Margaret (and her brother)

So the person who is probably having the most difficult adjustment to the arrival of the new kid is Margaret. To begin with, there are physical problems that cause tension - due to her c-section, Abby can't pick Margaret up which makes it difficult to pull her out of danger in the house or at the park and also prevents Abby from changing Maggie's diaper (Papa is building up a big list of credits on this front) or putting her in her crib. We've managed to deal with this so far, but the bigger problem is probably the psychological issues that arise since Mama's time is dominated by this loud little fellow. It's hard to know whether Margaret is really aware of Teddy's demands on his mom, but she had been fussy. However, the life of an 18-month old kid appears to involve a roller coaster ride of giggling highs and screaming lows, so who knows what's driving her behavior.

We do know one thing for sure - Margaret has experienced a recent growth spurt of monumental proportions. Other than really high spots, there are few lower areas that are out of her reach. Which is the source of lots of possible problems as she finds everything to be interesting. And many of her clothes no longer fit (in fact, if you're looking to get some clothes for her, don't get anything rated for less than 2 years.) While my left arm has built up strength due to the typical "parent crook", she's surprisingly heavy to carry around. Both Abby and I have independently noted how big she is now. As you can see when she's next to her brother in the pics included below. (Of course, Teddy is still pretty darn small at this point, although he's starting to plump up a bit. He still doesn't fuss a lot, but his weight gain isn't surprising given how much he likes to eat.)

Margaret is also trying out her verbal skills like crazy. She's able to repeat almost every phrase that we toss at her. She doesn't necessarily understand what she's saying since when asked, she identifies almost everyone as "Papa." I prefer to think that she's just yanking my chain since she has to know who Papa really is (she has such a sense of humor), but when I point at Teddy or the dog and ask "Who is that?" and get a response of "Papa," I'm not so sure. She also babbles in "complete sentences" in her own special way. That is, we have a subject (of sorts) followed by some additional elaboration and an eventual "period" at which point her statement is done. All nonsense, but she's trying. Abby thinks, and I agree, that the transition to making sense will be rapid. All of a sudden, we'll have actual words and, very likely, full sentences. At which point, we won't be able to shut her up.