"Josie! You are a princess!"

Josie was baptized this Sunday. It was a lovely day with both sets of grandparents, her godparents Sarah and Chris Daniels, and Chris and Blair Carter. Her other set of godparents, Chris and Carey, were sending lots and lots of love in from Philadelphia. (I think that's what kept the rain away!)

Josie was beautiful. I mean, beautiful with red spots. On Wednesday, I had the flu with 103.1 fever and everything. But once the fever broke on Wednesday night, I felt much better and I thought we were in the clear since neither of the kids were showing any symptoms. That is until Josie broke out all over in red spots on Friday. Literally. Big red blotches everywhere. Her doctor said that is was just a random virus. Apparently, that's how her body dealt with it. She was a little irritable too (more than usual :)), but she never had a fever. Anyway, the poor girl looked awful. They went down by Sunday, but were definitely still visible. The doctor said to keep her away from small children, but other than that, she was good to go.

So back to the baptism. It was a beautiful service. The Bishop was even there!

After the baptism, the Bishop took Josie around the church to meet the congregation. I was a bit nervous since she was being a little persnickety/momma's girl right before the baptism, but clearly I had no reason to be concerned. We joked that she just needed to get her Miss America wave down pat and she would be good to go.

And everything was going well until Josie decided to take out the Bishop. (She succeeded in getting his portable ear microphone.)

Marshall was the best big brother. I thought he might be a little jealous with all the attention that Josie was getting, but he didn't act out at all. The first time he saw her in her beautiful baptism dress, he said, "Josie! You are a princess!" and he held her hand. What a great big brother!

Grandparent Heaven

Two sets of grandparents to shower attention on us for a whole weekend? Does it get any better than this?

Marshall's Official Third Birthday

While Marshall has believed that he is three for the whole month of November, he officially turned three this past Thursday. On Thursday, he brought in cookies to preschool and got to be THE LEADER. (I didn't even know he knew what it meant to be the leader but when Teacher Connie told him he got to be the leader when the kids were washing hands for snack, boy was he into it. "No, you are not the leader. I am the leader." I think he knows what he wants to be when he grows up now..... :))

On Friday, we had a three year old dinner extravaganza of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and sweet potato fries (I had to put something of nutritional value on the table.) Nana and Papa were here from Massachusetts and Grandma and Grandpa drove up from Ashland. There even was a balloon. (Probably the best thing ever in Marshall's book, excepting the cake.)

I love the look on his face in this one. This boy LOVES him some birthday cake. So I couldn't find the number 3 candle, I could only find the number 1 candle. Will's mom and I were joking that we would just say it's because he's number one. Well, Mr. Big Ears must have heard us because as I was bringing him the cake he shouted,"I'm number one!"

That is his birthday crown from preschool.

My little angel....

So here I am writing about letting go of my preconceived ideas about what Marshall should be, but not even contemplating how I think about Josie. This weekend we went to a baby shower where there was one other baby girl who was 6 months old as well. The other mom and I were sitting on the floor and the girls were sitting with us. My diaper bag was near so I pulled out 3 toys so that the girls could have something to entertain themselves with. As usual Josie sat up for about a minute before deciding that she would rather roll all over the carpet. The other little girl sat nicely and played with Josie's dragonfly. Well, I was talking to the other mother and we look up and Josie has managed to corral ALL 3 toys in her arm space, effectively taking the dragonfly right out of the other baby's hands. Sigh....here I am thinking that because she is a girl AND a second child she will automatically be a better sharer than her brother. But alas, it starts already, at 6 months. I can see the battles between Josie and Marshall already.

In other news, we have decided to move to the Edmonds house in February. We hate to leave our neighborhood, but the idea of a playroom and a master bedroom with ITS OWN BATHROOM is too enticing. We already rented out this house to a cute young couple who are expecting a baby and we are very happy! (At least we will have more space so that when the aforementioned battles occur, I can send each child to their own play place.)

Look at what I can do!

I was just telling Will the other day that I didn't think that Josie was ever going to learn how to sit up by herself because every time I would sit her down on the floor, she would immediately force her way over so she could roll around. (She is quite an efficient roller. She is completely ignoring the baby toys I have put out for her and going straight for Marshall's fire trucks and Little People.)

But lo and behold, this week, she just started sitting up. She's pretty good at it too!

(I love this face! Look at those pursed lips! Check out the incredible Roberts family torso too... :))

Smiling and sitting up is apparently a little difficult. Seconds after I took this picture she fell backwards and clunked her head. Crying ensued.

Peek A Boo!

Josie is totally in love with her brother. Her eyes follow him around the room. She really dislikes being put down to play by herself, but if Marshall is there, she is happy as a clam. Every time she sees him her eyes light up. Car trips without Marshall involve lots of yelling, but when he is there....well, I guess there is still some yelling, but a lot less.

However, up until now, Marshall has had only fleeting moments of recognition that his sister adores him completely. Sure, every morning when she wakes up, he says,"Look who's awake! Isn't she a cute little baby?" And whenever we meet someone new (and they inevitably gravitate to the cute, smiley baby) Marshall says, "Hi! That's my sister, Josie. And this is Mommy. And I am Marshall." But other than that, there's not a lot of interaction. Until he discovered that he can crack Josie up when he plays Peek A Boo. They sit at the table while waiting for dinner and entertain each other and it is soooo sweet. I hope this brotherly affection continues!

Call the Fire Brigade! Marshall's turning 3!

We had a wonderful day at Marshall's 3rd Birthday Party yesterday! It was a lot of fun, but definitely exhausting. Of course, it didn't help that the party was held during what should have been nap time. (It was the only time the room was available.) Our fireman party was modeled closely after preschool, lots of things to do and very few organized activities. Just the way Marshall likes it. The kids had a blast. Will and a friend from work made this amazing bean bag game of a burning house. (Which withstood the 3 year olds, but took a beating from the 4-6 crowd) We also had a firetruck play tent and some tunnels (courtesy of Erin and Quin). The Shoreline Fire Department gave us a 3 year old size fire fighter outfit for pretend play and plastic hats and goodie bags for all the kids! It was a great day. I don't want to brag (but I will). I made a really cool firetruck cake. I think that was Marshall's favorite part. When he came into the room, he grabbed a fork and tried to go at the cake. Will had to put it up high. :)

My favorite part was the spontaneous present opening. We hadn't planned on having a formal present opening time because, with that many little kids, we figured it would be a bad idea. However, I was going to have M open presents on the side and thank people. Well, the minute Marshall started to open his first present from a friend that had to leave early, the kids declared a free for all. Presents were being opened left and right. It was great! I just hope that I can figure out who brought what for the Thank you cards! The pinata was hilarious too. The little kids went first and they weren't making a dent (even without a blindfold). So I told Donna's daughters, Marie (6) and Lindsey (4), to go last and finish it off. HA HA! Will saw his life flash before his eyes. Donna has decided that apparently they need a punching bag at their house to get right of all that pent up aggression. :)

And with all this, Josie was great. I think it helped that there were so many willing arms to be held in. :) (Although you can see from the pictures that she was a little hot. Everyone was. For some reason it was really really HOT in the room. We couldn't figure it out and tried to open up the windows and doors, but we definitely decided that we should have put "Tropical Firefighter Party" on the invites.)

Check out this great slideshow of pictures!