Family Notes

:: Daniel came home today long enough to bathe the kids and then take them to watch an Upward basketball game before he left again for an out-of-the-area wedding. He'll be gone until very late tonight. In fact, I will probably be up once with Aubrey before he returns. I know I should be glad that he at least got to take some time with the kids (which gave me a quiet house and a chance to get some good housework done), but mostly I can't help but think that these days when he is gone in the evenings are very long. And he's been gone a lot of evenings lately.

*sigh*

:: Gabriel has been putting puzzles together, drawing on his M@gnaDoodle, and playing with Gordon non-stop the last couple days. These are all  things he got for his birthday and they hold special appeal because of their newness. It's fun to see him so occupied since he has never been particularly good at entertaining himself.

:: Bronwyn was the whole reason we obtained tickets to last night's show. She went for free, the adult ticket was complimentary as a thanks for the ushering Daniel and I did last summer for a show, and we spent $5 so Gabriel could make the group a trio. Originally, I was hoping to bring them, but the reality of a nursing baby and this season of life I'm in was freshly realized yesterday and so I-- gladly, I am happy to say-- turned my ticket over to Daniel. The three of them had a wonderful time and Bronwyn is freshly  in love with princesses.

(Like she needed any encouragement...)

:: Jackson has been saying some of the cutest things lately. My favorite is when I ask him to do something like get me a clean diaper for Aubrey and his response is, "O' course." It's really adorable!

:: Aubrey is continuing to grow and develop wonderfully. Some days I stop long enough to realize how well she's doing and I am awed by how blessed we are! She enjoys toys a lot and will watch her big brothers and sister for many minutes, but her favorite thing in the world-- besides nursing-- is still "talking." I can only imagine how much she will chatter when she actually learns to speak.

:: I'm feeling pleased these days with the rhythm our family has found over the last month or two. I don't have any outside the home activities to speak of, but it's good because I am able to mostly keep on top of things around here thanks to a very low-key schedule. Most days the items on my To Do list all get accomplished, and this is a good feeling.

I haven't mentioned yet how much I'm enjoying using my new computer, which arrived last week when I was feeling very sick and not very interested in it, but that's not because I don't love it! It's so wonderful to be able to grab snippets in time when nursing Aubrey or putting the kids to bed to catch up on e-mail, look up recipes, work out chore charts, sort through family photos, and more. And the green color makes it pretty cool.

:: That's all. My family, this weekend, in a nutshell.