Dear Ryan

I haven't had much to say lately.  It's not that I don't have things to say.  I just don't want to say them to anyone else only to you.  Therein lies the problem...

You wouldn't believe how much Aric has grown.  He likes to "zhump" all of the time, especially on the bed.  Ryan said that today Aric was "zhumping" off the ground into the air.  It's hard to believe he'll be two in another month (and three days).  He talks all of the time, too.  He's always asking "What's this?"  Some days it makes picking up his toys, especially the play food, quite time consuming when he wants to know what everything is.  The neat thing is he'll repeat everything we tell him.  You can almost see the little wheels in his brain turning as he's processing and absorbing everything.  The other night when Aric was supposed to be in bed sleeping he was actually up playing.  Ryan discovered him applying Grandma's mascara to his hands, his cheeks, his pajamas and pillowcase.  Aric is quite a handful.

Kellyn is such a beautiful little girl.  I'm asked all too often how I wound up with a blue eyed, blonde hair little girl.  I think she looks an awful lot like her daddy.  She's sitting up all of the time and working so hard on crawling.  She hasn't quite got the hang of it and often finds herself in a pushup position or scooting backwards.  It won't be too long before she's crawling all over the house.  No one would argue that Kellyn is a talker.   Most of the time I don't think she realizes all of that noise is coming out of her.  Her main interests are still eating, sleeping, talking, playing and trying to get Aric to notice her.  It's kind of different observing a sister look up to her older brother through the interactions of my children.  I hope Aric is as good to her as you were to me.

You might find it amusing that I had food poisoning and threw up in the middle of Ryan's grandmother's funeral mass.  I didn't find it too amusing having to choke back the pepto bismo and water that was coming up but what could I do stuck in the middle of the pew in the second row while everyone was kneeling in prayer.  That will teach me to sit in that spot again.  Wouldn't I have made a scene if I had climbed over the pews to run to the bathroom?  Thankfully, somehow no one noticed.  They all thought I was having a coughing fit.

Aric and Kellyn met the vast majority of their relatives over the past month.  It was probably a little too much family time actually, especially since none of it was planned.  I was glad to see everyone leave after having the chaos of a house full of unexpected guests all week long.  Well, that and they left just in time since our septic tank is now overflowing.  I am ready for some peace and quiet.  Calm, lots of calm.

It was windy yesterday and Ryan took Aric outside to fly a kite.  Aric was more interested in running around but they had a good time.  There weren't many clouds in the air, but it made me smile and think of you anyway. 

By the way, mom and I were talking and think that you need more practice at making those sandcastles. They aren't quite distinguishable amongst all of the other lumps in the sky.  I'm still faithfully looking, though.  People actually might think I'm going crazy by the amount I'm looking in the sky.

Ryan is good.  He's been taking care of me and doing all he can for us.  Yesterday he the kids gave me the sweetest Mother's Day gift.  It was a digital picture frame.  I'll have to find some time to dig through pictures and get more added to it. 

I'm doing okay.  Trying to keep it all together and get through the chaos of my life.  I have had so much on my plate that I haven't dealt with things like I need to.  That's okay, though, someday I'll just be the crazy woman crying hysterically in the bread aisle of the grocery store.  Then I'll be able to pick up the pieces and go on.

Well, I'm going to go before I really start to cry.  Aric either broke my nose yesterday or just clocked me really good.  It really doesn't matter which, I just know that it really, really hurts to blow my nose and I'd prefer not to until it heals.

Kiss my babies and keep working on those sand castles.