OH MY GOSH.  This is going by too fast.  Is she REALLY that close to being a year old?

I call her my sugar because she is so sweet.  She gives great hugs and well-meant although very drooly and kind of bite-y kisses.  She's very very busy but always takes time out to give a great big smile to everyone.

She's crazy smart in the same way that Paul is.  I am amazed at her problem-solving skills and how she figures out how things work.  Recent examples:

• Refrigerator magnets: she loves to feel the pull as she holds them close to the fridge, and giggles to let them go mid-air and watch them snap into place.
• She can "do" a simple puzzle, that meaning she knows where everything goes but simply lacks the coordination to actually get the piece in the hole.  She sort of lays the pieces on top of the holes.
• She wanted to walk across the kitchen one day so she dragged a kitchen chair along with her for support.
• I gave her a snack trap with treats inside.  Instead of reaching in to get the treat and pulling her hand out, she grabbed it so the rubber lid was completely open, then shook all of the treats out.  So much for that.

Currently, she is refusing to nap, so I'd better cut this short.  She's a handful, but she's a delight!

Edited the next day to add:  Princess Smartypants also ran out of banana at lunch whilst Mother was away from the table, so she grabbed the banana off the table and started eating it like a big kid.  Mother returned to find Her Highness burying her face in the banana, raking her fingernails down the sides of it, trying to peel it.  Not sure how much peel was actually ingested.

In other news, a suspect only known as Little Miss Trouble went on a 10 minute destructive rampage this morning that included emptying an entire box of baby wipes and eating dog food.  She is still at large.  Rumor has it that a massive diaper explosion may occur later in the day.

So this past weekend we celebrated Easter.  It's always a very special time for our family, because we celebrate Jesus and His resurrection.  But this year was more special than ever because of what it meant for Katelyn.

Kate's been asking questions about Jesus for a while now.  She knows that Jesus lives in Mommy's and Daddy's hearts and that He helps us.  She knows that the Bible is God's word and that we seek to obey Him.  She knows that as much as she wants to do the right things, she is not strong enough to do it on her own. 

So last Wednesday night before bed, Katelyn decided that she wanted Jesus to live in her heart too.  She asked Daddy to help her, and they prayed together.  She is forgiven and loved and free.

She's still got a natural bent toward sin; we all do.  But already, when she does mess up, there is a change in how she handles it.  They are subtle changes, probably ones that no one else would notice, but that we as parents saw immediately.  She submits more readily to parental authority, with much less drama.  She has greater awareness of how her actions affect other people, and shown true repentance for wrongs.  There is evidence of God working in her heart.  On Easter, Paul asked her how her heart feels now with Jesus living inside.  She thought about it for a minute, then said, "It feels kind of like loving and sharing."

As she matures, she will no doubt grow spiritually.  She'll be learning her whole life long.  But what a blessing to see my sweet child embrace the truth of salvation at such a young age. 

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

Audrey took two steps on her own today!  She is 10 1/2 months old.

Thanks, Crystal, for the picture.

5 pm.  Kate is reading and Audrey is asleep.  This is my chance!  I must start dinner now.  Hmm, what do we have to eat?  Payday is tomorrow, so pickings are slim in the fridge today.  Meal plan says enchiladas.  I'm feeling lazy.  Quesadillas sound easier.  I'll cook the chicken while the kids are quiet.  This should be a breeze.  Wash hands.

5:10.  Cutting raw chicken.  "Mommy!  I need to go potty!"  Uh oh, she's wearing overalls, that means I HAVE to help.  Wash hands.

5:15.  Potty crisis over.  Wash hands again.  Cut more raw chicken.  By this time the oil in the pan is smoking, it's been preheating for so long.  "WAAAAAAAH!"  Uh oh, that's Audrey.  "Mommy, Audrey's awake!  I'll go get her."  Double uh oh!  Wash hands and run.

5:20.  Diaper crisis over, kids playing downstairs in the living room.  Thank heavens the dog hasn't eaten all of the raw chicken off of the counter while I was away (has happened before).  Wash hands.  Clean out pan, start over with fresh oil.  Throw in chicken.  "Audrey's doing something!"  "EEEEEEEEEEKKKK!"  Wash hands.  Pull kids apart, send Kate to time out for clobbering Audrey and put Audrey in fake baby time out for appearance's sake.  Wash drool off of hands.  Flip chicken and get remaining ingredients out of pantry.

5:30.  Chicken mostly done.  Start assembling complicated array of tiny bowls, spoons, and very finely chopped food for Audrey.  Find sippy cups.  One is on the floor in the living room.  Where is Kate's cup?  Ask her to go find it about 5 times.  Ponder some kind of discipline...never mind, I smell burning chicken.  Raise my voice a little-- "GO GET YOUR CUP NOW YOUNG LADY."  Cower in shame a little.  Uh oh, Audrey is licking the dog's blue racquetball.  Put ball away.  Wash dog slobber off of hands.

5:40.  Chicken is overdone.  Put in bowl on counter, push out of reach from sniffing dog.  Pants slide off (thank you weight watchers).  Oh wait, not from weight loss, from baby pulling up on my leg.  Wrestle baby into Jumperoo and give her Ritz crackers to stop the screaming.  Where's the Advil?  Call husband and notify him that I will feed the kids as soon as dinner is ready and we can't wait for him.  Feel guilty for not being June Cleaver.  "Mommy!  I need to go poopy!"  Clean toddler.  Wash hands.  Set table.

5:50.  Audrey screams, I look (SUCKER!), she signs "more".  Give her more crackers.  Dog vigilantly watches each little crumb fall from her mouth and licks it up instantly.  "Mommy!  I need a tissue!"  Wipe nose.  Wash hands.  Find tortillas.  Do we have tortillas?  Uh oh.  Tortillas necessary for quesadillas.  Here they are.  Forget the fancy side dishes, find can of refried beans.  Cut open a bag of guacamole and squirt some like toothpaste on everyone's plates.  Audrey giggles.  Dog is licking her clean.  Shoo dog and wipe baby, put her in high chair.  Baby screams.  Give her some cheese.  Where's the Advil?  Never mind, we have wine.  Pour self small glass of wine (2 weight watchers points).  Pray for strength.  Sing Kate's memory verse in my head.  "Love is patient, love is kind, 1st Corinthians 13:4."  Trip over dog.  Resist urge to kick dog, put her in laundry room.  She moans.

6:00.  "Kate, dinner time."  "In a few minutes."  "Excuse me?  Let's try again.  It's dinner time, please go sit in your chair."  "I DON'T WANT TO SIT IN MY CHAIR!"  "I didn't ask you if you wanted to.  What do you say?"  "NOOO!!!!"  "Go to time out, please."  "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"  Give Audrey her sippy cup.  She glares at me and throws it on the floor.  Sigh.  Hear sound of beans splattering in microwave.

6:05  "You may come out of time out now.  Please go sit in your chair."  No resistance.  I give her food.  She says the blessing in a songlike chipmunky voice.  I consider lecturing about respect but Audrey distracts me with bloodcurdling screams.  Where's the Advil?  I pick up the discarded crackers from the floor around Audrey's chair and also get a handful of doghair and a dead bug.  Crap, I forgot to mop this week.  Throw it away.  Wash hands.  Flip burning quesadilla.

6:10  Husband calls, just leaving from work.  Praise the Lord, reinforcements are on their way.  That's not very June Cleaver-ish.  Must adjust attitude, create peaceful home for probably very worn out and stressed husband's arrival.  Paste smile on face and take deep breaths.  Pick cracker crumbs off of my foot.  Wash hands.

6:25  The conquering hero arrives.  "Welcome to home, Daddy!"  Smiling faces greet him.  "Why is the dog in her room?"  He lets her out.  Paul sits down at the table and Audrey throws her hands up in the air, showering me with cracker crumbs.  All done, she is saying.  Give her more crackers to crush just to keep her in her chair.  Get up to fix his plate.  Sit down.  "Mommy, where's my drink?"  Drat.  Get up to get Kate a drink.  Sit down.  "Hey, I don't have a drink either."  Get up to get his drink.  Sit down.  Take bite of chip with guac.  Baby screech.  Cup on floor.  Get up, crawl under chair to get cup.  Sit down.  "I need to go potty."  Seriously?  Get up.  Where's the Advil?  Flip burning quesadilla.  Where's my wine?  Wipe toddler bottom.  Wash hands.

7:00. Dinner is over.  I put away cold things only.  I sit down for more than 10 seconds, in Paul's lap, to try to have a conversation and a hug.  Kids don't want to share Mommy and keep bugging us.  I silently consider getting some kind of electric fence for the living room.  We manage to get two minutes together, then the phone rings.  It's Mick, and we both want to talk, but I resign to let him talk and I will get the girls bathed so they can be IN BED BY EIGHT OR SO HELP ME.

11:45.  I wake up on the game room couch amidst a tangle of yarn, guess I was knitting something.  Stumble downstairs and let the dog out, turn on the kitchen night light and realize that all of the dishes are still there.  Remember that I made a resolution to leave my sink clean every night.  Well, I'm trying to be less of a perfectionist, so leaving it full of dishes is actually a victory.  Put on hand lotion (why are my hands so dry?)  Go to bed.

How the time flies.  I gave up doing the "milestones written on a sign" thing, she kept eating it.

Audrey is a live wire!  She crawls and cruises very fast to keep up with her big sister.  She is testing all the limits and keeps Mommy on her toes!  She stands briefly alone, but could probably stand for a while if she would ever BE STILL.

She LOVES the dog.  In fact, "dog" is one of her newest words, although it sounds like "dogga."  She has 10 signs but she reserves them for when she already has your attention; otherwise, a screech works best.  She is just shy of 18 pounds still but outgrowing her 6-12 mo clothing already.  She has 7 teeth, four on top and three on bottom, with more on the way in.

Favorite foods include bananas ("ba-bas"), macaroni and cheese (she models some in the picture above), minestrone soup (seriously!), and baby yogurt ("yo-ga").  Grammy let her try a cookie during our visit, and Audrey was very excited about it.  She's a little cookie monster, in fact.  ("Coo-kie!  Coo-kie!  Coo-kie!")

We all just adore her, if you can't tell.

So we just got back from a weekend in Dallas celebrating Kari's birthday, which was lots of fun, even though Audrey was sick and was a real handful at times.  I took her to the doctor today (3rd time in a week I have been to the pediatrician, 5th in two weeks) and poor thing has a DOUBLE ear infection and perhaps a little touch of pneumonia.  Antibiotics and more decongestants were prescribed.  In spite of that I think she actually was feeling a bit better today, as she slept in her own bed last night (until 8 this morning!) and actually had a little appetite this afternoon.  Seriously, why have my kids been so sick?  I just finished giving Kate her antibiotics for HER ear infection on Sunday, and then today started more for Audrey.  It is Audrey's second ear infection in two months, so if it happens again soon, I think a trip to the ENT will be in order.

This Friday Kate is having her birthmark removed, so we would appreciate your prayers.  It is outpatient but they do use general anesthesia.  We'll keep you posted.  I'm not really sure what to expect.

If Paul will help me fix the camera numbering thing, I'll post some pictures.  Until then, they are held hostage on the memory card.  Sorry.  He's been kind of busy, you know.  He got home at 8:30 tonight, we put the kids to bed, talked for a little while, and then he started working on REALife group stuff for tomorrow night.  But so it goes.

Ok, the long awaited (9 days) picture of my new haircut.

It's short in the back.  I was told this is called "The Posh" in reference to a particular famous person, but that's not why I asked for this haircut.  I just thought it was cute.  It goes nicely with my personal sense of style which also includes Infrequent Shampoos and Baby Drool Crust on My Shoulder.

Speaking of baby drool, look at this flirty little girl:

That's Audrey making eyes at Luke, Lauren's little brother, on a baby playdate.  I think she thought it was a real date.  She LOOOOVES him.

Audrey also has recently sprouted two top teeth, and two more are on the way in.  This accounts for much of the sleep trouble, I think, and will probably cause more for a while.  She's been pretty clingy.  She is learning how to eat all kinds of things and occasionally gets food in her mouth.

She's a feisty little thing!  And she turns nine months next week, so I'll have to update again soon.  Now, for this week's Kid Quotes:

Daddy: Hi Audrey.
Audrey, waving: Hi Daddy. 

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Katelyn (giving Audrey her cup): Here you go, Audrey.
Audrey: Taaaggg-ooooo. 
Katelyn:  You're welcome, Audrey.  (turns to Daddy)  She said thank you!

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Katelyn:  Mommy, dadh gooi hhe hoogok hllw.
Mommy:  I'm sorry, can you say that again, honey?
Katelyn, louder:  Djsll fooi whg jhkj aa.
Mommy, a little frustratedly:  Katelyn, I don't understand you.  Can you use your big kid words, please?
Katelyn, downright yelling:  MOMMY, SHOIGG WJ BOOHTW WATRKK FOSSSII PORU!!
Mommy, irked:  Alright, Katelyn.  I'll just wait until you are ready to talk like a big girl.
Katelyn, with dramatic sigh:  MOMMY, I'm speaking Spanish!

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(Katelyn has started calling us Mother and Father.)
Katelyn:  Hello, Father.
Paul:  Kate, I'm Daddy.  Why do you call me Father?
Katelyn:  Because I love you, Father!
Paul:  Aww, that's good enough for me!

Picture heavy post!  Prepare yourself!  And I know the formatting is terrible, but I don't really know what I'm doing, so don't be picky...

1. Kate's very first school concert!  She lost her shyness as soon as they started singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain."  She was one of the few kids actually singing, and was very animated.  Made mama so proud!  (sniff)
   
2. Christmas trip!
• People we saw during our trip:  Dad, Mom, Marc, Mom, Dad, Kari, David, Libba, Drew, Mick, Susan, Andrew, Butch, Mema, Guylene, Nona, Doug, Libby, Aiden, Laura, Blake, Scott, and probably about 20 other people I left out or forgot their names (sorry).  It was a blur.  Can you imagine how overwhelming this must have been to the kids?
• Kate was sick the whole week, poor thing.  She still managed to get excited about her presents, though.
• There was snow!
  
• There were Christmas hats!



3. Vacation at home!
• This was a good idea.  We needed some recovery time after the Oklahoma trip.  We finished the shelves.
  
• We played some Rock Band.
  
  
• We played with our new toys.
  

4.  Back to normal...

• Playin' in the backyard.
  

LOTS more pix on Flickr.  Sorry it took me so long to get them up there.   We're having fun playing with the new camera, too.

What we're doing this week: Kate is learning about ice at school, and Audrey is cutting several front teeth at once (she has not been her usual jovial self lately).  BUT overall we are sleeping more, yippee!  So Mommy is a nicer person now.  :)