Mary and bright

After snapping this photo, I decided to Google, “Is it ok to let a baby chew on Christmas lights?” And that’s exactly when I realized the effect of 24/7, unrestricted access to the world wide web: loss of even a modicum of common sense. The answer? No. No, it’s not ok. Not even a little

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Sitting pretty

The other day I thought, “Mary Virginia’s five and a half months old. Wonder if she can sit up on her own.” So I plopped her on the ground. And guess what? She totally can.

Everything in moderation

What they say about being more relaxed with your second child is true. For example, I didn’t let David try Diet Coke until he was at least six months old. She also got her first fever a lot sooner, and got bonked in the head with a toy guitar WAY before David did. I’m hoping this phenomenon

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Month Five

Month Five

I feel like we’re standing on the edge of a cliff. Mary Virginia is five months old. Next month we’ll start solids, she’ll sit up, soon enough she’ll be crawling and then she’ll move out and start screening my calls. Last month I thought we’d reached the cute, cuddly, roly-poly baby stage, but this month

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Sunshine

It feels appropriate to post these photos today — the first day without rain in over a week. It rained every day last week. And even though it hasn’t rained here in maybe months, let’s all agree that a week of rain was a little much. Every day is amplified when you have a toddler.

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Month Four

Month Four

We’ve seen some big changes this month. For starters, my hair started falling out. It’s happening a lot earlier than it did last time. Meanwhile, Mary Virginia continues to get even sweeter and more delightful every day. Yesterday I had to take David to the doctor, and Tom stayed home with Mary Virginia. I called to

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Little girl blue

Part of being the second child is wearing hand-me-downs. Mary Virginia already wears hand-me-downs all the time from friends, her cousins, her brother. This blue sleeper is actually a hand-me-hand-me-hand-me-down. At least two of my sister’s kids wore it before David. And now, even though it’s blue (which ubiquitously means boy in baby language), Mary

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David the Goliath

David the Goliath

Mary Virginia is noticing her brother more and more. It’s adorable when she looks at him dancing and jumping and playing and a smile explodes across her face. It’s also adorable when he wants to interact with her and hold her and brings her her pacifier announcing, “Here ya go Mary ‘ginia! Here ya go

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Belly to back

Mary Virginia rolled over, belly to back, yesterday. (These photos are fuzzy because it was dark in our living room; I took them before the sun was up.) We were all a little shocked. Speechless. Tom didn’t get to see her roll over in the morning, so after a long Sunday of church, Costco, visiting

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Month Three

Month Three

Mary Virginia graduated. She’s three months old. That means she’s no longer a newborn; she’s officially a baby. When David was an infant I’d heard so much about the changes babies go through at three months that I was disappointed when he finally got there. The problem was that I set my expectations too high. I

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