If you stay quiet...

Not too much has been going on. We're enjoying lazy days of summer filling them with gym time, playgrounds, and getting ready for the beach. We took a breakfast play date with our friends Elizabeth and Sarah to McDonald's b/c breakfast never interferes with anyone's nap. Natalie is quite the daredevil at the playground. She has no fear and attempts it all- even stuff that I decide is much to big and scary for her...no worries she is climbing up it in an instant.

I'm continuing to battle my stupid staff infection. About a month ago I had this thing appear on my face that (sorry for yuck description) got raised, hard, red, and full of ooze. The dr put me on 1 week of topical and oral antibiotics and then this week (appx 1 month later) it reappeared- gross! Right around vacation time. Last time I wasn't sure what it was and it got large enough that I had to wear a bandaid on my face for a week but this time hopefully I caught it early enough. I had our first teenage babysitter come watch the girls for an hour. The dr put me on 1 month of topical and oral antibiotic to hopefully kill the stubborn thing. The sweet teenager did great with the girls. I know Melanie kept her in line :)

Natalie has had yucky, runny, numerous poops for a few days so I also tried to nip that in bud before vacation and the phone advice nurse after listening to my description decided it seemed like some type of virus and I didn't need to worry unless she was having 8+ runny poops a day or if it lasted more than 10 days. Believe me...if either of those scenarios occurred I would most definitely be calling back.

But, the sweetest thing is Melanie's latest conversations. I've realized that if I shut up long enough to listen to her she asks very intelligent sweet questions. She has been very curious about death lately and what makes people die and what happens when you die. The only really examples she has of death are my dad's parents and Brian's and Dawn's cat, Gator. She doesn't remember Clint's grandmother so she doesn't bring her up. She is really obsessed with how unhealthy smoking is and that it can make you sick. She wants to know what kind of sickness you get from smoking and I told her cancer. Well, the smart little girl I have said, "did papa smoke because he had cancer?" I had to explain that there are different kinds of cancer and that all cancer is not caused by smoking. She wanted to know what happens to be people's bodies when they die. I didn't think it would be okay to go into cremation or anything so I just said that bodies are buried and explained tombstones and that people go to where people and pets are buried to talk to them and remember them. She said that she wants to go to my grandparent's graves to talk to them and that could she talk them at night and in church. I told her yes. So then she asked if we could talk to my grandmother right then (we were in her bed). I said yes. And, sweet Melanie began telling my granny about when it snowed this past winter how she built a snowman and then asked me to tell a story. The next night she said that she remembered eating raisins at Granny's house and asked if she could tell Granny something else. I told her of course. Then she started telling Granny the story about her preschool graduation and what she sang there. It was really sweet and I was completely getting choked up. Lately, even at dinner, she will hear something that sparks a memory or a question, and she will talk about Gator and my grandparents at least once a day. She gets nervous about me and Clint one day having to die and I try to assure her that we are healthy and young and will be around for a very long time to take care of her and Natalie. Then she asks when she dies can she see Granny, Papa, and Gator again. We tell her yes, and she just says, "ok, goodnight." It is all so sweet and innocent. It is pretty amazing to me that she is even curious. She is such a different child than Natalie and some other 3 year olds I know. She definitely wears her emotions on her sleeve and is very inquisitive. Though that can make for some serious tantrums at times it makes for a very caring girl at others. My lesson I took out of it all is I need to slow down and give her the time to really talk to me because she obviously has a lot to say.