A Day at the Beach

Annie's first steps in the water

Big sister Emma is helping Annie.  Annie really loved having her feet in the sand.

Playing in her cabana

Little Miss Monkey Face

Emma's ready to hit the waves

Annie's beach cabana - as you can see, she's got the whole relaxation thing down.

Yes, Mimi, Annie does have red, RED hair.  

Emma and Daddy have a chat at the shore.  He's probably telling her how great it will be to be a nun when she grows up.

Playing in the sand.

We spent the day Saturday at the beach at Pokagon State Park in Angola.  We had a great time and Emma came home filthy.  The sand is more like dirt than sand - strange.  Emma loved playing in the lake and at the playground.  She came home with a battle wound, though.  She fell off the jungle gym - twice - once falling on her face.  She's even cute with a boo-boo on her chin.  

A lot can happen in a week.  Annie is eating cereal now.  She really struggles with it so I'm hoping to start therapy SOON.  She loves her cereal and she tries so hard but she just can't seem to get everything coordinated.  We have to tap her tongue with the spoon or use a binky to get her to swallow.  Annie also wants to sit up very badly.  She's trying but just doesn't have the strength to do it yet.  Have I mentioned that she's only 3 1/2 months?  She's finally sleeping through the night, also.  She slept for 8 hours last night and 10 the night before.  She wakes up so happy and so do Mommy and Daddy!  It doesn't take much to make Annie smile, though.  She's very much a people person.  She wants to be where the people are.  I think that's what's encouraging her to sit up - she wants to see what the people are doing.  She's also working on 3 teeth.  Annie's baptism is next Sunday after 11 am mass.  We're so excited and can't wait to see all of our family who are coming to town.  

Emma's recovering from all the birthday excitement.  She's all about the princess.  She bought with one of her gift cards a Cinderella doll that sings.  I have to get that on video.  She'll tell me and Kurt, "No, don't sing.  Only I will sing."  Emma continues to impress us with how much she knows.  She's still terrified of "buggies," though.  The other day I was feeding Annie in the living room and Emma was at the patio table playing Polly Pockets when she let out a blood-curdling scream.  I ran to the patio and there stood Emma in a corner of the patio, telling me, "it's a bad, bad buggie, Mommy!"  I saw nothing but she obviously saw something.  

I guess I should say something about the elephant in the room.  Some of you know that Kurt and I have been struggling.  At one point last week we seriously discussed separating.  It has most certainly NOT been a day at the beach, but, a lot can happen in a week.  I always used to think we were fine because we never fought.  After 11 years of not fighting there are a lot of things that go unsaid.  We realized that we have a pattern of not communicating (the irony being that both of us have professions in, of all things, communications) and have let life get in the way.  We've put everything else ahead of our relationship and let the relationship drift.  Unfortunately, we drifted apart.  We're essentially putting our relationship - which I think we forgot about - on life support.  We started therapy Friday and it went very well.  It's going to be about 4 to 6 months but we're learning new patterns and dealing with conflict resolution.  We're also doing a Retrouvialle and a Marriage Encounter weekend - everyone says great things about both weekends.  It's going to be a challenge but as we sat in mass this morning and listened to Fr. John's homily we saw the ginormous, flashing, blinking, neon sign, telling us that we're not alone and we'll get through this.  Here's a little story to let you know where we were:  Our therapist asked when we last had a date.  It was when Emma was 6 months old (she's 3 now) and the time before that was when I was still pregnant for her.  And we wonder why we're here.  Keep us in your prayers.  We need a lot of support.  

Heather