Cheerio Chums

During our last visit to Greeley, Will exchanged his very reasonable reservations about his grabby-fingered, slobbery-mouthed cousin for a super-generous, whole-hearted chumminess (well, almost). Baby Elias became My Baby 'Lias, and Will was devoted to making him laugh, letting him be the baby elephant on all his safaris, and helping him dispose of as many Cheerys (a.k.a. Cheerios) as necessary. Example follows:

Look, Baby 'Lias! A whole pile of Cheerys!
I'd better help you manage some of this.

Here, let me find you a good one...

Open your mouth, and I'll put it in.

How's that?

Just trying to be helpful here... and adorable.
(Aunt Deedee thinks the adorable part is working out pretty well.)

This has been great! Time for Hugs!...Don't choke.

My Baby 'Lias.

p.s. We love you, Will!!!!!!

Que Pasa Calabasa?

Visitors and regulars in our lives have often commented upon one of E.'s features. In our household we seldom notice it. Day-to-day it's always there, and we just got used to it.

Recently the doctor confirmed what others have said. Here's E.'s updated pediatric growth chart:

Height: 28.15 inches (31st percentile)

Weight: 18.70 pounds (12th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.70 inches (91st percentile)

Whatta noggin! While his body is relatively small (bottom 12% of babies), his head is relatively huge (top 9% of babies).

A basketball on a toothpick, as it were.

Also, his head's circumference is just nine inches short of his body length. If this keeps up--say he ends up six feet tall--his head will have a circumference of about 4 feet. Which is about the size of a large pumpkin.

Two Years Ago...

Two years ago today, J. put this ring on C.'s finger...

...which led to this...

And this...

It's a wonderful world. God is so good.

things that make me happy

I thought I'd managed to keep my feet discreetly hidden in the shadows of my skirt or undercover of socks through Christmas, but it was no use - problems like this get noticed by my sister. And my feet were a problem. On my last day in Colorado she took things in hand and gave me a WONDERFUL pedicure. Besides being the Best-Sister-Ever, my sister has a Real servant's heart, esp. considering I hadn't done a thing with my feet since... well the last time she gave me pedicure... May???...yikes. Imagine elephant toenails, combined with rhinoceros heels, and the rest like an albino alligator. That would would give you an accurate "before" picture of my feet. Here, we have a "after" picture I took today. It's been a week, so they're not quite in their pristine glory but still making me feel ultra-feminine, and Resolved not to go back to but from henceforth to embrace lotion, pumice stones, and pink polish of all shades. I love you, Sister!

Merry Little Christmas

Our merry little Christmas family.

Cutie-Pie Cousins.

Sometimes we were naughty....
(Awwww. Tried to take this picture real quick
before nap-time while cute J. and E. were dressed up,
but E. wasn't haven't it. Nap-time is nap-time. )

....but mostly we were awful nice.

And we like presents. No, actually we like the wrappings presents come in.
(Note to Santa: forget the presents next year,
simply forward wrapping paper and bows.)