Writing...

Monster Boy is learning how to write at school. It is SO cute. His handwriting is really pretty legible considering the fact that he is 4. I'm very impressed with him. He's learning to read now too... at this point I think it is more recognition than anything, but since he knows and recognizes all his letters, he is starting to learn how to put sounds together in short words. He is so amazingly smart.

It's been a busy few days around our house. Monster Boy's grandmother (his father's mom) had a mild stroke on Wednesday while at work. She is doing well, but the stroke has affected the speech center of her brain and as of right now she is unable to speak. They are doing speech therapy and hope that this is something that can be corrected with time and work. I am going up to visit her this afternoon. So I'll be better able to have an idea of what is going on once I do that. She is a strong woman, so I know she will come through this well. We haven't told Monster Boy anything other than she is sick, and he'll have to wait until she is feeling better to go see her. They don't allow children in the Critical Care Unit where she is currently at, so he can't go up there, and I don't really think that now is a good time for him to be seeing her anyways. I think we will wait until she is speaking a little bit more before we take him to see her. Otherwise I think it will just scare him, and upset her. And that isn't good for anyone.

We got to go to our Alma Mater's football game yesterday, which was quite fun. We are both big college football fans, even though our team pretty well sucks this year. But yesterday was a fun game. We were in the end zone on the second row, so RIGHT on the field. It was a good time. And Daddy Mac's mother kept the kids for us Friday AND Saturday night - so it was a weekend off all the way around.

Little Miss Sunshine is off and running - well, crawling. And she is pulling up on EVERYTHING. She's also getting brave and starting to let go with one hand. I'm thinking that within a week or so she will be standing on her own - she's pretty stable already for how recently she started pulling up. I think we are going to have an early walker on our hands. We had to move the coffee table into the basement - she is really rather short for it and whacks her head on it every time she tries to pull up there. Two weeks ago she really hit it hard and we wound up taking her to the minor emergency center because of the gigantic goose egg that she got. Everything was fine, and we decided that having the coffee table in a room she doesn't really go in was a better option. So now our living room looks nice and big. And I've put up the "baby cage" as my sister calls it, so that I can put Miss Sunshine in it while I clean, do laundry, cook, etc. Since she is mobile and is into everything, and the first place everything goes is her mouth, I don't like having her "loose" unless I am down on the floor with her, so this is a big help as far as allowing me to get stuff done.