I swear he really was happy

Please enjoy some photo selections from Grammy K.'s stock - I was too busy running around like a crazy person to take any. These are all (of course), ripped off from Facebook, but I collected my faves of the 70+ available. 

Phone does tricks; takes the fancy movin' pikchers

I swear, when the camera is off, this child is a non-stop chatterbox. Well, he is when he's the only child around - gotta fill the void and all that, and a pretty significant noise void is created when Iris leaves the house. Anyway, I just downloaded the camcorder app for my iPhone, since it's a hand-me-down from a friend and only happens to be a 3G (anything newer and it would have had this function already)(not that a hand-me-down 3G is anything to spit at. I LOVEEEEE my free iBrain. Also spitting at phones tends to make them stop working). So this was an adventure! A totally lazy, unshowered, couch surf of an adventure. I'm very active in my free time, you see.  

Since Cormac is normally this completely jumpy, effusive noise box when he's in his exersaucer, I thought I'd try to get a few minutes. He makes a few sounds here and there, but I must warn you that this is about a minute forty of basically nothing much happening. I said like, "hey" or something to him once in an attempt to get him to do some kind of interesting baby trick, but I didn't want the whole thing to be a silently staring Cormac with my voice screeching in from the ether going, "Say hi to Mommy! Say hi to Mommy's camera, Cormac! Cormac! Cormac! Baybeee Cormmm-nessss!!! Cormie, Mommy's over here! Over here! Over here! Overhereoverhereoverhereoverheerrrrrrreeeee!!!" Which is what normally works quite well, actually, but wouldn't have this time because I was filming, and obviously he knows it, and really needed to win the stare down.

SO. Here is Cormac... chewin' on stuff. 

Six Monthiversary Anew

Dear Cormac,

Well dude, today was crazy, was it not? You and your sister have (hopefully) hit the bottom of your behavioral spiral down to what I can only describe as the human child equivalent of sad drunk penguins, fighting to play a single ukulele.  The volume/frustration/barf output parallels are uncanny, really, and as much as I love you crazy doodles, I am glad you're both feeling peaceful now. I mean, you have to be if you're asleep, right? 

You know, when I first found out that you were on your way, I was very sure that I knew you already; that, as your  mother, I could feel who you were through my skin. I knew you were a boy, I knew you'd be my good sleeper, and that you would be calm and sweet. I knew this the way that I knew your sister was a girl before I met her, the way that I knew your dad was supposed to share his smiles and his hugs and his last name with me before we'd even known each other a week.  

I could list the bad things I didn't know about (take for example, the general relativity of the concept of "calm"), but let's not focus on the negative here.  Today is your yesterday was your day of half-babyness, and I don't want to bring us down any more than I already did with that unstable avian comment. The moral of this story is that you are all those things.

You crack jokes with your little raised eyebrows at skeptical situations. You can crawl, but you don't because doing so would require that you remove both fists from your mouth, so you move in these lopsided half-circles like a one-oared canoe.  You don't really cry outside of sleep battles, but you are so loud. The other day I heard you grunting and happily screeching from the living room while I was in the garage, in my car, with the windows up.  To be fair, it's a thin wall, but dude - you're loud. 

I started writing this letter to you three days ago, knowing I would need a lot of time. On three separate occasions, I have written and deleted the comment, "you are sleeping now," because each time you woke up a few seconds later. Ahem. You are currently lying on a blanket next to me on the floor, and the last time I wrote that phrase was ten minutes ago. 

It's good to hang one-on-one like this though. You and your sister passed out this evening at 4:30, and I was really discouraged to learn that it seemed like you were both pretty serious about calling it a day and actually going to sleep for the night (hah - "the night"). Iris is, of course, dead to the world for at least eight hours, and while that's not great for my 11pm futureself, I got to chill for a couple of hours with you on the floor while you sang songs and played with my eyebrows. 

I know I won't always do the greatest job of slowing down enough to give you my undivided attention like this, but I hope you know that you are so worth every ounce of love we squeeze you with. Your babyhood is no less precious to us simply because we've done this once before and you are no less special because you happened to be the little brother.

(Hey, I'm trying to make sure you get equal representation in the photo annals, but your sister WAS sitting on my back, hanging from my neck when these were taken. Hope you didn't need really good photo history of your forehead at this age.)

You have now entered the second half of the first year of your life. You love hugs and your squishy baby doll and your big sister. You are known as Cormac, Mac, Cormie (God help us), Big Daddy C, Daddy Mac, and of course, DJ Squizzles. Someday you will be taller than me, shaving your face, and trying to convince your sister to buy you beer (which will not be happening will it, Iris Luella? No it will not, chicklets. No it will not). Remember that to your dad and me, you will always be our baby, our Cormac Michael, named after your grandfathers and born on yet another auspicious Thursday to tearfully grateful parents. 

The Pink Party Part R.A.(h): The Final Chapter (I swear)

Originally I was going to have Rebecca photograph the party. I will say outwardly that this was because Iris' third birthday was her first she'd actually remember, her first for which she'd actually been self-aware enough to actually have a say in the planning and, while this is all true, it's also the first that I'd put so much effort into the decoration and thematic direction, and I really wanted some professional photos of my pretty, pretty tablescape my beautiful, opinionated child on her birthday.

Anyway, we ended up deciding to wait on a RA photosesh till this summer, when hopefully Cormac can keep his guts in-check and we're all a little more pulled together on pretty much every front. Rebecca Allen, Photog Extraordinaire and Good Friend to boot (it's your official title now; go with it) is so wonderful that she, after having been canceled on for the photosesh in the flippiest of  textual manners (go me), took some shots anyway. She's wonderful, no?

And I'm so wonderful I'm making you go to her website to view the photos and buy many, many prints.

The Grammy Series: Pink Party Part Deux

Okay, I had to make these all really small or blogger wouldn't let me even upload this many. As you can see, the chaos was abundant. I still maintain it was one of the best parties we ever threw. Giant mushy thanks to Grammy K. for getting these photos (see facebook for the full set), since Kyle was preoccupied with maintaining Cormac's happiness (though Grammy did her fair share of that too. huh.), and I was busy running around like a crazy person trying to keep the party going (we have fifty-seven candles in this house and the only ones I could find were non-matching, slightly pre-used, and one was shaped like the letter "E.").

Aside to Aunt Di: Sorry the only photo of you is with your eyes closed - you look so dang cute I couldn't resist.

One more photo-heavy post soon about the Pink Party then I swear I'm letting it go. Enjoy!

The Manly Missus

Iris received a set of pink mustaches for girls from Lois for her birthday. Tagline on the package: "Don't be caught in public with a naked upper lip!" Each one is a different shape and comes with its very own name: The Frida, The Grandma (what??), The Cowgirl, The Bollywood, The Lip Liner, The Heroine, and of course, The Manly Missus. In a fit of style overload, Iris combined the Frida, Heroine, and Manly Missus to create this pink monstrosity of awesomeness.

Also apparently I only take photos in front of this little book case. Huh.

Books

Cormac is normally asleep or half passed-out and nursing when Iris' bedtime routine goes down. So normally, he's not so lucid for the book-reading portion of the evening. Tonight though, I propped him up on his boppy next to Iris in her bed and read them both the requisite four books. He was so thrilled with everything - he loved the pictures and giggled every time I made eye contact with him. He actually bounced in his seat every time I turned the page. I am in love with this development.

Now look at some pictures of the baby trying to sit up:

Time to talk about the new kid

When I tell you that Cormac is happy, I need you to understand what I mean by "happy." This child suffers painful reflux, teething, and neurological growth spurts simultaneously. These are things which would individually adversely affect the mood of any person, not to mention a baby, if just one of those things happened to them. This kid takes it all on at the same time, gets kind of grunty and fussy (and probably barfs on you a few times), but then he's ready with a gooey chuckle and a grin that will melt you, the second you give him an ounce of attention.

None of these pictures show his smile, I know. You have to understand that if Cormac is smiling, he is moving, and he usually only smiles really awesomely if he's also being held. Not conducive to photo-taking.

Things that make Baby Mac smile: fake bite his hands, nuzzle his neck, tell him he looks like Alex Trebec, make buzzy-zerbert noises with your mouth, play airplane with him. The thing is, when he smiles, he laughs, and when he laughs, his whole body moves. He also opens his mouth in a big gummy grin and you can see the TWO (!) teeth which are about to pop out on the bottom.

Cormac rolls over, army crawls a bit, aaaaalmost sits up on his own (I know, right? crazy.), knows his name, recognizes Iris' name, grasps chunky objects and brings them to his mouth, supports his weight on standing legs if you hold on to his top half, and of course, he still does that thing where he says "Ehhhhhh" in greeting when he first sees you in the morning/after a nap/when you get home from work. He's in the bajillionth percentile for everything as far as his size goes.

I seriously need to get more pictures of this kid. Every time I post anything here, they've all been viewed to death on facebook and everyone's all "meh" about them. I mean, even I'm not all that stoked about them...

His six month well-baby check-up is in about a month (I can't even process that information), at which point we have Iris' 3-year check-up (again with the incomprehensible information), so I'll have all sorts of fun statistics for ya then. Meanwhile I swear I'll get better photos.

P.S. I hear Grammy is organizing the Pink Birthday photos and we'll get access to those soon, so stay posted for that!

Party Time!

EXCELLENT! (had to do it) So here are some snaps of Iris' Pink Party! There are a few unremarkable shots still living on my phone, but these are some that I stole from facebook (raise your hand if you're suprised I did that... is that crickets? just checking). Anway, as such, I know almost all of you have already seen these, but what the hey - I'm sure someone out there is still resisting the pull of the great FB (lookin' at you, K-Lonzo).

I took this before the party started. The rainbow-arms? Yeah, those are legwarmers specifically ordered for this party. Apparently they are sleeves now.

After her school birthday party, Iris came home all aflutter that her friends sang a song about her birthday, just for her. She was so touched by that. When it happened again, at her house (!!!), she turned to me right after she (we) blew the candles out, hugged my neck super hard, and, with tears in her eyes said, "I'm so happy!"

Kyle manned the present-opening portion of the afternoon. Please note the serious, "I am now dispensing Fatherly Advice" scene portrayed here. Also do please note the Pink Panther t-shirt (thanks Grammy!).

Iris' Pink Party

Ok, So

It's been a minute. Got that. Sorry dudes. Not a lot to recap over here, really. Here's some pictorial narrative to ease your mind:

Cormac wants to sit up now! He can't, mind you, but the exersaucer provides him with some moments of greatness. Also note the drool. He's teething. Already. Teething + reflux = ?? I'll tell you what it equals: laundry. Let's all applaud Kyle's tireless efforts in that department. He's like the linen whisperer.

Iris has many babies. They all have names and they all must go to bed before she does. Usually she locates various individual locations throughout the house that would actually be somewhat appropriate places for real babies to sleep. They are always lovingly wrapped in blankets and propped up on pillows, in various (actual, live human, family members') beds, on boppies, etc. This photo documents the first occasion that a small segment of her babies slept on a pallet and had a slumber party. Meet Baby Alex, Baby Cormac, and Baby Iris (left-right). Yes, the long red-headed girl-doll is Baby Cormac. Discuss. This photograph by no means captures all of the babies in their beds, btw. There are probably another four babies (at least) not pictured.

I was afforded the opportunity to sit outside DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS recently. Because of this awesomely catastrophic global anti-winter situation we're in, I was very comfortable in the 50+ degree weather, and I got to watch the sun set. This is the view from my back porch. Please feel free to express your jealousy in the comments.

Since Logan and Iris are in the same classroom at CMS, I get to benefit from all of Rebecca's photography of various school adventures. Iris' class went on a field trip to one of those "paint some ceramics"-type places today. This candid shot, while beautiful, doesn't quite relay the joy I know Iris felt once she began painting her plate. She's turning out to be quite the artiste (!); once she got home, all she could talk about was how she painted her plate with pink and white, and also purple! And she decided not to make any shapes, she just wanted to see what the colors all looked like next to each other.

Cheer!