Malia and Seth

This is going to be a quick posting-- hopefully not as wordy as some! But I wanted to share pictures of the kids with their cousins Seth and Malia, whom we babysat the other day. I thought Tammy and Jane, in particular, might enjoy these photos...

Here's Emma and Malia, still in their pajamas. Malia, Seth, and their mother, Jon's neice Jessica, stayed overnight at our house Sunday night.

Early in the morning, before anyone else was awake, Jessica left for her job in Eau Claire (her shift starts at 6 in the morning!). While Malia was still sleeping, Jessica laid her in bed beside me. Of course, when Malia awoke a few hours later, and her mother was gone, there were tears. But big brother Seth knew what to do... he had Malia laughing and playing with the other kids in no time.

Malia will be two in October. She's quite a talker, but it can be hard to make out some of what she says. When she first woke up, wondering where her mom was, she kept repeating something that sounded like, "Where's squishy Mom? Where's squishy Mom?" I thought, how cute. Jessica must call herself "squishy Mom" for Malia. (I know Emma's remarked about how "soft" and "comfy" I am, so figured this was similar).

However, when I asked Jessica about it later ("Does Malia call you 'squishy Mom'?"), she didn't know what I was talking about. I was a little bit sheepish, since I certainly didn't mean to call Jessica squishy myself... as you can well imagine. After thinking it over, I realized Malia must have been saying, "Where is she Mom? Where is she Mom?", which, in two year-old grammar, makes perfect sense.

Yeah... sorry about that, Jessica! I would never, ever call you squishy (not so much because it would be inaccurate, but because that would be like the pot calling the kettle black).

Anyway, in the photo above, you can see us going for a walk that morning. We picked up another child-- our neighbor Makayla-- as we passed by her house on the walk.

Now, whenever we go for a walk, Emma packs along food snacks, so she can picnic. None of our walks are ever long enough to justify bringing along provisions, but Emma likes to be prepared. Luckily she was willing to share her cookies, bananna, and sandwich with the other kids.

Seth rode Michael's bike on the walk. By this time of the day he was already wounded; he had cut his hand on the gravel earlier, while riding a scooter down our hilly driveway. He must be used to getting injured, though; he didn't make a big deal out of it, and it certainly didn't slow him down any.

Seth is a little bit older than Michael. He's very good-natured and smart-- it's easy to like him. I appreciated how helpful he was with his sister, who is more shy and cautious toward grown-ups she doesn't know very well (like me). Whenever I had a question ("Does your mother cut up her hotdog for her? Does she eat a bun?"), Seth had the answer.

Him and Michael are a little bit mis-matched at this stage of their lives. Seth is more action and physical play-oriented; Michael is more inward and imaginative. But they both found something they enjoyed in croquet, and played that together a few times. And both were helpful with their little sisters, pushing strollers on our walk.

The kids spent more time together yesterday, when Seth and Malia's grandma, my sister-in-law Tammy, watched all of them while I went to the dentist and had my hair done. This was Leila'a first time with a "babysitter", and also her first

time drinking formula. Both events went well.

I'm still breast-feeding, but wasn't able to pump sufficient milk for my time away from Leila. So I stopped at the store on my way over to Tammy's and picked up a bottle of ready-mixed stuff. Leila drank that just fine, so it's nice to know there's an option, in a pinch. I don't want to rely on it too much, though, because breast-feeding is such a big cost-savings for us (and more healthful for baby, as well).

Anyway! So much for my promise not to be as wordy this time-! I'll close with a picture of my two baby girls, lying on a blanket while they bat at toys (I didn't set this scene up; I really found Emma doing this with Leila this morning).

Silly girls!