Highly suspicious

Daisy in an unguarded moment

Daisy reminds me a lot of Sebastian as a baby.  She has her own little expressions and mannerisms too, but like Sebby, a lot of the time she seems to find our goings-on slightly alarming.  She gets this alert but suspicious expression on her face, like she thinks we might suddenly cross the line from interesting to unacceptable.  She gives us the feeling she might possibly tolerate what we're doing, but she's not going to approve of it.

Seb

Daisy

Polar bears

note footprints in snow (Abe's idea)

Abe had to make a model of an arctic animal for his first-grade class.  We made a polar bear out of things we had on hand (thus, fwuffballs and a toilet paper tube).  Isn't it cute?  Abe could hardly bear (ha!) to part with it when it was time to turn it in.

Of course the other boys wouldn't be satisfied until they had made a bear too.

We were mostly out of white fwuffballs at that point.
"How will we know he's a polar bear if he's not white?" said Sebby (skeptically).  "Because he IS one,"  I said.  "A rainbow polar bear.  We'll just know."

And we do.

Bunny outfit

My sister-in-law gave Daisy this outfit when she was born, and I've been waiting anxiously till she's big enough to wear it.  Doesn't she look tiny and cute?  I love the little bunny hairclip that came with it!

A real looker

I like these pictures because they capture the bright, eager, interested look Daisy always has when you talk to her or play with her.  She smiles and laughs occasionally, but she never dissolves in guffaws the way the boys would when we'd tickle and nibble them as babies.  Instead she just looks at you alertly, like this:

The picture on the left was taken four months ago, in September, and the one on the right is from today.  Although she has gotten more sturdy and more awake and more purposeful and so forth, her appearance really hasn't changed very much, has it?  She is still tiny, she still has those bright little eyes, and she is still quite bald.  And she still loves her Daddy.

(Here she is about 20 minutes after she was born.  Same penetrating look [slightly sleepier].)

Five Minutes with Malachi

"Hiiiii, Mommy, I found boe-die, mommy, I found boe-die in mine bed!

"I got him!  And he's on my head now, Mommy!!  And he's wooking at my other boe-die an deres two boe-dies wooking at each-other on mine shirt!!  Wook, Mommy!  Two of dem!

"Wook, dese are mine skwip-shures, dese are mine.  Daddy's skwip-shures.  And dey are BWO-ken!  Yes, ARE bwoken Sebby!  I weeding um.  [reads]  And, umm, Jesus was born, umm, Jesus is born and DEN Jesus said wif woud voice, 'Waz-wus!  Come forf!!'  And den dats deh end, Mommy.  Dats all of it.  In skwip-shures.  GOOD JOB!  Dats dee end.

[sings] "Dryyy, bones, Ezekiel saw dem, dryyy bones, gonna waaalk around, and the witches.  [speaks in squeaky witch voice]  Oh mercy, what . . . on . . . earf?  Wun!  Wun!  Stwaddle the bwoom!   [normal voice] Up into dark sky and away . . . dey . . . go!!

"Are you taking a picture, Mommy?  Take picture of boe-die, Mommy.  An my neckwace and mine bwacelets and mine boe-die. 

"I wan see picture, Mommy!  Ohhh!  Goood!  [laughs] Dere's boe-die and mine bwacelets!  Dere he is!!  Um, Mommy?  I wuuuuv you.  Peacause . . . I . . . umm . . . go to canyon aGAIN sometime!  And have campfire!  I don't know, Mommy.  Dats a good pwace.

[silence]

"Woook, Mommy!!  WOOK!  I'm wearing my no-man socks!  See em?  Deres my no-man socks.  I got em for Cwis-mas!  [falling and hopping]  You see my no-mans?  No-man socks?  See?  Take a picture of em.

"Umm, I'm not taking boe-die way downstairs, Mommy.  I'm scawed of de fo-nace!  It's going to get in car and it's scawing me!  I'm scawed of it Mommy!  ["You don't look scared!" I say]  I weally AM scawed of it, Mommy!  An the smoke de-tet-or is going to beep and it scawes me!  But, um, it's fine.  It's fine, Mommy.  Well . . . Mommy . . . I saw backhoe going by, Mommy!  Biiig one out dere!  It's dwiving!  I see it!"  [runs away]

Advanced

I haven't taken many pictures of Daisy lately, which is too bad, because she is SO funny and cute.  But also good, because she seems to have developed stranger anxiety already (I read that it usually doesn't show up till 8-9 months, but it can be earlier.  What an exceptional child!) and the camera counts as a "stranger," apparently.  It's sad, because she laughs and giggles and smiles with us at home, but she keeps bursting into tears when people look at her at church.  And if you hold her facing out, she repeatedly twists around backwards so she can see your face and make sure you haven't changed into a stranger. So enjoy that smile above, because if you see her in person, you will more likely see one of the following expressions:

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In a nest

Ky has been in and out of a high fever (104+) the last few days (better today? so far) and so has been very cuddly and quiet.  I love reading to him and singing to him and cuddling him, and the older boys have been really nice to him.  They like to make him little "nests" where he can snuggle and have all the things he needs close by. :)

Christmas

I made the boys these shirts with their favorite animals on them.  Sam helped design the animals, and I cut out fabric scraps and appliqued them on little T-shirts.  I was pleased with how cute they turned out.

Nativity--other wise man and/or angel absent due to circumstances beyond our control (i.e., Seb's utter refusal to participate) :)

Sebby with Brownie 1 and Brownie 2

In Sebby's stocking, Santa put another monkey just like his old one.  Since we don't really encourage our kids to ask for something from Santa ("He knows what you need better than you do!") I was pleased to hear Seb say, shortly before seeing his stocking, "I just WISH Santa would bring me another Brownie JUST LIKE BROWNIE!"  (The best part of that story is that his Grandma happened to give Seb another monkey---very similar, but bigger, immediately named Brownie 3 but now nicknamed "Bob Monkey" for some reason---and when we were talking today about things we would wish for, Seb said, "I wish I could have another monkey which I would name Brownie 4.")

Four more "gingerbread bears"

We couldn't find any packaged gingerbread men this year (and I didn't think homemade ones would keep all month) so this year we had "gingerbread bears" on our advent calendar.  Note that on the last day before Christmas, EACH boy will get a bear. :)

Also, don't be alarmed, but Daisy is a bunny.  A very cute one.

Abraham had his first-grade Christmas program.  As you can see from the pictures, when one hauls three other wiggly kids to a program, one doesn't wish to sit in the front where one can see (and be seen).  But it was a nice program---his class sang AND DANCED, which I thought was ambitious of his teacher, but it paid off---they did a great job.

1 million cake platters I made for my 1 million sisters-in-law.  Fun.  I love having Christmas projects to work on!

A cute, snuggly family in their cute, snuggly pajamas