Just a few here and theres

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just start typing.  Right now both babies are napping and Mike's sleeping off the midnight shift.  There's a Diet Coke on the table next to me, surrounded by crumbs from the last brownie.  The washer and dryer are performing their usual hum and tumble in the utility room, and all is right with the world.

We went blueberry picking the other day.  Riggs snoozed in the sling while Avery picked every green blueberry she could find.  

 And Avery adores the zoo.  It was such a hit we decided to buy a family year membership.  Maybe once the kiddos wake up we'll take everybody to the splash pad.  The tiger slide is a big favorite, as was the train.  When we went through the tunnel, Avery insists she wasn't scared, but her eyes became so big you could see white all around the iris.

As I sit holding one or both babies, I hope to have developed the habit of jotting down funny, sweet, good memories (there are so many it's hard to remember them all) on my cell phone to write in more detail.  Here are a few of the latest goings-on:

 - Riggs giggles when we suck out his nose or wipe his face.  He thinks it's hysterical and belly laughs so hard it's difficult to accomplish the task.  Maybe that's all part of his plan.

 - When I ask Avery for a kiss, she always plants a big happy smiling one right square on my lips.  I guess it's because she sees Daddy and me kissing like that, and I don't mind.  My heart melts into a puddle when she then turns to Riggs and says, "Riggs kiss," planting one gently on his head.

 - I have to bathe both kids together.  I could just bathe Avery, but if Riggs is in the bathtub, so must she be. After a few moments of sheer panic on my part, she's proven to be very soft with her brother, and I always let her help me bathe him.  I'll sit him up and hold him while she scrubs his back, and he comes out squeaky clean every time.

 - Avery has an impressive grasp on the English language, but sometimes her enunciation could use a little work.  A few months ago she and I were in the Kroger.  I turned around to find her standing in the seat of the buggy and immediately said, "Avery!  Sit sit sit!" which of course she repeated enthusiastically and loudly... only from her mouth it sounded like "Shit shit shit!"  And of course one of my DAR sisters was right around the corner.  You should hear her say, "fork."

 - She counts too: "One, two, fee, six!"

 - Her favorite songs to sing are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABC song, Jesus Muvs Me, and the Itsy Bitsy Speyter.  She loves "speyters" so much she often asks me to draw one.  There's a worn-out cardboard box in the living room right now with a spider army drawn all over it.

 - And to my surprise, she has memorized several of her board books already, including Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, I'm a Big Sister, I am a Bunny,  Happy Birthday Little Pookie, and Goodnight Moon.

 - The other day Mike was in his underwear, looking for his pajama bottoms.  He leaned over, and Avery's patted his butt with her little hand and in her sweet 2-year-old voice proudly said, "Daddy panties."

 - Riggs contentedly hangs out in my lap or his Moses basket and takes note.

Life as of Late

Oh hey guys.  Guess what.  I had a baby.  It's a boy and his name is Riggs Michael.

We love him.

So does his big sister.  Actually, she's more over-the-moon-completely-enamored-and-infatuated with him.  We're eating it up.

Birth was completely natural and went exactly the way I wanted it.  We arrived at the hospital around 9 AM, and he was here at 10:46.  It snowed that morning, March 2, and it snowed on Avery's birthday as well this year.  Snow on both my babies' birthdays in the year 2013.

It was pretty hard work.  I'm hoping to post the (extremely) detailed story here sometime when both babies are napping again.  You can see more photos taken by the talented Jess Bollaert here:

Life with two has its moments, but most are unbelievably sweet and wonderful.  Avery is coming into her own, has a great vocabulary (including "octopust," "kaynket," and "pantyrolls" instead of ponytails), and has the sweetest, smartest, most clever and funny personality.  The other day she insisted that the dog says "beep," and I could tell in her eyes that she was having a fun time kidding me.  We're working on manners such as yes ma'am, please, and thank you, and potty training is slow but steady.  I almost took a photo of her first, ah, deposit.

 She's incredibly, heart-stoppingly sweet with her little brother, for which I am eternally grateful.

 So many times I've thought to sit down and write about the cute, wonderful, funny, intense things that have happened in the past few months, but as you might imagine time to sit down is rare.  I will try to make an effort, but in the meantime, please know that we're having the time of our lives.