Fun with Maeve

Bran and Nuala have fun with Maeve. No other way to put it. And they like to start early. Which is why I should really be getting ready for bed now, but hey, I like to live on the edge. Sleep deprivation is SO there! Bran, who usually ends up in bed with us, will try to play with the peacefully snoozing babe at 6 in the morning. The babe who is also in bed with us. Well now, that's not entirely true. The "us" part, I mean. By then Zac's usually on the couch, having been forced out by Bran's dying-fish-like jerks and flops, but you get the idea. Yeah, we need to tweak our nights (well, early mornings) a little... Anyway, they have fun with this little girlie, and she loves doing all sorts o' stuff with her big bro and sis.

Nuala, sporting a new hairstyle, decided she needed to do Maeve's hair.

Mostly it was because she wanted to use the spray bottle.

I'm 98 percent sure of that.

Maeve also liked the spray bottle.

Bran, on the other hand, likes to arm our 8-1/2 month old. I love coming into the room and finding her decked out like this. It's pretty funny. What's better is when the weapons start flailing around and Bran begins shrieking and flopping about like a... dying fish... (are we sensing a pattern here?) Anyway, she's starting her weapons training early, lucky girl.

Her claws -- er, um... NAILS -- are actually most fearsome. Why must they grow so quickly?!

Bran's an awesome big brother.

And Nuala's an awesome big sister. And they both love lugging her around like this, especially Bran. He's always picking her up! She's okay with that... just sticks her little arms out and enjoys the ride.

OH, I did hear Nuala say one less-than-loving thing to Maeve the other day. She said, "Maeve! I am frustrated with you for whining at me!!" Scowling face and all. Then she said she was joking, but isn't there always a sliver of truth in there? I'm sure Maeve's golden status won't last too much longer. She's into everything. Grabbing their crayons, crinkling their books, destroying their creations... And she's loud. More than once I've started to send poor Nuala to time-out for ear-splitting shrieks before I realized that it was Maeve. Nuala is the great shriek-perpetrator around here, but I'm pretty sure her reign is about to be challenged... They do love that Maeve, though. Always dragging her around here and there, plunking her in the middle of the castle they're building, or rescuing her from the "ogre" (that's me, usually). And if grins and laughter are any indication, she loves them back just as much!