Playdate and Duane-less Weekend

So Duane left on Thursday morning for his first official race weekend -- a thing which he has spent much of his time, energy, and money on of late. It sounds as though everything went well, albeit after one of his buddies was involved in a couple of accidents. I am just thankful my husband is coming home in one piece.

Without Duane around, Rachel and I spent a LOT of quality time together. It reminded me a bit of my maternity leave, except without Duane coming home every evening. I spent a good portion of the weekend following the NCAA basketball tourney. I don't even really like basketball much, but I run the tournament at work, and it is so fun when a team is upset and all the brackets take a sudden turn.

Also, we hosted the second official playdate between Rachel and her friends, Aiden and Quentin. The weather was nice enough for us to take a walk. We must have looked like the baby brigade as we walked single file to the little park at the school a few blocks from our house. The kids seemed pretty unimpressed by the park -- Aiden hated the swings and Rachel was just disinterested in pretty much everything.

Then Sunday I made a date to see a movie with my sister. I went to church with mom, who agreed to watch Rachel while I was at the movie. Rachel made it pretty easy on her though -- she slept the whole time I was gone.

Now we are just waiting on Duane to get home. The weekend seemed to fly by, but that is good. We missed the big guy.

St. Patrick's Day

So, it's St. Patrick's Day. But I am not wearing green. Threaten to pinch me, if you want. I'm not Irish. I don't take the day off to go drinking. I didn't really drink on St. Patrick's in college. Really, I would say St. Patrick's Day lost its novelty for me when I graduated from high school and stopped getting the day off to celebrate.
Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed the day as a child. I liked having the parties at school. I wore my green. It was fun. My mom bought us Shamrock donuts from Jolly Pirate, which are THE best because they are FULLLLLL of rich cream. So, to carry on the spirit, I dressed Rachel in green this morning, despite the fact that she, also, is not Irish.
I won't ruin the holiday for her, just because I don't get into it. But I just can't do it. I haven't been able to get into it for years now. So if you see me today and I am not wearing green, pinch me if you feel the need. But I probably won't wear green next year either...or the year after.
I guess we'll see what happens when Rachel starts to notice her mom's defiance. Maybe then, for her, I will dig up something green to wear to make the day fun for her. And of course, I will always make sure she has her very own Jolly Pirate Shamrock donut. :)

Walkabout.

So the weekend didn't start well for our family. I had a bad day at work Friday, and unfortunately I carried it home with me and couldn't recover until early Sunday. I did spend a nice day with my girl on Saturday as Duane decided to play golf with his friend. We hung out, went shopping a bit, and then enjoyed some quality family time.

Sunday, Duane worked on his homework and then went to the OSU basketball game with a friend. Meanwhile, Rachel and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a good time, and it reminded me slightly of a time when she was about 6-7 weeks old and I took her for walks around the block in the summer. The difference is that now she isn't fussing quite so much and she loves to sit up and watch all the people. We really do live in a wonderful neighborhood. We watched as people played with their kids, walked their dogs, and gathered in driveways to talk to one another.

When we got home, I took some pictures of the little sprout. I can't believe how big she is getting!

BABY TIME!

Duane started classes this week, so I had a great excuse to leave work somewhat ontime to go and pick up Rachel from the sitter. It was really enjoyable spending some quality time with my baby girl. It made me realize how much I am missing when I am at work. She is getting so big. Her latest development is that she talks a LOT more than she used to. She varies from "DaDaDa" to "NaNaNa" and "MAH!"
She is still not up on all fours, but she has some spectacular upper body strength, because she drags herself around the house, chasing after everyone. We are starting to give her some dissolvable solids, but she doesn't appreciate the texture much. She makes an icky face and spits a lot of it out. Every now and then she seems to like it, and rumor has it that her friend Ben (a little boy at the sitter's) likes to feed her Cheerios!
Being home so much has given me the opportunity to take a couple more pictures. So here they are!