Daphne’s Letter to Santa

Daphne wrote her first letter to Santa today. We sounded out his name and she guessed all the letters correctly. I wrote them out on another piece of paper and she copied them. She did her name all by herself. I can’t wait to see what Santa brings!

Cormac: Three Months

Dear Cormac,

You are such a sweet boy. If your personality now is true to how you’ll be as an adult, I think you’re going to be an awful lot like your daddy. You’re laid back and quick to smile. You make all of us so happy – even your sister will sometimes say “I love Baby Mac! He makes me so happy!”

In the last couple of days, you’ve learned to laugh, and I think that Daphne and I have probably spent hours trying to coax laughter out of you. There is nothing cuter than the sound of your giggles. It’s impossible to listen to you chuckle without laughing ourselves. I tried to catch you giggling on video, but you were too interested in the camera to cooperate. I’ll keep trying because I know that your Bestemor and Grandma would love to see our silly little man laugh. Here’s the video I did get of you yesterday.

Unfortunately, you’ve had a cold recently. For the whole last week, both you and your sister have been sick. It’s so sad to hear you snorfle and snuffle when you’re trying to breathe. It’s made it kind of hard for you to sleep at night because you can’t suck on your ba with your nose all clogged. Hopefully you’re at the tail end of the illness and you’ll be back to your sleepy old self soon. Speaking of your sleepy old self, I really love this next picture. You played so hard on your mat that you fell asleep. We have a similar picture of Daphne at this age. I think I’ll have to get prints made and frame them next to each other.

You’ve been growing so fast, little guy. You’re holding your head up pretty good these days and you’ve even started sitting in your Bumbo seat for a few minutes at a time. You really love your seat because it makes you feel like a big boy. Your favorite thing to do in your seat is to be right next to wherever Daphne is so that you can watch her play. You coo and squeal at her and wave your arms around wildly in the air. I know that she can’t wait until you’re old enough to run around with her and join in on the fun. For now you’re content to just watch, but I have a feeling that she’s going to really motivate you to crawl and walk quickly.

You are very into your toys right now. You can shake a rattle and your keys (you have about 5 different sets) are your favorite toy. You shake them so hard that sometimes you hit yourself in the face with them. It’s funny because you always look stunned, but you don’t cry. You’re a pretty tough kid. You also really enjoy the mobile in your crib. You’ll happily watch it for 15 minutes so that I can take a shower, thank you! We recently got out the crib aquarium that Daphne loved as a baby. You love it too…you’re completely entranced by it and you stare slack-jawed until the timer turns it off. Next time we take you to see Dr. Hughes, I’ll have to make sure to let you watch the real fish.

Last week I dressed you and Daphne up in your Christmas best and tried to snap a picture of you together to use for our Christmas card. It was a huge failure…you were not happy about your outfit and your sister didn’t want to look at the camera. The resulting pictures are funny because they are so terrible. I almost used this one on our card just to be funny, but I ultimately decided to send out a more flattering picture.

And I had lots of flattering pictures to choose from because you’re such a handsome little dude.

I started back to school this month and it’s been very hard leaving you for 5 hours on Mondays (with our babysitter)and 12+ hours on Wednesdays (with Daddy) so that I can go to class and clinical. I miss you so much and I wish I could take you with me. You miss me too. I know this because you don’t like to take a bottle from the babysitter and sometimes you won’t take one from Daddy either. Part of this is because you’ve developed a dairy and soy allergy just like your sister, but that’s not all of it. The other day the sitter was trying to feed you and you were taking the bottle (for once). When I walked in and you heard my voice, you spit out the bottle and started wailing. You finally stopped when I took you from her and then you nursed like you hadn’t eaten in days. Poor sweet boy, I’m sorry that I have to leave you for such long stretches when you’re still so little. My favorite thing about being gone is getting to come home to you and your sister. I miss you so much on those days that I can’t bear to put you to sleep in your bed at night…so I just hold you instead. You don’t seem to mind.

We celebrated your first Thanksgiving on Thursday. Unfortunately, you got a little tired and fell asleep before the festivities began. Your daddy and I have an awful lot to be thankful for this year. You’ve made our little family feel complete and you and your sister are the best things that have ever happened to us. I’m thankful for you, Little Mac.

Love,

Mama

Little Smartie

Daphne wrote her name all by herself today for the first time. Sometimes I’m blown away by her. She is just so bright.

Eye Candy

The light was just right when Baby Mac was lying on my bed yesterday afternoon and he graciously agreed to model for me. He is such a handsome little guy.

Video of Cormac

I just processed a bunch of videos we have taken over the last few months, and realized we haven’t posted one in a while; here is a quick video of Joy and me playing with Cormac. This is for those of you who haven’t met him yet (and also for those that have, of course!) – you can get a better feel for what he is like than you can from just looking at still pics… he’s getting more smiley each day!

Lots of Visitors and a Happy Halloween

We’ve had a very busy October, full of visitors and Halloween activities. Grandpa Lyle was our first visitor. He flew out to meet the newest Schindler shortly after we got back from Nevada. We often think that Cormac looks like Lyle. What do you think?

The following weekend our friend Rachel flew in from Las Vegas for a visit. She spent the weekend loving on the kids and helping me transition from 29 to very, very old.

While Rachel was here, we went to Sweet Berry Farm (where we went Strawberry picking last spring) for our annual pumpkin patch pilgrimage. Daphne really enjoyed it again this year. And, she was finally old enough to do the horse rides. She was a very serious horsewoman…and she enjoyed it quite a bit. Summer horse camp in her future maybe?

The following weekend, Bestemor came to visit for Halloween. We went to the Dias de los Meurtos Parade at Central Market to watch Daphne’s teacher, Fiona, dance with Austin Samba School. It was really fun to see all the dancers and the giant skeleton puppets.

On Sunday night, Amanda came over to carve pumpkins. Daphne even designed her own pumpkin this year and we cut it out for her.

L to R: Debe, Amanda, Joy, Tyson, Daphne

On Monday night, Debe took Daphne to deliver the owl cupcakes they made for the neighbors. Yum!


Then we took the kids trick or treating. Daphne REALLY enjoyed it and she was the politest trick or treator ever. At every house she said “Happy Halloween!” She even corrected the kids that came to our house if they didn’t say it… Mac was pretty indifferent to everything. He enjoyed being held and getting an evening stroller ride.

All in all it was a wonderful October. Now we’re almost done with the Halloween candy (thank goodness!) and getting ready to host our third consecutive Thanksgiving. Hope you had a Happy Halloween!