How babies are made: courtesy of Sydney Taylor

This morning's evolving conversation with Sydney:

"Mama, when did we buy this house?"

"When Elisabeth was one year old, sweetie. You weren't even born yet. In fact, you weren't even in my belly yet."  Sydney has a hard time conceptualizing life before being in my belly. Understandable. It's hard to envision what life was like before you entered it.  So I kind of expected the conversation to either a) stop at this point or b) enter into a battery of questions for which I wasn't totally prepared to answer.

So you can understand when Mark and I were confused when she continued the conversation with this statement:

"So I was still in the food."

Chirp chirp went the crickets.  Dead silence.  The food thing threw us off, big time.

Until she moved on and started talking about how food goes straight into your toes and then into your belly. And then into your nose.  That's when it clicked, that in the eyes of a four year old babies grow in our bellies because of special food that mommies eat.  I'm not sure how the nose thing fits in, but I am thankful that we don't actually grow babies in our noses. Imagine the stretch marks, ladies.

I love the way kids think.  Honestly, I think it makes total sense.  And that's what we're going to let her believe for today.

Mittens

Matthew is 5 months old already! He has discovered his toes, he loves baby food, he sleeps through the night, he gives kisses, and we love him.

He's wearing some pretty special mittens in this picture.  They have been worn by Sydney, Elisabeth, our niece and our nephew.  But even more special than that? They were worn by my dad when he was a baby.  These mittens have seen a lot of love! This generation may be done with them, but I'll bet this isn't the last set of wee little hands that will wear them.  I'm looking forward to seeing my dad's great-grandbabies' hands in them 30 years from now.

Happy Halloween!

Elisabeth lost two teeth this week!

To honor this occasion, we are celebrating Halloween a little early with our own personal Jack-O-Lantern.

2 months

I'm going to let you in on a secret: It's really August 31st today. I'm backdating this post, because let's face it: I am a procrastinator (except this time I have an excuse! Woot!).  But the picture really was taken at 2 months.

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Dear Matthew,

You are two months old today! You have been smiling since about 5 weeks old, and you now love to have conversations with us. We could "coo" and "goo" and "ahh" all day with you, and I think you feel the same. Except for when you are napping, which you also love. As long as it's in 15 minute increments. I'll be honest with you, I don't love that. But I do love that you sleep for long stretches at night! You have been a good sleeper since day 3, when you would go 4 hours before waking up at night, and now you are up to about 6 hours! Thank you for that!

You are a big boy, much like your sister Elisabeth was at this age. You weigh 14.5 pounds and are 24 inches long now. That puts you in the 90th percentile! I'm not really that surprised, since you like to nurse about every two hours. You sure do keep me busy!

Your sisters also love you very much, and are constantly talking to you and petting you and kissing you. And you just soak it in. I hope it continues for a very long time.

Love,
Mommy

matthew james

Meet Matthew. He's now eight weeks old and of course has changed so much since this picture was taken at the ripe age of two days old.  He's such a doll and we love him to pieces.