Shall we compare some photographs of Elizabeth and Ryan having their first baths?

First, a moment of silence for my beautiful countertops that we have moved away from.

Good grief, look at the cheeks on this girl. (This is actually her second bath.)

And the newer version of baby.

(He was angry about the first bath. He found the second bath to be much more awesome, but I have no pictures of that since I was washing both children by myself and there just aren’t any hands for picture taken when you are doing that.)

Yes, it’s the same towel.

He looks so much smaller than Elizabeth.  But, he is. At this point of his life, Elizabeth hadn’t even been born yet. So at the same age, she’s actually three weeks older.  Technically, he’s larger than she was percentage-wise, just got evicted sooner. He was born at 39 weeks exactly, and she was born at 41.6.  He will reach her birth day in three more days.  After that, I expect him to start working on developing the cheeks.

• Firstly, a bunch of milk related questions:
• Who has a favorite brand of reusable nursing pads?  I have a set of Milk Diapers, which I find to be okay, not great, and a set of LilyPadz, which I like much better, but don’t want to wear 24/7 since they don’t breathe.  I want something waterproof (major flaw in the Milk Diapers, in my opinion) that doesn’t show terribly through clothes (another flaw of the Milk Diapers).
• Secondly, with Elizabeth, I had one nursing shirt.  Which I wore every time we had to leave the house for an extended period of time.  Every picture of me at Disney World that year is of me in that same pink shirt.  (I also had nursing tank tops, but I don’t like to wear tank tops in public, so I’d only wear those with another shirt over top and it was HOT doing that in Florida.)  This time I have a few more nursing shirts (thanks to fabulous friends and hand-me-downs!), but since we leave the house a lot more with a three year old, I do not have enough.  So, my first question is: does anyone have any hand-me-down nursing shirts for me?  I will gladly pay shipping and count you as one of my best friends for the rest of my life.
• And my second question is: where should I buy nice nursing shirts? Ones that last, are functional, and not too expensive?  Also pretty and flattering?  Never mind, all that seems impossible, I’ll just stay home.
• I showed Elizabeth a picture of her holding Ryan this morning and asked “who is this?”  She grinned and said “RYAN!” I said “and who else?” She said “HIS BIG SISTER!” So she still loves this baby quite a lot.
• Elizabeth is being a combination of amazing and super challenging.  We have company and company always messes her up terribly.  So she’s not eating, sleeping, or using the potty. So that’s good…
• I cannot wait to have my space back again.
• We went to IHOP this morning and I had eggs fried over medium. I have waited a long time for this.

For more Friday Night Leftovers, visit Danifred.

Your mom leaves you on the floor of the closet and someone comes along and puts a sticker on your belly.

And then, during your bath, a mermaid on your head.

Also, your stomach.

A picture of the suspect:

This morning, I took two whole children to Walmart all by myself. And we all came home in one piece! That’s right, folks, clearly I am a superior parent.

Actually, it was the calmest, easiest grocery shopping trip with kid(s) that I have ever taken. I wore Ryan in my Gemini carrier and he slept the whole time. And Elizabeth was on her super amazing best behavior, probably because she was thrilled to get some alone time with Mama.

On the way. (We keep car toys in the pumpkin year round. Best car toy storage I’ve found.)

Obviously the baby is wearing a pumpkin hat. What kind of person would I be if I did not take advantage of the upcoming holidays?

Dibits is super cool.

I forget why I took this picture. But I do remember that I took it for a specific reason because there was something I was going to tell the internet. So you will look at the picture anyway, darn it!

Unrelated story: when the relatives left tonight, I saw the playroom was like this. The explanation was “Elizabeth didn’t want to clean up, so we didn’t.” Yeah. She’s three. That’s why we don’t let her vote on whether or not we clean up.