Life and Death

This has been a week of life and death. Kiwi's father passed away unexpectedly Sunday night and Kayla had her baby Tuesday morning.

I expected the death to bring about a rehashing of feelings from my dad's death, but what it actually brought was a strong urge to protect Kiwi from the sorrow I know she will have for such a long time to come. I wish I could put her and her brother and sisters in a cocoon to prevent them from having to learn the hard way that it doesn't get easier with time, it just gets different. It's a different kind of grief - the grief we have 14 years later. It becomes part of you, changes you.

For me grief makes me more selective who I give my love to. If you are one of my chosen, know I will go to the mat for you. I am there whenever, whatever you need. I will forgive and forget. Really, I forget stuff. I'm not someone who can forgive but continue to hold onto negative things. The few times I have forgiven and not forgotten? Well, look around, those people are no longer in my world.

As for Kayla, her and the baby are doing wonderful. Anthony was born at 11:09am, is 7lbs 3oz and 19in long. And he's beautiful. We're going to see him tomorrow and I'll post lots of pictures for everyone to ohhh and ahhh over.

Knitting Bunny

In the book Goodnight Moon there is a beautiful bunny (In the book she's called "the little old lady", but I think that's typecasting) knitting in a rocking chair while the baby bunny says goodnight to all of his special things in his room. When Cortland saw the knitting bunny he started bouncing all around in the chair pointing at the bunny and then poking me yelling, "MA MA! MA MA!"

I love that.

Talking

Heh, he's starting to say stuff!

What We've Been Up to This Summer

We taught Cortland how to swim in a tube of water.

Or not. Actually it's the Ft Worth Childrens Museum.

Grandma and C on a dinosaur dig

Giant train set

In KS we went swimming at my cousin Sherry's house.

And put together puzzles... sort of...

And played with REAL tractors!

And had a slumber party with four nine year olds and a little boy. The little boy isn't in the picture because he is behind me (the photographer) with a water hose. Bet you can't guess what happened next.

Dane and Cortland ate sunflower seed shells from the ground around the bleachers at a ballgame. *Gack*

Just plain worn out.

We've adopted a lady named Ludy and she is wearing a scarf I knitted.

We painted the kid pink.

No one was more surprised than Cortland when he started getting in his horns.

It's been a great summer!

All Better

Some crazy person let me have the camera when I was in the hospital. My mom said she came from KS so fast that she forgot to pack her makeup. She looked beautiful anyway.

Isn't Alan cute?

I got the cutest flower arrangement ever from Tanya.

And here's a pic of the real thing. She still thinks the chair my mom brought for C is hers.

I'm feeling so much better. I am feeling so much better, in fact, that it's good that Tasha and two of her kids came to stay last week to keep me off my feet. Her kids are amazing and Cortland had the best time with them. And I had a wonderful time having my friend all to myself.

The boys were inside when Maddie made this wonderful castle. Of course they were. It would have been dead before she even began otherwise.