the plague

the girls and i have been struck down by a bad cold and cough [plus a fever and added ear infections for thea] that we picked up in miami. we got home today and need a few days to recover and get our health back. i'll post more photos soon.

we miss everyone very much and had so much fun!

a scary thought

thea had her first nightmare last night. well, her first official one where she could tell us what she had been dreaming about...and it was a doozie. she screamed out at 2am and zack and i both rushed into her room. she was all frantic and terrified and when she calmed down enough to share, this is what she said: "a puppy was trying to move my bed."

i present a photo of thea in happier times, eating yogurt with papa, one of her absolute favorite things to do while my parents were here. the suger high kicked in less than 30 seconds after her last bite.

my first friend

here are helen and mason yesterday. they were slightly more into the superbowl than i was.



we all hoped they'd be friends but the relationship seems to be progressing a little fast for my taste. helen and i have spent the last few tuesdays with amy and mason [and it's been so nice to have the company] but this is the first documented photo of the two babies together. so, as amy says, "we'll have it for the slide show at their wedding. "

do re mi

and a recent photo of thea, audrey and olivia:

two months old

hellie belly is an extremely happy baby though the photo above doesn't necessarily reflect this. she's pretty much smiling and gurgling whenever she's awake. she still sleeps A LOT and has a total hibernation day every few days where she goes into power sleep mode [PSM]. other than that, she's perfectly content lying on her back for long stretches [at least 30 minutes or so] and every time we check on her she's chuckling to herself. then she'll be so tuckered out from all that lying on her back that she falls asleep. all on her own with no fanfare or fuss. this is especially amazing to me because i used to have to swaddle, shake and shush thea to sleep. sometimes i still do.

zack and i constantly thank her for being such an easy baby and encourage her to keep it up. we feel so lucky, though i think zack was secretly hoping she'd be difficult so i wouldn't want more children. in fact, i hate to rub it in but she's pretty much a dream baby. as i write this i'm cursing myself because i'm sure i'll jinx it but helen has been sleeping through the night except for one 15 minute feeding around 3:30 or 4am for the last month. she's got a sweet, slightly mischievious personality and is just the kindest, gentlest little soul. we've heard her cry twice - once when thea accidently bonked her on the head and once when thea accidently-on-purpose bit her hand. thea insists she couldn't resist because hellie is 'just so cute.' the first time she cried zack and i looked at each other and said, "oh, so that's what her cry sounds like," in amazement. by the way, her cry is totally different from thea's.

here's a video from january 26. helen started making some noises a few weeks ago and still gets really out of breath working them out of her not-quite-so-tiny-anymore body.