Well, I haven’t blogged in for ever, and Shane hasn’t blogged in a while. So here is a listing of fun new things around here.
House.
The bathroom vanity is finished. It looks great, and one sink is dripless. Just have to get time for Shane to reseat the other sink drain to make it dripless too, then we can have 2 functioning sinks again. 
We got a “new” couch. It is nice and comfy, and not 60 years old. It also has no holes. And, we managed to get it while my arm was casted and Shane was really protective of it, so I didn’t even have to move it (just drove my friends pickup to transport it)!
I also got a “new” GE profile stainless steel french door refrigerator to replace the 20+yr old almond GE fridge we had. A HUGE improvement–both in capacity, look, and energy savings. (Our other fridge had non-sealing seals, and no one ever looked in the fruit/veggie drawers.) Shane says he feels bad now when he opens the fridge and can see all the fruit and veggies–like he should be eating them or something. I think that is a good thing. (PS–the hand-prints are courtesy of the movers we hired. You actually don’t see them much in our kitchen lighting, but the flash really brings them out!)
Girls.
Danelle is so into being big, and figuring out relationships. She is fairly certain her friend Mimi and she should like all the same things, and do everything together. That works, except when there are 4 other little girls and a boy who also want “in” on things. She has really enjoyed all the extra people we’ve had around wilst I’ve healed. I think she will like preschool in the fall. I hope she doesn’t drive everyone nuts with her prescription for the way things should be…
She has also started to “read” books aloud to Shane or I. This makes me very happy. Of course, she isn’t actually reading the words, but at least she is showing interest in reading books herself, and not just me reading to her.
Finally, she has really started to color really well. She has the concept of coloring in the lines DOWN, and she is changing colors appropriately (for a while, she was just coloring everything on the page the same color). I’ve seen a lot of growth in her. Here is a picture where she is protecting her paints from her sister–
Thea is a walking, signing machine. She’s been walking about 1 month, and she is quite good at it. She signs nurse consistently, and also more. Sometimes I see eat, and all done. She is also a very independent kid. Loves to climb. Doesn’t want her sister to knock her over and is very vocal about that or anytime something doesn’t work the way she thinks it should. She is very right handed, and also rather mechanical. It is very interesting to me to watch her as she tries to take something apart that she’s seen taken apart, or otherwise operate some device. She likes to laugh. She also likes to shake her head at you with a great big smile as she moves in a direction she knows she isn’t supposed to (up the stairs, or toward the computer). So, she is pretty fun right now.
