Slow day here at Chateau McRaine. Littlenose is settling back into our daily routine. Right now she is whining at me over the monitor. Loosely translated, the message is:

"Hello! You there! Come and get me! I think it has been made abundantly obvious that I am meant to nap in the arms of a nice older woman! Wait until the one you call 'Grandma' hears about this!
Your head will roooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's nice to be home.

Merry Chrisrainemas!

One Christmas down, one to go. So far, Tally and Santa are getting along like a house on fire. She has been incredibly spoiled by the McQueens, and is soon to have the same treatment from the Raines, I'm sure. She loved all the attention and constant cuddles, but did NOT enjoy how Mommy strayed from her everyday diet - Santa should have left some tummy drops in her stocking! He did, however, leave everything she needs to start on some foods besides breastmilk in January. So, soon I will be able to eat whatever I want without being rewarded with a screamy baby - lock up yer fridges!!!!

Even Bert and Ernie escaped the daily December threat of coal in their stocking! Here they are, happy as little clams with their new toys. (Of course, they would be just as happy with one of Raine's dirty socks or sniffing each other's butts, but hey, it's Christmas.)

Happy Holidays, everyone!

BFFs

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my Mom on the phone, telling her the latest funny baby Tally story, and she laughed and said "Isn't that sweet? She'll be your best friend for the rest of your days!!" This made me think 2 things:

1. It must be true, or my Mom wouldn't say it. The lady used to be a nun, she don't tell no lies, yo.

2. That must be how my Mom feels about me. Sweet! Take that, older brother! I'm totally Mom's BFF. And I'm now Tally's BFF. Two BFFs! Everything's coming up McRaine!

Here is a picture of me breaking the news to Tally that we will be best friends the rest of my days. It took her a few months to warm up to the idea.

Silent Night......... yeah, right

Ah, the holidays are upon us. Those of you who know my husband know that this means for the next month the Peanut and I will be serenaded by him, singing all the hits: "Oh Chris Raine's Tree," "Here Comes Treeny Clause," and of course, any and all topics he can fit into "Auld Lang Syne," such as:

"Should Daddy change your bum, stinky girl

Or is it Mommy's turn?

You stink, you stink, you stink, you stink,

It's a good thing you're so cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

Merry Chris Raine-mas, everyone.

Long Winter's Nap

Raine and Talia have a game they play, Daddy sings "Super Baby!" and flies her through the air like a superhero. Talia loves it, everytime. Little does she know, her super power is sleeping. She routinely sleeps through the night only to go back to bed for a four hour nap almost every morning. All that napping wears her out, so she follows it up with another few hours in the afternoon, and then grabs a quick snooze after supper, before bedtime. Here's a pic of her catching 40 winks over the course of 5 HOURS the other day, in the middle of the living room floor, as life went on all around her.

Unfortunately, her other superpower is socializing, so when we're out and about she's far too busy making eyes at everyone to have a sleep. So you will be unlikely to witness Super Baby in action should we be out visiting at a location near you!!

Back from the Land of Half Perms...

Well, Littlenose and I are back from our big trip to mommy's hometown. We were pleasantly surprised to see several people still rockin' the half perm. Some things never change. Awesome.

We had a quick trip to visit Grammie and Grampy this week. Check out these pics - Grammie playing patty cake, Grampy whispering farming secrets to his grandbaby, and Littlenose with a soother in her mouth and one in her hand - otherwise she spends all evening "pulling the plug" and ticking herself off. Thanks to my friend Jac for the 1 in the mouth, 1 in each hand tip!

To give you an indication of how our visit went, here is a transcript of a conversation I had with Grampy just a few months ago when the Internet came to the Parkland....:

M'Dad: Suse!

Me: Dad!

M'Dad: Suse, I need some help with the computer!

Me: Don't you have Kent's number? Ha ha ha ha ha!

M'Dad: C'mon, I need to know how to get to that YouFace.

Me: What?

M'Dad: You know, YouFace. You can go there and look people up and see what they're doing and stuff. I tried to click there and I ended up in some god damned singles club!!!

Me: Oh! You mean Facebook!

M'Dad: Yeah, whatever. How do you do it?

Me: Well, don't click on anything that says LavaLife. That will keep you out of the singles club. Then you have to sign up and make a profile for yourself, then you can add people as friends and they can see the pictures you add, read your status updates, stuff like that.

M'Dad: What?!? Who the hell would want to read about me?

Me: Bingo.

Someday m'baby will have conversations like this with me. Sigh.

Consider us showered.....

Whew! Busy day yesterday. Talia and I were lucky enough to take in 2 tea parties yesterday. First, we met up with our friends Tammy, Michelle and Kade for the Caddy Lake Tea - a couple of hours of craft sale, bake sale, mystery jar bar, "OMG, your baby is so tiny!!," enjoying tea and dainties, and one little girl's burned hand - boo. I took a chance on a lumpy, foil covered, very heavy plate at the bake sale only to be pleasantly surprised by an entire pan full of chocolate chip cookie bars. Victory was mine.

After the Tea, we zipped over to Auntie Shannon's house where we were spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!!! Good friends, good food, guaranteed good times. How can you go wrong at a party with not one, not two, but three beautiful babies to snuggle with?? Not to mention a variety of small children with balloons, a diaper cake, and fairy wands. What a perfect day. Check out these pics - Mrs. Mc's specialty, the diaper cake, followed by gorgeous Hannah the baby whisperer (this is right before she asked me if she could take Talia home with her), and finally Auntie Shannon, giving Talia a super safe toy for a 4 month old baby.

Thanks to all you rule-breakers who did not let your presence be your gift, and special thanks to Shan, Erin and Courtney for putting on a great afternoon!