Backtracking 5 - It Ain't All Sunshine

For two straight weeks preceding the trip to Illinois, we all endured the longest cold of Jack's life. It skirted the edge of croupy for only one night, thank goodness. The buckets of post-nasal drip were not fun. Jack has his mother's touchiness about nasal discomfort, but he doesn't get how to really blow his nose.

He spent nearly the whole two weeks with this face. Every twenty seconds or so, he would pathetically screech, "I wanna blowyournose!"

Near the end, though, he finally started finding his Zen again...

Backtracking 4 - Two Little Monkeys

This is as close to a focussed shot as I could get of the frenzy of movement that was the boys at play together. Jack knew the words to the song 'No More Monkeys' before our visit, but I would say that Maddux taught him the song's essence.

Backtracking 3 - Katie + Chalk + Boys = Aunt Katie Rules!

Katie and the boys went to town with the sidewalk chalk. A month later, Jack is still talking about it.

Maddux is pretty into letters and math. Jack's more of a random scribbler. Katie had talent enough to entertain all.

Backtracking 2 - Maddux is a Kissing Machine

Maddux likes to share the love...





Here's an oldie but a goodie. Maddux was almost Jack's age now when they first met. Hard to believe how much they've grown...

Backtracking 1 - Mel and Toby's Race Day

I've been meaning to post pics from our June trip to Illinois where we supported Aunt Melanie and Uncle Toby at their 5K. By 'support', I mean that Lola, Mama, Daddy, and the boys had bagels, cookies, and smoothies in an air-conditioned cafe while Mel and Toby endured the summer heat.

Both finished first in their age groups. Maddux was very proud that both his parents took home Piston Cups (aka trophies).

Hopefully Jack's Mama and Daddy will be in shape enough to participate in next year's race.

Big Muscles

Growth spurts are so strange to watch. This week he's been eating twice as much as normal and taking 3 hour naps. Every time we take him out of his crib, his limbs seem noticeably longer.

Of course, maybe some of those calories are being burned up by his incredible weight training regimen. See for yourself...

The Contortionist

Yesterday we had ultrasound images taken of Little Bit at 29 weeks 5 days. Here are our favorite shots.

In the video, the cursor points to the baby's mouth. Notice the cute grins. The 'wall' against which the baby's face seems to be smushed is actually his/her legs. Kiddo presently prefers hanging out jack knife style...that is, head down with feet and hands by his/her ears and face. Maybe we have an Olympian poised to dive out of the womb?



From the ultrasound images, we found it really hard to convince ourselves that this baby looks like anyone in particular. The images are all pretty fuzzy, and often times limbs or placenta or whatever blend together. Also, these kinds of images don't show hair all that well. We walked away feeling like we still don't know what this baby looks like, but we weren't bothered by that at all. Mostly we were thrilled to see such sweetness.



One thing we did see is that Little Bit has Big Brother Jack's feet.



We're very happy to report that Little Sibling appears to be healthy. Mama, Big Bro, and Daddy are all well, too.