The weekends go too fast

Poor Mimi. She is not an animal person, and this is what she finds in her bed at night when she wants to go to sleep. We have to do animal patrol and extract at least all the cats from her room before bedtime. Bianca has been sleeping on a big, luxurious dog bed in the room with her though - but she's not pesty at all (and stays on the floor) and Mimi doesn't mind sharing the room with her.

"What do you mean 'doesn't like cats'??" asks Forrest. "I make the best bed snuggler."

Dyl & Mommy - modeling Dyl's new 'ride'. I was paranoid to use slings in the infant position, but now that she can sit up like this, it's quite handy. We did lots of dinner prep this way tonight, and she almost fell asleep like that.

Snug as a bug in a rug. (Or a Roo in a rug, in Dyl's case.)

Playing in her bouncy chair after her dinner-time nap. We were making up rhymes for the animals that are hanging above her, along the lines of her 'Peekaboo Forrest' book. (Her favorite book. An example from the book: Who eats acorns under the moon? Peekaboo! It's the raccoon!) Our additions: Who eats grubs under a log? Peekaboo! It's the hedgehog! and Who chews fingers in her bouncy chair? Peekaboo! It's a Dylly-Bear!

I'm so glad Dyl has gotten to spend so much time with Mimi this week. She really loves Mimi already and will smile for her when she won't smile for anyone else. (And she laughs for her too!) I want Dylan to love my Grandma as much as I do.

Farrah-bean, caught licking her chops. She's still the best pet with babies, she lets Dylan pet her and she licks Dylan's hands. They like to check each other out.

The pets must have noticed that we think it's cute when Dyl sticks out her tongue, and figured they better play along so they can get some attention too. ;) Poor, neglected puppies & kitties.

I can't believe my oldest child will be 9 years old in 2 days, I feel old! I love you so much Ruby, I can hardly remember a time without you. I got her the weekend before finals my freshman year of college. She's been through almost all of undergrad with me, all of vet school, meeting Chad, getting married, she's lived in 5.5 different houses, and she's had 7 younger siblings. She's one wonderful dog, and she better live at least another 9 years!

Bianca - 6.5 years old - she really is a wonderful dog too. And I do truly love her & those crazy eyebrows.

Tucker-momo - 4.5 years old. He's the only boy dog & the youngest dog, so of course he's extra spoiled. But we do love our little beggar boy, even if he is rotten! :)

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already. This weekend flew by in a blur of productivity. We are sad that Mimi is heading back to Wooster tomorrow, but we really had a fun visit with her and we appreciate all her help so much. Next it will be our turn to go to Wooster & visit her! :)

Is there anything cuter...

than a naked baby?? Look at that cute little butt! Look at those adorable elbow dimples! It's almost too much cuteness to bear!

We had a lovely snowed in day at home today. We were very productive, and we've decided that we should alternate between going to Katy & Greg's and having Mimi down every other weekend. That way we can catch up on sleep every other weekend at K&G's since Dyl likes to sleep there, and we can catch up on housework on the opposite weekends when Mimi is here to play with Dyl. :) Dylan thinks Mimi is the best - she's had big laughing spells for her twice today, like she did with K&G 2 weekends ago. She's had a few little laughing spells for me in between, but apparently Mimi & Katy are the funniest people Dylly knows! I'm hoping she's going to start laughing all the time now, it is just TOO cute!

Hopefully we will have another productive day tomorrow and then we might have accomplished everything on our immediate to-do list. Then, sadly, Mimi claims she is going home on Monday. We'll see what we can think up between now and then to trick her into staying longer... ;)

Copy Cat

I can't come up with nearly as cute of captions as I did for Dyl's photo shoot with Mimi last night, I think I'm too sleepy. I know this is just a copy cat of last night's series, but Grandma was here tonight and took these. I don't love this first picture of me, but it was too cute of Dyl not to post it.

I think this one looks like she's saying: "Stop it - you're making me blush!"

Grandma says this one looks like Dyl's had a little bit too much of Uncle Greg's homemade prison hooch! (Ha ha!)

Hi there, pretty baby. Do you know how much your mommy loves you? Sooooo much.

Blowing raspberries at me - she loves her new skill. I've never liked having someone spit all over my face so much! ;) It's amazing what you think is wonderful when it's your baby doing it!

My new favorite picture of the two of us. (Why on earth does this blog get possessed and underline things sometimes??)

We haven't been sleeping very well this week - so I apologize for my lack of creative writing. My brain feels like it's wrapped in a wool blanket! So I think I'll just quit while I'm ahead & say good night - sleep well, all!

Mommy, can we keep her??

"But I don't want to go to bed, Mimi. I want to stay up and play with you."

"I know, you'll be here when I wake up, but still!"

"You're just so much fun! And I love you so many bunches."

"You make me smile all the time!"

"And we blow raspberries at one another, and make funny faces together!"

"Mommy, can we keep Mimi? Pretty please?? I really love her!"

Once again, Chadmo is trying to trick Mimi into moving in until Dylan is 1. Dylan and I both think that sounds like a wonderful plan! She has a real knack with babies, and Dylan just thinks she is great. (And of course, Chad & I do too. :)) My days at home just fly by with Mimi to keep us company. Today Oldemor (Great Grandma Stevelt), Grandma, and Grandpoppy all stopped by at various times to visit too - our house was a happening place today! Poor Grandma is sick again, and now Grandpoppy has a cold too. So they're only allowed to step in the door, not touch anything (including Dylan), and try not to breathe on anything. We are hoping they both get well ASAP - boo on cold & flu season. Hopefully Mimi, Chadmo, Dyl & I can avoid their germs. Wish us luck!

Mimi's here!

Mimi arrived today, in spite of the snow, and as you can see by Dylan's expression below: Dylan loves her and thinks she is TOO funny! :)

More snuggling with Daddy & smiling at Mimi (who's never one for having her picture taken.)

My cutie-pies. I love them so much! It's adorable how excited Dylan gets when Chad comes home from work - she loves her Daddy.

Wheeeee! It's a Dylly-bird! (Also, we sneakily managed to get Mimi in the picture - really it's cutest of her. :))

We're so glad Mimi has finally gotten a chance to come down and stay with us for awhile - I love having her company & help (I'm scheduling all my various doctor's appointments for while she's here), Dylan thinks she's lots of fun, and we've just missed her. When Haley was here, Mimi was here all the time. Since Dylan was born, she's been busy with radiation. We're so thankful that she's done with that now (and that it shrunk her tumor at least 50%!) and that she can come down and visit us again. We're going to be soaking up the next few days of Mimi - we love her to bits!

Exersaucer Fun

Miss Dyl playing in her exersaucer. She still can't really reach everything, but she thinks it's fun anyway!

Looking at those silly monkeys that Mommy keeps making slide across the bar.

Well, the Katy-&-Greg's-House-Magic-Baby-Sleeping-Powder wore off last night. But Dylan still managed to sleep 2 4-hour stretches, and just woke up to eat in the middle and then went right back to sleep. Still, that was a short night and we were up about 3 hours earlier than usual. The one perk to this was that we got to go out to the clinic and hang out with Grandpoppy while he was doing surgery this morning. Then we came back in the house for another snack, and a nap. After our nap, and lunch, Dyl and I went out to Klingelhafer's and caught up with Susie who we hadn't seen in ages. It was a fun afternoon, and made the day fly by. Chadmo was almost home before we were!

Dylan was a bit of a crabcake today after her short night's sleep last night, but she's been SOO happy this evening. She, Chadmo, & I have been having a fun evening hanging out together. :) We are also anxiously awaiting Mimi's arrival tomorrow - it feels like we haven't seen her in ages. It will be lots of fun to have her spend the next few nights with us, and it will also be a big help to me as she's going to go to lots of various appointments with us and watch Dylan while we're there. All-in-all it should be a fun & productive week!

(I promise Dyl isn't actually bigger than I am.)

Dylan and I decided it would be fun to take our baths at the same time tonight. But then I think she was having second thoughts once she realized she was going to have to share the spotlight for pictures... ;) And of course, Forrest never misses out on bath time!