OK, we'll keep him.

Fiona has decided to accept Sam's arrival and move on with life.  

She is pursuing veterinary training and, in lieu of a white coat, will wear tighty whities.

She's made a pretty remarkable transition this week from crying and backing away from the screeching newcomer to playing through, saying, "Want some bweast miwk?", and occasionally emitting an imitative squeak and laughing at her own joke.   She's studying the process of baby caretaking carefully.  Tonight she came in to say goodnight to me while I was pumping and asked for her own pump so she could make some milk for Baby Evie (a doll modeled after Evelyn Sullivan) who was slung around her neck in a carrier.  What an amazing kid.  She's also having another verbal and imaginative explosion and spending most of each day in intense conversation with us or her stuffies.  So fun.

It really helps her adjustment that he is a jackpot of a baby.  He sleeps 4-5 hours at a time, spends about an hour at a time awake - most of it eating - and only cries when he's trying to breastfeed.  He has a pretty significant tongue tie which we're having snipped tomorrow (eek - hard to watch on your own kid) so he's getting most of his milk from pumped bottles.  Each feed I've been torturing training him on the breast first so Fiona has to endure 15 minutes of his panicked hunger screams several times a day.  Amazingly, she sleeps through them at night, the champ.  

Look at Saia, this wonderful "Second Big Sister" (as she named herself), feeding Sammy.

You can't beat old friends.  

You shouldn't beat ANY friends; let's be honest.

There's a lot going on here.  Emma is injecting Ross' toes in the foreground.  Or maybe freezing warts; I'm not sure.  It was a busy visit.

Happy kiddo getting lots of love.

It was a birthday-filled week.  Ainsley and Eliza turned ten (10!) and Grandpa Rick turned older than ten.  

Unfortunately we didn't scrape any frosting off her celebratory chocolate cupcake and she became a crazed stranger who eventually cried herself to sleep last night.  Sorry, kiddo!  Our bad.  

Here's Sam being totally no fun to play with in Elliott's mom's bassinet.

Here's Sam being totally no fun at the Fall Creek playground.  

Hip hip hooray for not being pregnant!!!

Hip hip hooray for the incredibly dear result!!!