It's CUDDLE TIME Again!!!

Sunday morning started very early in the Talley house.

After Mom, Michell and I were able to settle down for the night at 1:00 am, Leigh's brief nap was interrupted at 3:30 by a hungry child and a 4 year old who needed to go potty. Unable to go back to sleep, Kam ended up in our bed watching cartoons.

At 5:30, we all got up to see Grammie and Bobo off to Texas and let Mitchell have a little chow. After he ate, Kam requested a little cuddle time, which we happily obliged...until Baby Brother tried to feed off his big sister. When Leigh and I were able to pick ourselves off the floor fron laughing so hard, she (Leigh this time) fed the little fellow some more and went back to sleep for a bit. Meanwhile, Kam, Mitchell and I stayed up and watched some TV in the Living Room.

Headed out the door at 9:20 to run to the hospital so that Little Man could have some more blood drawn. While Mitchell handled the blood-letting without ill effect, the same can not be said for his big sister. When she saw the droplets of blood, her face turned white, she complained that her stomach hurt and laid her head down. Poor girl nearly passed out. After a few minutes, a couple gulps of water and some cuddling by Daddy, she regained her color and did just fine.

From there, it was off to church where Mitchell was admired and adored by many...most of whom were surprised that we brought this 6 day old bundle of joy out of the house. We explained that "that's how we roll". Our philosophy is to NOT to keep our kids at home for the first few weeks but to get them out into the world in order to start building up their little systems from day one and exposing them to more than just our house. This worked very well with Kamryn and we have no reason to believe it would be different with Mitchell. If fact, when Mitchell gets a little cranky, we go for a little walk. The boy LOVES being outside.

Kamryn reached a milestone yesterday as well. After the Children's Sermon was over, Kamryn looked at us and said, "I don't need you to take me to my class" and proceeded to walk to Children's Church without any parental interference. Mommy and Daddy had some serious mixed emotions; we are SO proud of how she's growing up but, at the same time, lament the fact that she's doing it so quickly. Ever since Baby Brother made his entrance, Kam has really exerted her independence.

At the tail end of the sermon, Daddy's phone rang with some outstanding news...NO MORE BILLI BED! Mitchell's billirubin levels, which were at 16+ on Friday and 15.2 on Saturday, had dropped to 12.9 Sunday morning. We were told to schedule a follow-up appointment for Tuesday and, until then, keep him in well-lit rooms. We were all ecstastic. As much as Mitchell hated being on the bed, his parents hated it more. It was tough to resist the urge to grab him whenever he got upset. It was certainly proof-positive that babies aren't the only one's prone to separation anxiety.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. After LONG naps, Kam and I went to Blockbuster and bought "E.T." (which she really enjoyed) and ordered in some Chinese. Last night also marked the end phase one of Paternity leave. Starting this morning, Kam went back to the sitter and Dad goes back to work, albeit from home this week. Real life comes a-knockin'