We had most of Nick’s family here this weekend for Nolan’s baby blessing at church. We took the opportunity to get some portraits done. To see all the portraits, click the heading link.

Forgive the excess posting, but I’ve got a lot to catch up on! And our blog wouldn’t be complete without sharing about our little computer monster. Little miss Mylie has been fascinated with our computer for some time (and who is surprised by that, honestly, with her techno-geek parents?). And, well, now she’s taken her fascination with it to a new level.

For awhile, we’d been getting online to play Elmo’s Keyboard-o-Rama at Sesame Workshop. This was a simple game where she could press the buttons on the keyboard and learn her letters at the same time. But she started getting bored by it, so we ventured to a few other games on the site. Well, soon, she wanted to control the mouse. Okay, no problem. She can’t hurt much…

Then for Christmas, we bought her another Sesame Street game. Since it’s hard for me to get things set up for her while in the middle of nursing, Nick set her up with her own log-in name on our family computer. He put some administrative limits on her account so that she can’t download things, etc. But she picked out her own icon, and then he made special icons on the desktop for her to get to her two different games. Well, the whole thing has taken on a life of its own.

She can now log on, open which ever game she wants, and then has the mouse control to navigate through the menus, choose whichever game she wants, close out of games, double click, drag and drop, and just about anything else (with the exception of typing legitimate words, although that’s only a few months away). Seriously, I never thought I would have to put daily computer time-limits on my TWO YEAR OLD!

Today, as I was sitting here typing, she got on the other computer and started playing. Then she somehow found Google, and was googling something she’d typed. Then she wanted to get back to her games, so I watched her shrink her internet explorer window, find her game icon, and then drag and drop it back onto the internet explorer on the task bar, so that it opened again. Are you kidding me?! I know that future generations are all going to be more tech savvy that their predecessors, look out Nick – I think your job security is in jeopardy…

It’s funny how you forget what having a newborn is like. We forgot that they don’t sleep through the night right when the come out. And although he does like to sleep A LOT, he’s had a little trouble figuring out his days and nights. Who can blame a kid, though, when the gray, nasty weather and incredibly short days makes it practically night time 24-hours a day. And because we don’t really remember the first few months with Mylie (can you say “dazed and confused fog”), we really only became conscious when she started sleeping through the night. So we keep waiting for that lovely day to arrive, and thinking it will never come. And, because Nolan is a second child, he gets away with a lot of things that Mylie didn’t – like he manages to worm himself into our bed on a regular basis. It’s basically a survival tactic for me, however, since I have a toddler to get up with in the mornings.

So, our schedule is, well, off these days. But last night, we had a breakthrough! There’s a (albeit small and very distant) light at the end of the tunnel. Nolan went down at 7:30, slept for a couple hours while I was at a meeting, and then woke again. This was fine, as we were up working on a project. He finally went back to sleep at 11:30, and slept until 4:45. And here’s the really big deal… he took only about 1/2 hour to eat and get a diaper change, and then went back to sleep – in his own crib! This is definitely a first. Usually, after feeding him, and rocking and walking, and walking and rocking, I give up and bring him back into bed with us, where he tosses and turns for a while before finally crashing. But not this time! And as of right now (8:30am) he is still sleeping (hence, my ability to sneak time to post this). Yea yea yea! This might just be a good day yet – and did I mention the sun is shining?

We have a new tradition – it turns out we always go to Rood Bridge Park on Martin Luther King Day… and it’s always stinking COLD! Since the sun was out today, we thought it might be a good idea to make use of it and head outside. We had no idea just how cold it was until we had spend the 40 minutes it takes to get both kiddos bundled up and in and out of the car, only to spend less than 20 minutes at the park before we started to be concerned about frostbite on Mylie’s gloveless hands. But we did stay long enough to grab a few good pictures. And the best part is, we have pictures from this day last year! The untrained eye may not be able to notice the subtle differences of the pictures at the right, but to us, they signify just what a difference a year makes. Yes, she can still fit into the same coat. But notice in last year’s photos (on top) how closely Daddy hangs out around her to make sure she doesn’t face plant. Also, her little head is barely past the top of the rail, and it’s quite a reach to make it from step to step. Fast forward one year (to the bottom photos), and she’s all on her own, a head above the rail, and she can even stop to pose.