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The Daddy just put Benny on his feet on the floor. He immediately grabbed the Little People Parking Garage (chest-height to him) and held on. So the Daddy let go of him. He stood there for 15 seconds, all by himself.

It's a good thing I'm already used to babies who want to grow up way too fast.

In related news, Katie announced recently that on her "bayth-day" she turned 3 years old. And on her next one, she's turning 10.

Happy Half-Birthday Sammy!

Things you can do at 4.5:

• Read
• Use the potty
• Put yourself to bed
• Wash your own hands with no help
• Help clean up after dinner
• Help clean up after playing with toys
• Cut your own pancakes
• Write letters and words
• Simple addition and subtraction
• Ask "why?" about EVERYTHING!
• Make and give gifts to people to make them so happy
• Come up with your own list of things you can do and have Mama type it for you

More photos from Friday's Sprayground adventure

We have a reader, ladies and gentlemen!

Sammy has been blasting through Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten. One of the little monkeys made off with the workbook long ago, but luckily his reading skills blossomed enough that by the time this set piqued his curiosity, he really didn't need it. Today he finished the last of the 14 story books, and finally got to put the "I did it!" sticker on his chart.

On to the first grade level tomorrow. I am one super-proud mama!

Family Movie Night

As part of my goal to set up predictable routines for the kids, I've been trying to have Family Movie Night on Friday nights. This weekend we watched "Flushed Away." The kids find the beginning a little scary, so they all snuggled up as close to me as they could. The Daddy was nice enough to snap a picture for me. It's rare that I ever have them all this close at once, much less get a picture of it!

Sprayground!

5 months old tomorrow

See the photos individually here:

2009-06-15

K's typing lesson

She kept asking me what different keys did. Then she wanted to know how to spell different words. Here is what she did:

12 5 katie stacy benny sammy jeff page cousin book cord fan

Doraland mural

Our friend Amanda painted a mural in our basement. It's incorporates a few things from Dora the Explorer's world. We still need to fill in a few more flowers & stems, but it is 99% done. The kids are so excited about it. She did a great job!

We have Dora wall stickers which the kids can move around on the wall.

Potty users!

We have been doing some serious "potty training" this week.

Sammy has been sleeping in underwear for the last week, and hasn't used a pull-up since he used the last one also about a week ago. After the double-accident afternoon at Zachary's on Monday, the couple of times we've gone out, we've put a PUL diaper cover over his underwear, and we haven't even needed it! He has even used public potties (although he was super-scared the first time, I made him do it at a restaurant so we could go to Costco afterward, and he did great!)

Katie wore big kid undies out of the house yesterday, and also to bed tonight for the first time. I heard her telling her Daddy before bedtime that she was a big girl, and was going to wear big girl underwear, and "no moy dih-pehs an-nee-MOY!"

Today was also our first day with no accidents whatsoever!!! I am so excited!

I am also thrilled at the smaller amounts of diapers I've been having to wash. When they have it down pat, lil' Benny might become an EC baby! ;)

Katie's new favorite atttire

"My byoo-T-full white dwess!" Thanks, Misty!!!

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Photos from the "crazy trip"

Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting these yet... Click on the thumbnail to get to the album.

On the way to Louisiana, we stayed a couple of days in TX and played with the kids' cousins.

2009-04-14 Grapevine, TX

The reason for the trip to Louisiana was my grandmother's family reunion.

2009-04-19 Braud Family Reunion

At the reunion, we explored outside of the KC hall and found a cool bridge to run across. So I grabbed my camera and tried to get a few good shots of my kids. And I'm not sure I ever succeeded...

2009-04-19 Kids on the bridge

Later that afternoon, we went back to the other side of that bridge to a very cool park to visit my LSMSA & LSU classmates Kristy & Alan, and their too-cute-to-be-real boys Ander and Loki.

2009-04-19 Gonzales, Louisiana

The next weekend we had Katie's 3rd birthday party at the community center in my parents' town. Then we were on our way for phase III of the crazy trip.

After leaving Louisiana for MD, we stopped for the night in Montgomery, AL. The next day we visited longtime (back to LSU & Cheyenne days) friends Todd & Amanda, and their girls.

2009-04-28 April Montgomery, AL

We stayed a couple of days in Virginia, where The Daddy was working, and got to visit one of my Cheyenne friends on the beach.

The reason for the trip was our friend Jeff's wedding. Afterwards we visited John & Misty's family in MD. (And we were all very sad to have to cut that visit short when Sammy reacted very badly to their cats.) You won't see any pictures of John, though. He mumbled something about work and took off on a plane somewhere. Figures!

2009-05-05 Bowie, MD

On the way out of Virginia I stopped to meet one of my internet friends from the awesome Catholic Infertility list I joined almost 6 years ago, and her girls. They were super-nice, and we had lots of fun! The whole time I was there, I just kept thinking how good God is, with so many little squealing, happy, playful blessings running around, given the circumstances under which Jennifer and I "met."

2009-05-06 Lynchburg, VA

Then we made the stop in Huntsville.

We took a slight detour into northern Mississippi to visit longtime family friends Steve and Cathy, and their son Ben.

2009-05-09 at Steve and Cathy's

On Mother's Day, my dad took his entire family out to dinner at Mike Anderson's. It was crazy, crazy, super-fun!

2009-05-10 Mother's Day

There was a lot, lot, lot more of visiting family and friends than I have represented here. Since I am just now getting around to posting this, well, don't hold your breath. This is not exactly the season of my life where I have time to get done everything I want to get done. Thanks for understanding!