Little Miss Chatterbox

These videos are from Christmas morning, when Maggie first saw her present from Santa Claus (a shopping cart and some play food). As you can hear, she is quite the chatterbox. She pretty much talks all day long, from the moment she wakes up and comes into our room in the morning, to the minute we turn the lights out in her bedroom at night (and sometimes even after that). I'm thinking I'm going to have to invest in some earplugs when Lilly is old enough to talk!

"Chri-mas" pictures

Here are some pictures from the last few days.

"Big Sister" posing with "Little Sister"


Maggie feeding a carrot to "hop-hop"
Checking out the stocking "booty"
Eating choc-ate
Making sugar cookies
Seven inches of snow!!
Bundling up
Maggie & Pooh helping Daddy shovel snow
The whole family out socializing on the sledding hill
The Sledding Hill (a.k.a. Merwin Rd.)
"This is the best smile you are going to get - take the picture!"

just goofin' around

Maggie proudly slipped on my shoes the other day and walked around the living room several times.

Here she is modeling her new headbands (she put them on all by herself, if you couldn't tell).

sleepytime giggles

Every night after Lilly's last nursing of the day, she giggles and smiles as she drifts off into dreamland. It is the cutest thing, and ends my day on a high note.

sisters

Maggie is such a good big sister...she loves holding Lilly and looking at / talking to her. I managed to snap a few photos of one of these bonding sessions yesterday.
I know Lilly doesn't look too happy in this next photo, but I actually have been getting a lot of smiles from her lately. I just haven't managed to get a picture of one yet.

One of Will's co-workers got each of the girls a sock monkey. Maggie was so excited about this, as you can see. She hugged hers and took the other one and laid it next to Lilly.

weekend pictures

It was a fun weekend! We hosted a baby shower for our friends Victoria and Stephen (who are having a baby girl in February), had our first snow of the season (just a light dusting), decorated our Christmas tree, and watched college football in our jammies by the wood stove (boooo Virginia Tech, yay Auburn!).

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving, full of food and family. My folks were in town, and Will cooked up a feast of fried turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and cranberries. Here are some pictures from the week.
Maggie hanging out with Grandmamma, making "towers"

Lilly peacefully sleeping while we all enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner

Lilly peacefully sleeping on daddy the day after Thanksgiving

Maggie kickin' back and watching some Sesame Street (or "Elmo Cookie Monster" as she calls it)

Maggie napping on Sunday evening after a long afternoon at the playground

You'll see that she fell asleep clutching her milk

old pictures

I realized recently that these photos never got posted. They are from the week before Lilly was born, when we spent a lot of time together as a family of 3. We took Maggie to the State Fair (first 2 photos), the natural science museum (sorry, no pics of this), and for a hike at a local preserve (last 2 photos). She loved the fair, but who doesn't? A giant Smokey Bear, funnel cake, pig races, and lots of animals to look at! And she always enjoys a good hike, but as you can see, she was exhausted by the end of the trek.

big sister duties

Maggie has been taking her role of big sister very seriously these days, and she's been working hard to teach Lilly everything she knows. Yesterday morning while I was cleaning up the kitchen, she took a bunch of toys and trinkets, one by one, over to Lilly. She would tell Lilly what each toy was ("this a orange pumpkin Lilly"), gently place it in her lap, and then walk away. She's even teaching Lilly manners...as she would walk away, she would say "say thank you Lilly".

some random pictures

Here are some pictures from the past few days: daddy with his girls, Maggie having some much needed playground time with Eli, Lilly all bundled up at the playground, and Maggie "going shopping" with her new favorite toy (the silverware basket from the dishwasher).

quilt time

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week...as you might imagine, my "free time" to post is pretty much nonexistent right now. Between Maggie deciding it is time to stop napping in the afternoons, and Lilly having a growth spurt and wanting to nurse constantly, it is hard to find time to even feed myself. Anyways, Maggie and Lilly did enjoy a little quilt time together today and I grabbed the camera to document it.

Lilly/Maggie Montage

So far, Maggie loves her baby sister and wants to hold her all the time. However, she does get a little jealous when Daddy holds Lilly.

Home!!!

We are here and everyone is great. Maggie is asleep; Lilly is dozing in my lap; and Momma is taking a well earned shower. Big thanks to Heather's folks for looking after Maggie and the dogs while we were in the hospital - I am sure they will sleep well tonight too! No time to say much else - catching up on sleep paramount (or at least not adding to the deficit).
-Will

More Lilly pictures...

These aren't much different than those previously posted, but we have had some requests. I won't name names, but let's just call those people "Shrand-smothers." Anyhow, here are some pictures for those unidentified family members. : )
Enjoy!