A kick in the tukus

So I've been given a polite reminder via my sis that "no news is good news" only flies for about a week before an update is necessary. Sorry, all. First of all - I don't know where the last week has gone. Or month, for that matter. And secondly... I don't have a secondly. Let me think. What have the Dalys been up to?

Josie turned 21 months old last week. Unreal. She's going to be two before we know it. Then she'll be going to school. Then she'll be driving. And graduating. And crap - I've got to stop, I'm having heart palpatations.

So like I was saying, we decided it was time to give ye old toddler bed a try. Sunday we schlepped the bed into her room, now her AND EVE'S room with the grand idea that it was time for Eve to move into the crib since she's been sleeping through the night. After some minor room adjustments the room was set up to my satisfaction. And seemingly, to Josie's liking, as well, as she climbed and inspected her new "big girl" bed. Nap time on Sunday went swimmingly in the new bed, except it was quite strange for me to have her wake up and get out of the bed on her own and try to open the door to her room. This is scary, uncharted territory.

So we were off to a pretty good start and I was feeling optimistic. Along comes bedtime Sunday night. Josie goes to bed. Pat puts Eve to bed a couple hours later, in the crib, in the same room with Jo. This is monumental. I'm upstairs, apprehensively listening on the baby monitor. After 3 tries, Eve finally falls asleep. 11:30 comes. Josie falls out of bed. We did put a squishy body pillow down in case this happened. Pat puts Jo back in bed. She fell out again around 2:45. Pat put her back again. She was quite confused. 3:45 comes around, and Eve wakes up, screaming. I go get her, and poor Josie is laying there, on her back, wide awake. I get Eve back to sleep after a bottle, and decide not to bother Jo again, so bring Evie back upstairs with us. But I can hear Josie on the monitor, chatting away to herself - for the next hour or so. Pat finally goes down and rocks her, and lets her go back to sleep in her crib. We caved. But the poor kid had a rough night without much sleep so far. In hindsight, we probably should have just let Jo get used to sleeping in the bed before tossing Eve into the mix, but hey - live and learn. So for now, Jo's back in the crib at night while we look for siderails, but napping in the bed during the day, and Eve is back with us at night. We'll get there, eventually.

Eve got over her bout of bronchiolitis and handled the nebulizer treatments just fine. But then on Saturday, our 6 year wedding anniversary, she decided it was time to spike a few high temps and have a very crabby day. So we nixed our night out dinner and movie plans (complete with overnight sitter) and cared for a sick baby instead. Of course, on Sunday, she was peachy fine again. Impeccable timing, Eve. :) The past couple of days she has been reaching out for and grabbing toys and just today she rolled to her side in her play gym. Granted, this move was in order for her to see the television more clearly, but hey - I'll take it. She's already 3 and 1/2 months old and getting so big and animated and... real. You know what I mean, right? When they're newborns they're real... but just kind of squirmy and sleepy and hungry. Now she interacts and smiles and looks for us. So fun.

But this is getting long and babbly and Eve is actually asleep so I should be, too. Patrick is playing hockey tonight, an early game at 9:20. Those boys are crazy. Sometimes their games don't start until 10:30. Insanity, I tell ya. I hope he can play okay... he was complaining about being sore after playing some touch football on Sunday. I told him he's getting old. He didn't appreciate that.

No news is good news?

There's not a whole lot new going on with us right now, which I guess can be a good thing!

Patrick is playing in a fall hockey league on Tuesday nights, Eve is sleeping through the night and keeping us laughing during the day, Josie is growing and learning and challenging and jumping and pretending more and more all the time and I am enjoying my time with them immensely.

I return to work on Monday, November 6th, so am trying (and failing) to hold on to each and every day of my leave as it slips away. But we're making the most of the time I have left and I am so grateful that I am able to spend as long as I have with my girls. It sounds like I'll be returning to the division, albeit a new department, where I have spent most of my time at Minnesota Life, and I am excited for the new assignment and opportunity I've been given. I will continue to work Monday through Thursday and am lucky enough to continue to be able to have Fridays off. It's going to be interesting with two in daycare, so we'll see how we manage after things settle down when I return to work.

Hope all is well with everyone - and Happy Birthday greetings to Becky and Peggles!! Hugs and kisses to you both!

Hey! Check out this book!

"Violette Between" by Alison Strobel

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578567947

My bookclub read this selection a few months back, and the author is a friend of my friend, Meg. How cool is that? We all enjoyed the story and even got to have a conference call with Alison at our bookclub meeting. So, yes... we do talk about the books!! :) Alison is doing a blog tour to promote her book, so please, check it out!

A synopsis:
Violette is the quintessential artist: passionate, emotional and full of life. After suffering a great loss she finds herself enamoured with a new relationship and asking if it is truly time to move on.Christian lost his wife years ago and understands Violette's pain firsthand. He offers her a chance to love once more and hopes to build a future with the spirited artist. But just as Violette and Christian begin to feel something unexpected, tragedy strikes again. Violette retreats into her past - and she finds that she may not want to comeback. This is a captivating novel that asks what is more precious: the memories of one who is gone or the memories waiting to be made with someone new?

If you want, check out Alison's website and her blog.

Enjoy!

Take a look...

Above: There's nothing better than playing in the leaves at night. Josie thinks she's quite fabulous in her animal print hat passed down from Cousin Emilie.
Eve is all smiles in her massage chair... actually, I have to look, but I think I have an almost identical picture of Josie in the same outfit and same chair.

Above: This is the day of Bob and Steffi's wedding. Steffi made the mistake of laying her sunglasses on the table. Josie thinks she is also quite fabulous in sunglasses. And, of course, she is.
And here is Mason, who just HAD to hold Eve. Eve doesn't look so sure about the whole deal. "How old is this kid anyway? Does he have a license to hold me??"

Above: Caught in the act. Those two are quite the dynamic duo. This is a very common scene in our house.
And Eve, again, all smiles. :)

Wheezy, Raspy, Hacky, Snotty, Squirmy, Sleepy and Smiley AND a bit of divine intervention?

No - not the new 7 dwarfs - just our Evie. I took her to the doc yesterday (sad news, the new doctor we just started seeing is moving her practice closer to her home in Ham Lake and leaving our clinic. bummer.) as the cold she'd been battling off and on for the past few weeks got a lot worse over the weekend. After checking her out and taking a chest x-ray, she was diagnosed as having bronchiolitis. So we have to get her set up for nebulizer treatments and then take her back in on Thursday. Bring on the cold and flu season - can't wait, it's already off to a smashing start.

On a different note, as some of you may know, we've been having a problem with the passenger-side sliding door on our minivan as of late. The automatic lock didn't want to unlock, and it was very inconvenient having to heft Josie in and out without the convenience of the sliding door.

Anyway, we hadn't made the time to take a serious look at it, and we'd occasionally yank on it a bit and hope for the best, but to no avail. Well, we went to church on Sunday, and afterwards Pat was in the van leaning over the passenger front seat to buckle Josie in, while I was leaning against the van, hitting the unlock button and pulling on the sliding door lock, hoping it might just decide to give in and open for us. As I was doing so, Pat made some offhanded comment about how during the petitions he should have prayed for God to fix the door on our van. I'm not kidding you, after weeks of hoping we'd hit unlock and it would open, and getting no results... I hit the button one more time, and it unlocked. We were a little speechless and quite frankly, freaked out all the way home. Hmm. Perhaps we'll make it to church a little more often. :)

Ups and Downs

Wow. So Pat and I, being the impulsive crazy cats we are, decided that we NEEDED to go to the Twins playoff game yesterday. Pat headed to work, and ended up finding someone selling tickets online. We were prepared to go to the 'dome without tix in hopes of finding someone outside selling if we needed to. But we didn't have to resort to that, Pat got the tix, I took Eve to play at Daycare Betty's with her sister for the day and we hopped the express metro transit bus to downtown Minneapolis. It was a beautiful day, and I was soooo excited! The bus ride only took 20 minutes, we got dropped off right in front of the 'dome, and Pat and I enjoyed some highly overpriced beer and fatty foods on the plaza before gametime. What luxury! A day without kids, yummy corndogs, and a post-season baseball game. We felt like we were being so naughty and sneaky, skipping out on the kids and work to go and play - it was great!

Ohh ohh, AND, I won a free t-shirt out on the plaza, too! Yippee - could things get any better? Yes, they could! We ended up being only 4 sections away from Meg and Joel, so could wave and make obscene gestures at them, and count how many beers Joel consumed and trips to the bathroom he made (just kidding, Joel!) - it was almost as good as actually GOING to the game with them! And we knew of about 3 or 4 other friend-couples at the game, too. So fun!

Well - all was going along swimmingly. The game was exciting, back-to-back homeruns to tie up the game made the strangers around us feel like our best friends, and we thought FOR SURE we were leaving with victory in our hands.

But everything fell apart in the 7th. Poor Torii. Pat just told me this morning that it was exactly 4 years ago to the day that Torii did the same thing... and we were at THAT game, too. How sad. Perhaps we should think about passing on going to postseason baseball games from now on. Extreme happiness turned to deflated depression in the blink of an eye. So we left the Metrodome with heavy hearts, then to add insult to injury, had to wait forEVER for a bus back to downtown St. Paul, and the bus ride was not only packed, but excruciatingly slow. But we're not giving up hope yet... it's not over! If anyone can do it, our Twinkies can. They just have to, it's been such a fun season.

So my little Eve-rs had her 2-month shots this morning, finally. She's had the sniffles and coughs off and on, so I waited to have her get them... but finally decided she shouldn't wait any longer. She screamed, the nurses bolted, and now all is well. Hopefully she takes them as well as Josie always did. She is such a trooper. All smiles and coos - she was so happy this morning, it was like she just couldn't smile any bigger and happiness just oozed out of every pore. She's such a sweet pea.

What's new?

So much going on lately. Here's an update:

• Eve is sleeping through the night. The past few nights she has gone from 10:30 or 11:30 pm until anywhere from 5:00 to 7:00 am.
• We are cautiously optimistic that this sleepy trend will continue!
• Last Friday my Mom, Erwin, my sister-cousin Julie (it's a long story, don't ask!) and her son, Mason came up for a day visit. Josie had a very good time playing with all of Mason's fun farm toys. Julie - there's a round bail here at my house, hope Mason hasn't missed it :)
• Saturday we went to a courthouse wedding for our friends Bob and Steffi. Then to dinner at Olive Garden and to a mini-reception at Bob's place. The wedding was decided on and planned in about 10 days, and the ceremony took about 2 minutes! It was a beautiful day outside and we were so honored to be able to celebrate with Bob and Steffi! Congrats!
• Sunday continued with more beautiful weather and a golf outing for Patrick. While he was golfing, the girls and I went to watch some of the Twin Cities Marathon with the Gronaus, minus Joel, who was golfing with Pat. I am so happy that I have friends like Meg who bring me out of my cave once in a while and make me experience something new. I had a blast, and Josie loved being outside and playing with Lucy.
• Sunday evening we went for a walk to enjoy more of the beautiful day. For a change of pace, we've been visiting a different playground than the one down the street from our house. Just to mix it up a bit. We're wild and crazy that way.
• Yesterday I took the girls down to my sister's house where we celebrated my Mom's birthday. It was an impromptu party that turned out to be just "the girls." So much fun... and so much yummy food! Thanks, Sissy!

I have some fun pictures of some of this stuff that I'll try to post soon. Right now, I'm going to go enjoy the luxury of a shower. Happy Wednesday... and GO TWINS!!!

Oh... I was going to tell you that Josie's favorite new show is "Dancing With the Stars." She dances, and twirls, and stomps, and smiles while the contestants are dancing... it is ADORABLE. She even makes Pat and I get up and dance with her. So fun.

Darn

Apparently, the "Evie Sleepy Through the Nighty" show was only in town for one night. Haven't been lucky enough to catch a repeat performance. *sigh* Oh, well. It was one heck of a show while it lasted.

Josie has discovered the fine art of the zerbert. Perhaps that isn't the correct spelling, or pronunciation - but you know what I mean, right? Putting your lips on the bare skin of another and blowing, which makes a lovely fart sound? Yeah. So I'm covered in drool ala Josephine because she doesn't quiet get it right every time, and insisted on getting my shins, and arms, and belly all day today. There's nothing quite like getting spit on by a 20-month old. Well, your own, at least. Perhaps getting the gift of zerbert from someone else's 20-month old wouldn't be as joyous.

shhhhhh.

i am going to say it really quietly and really quickly and maybe i won't jinx us... eve slept through the night last night - 11:00 pm to 6:00 am. yahoo. :)

The littlest Clay fan?

Here is Josie this morning, on the couch, enraptured by Clay Aiken's performance on "The View."







Here I am, during the same performance. NOT the biggest Clay fan.














And I think he gave Eve gas.

Holy Crap - both of my kids are napping at the same time!

I don't know what to do! Do I nap? Do I clean? Do I do laundry, shower, balance the checkbook, workout? Ahh! I think I'll just sit here in the quiet and do nothing - ooh, I know, maybe I'll have a snack... Oh, the endless possibilities!! Carpe Diem, Carpe Diem!

My Little Pony

I finally made it to a Fall Festival at St. Jerome's. It turned out to be a beautiful end-of-summer day, and boy, does it feel like fall tonight. Following mass in the big tent complete with contemporary music, we ate a little lunch, walked a little cake-walk and rode a little pony. Josie loved running around the cars at the car show and Eve slept away content in her carrier. Here are pictures of Josie's first pony ride and Eve giving me big smiles the other night.

Sidenote - I just did a spell check before publishing this post, and it gave me the suggestion to replace cake-walk with gazelles. ???

Eve's 2 month check-up

Eve and I met with the clinic's new doctor on Thursday for her 2 month appointment. I was very impressed with Dr. Carpenter and think that I will request to have her as Eve and Josie's primary physician. The appointment went well, although we do have to go back on Tuesday so that Evie-do can get her shots. She has the sniffles and the doctor recommended that we try to wait until she's cleared up before getting her shots. Her stats:
Weight: 11 lbs. 3 oz.
Height: 22 1/2 in.
I don't remember what her head measurement was. Oh well. It's written down somewhere. She's in the 35th percentile for both height and weight.

Josie's stats at 2 months:
Weight: 11 lbs. 11 oz.
Height: 21 3/4 in.
Strange how fast memory fades. Here I thought Eve was so much smaller than Josie was. Guess not.

We had our first family outing to White Castle last night after going to Pat's cousin Alex's football game at Central High School. What a sight we must have been trucking into the one on University Ave (of all places!) all fair-skinned and red-haired with toddler and baby in tow. It was a lovely experience except for the customer who was threatening to kill the cashier when she got off her shift because they were too slow with the food. Good times. Gotta love the ghetto.

My Girls

Eve and Brewster












Smiley











To poo or not to poo... that is the question














Fun in the rain at Great Grandma Janet's











Our first family outing to a Twins game. Obviously, it was way past Josie's bedtime.

Finding Carol

I'm not going to lie. These past 8 weeks have been hard. Really hard. The second time around the childbirth track, I was thrown into a tailspin by how inadequate I felt. My emotions were all over the place and I found myself beating myself up over, well, everything. There is a societal expectation that once one gives birth, there is this euphoria, this glowing light that is "Motherhood." And I gotta tell ya, I was having trouble finding the light.

I think I mentioned before that I started to worry that perhaps I was dealing with a bout of postpartum depression. But after talking with my doc, we decided that I wasn't. And after an even more helpful appointment with my bookclub friends, accompanied by a couple of tasty margaritas, I realized that what I was dealing with was a case of unrealistic expectations. I expected newborn Eve to be like newborn Josie. She isn't, and shouldn't be. I expected to breastfeed this time. After all, I wanted it to work so badly. It didn't, and that's okay. I expected to have twice the motherly love now that I have two children. I guess that's not quite how it works.

It's funny how much difference a little perspective, and sleep, can make on a dreary outlook. And Eve turned a corner over the weekend. Even though she's far from sleeping through the night, she showed her exhausted parents that there is the possibility that she will sleep through the night someday, and that's good enough for me, for right now.

I had a "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" moment on Saturday. Eve had finished eating and I turned her so that she lay on my lap with her head by my knees, propped up, looking at me. She contemplated me with her big, blue eyes for a few minutes and I felt like she was trying to tell me something. Then, she gave me a genuine, ear-to-ear smile (no, it wasn't gas,) and I felt my heart grow three sizes that day. Of course, I've loved her since she was born, but in a primal "I have to take care of you because you're my offspring" kind of way. But that has changed. Now I can say that I have found "Motherhood" again. It's messy, and smelly, far from perfect and a heck of a lot of work, but it finally feels right.

Eve, if you ever read this, please know that none of this really had anything to do with you. It was me. You are exactly as you should be. And I am, too. It just took me a while to figure that out and forgive myself for it. I'm doing the best I can, and I always will.

If you think you've lost something, check under Pat's butt

I don't know about you, but I tend to look before I leap, I mean, sit. But I guess not everyone finds this a necessary behavior. Josie and I spent 10 minutes last night looking everywhere for her blankie. "Is it in your room, Josie?" So we toddle off to the bedroom to look. Nope. "Is it in the playroom, Josie?" We toddle off to the playroom to look. Nope. "Is it in the living room, Josie?" Back to the living room to look. Don't see it. And while I'm growing more confused because Blankie had just been present 15 minutes earlier, Josie is following behind throwing her hands in the air asking "where'd it go?" Finally, I'm standing in the living room wondering if the dog somehow managed to eat a 3' x 3' baby blanket when I see a glimpse of fabric underneath Pat's behinder on the couch. Ah ha. After Josie got over being upset that Daddy was on her blanket, she was awfully relieved to have it back.

And in Evie news, everyday she is more and more alert. She's having more awake time during daytime hours, and is smiling, cooing and searching for faces to entertain her. There's nothing quite like a baby's gummy smile. She'll be 8 weeks old next Monday, and I was quite excited to get a newsletter from her clinic in the mail today and see that they've hired a new doctor - a woman - who specializes in women's health and pediatrics. So I made an appointment with her for Eve's 2 month checkup, and hopefully, we like her. I've not been overly thrilled with the girls' temporary doctor since their regular physician left because she was pregnant with triplets (and already has 2 children - yikes.) And I'm guessing she's not coming back. I'll keep you posted on Eve's stats!

The joy of... saying goodbye?

We had a mini family reunion on my side of the family at my Gram's over the weekend, and even though Josie had been waving and saying goodbye for quite some time now, she really got into it for some reason on Sunday. As people were leaving, she zealously waved and said "BI-YEEEEEEEE," while they were leaving and even well after they were gone. As we left, she waved and said "BI-YEEEEEEE." And she continued to wave and say "BI-YEEEEEEE," all the way through Rochester on the way home. That's a solid half hour of farewells.

Then yesterday I took the girls in to work to visit with co-workers. You guessed it, we were saying goodbye to everyone we passed on the way out of downtown, and all the cars we saw on the highway on the way home. BI-YEEEEEE for now, more later!

Pictures, pictures, who wants pictures?

This is the story of a girl

As promised - finally, Eve's birth story.

Monday, July 17th, 2006.

A "normal" day on bedrest.

My sister, Kay, called me in the morning and asked if I was in labor. Um, no - I'm pretty sure I would know, right? She said that she just didn't feel good, and didn't know why. We have this weird, almost twin-like thing going on with one another sometimes. We show up at family events wearing identical outfits, one will call the other when the other was just thinking of the one and we both hit our heads at the exact same time when getting in the car together- that kind of stuff. Anyway, after my conversation with her, my day progressed in the same, exciting manner as all of my days on bedrest. I don't remember exact details, but I'm sure it consisted of some daytime television and a nap. I did feel a bit crampy, but didn't think anything of it.

5:30 p.m. I was getting antsy as Patrick and Josie were not home yet. Looking back, I was in a pretty crabby mood. Still feeling crampy.

5:50 p.m. Pat and Josie arrived home. We had supper, Pat made turkey burgers. I didn't feel that great, but was still clueless that anything was going on.

7:30 p.m. We were preparing to get Josie ready for bed. I was half sitting, half laying on the couch. Josie was playing by me, I did something that required leaning up, sneezed 3 times, and on the last sneeze felt a painful popping sensation "down there." Uh oh. I didn't gush, but knew that my water had broken. My water broke with Josie, as well, although this time it hurt. I head for the bathroom, and Pat takes Josie to her room for bedtime.

7:45 p.m. I took the phone with me to the bathroom and called the hospital. They said to head in as soon as possible. Pat called his mom, she had her bag packed and headed out the door to come to our house to stay with Josie. Thank goodness she didn't dawdle. I started to have contractions almost immediately after my water broke. Pretty big ones. Pretty painful ones. I paced the floor in the kitchen, stopping occasionally to hold onto the table or stove. Pat flew through the house finishing cleaning up the kitchen and feeding the pets while I got my bag and made sure we had everything we needed. Pat's mom arrives. We give fast and furious instructions for the pets and Josie.

8:05 p.m. We left for the hospital. Big, fat contractions the whole way there. I also was having severe back pain. I didn't experience this with Josie, thank goodness. It was not fun. We briefly discuss the fact that we don't have a name picked out yet. Crap.

8:15 p.m. Arrive at Woodwinds. It's after hours, so we have to use the emergency room entrance to the hospital. We get our room, our nurse, Betsy, and I get into my gown. I remember looking at the clock when I came out of the bathroom, it was 8:30. Betsy checked me, I was dilated to a 6 1/2. The back pain made things particularly unbearable. My breathing exercises were getting me through, and I think that if I was not having back labor, I probably would have made it without any drugs. Betsy asked me what I wanted to do. I wanted relief. She ordered the epidural. Pat and I give a weak attempt at resolving the name issue. Funny sidenote - as we're talking, he asks me something to the effect of "you thought the name Betsy sounded like a cow, right?" I shoot him a death ray look, and twitch my head in the direction of our nurse, who is standing right behind me. Oops. He apologizes profusely. Betsy takes it like a trooper. I find it even funnier considering 1. we were never seriously thinking of the name "Betsy," and 2. the cow is Bessie, not Betsy. I'm not sure where that came from.

9:00 p.m. The anesthesiologist arrives. I am experiencing pain like I have never felt before. Hypnobirth, schmipnobirth - pain is pain, and I was feeling plenty of it. The epidural is in by 9:15, but it takes 10 - 15 minutes to kick in. I'm starting to feel the urge to push. I tell Betsy this, she tries to hide the concern in her face and voice, but I see and hear it. She nonchalantly says that she'd better check me again - I'm fully dilated. My doctor has not arrived yet. She leaves the room discreetly and gets the charge nurse. She says it's just to see how things are going, but I know it's just in case Dr. Rolando doesn't make it in time.

9:30 p.m. Dr. Rolando arrives. I'm doing everything I can to not push. I think it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. I can feel the baby. The epidural finally kicks in. Too little, too late. At least I had it for the pushing part, and the stitches afterwards, but since I felt the contractions all the way up to a 10, I may as well have experienced the full gamut. Doc Ro suits up, sits down, and then we wait. The epidural is finally in full effect, and now I don't feel the contractions. I am still feeling a lot of pressure, so we just go for it. I started my first push at the end of one contraction. Waited for the next, got 2 good pushes in and baby was pretty much out. I guess there was part of the cord and an arm coming out with the head. Dr. Rolando asks if I want to wait for the next contraction, or just go for it. I say "let's just do it," and push. Baby is out. It's 9:46 p.m. It's a girl :) 7 lbs. 5 oz., crying loudly, 19 1/2 inches. No name. That came 2 hours later after much debate between Claudia and Genevieve.


Welcome, Genevieve Kathryn Daly.

God Bless You, Enfamil

Eve just wasn't buyin' what my body was sellin'. After some sleepless nights and tear-filled days, I decided to hang up the breastfeeding hat. And I have to say, thank goodness. Eve is now eating up and plumping up, and we're a much happier household overall. Her bouts of what we assumed was colic have lessened and basically ended, and she will sleep and eat with a little more regularity now. I was beginning to worry that my "baby blues" were possibly a bit more than that, but I think it was just the stress of the breast that was the cause of concern. Piled on top of next-to-no-sleep, and not getting to take a shower for days on end. No good. But things are looking up. They really weren't that bad to begin with, really.

Let's see - fun stuff in the past week:

My high school friend, Kari and her boyfriend, Brent were able to stop by for a visit last Thursday. Wonderful to see her and meet him.

We decided to take a day-trip and travel down to Chatfield for Western Days last Saturday. Josie loved the parade. And mini donuts. And french fries. And her first carnival ride. It was a blast.

Josie is now saying "thank you" all the time. And "all done." They're not perfectly clear, but I know what she's saying ;) And I think she said "bad puppy" the other day when Brewster laid on her blankie. She also will now shake her head up and down to indicate "yes." A very dramatic shaking of the head. She's so fun.

Most little kids enjoy music, as does Josie. But you usually will hear fun kid music from a house with toddlers, but that is not always the case around here. I don't know if I ever wrote about how she loved the song "Iron Man" when she was around 1 year old... and now her love for metal appears to continue. As I was leaving the house on Sunday (all by myself, I must add - wheeeee!) I left Pat and Josie in the kitchen listening to Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head." *sigh* And yes, they both were actually banging their heads.