The Highlights

I haven't done a Highlights post in F-O-R-E-V-E-R and since there is no time like the present, here goes! 

• Smiley Girl is a little chatter box these days.  She is trying so hard to make multiple words come out of her mouth and just glows when she realizes that one of us actually understood what she just said.  This language thing is kind of hard to grasp but I have a feeling that once she really gets it she isn't going to stop talking.  Current words:  Mommy, Dad, 'Babeth (her version of Miss E's name), eyes, feet, Papa, me, MINE!, stop, doll, that, yeah, there, something that sounds like 'yaba daba doo!' and the occasional two or three word sentence such as 'stop it!', 'wha da?' (what's that?) and my favorite 'I don't know'.  She is a horrible tease and takes great pleasure in tormenting her sister and any one else who happens to be around.
• Miss E turned four almost a month ago.  She is blossoming into a young lady and often will respond to me with 'Yes, your majesty!' - which honestly just cracks me up.  So often I look at her and wonder where the time has gone.  Bright, talented and sporting one awesome imagination, she has 'kids' of her own who live in our pretend upstairs but they sleep in my car at night.  Several mornings as I have left for work she has followed me to the car to get her kids.  Apparently she has five kids, some are girls, some are boys and there is at least one baby but maybe more.  I think it depends on the day.
• TDM has become one heck of a Mr Mom.  His relationship with the girls has changed so much and I love seeing them go to him for things that they have always deferred to me on.  Having him home every single day has been incredible.  We actually talk!  Like, to each other!  And there isn't a phone making the communication possible.  In the eight years that we have been married I know we have had a couple of 4-6 week periods where he has been off the road, but I know that it has never happened in Miss E's lifetime.  I think we are all happy with having daddy home!
• Back in February I had mentioned that TDM was quite sick.  After his ER trip he went through a couple of tests and followed up with his doctor.  Diagnosis?  Severe lactose intolerance.  We have always known that milk bothered him and sitting down to a bowl of ice cream was a sure way to get a belly ache but we never would have guessed that the ingredients in almost everything we used for cooking could make him flat on his back for a week kind of sick.  I was sabotaging him without even realizing it.  A week into a total milk elimination diet we both knew that we were making progress.  Lesson learned:  When you don't feel crappy all of the time life is a lot happier!
• Between now and July 6th, we have three weddings, (four if you count one that is out of state that we won't make it to) one bridal shower, a youth group trip, a date night (!), a week spent working out of town and America's birthday.  And somewhere in there we desperately need to sell one big red truck. 
• Summer is here!