May sound morbid, but....

I've found a lovely piece of instrumental music (an oboe piece) that I want played at my funeral.

It's called Gabriel's Oboe and it's on Amy Grant's "A Christmas to Remember" album. For some reason, I get a little teary-eyed whenever I hear it. It's a beautiful piece.

Catching up

I didn't really post while Nathan was home. It seems like the time just went by so fast. He left this past Wednesday (the 22nd) to go back to Afghanistan. That was a difficult day but I got through it. Tabitha got an e-mail from him, and it seems he thinks his sergeant is going to chew him out when he gets back to his FOB. Apparently his sergeant was under the mistaken impression that Nathan was supposed to leave the States on the 19th instead of the 22nd to go back. And it seems that they thought for a few days that he had gone AWOL. He shouldn't get into trouble because it was on his paperwork that he was to leave to go back on the 22nd but that won't stop his sergeant from giving him a hard time about it.

Kellyn did something interesting one day this week. Jennifer had put her in her bumbo seat on the living room floor. She was doing something in the kitchen (right next to the living room) and when she turned to check on Kellyn, Kellyn was in the floor on her tummy, just looking around. She's not sure how she managed to get out of her seat and onto the floor. She wasn't fussing so she didn't get hurt in the process.

Tara likes to occasionally accompany me to the bathroom, and when she does, she always stands on the scales and proudly announces "20 pounds!" She actually weighs about 27 pounds but it's a lot easier to say "20 pounds" than "27 pounds." She is so funny sometimes!

Kellyn's newest entertainment

The most recent thing that has tickled Kellyn's fancy is a mylar balloon. Michael bought it for Tara to play with since she loves balloons. It has a pumpkin design on it. The other night Jessica's little boy was playing with it and he accidentally tapped Kellyn on the head with the balloon. She started giggling and laughing and just went on and on. It got all of us laughing because she was so cute! She was sitting in her bumbo seat at the time and she laughed so much that she ended up leaning to one side. I wish we had had a camera ready and could have gotten some video of it, but this was one of those unexpected things that happen. She has such a cute laugh. :o)

Football

Apparently, Kellyn loves football. If you change the TV channel to one that is playing a football game, she will almost instantly become transfixed by it. After a minute or two, she will start cooing and babbling while staring at the screen. She makes several different sounds as if she is commenting on the game. It is so cute and so funny! And it will hold her attention for as long as you leave it on. But if they stop showing the game and start showing a couple of guys doing commentary on the game, she will lose interest and look away. We don't normally watch sports on TV but it's worth it to turn a football game on if she starts getting fussy. We plan on trying to get some video of her watching a game. I recommended to Jennifer that she record a game and save it to use for when Kellyn is bored and fussy and nothing else seems to work!

Tara-speak

We've really been enjoying noticing the way Tara's vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds and how well she puts words together. Some of her words come out really funny and sometimes it's amazing what she's able to express.

Two that have stood out this past week:

"flop-flops" - this is Tara's version of flip-flops

"fusser" - this is how Tara says "pacifier" - amazing how accurate her rendition is!

The little girl loves to talk!

Kellyn - 3 month pictures

There are more, but I guess I should let Jennifer post some of them! But since I scanned them, I decided to post a couple. :o)

I've uploaded this for illustration purposes. I have this photo on my laptop as my wallpaper. Tara knows it's there and will come to me and ask to see it. When I show it to her, she takes great delight in pointing out everyone and naming them. She calls Grace "baby Gace" - r's are still a little difficult for her; I've told her that Grace is also her cousin but she hasn't gotten used to that concept just yet. She can say her own name and Kellyn's name. She alternately calls Kellyn "baby Kellyn" or "baby cousin." She's been learning how to say "great grandma" - sometimes without the r's, of course.