Preemie Life - Seven Months, 4 1/2 adjusted

Nothing cuter then cellulite on a baby's bum.   We are at seven months now or 4 1/2 months adjusted.  I've stopped thinking about Cheetah that way.  She is a little on the tiny side for seven months, just over 14lbs and she has the smallest little feet and hands I've ever seen.  I think those under five food great-grandmas on both sides might be contributing genes here.  Everything else about her though is caught up.  She never stays on her back anymore.  The second you lay her down she flips over to her stomach.  It is her preferred place to sleep as well as play.



She is a champion sleeper.  Well at least at night.  We get a full nights sleep out of her.  Her daytime naps are much harder to squeeze in.  Each kid gets a progressively worse nap schedule.  That first one has two regimented naps a day.  The second, got one.  The third slept in the car while I was picking kids up from school.  The forth is lucky to catche some zzz's while nursing.  Yesterday she didn't fall asleep until 5:30.  When Dr. J came home from work to change she woke up. "Do you know that is the first time she got to sleep today," I whined in a sort of frantic high pitched voice.  It must of sounded desperate because he was quick with a million, "I'm sorrys."  "Tell the baby," I said as she screamed her little heart out.

 We are moving all over the place.  If you put her on a blanket on the floor you will find her someplace else.  I wouldn't say she is crawling but she gets up on her toes and arms and then pushes herself forward until her body slams forward onto the ground.  Then she starts the process all over again.  With that and rolling she can slowly get pretty much anywhere she needs to go.  The bed, top of the stairs, and the changing table have become much less friendly places, as have table and chair legs.  Her jerky little movements mean she has a good chance of slamming her face into anything at head level.

Inch worming isn't her only mode of transportation.  Thing 1 and thing 2 are often found carting her around.  They have both been expressly forbidden from carrying her on a daily basis and yet I continue to find them, guilty faced carrying Cheetah around.  Yesterday Captain E brought her down the stairs to me.  I said, "Why are you carrying that baby down the stairs."  He said, "Dad told me to bring her to you.  She needs to nurse."  GiGi is just as bad.  I've caught her running through the house, baby bouncing in her arms.  I also saw her put Cheetah in her play and pack.  She hung her over the edge, rocked on her stomach muscles and the edge of the play and pack, legs going up into the air.  When the baby reached the mattress she let her go, her legs instantly dropping with the release of the counter weight.  It was horrifying and fascinating wrapped into one.  We've yet to have any major accidents but I'm keeping my fingers crossed just in case.

Milk is no longer Cheetah's only food item.  This week we introduced rice cereal.  Every first bite goes like this first blurry one, captured by dad, but then she settles in for the long haul.  I have not had a single child who likes rice cereal but this one eats with gusto.  Hands wave everywhere and cereal is soon covering her face, hands, chair, bib.  We give her a little spoon to try and distract her from the one entering her mouth but it somehow manages to get covered as well.

Day in the life of a mom....

I feel like this lady everyday!  It's gotten to the point that the words, "Mamma, I'm hungry," send chills down my spine.  With four kids in the house someone is always hungry.  Was there a time I used to love cooking?  Hard to remember......  They've got to be old enough to be hunting on their own now right?  Find a banana, find a fruit snack.  The funny thing, we have a total open fridge, open cabinet policy.  If you find it, you can eat it.  Still they always come to mom first :)  Just in case you don't believe me here is just a little taste of what I go through everday when I'm making dinner :)


 


 Thanks Jeff for the link...

RIP House

Eight years I've enjoyed your snarky comments.  Your medical technique might be bird shot but I've loved your zebra cases, your Sherlock undertones, and most importantly the five seasons you let me stare at "Robert Chase"!  That man has gotten better looking with time.  You've been a favorite of mine in both the medical genre and the mystery.  I will miss you.  See you again four years from now on Netflix :)

10 Years

Ten years ago I married my best friend.  It was the single most important decision I ever made and the foundation for every good thing that has come to me since.  He is my heart and I thank God every day that he saw fit to create for me my perfect mate.  These last ten years have flown by.  I've been with this man for a 1/3 of my life and I'm still excited to have him for the rest of my life.  If that's not love, then I don't know what is.

                  It isn't every day that you make it to ten years and so we wanted to do something special to mark the day.   As a consolation prize for having to be on call on the day the team gave him both Friday and Saturday. Of course in order to get them he had to work 14 days in a row...oh medicine :)  I still wanted to do something to show that it was our anniversary even if I wasn't going to see my husband that day.  Ten years is Aluminum so I bought ten cans of Dr. J's favorite soda.  I bought a tank of helium and a bunch of balloons and printed off 30 pictures from our life together.  I wrote messages on the backs of the pictures, things about my husband I love, things he does that make me feel special, little love notes.  Then I set up this lovely little number.  The only problem, I set it up at ten am and by ten pm that night when Dr. J got home, the balloons had dropped.  Not quite as cute, but still so fun, and he loved it!!!

On Friday we went out to dinner.  Dr. J wanted to do a weekend away but we've got to nip the nursing before we can nip away.  We had two of the young woman in our ward come by to watch the kids.  They were so adorable, Peach actually cried when they had to leave.  It is the first time I've been in a restaurant on a weekend night in years.  With an hour wait to get in to the Cheese Cake Factory we amused ourselves reading The Screwtape Letters out loud at Barns and Noble.  It actually was very similar to some of our first dates :)  When my husband first asked me to marry him I had no idea where the future would lead.  It is a leap of faith to ask someone to marry you and a leap of faith to say yes.  It was easy for me to say yes and I thank my lucky stars every day that my gamble paid off.  I'm guessing it was easy for this girl to say yes as well.

Leaving Preschool Behind

 When you have four kids it seems like you are running on the treadmill of life.  One kid leaves preschool, one kids starts.  This was G bears last year of preschool.  Next year she starts the big K at the same school Captain E is at.  Meanwhile Peach will be starting her first year of preschool.  The move will free up a little more time in my day by improving my kid moving commute.  She's excited to be moving over to the big school and about the prospect of possibly seeing her brother during the day.  I am of course terrified.  Is she ready for the rigors of dealing with the school age crowd and the queen bees?  How will she handle school?

Gigi is her own special person.  She was my earliest to walk and my most athletic child, the one who didn't inherit my awkward body.  She is beautiful and has the sweetest disposition.  She is far neater and has much better pencil grip than her older brother.  Her coloring abilities have surpassed his for years.  She lacks his shyness and is confident in her own choices.  I've never worried about her getting into a bad situation just to follow the crowd and she is assertive even with adults, even if sometimes that isn't always a blessing.  But she has her own struggles.

Gigi didn't talk at all until she was three and as she's gotten older Dr. J and I have become more sure that she struggles with a learning disability.  Learning colors was exceptionally difficult for her.  For a long time she couldn't even come up with the names and then when she finally got the words solidified in her mind she still struggled with the associations.  She'd look at a pink shirt and say to me, "It's either pink or purple."  By some miracle of miracles she hasn't had the same struggle with letters, but numbers have proven to be a challenge.  The amount of work required by both of us for her to be proficient, just barely squeaking by is monumental.  With her moving to real school, to real grades I've been filled with anxiety about her school years.

My worry taps into some of the worst parts of my human nature.  FEAR.  Fear that she will be teased by other children. Fear that she will become frustrated with learning and want to give up.  Fear that she will feel bad about herself and as a result be an easy victim to people who would cause her harm.  JEALOUSY.  Jealousy as I watch friend's kids, three and four who are already reading and doing math with ease.  Kids who honestly could just move on to first grade without any trouble and whose very presence in kindergarten will make my daughters difficulties even more evident.  Jealousy because in motherhood you are judged by results rather then by efforts and mine make me feel like a mother fail.  FRUSTRATION.  I think this one is pretty self evident.

Dr. J and I years ago decided to face this challenge head on.  We took advantage of government programs that would give her a leg up.  We put her in the best preschools we could find regardless of cost.  We've worked with her countless hours.  And now even though I hate labels, they scare with me with their finality, we have met with the school and asked them to formally test her for a disability.  When I first talked to the Special Ed teacher, she said to me, "What has your pediatrician recommended, because lots of kids outgrow things as they mature."  And I got to say, "Well her father is a pediatrician and he is concerned."  Here is where being the daughter of a woman who has been teaching for 25 years comes in handy.  I know that I could sit around and wait for the teacher to come to this conclusion on her own and then start the process, but it will take her months to realize this isn't just nerves, shyness, immaturity or anxiety over school.  Then it will take months more for her to go through the hoops to get her tested and by then we might just be at the end of the year and the process will just have to start over again in first grade, all the time all of hoping she'll just outgrow it.  I hope the testing will give us an answer, a place to start, a plan so that I can help her reach her full potential.  I hope G Bear loves school.  I hope she feels confident and makes lots of new friends.  May I always be able to keep in mind that when raising children it's all about helping them be their best, not looking your best in front of other people.

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I grew up in Arizona, and would just like to say this is one of the reasons I have zero desire to go back.  Yup there is seriously this kind of crazy!!!!!  Enough of the insanity Arizona.  On a cool basketball note, check out this Magic and Larry interview.  They are out promoting a documentary about the rivalry between them.  My favorite part, minute 4.25.  What an amazing set of friends! 

Preemie Life- day 186, 6 Months Old, 4 Months Adjusted

When Cheetah, my Little Rose was born she nearly broke my heart.  The anxiety and unknown of being stuck at the hospital not knowing when she would be born, the fear for her health when she came so early and small, the heart ache of leaving the hospital empty handed, the frustration of having her in the hospital for months, other people telling me what I could and could not do with my child, everyday was full of heartache and tears.  What a difference a half a year makes.  Now my sweet baby is not only home and surviving, but she is thriving.  She is on par with her adjusted birth stats and milestones and so quickly gaining on her actual birth date expectations that her doctors like to joke she has completely forgotten she was a preemie.  At 13lbs 8 1/2 ounces and 24 3/4 inches she is in the 50th percentile for weight and 60th for height for a four month old.  For a six month old she's creeped onto the charts falling in right around the 10th percentile for both.  She babbles all the time.  Sunday in Young Woman's she started during the song and continued through the whole lesson.  She makes a sound that sounds exactly like Captain E's name.  He gets the biggest kick out of that.  Her cry sounds just like she's saying "mum....", pulls at my heart strings every time.  She sleeps through the night like a champ.  Her last nurse of the evening usually being around nine o'clock.  Then we put her in her own bed where she sleeps until somewhere between five and six when she wakes up again to eat and sleep in bed with mom and dad.  When she wakes up for the day at seven she gives us big smiles and will kick her legs and slap her hands onto the bed to let us know how happy she is.  Her smile is HUGE and she'll give it to any person who walks by and smiles her way.  She rolls and inch worms herself all over the floor and if you put her down and walk away for a sec when you come back she'll be somewhere else.  She is up on her hands and knees now, rocking back and forth.  She'll be crawling within the month.  She loves to chew on everything, her whole fist, any cloth she can get her hands on, fingers of those passing by.  Her hair is starting to thicken back up again after almost completely falling out, with the exception of this little patch in the front that will sometimes curl up into a little wave.  Very 1883.  Her favorite hair style for me, a side braid.  She loves to wrap her hand in the tail end of it while she's nursing, her eyes trained on my face.  Her eyes are hazel, a brown green mix.  I don't know if they will stay that color but if they do every one of our children will have a different color of eye.  E, blue, G Bear, gray, Peach, light brown, Rosie hazel.  It's odd how different our children look from each other but it does make finding the similarities more fun.  The only things left to worry about, getting her to start eating solid foods.  She is a champion nurser but doesn't take a bottle at all and so we'll be working with speech to make sure she transitions to solid foods adequately.  Keeping an eye on her hip.  Because she was breech the doctors have some concern about her hips.  They did an x-ray a month ago and they seemed a little off but the ortho guy said there is a good chance that is due to her prematurity and her bones calcifying a little later then normal.  Her eyes.  Sometimes one of her little eyes seems a little lazy but that might be trying to compensate for being a little farsided in the other eye.  They are keeping a close eye on her eyesight and there is a 50% chance she'll ended up needing glasses, but then so did grandma and dad so who knows, that couldn't have happened anyway.  All in all we've been so blessed.  I believe in the power of prayer.  I believe in a God waiting to pour blessings upon us.  I believe in the strength of loving family and friends.  She is our little miracle baby, bringing joy to all her siblings and her parents everyday.  We are so grateful to have her as a member of our family and so thankful to everyone who helped in any way with talking care of our family while I and she were in the hospital or who kept us in their prayers.

Curious About the Most Popular Baby Name of 2011 or About What Your Teacher's Did With Their Free Time

How many years have I been obsessed with the baby naming site Name Voyager?  I think Bridget introduced it to me when we were in Jordan pregnant with G-Bear  So somewhere in the range of 5 1/2 years I've been following this site.  When it comes to baby naming sites it is the premier.  Forget those name books, this puts them all to shame.  You can look up names, their meanings, their trends, her blog about baby naming phenomena, where names are most popular, and good names that go with the kids names you already have.  This is just the free stuff! I've used it with three of my four children.  Even when I'm not pregnant, even when I think there is probably little more then five percent we will have any more children, I still love looking at this site.  Recently Laura posted the top 1000 names in the United States for 2011.  Seeing as I added a child that year I was definitely interested in the trends.  Her name actually happens to be on the rise...of course seeing as it isn't even close to the top 400 girls names I think it is safe to say she's not going to have to worry about sharing her name in any of her classes anytime soon.  She also did this awesome run down of some of the trends she noticed. Thanks Twilight for changing the direction of names for an entire generation.  Sort of makes me appreciate those totally ridiculous Harry Potter names.  Also how about a push for the name Nellie...I can't be the only person who finds that name adorable.  And then in NPR news there was this article about the latest partisan divide, turns out young conservative moms are the ones coming up with the crazy, I mean unique names.  The irony here being my names are getting less traditional as I get older, what does that say about me?

In non baby related news, who doesn't love a little teacher action.  As the child of a teacher I started to suspect in high school that someone would have to be a little cracked to deal with other people's minions for so little money and respect, and here's just a little more proof.  Sweater guy is by far my favorite.  For a big guy he's got some pretty smooth moves....

Your Physicians Personal Life

Ever wondered how your physician saw themselves politically, if they went to church, if they were married, how happy they were...Medscape put together this really interesting survey delving into the private lives of your physician.  They fielded the survey to almost 300,000 physicians across all fields and the chance at winning a new Ipad.  Almost 30,000 respondents participated.  There is some seriously interesting information here.  Some of the things that struck me.  1) Anesthesiologist and Radiologist must be your party animals since they are the most likely to take over a month off :)  Ok really though my guess is this probably has more to do with how much money they make or the personalities attracted to these fields.  One if you make a little more money there isn't a need to maybe work as much.  Two, a lot of the people I've known who have gone into these fields (NOT ALL, BUT QUITE A FEW) were not what you would refer to as "people persons."  Higher percentage of introverts to be sure, so maybe that reflects on just wanting a little more time to yourself or it could just be the money.  Further study is obviously needed :)  2) I was surprised by how many people were still in a first marriage.  Good job!  3) It looks like men are more likely to get more active as they get older where woman taper off in their exercise.  Does this mean woman exercise more for looks then for health?  Hmmm.... 4) 65% of them volunteer.  Sure there is that group who doesn't but it's nice the majority do.  Sometimes people like to think physicians as this group of people that are just trying take all this money.  I read in this article here that about 1/3 American engage in volunteer work.  That means physicians are ahead of the curve.  Attorneys, I might not necessarily like all of you and may think there are way too many of you, but I'll give you your props as well. Turns out about 3/4 of attorneys do pro bono work  :)   5) Most striking to me, regardless of age or personal religious beliefs physicians the majority of physicians would choose palliative care and quality of life or length.  My own husband, a relatively young man of 34 has had a living will put together since he was in his twenties outlining what he did not want done in terms of life saving measure.  In fact we talk about it on a regular basis so that we are both clear on how we'd like our finals days on this earth to go.  I think when you are faced with life and death every day you start to see that even though we have amazing technologies that can prolong life far beyond what used to be possible sometimes the quality just makes it not worth it.

http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/lifestyle/2012/public?src=ptalk&viewreport

Motherhood

Today is Mother's Day.  Can you believe this is the best picture we could get?  Four kids people, it is a rough picture opportunity.  My family made great efforts to make me feel special.  The meal was superb.  Honey if you every want to take over cooking, I'm game.  The children were cute.  The mom was happy.  Motherhood.  I title which I hold dear.  Not because I think I'm particularly good at it.  In fact that are many days I feel like a completely failure, and truth be told some of task I find absolutely horrendous (laundry I'm talking about your ludicrous cycle).  I think it is because I was raised by a glorious mother and nana and have since married into a family full of glorious mothers.  They sometimes yelled.  Their houses weren't always clean.  Sometimes they got me to things late.  They weren't prefect, but they made me feel perfect, loved, special, and above all important and continue to do so.  I may not have been the prettiest, the smartest, the most talented, or the one who all the boys liked (a sticking point when you are in junior high and high school), but I was and am a star in their universe and their unconditional love filled me up with a desire to share their love.  I may not do it perfect but I love my children, they are the stars of my universe and I'm so thankful for each one.

 Captain E, you made me a mother.  Your birth filled me with wonder and fear.  Every experience with you was new.  I'm sure I made tons of mistakes.  I'm sorry for that.  I hope someday when you are raising your oldest you understand and can forgive me.  Your are the trail blazer for your siblings.  You teach their mother how to be better.  You amaze me with your creativity.  You love art and writing.  You told me you want to be an author.  It wouldn't surprise me if someday that's what you did.  You also love inventing and tinkering.  You ponder on bigger problems, even those outside your sphere of knowledge and worry.  You listen to NPR stories.  You are seven.  Do you realize how odd that is?  You laugh loud.  You love running around.  Red is still your favorite color.  You gave it up for a few years ago because you thought it was girly.  Then you decided it didn't matter.  You are shy until you warm up.  Then you are silly.



G Bear.  You are my sweet daughter.  You love caring for your sisters.  You are always willing to share.  You come home from a party and divide up your spoils. I think you will be a much better mom then I ever have been.  You are patient with your sisters.  You don't mind Peach getting into your things.  You let Rosie pull your hair a million times and never yell.  This year you've started to try to assert some independence from me.  You know what you like and you aren't afraid to tell me.  Sometimes we headbutt over the issue.  You still love to cuddle though.  You are my best sleeper.  You actually put yourself to bed.  You are terrified of shots.  You talk about them all the time.  You love makeup and coloring.  You love it when I read you stories.  I told you the story of snow white last night and you actually sighed and puckered your lips when I got to the part about the prince kissing snow white.


Peach.  My little picture lover.  You drove your mother into insanity.  That's what nana says.  "Two kids you are still in control, three push you over into crazy land."  She's probably right, but you are worth the price.  You love to sing and dance.  ABCs are your favorite.  You are so friendly, you are a much requested play date companion.  You are my little insomniac.  The first one up in the morning, you'll come in to mom's bed to play ponies at six, the last one to sleep.  You want to be a big girl but also still want to be mom's baby.  Your vocabulary is immense and your chatter adorable.

My little Cheetah, my little Rose.  Your birth and early months almost broke my heart.  Now you've completely forgotten you were early.  You chatter incessantly.  When you cry, it is a perfect mimic of "Mamma..."  You are rolling all over the floor, up on hands and knees getting ready to take off.  Your siblings love you unconditionally.  The Captain is always carting you around.  Gigi will bring you her hair when you cry.  Peach loves to shower you with toys.  You are a pretty little prize, the perfect cap to our family of six.

To my husband, thank you for making me a mother, for being my other half, for making this life possible.  To my children, thank you for coming to my family.  You guys are my Sun.  My life revolves around you.  There is no other thing or person more important to me.  I'm sorry I make mistakes.  I'm learning.  I hope someday I'll be better.  Probably by the time you guys have kids I'll have it down :)  Please always know that I love you.  Thank you for all your love.

I Need a New Camera....

After much searching I bought this adorable hair piece for Rosie Posies blessing day.  I ordered it from Heavenly Avonlee Couture and it was PERFECT!  Like any mom who uses her blog as her journal and photo album I wanted to capture the girly, adorable details.  What wasn't adorable, how long it took me to get a decent picture of it.  I hate my camera.  You will get everything focused and then as you push the button it will auto focus into blurry.  Ahhh.  The flash washes everything out.  Indoor everything gets dark and grainy.  It is driving me crazy!!!!!  I want a DSLR but they are so costly.  Dr. J will ask me, "So what do you want for your (birthday, mother's day, our anniversary, Christmas).  Really the only thing I want I can't just go out and get myself is a nice camera....but then that's usually above the budget he wants to spend.  Oh, boy, I guess I'll just have to stick with the current system.  Eight horribly blurry pictures for one sort of ok one.  So frustrating :(

Three Easter Dresses and the Dude

The traditional Easter picture.  Why is it so hard to get a picture of all of my kids?   I'm not asking for professional shots here, just one where all four are looking.  We went with a polk a dot theme, and flowers in the hair.  The girls love their dresses.  Peach had to wear a shirt under hers.  Dad doesn't mind shoulders showing but nipples hanging out, where that is where he draws the line.  G bear was ok because unlike the sundress she wore to church two months ago the neck was too narrow for her to pull it down to her waist.  That was the moment dad made the no nipples in church rule :)

Darn those blue eyes...even in the shade it's to bright to look.

Peach, "Mom look at my ears."

Peach, "Why aren't you looking?"

BEST ONE IN THE BUNCH!!!!!  Captain E and baby Rosie (another nickname we have for cheetah).  Peach and Gigi are smiling...even if they aren't looking right at me.

Peach, "I'm done with this."

Mom I will be getting down soon.  

Our Easter Meal

Easter dinner is probably my favorite.  I can't help it.  I love ham.  Most years I get a hassle from my husband about the ham.  He's pretty much anti pork all year round, complaints every time I cook bacon, but Easter time gets him really going.  He says he feels weird about eating ham on Easter.  Even though we aren't Jewish, I think the season just makes him feel a little more biblical.  He'd rather eat lamb.  I think lamb has the worst after taste and is way too expensive.  Does anyone else have this ham argument in the marriage around Easter time and if so which spouse is the one pushing for lamb?  This year Dr. J was working Easter...oddly enough this single fact killed his normal anti ham tangent, and so ham it was with zero complaints.  There was also homemade rolls...YUM!

And a delicious lemon cake.  Pretty much made my spring day, something about that sugary yellow just made me so happy.  We ended up with a lot of left overs but came up with some meals to take care of that.

Shepard's pie for leftover mash potatoes...

 Chef's salad was the perfect way to use up some ham and Easter Eggs.  I also of course made a ham bone and bean soup, because when you have a ham bone, soup is a must!

So maybe baseball isn't as boring as I originally thought...

...at least not waiting for rained out games.  Who knew all these fun things were going on.  Oddly enough a lot of these songs gave me flashbacks to church dances...



There are tons of these on youtube.  So funny!

Tidbits

Pretty sure if I was 18 years old I'd want to marry one of these guys... :)  I can't help but wonder how this went down.  "So guys who wants to become an internet sensation?"  And just how bored do you have to be to listen to that song a million times?  Also the sleeping guy in the back cracks me up.  Did he not want to participate or did the rest of the guys come up with the idea and execute the whole thing during his nap?

Also who doesn't love the Manning brother.  I mean seriously they are both great athletes.  I always wondered what life was like at home...maybe this gives us a little clue.  http://www.hulu.com/watch/358346/saturday-night-live-little-brothers (there is some swearing in this)


And then the disapointment of my week...

http://video.pbs.org/video/2229864759

Last season I mentioned how much I loved the new Sherlock Holmes, so it was with much anticipation that I sat down to watch the beginning of season two last night.  All I can say is BLAH!!!!!  One of the reasons I read English/Scottish mystery is because they still appreciate the finer art of giving the reader enough information to solve the mystery.  Mystery is my favorite genre and while I will read almost any mystery book I find that American authors often prefer to flirt with the genre of thriller.  Suspense, terror, and sexuality used to drive the readers excitement. Personally I blame Thomas Harris, Patricia Cornwell, and CSI for this.  I love mystery the way Arthur Conan Doyle originally served it up, where solving the crime gave the biggest thrill.  This newest episode was so manic, the mysteries were just an unfinished backdrop.  Dr. J and I watch a lot of British TV.  WE noticed a similar manic feel to the newest seasons of Doctor Who.  It can be fun to get your heart racing but when what you really crave is an intellectual puzzle it is a major disappointment.  Still looking forward to seeing Dr. Watson as Bilbo though...

Chocolate Bunny

Nothing says I love you like giant molded chocolate.

Want to know how much we love chocolate bunnies?  Check it out :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0T57GOwPo
 Since our very first Easter as a family, we've done Easter baskets on Saturday.  It helps the holiday last longer and it is an attempt to keep the inevitable sugar rush out of church.  This year was no different, although this year daddy had Saturday off and wasn't going to have Sunday so it was a little extra fun.

Cheetah hates her bumbo.  It was just a few days after this picture that she managed to stand up in it and fall over.  Thankfully she was on the floor.