But enough about me. This post is about Marie and Chris, who are expecting their first child next month! They already know it’s a boy, and after seeing his nursery I hope he’s a sports fan! LOL

Can you guess what his name will be?

Marie practices her rocking skills.

Hey guys, I hope these last few weeks go smoothly, and that Joseph arrives with “Marriner speed.” Good luck, and I can’t wait to meet your new little bundle!

I love the surprised look on his face in this one. Cracks me up.

Here’s something I used to love soooooo much when my guys were this age – sloppy smoochies!!

Oh yeah, he’s a charmer all right.

We tired him right out, so he took a little snooze with his mama.

Oooooh, more feet! Don’t you just want to munch on those little toes??

Oh, and he makes the most insanely cute faces!

Completely sacked out in my teacup.

New hats! I’ve found an extremely talented woman who has been knitting me all kinds of sweet new hats for newborns. I’ll be getting some in bigger sizes as well, so stay tuned for those.

Another funny face. Dontcha just wanna smoooooooch him??

Congrats to the whole family on your new addition! Can’t wait to see you all again!

This is little Miss Carmen. She was twelve days old when these were taken, and she was already quite the little diva. She wasn’t very interested in sleeping; there’s no time to sleep when you have a house to rule!

This is how she preferred to operate – relaxed, laid-back, but always with one eye on the crazy camera lady.

One of those rare moments when she did nod off. I love the little nose, the sweet little mouth, and especially the baby fuzz on her back.

Oh, and my obsession with feet is showing again. I just love those little piggies!

About a week and a half ago I spent the entire day running Griffin from doctor to doctor, and finally ended up in the pediatric ER in Syracuse. He had woken up unable to put any weight at all on his left leg. There was no bruising, and no injury that he or I could think of, so we went to see his pediatrician. The ped figured out that problem was in his hip joint, and sent us off to an orthopedic surgeon. Keep in mind that Griffin could not walk at this point – I was carrying his 75-pound body everywhere. Fortunately we were able to grab a wheelchair at North Medical when we were there. The orthopedic surgeon did some x-rays and suspected that Griffin had an infection in his hip. No, I had never heard of such a thing either. So they sent us to the ER so that they could aspirate the infection. Griffin had to have an IV put in, because they were going to have to sedate him for the procedure. THAT was not a pleasant experience. Then after hours of questions by various doctors and nurses, more x-rays, and more blood draws, they finally determined that there was no infection, but that it was just inflammation, probably the result of a virus. We were finally able to go home, and by that point Griffin was able to put some weight on his leg. He had a limp for the next couple of days, but he seems fine now. He’s been taken out of gym class until his follow-up appointment this week, which is killing him. He loves gym. Then the day after the trip to the ER, I got a call from the hospital saying that one of his blood cultures was growing something “funky” (love the technical medical terminology). So we had to spend the next few days keeping a close eye on him for any sign of infection. Our ear thermometer got quite a workout.

During our time in the ER, I could feel myself coming down with a cold. And it has been with me ever since. I can’t remember the last time I got hit with a cold this debilitating. I have been so exhausted that just getting out of bed is a chore. Even when we had the swine flu a few months ago, it wasn’t this bad! I even managed to lose my voice for a few days. It’s finally back today, so I can get back to yelling at my kids.

So now it looks like the worst is behind me, and hopefully I can start getting caught back up again. I have four sneak peeks that I have to get done, as well as a few order deliveries, a couple of galleries, and a few emails. If you are one of the ones who have been waiting, I appreciate your patience. I will try to get everything done as quickly as possible.

I’m looking forward to a much healthier March!!!

This is Carmen and her mama, taken at one of my two newborn sessions today. In my opinion, there’s nothing more loveable than a sweet, squishy newborn.