Adventures in Parenting

Overnight we received about a foot of snow and awoke to the news that schools were closed! Since Rebecca works on Fridays at a school for the deaf, that meant both Mommy and big sister had a snow day on Katherine's birthday!
Katherine maximized the time with Mommy by reducing the length of her naps to the absolute minimum, and Elisabeth ventured out in the snow (sans sister) to climb, play and roll in the wonderful white stuff.

[I'm told that my laptop is on its way back from the service center to me, and when it arrives, we'll be sure to post pictures of the birthday girl and her big sister!

On Thursday mornings I participate in a Spanish as a second language class for parents whose kids are in bilingual classes. On these mornings, Katherine comes with me to class (which is held in the library of Elisabeth's school). 
Yesterday I was reminded of just how blessed we are to have such an agreeable child. The class runs from 9-11am, and for the first 40 minutes or so, Katherine sat on the table quietly playing with her toys and waving at the other parents, while occasionally munching on Cheerios. At about 9:40 she started rubbing her eyes, so (without standing up), I strapped on the Ergo, popped her in, and gave her the pacifier. In less than a minute she was asleep (and I was still sitting), which she continued for about 45 minutes while I learned which syllable receives emphasis if a word does not have an accent.

When she stirred and woke up, she gladly took a bottle and continued playing with her toys on my lap while I scrawled all of my new vocabulary words in my notebook. 

I have fond memories of book clubs at church during which Elisabeth, at about the same age, sat in the middle of a boardroom table while we discussed Augustine and Lesslie Newbigin. I am now deeply grateful to have another child who loves to sit on the table and play.

I think the thing that Katherine grasps best at this stage is my shirt. Not infrequently when I am putting her down, she has a tight grip on my shirt until she simply can't hold on any more!