"Babies" and babies

M has these imaginary friends (I guess you could call them) that she calls "babies." They are apparently really tiny - they fit in the palm of her hand - and K is notorious for squishing the babies when he sits down next to her or puts his fork down. There have been inklings of imaginary babies in the past, but now it is going full force... the babies have to be buckled in their car seats, and she has to get her babies before she can go inside. When asked last night why she wouldn't go to sleep, she said, "My babies are wild." Don't you just hate it when your babies are wild?

Speaking of babies, my niece Baby Lorelei was discharged from the hospital today, cootie-free! I know Jen and Chad are excited to be home. In other good news, our friends Carrie and Chris' nine month old, Baby Heath, got a new heart on Sunday!! Right before Thanksgiving he was diagnosed with a heart condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy that is only curable with a heart transplant. His parents were told that it would probably be at least 6 months before he got a heart, but in the middle of the night on Sunday, they found out that a match was available. It is tragic for the donor family, but maybe there will be some comfort in knowing that their baby's heart lives on and that they've given another family the greatest gift imaginable. Baby Heath is still sedated and on a ventilator, but all of his organs are doing really well, and the docs hope to have him off the vent soon. What blessings for Advent!

M had a photo session with K's nephew Baby Alex on Friday. It went really well - our appointment was for 11am, and both of the kids were mellow and cooperative. Here are some pics:

Baby Lorelei is here!!

The sweetest baby you've ever seen! Head over to Jen's blog to check her out.

Obama, Obama, Obama

Please let Obama be elected today! That's all I can say right now...

Halloween

Hope you all had a good Halloween! Here is a pic of K and M... Her wings lit up (she was a firefly), but it wasn't quite dark enough to see when this picture was taken - If I can find one taken in the dark, I'll post it, too.
Edited to add: K is a jar of fireflies...he lit up as well.

Fall

Fall has well and truly arrived in NC after a freakishly warm September and early October (90 degrees? In October?). I love Fall - it is by far my favorite season. I love the trees turning, I love the crispness of the air, and I really love the golden quality of the light. M and I have spent the last couple of Fridays and Saturdays at the local science museum looking at the farm animals and bears and lemurs and playing with their wind exhibit. All summer the wind-focused section was boring - sitting there limply in the humidity - but now the steerable toy sailboats on the pond really fly and the seedpod launcher is super fun.

M has turned a corner and is so much fun lately. Right when I started to look out my door at every passing car, hoping a band of gypsies was coming by that I could give her to, M became a doll... I swear they know when you're hitting your breaking point! She still has her moments, don't get me wrong, but at least the fun-to-sucky ratio is more 9:1 instead of the reverse.

I've been trying to be a more mindful parent lately, trying to stop planning and focusing on the future so much and start enjoying what I've got. One of my colleagues at the research center where I work died of a rare autoimmune disease two weeks ago. I didn't know her that well - we worked on different research areas - but I started reading her blog in September: diaryofadyingmom.blogspot.com

Although you would think the posts would be depressing, Michelle was such a fighter and idealist that, without candy-coating anything or denying how horrible the situation was, her posts are an uplifting call to really LIVE. When she died on Oct 11th, on her 11th wedding anniversary, people from all over the world wrote in to say how much her writing meant to them... I'm not good at expressing that kind of emotion, but I guess my way is to try to incorporate the lessons she was able to communicate into my life the best I can.

Gratuitous kid pic:

Keep your John out of my uterus!

Please head over to Julie's at A Little Pregnant and read her post

"Why no one with a uterus should vote for John McCain"

She says what I couldn't get out last night as I was watching the debate, sputtering and cursing...