Joy

Autumn and her MT cousins Julianna and Logan

caught a sweet hug

Baby boy G and his cute butt!

a kiss for brother while we steam the sick away

sibs and tubs

arrrr!

solo sled, I was ruined if she hit that pole...ruined!

only way to get shots with me and the babe a self portrait;)

"wave Autumn!" "you pull Mom."

As in any household after a death in the family, life has gone on. With babies it seems to go on no matter what and no matter the time or place, appropriate or not. In our case, I ended up going to Steve's funeral alone but enjoyed the drive and the time to my thoughts and strangely enough the scenery. It was nice to get with friends and family and laugh and tear up and freeze our butts off and remember a man that has been in our life for over 20 years and my mother and I have come to realize that we took for granted. I got home that afternoon and couldn't wait to hug our kids and tell them how much I missed them and to see what fun and exciting things they had done with Daddy. Life at the D. Goodan house is ALL fun and games when it is just Daddy. He has a way with them that tires them out like no one else and I swear they fall asleep with a smile on their face. Dana had taken them to a play date at the civic center. In the summer Moms or nannies or Dads or whomever will meet at the city park. I think the point is to socialize our little ones and to get to know other parents doing the same thing you are doing. Dana finally got a taste that not all parents are friendly and want your child near their child.It was only one mother and the ones that know her tude just avoid her. Such is life. I always wonder why come to a play group if you don't want your kid to be approached by another one. That is just my logic, I could be way off. It was fun to hear his experience and to know they had a good time, Autumn had a few friends there and played till she whined, that's always a sign she enjoyed herself.
So, life went on. We sat one evening talking in the kitchen, or as Autumn says "let's just bisit". She was sitting in her chair and farted and kept eating. We try very hard to have her say excuse me and not make it a joke...all the time. Dana said "Autumn, what did you just do?" She grunted "I say.." and another fart came out. "  Dana: "Autumn, what do you say?" Autumn: "I say...(grunt, fart)." no change of face on her. Me: "Autumn what was that?" A:"It was my butt (grunt and another fart). Dana is purple holding in a laugh and I am snorting in my shirt trying not to cry with laughter. Me: "Autumn if you keep doing that you are going to crap your pants." A: "no Mom, I don't want to crap my pants. Scuse me." Our little angel.
New to her vocabulary is "Dominic I am serious" and "oh I'm disappointed". We don't know where disappointed came from but 'I'm serious' is pretty frequent when asking Dominic for a break. Dominic moos when we say cow and baas when he sees a sheep. He also stands in his crib at 5a.m and says "hey! hey! HEY!" If it wasn't so funny it would be annoying. Autumn and I have started to play around with her flashcards again and today she would say the word, the color and the shape and also spell it out...such as a picture of a green circle "lemme see that card, green, circle, r, e's, g and n." Good job A! No one has said you have to go left to right just yet;)
Last night I was "bisiting" with some friends. It was incredible, an eye opener, a growing moment. It was a discussion that you leave feeling like you are a better person for knowing these people and that you are actually working on being a better person, wife, mother and friend. It did something crazy to me because today, while Dana was home sick I did the unthinkable! I was nice to him. Serious. No joke. I told him to take a hot shower while I changed the sheets and set up a little sickie table for him...minus the bell to summon me, made him tea, took him lunch and checked his pulse a few times. I even smiled and told him I loved him and to stay in bed as long as he wanted. I'm telling you last night might have been a serious break through;) That AND my mother told me to be sweet when she found out he was sick...she knows me to well. So, after strange looks from Dana our day went remarkably smooth. Grammie Jo stopped by to see the kids since she was attacked by this nasty bug as well and we haven't seen her in a couple weeks. We had a good bisit, ate a pomegranate, drank my fave latte (that she special delivered) and made plans to get healthier as a family. Which brings me to my bragging post.
chitlin's I have more stamina and I am starting to feel pretty dang proud of myself for sticking it out this long. I owe a lot to a persistent work out partner.
So, that is our week. Oh, two things. We have new fish, PB2 and J2, Autumn doesn't know they are number 2's. They seem to be doing a lot better than the first go arounds. I told Dana "Fish are the only pets you wait for them to die, like every morning you think Oh! their still with us". Strange. Second, Autumn used our wall, bay window shelf, and floor in the dining area as a drawing board. She used blue, her favorite color. She also helped me clean it for about a minute until she said "this is TOO hard Mom." Baking soda takes crayon off walls and wd-40 takes it off stained wood. Just in case you need that for future reference.
Have a wonderful week my friends and family. In case I haven't told you in a while, I love you.