Mabel is both delighted by and scared of her toys

Annie and Mabel are coloring at the kitchen table

Mabel is 4 months old!

Yay! Our little baby is growing so well! We went to the doctor today for her check-up:

height: 25" (75th percentile)

weight: 14 lbs (50th percentile)

She's right on the same track she's been on since birth, for the most part just an average-sized little one. :) She did so well with the doctor today, and even her shots weren't too bad. She didn't like when she couldn't see me, though, so I had to make sure I was in her line of sight at all times. Otherwise, she'd start screaming like a banshee. But once she could see me, she'd start laughing, even as the doctor was checking her out. Mabel's turning out to be quite the mommy-attached little chica, something Annie never really was, at least not to this extent. She's so sweet about it, though; I don't mind her needing me like she does. :) She is so talkative and social and smiley. Also--and I don't want to jinx this, but---she has slept from about 8p to 6:30a for the last few nights! Before that, she's been sleeping from about 8p to 7a, waking up at 3 or 4 for a short nursing. So, it already hasn't been that bad! She's a great sleeper and eater! She's also become much more interested in toys the last few weeks. She is SUCH a drooler and loves to put everything in her mouth and hold tight onto toys! Just as she's been since the day she was born, she's happiest when she's snuggled up in my arms and nursing. But she certainly has eyes that are alert to the outside world, and since it's cooled down a little bit, she's come out on almost-daily walks with me and Annie. She giggles and chats as she gazes all around her. I love seeing her enjoy being outside!

So, to celebrate Mabel being four months and one day old, our town finally lifted the boil water advisory!! After a week and a day of not being able to use any water from our faucets, we are back! I can wash dishes again! And bathe my children! And brush my teeth with running water instead of pouring bottled water on my toothbrush! And wash my hands instead of using hand sanitizer and wipes. Can you tell which ones I'm most excited about? I'm really not complaining about how things have been, though. In fact, this last week, I have just been feeling so blessed that we got through the flooding so well. So many in our town are homeless, waiting to hear what can be done with their few leftover possessions. There are full shelters and so many waiting to get FEMA aid. Our town daily has cleanup efforts going on and there is so much people need. The National Guard just left last night, after watching over certain roads in town around the clock. I've driven through some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods these last few days, and I just can't believe how much people have lost. There are piles as big as garbage trucks of ruined, rotted belongings along almost all of our streets. I put a bunch of pictures on facebook, but here was some of the worst of it in our town. We were so lucky to have our house at higher elevation, about a quarter- to a half-mile up the hill from two of the worst areas along the flooded creek. Our basement filled up with about 3-4 inches of water on the worst day, Wednesday, when it just wouldn't stop raining. But once it stopped raining, the creek and river got higher and higher, as all the rain drained into them. That's when the worst of flooding in town happened. On Wednesday morning, I noticed how hard it was raining, when I tried to get Annie and Mabel loaded in the car and head up to Hershey for Annie's preschool. I couldn't even get out of town! A few blocks up the road, my car couldn't get through the water, so we turned around and tried another route out of town. No luck. More flooded roads. By that point, I could barely make it the few blocks home. I was a little freaked out. Two hours later, I called Brant and told him to get home as fast as he could, because I couldn't stay on top of the flooding basement. I made him stay on the phone with me the whole time he was driving home, and I just knew he was driving through some high water in that little car of ours. But he made it. I stationed Annie and Mabel in front of the TV, which miraculously (cause this never usually works) kept Mabel totally content for almost two hours! After an hour of the two of us carrying buckets of water up the stairs and out the front door to the street, we called in reinforcements. There weren't a lot of people who could reach us, though, but luckily we have two great guys who braved the rain and stayed all day to help us. We spent about 4 hours carrying buckets up and out. Oh man. It was tiring. And we were barely making a dent. Because it just kept raining and raining. Brant finally started chiseling into the cement that had been poured over an old drain in the basement. For about another forty-five minutes he was tap-tapping away in the water, and finally---broke through!! And the water slowly drained. Ah, relief! It took me another day to get everything cleaned out and re-organized downstairs, but the worst was definitely behind us. Not so for so many others, though, and we are still praying for help for those affected. Our next-door neighbors have a couple living with them who totally lost their house. I was talking to them yesterday, and they told me they're not even sure where their three dogs are, in cages in one of the shelters somewhere. So sad!

Anyway, that's our flood story. So, enough about that now. In happy news, the weather has turned a little chilly today, so I spent some time in the attic finding our warmer clothes, especially for Mabel. So excited for fall! :)

Oh, and here's a picture of Annie and Mabel watching TV the other day. Wow, these two love each other! Annie has her very serious, watching-TV face, and you can tell Mabel is just a little amazed. :)

here's a video!

Our neighbors' two granddaughters live with them half of the time, and Annie's finally decided to become friends with them. They were so adorable the evening we were all sitting outside waiting for Irene to move in. They kept asking, "Is it okay that we're playing in the rain??" and chasing each other around our yards.

The rest of the video is just of us hanging out on the floor with Mabes, what we do most days.

first day of preschool . . . and elizabethtown fair

We've been a busy family here this week! What with Brant's first day of going back to school AND this big sister here going to her first day of preschool!!

Here she is, all ready to go do some learnin'!

 I'm part of a mommy-run preschool that a bunch of friends have started for our kids this year. There's five families, and we have school once a week, rotating weeks, so we only teach once every five weeks. Annie and I are both SO excited. The units we chose and divvied up among the moms are so cool. I love this age! Most of the kids in Annie's class are 3 or about to turn 3. This year marks the first of three years of preschool for our Annie. Since she was born on the first day of the new school year, she'll be the very oldest in her grade. Anyway, her first day went well. She wasn't sad to be dropped off, probably because she's been to that friend's house many, many times. (We'll see how it goes at the others'.) And the report from her teacher was that she was very still and quiet the whole time. Hopefully she'll kick things into gear once she gets the hang of it all. But she sure wasn't quiet after I picked her up. The car ride home was filled with reports of the songs they sang and the weather they talked about and the coloring she did and the kids in her class . . .

Last night we went to the Elizabethtown Fair with Grandma and Poppy. Brant had class. Boo. :-( We met up with Nancy and Anne and Scott there, though! Yay! :) Usually our tradition is to participate in the horseshoe competition on Saturday morning, but we didn't that this year. Instead, my parents drove up and we played a rousing game of Carcassonne (our new fave!!) until the girls decided to wake up from their marathon afternoon naps. Then we headed over for some fair food, rides, and animals!

I tried to let Mabel in on the fun in these pictures, too. She was amazed at all the lights and craziness that must have been visible while lying on one's back and being rolled around the fair. She was awake most of the evening and totally happy playing with her toys.

Here they are looking at some mechanized miniature sawmill. Some people have amazing hobbies, like building something like this.

Petting zoo!!

Mabel and the sheep chowin down.

what a naughty, naughty girl

Llamas!! Also, see Anne's balloon here?

It flew up into the top of the tent. So sad.

The Joneses avoid some cow poop! :)

We couldn't keep Annie and Anne from the carnival rides any longer. After closely surveying the train ride . . .

We all decided to hop on!

 . . . twice!

And the evening ended with Poppy's traditional dunk pitch. He got SO SO close, hitting the edge of the target!

Yay for Pennsylvania fairs! We left and got home about 20 seconds before a torrential downpour. A well-timed evening, I'd say. :)


Also, Mabel has started blowing raspberries and sticking her tongue out. Here's a video of my futile attempt at trying to get her to show you . . . but Annie does a good job at the end, too! Oh, and the guy Annie's talking about that I was getting "pretty mad" at was the person driving in front of us on the way home, who was driving SO slowly, while we watched the clouds darken and the rain start drizzling. 

running in the rain

 . . . because she wasn't really singing or dancing in the rain . . . I'd say it was mostly running and splashing!

Showing me how wet her shirt was . . .

What Mabel and I were doing . . . watching from the safety of our rocking chairs. :)

Also, Brant started teaching this week! Here he is heading off to his first class and office hours. We thought it was an appropriate occasion to break out the satchel once again!

And, Annie wants me to post some more pictures of her cars and this block city. I I did think this was a particularly detailed and creative city she made. She sure does like her cars and blocks!

She told me she was especially proud because she used up every block in the box to make this one!

Hope everyone is having a great week! Since there weren't any earthquakes today to keep us busy, I went on two walks with the girls in the double stroller: one to the grocery store early this morning and another to a park up the road with Nancy and Anne! Mabel slept most of the time on both trips. Ahhh, the lulling sounds of weed whackers and motorcycles . . . I love living in a town where we can walk everywhere!

Happy Wednesday!

fun with mabel

Just like her sister did when she was a baby, our little Mabel loves to stand on her big, strong legs!

Mabel loves smiling at her daddy!

Hahaha, this picture cracks me up. Annie is doing who-knows-what, and Mabel has this expression like, "Well, what can ya' do? I've got a crazy sis."

Loves!!

Mmmm I could just nibble on those scrumptious chubby legs all day long! hehehehe

I came home from errands one evening, and I found Mabel had gotten tired of waiting and decided to feed herself. :)

Standing with papa bear!