Walking, My Little Pony...and Swine Flu

We have had an eventful past week here at the Norris house. Good things first...

Miller has started walking everywhere! He has been walking here and there for a few weeks, but he has just in the past week chosen walking as his primary mode of transportation. The sight of his wobbling around is pretty much the funniest thing ever! SO precious.
Maggie has decided she loves "My Little Ponies." She has somehow managed to collect three in the past couple of weeks. A few days ago, she begged Daddy to help her fix her ponies' hair. She then requested that he fix her hair the same way. :-)

In other news, both of our sweet babies are recovering from the swine flu. At the beginning of last week, they were acting "sickly," and by Wednesday, they were both running 103 temperatures. We went to the doctor and came home with two prescriptions for tamiflu. The poor babies were pitiful, pitiful, pitiful for a few days, but they are feeling much better now. Thank you to our family and friends who have prayed us through this past week! Whew! Maybe we'll all be healthy for a while now...

Miller's Walking!

My Favorite Things

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, as the kids are doing new things every day that make me laugh or smile. Here are a few of my favorite things Miller and Maggie are doing these days...


Miller...

• points at everything and everyone. Today, he pointed to an airplane in the sky. He pointed at a neighbor walking by our house. He pointed at me while I was feeding him breakfast. He pointed at his bottle after he threw it on the floor. (You get the point.)
• waves every time anyone says "hey" or "bye-bye" and claps when anyone says "yea." He even clapped for the girls in Maggie's ballet class last week--a lot! Such a polite little boy...
• says "Mama" a lot these days. Brings a smile to my face and my heart every time!
• is starting to take a couple of steps here and there. He's getting really sturdy, so I think he'll be walking soon!
• crawls away as fast as he can when he gets caught getting into something he shouldn't be into. I caught him with one of Maggie's crayons yesterday, and he threw it on the floor and speed-crawled away before I could even say anything. He always grins from ear to ear while doing this, too.
• puts his head on my shoulder (or Jeff's) when we pick him up. SO sweet.

Maggie...

• tells stories (both true and fiction) ;-) with amazing detail. Last night, she told Jeff that she got her orange bracelet from Susie and then ate Chickfila with Pop and Yaya and saw Nanny. She wrapped up her story with, "Then, I went to Nana and Granddaddy's." (This all happened a couple of weeks ago.)
• loves to wear and play with make-up. She mixed all my eyeshadow and blush together so that it made some strange mixture of pink and blue (which, by the way, does NOT flatter my face!).
• loves story time (We hop from library to library trying to catch ALL the local story times!). She always wants to sit closest to the "teacher"...wonder where she got that one....
• has FINALLY learned to ride her tricycle without saying "I not good at this." She does tell me frequently, though, that her "leg is broken off." (I'm guessing this is code language for "My legs hurt and I want to go home.")
• loves to "imaginary play"...She cooks us all kinds of fun creations on her toy stove, and she always pretends to wash her hands, saying "wash wash." She also pretends to change her babies' diapers, saying "change change," and pretends to brush her teeth, saying "brush brush."
• loves to cuddle. She has not always been a cuddlebug, so I am loving this new development!

Jeff and I are SO blessed to get to watch these sweet babies grow and learn new things every day!

Two hams...

Mama

Finally! Miller said "Mama"! This morning, he crawled over to me, gave me a hug, said "Mama," and put his head on my shoulder. SO sweet! I hope I will never forget moments like this one. Here is a new picture of my sweet baby boy.

Fourth Anniversary!

Today is our fourth wedding anniversary! I still can't believe how blessed I am that God planned for Jeff and me to spend our lives together. He's the best husband and friend to me, and he's the most wonderful Daddy to our sweet kids. On July 9, 2005, I could never have imagined the wonderful things these past four years would bring. Four years and two precious babies later, I can't WAIT to see what the rest of our lives hold. God truly does have a perfect plan, as He shows us more and more every day.

The Paci Fairy

We have been scheming for MONTHS for a way to sneak Maggie's paci away from her without the process being traumatic. Well, during Bible School a few weeks ago, a friend from church told us how she managed the process with her daughter. We talked about it with Maggie for a few weeks and decided to do the same thing, so....

Last night, the "paci fairy" visited our house to "take Maggie's paci and give it to a little baby who needed it." In return, the paci fairy was to leave Maggie a present to help her forget about the paci she has known and loved for the past almost-three years. Maggie, of course, insisted on several conditions: 1. She wanted to know who was getting her paci. ;) We told her it was going to Callie, the baby our friends Ashley and Brad. (Callie, by the way, doesn't use a pacifier, and I'm sure Maggie will insist on SEEING her with the paci, so this should be interesting.) 2. Maggie wanted to see the paci fairy. (I don't think the Santa Claus story is going to hold up very long with this girl!) We explained the necessity of the paci fairy coming at night, and Jeff drew Maggie a picture. :) 3. She started compiling a list of things she wanted the paci fairy to bring her (whew!). She wanted a "big ball," a football, some "water paint," and a "biiiiiig" Mickey Mouse.

So she went to bed last night with no paci. She left it on her bookshelf for safe retrieval. ;) (We could not leave it under her pillow because we were afraid she'd reach under there and it would end up in her mouth before morning.) :) She did fine last night, minus one hard hour between 3 and 4 when she woke up mumbling "Paci, paci, paci, Where my paci?".... When Mags woke up this morning, she was very happy about her presents. She even seems okay at the moment to have said "goodbye" to paci forever. I surely hope so! Otherwise, we will not be getting much sleep around here! Here are some pictures of Maggie's paci fairy setup:



My sister Candace always has something hilarious to say...In response to the email I sent friends and family last night with these pictures, she responded:

"Dear Paci Fairy,
Your handwriting looks suspiciously like my Mom's. And balls for pacis? I'm two, not clueless. There better be some cold hard cashola in this basket or you need to be hooking a sister back up with a paci. I do think it's cute that you thought this process would be this simple. Props on that.
Love,
Maggie

P.S. I better wake back up tomorrow morning with a paci in my mouth."