The Connolly Family

It was another gorgeous Atlanta day today and as luck would have it, we’d planned a playdate with Walker and Jessica so we schlepped over to Morningside with what felt like all of Paige’s worldly possessions so she could nap while Liam and Walker played the afternoon away.  It was an absolutely wonderful afternoon and Liam spent the entire ride home (with a brief break to talk about trains as we passed the tracks) talking about how he wants to go back to Walker’s house.  Right.  Now.

For once I managed to get some fabulous pictures of my sweet boy (and his cousins) while Paige was sleeping.  So here they are:

Fred Flintstone reincarnate:

Heeeeerrrre cooooommmmmes Walker!

Liam takes a turn on the big wheel:

Two ships passing in the night:

Walker’s excited:

Liam’s not so sure:

On his first time down the hill…

Liam had a blast!

But as he picked up speed he temporarily lost his ability to hear which resulted in him not hearing me as I yelled at him to put his feet down to slow down or stop.  He crashed at the bottom of the hill and it definitely shook him up.  I convinced him to get back on and try again, this time making sure he heard me tell him to put his feet down.  Here he is at the top of the hill for another go at it:

As he was making his way down the hill, Walker went up for another go at it.  Here’s how the scene played out:

Here comes Walker.  Liam’s still making his way down.

Still going…

“Hey Walker, where’d you come from?”

And there goes Walker…

Liam’s almost made it to the bottom of the hill:

And there goes Walker, again.

Finally all the way down!

After surveying the speed at which overly cautious cycling landed him at the bottom of the hill, he opted for running:

Walker does a little climbing:

Sweet boys:

I’ve been waiting for three years for pictures like these:

Back in the saddle(s) again:

Go Walker, Go!

Liam tries a little climbing of his own:

I love these pictures:

Such unmitigated joy:

Partners in crime:

Welcome home, Ollie!

There are no words.

Just another example of how different these boys are:

Liam was taking his time carefully walking along the edge.  Walker didn’t want to wait for him anymore…

At least he was very gentle about it:

Even knowing the context, I love this picture:

Aaaaannnnd, he’s off:

And Liam’s still working his way along the ledge…

It was a fantastic afternoon and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again very soon!

Yesterday was a hard day at the Connolly Ranch.

Poor Paige either ate something that didn’t agree with her (we tried a different formula but the jury’s still out on whether the problem was the specific formula or the fact that it was milk-based that caused the problem) or she had a very strange (and unlikely) reaction to the immunizations she got on Monday.  She could also have had a virus, but no one around us has had this issue and since we hardly ever get to leave the house it’s a lot less likely than the other options.

She started vomiting profusely at just before 9am and it didn’t stop until 10:30.  It was so bad that I called Matt after he had finished dropping Liam off and got him to come home because I knew that I couldn’t handle Paige and Liam with Paige in the condition in which she found herself.  Matt knew that I wouldn’t have called unless I needed help.  When he came home and found me in the state he found me he KNEW that calling him was my only option.

Because he’s lived with me for as long as he has, he decided that before he bathed Paige and before I peeled off my own clothes and bathed myself he first needed to take a picture of the damage.  Because?  Of course he did.  He learned from the best.

I spent the entire day (not an exaggeration) with her sleeping on my chest, waking her every 15 minutes to give her increasingly larger quantities of pedialyte and going back and forth with the nurse at the doctor’s office.  By the end of the day she had worked back up to formula (Nutramigen this time…) and thankfully by the time she went to bed she was back to being her sweet self.  The next big hurdle is that the nurse wants us to try the milk-based formula again in several days to find out for sure if that was the problem.  Lemme tell you just how much I’m looking forward to that…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  Parenting ain’t for sissies.

As anyone who lives in Atlanta knows, the past weekend was absolutely glorious and we Connollys took full advantage of the weather.  We all spent the majority of our waking hours outside and I even got the chance to sit out on the deck, stretched out in a chair with a big beverage in hand, and read for an hour and a half (which is absolutely unheard of these days).  It’s been heavenly.  There has been sand play, soccer, basketball, tricycling, hide and seek, flower picking and even a little silly string thrown in for good measure.  Of course this means I took 500 pictures over the course of the weekend (naturally).  Pour a cup of coffee and settle in cause this is gonna take a while…

We start with some pictures of my darling daughter:

Sunkissed Liam:

Those eyes…

I know this isn’t exactly a photographic masterpiece, but I love that his eye is in focus above the shower of light that sprays across the rest of his face.  It almost feels like he’s glowing:

Who?  Me?

Matt asked him to smile…

…and in doing so made the mistake of showing him how he should hold his mouth:

It’s now his favorite pose.

Mama and her babies:

Mama and her baby:

We came inside to eat and go to bed and Liam took a little time out to make a fantastic tower:

On Saturday Liam and Matt ventured across the street where our neighbor was having an “estate sale.”  I say “estate sale” instead of estate sale because the woman who lives there was under the mistaken assumption that an “estate sale” just means it’s held inside a house.  I think I’m going to stop calling our house The Ranch and start referring to it as The Estate.  Apparently it’s the thing to do these days.  Anyway, back to the point:  Liam and Matt went across the street to the yard sale that was taking place in our neighbor’s living room and the woman who was helping them gave Liam a can of silly string.  Liam and Matt broke it out on Sunday.  Here are some pictures of the big event.

Liam is very excited about what’s coming:

Silly string dance:

Helicopter sighting break (scrunch face necessary):

Action shot:

Surveying the damage:

Perfect shot:

“Hey, Liam.  Why don’t you run through the silly string?”

“Ummmm, Dad?  Like this?”

“Here, son.  Lemme show you how it’s done.”

Action shots:

Liam gets a turn:

I have absolutely no idea what’s going on here, but I HAD to include it.  Obviously.

Our little ladybug in her Amish sunhat.  There aren’t words to adequately describe or pictures that can adequately capture the adorableness here:

This needs to be framed:

Big boy:

Bigger helmet:

Big mouth:

Bigger “smile:”

Daddy’s little girl:

Relaxation time:

Funny faces:

Raspberries:

He still loves a swing:

And the quest for a good picture of me and both my babies continues…

Paige has a new favorite chew toy:

She REALLY loves it…

A lot.

She does not appreciate not having it in her grasp.

“Oh, Mama!  You’ve got to help me out here!”

“Oh please, sir!  Please!  My gums will thank you forever!”

Daddy can be such a tease…

The melodrama begins…

Ahhhhhhh…

Apparently this is the face I make when Paige takes a huge handful of my hair.  That girl’s got a grip on her!

Flower pickin’

Liam takes a sniff:

Matt takes a sniff:

Paige takes a semi-sniff:

Hide and seek (counting):

Hide and seek (looking for Matt under the van):

Hide and seek (hiding):

Gran, Paige, and Paige’s outfit (it’s cute enough to be its own entity, I think):

Boy feet:

Baby feet, Gran hands:

Baby foot, Gran hands:

Apparently Liam will willingly look at the camera while wearing a bike helmet.  I’ll take what I can get these days.

Here’s what apparently happens when I bring a box home from Costco and mistake it as merely an implement for carrying things into the house.  Liam gives a step-by-step on a more imaginative use.

Box step 1:

Box step 2:

Box step 3:

Box step 4:

Box step 5:

Box step 6:

Box step 7:

Box step completion:

Ta Da!

Last Monday we had a visit from Sylvie and PJ.  It was wonderful to see them again, it had been way too long!  Without further ado…here are some pictures:

“Oooh, Mama!  Look!  Sylvie has that same stuff coming from her head that you do.  I know you like it when I grab yours so (notice the tongue-of-sheer-concentration) I think I’ll just see if she likes it too…”

“Whatchoo doin’, Paige?”

These babies were born almost exactly a month apart.  Guess who’s older…

Mirror image…sort of…

Sylvie shows Paige that she may be tiny but she’s definitely mighty:

Paige shows Sylvie that two can play this game:

We’re getting closer to realizing the dream of two smiling girls in one frame…

Continuing to check each other out:

Sylvie finds Paige’s tickle-spot:

“Who, me?”

“You’re just gonna let her get away with that?”

Payback…

Thank you for bein’ a friend…

“Uh, hey Paige.  Hey.  Hey Paige.”

All I can see when I look at this one is a seated slow-motion baby race…

Even closer to the two smiling girls goal (although PJ’s smile is by far the biggest):

“How’s the air up there?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get here one day”

Sylvie’s unconvinced…

Sweet girls:

Baby feet:

There is just so much adorableness in our world right now.

Today has been a nightmare at the Connolly Ranch.  The bottom line is that our little girl is now moving.  I left her on her play mat the other day while I put Liam down for a nap and when I came back I found this:

Here’s a hint:  She didn’t start out there.

She’s moving in ways that result in her ability to gather up choking hazards at lightening speed and to wriggle out of her miracle blanket in such a way that it frequently ends up around her neck.  This is unsettling at best.  Also?  We kept finding her on her stomach.  The AAP is shaking its collective head at us.

So yesterday I put her down for her first nap without the miracle blanket in an attempt to reduce the strangulation hazard because I hear that’s frowned upon in certain circles…

It did not go well.  Not well at all.  She fussed for around half an hour before she finally gave in and fell asleep.  I’m not exactly certain of the time it took since I got in the shower for my only shot at personal hygiene all day.  When I got out she was asleep.  For 42 whole minutes.

And then the screaming started.

She never went back to sleep.

At her second nap of the day I put her back in the wrap because I was weak and desperate.  Once again she woke up on her stomach with the wrap around her neck.  When it was time to put her down for the night last night (because Matt and I were totally exhausted after a very long week) it made more sense to us at the time to use packing tape between her legs in an attempt to keep the wrap from ending up around her neck.  It worked, but only in the sense that it ended up coming off in the other direction.  This morning she was still wrapless and still on her stomach.  So today I tried again.  There has been so much screaming.  She’s awake right now after having slept for an hour.  It might be her longest stretch of sleep in two days.  We’re so tired.

There is not enough beer in this house.