Delaney stayed home from school one day last week because she had an odd-sounding cough and a very high overnight fever. She acted OK when she woke up, but we didn’t think it was a great idea to infect the rest of her class with whatever random winter illness she had. Also, she actually said that she wanted to go see the doctor. How can you argue with that?

So, I stayed home with her and we had a pretty lazy day around the house. After nap, we all loaded into the car to go see Dr. Reger. End result, she had a virus that should go away in a few days. She even told me that she felt better after we got back in the car in the doctor’s office parking lot. Apparently just seeing the doctor is a miracle cure of some sort.

Delaney really likes Dr. Reger for some reason. Without prompting, she told us that she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. Over dinner, she broke the news to her sister:

Me: Tell your sister what you’re going to be when you grow up.

Delaney: I gonna be a doctor.

Mackenzie: Are you going to still be sucking on that [pacifier] when you’re a doctor?

Delaney: Yeah! NUKKIE DOCTOR!

I may be mistaken, but isn’t Dr. Ruth a nukkie doctor?

While watching the beginning of a show about Europe on the Travel Channel...

Mackenzie: Where is that, daddy?

Me: Well, that's Paris. And there's London. Mommy and Daddy have been to London. There's Spain.

Mackenzie: Is Collinsville there?

So, geography isn't the kid's strong subject. We'll work on it.

Today was Sunday, so the whole family went to church. Mackenzie likes going each week, but usually she likes going for the bagels and coloring during the service. Since her understanding of what church is all about seems so surface-level, I never would have expected the questions I got today from my little 4-year-old.

Have you ever thought how you might explain omnipresence to a little kid?

Mackenzie: Daddy...Is Jesus everywhere.

Me: Yes, he's everywhere. He's all around us.

Mackenzie: Is he on the roof?

Me: Yes, he's even on the roof.

And, the thought of the creation of all things just has to be mind-boggling...

Mackenzie: Daddy...Did Jesus make everything.

Me: Yes...he created everything.

Mackenzie: Not our house though, right?

While he WAS a carpenter, I don't think he's in the drywall union.

And then the big one...

Mackenzie: Daddy...how did you get us?

Me: What? What do you mean?

Mackenzie: A long time ago, Me and Delaney was in Mommy's belly. How did Jesus get us in there?

Me: You're going to have to ask mommy.

Seriously...I wasn't expecting THAT one for a few more years. I don't have answers for everything.

After talking about what she had for lunch and telling me that she didn't eat her broccoli...

Me: Did you eat your bread?

Mackenzie: Yes. I like the heel best but Sadie got it today.

Me: You like the heel best? Why don't you like the other pieces of bread?

Mackenzie: I don't like the crust.

I don't even know how to argue with that.

Three years ago this morning, Emily and I went to the hospital expecting to have a doctor to tell us that she's having some mild contractions, make them stop, and send us home. Well, they sent us home, but it was days later. And when we finally came home, Mackenzie came home with us.

Happy birthday, 'Kenz.

No, I'm not giving my daughter booze, but sometimes I think someone else has. Let me explain...

I remember back a few months ago when Mackenzie was still learning new words, and every phrase out of her mouth seemed to be the absolute cutest thing I had heard up to that point in my life. She was just beginning to string stentences together and could even answer simple questions. I could even hold a very basic conversation on the phone with her.

That's now all over. She won't quit talking. Ever. And tonight I noticed what the problem is. I think she's drunk. Here's the evidence:

• She babbles on endlessly about nothing at all.
• For no apparent reason, she breaks out in song.
• She's hard to understand because she can't enunciate.
• She's LOUD.
• If you don't understand what she says, she repeats it. If you don't understand the second time, she cries.
• Her responses aren't always appropriate. ("That wasn't very nice, Mackenzie." "THANK YOU!"
• A little talking is funny, but the longer it goes, the more annoying and frustrating it gets.

So, it's obvious to me that Mackenzie has been drinking heavily over the last few weeks and I have got to put a stop to it.

Things have been going very well at the Kirk household recently. We just had Mackenzie's second birthday party a week ago, and all went off without a hitch. After learning how to host a party in our new house the previous weekend, we gave our new party strategies a test run on Saturday for the first time. Mackenzie seemed to really enjoy the day playing with her friends and getting more presents. Apparently she didn't get enough clothes, large, loud toys and things to draw on our walls with. I think she has enough now...at least for a while.

It seems like the past month has just been a complete blur with all of the holiday traveling, New Years and then Mackenzie's birthday. It was a lot to pack into a short amount of time. Emily and I have seemed to make it through in one piece thanks mostly to the amazing sleep patterns that Delaney has started. Basically from the beginning, Delaney has slept pretty well, usually only requiring me to get up once per night - usually around 3-4 - to feed her. Mackenzie required two feedings per night for the longest time, so this was a welcome relief. She has also been incredibly cooperative about going BACK to sleep after the night-time feeding. Also, very appreciated.

A couple of weeks ago, however, she got a little restless at around 11:30, which was very rare. I spent about a half hour trying to rock her back to sleep, but to no avail. It was nearly time for her to eat again on her 3 hour schedule, so I fixed her a bottle and fed her. She went right to sleep, and didn't wake up until 6:30. Her first official full night of sleep!

Since that night, Delaney has only awakened three times before 5:30, which makes everyone in the house happier. Unfortunately, there's a catch...she's sleeping in her car seat. Just like her sister did. And we didn't get her out of it and into a real bed for months. As cooperative as she's been so far, maybe we'll try her out in her bed this week.

Or maybe we won't...I like sleep..

All the books tell you that to get infants / toddlers to go to sleep on their own at night is to develop some sort of structured routine and then repeat that routine every night. Eventually, they get used to how everything works and they know at the end of the routine, they end up in bed. Then it's night-night time.

Every night, we have the same routine here at the Kirk household that works like a charm for Mackenzie...

PJs - After chasing down Mackenzie, it's time to get undressed and put on pajamas.

Teeth brushing - Mackenzie actually likes this. I only get in a couple of strokes in between me having to say, "Aaahhhh," like at the doctor so she'll open her mouth back up after she bites down on the brush.

Book time - Mackenzie gets to pick out a book if she wants, and we sit on the floor and read it. I prefer short books, while she prefers all of the books that I hate. Perfect.

Night-Night kisses - I say, "Time to give Mommy kisses," and she tries to stall as long as possible before giving Emily her kiss good night. That sets of the chain of everyone / everything getting their kiss. Usually Delaney gets the next one before Matty (reluctantly) gets his. Then mine comes next followed by Delaney's swing getting kissed on the seat. Then it's the bouncy chair's turn, followed by the rocking horse. Other inanimate objects sometime make the rotation, but Emily and I look forward every night to see what is going to make the cut.

Gathering of the friends - Mackenzie sleeps with stuffed animals. Not A stuffed animal - stuffed ANIMALS. I ask, "Who do you want to take to bed with you?" and then she starts naming off animals - almost like she's picking a dodgeball team. "Buddy (the dog). Waddie (horse). DoDo (Dorothy the dinosaur). Duder (Joey - don't ask)." The list changes every night. Then we gather them all up and cram them all into her tiny little arms and march upstairs.

The lighting of the Moon - Mackenzie has a book with a moon on the cover that lights up when you push it. After laying her in the crib, I light the moon, get all of her animals up where she can see them, and pull her blanket up. We exchange a "night-night," and then I leave the room.

That's it. That's the routine. We've got it down where we can do it in less than 5 minutes, and we rarely get any resistance after the initial "chase down." I hate to give "the experts" too much credit, but they really nailed how to get a kid to sleep. Now if we can just get Delaney to follow suit...

Over the past 8 months or so, it has been really fun and interesting listening to Mackenzie develop her vocabulary. While some words are very clear, the vast majority of what she says is either barely close to a word, a word she subsititutes for another word or absolute gibberish. Of course, after listening to her talk for as long as we have, Emily and I have gotten pretty good at translating what she is trying to say.

Mackenzie also is a creature of habit. We have routines for most of the everyday things that we do, and she knows all of the little details by heart. For instance, whenever Matty comes inside from going to the bathroom, she runs to meet him at the door shouting, "Tsit, Tsit, Tsit." She continues to say it until I give her a dog biscuit so that she can tell Matty to sit.

Mackenzie even has her own little routine for when we drive somewhere. For example, here is a rundown of the EXACT script of what Mackenzie says on a drive from our house to Fairview Heights:

"A-Moo, A-Moo, A-Moo. Baby?"
Across from our subdivision is a field that often has cows (moos) in it. One time, Emily's mom pointed out a baby cow, so now she asks every time if the baby is there.

"Waddie. Waddie. Waddie."
Mackenzie calls horses "waddies." Not sure why....just happens. There is a field about a half mile south that occasionally has horses in a pen next to the road.

"A-Boat, A-Boat."
A couple miles further south, there is a decent sized boat up on its trailer next to a house. Nothing incredibly interesting about this boat....it's just a boat. But for some reason, Mackenzie finds it fascinating.

"Diddy. Water. Diddy. Water."
Just past the boat, there is a floating fountain in a small pond next to a office park. The water that shoots out of the fountain is a little murky. Maybe a little dirty. Diddy water.

"Y. Y. Y."
A little further south of the fountain, the O'Fallon branch of the Southwestern Illinois YMCA. Or for short....The "Y."

"Yah-a-way."
At the intersection of Seven Hills Road and State Street, she tells you the direction that she wants to go. She waits until AFTER you commit to your direction, and then she says she wants to go a different way. After she points and says something that barely sounds like "that a way," she expects someone to say, "no, that a way." She responds again, and it goes on like the whole Miller Lite "Tastes Great, Less Filling" ad.

"Oh no. Oh no."
There is a large snowman in a window of a florist in downtown O'Fallon that apparently scares Mackenzie to death. She hates it.

"Waddies. Waddies."
Not horses this time. It's Hardee's.

"Mah-mar. Mah-mar. Bwoo. Yeh-wo."
I can thank my mom for this one. Mackenzie knows the Wal-Mart logo and can spot it from a mile away. Of course, the building is mainly blue. The word "Supercenter" is written in yellow.

"Mah-dah-no. Mah-dah-no."
Mackenzie also knows the golden arches. And we wonder why we fight weight problems....My 22 month old daughter already knows McDonald's.

Well, that's what it's like to ride along with our daughter for the 7 miles from our house to Fairview Heights. This happens EVERY TIME. Annoying, but still cute as can be.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. In case you haven't heard, we have a few things going on here at the homestead.

We've now been proud parents of TWO children for a little over a week. So far, it hasn't been quite as tough as I remember, but I guess I know all of the little shortcuts learned dealing with Mackenzie when she was first born. But really, how difficult can a baby be when she sleeps 18-20 hours a day? Basically, put a bottle in her mouth every 3-4 hours and change a diaper either before or after the bottle (or any other time you hear something fill it). Piece of cake.

[I'm sure this will all be really funny to read in about 2 months when I'm trying to peel my bloodshot eyes open at 1:30 in the morning while I'm wearing a path in our carpet trying to get Delaney to go back to sleep.]

Mackenzie has been surprisingly good with Delaney so far. She seems to really like her and there really doesn't seem to be a bit of jealousy on her part. I am pretty sure that she understands that Delaney definitely IS staying and that she is part of the family. She really likes to help us take care of Delaney, usually by picking up Delaney's pacifier with her grubby little hands that have been God-knows-where and trying to put it in her mouth. Also, when she cries, Mazkenzie gets the Macaulay Culkin face from Home Alone, says "Naney, Naney," and then runs to her bed. Hilarious to watch.

I'll see what I can do about pictures as soon as I can...

Whew....

What a last couple of days. I just got back home from the hospital where I have been for the last 2 days after the birth of our new daughter, Delaney. I have a few hours to relax at home with Mackenzie before heading back to the hospital. We are supposed to be there until Friday, so I should be home then to write more. In the meantime, here are the first pictures anywhere of Delaney Noelle. Enjoy....

Well, in less than 10 hours we will be heading out of here to go to the hospital and later in the day, our second child will arrive. It seems like such an odd concept to me. We have always seen in the movies and from most other normal people about being at home, having contractions, timing the contractions, breathing....all that followed by a race to the hospital. We, however, are going to get up in the morning like normal day. We are going to take our showers, get dressed and hop in the car. We'll drive to the hospital and a couple of hours after we get there, a doctor is just going to go in and take the baby out. I kind of feel cheated on the whole process. But I'll live.

By the time anyone probably reads this, we'll be at the hospital. Emily is scheduled to go in to the OR at 9:30 or so, so assuming there are no emergency c-sections before her, I'll be a daddy again soon afterwards. I'm still not sure how we are going to handle 2 very small kids at the same time, but I guess I have about 12 hours to figure it all out. Scared. Nervous. Excited as can be.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can....

So one day you are sitting around and your wife is 3 months pregnant - not really showing yet - and you think that it seems like forever until the due date. Plenty of time to prepare. Tons of time.

Then you get a new job. And a new house. And you move halfway across the country. Time marches on and you are really busy unpacking boxes, watering the grass and trying to figure out which box the TiVo remote is in.

Then one day, you blink.

That's where I'm at right now. Emily and I were talking the last weekend about how the due date has completely snuck up on us....is "snuck" a word? Anyway, it's almost here. As the little egg timer on the home page says, we're 44 days away assuming we make it to the due date.

The second child - just because it's second - is much different from the first. Not that it's bad, it just doesn't require all the preparation. I don't have to go out and register for things that we need (and don't need). There's no baby shower this time. I don't sit around reading books about what to expect in the first few months. We already did all of that once and it feels odd not doing it again....like I'm somehow slighting our new daughter somehow.

So, even though there's tons of stuff going on in our lives right now, Emily and I have decided that we have to start getting in the mindset that the baby could essentially come any day. We need to get the hospital bag packed. I need to make sure that I can remember how to work the tiny car seat. Bottles have to be boiled. We have to haul out the box of 0-3 month clothes that Mackenzie wore 20 months ago. I have to stock up on formula and really tiny diapers.

But this time, I know I can do it. I've done it before. I mean, how tough can it be?

When Emily was pregnant the first time, I went to nearly all of her monthly and then weekly doctor's appointments. I wanted to be a part of the entire process and not miss a thing. Yesterday, I went to my first doctor's appointment during this second pregnancy, and while I still want to be a part of the process, this might be my last one. I learned quickly that these visits to the doctor become completely different when you are there with a toddler on the verge of wanting to eat dinner.

We were at the office on time for the appointment, but at the end of the day, who could expect the doctor to be on time. Well, Mackenzie thought we should have gotten in on time because her patience level ended about a half hour of waiting. This completely stressed out Emily which, when she finally got back to see the doctor, was expressed by an elevated blood pressure reading. Really elevated.

So, we were asked to come back this morning to check again (sans Mackenzie in the office). The first reading was again elevated a little, which was blamed on Emily worrying that the reading was going to be high. Are you serious? Anyway, the next one turned out OK, but we are going to be monitoring it from home regularly.

I just know this one is a boy....he's already causing problems.