Happy New Year from the Muffin Man.

The important stuff.

Seriously - this is who I kissed at midnight.  You're all jealous.

Hallelujah!  It's finally time to go home from the hospital!

Now that he's actually wearing clothes and isn't in his plastic bassinet, it's time for some serious picture taking.

My kids.  We were so happy to get a good picture of the 2 of them, especially considering that Madam had her "I'm the big sister" shirt on.  Then we looked at it on the big screen and discovered she's staring at him like he's some kind of bug.

The kid is in the house for less than 3 hours and already he's part of the madness.  Welcome to our story-reading, fire-truck-driving, dressed-up-in-fun-hats life, Jonas.

Yeah.  Not yet two weeks old and already a Cardinals fan.

Look at those cheeks, people!  There are not enough hours in the day for kissing these cheeks.

Man, I look exhausted here.  I swear I'm getting plenty of sleep, but maybe I'm just delusional.  Look how sweet my kids are, though.

Mommy's little present.

He is so yummy.

Even when he's making faces at the camera.  (Alternate caption: Jonas says hello to Aunty Suz.)

First sponge bath at home.

He wasn't real sure how he felt about it, but we were sure how we felt about having a clean baby.

Luckily, he had this adorable towel to cheer him up.

Jaynie missed her Mommy.  I have gotten more snuggles and hugs since coming home from the hospital than I did for the first 22 months of her life.

Um, Jaynie?  That's Jonas' toy.  

Here comes the kiss....

Oops - took the picture one second too soon.  Trust me, it was a very nice big sister kiss.

I'm going to run out of captions for all these - just sit back and behold the cuteness.

One, two, cha-cha-cha!  (Seriously - tell me it doesn't look like they're dancing.)

She gives him "nice pets" on the head.  (She loves his "soft hair.)

Would you look at how big my girl is?  I swear she used to be just that tiny.  I remember.  Vaguely.  

Ok, Jonas.  How bout we agree right now that what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too.

Sounds good? It's a deal!  (notice the handshake - he'll never get out of this agreement now.)

Hahahahahaaa!  This big sister stuff is a piece of cake!

Some gratuitous naked kiddo shots.

Tiny naked baby butt!

This is what Jonas thinks of us posting his butt on the internet.  Little does he know, that was just the first of many, many pictures... 

One minute I was holding a fussy baby, the next he was unconscious.  

Doesn't look like that comfortable a position to me.  I love newborns.

This would be me, 3874398750 times a day.  New baby nursing, big girl snuggling my legs, forced to watch Sleeping Beauty over and over and over and over and...

What?  You want to take my picture because I look super-cute today?

Well sure you can!  Cheeeese!

Ok, I'll hold baby Jonas while you take our picture.

No Mommy - get your hands off!  I'm holding him!

Not sure what she's doing with her finger here.  For that matter, I'm not sure what he's signing with that little hand, either.

Ah, now the finger's in the mouth and he's giving me some kind of gang sign.

Time to play with his hair a little bit.  ("Baby Jonas has soft hair!")

More loving pets from Big Sister.

I guess this is the best one of the bunch.  She's looking at the camera and smiling at least, although he looks less than thrilled with what's going on.

Gramma's here! 

And she's sooo comfy!

Ah.  We find the Muffin Man lounging on my bed.

How cute are these pants Gramma made him?  The sleeves of a sweater, people!  Took approximately 3 minutes to do. 

Looking at this picture is making me need to go smooch him.  I think I'll do that instead of thinking up a witty caption.

I call this one "Nervous Grandmother".  In her defense, Jaynie can get a *wee* bit enthusiastic with the baby.

But who wouldn't?  He's so snuggly and yummy!

Speaking of yummy!  

The Moores will be pleased to see this weird toe thing he's doing (they take pride in their toe dexterity on that side of the family.  Don't ask me to explain - my toes just behave like normal toes, thanks.)

Teeny tiny feet.  I love 'em.

More lounging around in my bed! What a slacker this kid is!

Whatever, Mom.  I'm doing my morning stretches here.

His first trip to the park.  He really got a lot out of it.

He did consent to me pulling the blanket back to get a few pics.

Sleeping through his first park excursion.  Sheesh.

Jaynie, on the other hand, was THRILLED to get out of the house and play.

YAY FOR THE PARK!

Uh, Jaynie - there's someone behind you honey.

Oh no!  He's got you now!

Ah hahahahahaaaa!

As I was trying to get a picture of her she ran over and hugged my legs.  So I got a picture of that instead.

More playing.  She wore herself out in record time.

It is remarkably difficult to get a good picture of her when she's running around having fun.

Nice picture of the sky, though.

What are you complaining about now?  Fine.  I'll stand here and let you take a picture that has my face in it and everything.  Jeesh.

Holding hands, going down the slides together.

Seriously - how cute are these two?

Aww.  We find the Muffin Man sleeping peacefully in Gramma's arms.

Oh?  Good dreams?

Heehee.  Funny dreams.  What a sweetie.

Oh, man.

Has anyone seen Jaynie?

I mean, I see this cute duck in her room...

And it's reading her books...

And asking me "What's that?!" at every page, just like Jaynie does...

But Jaynie's a big girl, not a big duck!

Right?

Hee hee!  Fooled you, Mom!

It's me! "Jaynie is a duck!" (direct quote)

Cause what better thing to do in a duck outfit, than play with your duck toys?

I'm just going to take him for a little walk...

And maybe he'll take me for a little ride (don't count on it, honey.)

Aww - it's ok, ducky.

I still love you, even though you're useless for riding.

What a ham this kid is. 

More walking the duck.

More hamming it up for the camera.

Ok, seriously - is this not the cutest kid ever?  Look at her!  Gramma brought her 4 different costumes, and she's worn them all.  She is sooo into this pretend play.  It's adorable.

Meanwhile, back in Jaynie's room...

There's a little cupcake lounging on one of her blankets.

(I had to say that so you wouldn't wonder why I'm taking pictures of my son on a pink blankie.)

Really, Mom, couldn't you buy me some blue ones?

The amount of pink in this house is a little disturbing.

What?  You want to take a picture of me and the baby right now?  I have no make-up on!  My hair is a mess!

Fine, fine.  I'll just use this convenient adorable kiddo to block the camera's view of any unsightly blemishes. 

Uh, oh.  Seems that while the camera (and Mom and Dad's attention) were turned towards the baby, Madam was getting into trouble.

Hmm.  Who knew she could do that!

Yeah.  Maybe it *is* time to get rid of the changing table in there and just do the diapering on the floor.  The fun never stops around here, folks.

Jonas catching a little snooze.

Whoops!  Maybe using the flash right next to a baby who's trying to sleep wasn't the best idea I ever had.

Here we have the alligator costume...

...accessorized with Daddy's nerdy sunglasses.

Jaynie can make it work, but I don't know if anyone else could pull this outfit off.

Now who's this?

My goodness!  It's a dolphin in the dining room!

And she seems to have finally acquired a camera of her own!  Woo hoo!

Now instead of pestering me for mine, she can happily take pictures with this one!

I get pictures of her, she gets pictures of her feet, everyone goes away happy.  Thanks Gramma for donating your old camera to the cause. =)

More sleeping baby pictures.

Oh!  Again with the flash, Mommy!

I'm trying to rest here, lady!

Being a baby is hard work!

Tiny fingers.  Yummy.

Look at this smooshed little face!

Aaaah!  Cheeks!  Made for kissing!

I swear, I could just eat this kid up.

He's delicious.

I will be happy to give him kisses from all of you.

A few more of the wild dolphin that was loose in my house.

"Where'd Jaynie go?"  "Jaynie is a DOLPHIN!"

These were supposed to be pictures of her driving the fire truck (and to show that she does, sometimes, wear normal clothes around the house.)

But at the last minute she decided they should be pictures of her feet.  Who am I to say no to that?

Oh, my!  Looks like someone got his father's preppy gene!

Mom.  You dressed me in this.  Don't act all surprised to find me wearing it.

Now, seriously, no more pictures please.  Time for my beauty rest.

Can you spot Jaynie in this picture?

I'll give you a hint - she's dressed as an alligator!

Pretty scary, huh? =)

This kid loooves to dress up!

Here's my little ballerina.  So freaking cute.

She'll tell you "Ballerina dress is good for dancing!" - then she'll put it on and dance around the house.

Oh for crying out loud...

There's a big, heavy toddler in Jonas's bouncy chair!

Look how low this thing is to the floor with a "big girl" weighing it down!

And look how huge she looks in it!  Remember this picture - a few bars down there's one of Jonas in it that will be good for comparison.

Also - can we note that she has worn both the ballerina outfit and the Nemo outfit on the same day?  

Hey, kiddo!  Whatcha doing?

Oh, sorry.  I didn't mean to disturb you while you were BREASTFEEDING YOUR TOY IGUANA.

Well, now that you know can you get that camera out of here?  Jeez, Mom.  A little privacy for me and the "Em-guana" while I feed him "milk from Jaynie's boobie".  (This kid is such a riot.  She kills me.)

Oooh.  Sleeping baby pictures.

He is such a sweetie.

My adorable little Muffin Man.

Smoochalicious.

Ok - here's the picture to compare to the one of Jaynie in this seat.  Amazing.

Do do do... just hanging out watching a movie...

What's that, Em-guana?  You're hungry?

Well here you go, buddy!  Some milk for the Em-guana!

I'll just watch this movie while I feed you, ok?

In case you are wondering, yes, that is my nursing pillow.  She's adopted it as her own.  I'm forced to use couch cushions to prop Jonas with.

Speaking of Jonas...

Look!  An almost-smile!

And another one!  He's in an awfully good mood.

Or not.  

Now he's just chilling out.  I like this picture because his cute little hands are in it, too. =)

Ok - this is the kind of picture I was getting when I tried to photograph him without the binky.

So in the rest he'll have it.  Whatever.  He's cute even with half his face covered up.

Wearing big sister's old pj's.  I can't believe she used to fit into these.

Holding Mommy's hand.  So sweet.

There's my baby.  The binky worked a little too well and after this I just have a bunch more sleeping baby shots.

I can't decide if I'm more shocked at how small his feet look, or how big hers seem.  Either way, I love this picture.  It's my wallpaper.

"Hey, Baby Jonas!"

"That's Big Sister Jaynie!" (the blurry hand is her pointing to her shirt while she says this.)

Oh holy cuteness, Batman!

She tells him she loves him like 454678564 times a day.

This is her pointing out that he has a binky, "Because he's a baby, Mommy."

We'd like to thank Aunty Suz for this great Big Sister shirt.

How beautiful is this kid?  Seriously.

Ok, this is it. Last foot picture.  (This month.  Maybe.)

One month old today.

I'm not sure how that happened.  Seems to me he was just born a couple of days ago.

Woo HOO!  Jaynie loves the park!

Daddy loves the park, too. =)

You sit in the back, Daddy.  I'll drive.

Hee hee!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

I love it!

Yee HAW!

Seriously - I don't have a lot of witty captions for these.

Mostly I was just hearing squeals of laughter - that's hard to put into words.

Ok, folks. If you're only going to click on one picture, this should be it.  Sooo cute.

We were freezing our butts off.

But Jaynie didn't seem to mind.

To many fun things to do to worry about the weather.

Jonas didn't mind the cold, either.

Of course, that could be due to the fact that he was in 3 layers of clothing, under 2 blankets, and didn't come out of his carseat the whole time.

This is a seriously smoochable girl.

Here she is, teaching Daddy his numbers.

No, Daddy, no!  That's not a three, it's a five!

Yikes.  There's a freaking alligator on my couch!

Oh, wait - it's Jaynie... and my Boppy....

Yes, Mommy.  See this baby alligator?  He's very hungry.

So first I lift my shirt....

Then I feed him "milk from Jaynie's boobies!"  Who knew alligators could be so nurturing.

What's this?!?

Why it's a fairy.. angel.. duck...something. (Who is "flying" in this picture.)

No, Mommy!  I'm a fairy!  See my wings?  See my flower skirt?

What?  The ducky headband isn't really something a fairy would wear?

You were right, Mom.  The magic wand is a much better accessory.

Plus, I think I've found a sucker who will wear the ducky hat instead.

Hee hee.  Notice the butterfly wings on this man, while you're at it.

That kid has him wrapped around her little finger.

Ah.  Here we see Jaynie coming up with yet another exciting use for my nursing pillow.

It's just perfect to sit in/on while watching tv and eating lunch.

My kids.  Anyone who thinks newborns are lots of work should pay close attention to these pictures...

Notice the toddler.

Eating peanut-butter on a waffle.

Reaching for my expensive camera with the peanut-butter hand.

Generally  making a huge mess and being very high-maintenance.  (You think she got dressed in that fancy outfit all on  her own?  No.  You think that was the first or last outfit she made me change her into that day? No. You think she cleaned up the pb mess on her own?  Sorry - I'm laughing too hard to answer that one...)

Now notice the newborn.

Lounging on the couch.

Making adorable faces/poses in his sleep.

Letting me take 400 great pictures of him.

Not making a mess, not grabbing for the camera, not demanding that I put on a movie or change him into a ballerina outfit (hee - Joe would have a heart attack).

Sweet.  Peaceful.  Smoochable.

They should all be this easy.  (Of course, it's not Jaynie that wakes me up at 3am every night.  I guess they all have their weaknesses.)

Holy Dress-Up-Heaven, Batman!

We went to the Children's Museum of Memphis for the day.

And in their dress-up room they had an Elmo costume.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to get Jaynie to come home.

They also had a police motorcycle.  "JAYNIE RIDE THE MOTORCYCLE!"

Hi Mommy!  I'm riding the motorcycle!

More fun in the dress-up room.

Hey, Jaynie-dog!  Can you look at the camera?

Hm. Not exactly the picture I was going for...

The doggie and her friends check out what kind of mess they can make in the arts and crafts room. (Notice who the only kid climbing the furniture is.  Sigh.)

You can see from this picture, that Jaynie and Riley both stayed nice and close to us while we were having our lunch.  Such good listeners, those girls.