Sweet Nothings

Although this week was fairly quiet, we did have some exciting moments toward the end. The middle of the week was spent dealing with sick people--Dan, Andrew, and my dad all came down with some kind of cold. Luckily, Andrew's was pretty mild, and luckier still, we managed to keep him away from Evelyn, who stayed healthy. Since we couldn't go anywhere or have people over while Andrew was sick, I was forced to fall back on my unused creativity skills to keep Andrew occupied (otherwise he has a bad habit of occupying himself--usually with things you'd prefer he didn't do). My best brainchild was to let Andrew play with sudsy water in the kitchen, and he spent a glorious ten or fifteen minutes emptying water and suds from one container to the next until all the water was gone (spreading in pools across the floor, despite my use of towels).

On Thursday we joined my sister and her kids at IHOP for lunch. Fortunately, my mom was able to join us, or we would have been a little overwhelmed with kids. Jacob was more than usually energetic, and Andrew didn't seem to be able to sit still to save his life. Enoch, who was the birthday child of the day, was angelic and Emi was pretty good too, or we would have been in trouble. Enoch was particularly excited by the free sundae they brought him (or it might just have been that he finally noticed Evelyn, who was being held by my mom at the time) and beamed seraphically. The kids were pretty good when the food finally arrived--Andrew demolished most of the food on his plate and some of the food on mine. With her usual impeccable sense of timing, Evelyn woke up just as the food arrived, which meant that my food was mostly cold by the time I got a chance to eat it, and cold eggs--particularly restaurant chain eggs--aren't exactly my favorite. But it was nice to get out of the house for a change.

Friday morning we (my mom and I) braved the mall to take Andrew and Evelyn for a photo shoot. Thank heavens for mothers--after a few obligatory shots of the siblings, my mom took Andrew to the food court and fed him, bringing him back after the shoot was done and I had selected our photos. For most of the photo shoot, then, I just had to deal with Evelyn. I'd forgotten how very unphotogenic most babies are at six weeks--I suppose I had hoped that someone with a better camera than I would be able to take better pictures, but that wasn't really the case. Andrew looked good in all his pictures, despite being a pill up until the camera flashed, but poor Evelyn just looked dazed and confused by the flash. As a result, most of her pictures featured hugely open eyes and fat cheeks as a prominent feature. (Dan said she looked a little bit like E.T.). I don't really want to post a link to the pictures here, but if you're really interested in seeing pictures, send me an email and I'll send you the link.

Today, Dan's sister and her family came for a visit. They'd attended a neighboring ward, since Aaron's uncle was speaking in that ward, and stopped by our place for dinner. Dan made a smashing dinner of macaroni and cheese ala Alton Browne (for you Food Network fans out there). The grownups all seemed to enjoy it, but the kids were put off by the fact that it had *gasp* onions in it. And Japanese bread crumbs on top of it. They seemed to like my dessert better (hyped up blonde brownies with peanut butter chips, craisins, and walnuts in addition to the usual chocolate chips). As usual, Andrew immediately attached himself to Katie. It was funny to listen to him trying to boss her around (she's almost two years older than he is): "Katie, go down the stairs like this! Bump, bump, bump down the stairs!" "Katie, come play trains!" "Katie, put the pony right here!" And so on. I love this picture of Katie, as she looks particularly disgruntled with Andrew's trying to take over her pony operations.


Lydia seemed to enjoy puttering around by herself getting into whatever took her fancy.


Sarah and Jake were more interested in the baby than anything else. Here you can see how sweet Lydia looked while Sarah was holding her.

Jake particularly enjoyed holding Evelyn. This is a bad picture, but he was just beaming most of the time he held her. (Incidentally, for better pictures of the afternoon, try checking the Wells family blog--link at left. Sarah took several pictures and since they couldn't have been worse than some of the ones I got, which, needless to say, did not appear on the blog, you might want to see them).

Nap time?

Yesterday, Andrew point-blank refused to take his nap. Between 1:30 and 3:00 (when we finally gave up), he got up out of his bed approximately 15 times. The first two times were legitimate reasons: first, he claimed that his diaper was too wet. So I changed him. Then, about two minutes later he was out of his room again claiming to have a poopy diaper. Inspection proved this to be unfortunately only too true, so I changed him again. (We really need to potty train this boy!) Dan thinks that maybe this set the trend for the next hour or so, and Andrew found the freedom of getting up more intoxicating than the bliss of sleeping. I'm hoping this was only a temporary blip and not the beginning of the end of naptime. At any rate, we were both rather frustrated with Andrew at the end of this time (Dan more than me, since I'd gotten to take a nap between times). So we told Andrew that, because he had refused to nap, he had forfeited some things: treats, going outside, and playing on the computer. This declaration had rather comic consequences, since, approximately ten minutes later, while I was on the computer checking email, Andrew came up to me and said, "Mommy, go to pbskids." (Yes, Andrew has discovered the joys of online gaming--so far limited to pbskids.org and Fischer-price's alphabet game. Andrew doesn't know yet that most of the games he likes are actually "educational." I think this--and his penchance for Super Why on TV--are responsible for the fact that, at 2.5, Andrew can recognize all of his upper-case letters. According to a developmental chart on the PBS website, not that many two year olds can do this. Not that we're bragging or anything.) At any rate, I had to tell Andrew that he couldn't play computer games because he hadn't taken a nap. So Andrew announced, "I need to take a nap!" He raced into his room, climbed in his bed, and then emerged about thirty seconds later saying triumphantly that he had napped and was ready to play games. Hardly. Dan and I both laughed, and then explained that he hadn't been in his room long enough to sleep, so that didn't count as a nap. Undeterred, Andrew proceeded to repeat this routine five or six times during the afternoon--specifically, every time we told him he a) couldn't play computer games or b) couldn't go outside, because he hadn't napped. He is a pretty funny kid.

Summer

Although the summer solstice wasn't technically until just a couple days ago, it's felt like summer in Provo for some time, with temperatures in the nineties most of this week. This has also meant that Andrew has been reveling in one of his favorite pastimes--getting wet! Although my mom put the sprinklers on for him once or twice, it was quickly apparent that all Andrew needs is a bucket of water, some shovels, and his little plastic water pot, to be perfectly content. My mom also has a modified sort of water gun that shoots water a great distance that Andrew seems to like (although he's more often the victim of said water gun than the wielder). One day, while we were sequestered in the basement so I could nurse Evelyn, I suggested to Andrew that maybe we could go outside as soon as I was done and play in the water. The next thing I knew, Andrew had disappeared. Shortly thereafter my mom came downstairs, looking for Andrew's swim trunks. Apparently, Andrew hadn't understood the *later* part of my suggestion, and had immediately gone to find grandma to enact the plan. (Incidentally, this is one of the few disadvantages to living with your parents--in a house much bigger than the apartment we used to have, Andrew is quite adept at disappearing upstairs while I'm stuck in a chair nursing.) I was able to get some fun pictures of Andrew having a water fight with grandma--this first one is, I think, my favorite. I love the bright colors and the expression of delight on Andrew's face as he gets blasted by water.






Andrew's gotten quite creative at entertaining himself while I'm chair-bound with Evelyn. One day, after putting Evelyn in her bassinet, I turned around to find that Andrew had pulled all the blankets and pillows off of our bed to make a little nest for himself (he was rather pleased with himself). And I've more or less given up trying to monitor Andrew's milk intake (we used to give him his sippy cup with milk only at meals and just before bed) since Andrew can now open the fridge and help himself at will when I'm nursing. (We could, I suppose, try a lock on the fridge, but those haven't been very good at deterring Andrew in the past!)


Most of the week has, of course, been pretty quiet. Yesterday we went up to Salt Lake with my parents to visit my brother Jared and his family. I was surprised at how much Brielle (now one) seems to have grown, but most of that is probably just my shifting perspective due to Evelyn. Brielle was once one of the babies in the family (an honor she shared with Enoch), but Evelyn is now clearly the owner of the baby title. Brielle was pretty fascinated by Evelyn--while Evelyn was sleeping in her car seat on the floor, Jared kept having to reroute Brielle, or she'd be right up in the car seat trying to touch the baby. Jared finally moved the car seat to a more remote spot (i.e., the counter). I was also struck by how much Andrew and Joshua look like each other--of the Collings' cousins, they are the ones who are most clearly related, I think. Of course, in this case, the resemblance was heightened because both had short haircuts and both were wearing blue and gray sporting outfits (see Andrew's Penn State uniform--bought for a dollar or two at a yard sale--below).

And of course, we've been enjoying spending time with Evelyn. She still sleeps most of the time when she's not eating, but she's started having more wakeful periods. For a while, those periods were occurring about 4 or so in the afternoon, which was nice for socializing. But lately, she's decided to be awake about 2 in the morning, which is definitely less than delightful! The last two days she's mercifully decided to sleep, but she seems to be going through a growth spurt and wanting to eat every two hours (so I'm up at 12, 2, 4, 6 . . .). I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a phase and she'll grow out of it. Aside from that, however, she is a good baby and a sweet little girl.




Today was also a day for some unaccustomed visitors: my cousin Laurianne (sp?) on my mom's side came to church with us (she was in town for a wedding), and another cousin on my mom's side, Sasha, came to dinner with us (she's in town for EFY). Today was also our first day for quail chick sightings--there are usually several pairs of quail that live in our cul-de-sac during the year, and we've been waiting for some time to see the babies. We think there were close to a dozen chicks running around in the shrubbery in our backyard this afternoon. They're only about two inches long, and they're darling. They move amazingly quickly, too. I feel strangely protective when I see them--I think it must be a muted manifestation of the mother instinct.

Happy Father's Day

We want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the fathers among our readers--particularly Grandpa and Poppy. Andrew was given a cute little fake dollar bill with his picture on it from the nursery leader as we were leaving sacrament meeting (in a desperate hunt for a bathroom to change Andrew, but that's another story). This dollar bill was supposed to be a father's day gift for Dan. Instead (possibly confused by his own picture on the bill), Andrew insisted that the dollar was his, and gave Dan the other piece of paper the nursery leader had given him--a piece of bread that said "taste" and "smell" on it. I'm sure Dan was thrilled with that father's day present!

(This is a close-up picture I took of Evelyn while I was holding her--maybe I was a little too close!)
Our week has been pretty quiet. Grandma and grandpa finally returned Thursday morning after spending the night in the Denver airport--we were happy to see them, but probably not half so happy as they were to be back and to sleep in their own beds. Thursday night I dragged my mom out of the house (our pretext was that we needed to keep my mom awake so that she could go to bed at a reasonable hour) and took her to Gymboree, where they were doing a promotional where you could get a card upon entering the store that would give you a discount on your purchase. Of course, we had to go to both of the Gymboree stores in the Provo/Orem area and managed to spend money at both of them . . . actually, I should say that my mom got to spend money at both of them--I quite enjoy vicarious shopping, particularly when I get to help spend other people's money! At any rate, she should have some well-dressed grandkids this fall and next summer.

On Saturday Jeni and her family came over for lunch. The kids enjoyed running around with each other and the grownups (mostly) enjoyed chatting . . . that is, I had fun talking to my sister. I'm not really sure what Dan and Samuel did--probably ran interference with the kids while we chatted. Jeni's kids were particularly excited about seeing, and holding, Evelyn. And I have to admit that they were rather sweet about it. Even Enoch was fascinated by his baby cousin--when Jeni held Evelyn, he kept trying to reach up and touch her (Evelyn). As I write this, I'm struck by my family's fascination with certain letters of the alphabet in our children's names. Among the oldest grandkids, we have Jacob, Julia, and Joshua. And in the second round of grandkids, we have Emi (Emilia), Eli (Elizabeth), Enoch and Evelyn. Andrew and Brielle are the only grandkids with a letter to themselves, although when Catherine (or is it Kathryn? Or Katherine?) makes her debut this fall, there will doubtless be another one.

(If you look very closely at this picture here, you can see Evelyn's dimple.)



In closing, we bring you some funny "Andrew-isms" for the week. After my dad got home on Thursday, he was giving Andrew a hard time and told Andrew that what he really missed was some "Andrew-snacks." Andrew, in perfect earnestness, told my dad, "Grandpa, no Andrew snacks! You can have Andrew loves, but no snacks." And then he gave my dad a hug.

Tonight, at dinner, I tried to convince Andrew to eat a little bit of broccoli. As per usual, he refused. This time, however, he explained, "When I get bigger I will eat broccoli. But I'm just a little boy, I'm too little to eat broccoli."

Also tonight, while Dan talked to his mom on the phone about the impending visits of Bootie and Laurie, Andrew said, "I don't want to see Bootie. I want to see Laurie." (Sorry about that, Matt!)

I love this progression of pictures--Andrew gives Evelyn a hug, and she seems to tolerate him. So Andrew gives her an even tighter love, and poor Evelyn looks like she needs someone to rescue her.

Happy Birthday Poppy!

In honor of Poppy's birthday today, we have yet another lovely video of Andrew singing "Happy Birthday" (sort of). We hope that Poppy at least enjoys it!

Check up

Evelyn went to the doctor's again for what was technically a two-week follow-up visit after her release from the hospital. I was delighted to have the doctor (well, technically the doctor's scale) confirm what we've already been suspecting: Evelyn is indeed growing. In fact, at her last check-up two weeks ago, she weighed 5 lbs 9 oz, not much more than she had at birth. This time around, she was 7 lbs 9 oz, which means she's put on two pounds in two weeks. She's also nearly two inches longer than she was at birth, at 19 3/4 inches. All of this puts her in the 6th percentile (height) and 8th percentile (weight)--although, this is compared to term babies at one month of age. For a newborn (which is technically what she should be), these stats are pretty respectable. However, after Andrew, who was 50th percentile at birth and in the 90th percentile for every check-up thereafter, this is a bit of a change. Anyway, it's nice to see that she's finally growing out of the preemie clothes she's been wearing.

One month and counting

It continually bemuses me to reflect that, if Evelyn had gone to term, I might be in the hospital right now having her (she was due tomorrow, after all). And I wonder if, had this happened, she would look like she does now, or if breast milk somehow stimulates growth more (or less) than being nourished by a placenta. A moot point, as it turns out, since she *was* born exactly one month ago today (happy one-month birthday!), and unless I suddenly develop the ability to explore an alternate universe, I'll never know what would have happened if things had turned out differently. I think, on the whole, I'm okay with how things did turn out. Of course, the hospital stay was not the most fun thing we could have done, but it did give me a chance to recover physically from delivery before taking on the other challenges of mothering a newborn.

And a toddler. It's becoming clear to me that poor Andrew (although he doesn't complain) is suffering a little from our relative confinement. I try to take him outside on days that the weather cooperates, but since Evelyn either has to come with us or we have to stay in the yard where I can hear the monitor, our options are pretty limited. Yesterday we went for a walk to a park just down the hill from where we live (Lion's Park, maintained by the Provo Lion's Club, but which Andrew insists on calling the lion park). This is a perfect toddler park--there's really nothing there that's too big for Andrew to tackle, so I don't have to worry to much about letting him go on the playground. Yesterday, there was another little boy just about Andrew's age who was at the park with his dad, and he and Andrew began to play together at once. (My mom reminds me that Andrew is a very social little boy. This is true, although I'm not sure where he gets it from, since neither Dan nor I are the most social people). They were entertained for a good ten minutes by dumping wood chips on the end of one of the slides. I have to admit that I was quite entertained watching Andrew's attempts to direct (read: boss) the other little boy: "Come up the stairs, boy, and come with me through the tunnel," etc. And I loved the sheer delight Andrew took in running, running, running around the playground in unending circles. (It's a good thing he didn't expect me to go with him!). At the very end of our stay at the park, Andrew discovered a puddle of water in the grass and despite my pleas to stay out of the water (I suppose he knew that there wasn't much I could do to stop him, since I had Evelyn strapped in a sling on my chest and couldn't run very well), he proceeded to tromp happily through the puddle four or five times--until his shorts were so soggy with splashing that they started to slide off his bum. At that point, he simply stepped out of his shorts and ran around in his diaper (I wish I had pictures!), and I announced that it was time to go home.

We had another adventure today, although not an entirely pleasant one. While we were playing in the backyard this morning, I saw my neighbor's granddaughter (who's about four) wandering in their backyard. I kept waiting for a grownup to appear with her, but none did. She kept sidling closer to us and finally struck up a conversation, at which point I asked her if her grandmother/mother/father knew she was outside. She responded "no" to all of them. She also told me (if I followed her, which I'm not sure I did), that her grandpa wasn't home, her mom and dad had gone somewhere, and her grandma had gone to girl's camp and would be back "in four minutes." When I asked if anyone else was home, she said that her little brother was asleep inside. Andrew took our conversation as permission to go play in their backyard, so I followed him. While the two of them played, I tried to figure out what to do. I didn't really want to stay outside and play--Evelyn was going to want to eat any minute, and Andrew was playing in their open sand-pit (a natural kitty-litter box if ever I saw one)--but I also didn't want to leave this little girl outside unchaperoned. And I also didn't know if anyone else was home, although I know my neighbors and they're not irresponsible people. Finally, I convinced both kids to follow me and we went and rang the doorbell. No one answered. I started to worry a little more at this point. I took the kids back to our house and fed them a snack (calling the neighbors and leaving a message that I'd done so). Then, I took the little girl back over to her house. She took us upstairs to show us where her little brother was sleeping. Along the way, I saw no evidence of any grown-ups in residence. Feeling rather guilty for not staying (but also needing to go home and feed my daughter), I told her to stay inside with her little brother, but to come over to our house if she needed any help. Once I got home, I tried again to figure out what my responsibility was in a situation like this. If there really were no grown-ups home, then I probably shouldn't leave a four-year old and a toddler home alone--but at the same time, it wasn't really my responsibility and I did need to go home to attend to my own children . . . Anyway, once I got settled in and started nursing Evelyn, I called back and was enormously relieved when the girl's mother (and a childhood friend of mine) answered. Apparently, she'd been home the entire time, but had been putting the little brother down for a nap and had no idea that her daughter had left the house. I'm guessing they'll be having a nice talk about "stranger danger" and leaving the house unchaperoned. I know that I'm pretty innocuous, but it scares me a bit to think that it could have been anyone to find this little girl outside by herself . . . especially since all the neighbors have decided to replace their fences and so the back-yard isn't exactly fenced in. Remind me to have a similar conversation with Andrew!

More Evelyn

We don't have much to report--we were very grateful for the arrival of the weekend and Dan's full time presence at home. This meant that Andrew was finally able to get out of the house and go to the park, and that I was able to get a little more sleep.

Andrew and I stayed home from church today with Evelyn (I got to go to Sacrament meeting last week--this week was Dan's turn). Since we're trying to cut down on Evelyn's contact with germs, we've decided to keep Andrew out of nursery for a couple more weeks. I don't think Andrew enjoys this much, as nursery is undoubtedly his favorite part of church. In Dan's absence, I tried to have a mini-lesson with Andrew on Jesus and some of the things he did for us--and while I had a few tender moments, Andrew seemed mostly bored. Oh well, some day . . .
Tonight, after I finished nursing Evelyn (and while Dan was putting Andrew down for a nap), Evelyn seemed unusually alert (usually she's pretty much passed out on milk when she's done eating), so I tried staging a photo shoot of sorts. Apparently, I'm not a very good photographer (for one thing, I haven't figured out how to turn the flash off, and we've had the camera for five months). I certainly can't blame the subject, since she's pretty cute (for a newborn).







While there's undoubtedly a family resemblance between Evelyn and Andrew, she's also starting to become her own little person. Just for fun (and nostalgia's sake), I've included some shots of Andrew at about the same age, so you can better see the similarities (and the differences). I loved the little reindeer costume we got for Andrew (totally frivolous, of course), even if Dan was disgusted by it (and took a rather perverse pleasure in Andrew's clear disapproval of the costume).


Finally, more evidence of an afternoon well-spent, although I don't think Andrew's going to be recruited by any professional soccer teams any time soon. He's got the concept of kicking down okay, but he needs to review some of the rules (no hands?) and work on his attention span.

Back to reality . . .

This week has been pretty quiet--we've mostly been learning how to juggle our schedules around the peculiar demands of a newborn. I think that honestly Andrew probably suffers the most (although he probably wouldn't know it), he tends to watch a lot more TV while mommy feeds the baby (or tries to get a little more sleep--thank goodness for PBS in the mornings! Andrew will sit quite contentedly by me in the bed while I sleep through his shows). We're also learning to cope without the generous help of my parents, since, as of yesterday, they've been out of state, having been roped in at the last minute to help grade AP Statistics exams in Nebraska, or wherever it is that the exams get graded. (They'd initially said they couldn't do it, because the exams were too close to my due date, but, since Evelyn came early, and one of their good friends is in charge of the exams this year and needed more help . . .)

As you can see, Evelyn is slowly starting to put on weight--she's taking on the classic traits of Collings' family babies--big eyes and bulldog jowls. (Dan says our kids follow the same theme: fat cheeks.) Since we don't really have a lot to say about what we've been doing (mostly we don't leave the house, or if we do, we don't go far. Well, except for Dan who goes to and from work), we're compensating with lots of pictures. We figure most of our readers would prefer it that way anyway.

Evelyn in her bath (the NICU nurses bathe babies in their blankets, because it keeps them warmer, so we've adapted that practice with towels). She doesn't seem to mind the bath, but she *hates* being naked and cries whenever she's fully exposed.



As you can see, she's progressively more content post-bath.

Andrew remains fascinated by his baby sister and likes to hold her whenever he gets. (If he looks like he has a little facial hair in this photo, it's probably the combination of the marshmallow he had just eaten and whatever dark material he rubbed his face on after that.)

Evelyn doesn't seem quite so enthralled with the holding process. In fact, here she looks distinctly alarmed, with her little hand held out as if for help and her eyes nearly as wide as they'll go.

We gave both Evelyn and Andrew baths tonight, and they looked particularly sweet together after the bath. (We've included a video at the end of the post of Andrew offering to "burp" Evelyn while he was holding her).

I'm starting to think maybe we need to find Andrew more little boys to play with--whenever he goes to visit his cousins (Sarah's kids and Jeni's kids), he winds up wearing some sort of feminine attire: shoes, dresses, skirts, floral hairpieces, you name it. Of course, in most cases he's following the lead of his older girl cousins. And here, at least, he's tempered the feminine look of Emi's tinkerbell costume by carrying a sword and a whisk (what he hopes to do with both those instruments, I have no idea). Maybe next time we need to find him a cousin with some trucks and cowboy costumes . . .

Since, for some reason, the flash on our camera always seems to capture strange expressions on Evelyn's face, while never capturing exactly the way she typically appears to us, we decided to try a video. Not a very exciting video, since of course she doesn't do anything but blink and wave her hands around in that delicate, tentative way that newborns have, but we figured the grandparents at least might enjoy it. And of course, Andrew has to get in on the action.

(Count how many times Andrew asks Evelyn, "Evelyn, are you burping?")

Alliterative Andrew

I was proud to discover today that Andrew may have inherited some of my penchant for words. He was holding Evelyn and asked me about a burp cloth I had just picked up. I explained what it was for, and then, looking thoughtful, Andrew responded, "big boys have burp cloths to burp babies." A rather nice piece of alliteration for an almost two and a half year old.

After a fairly uneventful week (from Andrew's point of view, anyway--who wants to stay home all the time?), Andrew finally got to go out and play this weekend. Dan took Andrew to Salt Lake on Saturday for a joint celebration of Teddy Eves' baby blessing and his big brother Jasper's birthday celebtation. Since Evelyn is under doctor's orders not to go out in public or to large gatherings for at least another month, she and I stayed home. Dan and I both had some illusion that I'd be able to get more sleep if Andrew wasn't around. I did get a little bit of sleep, but not as much as I'd expected--Evelyn decided that she needed to make up for lost time by eating every two hours most of the day (and since a feeding takes her a good 30-45 minutes, that didn't leave much time before she started over again). At least it was quiet!

Dan and Andrew stopped at Sarah's place for most of the morning, since the festivities weren't scheduled to start until 4 pm. Andrew immediately headed off to find Katie and lost no time in embracing his inner "princess." I think the pink sunglasses are a particularly nice touch.


The group had lunch at Red Robin where, from all accounts, everyone acquitted him or herself well, and Andrew demolished a plate of macaroni and cheese.

After naps, they headed to Jason and Liza's house for the planned bash. The event was well attended and Andrew enjoyed himself running around with all the kids. Dan says it was the first time he'd seen his cousin Dave in about ten years, and the first time he'd seen all of Uncle Phil's kids together in five years (the last time being, we think, at our wedding). All in all, a nice reunion for the family. (Sarah reports that Dan got to enjoy his visit with his cousin in part because she got saddled with the babysitting of Andrew--but she didn't seem to mind too much!) They arrived home a little past bedtime, tired, but clearly pleased with themselves. I could tell Andrew had enjoyed himself since the remnants of his last several meals had left tell tale marks around his mouth.

Today was another gathering of Uncle Phil's side of the family, this time to celebrate baby Audrey's blessing. Since the blessing was at 2 p.m., right in the middle of Andrew's naptime, we decided the whole event would be much pleasanter if Andrew absented himself, so he stayed home with me while Dan went. We had a quiet afternoon while Dan enjoyed a visit with family and a taco bar. He reports that Audrey is finally starting to look fat, which gives me some hope for Evelyn, who persists in looking absurdly small, although I flatter myself that she's starting to fill out around the face and arms a bit (her legs still look like spindly chicken shanks, however). I took her in to the doctor this week for a follow-up visit, and he said she was looking good. We'll go back in another two weeks to make sure that she really is gaining weight and flourishing.