Emmie asking, "Is it the morning now?" when she is supposed to be taking a nap. 

Alan brought back these Curious George rain coats from Boston and the girls got plenty of chances to use them this week. 

Alyssa in the dress I had when I was her age. I love her little teeth and her fuzzy red hair. 

2 trips

Today was a long sort of day. Any day that one makes two trips to the dr.'s is long. This morning after a 4th night of Alyssa continually waking up crying I finally took her in to see if she had an ear infection. The good news is she doesn't and also that I can give her a whole lot more ibeprophin than I was before. The bad news is that she's trying to cut her 4 top teeth all at the same time. I had thought that was the problem which is why I didn't take her in sooner. (in case you think I'm an idiot.) She is also congested with a slight cold.
Sarah has a really nice cough going with her congestion but is starting to improve. (You gotta love sending them to school the first few years where they can bring home every bug that comes around.)
Emmie, poor little thing, has had the roughest day. She's had a cold too but today seemed more listless and not well. At naps she just sobbed quiet little sobs I finally sang her to sleep. She was only asleep for 1/2 hour when she woke up crying again. I thought perhaps a bath would soothe her and help the achiness she must have but in pursuing that option she indicated that she didn't want to take a bath because going potty hurts. Ah ah. So I called the dr.'s office again. Naturally she had to go potty before we left and so we waited awhile for her to drink much water in order to get a sample. Yep, she's got a bladder infection. I suggested the dr. check her ears too and sure enough they're infected as well. Poor little tyke.
Now they are all asleep, even Alyssa. I drugged them all with decongestants and pain medication, gave them all loves and kisses and tucked them in. Alan has gone back to work and I have a minute of quiet. Alan, I might mention, was noble enough to come home at 3:45 when I called him in the midst of trying to bathe Emmie with Alyssa screaming in her crib and said over the noise of the screaming children, "Alan, COME HOME." I forgot to mention that in calling the doctor's the receptionist said, "You can come at 6 pm or now." I of course said "now." Problem was that I couldn't get Sarah to wake up and so I took the baby monitor and Alyssa across the street to the neighbors with the assurance for her that Alan was on his way home and would be there in 10 minutes. Fortunately Sarah stayed asleep until Alan woke her up 45 min. later and Alyssa didn't scream at the neighbors'.

Here is Alyssa sitting. If you look really close you can see her wee little toothers. 

I felt like Julie

I discovered this neat idea in a Kraft magazine that came in the mail and it was really fun. Basically you microwave flour tortillas 30 sec. until they're warm and then mold them into muffin tins. Bake them for 10 minutes at 350 and presto you have little taco shells. We called them taco hats. It was a fun way to eat tacos and fast too.

Sarah is pulling a silly face and clearly Alyssa thinks she's nuts. 

Alyssa is doing very well at sitting. 

Our carrot harvest for the year. We were mighty pleased girls. Also we picked tomatos and squash and cucumbers. 

Emmie as Cinderella going on a picnic. 

Alyssa's growing

Today at the Dr.'s office Alyssa weighed 14 lbs 8 oz and was 24 1/4 inches. That's in the 10% for height and 25% for weight. Her head is in the 50%. Yeah for Alyssa!

preschool

Today was the first day of preschool for Emmie. It was at our house and will be Thursday too. After that it will be someone else's turn. Picture 6 little girls, the oldest 3 and the youngest 2 1/2. I sometimes forget that they don't come preprogrammed to sit and pay attention. There isn't any concept that while the teacher is singing you have to stay and sing with them or at least sit and listen. Two of them kept wanting to go play and Emmie wanted me to hold her. I sound as if it didn't go well or I didn't like it and actually just the opposite is true. I had a great time and even if they can't repeat the parts of a tree back to their parents I think they had fun. It's just so surprising to teach preschool when I've been doing sharing time with older kids. It's basically a glorified nursery with the focus on academics instead of the gospel, although we did sing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam."

Alyssa

Guess what! Alyssa got finally cut her two bottom teeth today! It seems amazing to me that yesterday they were still below the skin, just barely, and today they are poking through. She is still really drooley and constantly has her fingers/thumb in her mouth but she isn't nearly as fussy. The other amazing thing to me is that she pushes herself into a sitting position even though she can't actually sit up yet. So she pushes herself up, supporting herself with her hands and then usually tips over after about 30 seconds. She army crawls herself where ever she wants to be and we've had to instruct the girls about leaving coloring pencils, paper, books, shoes and other small objects on the floor where Alyssa will find them and taste them. She is so cute and loves to play peek-a-boo with Sarah. Sarah, by the way is a great big sister who loves to entertain the baby and Alyssa is the first person she wants to see when she wakes up in the mornings, followed by daddy. Sarah just loves babies. However since she has started kindergarten Emmie has taken over some of the rule of older sister for Alyssa which is really cute. She'll come up to her, especially if she's fussy, and say in a Sarah sort of voice "Oh, you are a pretty wittle baby!" This is really cute. She brings Alyssa toys too and pulls sillly faces to entertain her.
Alyssa loves baby food and has so far tried pears, peaches, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. The pattern is thus: I put a spoonful into her mouth. She immediately puts her thumb in and suck on it to swallow the food. This worked well when she was learning how to eat but she can swallow without fingers or thumb now( I've seen her do it) and so today I tried to keep things a bit tidier. No good. She got extremely mad when I held her hands and tried to get her to eat without them. So I gave in. I'm not so picky about keeping her clean as I was with Sarah.
Her 6 month check-up is Thursday and I'm interested to see what she weighs. I'll let you know. Meanwhile you should know that she is adorable and loved by us all, even Potter.

She scooted under her saucer to get this wand and then found herself stuck. 

Alyssa's first baby food was squash which she clearly found quite surprising. 

Mmmmm, cereal! 

Sarah's gift from Grandma and Grandpa Wessman was this cool bike. 

Sarah can even color in her sleep. Actually I just snapped the picture when she was blinking. 

Sarah's birthday cake, with no eggs!