All Five, High Five!

This was last Sunday morning.  I wasn’t planning on doing pictures but we were- miracle of all miracles- ready 5 minutes early so I said, “everyone, get on the couch real fast!”

And miracle of all miracles, they obeyed.  <applause, please>  I liked this one above of Sam, Evan and Charlotte.

I liked this one of Madalyn and Jack.

I’ve been working to swap heads and combine the two to make it perfect but I still see some flaws.  How bad are they, do you think it would print okay?  It’s come a long way.  At one point I had a hand coming out of Sam’s crotch.  We can’t have that now, can we?

Model No. 5: The Charlotte

…aka:  More pictures than you ever wanted to see of our baby unless you’re family. 

But this was bound to happen.  Evan was the most photographed baby in the world bc he was my first… she is my last; it will be the same way.

And I know, I know… I’ve lost my credibility re: this being the last.

But she is. 

And what a way to go out.

I’m so thankful for Charlotte.

She is smiley, smiley, smiley… happy, happy, happy.

She is very, very verbal.

 

And she has so many cute outfits that I want to record each and every one!

  

Which doesn’t help the chronic picture taking.

But that’s okay, right… Right?!

Or else I might’ve missed this smile.

 

Or this over-stimulated from exhaustion smile.

 

Or the way her hair is all curly and downy after a bath.

Or her little Mary Jane socks.

Her wrinkly feet.

And yes.  Even the pockets on her teensy-weensy bum.

None of that could be missed!

Especially not the way she sticks that bum in the air when waking up from a nap….

and mashes her face into the sheets.

Tangent:  Can you believe it was this warm in February?

 

Darn Global Warming.  Just kidding.  (Had to make sure Daddy was paying attention.)

  

But Wild Woman sure enjoyed the warm afternoon.

 

She’s a Florida girl already.

Snaggletooth

 

That last tooth was barely hanging on…

 

But then it gave in and he instantly looked so.  much.  older.

The strangest thing happened when he left it under his pillow for the tooth fairy… she didn’t come.

 

Oops. 

And then the next night the tooth fairy must’ve been caught in the act and pretended to be tucking the little brother in… in his frazzled state he came downstairs with no tooth. 

“Isn’t that what we do, how it goes?”  he asked.

“No,” said his wife, “you take the tooth… the tooth fairy is PAYING for the tooth.”

“Oh.”

“She keeps them in her jewelry box and cries every time she sees them.  I will get the tooth when I nurse the baby later tonight.”

Only there was no tooth… the money was there, but no tooth… it had been moved.

The next morning Evan came downstairs and said, “The weirdest thing happened… I woke up last night and saw my money but my tooth was still there- she didn’t take my tooth, so I put it in a bowl in my drawer.  But this morning- it’s gone.”

“That IS weird.”

“Do you think she forgot and came back for it?”

“Must have.”

“How did she find it in my drawer, she must’ve checked a lot of places??”

You have no idea, son, no idea.

First Friends

This is Charlotte’s first friend, Joshua.

While Joshua was very taken with her, Charlotte played it cool.  (Like her mother, of course.)

But she’s been waiting for him for a long time.

Well, to be more accurate… we’ve all been waiting for him since around the same time I found out that she was just a little poppy-seed-sized person growing inside me. 

At the same time we were praying for her, the Bates family was praying for another little poppy seed who would be conceived three months later somewhere out there in the wide world. 

How amazing that God had such intricate plans for a little guy not even yet formed or in existence. 

He knew He would be named Joshua, that he would be a “Bates,” and He knew that he and Charlotte would be friends and would have these pictures taken.

 

Charlotte: Um, okay mama… that’s a nice story and everything but he’s getting a little familiar… I think he wants to eat the apple on my shirt and my complexion is being smashed, can we call it a wrap?