Carlie will turn two at the end of this week. In some ways I feel like the night she was born could have been last week. It is so vivid in my mind. There are some moments of life that you relive forever as clearly as if it happened yesterday and the day she came into our lives will forever be one of those moments. But on the other hand she has changed our life so much and added so much joy to every day it is hard to remember what life was like without her. I thought she wouldn't really realize the significance of her birthday this year and wasn't really talking to her about it much. Then on Sunday Mrs. Keane, her Sunday school teacher, gave her a birthday/graduation from nursery class gift. It has been set aside until her birthday and when she sees it she sings, "Birthday, birthday." Yesterday I decided to make her a special birthday hat and she was so excited to put it on her head and was trying to sing happy birthday again. It's amazing how much she understands already.
This last weekend we spent cleaning out more of the clutter from the house, moving some things into the shed, organizing, taking donations to the mission, and throwing away more.
Carlie really enjoyed the process and was a very willing helper.
She mixed up the piles and carried things around until we couldn't find where she'd put them. (the same thing we've been doing the last four years but in fast forward)
Catching up a little on the Vietnam War. Someone had highlighted some of the pages and she was worried someone had been writing in the book, because she gets in trouble for writing in her story books.
We couldn't take this picture again if we tried.
I don't know why but Carlie loves the bed in our spare room. If I can't find her during the day chances are she is sitting on the spare bed reading a book. Once I even found her curled under the pillows just about sleep.
Wednesday night Donny was very fussy and Carlie was trying to comfort him. I kept telling her, "No, don't lay on him." Until I saw it was working...
He stopped crying and started laughing at her.
Thursday morning we went to clean the church and Carlie was a big help. She fed Donny his bottle while I cleaned. She's never done it so well before. There were a few problems since they both wanted to control the bottle. She would be holding it and he would reach up and take it out of his mouth and she would scold, "No! No! No!" And put it back in and the same thing would happen over and over. But they got all but about one ounce finished.
Our Little Dimple Donny
We decided to clean the car for a surprise for John. Carlie got very wet and muddy.
And we found a dandelion growing out back.
Donny was just happy to be outside.
Carlie helped Mrs Bloomfield take apart the church's flower arrangement and Mrs Bloomfield gave her a yellow rose. Carlie loved the flower and carried it around all day. I tried to tell her the flower needed a drink.....
But she decided she needed one more.
I put Donny in the highchair for the first time to see if it would make feeding easier
Carlie cried and cried and wanted me to take him out. He was looking at her as if he was thinking, "What's wrong with her?"
Carlie really enjoys her magnetic drawing tablet. She plays with it everyday and her favorite thing to do is to draw hands.
Learning to crawl. He is so close to being able to crawl and frustrated with trying.
Saturday was a beautiful day so we had the windows open.
We finally got around to hanging curtains in the nursery. Carlie misses her Daddy a lot while he has to be at work. This week about every day I have heard her playing in the livingroom saying over and over, "Daddy, hum home." (Daddy come home) And she welcomes him home every night like he's a returning war hero.
