Picnic in the Park

It's such a bummer that we don't have what we need to download pictures onto our computer here in Dallas. Tonight we had a picnic. We picked Joel up at school and headed to the playground with our sandwiches, pears, and water in tow. The kids had SO much fun. And we had fun watching them (and doing some playing too).

Grady is just acting so grown up these days. He helps like never before. For example, the other day I had changed his diaper and just tossed it on the floor, proceeding to change Hadley's. Well, before I knew it he had folded up the diaper like we always do (although I never realized he saw us do that), opened the bathroom door, and tossed it in the trash where we always put the diapers (although, again, I didn't realize that he knew that was the diaper trash). It's so fun to watch him. Tonight at the playground he just took off. I mean, he's always just taken off...we do NOT have clingy kids...but, he was able to do everything...climbing ropes, climbing all kinds of ladders and steps, riding on the merry-go-round. But, at the same time he is now old enough to reason some things out. There was a sliding pole (like a fireman's sliding pole) there and he went over to it, looked at it, and decided against it without us having to say anything. He uses complete sentences now and is just so grown up. It's sad in a way (you know, he's not a baby anymore), but also very fun and exciting.

Hadley is everywhere and wants everything her brother wants/has now. She's pretty easygoing though and is always so happy. She is not talking at all yet (we seem to have late talkers, which really isn't such a big deal...we can usually communicate just fine without words), but she does say "thank you" which is so dang cute. Of course it's her own little version of it, something like "t t." :) Seriously, it is just 2 "t" sounds put together, but it is her "thank you." Really fun. Another thing that she does is when we tell her to say "bye" to someone, she immediately blows them a kiss...even complete strangers in the elevator. :) A few weeks ago we started putting her hair in pigtails, which is really cute. If we had pictures I wouldn't have to type that, I'd just show you...but, soon you'll see.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying each other...they laugh and play all the time. And, we are thoroughly enjoying them. It's so fun to think about what the next little one will be like. Every now and then Grady will announce "Mama having baby." Only 6 more months until we know what the next one will be like. :)