Sister Praise

Ellie (almost 3) just finished her pretend show on the pretend stage in the living room.

Mommy, Daddy, Lizzie: *clapping*

Lizzie: That's some quality.

Sleepless in South Hamilton

Help!

Does anyone have a secret for how to get an overly pampered 7 month old little girl to sleep through the night while living in an apartment complex with thin walls and two other kiddos to keep in bed and...oh yeah, she shares a room with her exhausted parents :-) Suggestions???

sticky

Ellie came up to me after dinner and dessert, ready to be cuddled.

I was about to embrace my almost 3 year old when I remembered that she had just eaten chocolate.

Mommy: Ellie, do you have chocolate on your fingers?

Ellie (proudly): Nope...I licked it off!

New names

Just within the last week, seemingly out of nowhere, Ellie started to call Lizzie, "Liz." Now that Gracie's home, Ellie has begun calling her "Grace." The funny thing is that the shortened nicknames usually only come at the end of a sentence. Example: "Do you want to play in the kitchen, Liz?"

Saturday

The memorial service for Carol will be this Saturday, November 7 at 1pm at Glenwood Community Church.

Phil 3:14

I will soon get to see my wife and youngest daughter. My mom-in-law passed away early Sunday morning. Non-coincidental that it was not Halloween, but All Saints Day.

Carol, enjoy your Rest. Well done.

Busy

So it's been a while since a blog post. Life without Steph has not been fun nor easy. We have fun moments and easy moments, but they are that, just moments. However, they do provide a glimpse of relief and a good chance to laugh. So it was this morning for my mom (Ma). Lizzie (4) often asks when Mommy is coming home. Our standard response has become: "We don't know. She's helping Nana go see Jesus." So, this morning Lizzie and Ma have the following conversation:

Lizzie: When is Mommy coming home?

Ma: Do you remember where Mommy is?

Lizzie: She's with Nana helping Nana go see Jesus.

Ma: That's right.

Lizzie: Is Jesus busy?

Strings

Daddy-Daughters activity on Day 1 sans Mommy: teaching the girls how to change guitar strings. :-)

Yellow Lights

The girls have started to observe that there are rules for driving. They already know what the red and green lights mean, so Allen challenged them a bit tonight with a new question:

Allen: So girls, if the red light means "stop" and the green light means "go," what does the middle yellow light mean?

Lizzie: "Stop!"?

Allen: No...

Ellie: "Go!"?

Allen: No...

Lizzie: You can do it!

Back healing

Went to see the doc today. Incision is healing well - just like it should. Got a prescription for physical therapy. Got clearance to lift things up to 10 lbs. and was basically told to keep doing what I'm doing and to not do anything stupid. Last follow up is on the 23rd.

Sounds like a recipe for success. :-)