Cousins

Six little cousins (and me)

Rachel met a lot of new people today. We went to church and everyone wanted to take a peak at her, of course, but more importantly she met five of her cousins (technically only four since she'd met Rosie previously). It was pretty stressful for mom and dad, actually. We're not quite used to having that many kids in the house and we certainly were nervous about having that many kids around Rachel. I kept having to remind myself that a lot of children survive older siblings...so Rachel should be able to survive a few cousins.

She did.

This picture was not taken today. It's from July 25th.
Matthew and Rachel
Gettin' some loves from Andrew and Olivia

Gentle does it...
Eeek! Careful of the soft spot!
Please can I touch her nose, mom?
Sabrina wondering if this baby ever wakes up

Somehow Rachel managed to sleep through it all. She really just sleeps like her dad. Andrew and I went to dinner my parent's house tonight. After dinner I went for a walk with my mom and Josie while Andrew had a nap with the baby. Characteristically, Andrew fell deep asleep quickly and, equally characteristically, my dad then went to steal away the baby from Andrew.

Before taking the baby, however, he "woke" Andrew to ask him if it was alright. Andrew moaned his agreement, my dad took the baby and Andrew went "back" to sleep.

When I came back from the walk I went to wake Andrew up. I put my hand on his chest and gently shook him, "Wake up, Andrew..." I said.

He started grasping at his chest frantically saying, "Baby, baby, baby, baby..."

"My dad has the baby."

"Oh, how come?" Now that he knew the baby was safe his unconscious allowed him to slip back into deep sleep. Waking these two up is the bane of my existence!

"Because he took her."

No response.

"Andrew, wake up," I said, shaking his shoulders.

And what do you think he did?

"Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby..." while grasping around at the air above his chest.

"Andrew, the baby is fine. Wake up!"

He's actually become a lot easier to wake up. I'm not sure if it is parenthood or the number of times he's smacked his head on the dresser (we're at three now--the first time he smacked it on the hard wood, fell off the bed and still asked for "10 more minutes"--we now keep a pillow stuffed between the bed and the dresser), but at least he's easier to wake up!