Memorial Weekend

You know, it seems that every post recently starts this way: I'm behind schedule again. I am enjoying these times with my family, but always seem to run out of time to record the memories. So, once again, I am will be discussing events that have happened two weeks ago, and I don't think the pattern is going to change any time soon. At the end of this month, Heather and the kids are taking a trip to Alabama to visit her family while I go off to New Orleans to help out with our church's youth mission trip.
  Speaking of family, Heather's mom and step dad came into town the Wednesday before Memorial Day for a brief visit. I'm not sure it was a vacation for them as much as it was a vacation for us. We put them to work feeding Hudson and entertaining Sara Beth while Heather and I got to sit back and relax. It was great. Hudson keeps improving his table food skills. Dennis even got Hudson his very own order of fries when we went to the local burger restaurant. By the time Hudson was done, there were partially chewed fries strewn  in a large circle on the floor, but he sure was proud of himself.

Sara Beth also brought out her toys and demonstrated to Cindy how to use them. Sara Beth soaked up all the extra attention, showing off her drawing skills and asking people to come play in her bedroom with her. 

Sara Beth checked out a book from the library about a girl who did barrel racing on a horse. Sara Beth asked to read that story every night at bed time. But it didn't stop there. Soon, she put her tea cups out in the middle of the play room as barrels and would race around them with her stuffed horse between her legs. Then she wanted to sit on Heather (aka "Word Horse") and ride her around barrels. Before dinner last week, I got down next to her and asked if she wanted to ride on my back around the house. She said "No, you're not Word Horse." I then asked her who I was then. She responded, "You're no one." But, fortunately, last night, she changed her mind and decided she would ride me around the house after all.

Hudson will babel, but he will regularly say "MaMa," much to Heather's delight. Sara Beth now tries to get his second word to be "sister". Sara Beth does love to interact with Hudson. She will now go up to him and work to get him to smile. She will hold his arms and rock him back and forth or bring him a toy when he is crying. Honestly though, it really isn't all that hard for her to make Hudson smile; Hudson adores her.

So, Sara Beth definitely takes after her mother when it comes to cleaning and organization. Most of the time, she makes the messes that the typical 3 year old would, but one day after dinner, she told us she was going to reorganize the cabinet where we throw our Tupperware. She set out on her task, taking all of it out, stacking the similarly shaped items and sorting out the lids. She then placed them all back into the cabinet and actually made it into an organized and usable space. She even put the "kids tupperware" (the small ones that she likes to play with) on their own shelf so they are easier for her to access. I was impressed.