To Grandmother's House We Go

Gram and Girlie
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Kathleen and mommy are visiting California, spending time with Gram and Grampa O'Connor. Normally a little shy, Kathleen has warmed up to the O'Connors with surprising speed. She likes to sit on Gram's lap and she likes to listen to Grampa sing "The Teddy Bears' Picnic." She's just thrilled with the different toys in California, and she's been spending a lot of time playing on the living room floor. The extra time practicing seems to be paying off. She's gotten a lot better at rolling and sitting herself up. She gets closer and closer to crawling every day!

That's Just Ducky!

Biting Off More Than She Can Chew?

Bagel
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Kathleen's adventures in table food are beginning! She's not sure what she thinks of this new food, but she's willing to give it a try. She still prefers yogurt and jars of baby fruit, but we might make a bagel-eater out of her yet.

We miss you, Daddy!

Snuggling before Goodbye
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Jim deployed to Kuwait last weekend. His journey there was long (he went through crazy places like Iceland on his way!), but he arrived safely and is already hard at work.

It was hard to say goodbye, but it is comforting to know that we won't really be separated for that long. We think he should return in about two months. Kathleen's working hard at not growing too much while he's gone. We'll see how she does at that!

I Love Music!

I Love Music!
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Given Kathleen's love of paper, it's no surprise that a pile of sheet music headed for the recycling bin brought out big smiles. She happily crunched up the music, and waved it up and down, and chortled with glee. She's very industrious when it comes to destroying paper!

But aside from her fascination with paper, Kathleen has a real love for music. Singing is one of the few things that will calm her down if she gets upset while in the car. But don't try singing any lullabies. She'll cry right through those. Instead, try oldies. It's a little unbelievable, but "Hey, Baby" and "The Witch Doctor" have instant results. In fact, she's only quiet as long as you keep singing. We feel a bit ridiculous, but we'll confess to having sung those songs over and over for a whole car ride. (Thank goodness we live on a small island and don't have to drive very far!)

This week we also discovered that Kathleen likes praise music. Kathleen and Dad hung out during Mom's rehearsal for Sunday's service, and Kathleen loved it. Her current favorite is "Your Love is Amazing." She gets so excited when it's sung! She kicks and smacks her arms up and down, and as soon as she can talk, we're sure she'll be singing along!

On Her Own Two Feet

On Her Own Two Feet
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

This morning after breakfast, Kathleen was playing in her crib while I put away the clean laundry in her room. As I finished, I turned from the closet and looked over at her in the crib. To my surprise, she was standing at the railing, smiling back at me!

Kathleen has been standing hanging onto her parents for some time, but this was the first instance of her pulling herself up in her crib. (Thank goodness we'd lowered the mattress already!) In my excitement I yelled for her daddy to come see, which startled her and ended her brief stint at standing. Whoops! I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more, though, in the days ahead!

Hooray for Cousins!

Hooray for Cousins!

Kathleen has been quite distraught the last two days. She's upset because she has only her two boring parents to entertain her again; her cousins had to go back to Illinois.

After nine days of fun, sun, and excitement, life is back to normal...or as normal as it gets at the Golby house. We had a wonderful time with Craig, Margaret, Matthew, Alison, and Lizzie here. We went to the beach, celebrated the sacrament of baptism for Kathleen, went snorkeling at Shark's Cove, watched the fireworks on post, went to the beach again, hiked to a waterfall near Waimea Bay, golfed at some terrific golf courses, and went to an authentic Hawaiian Luau...all before going to the beach again. In fact, I may have understated the amount of time we spent at the beach. Just ask the kids, if you're not at the beach, everything else is just one big waste of time!

Daddy and Sleepy Leenie at the Luau

Actually -- beach or no beach -- the kids loved entertaining Kathleen, and Kathleen loved entertaining the kids. She really does miss them. We feel so blessed that we had the chance to spend so much time with them. Hopefully, it will be the first of many trips, by the Gustafson's and by everyone else. We love visitors...and Hawaii is a great place to visit.

For the Promise Is Unto You and Your Children...

I Love this Gown!
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

This morning Kathleen was baptized, and received the sign of belonging to the family of God. She wore the same christening gown that her mom, her Aunt Caroline, and her Uncle Kevin all wore -- the gown that was purchased by her namesake, her great-grandmother Kathleen. Since Kathleen is older than we had thought she'd be when she was baptized, we were a little worried that she might be too big for the family gown. But, to our delight, it fit like a dream. And Kathleen loves to play with the skirt, as you can see. She was an angel during the baptism. She didn't cry at all.

After Service
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Her mom, on the other hand, did tear up a little bit. We were glad of the opportunity to publicly dedicate Kathleen to God, and promised to pray with her and for her, to teach her the doctrines of the church, and to bring her up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We look forward to the day that Kathleen can declare her own faith in Jesus.

Having Margaret, Craig, and the kids with us made the day more special. We'll celebrate this evening with a special dinner in honor of Kathleen!