Happy May Day!

TGIF! Always good when it's Friday. Woke up to a little bit of snow on the cars and roofs. Nothing like all the blizzards and feet of snow over in western Montana! Sounds pretty exciting.

We got another bag of balloons and Matthew still loves playing with them. He is very good at catching them now. He also has gotten very good at hitting softly at the right times, with all of his throwing and hitting. So that's neat to see. When he watches some of his shows, like "Blues Clues" or "Barney," he talks right back when it is encouraged. He even will say the letters and numbers they are asking about. He has his favorite parts and when they come he'll shout excitedly for us to come and watch and explain it all expertly to us.

Kaitlyn keeps growing! Matthew never wore out his clothes. They are all still brand new since he grew out of them so fast. Kaitlyn's are actually getting a little worn out and one even ripped from all of the use it is getting. I'm even getting kind of tired of her same little outfits and feel like, "Hey, we need to go shopping for you!" Never had that with Matthew! Kaitlyn gets too long for her clothes eventually, where Matthew always got too round. I think it's also time for her to step up to a size 3 diaper too. Matthew did this at 3 months old where she is going on 5. It's neat to see the comparisons. She loves pulling blankets over her face and burrowing down into things, where Matthew would get this little breathy, worried sound if a blanket accidentally covered his face. Kaitlyn also loves to grab everything in her reach, where Matthew just loved watching and looking at it all. Kaitlyn loves to have our hand on her cheek or head as she's falling asleep and cuddles where Matthew didn't seem to care too much for that kind of thing. He loved falling asleep as I would bounce on our exercise ball. That got to be a nightly ritual for a very long time.

Adam really looks forward to going right outside to work on different things in the yard when he gets home. Tonight he is finishing up the garden plots. Getting them all stable and straight for when it comes time for the dirt. We have started saving eggshells and vegetable pulp for his compost. He wants to get a bin built soon so we can put a lot of other leftovers in there too and be ready for grass clippings when that comes.

I also love comparing how far I've come on having a second baby. Just like everyone said, it did get easier. At five months with comparing Matthew and Kaitlyn, the house is definitely more picked up and cleaner than it ever was with the adventure of having a first baby. I make meals much more often, take more showers, dress for the day, take walks, eat something every day...it is wonderful. We even get to watch movies (at home) - we never did that when Matthew was a baby - for at least a year. He was a little go-go and kept us on the go. There was always something to learn, plus he knew exactly what he needed, when he needed it - and let us know until that need was met. We were definitely very uneducated about babies when we had Matthew. Plus maintaining a working home and taking care of ourselves all at the same time didn't just happen! We worked hard and by the grace of God - loved each other through it all and enjoyed it too. We still have bills that we forget to pay unfortunately, but when Matthew was a baby, that was a regular occurrence for a long time. Very thankful to see it all coming together, slowly and surely. Plus, Kaitlyn is her own little unique self that makes her seem like such an 'easy' baby. She is content to simply sit on my lap for extended amounts of time, pretty frequently. Very nice. She's more relaxed about the timeliness of her every need getting met. Yeah! Falling asleep is so much easier with her! Put her in a baby carrier and that will do it almost every time. She will even simply fall asleep laying in bed sometimes! So wonderful seeing all of these comparisons and loving each and every quality in each sweet child.