JD really knows his numbers now, and had been consistently counting up to 7. Actually he can count up to 10 - but he only understands up to 7. We have a lion book, and on one page a lioness is watching all of the cubs of the pride, for a total of 7 lions. On his own, he counts them. I had never counted them before, so I am positive it wasn't memorization. So we now fool around with groups of things up to 7, and he enjoys it. John is attempting to get him to count up to 20.  Sharon Kenkel (Jerry's wife) got him a counting Cherios book, which, if Katie didn't eat the props, would be a great counting book.

JD is now "reading" some of our books. He knows all of the words to the first couple of pages to Cat in the Hat, so he'll "read" them with me. It really is too adorable. He knows some letters - like A, B, O and Y. So his mind is visibly expanding in leaps and bounds, and John and I are struggling to stay ahead of the Parental Learning Curve. (My buddy Kathleen was trying to explain the trials of being a parent and she noted, "The learning curve for parents is nearly vertical" I had to laugh because that is soooo true.) He also singing. He knows the Veggie Tales song (If you like to talk to tomatoes etc.) I'll have to have him sing it for you because it really is too cute. He kinda knows the ABC and what he doesn't know he hums and mumbles along till you get to another part he does remember. Songs that he really knows, like 'twinkle twinkle little star', or 'Are you sleeping brother John?' he basically screams out at the top of his lungs, which I suppose is his way of singing. (What you do when you lack note control)

Lets see - a while ago JD was mad at me so I gave him a 'time out' in his room. Now, instead of having "real" time outs where you make kids sit somewhere for a specified amt. of time, we have where we take him to his bedroom and put him in the reading chair. He is allowed out as soon as he calms down. If he decides to behave right away, he can come out right away. Sometimes he wants out, and sometimes he stays in there for a while carrying on and such. And sometimes he lays down and sleeps. So, he was being a terror at dinnertime, so we put him in his room and said he could come out when he was willing to eat like a good boy. (John and I had a fabulous dinner alone that night, by the way) So it eventually dawned on me that, once again, JD was being too quiet for his own good. I head back to the bedroom to discover. . .JD had taken all the clothes out of every drawer in the chest and made an enormous hip high pile in the center of the room! He was then calmly sitting in the reading chair doing just that - paging through his picture books. What a clever little fiend! So I had to re-fold and put away all JD and Katie's clothes! A steep price to pay for a dinner alone with my hubby!

We all went to Chuck E. Cheese's the other day. Now THAT was an experience. We went on a rainy Sunday night - a huge mistake! There were kids EVERYWHERE! I MUCH prefer the indoor playland at the Mc D's. Anyway, JD has already learned the concept of quarters, and that if you insert them into candy machines, surprise! candy comes out. So we'd given him some tokens and let him somewhat wander off to explore a little on his own. He had been gone from the table for a bit and I thought I'd make sure he was OK (the play area is closed off, so I knew he was in there) I look over and there is JD, all by himself, playing an alligator game! (in slow motion) Oh God it was so precious. The alligators heads would come out and he'd have to hit them on the head with a little mallet. Apparently JD had figured out how to put the token in and play the game all by himself! I cannot describe the mixed emotions watching him - amazement, pride, disbelief, and the realization that my little boy is growing up! What a memory.

JD is all boy and loves to have his animals and cars crash into each other, knock things down, and fight. Our lion book has a photo of a lion grabbing a zebra. (Aside: JD loves lions, and I got this book for like a quarter, so I don't want to hear about it. I didn't notice that photo when I bought it.) Now, the text says the zebra gets away, but JD knows (as we all do) that the "Lion hurts zebra". Well, we don't have an zebra for JD's plastic tiger to eat. However, the Mc. D's was recently giving away little plastic furbies in the happy meals. Happily, "Tiger EAT FURBIE!!!" So that solved our lack of prey for his growing contingent of plastic predators.

Katie's life. Katie's mind is visibly expanding as well. On April 6 she decided it was time to crawl. That fast. She was on the floor and I held out a globe that she wanted. Without thinking she crawled over to get it. As she greedily held it in her hands you could actually see the light bulb go off above her head. From that point on she has been a crawling terror! 4 days later she has knocked over 2 glasses of orange juice, a fruit bowl, and attempts to crawl off the diaper changing table every time. I completely forgot how totally nerve racking a crawling baby is! And one who is desperately trying to stand and consequently pulling on every non-steady object in the house.

You should see her crawl. It's pretty amusing. See, she doesn't want to crawl. She wants to walk. So, she keeps trying to have her back legs be straight. However, she can't actually move in this position. Instead, she just 'hangs out', with her butt way up in the air, both legs totally straight. She looks pretty ridiculous.

Actually, if she wasn't so heavy, I think she'd be standing already. The other day I heard her wake up from her nap, so I went into the bedroom to get her. She had pulled herself up on two pillows so her back legs were straight, and she was singing to that beautiful reflection in the mirror. (we have a mirror in our headboard, which actually is very handy with little kids.) One of her favorite positions is to stand holding onto the back of a chair. So she can just stand forever. It's the pulling up that is causing the problems.

The other problem is that she and JD go to bed at different times. We currently have JD and Katie in the same room since it's like 17 by 12. There is plenty of room for both beds, the rocking chair and other baby accoutrements. The problem is having Katie in the crib at 8:00 while JD gets a story read at 8:30. Up until this point we've put Katie to bed in our bed and then moved her. Now that she can crawl off the bed when she is irritated this is not so hot a plan. I'm not ready to have JD move to one of the downstairs bedrooms. I'm just not ready to (a) give up our extra bedroom or office (b) find storage for my beautiful antiques, or (c) have JD that far away. (Please note option c) So, I'm not sure yet how we'll deal with this. I guess the learning curve remains vertical even the 2nd and 3rd time around!

Oh! I didn't mention that Katie is sleeping through the night (March 24 was the big night). With JD I went through that utter nonsense of having him cry it out and go in like ever 15 minutes to comfort him. How retarded! It took a week and he finally slept through the night, only to have him start getting up again like 2 weeks later. I told John then that I would never put my child (or myself!) through that again! And I'm still angry at myself for listening to those stupid magazines instead of listening to my mother's intuition. When kids are ready to sleep through the night they will! (P.S. what's the rush, anyway?) So, March 24 she slept though the night, and we haven't had a problem since. Actually, speaking of sleeping, I want to kill the idiots that still think daylight savings time is somehow necessary. The kids still haven't switched. So instead of going to bed at 7:15 and 8:30 John and I are struggling to get them in at 8 and 9. And now they don't want to get up in the mornings. Both are compensating for their lack of sleep at naptime. I keep saying I'm not going to let them take 3 hours naps in the afternoon. . . but wow do I get a lot done then! So I must admit that it's partially (mainly?) my own fault.

We've been spending a ton of time outside. The past several days in particular have been wonderful, so I'm constantly pulling the large blanket out of the back of my car, placing it on the driveway, and hanging out. JD knows where I keep the sidewalk chalk in a large waterproof container, and I usually get a large crowd of kids eager to show they too can draw perfect squares. Notice: Katie totally loves the sidewalk chalk container (??) and every time I turn around she's eating the chalk. I'll look over and she'll have clown mouth - blue lips and tongue from eating chalk!

My BIRTHDAY!: I am now 30. Cool! Had a FABOULOUS trip to Cincinnati. Got in on Wednesday and spent the day with JoAnn. Thursday we took the kids up to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We met my college roommate Juli (Church) Kozicki and her little boy (another JD!) there. JoAnn and Ray took JD while Juli and I sat on the floor and gossiped! Apparently JD had the time of his life at the museum. As we walked in we asked the attendant where was the best place for a 3 year old. The man looked at me and said, "Is he allowed to get wet. . . 5th floor" Yes , there were 5 floors to this place! And JD never made it off the 5th one. He had a blast building damns (in the water), throwing rocks in the water, and moving rocks in the wheelbarrow. We were there from 11am to 3pm! Now I'm all jealous because JoAnn and Ray were with him and I didn't get to see any of the fun.

Friday morning I had lunch with Mary. That was a lot of fun. I highly respect her as a parent, so I really enjoy talking 'kids' with her and getting her opinion on things. So we had (in my opinion) a great time and I even got to see where she worked. All I could think was - my mother would love this place. I assume Mary has fun with me, since she went out to eat with me again.  Mary talked a bit about the drive up for Katie's baptism. Apparently she was teasing TJ about how he once was the 'favorite' grandchild, since he was the first one to live in Cincinnati with you. But, he's not the favorite anymore because, since you live in Florida, the field is wide open. She suggested that I would be the favorite now since I've had kids. Apparently TJ give her a 'look' implying that creating babies was something he could do as well.  But, in his case, it certainly wouldn't make him a favorite! I thought that was pretty funny, and I could totally picture the smirk on TJ's face when Mary implied that I ursuped his position simply by propegating.

Dad and Terri arrived Friday afternoon -- and they brought a "Green Machine" with them. So of course JD was enthralled with it and wanted not only to ride it all day long but also to bring it into the house. It was a bit too big and his feet didn't reach the pedals, so Ray and PapPap (that's what JD calls my dad) had to teach JD how to saw (yipee, sharp tools!) and then sand, and tape blocks onto the pedals so he could reach them. Of course JD had a blast with the saw and such. The Green Machine is like a big kid's bigwheel. Instead of having a steering wheel that turns the font wheel, it has two gear things that turn the back wheel. Would you believe JD figured it out at once! What he liked to do is set up a big ball in one corner of the driveway and then ride the bigwheel down the driveway (while racing Nana Terri of course,) around the corner and he would hit the ball every time! I was really impressed that JD figured it out.

My father is a riot. Now, in JoAnn's house everything has a place, and she's been known to get on her hands and knees to wipe the floor between meals after the kids eat/slop. However, by day 3 of our visit she knows that, ya know, sometimes you're gonna stick to the floor and that's part of fun. However, what my dad wants to do is play with the Legos and match box cars -- consequently he needs JD to come downstairs to the basement. Consequently, every excuse Dad gets he says something like "Oops, JD just spilled. Time to take him downstairs" and snatches JD (and sometimes even Katie) before JoAnn can protest. So the basement is the realm of King Kenkel and his court where they build elaborate Lego garages for the matchbox cars. It was pretty awesome! Anyway, pappap and JD are buddies. Oh yes, Katie has learned, thanks to pappap, how to push a matchbox car on the ground, which is pretty hilarious. And for the second time in as many visits to Cincinnati Pappap and JoAnn got into an argument over who got to hold Katie during dinner! I LOVE IT! I need to get Katie a T-shirt that says "Princess without a country".

My actual birthday was awesome as well. I didn't want to go into work - still crashing from my trip. The kids didn't even get up until 8:30! So I call in to work to say 'heck with it', only to be told I had a meeting with a bigwig at 10:30. ACK! So into work I rushed (in a new birthday outfit, I must add). I get there and my buddy Kathleen brought me a pretty plant. Yea. Then a bunch of my friends took me out to lunch. So we get there and I say to the waiter, "today is my birthday, do I get special service?" so that fool started singing happy birthday to me. ACK. He forgot to bring out salads out before I meal, and I laughingly said "So much for birthday service." Now, I swear I was laughing and I thought it was pretty obvious that I was joking. However my buddies got on me for being nasty - although I still swear that most men can tell when an old married woman is flirting with them. Be that as it may, when he came back with the salad I apologized and said that I wasn't being nasty. Long story long, I got free Mississippi mud pie, which was what I originally wanted when I said it was my birthday in the first place! Then that evening John and I went out - yep, we went out alone to a non-hockey related event! The first in about a year! So that was totally awesome and I am absolutely dying to do that again!

Grandma and Grandpa Buck's visit: This past weekend some friends of ours got married. I've mentioned Randy and Kimmy to you before. I first met Randy back in 1991 playing softball (The Brew Crew). That next year John joined the Brew Crew and he and Randy became good friends quickly thereafter. (I tease Randy and say I got dumped like yesterday's news.) So Randy and John play golf, go hit softballs and both play on Mike Lettau's softball team (the geek team). We've gone on several double dates with Randy and Kimmy (while Randy's daughter watches our kids.) Randy owns a few acres and his love shack (it truly is a shack) out in the middle of nowhere Virgina (Montross - 1 stoplight, 30 motel rooms, and 10 different Baptist churches.) So they had the ceremony out there, which is a 2 hour drive. Consequently we needed a cool babysitter for an extended period of time - mom and Buck to the rescue! P.S. Randy and Kimmy used the t-shirt idea from our wedding. So John and I got thanked in the program, which I think is really cool.

Anyway, John and I have never been to a small town wedding where the ceremony and reception are simply minor precursors to the large party to be held later at a private location (the love shack). So I was easily overdressed for the wedding (oh thank goodness I didn't wear my matching hat), and was totally unprepared when the reception lasted maybe 2 hours tops and everyone was like, see you at the shack when it gets dark. Huh? Thankfully Christina had brought extra clothes which she kindly loaned me. However I was the hit of the party in Christina's Brew Crew t-shirt, shorts, and my own very expensive dress shoes. ("Hey, sweetie, nice shoes!" "Oh, haha! Like you're the first person to tell me that tonight" - smiles all around.) The big draw of the party, besides copious amounts of alcohol, is the large bonfire. I mean LARGE bonfire. As in, John, Randy and the members of the wedding party eventually rolled the old outhouse building into it. As in, when John and I left around 10:30, you could see flashlights in the distance and hear the cracking of old trees as party members searched the surrounding woods for logs to throw on the conflagration. So John and I had quite the fun time. Besides Christina, Sue and James, also good friends of ours and members of that old 1991 softball team, were there. I haven't seen them in just forever! I had to laugh…it was a 4 hour round trip drive to basically hang out with 3 people who collectively live 30 minutes away.

Anyway, from what I heard, Mom and Buck had a blast without us and had Katie laughing so hard she could hardly breath. Buck was doing something about an airplane to get JD to eat.  You will have to ask them. When John and I left at noon (for a 2pm wedding) the entire neighborhood was in our yard as usual, so Grandma Buck experienced first hand what I am always writing about. Sunday morning was as it should be, with the whole push of us hanging out in the dinning room slowly eating breakfast and drinking 2 pots of coffee before heading to mass. And the kids were super at mass - so it really was a PERFECT weekend. (the only way it could have been better would have been to somehow see mom and Buck more.)

Our family tree: Finally got John Lubber's death certificate!! Yippee. The mother's name is unknown (sigh.) But I have it that we think the maiden name is Voss. But I have no idea why we think that! John's father's name was William. Both his mom and dad are from Germany. John supposedly died from heat exhaustion at age 49, and his occupation was as an elevator hand. So I'm really excited that this has finally come in. I now have traced every single person in my family tree (including my dad's side) back to Germany! Wow. So now I have to figure out what to do next. There is a book I might buy specifically about how to do research from America to Germany that is put out by Family Tree Maker.

My web address: John got me my own domain name for a birthday gift. This is for my web page. (The one that no one looks at or cares remotely about besides me.  But I'm important. So I deserve it.) What it means is that instead of typing in a long address, you can type in a shorter one - and, more importantly, and address that I've chosen. So, the name I have is www.kenkel.net The 4 standard names are .org (non profit organizations) .edu (universities, schools and such) .gov (government) and .com (commercial, but basically everyone else) Well, these 4 'last names' are enough to keep up with demand, so other .xxx are being added. Kenkel.com is already taken, so I grabbed kenkel.net. All Yates are taken, so John is going to wait for the next .xxx opening (he'd like yates.web or yates.us) Anyway, I think this is totally cool although completely useless.