197 Random Update

You would think I would have learned my lesson by now ... if I try to blog in the middle of the day then I don't have time to make my posts interesting or in anyway funny. I end up just spewing out the facts and letting it go at that. Sure, I started this blog as a way to let my Atlanta family know what is going on in our daily lives, but it has become more than that over time. I love using it to share my photography with people. I take so many pictures, and someone else needs to enjoy them - besides myself! I absolutely LOVE when people leave comments!! So please, I am not above begging, PLEASE comment if you like something I post, or if you hate it.

But to move away from begging people to talk to me ... (fishing for compliments, as my Mom would say)

Katie made it through her grounding. It is amazing how much sweeter that child is when she has not been around other children. Not that any of her friends would be "bad influences", but I think it is just being rambunctious in general. When she is at home with us she is more docile. She plays, don't get me wrong! In fact, two days were spent running around the backyard in the spray of the garden hose. But she has to temper her play around her brother, and I am sure that I do not play or respond the way that her little friends do. She seems to be more attune to the world around her when kept in our little circle. She was supposed to still be grounded on Sunday, but I told her she could have a reprieve if she was really good. Mainly I wanted her to be able to go on the Easter Egg Hunt, but I had to make her earn it. She did really well, and I think she really appreciated being able to play with her friends more than she would have. She also is doing a bit better at listening to me. Lets see how long that lasts!

Connor has been his same old adorable tank self. He plows through the world, destroying whatever gets in his path, but he does it with a huge smile and a belly laugh and you just can't get mad! I think he might be the smartest 18 month old ever! He has figured out what a joke entails! Tonight he was holding a cookie out to me, then when I would put my hand out for it he would yank it back and LAUGH! He did it repeatedly, and it just got funnier and funnier! And he makes messes, but then he insists on helping you clean them up. He spills something, he wants a rag to help wipe it up. He drew on the dishwasher in crayon, and he took the sponge from my hand to finish wiping it off. And also, he is super polite! Chip was sitting beside us with a plate that had some Fritos on it, and Connor reached his hand out in the grasping "can I have some" way he has. And his hand clearly could have just taken the Fritos, but he didn't touch them until Chip told him it was okay. Of course, at the time he should have already been in bed for 2 hours, so it was not nearly as cute as it could have been. He refused to go to sleep tonight! He wasn't fussy, but he would not close his eyes. He even lay in his crib for a solid hour just babbling to himself. I eventually had to swaddle him. He is just at that point where he is learning so fast, and wanting to DO so many new things that sleep is not high on his priority list.

Tomorrow night, Candy and I are going to go to the Desoto Camera Club for the first time. Well, we will be if I can find a babysitter for the kiddos. Other than posting my pictures on the computer, it will be my first foray into making my photography obsession public. I am much more comfortable in my computer chair, safe behind this screen, but one day I will have to go out if I want to make this hobby into anything greater. And I do, just not sure where to start with that. So, if you think of me tomorrow night, think of my little hermit heart in a room full of people ...

To close this post of randomness out, I will leave you with a few pictures of our newly acquired flowers. Katie picked them out. And then we are under a freeze warning, so I am hoping they will survive to make it into the ground. Colonel Reb would appreciate some prettier surrounding I am sure!I just needed something to take pictures of other than dandelions ... The lighting indoors is terrible, and the Gerbera Daisies are closer to a deep crimson than this picture shows, so I played around with them a bit.