Margery is Four Months Old, and More Adventures

Hard to believe this little pistol is four months old. She is so busy taking the world in. Her favorite things this month are staring at the Christmas Tree, making raspberries with her lips and smiling at her big sister. Here's some recent photos of Margery and her big sister.

Sweet little angel has a great firm grip. Just keep your hair out of the way.

Evangeline loves being a big sister more and more each day.

Celebrating with school friends at a birthday party this week.

Snack at Sunday School.

Margery, Evangeline and Cousin Charlie.

My crazy but unique family.

Mommy and her girls.

Our little turkey and her daddy.

Lifting herself up. Getting so strong.

Blowing Raspberries.

Margery and Mommy.

Fun with daddy.

Our little Elf. Happy Advent!

So cute!

At her appointment Margery was 25 inches long and weighed 15.5 lbs. She's growing strong and looking cute :)

Margery Frances Perreault

Daddy and his little girl.

Daddy reading to Margery.

She's here!! We are so glad to share the arrival of our second daughter, Margery Frances. She was born at 8:11 a.m. on Thursday, July 31, 2014. She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Mommy and Margery 

Sweet sleeping baby.

Greg and I chose the name Margery almost 10 years ago when we were first thinking about names that sounded good with our last name. Margery (is a form of Margaret) means Pearl, and Frances is Mimi's middle name and the name of her maternal grandmother's oldest sister and maternal great grandmother.

Leaving the hospital and heading home. Token TJ the Tiger Photo.

Margery does not have a nick name as of yet, but we like "M" for now. Neat fact: She shares a birthday with author J.K. Rowling and Rowling's token character, Harry Potter. Here are some photos from our first week with Margery.  She also shares a birth month with her Grandmother Carri.

Evangeline meets her little sister for the first time.

Evangeline and Margery love to match.

Big sister and her little sister.

Evangeline is adjusting to sisterhood. Although she does not understand why Margery will not talk to her and sleeps so much.  Evangeline loves to gives her kisses and hold her.

Sweet baby feet.

We are so thankful to Grandpa Will and Grandma Carri for coming to help us right after Margery was born. They spent many hours keeping Evangeline busy and taking turns baby holding, as well as cleaned the house and cooked for us. We are still reaping the benefits of their visit.

Grandpa Will and Grandma Carri with their new granddaughter. 

Grandpa Will and Margery.

In addition, Aunt Edge recently moved to Columbia and has been an great help. She is also great at holding the baby and has spend a lot of time with Evangeline while Greg and I deal with sleep deprivation.

Aunt Edge and Margery.

Sleeping baby girl.

Margery loves to sleep, in fact Greg and I have to wake her up every 3 hours to get her to eat. She's also a big smiler in her sleep, and makes the cutest baby sounds.

Margery sleep smiling.

Sleeping on mommy's lap. 

Sleeping swaddled in the Moses basket.

We've already introduced her to singing and dancing, as well as breakfast. Three Perreault family staples.  More to come as she continues to grow and develop!

Daddy singing and dancing with Margery.

Christmas in July and Big Sister Evangeline

 As Evangeline’s shirt implies, she will soon be a big sister! Mimi and I are expecting a new baby around July 25^th (Christmas in July, as Mimi is fond of saying). Mimi thinks it’s a boy, I think it’s a girl.

It sure would be easier on me if it was a girl. I already know all the names of the Disney princesses, how to (kinda) match girl clothes and have gathered the importance of chocolate in coaxing even a toddler female. With a boy I would need to prepare myself for that whole locking horns thing you see on Bambi, start watching NASCAR and develop a healthy appreciation (if there is such a thing) of monster trucks.

But whatever you are, baby P-nut, you are ready for a ride. I’ve decided to write a short guide to prepare you for what’s in store in the Perreault house.

(1) Your house will never be clean—Nope, it’ll be an absolute mess. It’s not just that your Dad and Mom are busy people but that your big sister is certifiably destructive. If you want the house clean, most likely you’ll have to clean it. Be prepared to step on downed LEGO towers, and petrified Cheerios. This state of affairs is also probably a result of #2.

(2) The Perreaults never stop moving—And I mean that in the most literal way possible. We wake up, we work all day, we play hard. And by play hard, it should be clear that your Dad runs marathons and your sister pretty much does the same (measured in circles run around our kitchen table).

Sleeping doesn’t necessarily stop us. Your Dad doesn’t always sleep (not healthy) and your sister….Well, lets put it this way. I tucked your sister to bed two nights ago and then in the morning when I went to wake her up I found the furniture in the room had been rearranged and she was sleeping naked under her desk. ???

(3) You will be inundated with books—You’d better like books because they’ll be coming down around your ears. I don’t even know how many bookshelves we have at our house—in part because we’ve begun using furniture not meant for books, for books anyway. Want to read some Gramsci? On it. Prefer less Marxist, more contemplative. Dostoevsky on the way. Remembered that you’re a baby? Oh yeah, that. We’ve more Sandra Boynton, Dr. Seuss and Llama Llama than you can shake a stick at.

Also, we have reading time every night. You’ll be expected to chill-the-heck-out for the short period of time in which this occurs. This will include chapter books like Anne of Green Gables, Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan & Wendy.

Also we get three newspapers. Three. Breakfast time with newspapers is sacred. Trod carefully when you want to do puzzles or dance to the Belly Button song during breakfast.

(4) Hope you like school—That’s pretty much all we do is school and we love it. We’ll expect you to love it to or we’ll think you’re weird. Your Mom and Dad both are academics and spend an awful lot of time thinking about big ideas and figuring out how to communicate those to students. So no, we will not let you be that kid in class staring at your (crotch) smartphone while the professor is lecturing.

(5) Did we mention breakfast is sacred? We also make awesome breakfast. In recent years, I’ve been in charge of egg tacos and your Mom has been in charge of pancakes. They each happen about once a week. Are you excited? You should be.

(6) Your sister loves you—This mostly likely will be expressed in early years by drawing a Hitler mustache in marker on your face, dressing you like a princess or grabbing you by the hand and forcibly maneuvering you toward whatever activity she thinks you should do.

You Mom and I have been talking about you with Evangeline. We point to your Mom’s belly and say, “This is your baby brother/sister.” Evangeline is pretty indignant and points to her own belly saying, “No, my baby brother/sister right here.” As you can see, she’s more than willing to carry you herself.

(7) You will have killer clothes—Let me just do some math for you. You have three aunts. Three (Edgerly, Sarah and Catelyn). They’re all beautiful and they know how to make you beautiful (or handsome). Also you have three (four kinda) grandmothers and a grand-nana. They all will ensure that you are just killing it for pictures. Not to mention a stylish momma.

(8) Yes, your stuffed animals do talk—Don’t be ridiculous. Just because you hear a strange voice and my mouth is moving doesn’t mean I’m making the sounds. It’s totally coming from your stuffed animal. Also, your stuffed animals have attitude and typically take your parents side in any dispute. It’s just a coincidence.

(9) There will be a lot of music in your life—Notice I didn’t say “good” music. We all sing a lot. What we lack in talent, we make up for with enthusiasm. You should see me do air guitar while singing Bob Seger. Scratch that. You will. So just wait for it expectantly. Also we sometimes do awkward, very white, three-person dances. These are occasionally followed by piggyback rides. 

(10)               We love you—We’re not perfect, God knows. You could have won the lottery and ended up as the child of some rich, recently retired Silicon Valley tycoon but nope you’re with us. What we lack in funds and societal sex appeal, I think we make up in compassion and care for each other. You are coming into a loving house. We can’t wait to meet you.  

Winter Catch Up

So this semester is very busy. We have been swamped. This past week we had two snow days to play catch up. Greg's busy teaching 1100-Principles of American Journalism this semester and taking several independent studies, and I am busy with a full course load and two research assistant ships. So far this year Greg and I have both been to DC on short research trips, our car has been in the shop several times to get new tires, a new bumper and some recall maintenance. Between those things and Evangeline starting daycare we have all been very busy.
At her 16 month appointment Evangeline was 31 inches long and weighed 24 lbs. She is now drinking whole milk and still nursing once in the evening. She loves muffins (especially Pumpkin flavored), mandarin oranges, cheese crackers, cheese (and asks for it by name) and bananas. She attends daycare twice a week and loves her friends there.
Here's a few photos of our PhD Family : )

Mom and baby girl in the back of one of the three rental cars from this month.

Look at the super cute curl on the back of head!

She loves hair accessories right now. Most of the time headbands become necklaces.

Evangeline playing with her French word cards.

French "School" in the living room.

Not so happy to be taking photos.

She climbed onto this horse all by herself.

Hoop Dee Do-Dah!

Our second day in Orlando Greg and I took Evangeline to the Hoop Dee Do Review.

Family shot before our adventure.

 I've been two times before, once when I was 11 and again right after Greg and I got married. The show is a review of American Folk Songs, ie. "Davy Crocket" and "Oh Shenandoah." The show is two hours long with dinner and music. Evangeline actually made it through the whole show--and was periodically babbling with the table of boys next to us. It was a great Disney experience for our entire family, and it fit Evangeline's attention span.

So excited while waiting outside the show.

Dancing feet.

One Year Appointment

On Wednesday we made it to Evangeline's one year appointment. She got several shots including a Flu Shot and had her blood drawn to check for led and anemia.

Here's her stats. Evangeline is in the 70 percentile for weight and 75 percentile for height. She is growing a normal rate. She weights 21 pounds and is 31 inches tall.

So tired after her shots

We have successfully been breast feeding for a little over a year now, she breast feeds two or three times a day now. Other than that, she will still only eat solid foods that she can feed herself. Right now she loves turkey bacon and green grapes.

She claps when you sing Happy Birthday (we've had a lot of birthdays to celebrate recently) or say "yay," she also says "hi, hello, dada, mama, dog, ball, okk" (which we think is book), "dadt" and points, and recognizes photos of family members including her two grandfathers.

She loves books and to climb into enclosed spaces--especially her castle which we kept in the living room after her birthday party. She shows every new person who comes to the house all her new toys and books. This week she started having a babysitter come for three hours two days a week so mommy and daddy can get some more time to do research at school.

We are still using cloth diapers, although the cleaning process is a bit more of a challenge now that we have at least two solid poop diapers a day. She wears 5 to 7 diapers a day. I wash two or three times a week.

Doctor's appointments are harder on moms than they are on babies I think. Evangeline did not like getting her shots or her blood drawn, but she was pretty resilient. I however felt awful all day for putting her through it. She got a trip to the mall to ride the train to remedy my spirits and hers.

Riding the Columbia Mall Train

So happy!

Horray its Halloween!

So my Halloween post is also a little late, but I thought I would share what we did for the week after Evangeline's birthday (which included Halloween).

The Tuesday before Halloween we went to trick-or-treat with James and Brenda around Mizzou's Greek Town. Evangeline and James got their first taste of candy. Evangeline wore an Elmo headband and carried her Elmo goody basket Grandma Carri bought her.

Evangeline and James prepare for their trick or treat trip

Getting Candy from one of the Zeta Girls

Evangeline at the ZTA house

On Wednesday, we we hung out with our neighbors Chesney and Arlen. Arlen also brough Evangeline a new cellphone toy for her birthday. They were so cute playing in Evangeline's Cozy Coupe and in the Castle (which we left up from her birthday party).

Evangeline trying to keep Arlen out of the castle.

Squeezing into the Cozy Coupe together. It's too early for my girl to get in a car with a boy.

Opening her birtday gift from Arlen.

Wednesday night Greg pulled her around in the wagon to a few neighbor's houses, we handed out candy to three dozen trick-or-treaters and watched "Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" before Evangeline headed to bed. We let her try a Crunch bar while she watched the movie, but only after she ate through the candy bar's wrapper while we were not watching.