My cousin, Danielle, had had a baby wayyyy back in April (ummm, how is it already June??) and we’ve been lucky enough to meet up with her a few times to get some sweet time with Baby Makena. Makena arrived with the fullest head of hair that I’ve ever seen on a baby and she doesn’t seem to have any plans on losing it. A couple weeks after Makena was born we met up at my grandparent’s house and both Audrey and Makena took turns napping, with Makena sleeping through all the photos I took of her that day.
While we were in Anacortes last week, Danielle and Nancy came up and we met up at Midge’s house for a few hours. Between the two dogs, two babies, toddler, and all the fidgeting from us adults, it was a busy couple hours, but a day that I’m thankful happened. We gave Audrey a bath in the middle of the living room, because she has been such a splashing machine these days, but she just soaked in the tub looking at us like we were nutso for giving her a bath in the middle of the room. When Maggie pulled the drain, I realized that Audrey was probably right and we were probably a little bit nuts with that idea.
Most of all, it was fun to have two sets of four generations of women in one room. I regret that I didn’t set up my camera to get a picture of all of us….next time. Enjoy the pictures from these two days.
1. DANCING. Maggie loves to dance and her day is spent singing and dancing from start to finish. One of her very favorite things to do is play music off her “companio” and dance around the living room. This morning, while Audrey entertained herself in the swing for a few minutes, Maggie twirled around the room with New Baby ‘putting on a show’ for her sister. At times Audrey watches Maggie like a hawk, but today she was more interested in her reflection. Maggie didn’t seem to notice and boogied on down in her undies.
2. SMILES, BREASTFEEDING & READING. The cooing and smiles have officially begun. Audrey has started to find her voice and makes the sweetest cooing noises at us and if we’re super lucky she flashes us a smile. I have yet to capture a full-fledged smile on film yet, but at the rate she dishes them out, it won’t be long. Most often while I’m feeding Audrey, Maggie and I will read a book together. This way we’re both engaged and can share in Audrey’s sweet smiles and Audrey gets to hear the story as well. This also means that Maggie gets read to throughout the day without a doubt. I love that she loves to read and finding her reading on her own in random places, like the kitchen, just reinforces the fact that no matter what I’m doing or where I’m at….reading with my children should always be a priority.
AND Maggie announced that New Baby was crying and needed some milky. So, she proudly nursed her….standing up. I can’t say I’ve nursed standing up, so it was funny to see Maggie’s smug face nurse her baby through her shirt. Wearing her tiara, also something I’ve never done while nursing.
3. MY PEEPS. Chaya came over today with her dog Jack. She didn’t just come over, she found us on our morning walk and joined us for the tale end of it. We also went to visit my former Kinder students a couple days ago to introduce Audrey and check in. It was really great, except for the fact that Maggie’s nose was running like a leaky faucet. The kids were doing Centers while we were there and Maggie joined in and was on task just like a proper Kindergarten student would be. She’ll be SO ready to start preschool in the fall and seeing her in a classroom setting reminded me of that. BUT, it was great to see so many of my teacher friends and touch base with them. I wish that I could teach and have my babies with me, but I don’t think that’d work out when my babies start screaming and the students actually need their teacher. A couple funny things happened:
a.) Kids shouted “I like your baby” at me more than once.
b.) Maggie was straight-up rude to some of my friends because she was beyond ready to go and I made her stay longer than I probably should have. The only reason it was funny? I’d never seen that part of her personality…maybe I’ll blame it on her cold, but she wore her ultimate grumpy face and marched out the door looking for our car announcing she was ready to go.
c.) When we made it to T-Diddy’s room, we walked in to discover all the students wearing party hats. For some reason Mags took this as a good reason to walk from table to table checking in. I was halfway expecting her to stay close to me, but she quietly made her rounds with those big 4th graders staring at her while I talked to Tamara.
Chaya’s sticker is a special one made by Maggie. If you come to visit, be prepared to get a sticker of the letter your name starts with.
