Kathleen rocks!

You Say Potato, I Say Mr. Potato Head

Kathleen loves to play with water. She would happily splash in the bathtub all day if I'd let her. She never forgets to wash her hands after she uses the potty seat -- the challenge is getting her to stop washing her hands! And when I cook, Kathleen likes to stand on a chair at the sink, helping to "wash" the dishes, or making her own concoction with water.

So, the other afternoon when I was about to begin preparing dinner, I asked Kathleen if she'd like to help me. I said, "Kathleen, would you like to come with Mama and wash the potatoes for dinner?"

Kathleen's eyes lit up and she literally cheered. And then she paused.

"Jus' second!" she yelled, running for her bedroom.

A moment later, she came running to the kitchen sink, carrying the basket that holds Mr. Potato Head and all his parts... I may have said "potato", but she definitely heard "Mr. Potato Head"!

Daddy's Little Girl

What a difference a deployment makes! We know that we're blessed in that our deployment wasn't as long as the deployments some of our friends are enduring, but even in the short(er) time Daddy was gone, people around here did a lot of growing. Madeline wasn't even around the first time Daddy left! But here's a snapshot of the growing that Kathleen did while Daddy was in Iraq.

Before:

And after:

Daddy left behind a baby, and he came home to a little girl. Don't worry, though, I think Kathleen will always be Daddy's little girl!

Happy Endings

And for us, the deployment has a very happy ending. Daddy returned late last night and we couldn't be happier!

Who Wouldn't Love a Face Like This?

A Portrait ON the Artist....
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

So, as illustrated by the photograph at right, Kathleen has been making the most of my divided attention. She quickly figured out that the moment I sit down to nurse Madeline is the moment she should make a break for mischief-making. The mischief takes a new form every day. The felt-tipped pen was one day. Another, she broke into the refrigerator and very carefully (read: messily) brought me the entire pitcher of filtered water. Another time she emptied the bathroom cabinet. (Thank goodness we only keep toilet paper and extra bottles of baby wash down there!) Another time she helpfully emptied a basket of clean, folded laundry -- on to the floor! And another time, I found that she'd managed to climb into the bathroom sink, turn on the water, and empty a bottle of baby wash. (At least it was clean fun!)

Last week, just before lunch time, Kathleen asked for eggs. Scrambled eggs are one of her favorite meals (and they're not just for breakfast anymore!), so it wasn't a surprising request. I explained that it wasn't time for lunch yet, that I was going to feed Madeline, and that after that we would make some eggs. I sat down and began to nurse Madeline, but sprang off the sofa a few moments later, when I heard Kathleen in the kitchen. There she was, crouched on the floor with a carton of eggs, with two eggs squished between her fingers!

Mercifully, we haven't had any truly dangerous or destructive mischief. And we've become a lot better about closing doors, emptying lower shelves, hiding writing implements... These precautions haven't guaranteed a peaceful, uninterrupted meal for Madeline, but they're a whole lot better than nothing!

Chatting it up
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Yesterday it occurred to me that with Kathleen, I learned to nurse. With Madeline (thanks to Kathleen), I'm learning to nurse while running around the house. Yesterday I even managed to clean up after dinner while feeding Madeline. Multi-tasking has taken on a whole new meaning!

The mobile, frequently interrupted feedings may annoy Madeline, but they don't seem to be slowing her growth! She's growing well, it seems, and she's smiling and cooing and generally being adorable. Her expressions are amazing; she looks so much like Kathleen sometimes. Perhaps that means I'll be looking at Madeline's face adorned with orange marker twenty months from now!

Blessed with Tech-Savvy Friends

Well, our friends the Farmers stopped by after church on Sunday and they were able to work wonders on our computer! It once was broken, but now is fixed. It runs just as well as it did before it stopped running at all... It's five years old, so "fixed" is sort of a relative term like that. (As my grandmother used to be fond of saying, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.") So, we're still glad that Daddy ordered a new laptop, but we're super-grateful to be up and running again. We think Daddy will be grateful for the photos, too!

It's hard to tell exactly, but I think Madeline is growing a lot. A lot. Here she is snoozing on the big chair in our living room:

Madeline seems to like tummy time a lot more than her sister did at this age. Kathleen just used to cry or fall asleep when I'd put her on her tummy, but Madeline cranes her little head up to look around and has even rolled over a couple times! Also, last night Madeline gave me her first clearly responsive smile. I was talking to her about how wonderful her daddy is and she just beamed back at me. I almost cried.

Kathleen loves to hold her little sister. Here she is giving her a sweet, gentle kiss:

If only all Kathleen's displays of affection were as gentle... But I think her heart is in the right place. Just this afternoon Madeline was crying and Kathleen went running to get the little black and white dog that is "baby's." Hopefully we'll get a clearer understanding of "gentle" as time goes on.

So, there's an update on the girls. More will follow soon, I'm sure!

Happy

This afternoon the girls and I were driving home from running errands. The errands had gone particularly well, which is to say that not only were we able to accomplish that which we had set out to do, but that no one threw any tantrums or was disobedient or needed to be fed or changed or was really anything other than a darling little girl. It was raining and sunny at the same time, as happens a lot here, and there was a beautiful rainbow. I was about to point it out to Kathleen when she unexpectedly laughed.

"Why are you laughing, sweet girl?" I asked her.

She paused, then responded, "Happy!"

Me too, Kathleen. Me too.

Technical Difficulties

So, when I said that I was going to be better about taking photographs and posting them, I really meant it. I just hadn't counted on our computer ceasing to function normally. A week ago it just gave out. It was -- predictably -- a particularly inopportune time, as I was trying to print out templates to make letters for welcome home banners for the company. In fact, one of the co-leaders of our FRG was just about to arrive so we could work on tracing and cutting out fabric letters. One moment our computer was chugging along in its slightly annoying way; the next moment it was reporting a serious error that required Windows Explorer to close. (The latter is far more annoying!) I've tried everything I can think of to trick the computer into being okay, and it stubbornly refuses to cooperate. It insists that there's a serious error and that all it can do is shut down.

By the grace of God and some oversight of Microsoft, the error reporting protocol opens up a browser window. So, we are still able to check e-mail, which means I can still communicate with Jim (and the rest of the world). And I can post messages to this blog. I just can't upload any new photos or use any other program on our computer.

Fortunately we won't be in this horrible, technology-imposed, technology-deprived situation for much longer. Jim has ordered us a shiny new computer, which should arrive sometime next week. When it does, and once we connect it to the internet, I promise a backlog of photographs. Really, I promise!

Aside from our technical difficulties, life for the Golby girls is going pretty well. Now four weeks old, Madeline is alert and smiling and sweet. I think she has grown a lot, but it's hard to say for sure. She's mostly good-tempered, although she's not averse to howling if I haven't given her exactly what she wants. I haven't entirely decided whether she's actually "easier" than Kathleen was at this age, or whether I'm simply more relaxed about her. It's probably some combination of the two...

Kathleen is talking up a storm lately! I'm constantly surprised by what she understands and what she remembers. She sometimes makes connections that astonish me. She talks constantly about her daddy, and about how her daddy gave her "Cars," or about how her daddy takes her to the park and puts her in the swing (and buckles it!) and lets her go down the slide, or about how her daddy takes her in the Jeep to go swimming at the beach. (To hear Kathleen tell it, I've never taken her anywhere!) She reminds me that she raked leaves with her Nan and Grandpa, and that Nan lets her run through the sprinkler. She also likes to tell me about her favorite episode of "Caillou" (a PBS cartoon about a four year-old French Canadian boy!) in which Caillou and his friends go pick apples and reach the apples in the trees by climbing ladders. Too bad there aren't apple orchards on Oahu, because Kathleen would love to go apple picking herself!

In addition to talking up a storm, Kathleen's just plain busy. She races around the lanai, yelling, "I run! I play!" She cruises around the lanai (and the house) on her ride-on car from the Hendersons. She totes her animals and doll and sometimes just books or other toys in her doll's stroller. We play catch, and sometimes Kathleen even catches! Her capacity for imaginary play is growing as quickly as her vocabulary. She loves tea parties and playing with her ark animals. A recent fascination is a 2 inch-high plastic Curious George, which she carries around and sets on chairs and in her playhouse and in her tent. Kathleen's stuffed monkey was recently seen driving her ride-on car, eating lunch, and trying to blow bubbles.

Hopefully we'll recover from these technical difficulties soon, and we'll be able to post photos of all this fun!