Glamour shots- Georgie.

Mama found a few more outfits from the "Becky collection" that she wanted to put me in before it was too late.

This is the baptism gown Grandma made mama when she was a baby. Mama was baptized when she was only 10 days old, so she wanted to stuff me in it while I was still small enough.

The arm holes are actually so small that Grandma ripped part of the seam so June could put it on when she was a baby. After this little photo shoot, mama sewed the seams back up. I guess this means she's not saving the dress for any more fat-armed little girls.

There's someone up there, isn't there? Don't let him jump on me!

We finally got a real smile on camera! I had a huge dirty diaper while mama was taking pictures and she was terrified of what yellow baby poop might do to a white 29 year old dress, so I had a quick change. Maybe it's easy to catch a smile on the changing table because I do not like having a dirty diaper and love getting changed into a nice, dry diaper.

Next outfit- mama's tiny little white stork sleeper. But by this point, I was tired and didn't want my picture taken.

Mama had a heck of a time finding this sleeper. She had it out before I was born, but then it got misplaced.

She searched the whole house and finally found it in a bin of Henry's old clothes she put in the attic. She was so happy she found it that I've worn it twice this week.

Don't I look sweet? But don't be fooled. I don't like to sleep on my own without being touched.

The only way mama can get me to take a nap on my own is to wrap me up in my fancy swaddling blanket (it even has built in arm restraints!) as tight as she can get me. This can normally buy her around 5 minutes before I wake up and demand to be held. But on Saturday afternoon, I did sleep for almost 4 hours. Alleluia!

I'll have mine with a side of George- June.

Mama, we know she can't roll over yet, but is this really the best place to keep a baby?

Fine, just don't let her put a foot in my "butter-jelly."

I love playing with my "Een-steins" as the Little Einsteins are known around our house. I line them up and name them: "Leo... Annie..Een-stein...Een-stein." Those two little black-haired girl is also named June, so we have a good deal of Little Einsteins stuff (and mama doesn't find them terribly annoying like some other shows). But I don't like that June has my name, so she is just called "Een-stein."

No new news on my foot. I'm taking my medicine and it's still about the same. It's not bothering me, except that I walk slower.

(Side note: We're not going to complain about a sore foot, because there are some pretty major kid injuries going on out there in the blog world right now. Broken arms, broken legs, braces on 3 year olds?!?!? Take it easy, blog friends!)

Last week, we went out for pizza. Papa fed me a slice without cutting it up. I love it! Then we went to a soccer game at the University. At every meal since, I've requested "pizza and soccer game."

Henry's got a computer game that he plays called "Jump Start Kindergarten." He's played it this summer, but only just recently discovered that there are missions you have to go on that involve earning gems, then using the gems to buy things to accomplish the mission. Some of the things he has to do is earn gems to buy a pet, food, shampoo, and teach it tricks. His pet is a blue pig named Blossom. He also bought seeds, plant food, and a special light and grew flowers to plant in a flower bed. He loves this game.

Where's that baby now? Mama thinks this picture with the bright flash and the look on Georgie's face makes it looking like a shocking celebrity caught in the act of something scandalous. But the only scandalous thing Georgie might do is get the sheets dirty. Get a diaper on that kid!

On Saturday morning, papa took Henry and John to Lowes for the Build and Grow clinic. If you've never been to one, it's good free fun and kids get to build something on their own with great little kits with precut pieces and pre-drilled holes for nails and kid sized tools. I was MAD when I was not allowed to go.

Henry built a little stage and put on a show that featured Lowe's workers and aliens. (He didn't actually put on a show, but had a fun time arranging them on the stage.)

Papa promised them that if they were good they could go out for doughnuts. We didn't know that there would be fire trucks and the fire safety truck on display at Lowes. So by the time they got back from the grocery store, it was almost noon. Mama tried to fortify our lunch doughnuts with some apples, cheese, carrots and yogurt. But guess what was the only item to get eaten in it's entirety? Sorry, Miss Juliet, for sugaring John up and sending him home.

They brought home a doughnut for me too. I took the unorthodox "no-hands" method. Pretty messy for a cream-filled doughnut.

After lunch, I closed myself in the office and read books until mama made me take a nap.

1 month comparison- Georgie.

Part of being the youngest of 3 means recreating photo opportunities so you match your older brother and sister. These were all taken when we were roughly one month old.

Here's the original shot of Henry in his "I love my aunt" outfit. Look at all that black hair!

June clearly wins the chunky baby contest.

I did not want to get my picture taken just because everyone else did it. But besides being the blondest kid with the least hair, it looks like I'm also the smallest of the three of us. That makes mama feel better because she regularly comments on how big I'm getting then starts talking about how maybe she does want 4 kids after all. Don't go down that road, mama. I'm the baby and I plan on staying the baby.

Soaked- Henry.

We've had a great time playing with the new water works PVC pipe toy. Or the "water table" as it has come to be known.

We even went back to the hardware to store to buy more connectors so we could make it bigger and better.

We're learning a lot about water pressure and now I know that you can't crank up the water without busting a joint.
You can guess how much mama loves playing with this, regardless of the wasted water, big mud puddles, and dirty legs.

I don't have to take a bath tonight, right?

June, what are you doing in France carrying around a a baguette? Oh wait, you're just in Pendleton at our favorite bakery. (By the way, Aunt Jenni, now they're making chocolate twist pretzels!)

Don't wait till you get home!

When I get home from school at 2, June is already down for her nap and hopefully Georgie is too. I need to have a little time to wind down before I go down for my nap (though I don't sleep). So mama made a deal with me. Every day when I get home, we have to do at least two workbook pages together. Mama is glad that I'm quiet, and I'm glad because mama makes us lemonade to share while we work. Today, I read all of the words on this page and colored each block the right color to reveal the picture. When I was done, mama took my picture with this tired fussy baby.

Happy Month Day!- George.

Yesterday, I was one month old!

I am so alert! It's getting hard for mama and papa to get me to sleep during the day. Unless I'm being held of course.

Mama continues to think I have a very pleasant disposition, despite the fact that I may be the fussiest of her 3 babies. She is continually reminded of a line from Prode and Prejudice where Mrs. Gardiner observes of Mr. Darcy: "There's something very pleasant about his mouth when he speaks." Coincidentally, Mr. Darcy's little sister is named Georgiana- a fact that did not escape mama when she was naming me.

Mama was dismayed to realize that a whole month has gone by and she hasn't dressed me up in any "Vintage Becky."

This was the dress mama came home from the hospital in. It was probably a little longer on mama as a newborn. June had her turn in this dress too.

Here's the wonderful blessed 4th nuk that I finally decided to take.

Even though it's hard to get a "touch-free" nap from me during the day, my night time sleep is great!

I consistently sleep from 4-7 hours at a time. Mama thinks this may having something to do with the fact that I continue to nurse at least 3 or 4 times between 8 and midnight.

Hey mama, when you're going to take an artsy photo, remember to clean out under the couch.

During mama's insomnia spells this summer, she made a bunch of initial t-shirts for all the new babies she knows. Here's my "G." Did we ever tell you that I would have been named George if I was a boy? That's why the "G" shirt was made well in advance.

Mama heard that some of the other kids liked their shirts so much that they immediately had huge diaper blowout. I decided to follow that trend.

Whoa! Why didn't anyone tell me my head was so big? But I am putting in the effort to catch the rest of my body up. Check out those thigh rolls! They weren't there a month ago!

After my photo shoot, I slept for a while until Henry saw that I was awake. His first concern was to cover my legs so i wouldn't get cold. (I was only 94 degrees outside today.) His next concern was to determine my preference. First, he presented me with 3 empty medicine cups. He said they were filled with water, milk, and juice. I picked milk. Next, he wanted to know which mode of transportation I liked best.
It's too hard to choose!

Looks like he's done this before. Remember when June was a baby? Blech, we forgot about that gross rash he had. Check out how much dark hair June had! Mama might have to set up a comparison of all of us at 1 month.

Engineering marvels- June.

Mama saw this in a magazine and has been wanting papa start this project for us for a while. Today finally proved the perfect day to try it.

What is it? Simply put, it's PVC pipe and a bunch of connectors and a hose. But drill a couple holes and it's a sprinkler that can be taken apart and rebuilt a thousand different ways. It took Henry a while to decide it was more than a fancy way to water the garden and actually get up the nerve to run through it.

I had fun running in the water before I realized my dress was COMPLETELY SOAKED! Oh no! Papa had to take me inside and calm me down with a grilled cheese. (By the way, since our grandmas were in town Henry has caught on that most people don't eat grilled cheese by toasting bread and melting cheese on it in the microwave. Now, he always requests it on the stove.)

You might have heard George crying in the video. She was mad because no one was holding her. But she eventually fell asleep in the swing and let us play for a few minutes.

Before bed, papa let us watch the start of the Clemson football game. I really got into it. At the end you can hear me expressing concern over a "Joey." Joey Votto apparently is the universal term for any athlete now.

Mama's so pumped about this, she made me post it. The Williams family in Madison sent us this AWESOME baby present. Nothing says congratulations on your new baby like two brat fest totes! They also sent Georgie a Madison Farmer's Market shirt. The best of Madison! Thanks, Williams!

Our crazy week- mama.

So we mentioned yesterday that the week was a little crazy too. You'll remember that June has been having ankle problems all summer. When we went into see the doctor for Georgie's check-up a few weeks ago, she took another look at June's ankle and recommended we visit an orthopedist in Greenville.

He took more x-rays and also determined there were no breaks or fractures. The next step was bloodwork and an MRI. Since it's a hike to Greenville, he was able to get us in at the hospital that day for the MRI. It made for a very long day as we had the baby with us and weren't planning on spending the day in the hospital.

At the hospital, June was not pleased to have an IV put in. I got to go back to the MRI machine to be with her when she was sedated. She was pretty mad, but the medicine kicked in almost instantly and she passed out mid-cry. She was very disoriented when she came to and spent a few hours getting back to normal.

After the MRI, the doctor found that June's ankle (bones, tendons, everything) was filled with fluid. And after a visit to the rheumatologist, it was determined that June has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Poor kid.

The good news is that it only seems to be in her one ankle. And it seems to be mild enough that right now we're only treating it with regular does of ibuprofen. Hopefully, this flair up goes away in the next 6 months. Then we'll have to wait and see if it comes back. The best news is that most kids with JRA don't grow up to be adults with RA.

A quiet week- Georgie.

It's been a quiet, but crazy week here. (More on the crazy later). Here's the quiet. We're still adjusting to life on a school schedule, so there wasn't much to take pictures of this week. It's quite a job getting 3 kids up and (mostly ready) to get out the door every morning before 9. We're car-pooling with John this year, so we have to be sure to be on time every morning. The good news is that all 4 parents are strategic parts of the car pool, so mama never has to make the afternoon pick up during naptime. We're still trying to perfect the morning plan, because mama eventually wants to get back to the gym and her classes start at 9:15, not leaving much room to make the school drop-offs and get me into the gym daycare before all the spinning bikes are taken.

During one of the 15 minute periods that I took a nap without having to be touched, mama and Juner worked on a project. They made a paper mache bowl out of Clemson colored tissue paper. (We had purple and orange paper because papa's college gave me a t-shirt that said "Class of 2031." Adorable!) It was a great project because it didn't take too long and Junie got to "paint" with the flour paste with no fear of staining anything.

You look awfully pleased with yourself, missy.

After catching sight of June's project, Henry decided to give it a shot too. Mama wanted to added about 10 more layers, so the bowl could be stronger and ended up doing the last 5 herself because Henry got bored. Here's his bowl.

And here's Henry mere fractions of a second after throwing it across the room when mama asked for a picture. Now mama doesn't advocate violence against children, but, ooooh, does she want to smack him when she sees this picture. It's been a rough week for those two. It was Henry's first full week of school, and 5 hours a day of work and loud play is a lot for a guy who has had a very quiet summer. It all escalated when mama took the three of us out for a walk/bike ride. When we got a mile from the house, Henry threw a fit to end all fits and the entire neighborhood now knows that Henry thinks everything mama does is wrong and that mama would have gladly left him on the side of the road if it wasn't her legal duty to make sure he didn't get run over by a car. It took a long time to get home and by that point Henry had lost his bike for a week and his favorite computer game for two days. Mama put him straight in bed and he tried every excuse in the book to get some sympathy. It ended when he screamed for 10 minutes that he was afraid and mama finally yelled back "The only thing you need to be afraid of is me coming up those stairs." Eventually, he calmed down and he and mama reached a quiet understanding about what behavior will get you locked in an attic and that asking for a picture at 3pm on a Friday afternoon is probably not going to turn out how you'd like it. Needless to say, mama has checked out the series of "Love and Logic" books at the library to reread.

I continue to be completely cute. GG and GG sent this outfit to me. It says "Mommy says I'm purr-fect" and has a kitty on the back. Thanks, GG and GG! I still want to be held, but about once a day, I let mama put me down in my swing or bouncy seat for about a half hour. She can stretch it out longer if June is running around in front of me.

I can still be lured to sleep by a car ride or a cozy walk in the sling, but when I'm awake, I am really alert and aware of what's going on around me. I've started following sounds and looking around for things. I really like the birds and mirror on my swing. My most alert times continue to be in the evening after the kids go to bed, between 8 and midnight. Because of that, mama didn't feel bad taking me out to eat with her mom's club last night. She did feel bad when it turned out to be a sort of rowdy bar, but the murder mystery dinner theater complete with Vegas show girl costumes and men in drag helped distract attention from me. We really got some bizarre looks when she stopped at the grocery store at 10:30 to pick up milk and fudge. The big night must have worn me out because I slept from midnight until 6:45, then went back to sleep until mama woke me up to go to school at 8:40.