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Brooke

Smiles

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The newest member of our family has learned a fun trick.  Sleeping?  No…

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Hanging out in her swing?

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No…

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Wait for it…

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Wait for it…

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Bingo!  She smiles!

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In honor of this groundbreaking developmental milestone, let’s look at a few things that make me smile.

Spencer’s huge grin is contagious:

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Daddy-daughter time is always sweet whether both parties are awake…

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…or asleep:

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Of course I love seeing how cute Caroline is with her new sister:

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Every day I put Madison on a blanket on the floor to hang out.  Every day Caroline decides a blanket isn’t good enough and makes a bed for her:

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Brooke’s always good at bringing a smile to my face.  Here we have her in her scuba diving get-up:

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Why yes, that is underwear on her head.  She found it makes a convincing swim cap which then inspired the goggles, her backpack to hold her oxygen tanks, and my slippers as flippers.

Then we have a couple of school papers.  This was on the back of one of her worksheets:

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I wish I knew why she felt it was necessary to draw her sliding down a hill on a tube on the back of her paper.

I love this one:

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It says, “I can dream like Martin Luther King too!  My dream is…I could go to Ponyville.”  Just think how much better this world would be if that had been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.

Conference weekend brought many smiles.  Spencer got to help make homemade ice cream:

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Sarah got to hold my newborn.  Here she is trying to make it look like Madison is her and Jeff’s baby:

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Nice try.

I was internally smiling as I took a little nap.  Let the record show that this happened between Conference sessions:

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My dozing during Conference luckily evaded being photographed.

The boys were so cute playing with cars together:

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My mom had a turn with the baby:

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My mom, sister, and I started planning Madison’s baby blessing brunch:

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Sarah convinced me Madison was smiling at her, so I ran to get the camera…

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…and was then blessed to capture crying:

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Oh well.  We need to experience the crying to better appreciate the smiles, right?

The Past Month

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Madison is a month old.  I find that so baffling.  Where did the month go?

Madison had her first real bath.  She was a fan:

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We went to a family dinner at my Grandma’s.  Madison was adored by all:

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Ben came up and spent some time bonding with the baby.  He brought Cafe Rio with him.  He’s welcome anytime!

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Madison is usually an okay sleeper but occasionally in the evenings she’ll really fight going to sleep.  This has happened the past two nights so naturally I’m worried this will happen every night here on out for the rest of our lives, and I get really exhausted thinking about that. Let’s all hope tonight is a good night.

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Brooke got hold of the camera one day while I was showering.  Apparently Madison became unhappy:

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But she fixed the problem:

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She also got a shot of Spencer’s mouth:

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Brooke was off-track during March so we didn’t have to worry about school which was so nice as I was recovering from giving birth.  One day the girls were bored so I pulled out some  Perler Beads that I bought several weeks ago.  This kept them busy for days:

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Caroline made a circle design and Brooke created what else?  A unicorn:

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Brooke being off track and me just having a baby meant there were a lot of days where everyone stayed in their pajamas:

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Brooke spent the last couple of days looking like this:

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Her left eye got scratched and became all red and swollen.  Luckily it has started healing and she’s almost back to normal.

Three Years

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Spencer had a birthday!  He’s three!

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Notice the lovely three in that picture.

I woke up early to feed Madison and finished right as all the other kids were waking up.  Since it was Saturday and Dallas was up, I decided to take advantage of him being home and I went back to sleep for a bit.  As I was crawling into bed I heard Brooke say, “Where are all the decorations?”  Oops.  I had forgotten to put up the happy birthday sign and to cut threes out of paper and hang them everywhere.  When I woke up I saw that Brooke had taken matters into her own hands and had decorated for me.  Bless her.

Some of Brooke’s threes were a little more abstract than others. That yellow paper on the ground is a three:

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Everyone was excited to see what Spencer got:

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This postpartum mom needed a cake that provided maximum satisfaction for the birthday boy with minimum effort from the mom.  This cake fit the bill:

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He loved it:

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Madison was actually awake for a bit…

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…until she got into this position which must be more comfortable than it looks because she was out for hours:

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Caroline is forever the doting big sister.  Every time she looks at Madison she says in a high-pitched voice, “Oh, she’s so adorable.  I just can’t take it!”

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Happy birthday Spence!

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Stats on my tiny little guy:

Weight: 28 lbs (10th percentile)

Height:  35 1/2 in (5th percentile)

The Kids Said…

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Caroline noticed a most unflattering mole on my arm.  Black hair grows out of it which grosses me out so I try to keep it trimmed but obviously had slacked in the grooming department on this particular day.

Caroline (with a note of mild horror in her voice):  “You have an eyelash growing on your arm?!”

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Me:  “Want to go to Grandma’s?”

Spencer (excitedly, pumping both fists in the air):  “YEAH!”

Me (matching his enthusiasm):  “When we get there, are you going to say, ‘I love you Grandma!’?”

Spencer (pausing for a moment and suddenly getting very serious):  “Actually…I’m going to play with cars.”

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Spencer, Caroline, and I were walking into a store.  In the parking lot Spencer suddenly stopped, backtracked about five paces, and picked up a rock.

Spencer:  “Caroline!  It’s a rock!  I found a rock!  It’s totally a rock, Caroline!”

(You probably had to be there for that one.  The “totally” part is what got me.)

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Caroline had to be sedated for some dental work.  I told her they would give her something to make her fall asleep and they’d fix her teeth while she was sleeping.  While we were waiting for the dentist, she was lying down looking tired.

Me:  “Are you going to go to sleep right now?”

Caroline:  “You mean without even a sleeping spell?”

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Me:  “Caroline, would you like more apples?”

Caroline (carefully considering this offer):  “I’m happy to report…I want a grapefruit.”

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We were at my mom and dad’s house.  Spencer and Caroline were in the basement watchingAlice in Wonderland.  My mom and I heard Spencer coming up the stairs mumbling to himself, “That was the stupidest tea party ever.”

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