Barrel of Monkeys

Now that we have opened all the Christmas presents in the Western Hemisphere (and probably a couple that were sucked over from the other side of the world, since my kid's giant head of hair has its own gravitational pull), we got back to the part of the holidays that is REALLY what's important: gnoshing on newborn baby heads.

No, just kidding -- although don't keep living in denial, either; baby heads smell delicious. But we are spending a lot of time hanging out and letting the kids do some bonding.

Well, okay, technically Joey and Shae are doing all the bonding, and the various and sundry grownups are standing just off-camera cursing under their breath about how these kids don't take any direction AT ALL, and Makayla is doing a lot of sleeping, but there's not a whole lot else she could be doing at this point, since she is only two weeks old. I guess she could be screaming; I really don't know. I haven't spent this much time with a kid that small since my sisters were babies, and I was still pretty much a baby myself then.

Joey LOVES Makayla. He likes to be around her all the time, touching her and kissing her and loving her. Not at all unlike how Shae was when Joey was still a baby and not the wriggly giddy hunk of toddlerhood he has become.

Someday I will figure out the exact mathematical formula to express how much more difficult it becomes to take pictures when you have three adorable children involved, instead of just two -- especially because I tend to have trouble with just the ONE. We may be talking imaginary numbers, or particle physics, or string theory, or something.

This is not Shae's first rodeo with a little cousin, so she seems to have a better practical understanding of the concept of "gentle." She does not handle it well when Makayla cries, but that doesn't happen often (yet), and to be perfectly honest, I am not so good with crying babies myself.

Isn't it nice to see that after how many millions of pictures and one extra grandchild, we're still not getting any better at sitting still for a family picture?