choir and books

Slane loves a good book. She asks us to read many books before bed, and is starting to ask for the story two or three times. Sometimes she even "reads" part of the book to us. She can quote all of "Five Little Monkeys" and almost has "Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing" down.

Q and I have been fortunate enough to continue to participate in the church choir even though we have a busy toddler to entertain. When she was first born, we took a break but then managed to stick with it last year. This year it has been more difficult, due in large part to the fact that Slane is fully mobile and verbal. At first it looked like one of us was just chasing her around during rehearsals. It got to the point that I told Q that maybe one of us should not do choir because we weren't getting much out of it (or contributing much). Just a few days after I said that the church hired a nursery worker to watch Slane while we were in rehearsal. It has been wonderful! Slane loves to play and we love to sing, so it works out.

But, what about actually singing during church? Well.....at first it was easy to just hand a tiny, social, baby to anyone who had free hands. Then it got a little bit harder, and sometimes Slane didn't take being passed off very well. We tend to give her to the same person, Karla, who sits near our spots (yes, we are that kind of church, where we all sit in basically the same locations each week).

This week when I passed Slane off to Karla, Karla showed me that she had been coming prepared to church. She has been bringing Slane appropriate books to church in her purse! Brilliant. Slane is occupied, Karla gets to enjoy the anthem (not always the case with Slane), and we get to sing.

a walk outside

It was warm enough yesterday that much of our neighborhood had escaped their houses and were enjoying the weather. I could smell several grills going, lots of dogs were being walked, runners were out, and everyone was in a good mood. It was muddy, and messy, but no one cared.

Slane and I took two walks. First she wanted to walk, and we did. There was a little boy (littler than Slane anyway) down the block and first we went to say hi to him. As is her way lately, she slightly accosted the poor child with hugs and her constant flow of commentary about life and babies. We then walked back home and cleaned up our driveway a bit (the recyclers did not pick up our stuff, instead I found it upside down in the middle of the driveway).

We went into the sunroom, opened a couple of windows, and played kitchen and cars for a bit before Slane discovered her strollers, and begged to go for a ride. So I packed her up in a stroller and we walked the neighborhood until we came to impassable mud and turned around.

It felt so good to get outside. We have been just going, going, going lately and it was great to slow down and enjoy life outside our house for a bit.

There are several pictures on the camera that I would love to get up soon, but I need to find batteries for the camera first, and then install the new computer mouse, and take care of a few other things first. Pics to come!