Getting into a routine

Midweek visit with Aunt Manda!

This is one of those perfect "Write your own caption" photos. How about, "Oh no you didn't!!" or "Uncle Kyle, what big lips you have!"

Blue Steele. Or is that Magnum? Either way, it's money, baby.

Starting to be mesmerized with toys.

Well, this entry's title is a little misleading. It seems like with two kids, every day is a totally new challenge! But I can definitely say I'm feeling more relaxed, more rested, more in control this week than I have so far. Anna's tummy is doing much better, and Claire's sleep habits are improving by leaps and bounds this week! No fits or super-late naps (after all the reading and delay tactics she can handle) at all. We are planning a trip to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend to reward her for her big-girl behavior. Now that I've said that, I've probably just jinxed us, and we'll have a mother of a meltdown tonight or tomorrow!

We had a very relaxing weekend, and have so far had a good week, except poor Jay has been down with a cold. He got a Z-pack Monday though, and is doing well enough to go to work, as much work as he can do with all this rain. He's got about 10 houses under contract to start building in the near future, but can't begin b/c it's been too wet.

The girls and I drove out to Wapanucka on Monday to see my little brother Tyler play basketball. My sister Amanda was down for two nights, so she was there, too. Claire LOVES Aunt Manda; here's how much. At Mamaw and Papaw's house, if I tell her Manda is coming over that afternoon, she will jump up and say, "I have to go bye-bye, Manda's coming on her way!" If she will willingly and immediately be ready to leave Mamaw and Papaw's, she must really be excited about something! We are very proud of Tyler, who worked hard during his game--he was playing on a team of only fourth-graders, so they only had six kids, so all the kids played a lot more than they're used to. He shot several times, played defense, and made some good passes (no points tonight though, so he was disappointed!).

After Ty's game, we had dinner and got to go visit Nana, Grandad, Dani, and Molly at Nana and Grandad's house, so that was fun, too. Molly loved patting Anna, and saying "bebe!" And Claire and Molly are both big fans of hide and seek (they will both actually go somewhere by themselves and stay quiet while someone looks for them), so they had a big time playing hide and seek with Manda and Tyler.

Tuesday after I went to class and got the girls home from Mamaw and Papaw's (at about noon), Manda came over to spend the afternoon and night at our house. We really know how to show a hip, intelligent grad student a good time, let me tell ya: holding Anna, playing hide and seek and dollhouse with Claire, and watching a movie with big sis on the couch after everyone else was asleep. We had a great time, and hope Manda can take advantage of her laid-back semester with more midweek trips to our house.