We've Been Busy!

We've been busy this week, and mostly in good ways.

The only tough thing was getting through the final days of Andrea's cold, which thankfully, is over. She has a rough cough now and then, but it doesn't seem to bother her. Daddy has the cold now, which is hard on him, but he's a tough guy when it comes to illness ("I am NOT sick!").

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Let's see . . . what's been going on? Well, Brigitte spent two nights with us this week (Thursday and Friday). It was the first time Andrea's had someone sleep over in her room! There's a trundle bed in a drawer under Andrea's, and it worked out perfectly. Andrea was so excited to have Brigitte over for two nights in a row! They played together the whole time, and Brigitte was a great help to me with both Andrea and Kevin. She's so good with her little cousins. :))

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Yesterday, we had some friends over for a play date. It was kind of special, because Aunt Stephanie brought along a friend of Mommy's, who she'd hardly seen since high school, who has a little girl about Andrea's age. Aunt Stephanie and Angela had attended the same Early Years program, and when Angela heard from Aunt Stephanie that I have two little ones now, we decided to get together for a visit at our house. So, Aunt Stephanie and Izzy came over with Angela and her little girl, Elizabeth, who is just a few months older than Andrea. Angela is also expecting a baby boy in early January--so we will have both a girl and a boy close in age.

Unfortunately, Andrea wasn't in her best mood, as she refused to nap yesterday. I also think she was a bit out of her comfort zone, with two other toddlers helping themselves to her toys. But I thought it was a great learning experience for her. Overall, the visit went smoothly; there were certainly enough toys for everyone--it looked like a toy bomb had landed on my house! :))

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What else? Well, I haven't felt like doing much blogging this week because all I've been doing is working on blogs! What do I mean? Well, I've been feeling this urge to get all my blogs on paper. I'm not sure why; and it turned out to be a major project! I have been working every day, all week long: organizing, reformatting, shrinking the photos, and printing. But the finished product is quite impressive. Think about it: I had Andrea's blog, which spanned 17 months of her life; then Kevin's blog, my nine-month pregnancy for him; and then about 3 months of this new blog. It's over 500 pages long (I know, because I went through at least one 500-sheet package of paper)! Looking at it, I am awed. And as I type this . . . it continues to grow! :))

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Here's some cute Kevin stuff from the past week, which I am finally getting around to putting in the blog. One thing I am very excited about: he is so close to laughing! He's almost doing it. He grins and gurgles and makes these little "he, he" noises. It's too funny. I can't wait to post his first laugh. In the meantime, here's some things he does that make me laugh:

I'm gonna eat you, caterpillar!

Mmmmmmmm . . . yum, yum, yum . . .

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He's also become very interested in the fish on his swing--both on the mobile, and on the fabric. He talks to them! If he's in the swing facing outward and he starts to get fussy, I just switch his swing to face the other way, and he gets all excited! Today, he even did his almost-laugh at them! Unfortunately, Mommy couldn't get the camera fast enough to get his almost-laughs on video. However, I did get some great footage of them talking to the fishies. :))