Catching Up

I was rereading my journal the other night (which took me 9 years to fill if that tells you anything) and it seemed like every entry began with, "Wow, I can't believe how much has happened since I wrote last...I'm engaged now" or "I really should write more often, Braden is in college now." [Just kidding about the last one.]

So, not surprisingly, it has been almost a month since I blogged anything. Experience tells me that the longer I wait, the more I dread catching up to the present, so I'll give a quick recap:

April 28: Tom and Meredith's 4th wedding anniversary...Tom planned an overnight trip to Amish country and surprised me by arranging for my little sister, Katie, to come and babysit the kids. I was super nervous to leave my not-yet-weaned Keri with her (I didn't want Katie to hate me), but it went well enough (or so she said) and it was really nice to have a 24-hour break from being a mommy. Here is the nanny and the little rascals:

Tom thoroughly enjoys surprising me because he knows how much I like to ask, "What's the plan?"...every day. So he loves it when I don't know The Plan. He likes making me think that The Plan is something entirely different than what The Plan is. It makes him giddy.

So every other day for the two months leading up to our anniversary, he would say, "Are you excited for Disney World(or Bermuda/New York/Erie/Antarctica)?" It was a fun little game that I will miss until next year.

The inn we stayed at was beautiful and it had a balcony overlooking the countryside.

We ate delicious food and spent a significant amount of time scheming ways to get more of the complimentary homemade cookies they were giving out near the front desk without appearing to be absolutely tactless. We also went for a walk on some of the rural roads and had a huge bowl of peanut butter fudge ice cream for lunch the next day. Aren't we just the picture of health?

Anyway, we came back and hung out with Katie for a few days and then had to take her to the "airplane airport" (this is what Braden calls it). He thinks she is still flying on an airplane actually because the other day we saw an airplane (two weeks after this) and he said, "Look! Do you see Aunt Katie way up high in the sky on the airplane?" Oh, my Braden...makes me laugh.

Tom started a new semester the day Katie left and it shall hereafter be known as The Lovely Little Dream Semester. There are late start days, entire days off, and not very much studying to do in between. It's funny how even getting to do Saturday-type stuff on Saturdays again makes my life a different story! I actually feel ready for a new week to start again by the time Monday rolls around.

Keri started talking about two weeks ago and then it just sort of took off. She started with "Ta da!", then (in no particular order) Dada, Mama, Uh-oh, Bah (ball), Buh (book), Ba (bottle), 'Nana (banana), and I can't think of the other ones now but I think there are others. It is fun, especially her soft way of saying "Uh-oh"...she has been chucking objects from her high chair and down the stairs that have been making quite a racket at our house ever since she learned that word and after each loud noise you hear this soft little "Uh-oh". And then she smiles while I go clean up...it's a lovely arrangement :)

Here she is, sitting in a chair. Doesn't she look like a little girl now and not my squishy baby anymore?

This is her after Tom got home from school. Every day when he picks her up to give her a hug, she grabs his pen out of his pocket on his scrubs and half the time, she never gives it back. Then, when he puts her back down on the floor, she crawls over to his backpack and takes his water bottle out of the side pocket and has a nice, long drink. She makes me laugh too.

Okay, I am trying to think what else we have been up to...oh, I learned to make pita bread! Seriously, it was so fun. The first batch was a failure and then the second batch was so good. And if you get your oven hot enough, the bread actually blows up almost like a balloon to make the pocket and then deflates when you take it out and it cools.

Here's the second batch:


And then, we wanted some pita chips to eat up the rest of the hummus in our fridge (did I mention we are addicted to hummus?), so we made some pita chips!


And, in other news, I finally finished my dining room curtains (ignore the wrinkle on the middle one...I have since straightened that out).



And I finally finished these blocks that I had put off forever.



And now, do you see why I dread catching up my journal? I have a tendency to be long-winded. But I think we are caught up now and so you can just disregard that "...so I'll give a quick recap..." part. Turns out it wasn't so quick.