Family Alive

We just moved Josiah into his new big-boy car seat, the Britax Decathlon.  (Expensive, but our one *must-have* item for the safety of our kids… oh, and I got a little bit more of a "deal" on it.)  Anyway, the transition has been a story of it’s own.  But because he can’t sit up by himself just yet, we’re keeping the infant carrier carseat in the trunk.  So today at the grocery store, he rode in it.  When we got to the car, I set it down beside the car, loaded Josiah into the big carseat.  The grocery store guy was still finishing up loading my groceries into the trunk.  I thanked him and got into the car and drove away.  Got home and realized I’d left the carrier seat in the parking lot!  I called Brian laughing at myself, and of course, his first question was, "Josiah made it into the car, didn’t he?".  So I had to drive all the way back to Publix to get it.  So much for my morning of free time! 

Here are a couple Analise moments I jotted down in the past week or so.

Overheard in the baby monitor
Josiah was sleeping in my room while I was making a cake in the kitchen.  When I heard him waking up in the baby monitor, I sent Analise in to talk to him until I could finish.  This is what I heard:

[crying]
Analise: He’s awake!
[crying ceases, as I’m sure Josiah was pleased to see her face]
Analise: He had a good nap.  He’s so cute!  It’s my baby brother!
Don’t cry, ‘Siah.  Mommy’s making dinner.  Mommy’s making cake.  It’s ok.  Mommy’s coming. 
[yelling] Mommy!  Mommy!
Mommy’s coming, ‘Siah. 
[yelling] Mommy!

Already looking out for her baby brother
During our weekend in Florida, the friends staying with us had a 10 month old.  He was crawling around, exploring, playing with Analise and Josiah’s toys.  Josiah spent most of his time rolling back and forth on a sheet watching the two bigger ones play.  At one point, though, Bryant crawled over to "play" with Josiah, and reached out and poked him in the face.  Josiah was startled and started crying loudly.  Analise starting crying, too, saying, "My baby brother!"  She’s already looking out for him. 

Singing in circles
Analise has created her own versions of the infamous "Song That Never Ends". 

The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout…Down came the rain…

(The same can be done with "Twinkle, twinkle".)

On becoming beautiful
I got my hair cut last 2 weeks ago (see the family pictures here).  My usual hair is curly, and easy to wear as it air dries nicely.  It takes about 5 minutes to towel dry and look fine.  This new cut, though, takes a bit of time.  All my permed curls are grown out, and it’s short, above my shoulders.  My stick straight hair doesn’t have much volume, so it really needs to be blow-dried, and because I’m not so good at blow-drying, it kind of needs to be smoothed under or out with a curling iron.  At least 20 minutes of work. 
Yesterday as I was blow-drying, Analise was playing in her room.  I turned off the drier to find her standing outside the bathroom watching me.  When I turned around with my slightly frizzy hair to talk to her, she said in her sweet voice, "You’re so beautiful."  I almost cried.  Nothing like knowing your daughter thinks you’re beautiful.