Bullet Point Friday

Lots of business today... we're gonna check it off bullet point style!

• We had a lovely Easter celebration!  For the second year, I was asked by Zion Lutheran Church to play for their Living Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.  And also for the second year in a row, in between the afternoon and evening service, I did a last minute run to Super Walmart for Easter basket goodies.  I hoped for us to attend a Good Friday service, but Joey's lack of nap that day meant a 7pm bedtime for him.  Saturday night, we had a Passover Seder celebration with our friends Luke and Kari and their kids!  Kari and I have been a part of a study this winter/spring about the Biblical feasts Jewish families celebrate and how Christ is the fulfillment of all 7 of them.  It was very special to integrate this into our Easter and I think we're both ready to do it again next year!  And Sunday was a great morning at church as we saw a great crowd at both services and the breakfast in between.  We spent the rest of the afternoon with Andrew's family at his grandparents' house (yay for everybody congregating just one hour away from us!).  We had the annual lunch at our favorite local restaurant there, the egg hunt in the yard for all the cousins (who are all adults now but who cares!) and our kids, and dinner together.  We were able to take a nice picture of the 5 of us for the first time since the hospital when Hannah came along.
• Hannah is 7 weeks old as of yesterday!  According to our home scale she is 12 pounds now.  She is moving into size 2 diapers and size 3 month clothes.  I've taken away all newborn outfits and Hannah sent a few of her favorites to BabyGirlCousinNoName in Chicago, due in August.  She's getting more vocal with coos and gurgles, and the social smiles are happening more frequently.  She is a Momma's girl and gives her poor Dad (and most other people for that matter) a hard time.  Her gas issues haven't really gotten better, so after we get through our current can of formula we will try samples of a sensitive formula and see if she does better in the evenings when she has the most discomfort.  Someone asked me the other day if I see a difference in her personality compared to the boys.  The only big thing I see so far is that she needs more physical contact than they did.  She needs to be held to fall asleep most of the time, and I remember by this point Ben was putting himself to sleep in the crib!  She gets toted around the house a couple times a day in a Moby Wrap so she can be snuggled close in an upright position (which she likes) and I can have my hands free.  She's pulled a few sleep-all-nighters in the last few weeks, which is amazing!  And if she doesn't sleep all night, she does a pretty awesome job going from about 8 pm till the 4 am feeding.
• Ben and I are sooo close to being done with his kindergarten curriculum.  We have about 10 more math lessons, 4 more reading lessons, and a handful of pages in handwriting.  We won't come to a full stop immediately, though.  Once the reading lessons are complete, the book has us move on to independent reading of some beginner books.  I have some digital Scholastic math workbooks with fun games to maintain those skills too.  We'll probably do that through Andrew's last day of school on May 18th and call it quits until the beginning of July.  While we won't officially start 1st grade that early, I do want to move back to the same kinds of learning activities he'll finish out this school year with, and maybe even some units in "elective" subjects like geography or music or art.  Or something. 
• We don't get out much these days, obviously, but it's been a blessing!!  Not only are we saving $$ on gas in the van (heehee!), Ben and Joey are playing together much better than ever before.  Conversely, they fight worse than they did before too!  :-)  It's fun to hear their little conversations with each other and see brotherhood blossom before my very eyes.