Thursday, April 26

My new job... toddler translator

Kate has a book called "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?". It's very cute. Nana and Grandfather Hemrick got her this book a while ago, and it's one of her favorites right now (when she's willing to sit long enough to read a book). Yesterday she took it off the shelf and brought it to me to read. I was reading the title to her and she looked at me like she wanted to say it. So I said each word slowly so she could repeat it. Our exchange went something like this:
Mommy - "Hiking"
Kate - "Ah-kee"
Mommy - "Boots"
Kate - "Bootch"
Mommy - "Hiking boots"
Kate - "Apple juice!"
It was so cute and I laughed really hard. I asked her this morning to say boots and she said "bootch... Apple juice!" with a big grin. It might be a while before she actually says hiking boots. That's all right, I'll get a little chuckle every time she says apple juice for a while.

Monday, April 23

Slowly regaining consciousness...

It's been over a month since my last entry, so this one is long overdue. I feel like the last months has been a whirlwind. It hasn't stopped yet, but I feel like it's slowing down and I can at least breathe now. Most of you have probably stopped checking for new entries by now, but maybe you'll stumble on this sometime soon. Here's what's been keeping us otherwise occupied.

At the end of March, Kate and I tagged along with James to St. Louis where he had a business trip. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Coley for a few days and it was a nice visit. Grandpa and Uncle Craig got to take Kate to what will likely be the first of many visits to the St. Louis zoo. Kate was saying "PaPa" and "GaPa", and still pretends to talk to them on the phone.

The next week, Nana and Grandfather Hemrick ("Nana and "PaPa") came to visit and left after Easter service. We had a fun visit with a trip to the museum in Oak Ridge and an Easter egg hunt in the family room.

The following week, James's grandfather Kent passed away and the three of us went to Louisiana for services and to be with family. The services were very nice and afterward Kate had fun playing with her cousins. That night she came down with a stomach bug and we fought that all the way home and into last week. James came down with it this past Friday and spent this weekend getting over it. Not the way you want to go about losing four pounds! I just keep washing my hands every chance I get and hope I don't come down with it!

This, among other things, is what's been keeping me from blogging lately but I hope this week things will return to normal and I can get our life and our house back in order. Tonight I have my first book club meeting with a few friends, so that should be fun. We read The Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo. I enjoyed it and am glad we had picked a short, easy read or I wouldn't have gotten through it by tonight!

I'll post some Easter pics once I get them from the Hemricks. The only pictures taken Easter morning were with their camera and we haven't had time to get those yet.

In other news, my Dad flew to Oklahoma last week to attend the ceremony where my sister Carrie was presented with her wings. This is very exciting and I believe my Dad got to pin them on, though I have yet to talk to her about it or see pictures. I'll try to post one here if I can find one.

Well, that should get you pretty caught up on what's going on around here. I'll post some more specific entries with pictures soon. Definitely before the end of May!
I hope this finds all of you well.