Invasion of Cuteness

So Molly is now 4 weeks old. Can you believe it? Yes, I will update the tickers soon. There's not a lot of free time for blogging these days, as you might guess. But I have managed to take some pictures, mostly of Molly, but occasionally of other family members too. So here's a quick photo heavy blog entry of our last few weeks.

So tiny in the crib that will be hers once we finish putting the nursery together.

showing off her twirling abilities

our skinny minny Molly, probably about 1 week old.

first sponge bath at home.

post bath snuggle

streeeettccchhhhhhhhh.

Eliza is enjoying the return of baby items. We have to monitor how much she reclaims as her own, like this baby hat.

First day of school for the girls! They are busy watching some construction trucks down the street, so I couldn't get them to look at me and smile.

Eliza dressing up "fancy,"

such an adorable face!

so sweet.

Jason's birthday cake!

Hayden gave him cackalacky sauce for his birthday! Her own idea.

cake face and hands! Yum!

don't you just want to pick her up and snuggle her!?!

look, Daddy did pick her up to snuggle!

wake up, wake up! It's time to eat!
(She's not good at waking up to eat, so she often gets stripped down at meal time. and sometimes put on the floor, so there's no one warm to snuggle into)

big, medium and teeny tiny.

Grammy and Granddad came to visit to meet Molly.

one final picture of sweet cuteness.

Eliza is two!

Eliza turned two today! Given the whole newborn thing, we played it really low key and just had Grandma and Popop over for our little birthday pizza party. All in all she had a pretty good day for a two year old. There were special birthday pancakes, complete with chocolate chips in them, plus fresh raspberries to eat off her fingers. There was a trip to the mall with Daddy and Hayden to play in the play area (so Mommy could bake her birthday cake in peace.) There was even yummy-ade (aka lemonade) for snack. And for dinner there was homemade pizza and watermelon.

And of course there was cake for dessert. In the few days leading up to her birthday, we'd ask "What do you want for your birthday Eliza?" She'd reply, "umm, cake!" So we made her a cake. She even got to help "taste" the icing as it was being decorated this afternoon. This time I made a mayonnaise cake from our family cookbook; can you guess the secret ingredient? (hint: it's not mayo!). She was very excited about the cake and even managed to blow out the two candles! (I wouldn't recommend eating the pieces near the candles though; there was more than just air that came out of her mouth when she blew.) She mostly ate the icing.

the cake. Hayden helped put the candies around the edge. She liked that I let her eat all the brown ones.

My cake!

A big grin while using talking with Aunt Lacey on the phone.

Eating. She ate all the M&Ms first, then started on the icing, using both her fingers and the fork.

I thought it was cool that when given a choice to have a mini-cupcake after her piece of cake (it was her birthday after all), she chose the one with the E and knew it was hers! She only barely licked the frosting on it, in case you are worried that she overindulged.

E is for Eliza!

Presents were a big hit. Hayden was ready to give her any assistance she needed in opening cards and presents, and sometimes even tried to help when Eliza was doing fine. (Hayden was not happy that she didn't get presents or special treats today.) Eliza was excited by most everything she opened and was ready to open it right away, but was willing to continue opening presents after a little bit of encouragement.

here Eliza, I'll help you get it open.

Hayden supervising closely. Notice the no pants on Eliza. It was that kind of party!

a stroller! Let's hope she doesn't sit in this one and break it!

her fancy new nightgown. She put it on and said, "I'm pretty!"

Her favorite present might be her new baby sister. We even managed a family birthday shot after all the festivities were done.


I think she had a great day. It's hard to believe she's two years old already!

From this....

to this...

to this!...

Happy Birthday Eliza! We love you!

At the Hospital

And now for the fun part - Pictures! After the birth, they needed to monitor Molly for 48 hours. They were flexible with their usual protocol and released us at 10:30 at night, mainly because otherwise I would have been released but Molly would have stayed. Leaving at night was weird, but so good to get home. But that means we were there all of Monday and Tuesday and I took lots of pictures of my adorable new baby girl.

such a cutie! (and I think she looks like Eliza in this picture).

The three girls are all together for the first time. Hayden immediately wanted to see her and touch her. Eliza just giggled with glee at the "baby!"

Grandma introducing Molly to Hayden.

First photo of our family of five!

More cuteness. She was surprisingly awake while at the hospital.

Me and Molly doing a "long arm" self photo.

Lori and Wes stopped by to meet her on Monday evening.

Family photo thanks to our visitors.

She has a tongue! She makes funny faces! I guess we'll keep her!

Her hat got lots of comments at Duke Hospital. :)

so peaceful and cozy.

tiny toes.

Waah! I don't want to stretch out! (and I don't like having ALL my appendages banded!)

Finally it was time to go home.

We put on her going-home outfit. (way too big, even in newborn size!)

Molly and I got to ride down in a wheelchair. Jason didn't actually push it but a nurse stopped us to take our picture so Jason stepped in.

And then we tucked our teeny tiny baby into the infant car seat (along with many hospital blankets) and rode off into the night!

We're so happy to have you join our family, little Miss Molly.
Now get eating so you can do some growing!