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Uncle Mark & Auntie Jen prepared an elaborate meal using their brand new grill. It was quite a spread with beef, honey-glazed chicken wings, veggies, zucchini pie, cookies and super cupcakes, compliments of Emma’s organic sprinkles. Yum.

Austen really liked spending time with Emma as she followed her around. Austen now points to pictures & videos and identifies Emma by name although Austen’s still working on identifying Erin by name. For now, she refers to Erin as “baby.”

Erin enjoyed playing with her Mama’s plants and she didn’t like it when Austen took over her toys or her swing. Austen is still working hard on sharing, too.

Emma likes throwing balls out of the ball pit while Dada tosses them back in.

We know everyone loves bubbles but how about Super bubbles! Thanks to Mama’s trip to Target, the girls enjoyed to oversized bubbles. They looked so good that Emma even tried tasting the bubbles.

Emma spins as she unleashes a super long bubble.

Austen loves to go on all the swings she sees so she could not resist this one either.

Erin enjoyed playing with her sand box and was also enjoying the huge bubbles.

Austen played with the tow mower while Emma enjoyed another new toy Mama brought along that flew into the air and had blinking lights. At one point, it flew into the neighbors yard but Dada quickly retrieved it.

Austen had fun at Drew’s birthday party. She played with all her friend and really liked the big ride-on train.

One minute you’re rolling around on the floor playing with Aaron…

…the next minute…

…and then you get a lecture from Olga (Aaron’s Mama).

Austen had fun at Drew’s birthday party. She played with all her friend and really liked the big ride-on train.

One minute you’re rolling around on the floor playing with Aaron…

…the next minute…

And then you get a lecture from Olga (Aaron’s Mama).

Austen had fun at Drew’s birthday party. She played with all her friend and really liked the big ride-on train.

One minute you’re rolling around on the floor playing with Aaron…

…the next minute, pow!

And then you get a lecture from Olga (Aaron’s Mama).

Chacha visited today to play with Austen. Austen always gets really excited to see Chacha and often looks for him on the days when he’s not visiting.
Here’s Austen hanging around…with Chacha’s help.

is that you often end the day feeling like, “Whew, I just got by,” like you were barely able to pass the exam and did so only by the skin of your teeth.

For Mother’s Day, Mama watched Austen play at the park with Dada — Austen was in an ignore-Mommy mood. But Mama also showed Austen that girls can do anything. Never having done woodworking before, Mama worked on coping joints for crown molding, using saw and dremmel … yes, on Mother’s Day! The upstairs library is almost finished.

Mama also got to eat her favorite food (Mr. Pi’s Sushi) and drink her favorite drink (Iced Green Tea Latte at Starbucks).

Uncle Mark sent an e-mail suggesting that Jen should get twice as many Mother’s Day gifts because she has two kids, instead of just one like Mama and Holly. Unfortunately, Mama got zero gifts and by the Multiplication Property of Zero, two times zero is still zero. Oh well, hopefully Emma and Erin came up with some good gifts for Auntie Jen. Auntie Lu is still waiting for her birthday cards from Emma and Erin and Morgan. When is Auntie’s Day?

In the evening, Mother’s Day took a turn of the worse. Austen fell and bumped her head — there was bleeding and a bump on her scalp. Then, at bedtime, Austen ran away from Mommy. Fighting and flailing, she ran screaming down the hall to Dada. Mommy was very hurt and got sort of mad at Austen. Luckily, they made up later and exchanged a bunch of kisses.

Life is always a struggle, especially with all the illness and loss we experience, but Mama is pleased with how strong, athletic, assertive, independent, unique and smart Austen is and wouldn’t trade her for a more docile child. Austen will never be a child-care provider’s easy payday, but she’s going to become an interesting woman. What’s that quote? “Well-behaved women never make history.”

During her Easter visit, Austen got to play on Morgan’s swing set. The climbed up to the top, went down the slide, swang on the swings, ran around and played with pug.