Em! Lilly! Mal! A triple shot of cute overload when I've only had about 3 oz of coffee? Deadly.

(And Ahmed, a wee Grade 1 boy whom I was teaching an hour or two ago, agreed that Tickybox was gorgeous, seemed convinced that she had to be my child, and once he'd accepted that this lady was her mom and that gentleman was her dad, then switched his attention to Jilli (in top hat) and Pete. He announced, very wisely, that Jilli was one of the teachers in the school. I am still searching my memory to try to figure out who we have who looks remotely Jilli-an. Top hats are fairly thin on the ground here. Hmm.)

This is adorable, Fay. I think he is just recognizing Jilli's innate authority.

{{{Cass}}} Sorry I wasn't around, love. Hope you're getting some good sleep right now. I'm around...

BABIES! BABIES EVERYWHERE! I am ded from the cute. It's not nice to do that so early in the morning.

I must decide what I'm going to do today. I have therapy at 3 and am going to Family Night with mom tonight. But, I should probably come up with some things to do in the meantime. I could clean, but that's no fun. I could quilt, but I'd have to clean to find the table to put the sewing machine on. Hmmmm...

Maybe I'll start by unpacking and go from there.

That is one stripey baby.

Aims, she's starting to look so much like you here. [link]

I gave away four pairs of really nice, virtually unworn shoes to my sister's friend who came down with her this weekend. And one to my sister. Score! They were just too nice to throw out, but either didn't fit perfectly or I was just never wearing.

Every time I see pictures of Buffista babies, I think they can't get any cuter ... and then they do.

I can see both of her parents in Em ... and I especially love that when you look at the picture of her going home from the hospital and a picture of her now, she still has the same smile. (and the picture of her going through MM's wallet - my, she's starting early!)

Cass, I'm sorry you and your niece are having to go through this. I think all you can do is try to keep the communication open and let her know that you love her and will do what you can (parents permitting) to support her. And family explosions usually do backfire, so I would join in advising you to hold off on that. Meanwhile, you can rant to your imaginary friends here and keep calm(er) with the family.

Cutie babies!

What everyone else said, Cass. I'm so sorry you and niecelet have to go through this, and I hope things will work out OK.

I made some matzo brei with whole wheat matzo. It kind of worked -- the texture is off, though.

I think it's a lovely idea--unless one of the candidates goes on a naked shooting spree in the Mall of the Americas

"Oh no, not again!"

Plei's captions made me laugh out loud this morning. "I got a Brit for my birthday!"

Em is such a tall, slender girl. I cracked up over this one.

Mal does stripes very well. And he's got his momma's killer smile.

We're going to have some awesome weather over the next two days so we're going to capitalize on it and go outside to the park and maybe back to the zoo (see if we can't make it to the petting zoo, which we skipped last time).

Em with the wallet = comedy gold.

For her next act, she'll be pairing the wallet with the car keys, so look out, Los Angeles.

and am sort of relieved that even though you have much nicer grass, she has the same reaction to it as Mal.

This was the second attempt to get her to handle grass. Paul had her by himself the first time, and when he shared her reaction to it with me, I laughed and laughed and laughed and declared her Just Like Mal.

Plei, when Ben was that age, the grass freaked him, too. Then came the first Autumn when he was walking. The fallen leaves blowing around might well have been the angel of death in his mind.

Cashmere, is Olivia still being the best baby in the world, where sleep is concerned?

and am sort of relieved that even though you have much nicer grass, she has the same reaction to it as Mal.

When my SiL was about a year old she SCREAMED bloody murder when they sat her in grass.

Cashmere, is Olivia still being the best baby in the world, where sleep is concerned?

Her streak continues--she goes to sleep around 10 p.m. and sleeps until 5 a.m. for a quick change/feed and goes back to sleep for another hour or two.