More pictures than you can shake a stick at.

These are all wily-nily-out-of-order. I'd do captions, but it's a pain. So I won't. The one of Eve sitting on the floor in the pink outfit dated 3/21 is post-head-bump. You can *kind of* see the bruising on her forehead, and the scrape on her nose. And the one of Josie dated 3/10 in the pink jacket is when she fell off the sled and scraped her face. The next one of Pat is the same day. Who do you think felt worse? :) And also are some from Josie's first haircut trauma. And the last one is Lu and Jo having some puddle fun at Como Zoo.

Speaking of head injuries...

Ed isn't the only one who is going to suffer a head injury before the age of 2. Thanks to her parents doing exactly what we're all warned NOT to do via safety disclaimers, Eve almost (sidenote - Jo says "almost" all the time now. Except when she says it, it's "almosht!") suffered a head injury on Sunday night. Well, I guess she actually did, just not a serious one. Here's the story.

Eve was chillin' in her carseat Sunday night. Not strapped in. I know - stupid. I was putzing around, picking up toys and whatnot, Pat was on the loveseat reading the paper. Eve's seat was sitting on a low coffee table in the living room. I know - stupid. It says right on it not to place it on an elevated surface. But come on, tell me you haven't done the same thing yourselves. Please - tell me that you have, I'll feel a lot better. :) Anyway, while neither Pat or I actually saw it happen, I think that Eve must have leaned forward and shifted in the seat enough to tip it forward. And thanks to gravity, she toppled to the floor, with the carseat on top of her. She screamed. I ran to the living room. Pat picked her up. She had a heckuva red mark on her forehead, and a scrape on the end of her nose and just below her nose. I thought I was going to throw up. We called the nurse line right away. From what we described, they thought she was going to be okay - but said they thought it best that we take her in, just to be safe. So Pat did. We're getting a little too familiar with Children's Hospital. The main reason I was worried was because when I was holding and comforting her, she was dozing off. Granted it was 9:00 at night, but how could we know if it was just because she was tired, or if there was something more going on? But she checked out fine, and didn't even need any scans or anything. I did stay home with her Monday, just to watch her and make sure she acted normal. Aside from a pretty purple bruise on her forehead, and a sore little nose, she's fine. Not so sure her parents can say that, yet. Ugh. Needless to say, we're attempting to phase the carseat out of our lives. She's almosht too big for it, anyway... but is awfully attached to the stupid thing.

Let's see - what other drama do we have in our lives. Oh - Josie got a hair cut. Her first. Darn it all... everything I have to post about would be a lot better with pictures. I'll see what I can do about that. It's awfully hard to find time. Or make time. Whatever. Pat and I took her to Kids Hair last Friday. She was fine, until I put her in the chair and stepped away and the hair chick put the giant bib on her. Big, fat tears, and she wouldn't sit up straight in the chair. The hair chick was really trying. I gave Jo a lollipop, and that helped. Then she calmed down enough to look around at the other kids getting their hair cut, and that also seemed to help. Her hair is super cute. Just a simple little bob, but it makes her look so much older. Again, pictures would be nice, huh?

After watching Josie play for the past couple of weeks, and seeing that she was pretending to make pancakes by sticking a plate in her little barn toy... I decided it was time to get the girl a proper kitchen. And I did. And she loves it. Now we get french fries, hot chocolate and pancakes all the time.

We took a weekend road trip to my Mom and Erwin's house. There's nothing like corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Yum. And even better... Grandma J's homemade rhubarb custard pie. Double yum. The kids did great - except that before we left, we made a stop at the store and Pat ran in. While he was gone, Josie said something to me, so I turned to look at her. Then she started saying "Look, look!" and then "NO - Mommy." After getting increasingly annoyed with me, I finally I figured it out - she was telling me to stop looking at her. Hmph. How do you like that?! She's more and more of a ham lately, I can't even do her justice. Do you know the song "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive? Here's the chorus - you'd know if for sure if you heard it:

You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

That's Jo's favorite song at the moment. She calls it "Round," and we have to sing it to her while she walks / dances around the loveseat. Except that we only know the chorus and a couple of other lines. So that's what we sing over and over again. Gotta work on memorizing the rest of the song. :)

Pictures, soon. I'll try. Really.

And the AACTie goes to...

Steven W. Gwilt!!!

That's right... my brother won the award for Best Actor at the American Association for Community Theater festival for the Southeastern theater region earlier this month. The production he's part of, ESCANABA in da MOONLIGHT, by Jeff Daniels, and directed by Dave Johnson, also took Best Overall Production, Best Director and the Award for Technical Excellence. Now they're off to Charlotte, NC, in June to compete in the AACT National Conference. Way to go, and GOOD LUCK!!

Check out some other fun stuff the Drama Center Backstage in Cookeville, TN, has been up to.

Another one bites the dust...

or snow, as the case may be. Josie experienced her first "injury accident" over the weekend. She and Pat were sledding at his parents' house on Saturday morning. They wiped out. The snow had a nice, crusty layer. Josie's right cheek got a heckuva snow burn. Pictures to follow. All weekend she was a sad puppy saying "fall," and "down," then pointing to her cheek. It was all very traumatic. :)

Her vocabulary is skyrocketing. She's becoming a parrot, trying to repeat everything she hears us say. And she's *trying* to tell me about things that happen when I'm not with her - like when Pat took the girls for a walk while I did some cleaning and laundry, and they got stuck with the stroller a couple of times. And they lost one of her mittens, and stopped at the park and went for a swing. They came home and she came running into the house and told me "mitts! mitts!" Then "stuck!" Then "swww-wing!" It still takes a little deciphering, but I can get the gist of her stories. She still sticks to mostly one or two word phrases, but is starting to string some words together. The change in her just in the past couple of weeks is amazing.

I think we might have a hockey player on our hands. It was boys high school tournament time - so the hockey around our house was plentiful. Now she's walking around saying "Yeeeaaa, hockey! Yeeeeaaa, hockey!" and she actually sat with me while Pat was gone to the games on Friday and we watched some of the coverage. I'm sure she'll be able to catch on and follow what's going on much faster than me!

Eve now has 6 teeth. And I suspect that today or tomorrow we'll see number 7, and I also suspect that some of her back teeth are well on their way. Mind you - she's not even 8 months old yet. Yikes. We'll be feeding her steak and chork pops in no time! She's also about ready to start creeping. She'll get on all 4's, but does not realize what she can do with that, yet, so she drops back down and pushes herself backwards. She's pushing up on her arms and turning herself every-which-way, and still log rolls all over the room. Eve keeps the daycare kids busy watching where she'll end up, then they'll ask Betty if it's okay that she's under the chair or trying to chew on the coffee table!

So mad I could spit.

I've been sitting here stewing for the last hour - maybe if I write it down, it will help.

Pat and I ate lunch today in the food court here in the downtown skyway . We were sitting, eating, talking, people-watching, and there was a line just beside us at the St. Paul Cookie Company. A couple was at the register, paying for their order, and there were miscellaneous people in line behind them, including a couple of middle-aged women. They (the middle-aged women) appeared to be your average, everyday, downtown St. Paul office workers.

I saw the couple that was paying start to move forward, away from the cookie company, and the women in line behind them stepped up to the register... and as that process was happening, I saw money float to the ground. It was a $10 bill. My immediate reaction was to get up, and if I would have made it to the bill, my gut instinct would have been to hand it to the gentleman who was in the process of walking away, even though I didn't positively see it fall from his hand or wallet, it just seemed as though he dropped it. But before I could get up... one of the women moving to the register reached down and snatched up the bill. I thought - "oh, good, she's going to hand it to him..." but she didn't. So then I second guessed myself, and though - "oh, I was wrong, that was her money in the first place..." but it wasn't. I should have immediately gotten up and said something, and that's what I'm kicking myself about now. Instead I hemmed and hawed about it, because I didn't know for sure. So by this time, the couple had moved over to a food stand on the other side of the food court, but still within our view. And the evil women had skedaddled out of food court, never to be seen again.

So at this time, I still really didn't know that the money wasn't the woman's. But my gut told me it wasn't. So I watched the couple order their food at the BBQ stand, wait for their food at the BBQ stand, then go to pay for their food at the BBQ stand. Now is when I really start to feel bad. Sure enough, the man starts to feel his pockets, check the ground and look around back at the cookie stand. CRUD. He says something to the woman he was with, and she walks back over, retracing their steps, and asks the clerk at the cookie place if he gave them the wrong change... ugh. I know it was just $10, and I didn't know for sure in time to do anything about it, but I'm still feeling bad. I should have said something to the woman as soon as she picked it up. We didn't end up saying anything to the couple before we left because I figured that they weren't going to get their money back at that point, and then as we were walking away, Pat told me he heard the clerk at the cookie stand tell the man that he thought he saw a woman walk away with some money she picked up.

She HAD to have known that the money belonged to the guy in front of her, didn't she? That's why she picked it up so fast and walked away. She could have at least asked. Hopefully what comes around goes around - or goes around, comes around...? whichever way that works, and she has some bad karma come her way. But I guess by this same logic, I've got some bad karma coming my way, because I really should have said something. Shouldn't I? What would you have done?

So, hey - guy in the food court... I'm sorry. And evil woman - grrr.

I may be new to this Catholic stuff, but...

(I know it's Wednesday. I'm a bit late this week!)

I know enough to be able to tell that when we get to church and pretty soon everyone is kneeling and I look up front and sure enough... it's time for communion - hmm, yeah - we're probably late. Let's back up a bit.

Josie decided to get up at 5:50 AM on Sunday morning. When you're up that early, it's easy to make it to early church. Which we've never made it to before. We can catch the 10:30 service MUCH easier. So Pat thought the early service was at 9:00 am. I thought it was 8:45 am. We were both wrong. It's at 8:30 am. Oops. So imagine what a tool I felt like when our circus goes rolling into St. Jerome's at 9:02 am, now a half-hour late for mass. I'm sure the oldies think we're horrible just rolling in for communion. Oh, well. :) Josie seemed awfully excited to get to leave again so soon. If only she knew this isn't how it always is going to be.

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BABY NEWS!!! Congrats to Tricia and Kevin Mathews on the birth of baby BOY, William David. He was born on Friday, March 2nd at 2:41 am. AND he was a whopping 9 lbs, 8 oz. We love you guys to pieces and are soooo happy for you! And he truly is an absolutely stunning baby. And we're not just saying that. :) I'd give you a handy link to their family blog... but they don't have one. Nope. No blog. Hmm... wonder what they could do to remedy that...

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Everyone in the Daly house is doing fine. We're still handing the same cold back and forth, but we're holding strong for some spring weather, some outside fresh air and better spirits all-around.

News with The-Man-Formerly-Known-As-Uncle (that's my mom's husband, Erwin, for those of you not familiar:) The large-cell diffused lymphoma he's battled twice before has returned. It's concentrated in the knee area, and they will determine a plan of attack today. His doctor is hoping to get him into a study group which is trying out a new pill. He'd take it once a day, and would only have to go into the Clinic once a month. Sounds too good to be true! Keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, whatever you want, just send some good tidings his way, please!

NO WAY.

My work just announced over the intercom that they are officially closing down at 3:30 this afternoon. That's like, only the 3rd time in 20 years. Wow. Color me HAPPY!!

Braced

I set the alarm clock to go off a little earlier (5:05 am. YIKES!) this morning in anticipation of bad roads and a longer trek to work. Actually, I planned to have to shake Pat awake for 10 minutes so he could go shovel a bit before we left. But granted, since we're only 5 minutes away from daycare and 10 minutes away from work and take side streets the whole way, weather really usually doesn't play a factor into our commute. Which is such a blessing. Anyhoo - our whole morning went off without a hitch. Pat shoveled. We remembered to set the recycling out. Josie was in a delightful mood. Eve was up early and was rarin' to go. I had a chance to pick up the house a bit before we left. And we were about 7 minutes early to daycare, where we had a happy drop-off. Pat commented as we climbed in to the van after saying goodbye to the girls that he felt a bit "off" having everything go so well! Moments like that make me stop and realize how fast-paced our mornings and days usually are. What a treat to have a second to relax and enjoy a "happy" morning! We'll have to strive to have more of those in the days ahead.

While most around here are anxious and dreading the storm that's a-brewin' (actually, it's already brewed - and here in full force,) I have to admit that I kind of enjoy the chaos that ensues when we start to get some snowfall. There's something exciting about throwing everyone into a tailspin. Maybe I'm just weird that way. And I guess since I have chauffeur service for drop-off and pick-up at work, that helps, too. :) I'd probably be whistling a different tune if I was the one who had to brush off the snow and scrape away the ice this afternoon. OH. Which reminds me... I wonder if Pat checked to see if we have a snow brush in the van... Hmm. Can you believe we live in Minnesota and have to even ask that question?

Here's some of the fun stuff Josie has been up to lately, in no particular order:

• Getting herself *mostly* undressed and sometimes, dressed, by herself.
• Constantly asking Daddy for piggy-back rides.
• Loves to brush her teeth. I think she just likes the rinsing and spitting part. Ask her sometime what a camel does. Then take a step back. :)
• Washing her hands. Anything to do with water, she loves.
• One of her favorite games is to lay down a dish towel on the table, set some various sized glasses and cups on the towel and put a bit of water in them, then pour the water from one into the others. Oh - I guess I should clarify - she isn't the one to lay down the dish towel. We finally learned that trick after a few times of playing this game.
• If you ask her where something is, instead of just saying "ummm," she'll also throw out an answer. Usually she starts with "Kitchen?"
• Asking for ketchup and mustard at supper. No matter what we're eating. Did you know mustard is tasty on fish?
• Helping put away dishes from the dishwasher. She's particularly good at the silverware.
• Says "love you" without prompt. I especially like that one. :)
• Learned to play "cut the pickle.. tickle, tickle!" from Lucy. Not sure if the cut-er or cut-ee is supposed to be the one doing the tickling, but she does it both ways.
• Knows most of her body parts now. Especially is fond of armpits. And elbows. Except she seems to think that elbows are on your belly.
• Loves to name colors of objects. Granted, she's usually wrong, but you gotta love the enthusiasm she puts into it.
• I mentioned before how she likes to "sniff" when Daddy toots, and scold him. Well, now that game applies to anyone. So watch out if you're around her anytime soon. You may get told you're stinky, even if you're not guilty of the crime. :)

And Eve. My Doodle is growing up so fast! She cut another tooth - but it's not the other front tooth. It's on the other side of the front tooth she already has. Far be it from her to do things in the order you're supposed to! I'm sensing this may be a trend with my youngest. Guess time will tell. But she's been a much happier little girl since this tooth came in. She loves to sit in the highchair and have an array of toys laid out on the table in front of her, then she grabs each one and tosses it. This usually brings a frustrated exclamation of "Ee-eevvvie!" from her sister. But Josie will always pick them up for her and hand them back. Over and over again. They were adorable together last night - they were playing this game, and Josie had her hand on the highchair and Eve grabbed her fingers. Josie laughed and laughed, then did it again. And Eve laughed and laughed at Josie laughing. They went back and forth this way for a while, and I never wanted it to stop. That's one of those memories that will be forever etched in my mind. So sweet. I'll have to remember that one in the future when they're pulling each other's hair. :)