Meeting Emma

The other day I took the kids to go meet their newest friend: Emma Catherine Marcantonio. She was born in the wee sma's of Tuesday morning--healthy and beautiful, just like her mama. I didn't get to go visit them in the hospital, so I was nearly dying by the time Thursday rolled around. And, ahhhh, I got to hold her little newborn self, which, despite the cliche, is one of the most wonderful experiences in the world. What a tiny, itsy, bitsy, fragile, delicate, perfect thing she seemed as she cuddled my shoulder! And what a full head of shiny, sweet-scented, down-soft black hair she has! (Sorry, Wilcox babies--such glory will never be yours. I was bald until I was about five.)

Look--isn't she sweet?

My kids were very intrigued by her and, praise the Lord, reasonably gentle. Except that Matthew always wanted to be in the lap of whoever was holding her, so as to get good and close. (Better watch out, Matthew. Your Uncle Kris won't let kind of behavior pass for long.) Meg's assesment, as she stroked Emma's hair for the fourteenth time, was, "Awww... lil' baby Emma. Cute. She's... cute!" Always a smart thing to say to a new mom, Meggie.

Here is our photo commemoration of the Wilcoxes' first encounter with Emma:

Whoops! My flash wasn't on for that one. Here we go:

(I have to take this opportunity to make fun of my dear friend Jess. As we prepared to take this picture, she was grumbling about how I was dressed and had my make-up on and she was in her pajamas... blah, blah, blah, blah... you poor, photogenic thing you. Don't we all feel sooooo badly for you, you who just had a baby two days ago and still manage to look stunning in this picture. Wah.)

In all seriousness, we are delighted for our friends and were so very happy to meet their little girl. Kris and Jess, we're praying for you!

Things I Love About My Babies

1. How adorable they look in their fall clothes.

2. That Meg has taken to calling me her "little mamma". As in, "How's my little girl this morning?"
"Oh, I doin' good. How you doin', my lil'... my lil' mamma?"

3. That Matthew is the most adorable kiss-blower ever. He balls up his fist, crams it half-way into his mouth, and says, "BAH!" as he thrusts his hand toward you. ("Bah" is his version of "Mwwwah!") He's also a very generous kisser. If anyone kisses anyone else within his earshot, he's all, "Bah! Bah!" immediately. (He is kissing my orange-stockinged foot as I type this, actually.)

4. Matthew's newfound communication skills. He now nods yes, shakes his head no, and rapidly opens and closes his hands for "I want some of that food right there." He points to objects that he wants to know about and says, "Dah!" which we think is a primitive "What's that?". And he brings me books when he wants me to read to him, looking up at me with a little imploring face and nodding his head pleadingly.

5. That they looooove books! There are only a few things that would give me more joy than to see my children grow up loving to read.

6. Matthew's walk. He's turning the corner from walking occasionally to walking mostly, and it is just so cute to see the pride and excitement on his face every time he gets his toddle on!

7. The way that Matthew and Meg love each other (when they are not arguing over toys). Matthew's wriggly delight when I lift him to kiss Meg before her nap (at Meg's insistence); Meg's wriggly delight when it's time to go get Matthew from his crib after his nap; Matthew's tireless following of his sister all over the house; Meg's gentle stooping to kiss her brother's lips ("I luh you so much, Mat-yew.")--these are some of the dearest moments of my day, when I let myself stop to enjoy them.

8. How much they love their Daddy. They are both so excited to greet Dave when he walks through the door in the evenings! It does my heart good to see them rush up to hug and kiss him... and I know how much it blesses my husband!

9. Their laughter!

10. The fact that they drive me to God and to the cross of Christ. The truth is that, though I enjoy many things about being a mom, I am really not up to being a good mom. Really. In myself, I lack the wisdom, diligence, love, faithfulness, humility, gentleness, patience and strength that this job requires. That means that I often sin against my children and against God as I go about the task of mothering. But in His mercy and His might, the Lord is drawing me nearer to Himself, the One who possesses all of the wisdom, love, faithfulness and strength that I lack. And He is teaching me--to repent deeply before Him, to depend more on Him, to think greater thoughts of Him--in order that I might love and serve my children better. It is painful to glimpse the depths of my sin, to recognize my total inadequacy, to realize that I am incapable of changing myself. It is hard to be disciplined by the Lord. But for all of the difficulty, I love it. I love it because I have seen that, as I embrace God's discipline, He will give me more love--first for Him, and then for these precious babies of mine.

Meg's First Haircut

Guess what we did on Monday afternoon?

Our Meggie-girl was overdue for a trim. Those curls were getting looooong. (See this picture, taken in August, for proof.)

The little ringlets were cute, but low-maintenance they were not, and Meg is definitely in a low-maintenance stage. Brushing out the tangles was often uncomfortable for her. She usually took out any clips or barrettes after a few minutes. And, recently, she rarely wanted to wear pony tails, if she could help it. So I thought, "Great. Well, we'll make it so she won't have to have pony tails." I told the lady at Cartoon Cuts to bob it.

When we started to attempt a shampoo, Meg got teary, so we skipped straight to the barber's chair. There Meg enjoyed a triple-whammy of comforts: getting to sit on Daddy's lap, a lollipop, and watching Dora the Explorer on her own personal TV monitor. As you might guess, she relaxed pretty quickly.

Get ready to say goodbye to all that length...

"Ummm... how long is this going to take?"

My sweet little Goldy's locks... all shorn!

One side is finished...

Almost done...

Look, it's our brand new, grown-up girl!

(And a shot of my boys at Froggy Land a little later.)

The verdict on the new 'do is that we love it. Daddy likes the way his cutie-pie looks, Mommy likes the ease of brushing, and Meg likes her new, light, free style. It's just right for a girl who's always on the go.

One Year Old (by Matthew)

I made it! I am one whole year old! Mommy got an email the other day from one of those baby websites that sends regular updates about what milestones your kid is supposedly hitting, and suddenly the title was changed. Instead of saying something like, "Your Baby: 9 Months Old", it said "Your Toddler: 1 Year Old"! Did you get that, Ma? I'm a toddler now!

Really, though, they weren't that far off. True, I'm not yet walking as my primary mode of transportation (you can't beat crawling for speed and reliability), but I am getting braver. Instead of taking just two and three steps at a time, I'm now doing five, six, seven, can-I-hold-on-to-my-balance-and-make-it-to-eight steps at a time. Every time I make a longer voyage like this, I get big claps and smiles and exclamations of delight from Mom and Dad, so I try to do it at least once a day. Even Meg encourages me with, "Good walking, Buddy!"

I'm also communicating much more. Unfortunately, screams, shrieks and throwing food off my high chair tray are my preferred means of letting my folks know what I want at meal time. But I am doing a few more hand signs and, verbally, I'm starting to imitate words that I hear--"up" and "down" are my favorites. Yesterday I shook my head "no" to answer a question that Mommy asked me. And she swears that she heard me say "thank you" when she handed me my sippy cup earlier this week! (I don't know about that... sometimes mothers hear what they want to hear, you know?)

In other news, I weighed in last week at 20 lbs., 8 oz. Still a lightweight--I'm only at 10-25% there. I'm more average in the height department, about 30" long. I'm still nursing three times a day, down from four last month. Mommy thinks she's going to wean me completely in this next month (and Daddy's behind it), but I'm still pretty into it, so we'll see who prevails.

And now, here are some pictures from my little party. Between me and Meg, who were both zooming around like crazy, it was pretty hard for Mom to take pictures during the present-opening time. So most of what we have here are shots of me enjoying my cake. Yummmmm... my very first sugar overload!

Since my family calls me "Little Bug," Mama made me a bug cake!

For eating, there was a little bug cupcake just for me. I needed some help to know what to do with it.

Woah. What IS this stuff?

Meg had her own little bug cupcake too.

Wait, is it gone already?

Hey, don't take my bib off! I just found a glob of icing that I missed!

Meg helped me open the presents.

OK, Meg pretty much opened the presents herself.

Cool! A toy car and train from Grandma Tom and Grandma Dawn!

And this one I got really excited about: Lightning McQueen balls of all varieties, plus a soft baseball bat and a glove. Now that's a present that a boy can grow on.