A Packed Couple of Weeks

It's amazing how 2 weeks can fly by now. I remember when Rhianwen was a little newborn how each day seemed to last an eternity and the nights were even longer! We've stayed busy and had lots of small adventures along the way.

Rhianwen decided that she needed a pack n play for Snowbear and commandeered a laundry basket that seemed to do the trick; to add to the creativity she decided a washcloth was the perfect blanket for Snowbear.

"Lie down. Night-night." you'd hear Rhianwen saying if you were here. She also kisses and hugs before putting Snowbear night-night. I can't wait until baby Alden is born. Hopefully Rhianwen will enjoy saying night-night to him too.

Her bucket seemed to be the perfect hat.

"Hello Dahling! It's been tooo long!"

I often wonder if I am as creative as Rhianwen is when it comes to making do with less. She seems to find a way to do neat things with whatever is at hand and is content with it. If I find I have to do that, I grumble and am annoyed that I don't have something more efficient or more practical or more aesthetically pleasing. Rhi's playing has definitely made me rethink things in a different light. Funny how she can teach things without even trying!

I've been making a huge planning list for the fabric store and pulled out a measuring tape to measure a closet doorway so that I can sew a curtain for it. We thought about doors, but the way our room is, doors would make it difficult to maneuver, so we're going to try a curtain instead. Anyway, every time Rhi sees a tape measure, she has to go to work herself. The funny thing is that everything she measures is "8". Not sure why.

"Eight!"

One of the days at home I got really antsy and Rhi was really kind of fussy, so out of desperation we made a trip to Walmart and got a fun pinwheel and a ton of bubble wands and spent the rest of the waking hours dropping wands into the big tub of bubbles so daddy could fish them out with a coat hanger when he came home.

Ah, success!

2 Saturdays ago we planted a bunch of seeds and plants back in our garden plot. Rhianwen got to help daddy prepare the soil and mommy to plant the string beans and peas.

Leaning way over to drop a seed in the ground.

Wally spent all of this past week in Pittsburgh at his annual company meeting and got to see lots of old friends as well. Rhianwen and I took a vacation down at Grandma Nanny Kim's and Grandpa's where mommy didn't have to cook, clean, or manage anything and where we got to spend lots of time with Heather and Katelyn, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, and a bunch of friends from mommy's high school days. I think we all were amazed at how much Rhianwen remembered of Grandma and Grandpa's. As we were on the way there, Rhianwen would talk about the fountain, Boots (the cat), coloring on the carport; and throughout the week, things would come up from the previous visit that showed that she remembered a whole lot!

Great Grandpa somehow has this knack for coming over when there is a lot of good food to be had. This day we were having a tea and had picked up a bunch of stuff from the Patisserie. So, great grandpa arrived just in time to clean up afterwards and to get some tickle time with Rhianwen along with a hug and kiss. (It's so hard to get Great Grandparents to look at the camera! Why is that?).

Because I was missing playgroup sooo much on Wednesday, we had a mini-playgroup with Heather and Katelyn and Jenny and Anna. We got to see a bunch of little puppies (very very exciting for Rhianwen), played with old toys of Heather's, and took a nice walk.



Rhianwen enjoyed teaching Katelyn about different toys. For example, she picked up a puzzle piece of a bird and brought it to Katelyn and said, "Kate-in. Kate-in. Bird. Tweet tweet."

Rhianwen got to hold a caterpillar for the first time at Grandma's and Grandpa's.

The amazing thing was that she said, "Catepilla. Butta-fy." Without us talking about the life cycle! So, all those story times with The Very Hungry Caterpillar have payed off!

She also tried her hand at crocheting a blanket for baby Alden.

The progress she made was astounding!

We visited Great Grandma quite a few times and enjoyed playing catch with Grandma Nanny Kim's ball and just running around in general.

This time I was able to get a great grandparent to look at the camera! Hooray!

We also got to see "Weeza", a friend of mom's and mine who has a gorgeous oooollld home with a huge porch. Rhianwen thought it great fun to roll her tennis ball off of the porch so that we could go tramping through the ivy to find it. So most of the visit was a lot of laughter from Rhianwen (and us) and interrupted conversations.

We ended our visit with a short time with Uncle Skipper who had come to be confirmed by the Episcopal church. We only got to see him for about an hour before we left, and I'm so glad we did since she hadn't seen him since Christmas time.



Of course, because we have a well-visit (18 month checkup) scheduled for Rhianwen this week, she felt it her duty to get into as many bumps and scrapes as she could manage. First she took a face dive off of Grandma Nanny Kim's couch onto the hard floor where she bruised her forehead. For the first time in her life, she actually let me keep ice on it, so it looks much better than it would have been. Then she knocked the wooden step stool onto her foot making a nice line there. Then she busted her lip somehow as she was playing under her slide last night. So that is all nice and bloody and swollen looking. It looks like we took part in a minor skirmish instead of a relaxing vacation. I always wonder what the Dr. thinks when we bring her in like that. I suppose he just thinks, "Typical healthy toddler."