March 11

Wednesday:  TODAY is Aidan's 3rd birthday! This is Aidan on the day he was born, very fresh from the womb actually. 

 I spent some time yesterday over at Aunt Candie's Toy Company in Rockford, trying to find just the right presents for this dear laddie. I got an "odd" assortment of little things that I hope he will like.

 I made Aidan a special Matey card ...

 It's kind of a pop-up card ... I know, it's not exactly authentic in the pop-up department, but Aidan will like it--I know this little guy.

 Matey flew over to inspect the presents before I wrapped them up.

Brendan Time:  I picked Brendan up from school at 3:00 and we drove over here for a short time. We played with Matey-Bird because he is so much fun. And Brendan and I read a lot of Jack Hanna's book about animals again today. We have a lot of fun learning about weird animal facts.

 We ate a very nice meal and just hung out for awhile. Isn't Brendan getting so grown-up looking? WELL, NOT grown-up--but certainly not a baby. I love him so much. He is a very precious person.

The Birthday Boy:  We drove back to Brendan's house early tonight so that I could visit with Aidan and give him his presents. This first picture is actually NOT from me--it's from Aidan's "Unca Sane" (this is how Aidan says it). Isn't it a great gift? Aidan was so pleased to show me every little thing about it. This is the nicest little race track I have ever seen! Good job, Shane! 

 Baby Erin was all in the party spirit ...

 I think Aidan liked his "noculars" best. He wasn't completely sure about Maxwell (the monkey puppet), although Brendan LOVED it. I have watched Aidan with MY puppets, and he even has little voices he uses when he has them on his hand--so perhaps he will warm up to Maxwell eventually.

 Here he is with his purple magnifying glass. Brendan let me know a few weeks ago that PURPLE is Aidan's favorite color.

 Here is little sissy trying it out too ...

 Isn't she something? She absolutely kills me.

 Here is Aidan giving me a "Hi Paw", which always, 100% of the time, brings out every single one of my tickle bugs ...

 Here is baby Erin, darling little one, saying "Cheese" for my camera one more time. Oh.my.word.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AIDAN PAUL!

March 9

Monday: The Littles were here today, and what JOY they bring to my little Beach House. These two are a riot. Not much changes from week to week: we do our train tracks--and Aidan actually pronounced "TRACKS" today for the first time that I have ever heard! Good job, Aidan! We still played with the "Fwains" but that's OK!

 Little Erin Lucia really enjoys eating--yay! It's nice to have at least one of the kiddos who likes to eat! She is eating Cheddar Veggie Straws for a snack in this picture. Look at her rosy cheeks.

 Aidan has been doing most of the track laying himself lately. Now and then he runs into problems with the engineering of the whole thing and then he'll request assistance.

 Matey-Boy joined us for lunch. We gave him a sample of our mac 'n cheese, a part of a veggie straw, and some lettuce. He was only interested in the lettuce.

 Erin is fascinated with Matey, and she is super friendly to him.

 And THIS little curl in THIS little girl is the cutest thing ...

 Matey got very friendly with Erin today, landing on her arm several times to be kissed by her dear little lips.

 I had Matey on my finger for a bit and asked Aidan if he wanted me to bring him over to him for a kiss, but Aidan rejected that idea in no uncertain terms backing his chair up as he talked ...

 For such a jovial jokester of a kiddo, you sure can be wimpy about animals, Aidan! That's OK! We love you to pieces anyway!

 It's your birthday in TWO more days ... oh my!

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PS  I did get a call from my physician office today regarding the ultrasound I had on my abdomen last week. They are referring me out to a gastroenterologist for an MRI to get a closer look at the two lesions found on my pancreas. SO ... all of us, every single person on earth is somewhere in the middle of dying ... my appointment with death might just be sooner than later. Ah, it's OK. I would only fall asleep in Jesus for a little while but I would right away get to see Him and be WITH Him. I'm truly okay with that. 

March 8

Sunday:  Emma spent the night last night. Since we had to jump the clocks ahead one hour, we didn't stay up very late. We watched a couple of episodes of NCIS and then called it a night. 

Emma likes to have Matey share our Sunday morning breakfast time with us, so she always lets him out of his cage. He immediately will fly to our breakfast table and begin making himself an enormous pest--jumping on the sides of our cereal bowls, pecking at every paper on the table, flying on our heads, etc. We finally gave up and put him in my room and shut the door! We then ate our breakfast in peace.

Emma ... she was so quiet last nigh and today. She is usually bursting with energy and she typically talks and laughs a lot. Last night and today, she was quiet--so so quiet. Oh, Lord--whatever is on her heart and mind, please assure Emma that You are near and that You completely love her. 

We learned a little bit about King Hezekiah today. He was a good king--he had a really wicked father, but Hezekiah followed the LORD wholeheartedly. He talked to God about the evil that had surrounded his country and had taken hold of his people. He asked God for help instead of depending on his own devices. God was pleased with Hezekiah. We're going to learn more about him in our next study.

March 7

March 7:  Dear Kaity came to play today. I love this little granddaughter so much. On our drive over to my house she posed this question to me:  "So when He comes down--will it be GOD or Jesus?" I asked her to clarify, because this question came completely out of the blue! "Do you mean when Jesus comes back for us?" I asked? "Yes, that's it, Grandma." So I told her, once again, that it will be Jesus Christ HIMSELF who comes in the clouds with a trumpet sound and will gather all who love Him to be with Him forever. "Do you mean we will get to see Jesus, Grandma?" my KT asked. "Yes, Kaity, we will!" I replied. "With our OWN eyes, Grandma--we will SEE Jesus?" she persisted. "Yes, dear child, with our very own eyes!" Oh to have the heart of a child! To be AWED by the prospect of seeing Jesus face to face! May it be SOON, Lord!

 Kaity and I continued our game of bean bag basketball today. She is so much fun as she plays this game. She loves to do anything physicial ... so we played for quite awhile.

We did our usual other things too, such as playing extensively with our Matey-Bird. We continued coloring our bird pictures too--the ones that we are going to hang on my windowed side door. We had a nice time together today and I was so thankful.

March 5

Thursday:  I was feeling "good enough" to pick Kaity up from school this afternoon. I'm exhausted from this cold/flu that landed on me awhile ago! I hadn't seen Kaity in almost two weeks and was so happy I had enough energy to visit with her a few hours this afternoon. Kaity brought Baby Lily over to see Paco (!!). When I asked Kaity what she wanted to do, she wasn't sure. So I suggested that we play BEAN BAG basketball. I have a hoop (not pictured) over my front door and appropriate smaller basketballs that go with it--but the balls are too bouncy and it makes it frustrating to try and actually make a basket.

 We set up our audience on the coffee table and got out the bean bags. We played a very rousing 60-minute game with Kaity keeping score of our baskets. Kaity is happiest when she is using her body--she's an extremely physical kiddo--but then she is very athletic! Anyway, we had a lot of fun.

 Matey was very glad to have someone to play with, other than sick old me--so he and Kaity hung out for awhile.

 While I was fixing dinner, I handed off my camera to Kaity and asked her to get some unusual pictures of our little feathered friend ... I think she did very well. All of the rest of the pictures are ones Kaity took!

 This is one of Matey's NEW favorite places--my bathroom mirror. He spends a lot of time chatting to his mirror friend in here.

 Here is Kaity giving him a friendly little poke in his soft feathered belly ...

 I think Kaity did very well with her photography today!

 She even snuck in a few "selfies" which cracked me up.

 Good job, Kaity!

March 4

Wednesday:  This is the first day I had been out of my house since LAST Wednesday. It was so good to be out and about, but I'm still not completely over this nasty cold bug--so I have to take it easy. I picked Brendan up from school this afternoon and since he had to be over at church by 5:30, we just drove over to Schuler Books and hung out there for awhile.

 I packed a bag full of art stuff in the hope that I could convince Brendan to do some thumb prints and make a little book, or just color for awhile with me as we visited. I brought his favorite banana bread, and we ordered some hot chocolate as well. We had a very nice time together. I was so thankful Brendan was in the mood to color! 

 It's not easy being sick and missing out on the grandkids. I felt badly about cancelling all of my weekly visits with them, but I really had no choice. I'm going to ease myself back into my "normal" life once again ... just a little at a time.