I know that most of you who read my blog have already seen pictures, but here are a few extra. Baby M2 was born quickly, once things actually started (as usual, I was on the sloooow road to baby). A couple of hours of painful contractions, a couple of pushes and he was here! The nurses and doctor all commented on how pink he was. A very healthy infant. I'll try to get some detailed shots later -- he has the longest fingers (and toes) ever, as well as just big hands in general, which makes me think Rachmaninoff. Or basketball, I guess, if we were at all sports-inclined. He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, which is just barely bigger than my last baby. 21 inches.

And now a whole series of proud siblings. M1 is very good about telling me that he wants to make the baby dance, or something equally cute but not appropriate, instead of actually doing it. Just like with his littlest sister, he finds M2 quite adorable.

V is serious about the baby. The day we came home, all the grown ups were elsewhere and M2 started to cry. She ran in to help -- and will definitely be our little momma with this baby.

E seriously grew two inches when she was holding M2. She is very tickled by him when she notices him. Luckily, she mostly ignores. I was a bit worried about smothering him with love, but it looks like we've got a bit of a respite before that happens.

Smiles! He's eating and sleeping and doing all the things infants are supposed to. So glad to have you, buddy!

pictures

visitor

New furniture!



This one is V's favorite, because it's just her size.






The nursery class at church has gone posh, and E had her nails painted for the first time. She was very excited about this. I just realized I have no nail polish remover in the house, to take care of it once half of it falls off.



A nice young lady came to pick up our old couch, and V got to the door first. "We have a rodent in our kitchen." Remarkably, said young lady thought V was cute and still took our stuff. Of course, it wasn't really a rodent. It was a young possum, caught in my bathtub UPSTAIRS at 2:30 in the morning. By Nathan, thank goodness he was home. I did not get close enough to get this picture. That was Nathan, realizing that M would be disappointed that he didn't get a peek at it.

winning

Win: Homemade Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream (4 oz unsweetened chocolate!) + Walmart brand peanut butter cups

Fail: Accusing frequent culprit V of removing the laces from Nathan's shoes, only to have E explain, "I did it!"

*I 100,046% do not need another mischievous sprite in the house. (100,046 % in honor of V who writes lots of love notes, saying "I love you [ridiculously huge number] %")

Win: M and V die laughing over a clearance joke book from Half Price Books.

Fail: Money flashcards bought on the same trip have the wrong answers printed on the backs of the cards.

Win: My kitchen is clean, thanks to my husband and kids.

Fail: No more library trips until we find the NINE books I couldn't locate today.

Win: E's crazy wink face showing up often.

Win: M made his own mother's day coupons at church yesterday, offering items like "a new house", or "a new sewing machine".

Win: V learning to add in her head and count to 100.

Win: Nathan worked from home today, so we got to have lunch together.

charades

My kids played charades last night with our fabulous babysitter, and we got reports on the game from her and the kids. Here are some of the more memorable items:

M -- white blood cell, sneezing nose, a tooth chomping, the solar system, the water cycle

V -- a light blinking, a piece of glass (hint: it has to do with fire), a computer mouse

Apparently the babysitter understands our kids and acted out photosynthesis for M's sake. So awesome.

M

We were having a pretty rough afternoon (I'll spare you the details), but then I sat down to play through two options of the song I'm teaching next month in primary. (I was looking at a possible key change.) I asked M to come over and sing with me so I could see how the versions worked for him. He sang the first verse in both keys, then asked if he could sing all the verses, just for fun. So he did. Love my sweet boy.

Easter

My camera battery was almost dead this morning as I tried to get one good picture of the kids before we headed to church. Of course, this is what I mostly got. It may not be the most beautiful, but I find it so amusing -- what's with M's pious hands, and V's squished face? Not to mention E. I don't think she even knows how to wink.
Today was pretty low-key. We did church and later had chef salad and deviled eggs, also leftover lemon meringue pie from Auntie's birthday celebration yesterday.
We combined Aunt N's birthday with an Easter egg hunt. M was especially great at leaving the easy eggs for his littlest sister! This is a picture of her first egg. After that I couldn't get a good shot, because she was busy. Finding eggs is fun!
Uncle Zach was also over for the fun. He and Nathan really got into the sneaky egg hiding places. Here V has retrieved an egg from the pool, courtesy Nathan. Uncle Zach loved that our backyard is full of camouflaged locations for bright eggs. Pool toys, kid chairs, frisbees, even the blue tape on a wire served to hide some eggs. The kids got Easter baskets yesterday morning and were lucky enough to have Kinder surprise eggs. Kinder has a new trick -- long plastic strips that they roll up in the egg. E now has a 6-inch giraffe toy that came out of a chocolate egg! Sadly, the kids did not buy into the Easter bunny aspect at all. They kept saying, "Thank you, Mommy!" when they looked through their baskets.