for one of his babysitters. I helped him spell, but the words were his own. Maddie declared the flower to be "so good I thought you drew it, Mommy!" And as you can see, Caleb decorated it with his beloved numbers. He is SOOOO into numbers, my goodness!

celebrate good times, come on!

Just last week we got the good news that Maddie's underbite is fixed and she no longer has to wear her chin cup contraption every night!! Our orthodontist will still monitor her to make sure her jaw stays put, and there's always the off-chance that she'll have to wear the chin-cup again, but for now she's done. Hooray!

For her celebration, she had wanted to go to our favorite ice cream joint, but the weather got SO freezing cold that the thought of eating ice cream outside was so not appealing. So, on to Plan B it was. Maddie's friend Lauren came over to play, and while she was here we had homemade chocolate ice cream cones with rainbow sprinkles on top. Yum!!

conversation while coming down the stairs

C: Stinkypants!
M: Don't call me Stinkypants.
C: I didn't call you Stinkypants.
M: Yes, you did. Don't call me Stinkypants.
C: I DIDN'T call you Stinkypants.
M: Yes, you did! Don't call me Stinkypants.
C: I DIDN'T call you Stinkypants!
M: Yes, you did! I heard you! Don't call me Stinkypants.
C: I DIDN'T call you Stinkypants! I said it to the wall!

let's go fly a kite!

The past two days it's been pretty windy here, so the kids have been flying "kites" --ahem-- plastic grocery bags on strings. This was completely Maddie's idea, and I have no idea where she got it from. But she had me tie string to the handles of a plastic grocery bag to make her kite. She's been having so much fun with it, Caleb had me make him one today too.

So where are my kids? Oh, just out back playing with trashbags. :)

How is it...?

How is it that Baby has more shoes than Maddie and Caleb combined? (And we haven't bought a single new pair.)