Am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair?

Lost? Why yes, I am, thank you.

Two weeks ago I couldn't’t get into the show, last week I thought it was better and although it stressed me out to the point where I found myself holding my breath, I really liked last night’s episode. I am most certainly LOST though.

Here are the highlights for me:

Walt? What? I wasn’t sure what they were going to do with him, but I didn’t expect that we would see him leaving school in New York City rather nonchalantly. And what role will he play now? He obviously can see the future, but how is that going to work into the rest of the show?

I really loved Locke this episode, I’ve gone back and forth between liking him and just tolerating him. I have moved into the camp of Locke-lovers now. I could have done without seeing him throw up though; can they institute a “gross out warning”? At least then I’d be prepared for bones protruding from the skin and barbaric setting of bones without anesthesia.

I really hated Ben this episode. What a great actor, but man, I know we can’t trust him now and perhaps we were all wrong about Charles Widmore. Well, not ALL wrong, how could someone dislike Desmond? Ben is not time-jumping with Hurley and the rest of the crew apparently. And neither is Locke?

Widmore. I am still not quite sure what to think about him. He was at least right about Ben.

I know there were lots of numbers thrown around and I’m sure we’re seeing them all point back to the eerie significant number string – but I’m not good enough to keep all of this stuff straight.

Locke is now alive. Yay. After the traumatic experience of seeing Ben murder him and then in a creepy methodical way make it look as though he committed suicide, I was really looking forward to knowing he was alive and well back on the island.

Helen Norwood dies of a BRAIN ANEURYSM. Hello, there must be some significance to that with all of the bloody noses and bleeding brains with the island time jumpers.

“Caesar”. As if we needed a new bad guy. But, in any event, here he is!

I know there was way more there, but those were my highlights.
Check out Shannon’s blog for an always good recap and scroll through the comments to read more.

Date Night

Jeff and I had a date night last night.  With Caroline.  It was the first time we've done something with just the three of us since Charlotte was born, so it was long overdue.  Mom came over to watch Charlotte (thanks Jo Jo) and we headed out to eat dinner at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen before the Southdowns Parade.  Eating has not been high on Caroline's priority list lately, so I was surprised when she ate about half of her cheese pizza.  It is just about the best pizza crust ever though, so I would have started to worry about her if she didn't eat it.  

After dinner we headed down the road to the Southdowns Parade.  We got there at the perfect time and only had to wait about ten or fifteen minutes for the parade to get to us.  Caroline enjoyed this parade from my shoulders and she was lavished with love in the form of beads, stuffed animals, and the daddy of all throws (in Caroline's eyes), the giant Crayon Bank. It was comical to listen to her, she was in awe that more floats kept coming around the corner and didn't stop yelling "Hey!" or "Throw me somethin'" the entire time.  It really is a great parade for kids; the throw lots of stuff, mostly to the kids, there are lots of kids in the parade, and it isn't too long.  We had a great time.  

When the parade was over, it wasn't quite past Caroline's bed time (and what fun is a night out if you don't get to stay up past your bed time?) so we took her to  TCBY for a little dessert.  She chose a brightly colored swirl of ice cream (which the guy working there told us really just vanilla ice cream with different colorings)  with mini-M&M's.  A good ending to a fun night out!

There are a couple of pictures below of Caroline & Charlotte hanging out at home yesterday afternoon, one of them is Caroline in action with her camera, a common sight in our house since Christmas.  

Life at home lately

We've been vacillating between Caroline and Charlotte being "almost sick", that sniffly, scratchy throat feeling that you don't go to the doctor for, but you don't feel quite 100% - or they haven't felt quite 100%.  I think they are finally both better (fingers crossed!).  This week was also my first week back to to work; I'm working half day at the office and the other 1/2 day at home.  To be fair, it's probably more like 1/4 day at home, with Charlotte here, working from home isn't as easy as it might seem.  That has gone surprisingly smoothly.  Jo Jo has been with Charlotte at home in the mornings and then I get home around the lunch hour, just enough time for me to get work done, but not so much time that I really feel like I've been away from Charlotte for too long.  

In other news, Caroline has been enjoying helping me bathe Charlotte every so often.  She has this inclination to always want to wash her hair (or her head, there's not a whole lot of hair up there), and although she tries to be gentle, she is a three year old and she gets a little excited with the washcloth sometimes.  Charlotte is a good sport though and though she's still so little, she seems to take the jostling from Caroline better than if it came from anyone else.  That sisterly trust starts young I guess?  

We woke up on Valentine's Day morning and traded gifts and cards wiht one another and then I made heart-shaped panckes for Jeff and Caroline while Charlotte slept the morning away (quite a Valentine's present from my littlest one).  After lunch and nap time wwent to a parade in downtown BR and we had a good time.  Caroline loved catching beads and seeing "the princesses" (the girls dressed up on the floats).  We came home and Jeff and I got ready for our Valentine's Day outing.  He decided to surprise me, so I had no idea what we were doing, which was a nice treat.  He had planned a picnic dinner out at the same place he took me for a similar dinner when we first started dating.  The rain chased us away after a little while though and we continued the dinner at a picnic table under a little pavilion at the park in our neighborhood.  It was really nice.  We both decided that when you have to do things like that our of necessity (when you don't have a lot of extra money to spend going out to eat), you don't appreciate how creative you have to be.  Not that we have a whole lot of extra money now, but going out to dinner at a restaurant isn't as rare for us as it once was.  I really enjoyed the change from the norm and it was good just to talk and enjoy a night out.  

Caroline is getting more and more independent by the day.  She doesn't want any help getting dressed for school or church anymore, she says, "I can do it all by myself please."  At bed time she's also been telling us "please leave me alone now" after we read books, say prayers and rub her back for a little while.  The other night she told me, "that's enough now, thank you mama.  Good night".  That was my cue to get on out of her room so that she could go to bed.  She's been pretty good about going to sleep by self for a long time, but she used to like us to rub her back or talk to her about sweet dreams for a while before we left her alone; she is apparently over that stage!  

Here are some pics from the past week!  

Charlotte is thinking hard about something!  

Our Valentine's Day breakfast

Charlotte - 11 weeks old.  

Charlotte enjoyed her first parade from the stroller (and then from mama's arms)

Thanks to my 3 year old

I was all over this game!  Caroline's new found love for her "50 States Puzzle" has given me all the geography lessons I needed to get a 100%.  I believe that is the first time I've made a 100% on any test in a really, really long time.  Tuesday night fun!  

(H/T:  Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer)

Saturday

Yesterday the LSU Vet School had it's open house and we ventured out to meet all of the animals.  Caroline had a great time.  She got to feed a pig some carrots, which she thought was hilarious (and when we got home all she wanted for lunch was carrots).  She also got to meet some horses and pet a few goats and a Shetland pony.  We also got to meet and pet a bunch of dogs from different rescue and therapy projects - which was heartbreaking for us, so many precious dogs that need homes, just not THIS home.  The LSU Fire Dept had their fire truck out there and as always Caroline thoroughly enjoyed that.  Mike the Tiger also made an appearance, so we got to say hi to him too.  Charlotte was great, she slept in the Baby Bjorn the whole time, snuggled up next to me.  All of the excitement wore Caroline out and when we got home she told us she needed her nap and (after eating a few carrots) put herself to sleep.  

Caroline with the Shetland Pony

Letting the horse sniff her - or trying to get the horse to sniff her

Mike

Driving the fire truck

With the "famous" LSU poodle.  This family has another poodle with "Tigers" shaved into her fur, but we didn't a picture with that one.  These dogs are so soft and sweet - and much bigger than I think of poodles being.  

Sisters

Caroline was holding Charlotte on her lap and singing to her on Friday afternoon and Charlotte was smiling and cooing right back.  It made me so happy to see my daughters happy together, a glimpse of the joy I know they will be to one another. 

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord,

children a reward from him."

Psalm 127:3

Catching up

I'm sitting here in our bedroom with Caroline sleeping on my bed after she just said, "I'm not tired, I just need to lay here and rest."  I don't remember the last time she took an early nap; it's literally probably been over a year.  Charlotte is in her pack n play on the other side of the room fast asleep as well.  I figured I should take this chance to get some pictures on the blog and to write a quick update on what we've been up to.  

Let's start with the weekend, shall we?  Jeff and Caroline went out to celebrate our friend Chris' birthday in Mississippi at his parents' camp on Saturday.  They had great weather and had a wonderful time.  It was a long no-nap-day for Caroline and she crashed hard in her bed when they returned home.  

Caroline ran in her second race on Sunday.  She's moving on up in the world of racing, last April she ran a 1/2 mile and Sunday she tackled a full mile!  She ran (with Jeff) the entire way and had a great time. I was really surprised that she didn't get Jeff to carry her part of the way, but I think the sight of all of the other kids trucking it themselves probably provided some good ol' fashioned peer pressure for her.  Charlotte and I hung out and watched them start and finish the race and of course to cheer on the kids as they crossed the finish line.  

Charlotte is finally feeling better and that makes life so much nicer for me.  In case you didn't know that she needed to feel better, she had her first ear infection and I'm praying that this was not the first of many for her this young.  She is better now though, thank the Lord.  

Charlotte also had her two month check up yesterday and she is doing well - the doctor confirmed that the ear infection is indeed gone!  She weighs 11 lbs and is 22 1/2 inches long, 50th percentile for all her measurements (exactly like her big sister).  They gave her several shots.  She got all the ones I was used to with Caroline, but now they give a vaccine for Rotavirus (I would pay a lot of money to the person who developed that one - I would never want to relive those 10 days of my life when Caroline had it).  Charlotte slept a lot yesterday, but other than that, no ill effects from the vaccines she got.  Again, thank you Lord.  

Oh, and if you are wondering why Caroline is at home sleeping at 10:30 AM on a Thursday, she has bronchitis.  No fun.  We're dosing her up on the medicine the doctor prescribed, so hopefully she'll start feeling better soon.  In the mean time we're trying to get her to eat and drink lots of water and letting her watch a little TV to pass the time.  Even though she's sick, Caroline enjoyed a little dress up fun yesterday, calling it "Playing Halloween".  

We also got a treat of a short visit with Drew and Amelia this past weekend.  Drew had a conference for work in New Orleans, so we got a quick visit in.  We wish they lived closer because we always miss them so much when they have to leave.  

Our girls hanging out early Sunday morning.  

Caroline and "Mr. Chris"

Caroline and Brady enjoying the ride!  

And they're off . . . 

At the finish line 

Showing off her medal (while keeping her eyes on the action going on over my shoulder).  

Our sick girl "playing Halloween".  Just look at that face :-( .  

We love Drew and Amelia!