There's More than One Little Starky Now!

As Matt and I became increasingly devoted to Facebook, the blog seemed unnecessary. After all, what would anyone find here that they wouldn't learn from a daily FB update or photo upload? Since we last updated, Cecelia has gone through a myriad of developments. In fact, just yesterday she learned to ride her tricycle; I mean REALLY ride. That kid takes corners like Mario Andretti. We're beyond proud of the spirited little girl that she is.

So why are we back to the blog? Because it seems unfair to Amalia that we wouldn't be reporting her every development, just as we did for CeCe. And given that she's such an extraordinary little girl, we expect there will be plenty to report.

So to catch you up to speed, here is a summary of the first six weeks with our "Mali-Pop:"

• Mali was born on 4/21 at 3:29 p.m. with a full head of beautiful dark brown hair. She weighed 7 lb, 14 oz and measured 20.5 inches - the same length as CeCe at birth. We can't even begin to tell you what a sweetheart she is. She's a very calm baby and loves to be cuddled.

• CeCe has taken extremely well to the big sister role. She coos to her and kisses her constantly. At first, Mali was obviously oblivious to CeCe's presence but in the past two weeks we notice she gets really excited when CeCe is around. She kicks her legs and waves her arms around.

• You may notice in some photos that Mali has a red spot on her left forehead. It's a hemangioma that started developing about three days after she was born. She also has one on her big toe. Hemangiomas are benign tumors; basically a buildup of blood vessels. Apparently they're common and happen in 10% of births. It will get bigger throughout her first year but will involute and eventually disappear by the time she's school age. Despite them being harmless, however, we wanted to treat it versus simply watching it grow. Therefore, we took Mali to a pediatric dermatologist who specializes in hemangiomas. She's currently prescribed a steroid ointment to try to control the growth.

• Mali started smiling this week. It's been a lot of fun to try to get one out of her. So far, we notice she gets a kick out of CeCe and likes it when we lightly blow on her face. Funny noises seem to work, also.

Mali with her godparents - Nick and Laura Weiss. Her baptism is on July 25.

Passed out after a long day. She's not a big fan of her sun hat unless she's sleeping.

In general, we've settled into life with two kids pretty well. We're certainly calmer - probably due to the combination of Mali being generally easy to please and the fact that we've done this before. That's not to say we haven't had moments of chaos. Just a day after coming home from the hospital, Matt was filling the kitchen sink up with water when he walked away to help me with something. He left the water on for about 15 minutes and flooded the basement. (I doubt he'll appreciate me sharing that but c'est la vie. He was sleep deprived.) And last week on the way home from visiting my parents in Madison, we stopped off halfway home so CeCe could go to the bathroom. When we tried to start the car to finish the drive home we realized the battery was dead. Moments later, CeCe got sick. And then Mali started crying uncontrollably (which rarely happens). All of this at 9 p.m. Somehow we managed to get CeCe cleaned up, Mali fed and changed and the car started again. We made it home and promptly bought a battery the next morning. I'm proud to say we rolled with it.

While life is a lot busier with two kids but we're going to try to keep the blog updated monthly for awhile. We hope you enjoy getting to know our little darling.