mauter.com

Brian’s grandfather had surgery yesterday here in Birmingham. It was a 12 hour surgery to remove a cancerous bladder and nonfunctioning kidney. He got through the surgery ok, but had a very rough night last night. All the family was called around midnight to be by his side. Please pray for him and all of the Eckl family.

Whenever it is a family member’s birthday, we always try to sing “Happy Birthday” to that person.  Samantha has grown to love this song and she sings it a good bit.  Over the last 10 days, Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Daniel had birthdays.  We’ve been singing “Happy Birthday” a lot.

However, Samantha has not moved past Jackson.  His birthday was in January.  Whenever she sings the Birthday song, she inserts “Jackson” where appropriate.  He still has the hold on her.

Samantha has done fairly well in her bed all week.  Some days she takes a nap and some days she doesn’t.  Last night, Brian and I were headed to bed and she comes waltzing out of her room!  What on earth is she still doing up at 10PM?!?!  I know she’s not getting nearly as much sleep as she used to, so hopefully, we can work our way back up over the course of the next weeks and months.

I do have a funny story to share about our first Saturday morning in the big bed.  Early in the morning, I heard some scratching/shuffling noises.  I hadn’t opened my eyes, but I wondered what the cats were doing.  They tend to “paw” at the carpet in a playful mode and sometimes it’s during times when humans are sleeping.  I felt around on the bed and noted that Molly was next to me, where she normally sleeps, but Maddie was gone.  So I thought, that’s weird that Maddie would be pawing at the carpet by herself.  At this point, I roll over a little bit, or lift my head, or something – I don’t quite remember.  I see a little blond head bobbing around the bed.  Samantha must have noticed that I was awake, so she came over to my side of the bed.  The first thing she sees is Molly, so she proceeds to meow and try to pet her.  Molly proceeds to get up and move to the other side of the bed.  I look at the clock (6:32AM) and whisper to Sam, “go back to bed.”  Amazingly, she walked off.  I have no idea where she went or what she did, but she didn’t come back into our room.  I know she must have spent some time in her room and some time in the living room based on the various noises I heard.  I finally got up at 7 and she was very interested to tell me about her morning.  Silly girl.

It was a beautiful day, so we stayed out for a good portion.  Running errands, going to the park (more on that later), and playing with sidewalk chalk.  Sunday was yucky and cold, so we stayed in.  I sewed a little.  Lettie introduced me to Jill’s blog, so I made the converted tee with 2 of my tshirts.  They needed some help.  I know I’ll be able to wear them post-prego too.  And I must say, Lettie has a way with picking great blogs!  And great snacks!  Just what she wanted to be known for.  :)  I also decided to make a little jacket for Sam.  I bought a pattern and made a dress last summer.  The pattern had a matching jacket, so I also bought fabric but never made it because it was too warm already.  Now that it’s springy, I figured it would be a great time to make the jacket.  BONUS – she still fits into the dress so I can use it for 2 seasons!  I started to cut out the pattern pieces, but we are showing the house tonight, so I’ll have to put it all away.  And along those lines, we have officially entered into contract (well, verbally at least, officially official maybe later today) on a house we’d like to buy.  I’m not getting my hopes up because we still have to sell ours.  Ours will be listed with a realtor soon.

For dinner last week, we had

Sloppy Joe’s (thanks, Brian!)
random leftovers and slim-pickins

Not much for cooking this week it seemed.

But I did make Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies, which I thought would be divine, but only so-so.  I didn’t add the frosting on top, but I don’t think it would have put them over the edge.

Samantha has fewer things in her room these days.  We used to have mostly books, but a few toys in there too.  Because she can get into everything now, I have been removing unnecessary items from her room.  Some things (like all the clothes in the top 2 drawers of her dresser) will have to stay, but we’ll have to work through those battles as they come.

She has done very well in the new bed.  She has taken an afternoon nap both days this week.  Yesterday was a very late and short nap, so she woke up in a definite funk, but it was a nap nonetheless.  Last night, it only took her 1 – 1.25 hours to go to sleep, so it’s an improvement from the night before.  Brian put her down for her nap today, and it was a record 30 min!

The time change has messed up our household a little, so maybe that’s partially to blame too for the weird sleep schedules.