TIDBITS

Finally!! We are getting rain right now as I type this. We just stepped out back to see it and feel the cool (yes, I said cool) wind and rain. It is so nice! It's coming down really hard with thunder and lightning and Gage is scared. The girls are sleeping through it, thankfully.

Today, I was in the kitchen making dinner and Bella opened the cupboard and got into a box of cookies, all by herself, pulled out a big fat cookie and turned around to see me watching her. She had a little startled look on her face and then worriedly said, "Taco" (that's what it sounds like when she says thank you). I started cracking up and thought it was too funny to take it away from her. It's fun to see her personality develop. She's doing this funny little "sleeping" act now when you come around the car to get her out of her car seat. As soon as you open her door, she closes her eyes tight and rests her head on the side and pretends to be asleep. Her favorite song right now is "Wheels on the Bus" and her favorite part is "The people on the bus bounce up and down" to which she does the actions. If you stop singing it she does the sign language for "more" and says more, more, more. Even when you run out of verses she insists on more so you have to make some up to appease her.

A funny little poop story of Gage's: He knows how to wipe by himself, but sometimes he'll ask for help and lots of times he wants one of us to come in and watch him. This is a habit I'm trying to break. Tonight, he called me in and was talking me through the wiping: "So you take the toilet paper and fold it up, then you start at the bottom, and wipe up - like this. Voila! (as he shows me the toilet paper). He actually said, "Voila!" We have a hard time making him keep his clothes on. That boy loves to be naked and has no modesty. Scary!

Yesterday, he and Bella were taking a bath and his head was down and he had tears in his eyes. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he was sad because he missed Grandma, Daddy's Grandma (that's how he differentiates between the two Grandmas). He said he knows she's in heaven but he thought she'd be back by now and when is she coming back? I explained to him that she's not coming back but that he'll see her again someday, but he doesn't really like that answer either. Man, it's hard. We went to eat dinner with Grandpa Powers on Friday at his favorite-Denny's. The waitress there knows him and knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it. We then went to his house after dinner and got to visit a little with him and Terry. It is still really strange to be in the house without her. Her chair still sits there, empty now, and all of her things are still everywhere. Rob has a hard time going there and not getting emotional. I do too, for that matter. But Grandpa told me that he is doing better and better with it all, except that he's lonely. I keep trying to convince him to come and stay with us, but he's not quite ready to leave the house.

Last night, for the first time, Paisley laughed! I was tickling her tummy and then walking my fingers up to her neck and tickling her neck and that's when she started laughing. Such a cute and infectious laugh (what baby's laugh isn't cute and infectious?). She is a delight and I just want to eat her up! And, just for our own record, her eyes are still blue. On Saturday night, Alyssa and Trevor were here because we were going to dinner and a movie with them. Trevor was holding Paisley (which he loves to do and I think it is so sweet) and out of the blue she started crying really hard. She was kind of off her routine that day and I knew she was overtired and it finally caught up with her. Rob came out because he said he had never even heard Paisley cry before. (She is an extremely happy baby, but she has cried before - just not often. And all mothers of newborns out there reading this can now release their daggers.) I think Trevor felt a little bad and I hope he won't be nervous to hold her again. We went to eat teppanyaki and to see Batman: The Dark Knight. Dark is an appropriate adjective for that movie. It was good, but I thought it should be rated R instead of PG-13. Even Rob agreed. But we would have been happy to see anything..it was our first movie in the theatre in a LONG time and a really fun date.

We had a really fun visit with Aaron, Chloe, and Lily. Annaliese wasn't able to make it because of a school obligation and we missed her. Gage and Bella LOVE when the girls come and play with them non-stop, which gives us a chance to sit and visit. They went swimming, jumped on the trampoline, and played on the swingset even though it was REALLY hot. Rob took one of the days off and we all went bowling. Alyssa came too. There is a new bowling alley right by our house and it is so nice. It was so much fun for us all. They also have a huge arcade area, so we played some games there after bowling. Alyssa, Chloe, and I had to pry the kids (by kids I mean Aaron, Rob, Lily and Gage) away to go eat lunch.