The Little Girl Who Cried Wolf

On Friday I took a much needed personal day so I could hang out with my kiddos. I get three each year and this was the first one I'd taken. Mostly because I was so sick with flu and strep in the fall that I didn't want to miss a school day-- even for something fun.

Because I work near a Great Wolf Lodge, I get a corporate discount. We decided a Thursday night would be the best time to put the discount to work and check out this place that so many friends had already visited and loved. It was hard to explain to Cate. Sure, there are commercials for it all the time on TV, but she only ever watches PBS, DVD's we own, or shows/movies we've downloaded on iTunes. Calling it "an indoor pool" was an understatement. We picked a Thursday night because it was cheaper and because we figured it would be less crowded. And by less crowded, I mean fewer older kids running around to knock down my little ones. I was right about that one. We arrived around dinner time and decided to eat first. Cate got wolf ears with her dinner. Then it was off to the waterpark. We ended up running into some friends from church there. Neither of us had any idea the other would be there. We played in the water for a little over an hour before heading back up to our fireplace suite to bathe the kids and get them ready for a bedtime story. The highlight of story time for Cate was getting to meet one of the Lodge's mascots, Violet the Wolf. In the morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and then a little time in the sunshine on our balcony while we waited for the waterpark to open again. We staked out our spot at the waterpark (so we'd have a table for lunch) and checked out of our room. The great thing about Great Wolf is that your waterpark pass is actually good for the whole day you arrive and the whole day you depart. So even though we had to check out at 11am, we were free to enjoy the waterpark until it closed that night. Brennan was doing this by lunch time though:The kids lasted until about 2:30 that afternoon. We got dressed, packed up our stuff, and headed home (which is only a short 25 minute drive away). Cate did this in the car: Cate's stuffed Violet was a bribe to get her to go down one of the kid slides. We knew she would love it once she went down. And we were right. I think that kid went down the slide about 50 times after she got over her initial fear.



Brennan went down the slide too, but since one of us had to get him started and the other had to catch him, we have no video of it.

All in all, it was a perfect night away-- no cooking, no toys to clean up, just lots of fun. It also gave me a little more confidence about all of us sleeping in the same room at Disney this summer. The kids were worn out Thursday night and went right to bed. Eric and I were able to watch TV without waking them, but pretty much fell asleep not too long after they did. And no one woke up during the night. I also have to give the lodge major props for cleanliness (like Purell sanitizing stations EVERYWHERE) and having a lot to do, even for the little guy. We stayed in just the waterpark, but apparently there's an arcade, bowling alley, and more that we didn't even have the time or energy for on this trip.

I have a feeling Great Wolf will become at least a once-a-year family tradition, if not twice a year. While a little pricey, it was worth every penny to spend so much fun time with my husband and kids.

I'm sure our little boy would cry wolf too if he had that word in his vocabulary!

~Melody :-)

Growing Up is Tough...for Momma too!

This weekend brought about one of the hardest moments of motherhood for me thus far. Just before 5am on Saturday morning, Cate woke up to use the bathroom. Instead of going back to bed (she normally doesn't rise until 7/7:30), she proceeded to throw an epic temper tantrum about going back to bed. A temper tantrum like we've only ever seen on one, maybe two, other occasions.

We went through our normal consequence routine and it had zero effect on her. So I did the only thing I knew would get her attention. I told her she couldn't go to her friend's birthday party later that day. A party her friend really wanted her to be at and a party she really wanted to attend. The tantrum settled down after that, but Cate still refused to go back to bed and sat in defiance, awake on the couch, until the sun rose.

When the reality set in that she wasn't going to get to go to her friend's party, she started telling me she was sorry she had made a bad decision. She promised she wouldn't get up before the sun the next morning. In short, she was heartbroken.

But I stuck to my guns. I knew if I backed down, she would think she could get away with it another time. We did allow her to take her friend's gift over later in the day, after the party. She apologized to her friend too.

I think she learned her lesson. She was in bed by 6:45 last night and when she woke up this morning at 6am to go to the bathroom, she went right to back to bed and didn't get back up for another hour. I have no idea if she actually went back to sleep, but I have to commend her for doing the right thing.

She's starting to learn a lot of lessons as her personality continues to develop. Last week was parent observation week at dance class. I was amazed at her ability to listen, follow directions, and try her hardest to do what she's being taught. This time last year, when Cate started dance, my girl was lost. She hung in there, but for the most part just did her own there and frequently came to the waiting room to make sure I was still there. Now she never comes to the waiting room and listens like a pro. I'm so proud.
It's making me excited for this year's recital!



Growing up is tough and so are the lessons that go with it. But I stand by my decision yesterday. And I know Cate is only better for it.

~Melody :-)

Bittersweet

Tonight is bittersweet. My sweet little man, now with 7 teeth (number 7 popped through today, and I have to tell you, with numbers 5-7 you wouldn't have even known he was teething-- he was that good), is growing up. And tonight is the last night I'll nurse him to sleep.

Truth be told, it's been several weeks coming. I hesitated to blog about all of this, but decided I would, mostly because I want any other woman going through something similar to know she is totally normal.

I blogged last month about how I really hadn't felt well since I'd had the flu at the beginning of November. A couple of different doctors ran lots of different tests and the conclusive result was that every unpleasant symptom-- from nausea to dizziness to insomnia to breaking out in a sweat to headaches-- was due to the hormonal changes of weaning. A weaning that went fast because of the dramatic decrease in milk supply brought about by the dehydration during the flu.

I've only been nursing before bed for about 3 weeks. Most of my symptoms have subsided and are manageable. So I decided to keep nursing before bed for as long as I could. Cue weird rash cropping up earlier this week. Yup, hormone related too. And that's pretty much when I knew. To feel totally normal again, I need to go easy on myself and give up the night nursing. And to be completely honest, he's really not all that interested in it either. Probably because there's not much there. We made it 11 months on breast milk as his only liquid nutrition (other than the formula supplements we had to give him in the hospital), he had morning and nights on mommy milk for most of December, and now, at two weeks past his first birthday, we're stopping for good. It was my own personal convictions that kept me going and I make no judgements on women that choose to nurse for longer periods of time, shorter periods of time, or not at all. Every woman is different.

I'm happy I was able to give him that much and I'm happy to get started on making a full recovery and feeling fully normal again (and not feel like my skin is crawling).

I'll leave you with a video of my cute little guy playing with the kitchen timer, which he couldn't decide if it was a phone or a teether (no small parts, promise). I love watching him play and pretend. That boy can "zoom" some cars, too! He's really starting to enter a fun stage of babyhood. That stage on the cusp of todderhood. He has his 1 year checkup on Monday and I'm hoping it shows a weight gain as well as brings some suggestions for helping with the gagging/tonsil issue (he still gags on chunky food, but since the antibiotic to reduce his tonsil swelling, he hasn't actually vomited).

I love my little man! Cheers to our last night!




~Melody :-)

Angels We Have Heard On High

Today Cate had her preschool Christmas program. I don't think she expected me to be there because this is how she looked when she walked in and saw me.
I had planned on attending because her program luckily fell during my lunch and plan time at school. However, I had a doctor's appointment today (everything's okay and no, I'm not pregnant...just checking on some stuff). So instead of having to rush back to school, I was able to enjoy her program, the reception afterward, and lunch out with my family before going to the doctor.
Girlfriend sang her heart out. Her class dressed as angels. The two classes of older children were shepherds and wise men. The class of younger children were dressed as sheep. The preschool director and the pastor of the church where Cate attends took turns reading the Christmas story. They would pause for breaks and let each class sing the song they worked on. Cate's class' song was "Angels Watching Over Me." I thought you might enjoy a little video of her. She's second from the left in front.


After it was over, we enjoyed socializing with the other preschool parents. Cate also gave me a tour of her classroom and showed me her latest piece of artwork. Her lead teacher (who also teaches the extra music class that Cate has stayed for on Wednesdays all year) told us that Cate definitely has her dad's ear for music. And she invited Eric to bring in his guitar and play for the kids sometime. I'll have to be sure and take a personal day for that. Even Brennan gets into music now-- boppin' his head and bouncing on his bottom any time he hears a melody.
The countdowns continue-- 2 more school days, 1 week until my little guy turns one and 9 days until Christmas. Our Christmas shopping is DONE! Now we just have a few last minute first birthday party things to take care of.

Brennan's first year book arrived in the mail today.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

I'm ready to snuggle up with Eric once the kids are in bed, look through it, and then work on wrapping some presents.

~Melody :-)

Laughter

We've needed some laughter around here in the last couple of days. Cate started running a fever early Saturday evening. She didn't sleep well, but woke up fever free on Sunday morning. Daddy stayed home from church with her, just in case. Good thing too. Later in the afternoon, she started complaining that she was freezing-- it was 70 outside-- and that her mouth hurt "where her tongue sleeps." Still no fever, but we called the pediatrician anyway who told us to bring her in if she got a fever. Sure enough, just before bed last night, she started running a fever.

Brennan had a well-baby checkup today. He's 13 pounds 11 ounces and 24 inches long. Right around the 50th percentile for both. After a quick shot that put him to sleep, the doctor focused on Cate. Despite having no visible signs of strep throat in her mouth, swollen glands and a positive strep test indicated strep throat. The antibiotics are strong and make Cate's tummy hurt a little bit. Her fever comes and goes. When it comes, she's out of it. She fell asleep on the potty today and proceeded to sleep for the next three hours (yes, I put her in bed). When it goes, she's a wild woman, ready to read, play games, and run around. Hopefully she'll be feeling more of the latter soon. There's a new baby giraffe at our zoo that we want to see and we hear the train is now open after being closed all winter.

All of this coupled with a new leak in the roof (it's small, but I think we're just in denial about needing a new roof since ours is old, not damaged, and we'd have to pay for the whole thing ourselves). It did rain HARD here though. I don't think we would've noticed the leak if the rain had been lighter. So it's probably a good thing.

But we're trusting God for healing-- for our sweet girl and our roof. And we're making sure we laugh amidst the stress. I heard Brennan's sweet first giggles on 3/18 (which is apparently early for audible laughter) while visiting a friend. He's laughed a few more times since then and we finally caught it on video tonight. He really has brought peace to our home and our pastor was right on when he prayed that over Brennan at his dedication. His laughs were a blessing this evening and relieved so many of our worries. We hope you enjoy his sweet laughs as much as we do.



~Melody :-)

Mini Cornhole

First of all, if you're not from the midwest, you may not know what Cornhole is...so you might want to read this. It explains Cornhole.

Anyway, any time we are at a party and Cornhole boards are present, Cate gravitates towards them. She loves to put the bean bags into the hole. Unfortunately, we don't have a set of Cornhole boards of our own. Fortunately, Cate's grandparents (Eric's mom and stepdad), recognized Cate's love of Cornhole and picked up a kids' size Cornhole set for her.
This little girl loves it!
She doesn't quite "get" Cornhole and can't quite toss the beanbags that far. But she enjoys standing right at the foot of the boards and trying to toss the beanbags in from there. Here's a little video of Cate "playing" Cornhole:


We've spent quite a bit of time out in the backyard playing this game already. Thankfully our basement has plenty of space for us to set these up down there this winter. Now Mommy and Daddy need to get their own grown-up sized set of boards and we'll be all set for some real backyard fun this spring.

Thanks again Grandma and Poppy for such a fun game!

~Melody :-)

Fun Family Friday!

We don't have many more weeks left with Cate as our only child, so we're trying to savor each moment with our sweet girl. We've had some free bowling coupons for awhile now and decided that she was probably old enough to head to the bowling alley and give it a try. First, can I just say that while ugly on adults, toddler bowling shoes are adorable!
I'm pretty sure she loved tap-dancing on the shiny wood floor with those shoes just as much as she loved bowling itself. Cate was a little apprehensive at first, and thought the six pound ball was a little too heavy.
Each time she bowled, we moved a little wooden ramp to the top of her lane and then brought her her ball. She pushed it down the lane (which had bumpers) and clapped and cheered when it knocked pins over. She even picked up a couple of spares. In the end, she ended up LOVING it! Our lane "froze" halfway through our game and they had to move us one lane over. As compensation, they gave us three free games to come back again (and our 3 games we played tonight were free to begin with since Eric had some coupons).
We'll definitely be going back. And when this little bowling ball gets older...
...fun family Fridays at the bowling alley may have to be a once a month outing (FYI...for you non-Ohio people, you can't smoke in public places in Ohio so the bowling alleys, once smoke-filled places of entertainment, are much cleaner and kid-friendly).

In the end, our scores were Cate- 81, Mommy- 129, and Daddy- 82. Remember, we had bumpers. You can make fun of Eric later.
We ended our night at Frisch's Big Boy, where Mommy and Cate both enjoyed their hot fudge cake while Daddy enjoyed pumpkin pie.
It was literally a perfect evening for one of our last weeks of being a family of 3. I'll leave you with a little video of Cate showing off her bowling skills.



~Melody :-)

She is So My Daughter

She may look like her daddy, but her personality comes from her momma for sure. She heads down that "waterslide" with abandon. We've been in this little pool almost every day this week. It's hot! And with her splashing tendencies I didn't trust bringing the video camera outside. This cell phone video will have to do.



And then today, when I asked her to pick up her train table before heading out to run some errands, I came back into the living room to find her wooden trees like this:
That little bit of OCD and having things "just right" is definitely a trait from mommy.

We're enjoying summer-- lots of it at the pool or in the backyard. This year she's a little afraid of the "big pool" (ie. the neighborhood pool), but is totally content in the backyard. I'm hoping by going often, this "big pool" fear and the clinging to mommy that it causes no matter how many flotation devices she has on will be gone by the time we head to Hilton Head in July. But I have to admit, the backyard pool is nice because she entertains herself for awhile and I can sit nearby and read.

~Melody :-)

She Gets in From Her Dad

Not only has Cate inherited her Daddy's blue eyes, curly hair, small nose, and infectious laugh...but she seems to have inherited his musical talent as well (yes, my hubby was a vocal performance/music education major in college and yes, he loves his work at a cancer fighting non-profit which has nothing to do with either of his degrees). I have some musical ability as well. I played clarinet for nearly a decade (including pep band in college my freshman year), sang in the choir at the church I grew up in, and performed as a chorus member in two high school musicals.

We hope you enjoy listening to her as much as we do! I have a feeling there might be many choir concerts and musicals in our future.

~Melody :-)

P.S. School is officially out for summer! I can't wait to spend every day (except for the five that I'm in Arizona visiting family and a friend sans Cate) with this sweet, singing, girl.

Delta Gamma Family Day

We traveled to northeast Ohio again this weekend for my sister's family weekend for her sorority, Delta Gamma.

Sidenote: Friday night we introduced Cate to Stoddard's frozen custard, which is just a couple of towns/suburbs away from my parents. It's been there since 1949 and my grandparents (Dad's parents) used to go before my dad was even born. She finished the whole cone by herself (it was kid-size) and didn't even make too big of a mess.
Back to the DG Family Day...Catherine (my sister) is convinced that Cate (her namesake) will also be a DG. I forgot my camera, so we're all cell-phone quality for this post.The weather was a little chilly, but we still got outside to snap some pictures. Cate also got to participate in the "Watershed" singing ritual. She's the little one shaking her booty below. It cracked Catherine's sorority sisters up.

It was a weekend well spent. Except for the fact that I left some papers that needed grading up there. So....thank goodness for FedEx and awesome parents who are FedEx-ing those papers to me. Hey, it was cheaper than both of us driving to Columbus tonight to meet up and get them.

~Melody

Cate Sings

We've known for awhile that Cate loves music-- like her Mommy and Daddy. In fact, if she keeps showing such enthusiasm for music (or art or dance or theater), Cincinnati Public has an awesome magnet school for the performing arts for K-3. It's even rated Excellent by the state of Ohio, a rarity in CPS.

Lately, Cate has been singing. A lot. In the car, in her stroller, when she's playing. The girl just sings and sings. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me" are two of her current favorites. However, our church put out a kids' CD recently to go along with the "FREE" journey that I've blogged about and Cate sings along with a couple of those songs as well.

I've had a really hard time capturing her singing on video though. As soon as I get the camera out, she stops singing. Finally though, during a jam session with Daddy tonight, Miss Cate cooperated and I got a few videos of her singing and making music with Daddy.

Enjoy!






~Melody :-)

And yes, I know that Cate's birthday was almost three months ago and yes, we still do let the Elmo pinata decorate our piano.

Not Me Monday-- March of the Penguins Edition

I'm confessing along with others at MckMama this week.

It is NOT 22 degrees outside. And because it is NOT 22 degrees out and I did NOT take a personal day today (so I wouldn't have to drag Cate out of bed so early in the morning to get her to the sitter since my hubby is out of town), I did NOT bundle Cate up to head to the zoo. That was NOT a run-on sentence either-- I am an English teacher after all. I do NOT make mistakes in my blog posts.

When we got to the zoo we were NOT the only car in the parking lot. Cate did NOT have free reign to run wherever she wanted to run at the zoo (or squat to stay warm).
We were NOT going to the zoo for the sole purpose of seeing these guys:
Out of their indoor habitat.
That's right...it's Penguin Days at the zoo. Which means it's cold enough for the penguins to come outside for a walk every day. They also get to play in their outdoor habitat for awhile. So we went to the zoo today to go take a walk with the penguins.



And because I did NOT have a sense of humor, I did NOT dress Cate in the penguin shirt her Nanny (my mom) got her. She also wore her penguin socks, but I didn't get a picture of those. And since we were NOT the only ones at the zoo in the lovely 22 degree weather, we did NOT get to have fun walking with the penguins up close and personal. I think Cate would have gone right up and hugged one if she could have. Unfortunately they have tempers and so Cate had to stay about a foot away from them (which is hard to explain to a not quite 2-year-old).
And since I'm NOT a sucker I did NOT buy Cate a cute little stuffed penguin on our way out (c'mon, he was only $6.70 with our member discount). She did NOT come home immediately after our trip to the zoo (okay, we stopped and had lunch out at Panera first) to introduce her new little penguin to the big penguin that Great Aunt "B" gave her for Christmas.
This girl clearly does NOT have an obsession with penguins!

~Melody :-)

A Birthday Concert

Today was my grandmother's (mom's mom) birthday. It was also Cate's 23 month birthday. I can't believe that in a month she will be 2!!!!
We had my grandmother over and enjoyed a favorite dinner of mine (beef burgundy) which cooked in the crockpot all day. We followed it with some German Chocolate Cake from Servatti's along with some ice cream. After dinner, Eric got out his guitar and began to play one of Cate's recent favorite songs-- "I Know a Chicken" by Laurie Berkner. Cate decided to play along on the piano. I couldn't grab the video camera fast enough. Enjoy!


Happy Birthday Granny (Great Granny to Cate)!

~Melody :-)

Ring Around The Rosy

Cate learned a new game while we were in Hudson. She loves to play this game. I love the way she falls down.

~Melody :-)

A Roaring New Obsession

On Monday Cate and I went to the Children's Museum...which is on the bottom level of the Natural History Museum...which is currently hosting a dinosaur exhibit...which means there is a large dinosaur statue out front (sorry, I didn't have my camera and didn't take a picture of it). It's one of the long-necked dinosaurs and walking up to the entrance, Cate pointed at it and made her noise for elephant. I think the long neck made her think it was an elephant. Seizing the teachable moment, I told her that it wasn't an elephant, but a dinosaur and proceeded to show her that a dinosaur roars.

Cate continued to keep saying something that sounded like "dino" and roaring throughout our museum visit (and we didn't even go to that exhibit-- it costs extra...a lot extra...but maybe we'll check it out before it leaves). On our way out, we picked up a small, rubbery, dinosaur toy in the gift shop (the cheapest one they had there). Cate roared and played with him the whole way home and he has become quite the favorite toy this week. Here's a little video I took with my phone outside the museum.



Daddy further indulged Cate's new little obsession when he picked up some dinosaur toys and a book from the dollar bin at Target (the big one lying down is the one from the museum).
So now Cate loves to read about dinosaurs (we own the board book How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms and the book from Target; we checked out the board book How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors from the library).
And she loves to play with her dinosaurs. Her favorite thing is making them roar at the pets.It's the cutest little roar I've ever heard!

~Melody :-)

Talking Your Ear Off

Cate has been doing a lot of babbling recently. But she's getting better at saying some actual words (doggy, daddy, mama, duck, book, stinky, go, bye-bye, poppy--which means grandpa--, nannny-- her word for my mom--keys, and leash are just a few that she says and understands). She has her own version of words too. For example, "me-me" means excuse me and "diggy" is either train or fish depending on what she's looking at, but those are the only two times she uses that word.

It's really fun to watch her learn how to actually use those words. She only says "me-me" when she burps (or fake burps as the video will show). She knows the leash goes with the doggy and that we get books at the library (as soon as I ask her if she wants to go to the library she says "book, book, book"). It's cool too to see how much she understands, like when you ask her to go get something, and she does. Or you ask her to sit down, and she does. Here's a short video of her showing off some of those verbal skills (and animal-noise making skills too). I know it won't be long before she's talking our ears off.

~Melody :-)

Flip Flops

Eric and I are very blessed by the many people in our lives that love us and love Cate. While I think kids' clothes are absolutely adorable and so much fun to buy, the simple truth is that kids get them dirty. Or wear them out. Or both. Most of the time.

I do indulge on occasion and buy Cate cute new outfits. But a lot of what Cate wears are clothes that are "new" to her. The clothes that have managed to go through one kid without stains or holes or rips. The ones that are still in great shape. Before Cate even arrived, I had friends giving me bags of clothes for Cate. A friend from our old church pretty much outfitted Cate for the first 9 months and gave us this Halloween costume. I have a friend from work who passes down just about everything her daughter outgrows that's still in cute, wearable condition. And most recently, a great friend from our small group, whom we just met in February when our group started, gave us a ton of winter 18-24 month clothes (with a few other outfits Cate can wear now, like this one that she had on yesterday).

In one of the five bags of clothes and shoes she gave me, there was a cute pair of Disney Princess flip flops.
These were big girl flip flops. The kind without a strap in the back. And while I was trying to wrap Eric's birthday presents (his birthday is Wednesday), Cate found the bag of shoes and was trying to get them on. So I helped her out and she squealed with delight when she had them on.
Walking in them was a whole other story. She just sort of shuffled around, trying to keep them from falling off (they're the right size, but seeing as she's still only a few months into this walking thing, I think the toe part threw her off). But she was so happy to wear them. When they would eventually fall off, she'd bring them right back to me so I could put them on again. I did manage to get a short video of her doing the little flip flop shuffle.

I think by next summer she'll really be ready for these real ones (in a bigger size, of course).

And as a side note, and because I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea...yes, we can afford to buy Cate clothes. We're just practical people with generous friends. And yes, I have kept all of Cate's clothes that she's outgrown (except the ones that got really stained when eating or really ripped when crawling on concrete). So if you're someone who has given us clothes in the past, and you find yourself in need of them or want to pass them on to someone else...they're in tubs in my basement and I'm more than happy to keep the traveling clothes (and shoes) going. Otherwise, they'll stick around in case Baby Riggs #2 is a girl (no, I am not pregnant, and am not planning on it anytime soon).

~Melody :-)

Sprinkler Fun for Two

Who do you think is having more fun? Zoey loves to chase the sprinkler and Cate prefers to just sit in the grass and let the water soak her. I think that maybe if I would've put on my suit and run around in the water, Cate may have done the same since she is quite the imitator these days.

There's nothing like summer. :-)

~Melody :-)

PS...I reduced the file quality of the video in order to keep its size down. Ever since we got the new camera, our blog posts are taking up more room (because the pictures are better quality and take up more space).

Bowled Over

I've been meaning to post this video for a week or so now. The last week has been really, really, HOT...like in the 90's...with tons of humidity. So while the pool and the sand table and our outside toys and the park have all been nice, our outdoor time is slightly limited as we just start to get really stinkin' hot when we're outside.

So then we move to indoor play. Keeping a toddler occupied indoors in no easy task. Especially in a small space (thankfully, we'll have a nice, large, dry, indoor playspace in the basement when we get around to putting carpet down). We were throwing Cate's large O-Ball the other day (yes, inside, she doesn't throw very hard), and it knocked over one of Cate's toys. She started cracking up, so we kept doing it. This "bowling" for animals seemed to be her new favorite thing for the rest of the day. Of course, she had to show Daddy when he got home. And of course, Mommy caught it on video. Enjoy!

~Melody :-)

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Or poke it out, as may be the case with Cate. She has learned to identify her head, nose, eyes, mouth, ears, and belly (her favorite). Anyway, enjoy her latest video.



PS. Cate has read her first five library books for the summer (we've read a lot more as Cate LOVES books, but I'm only counting the library ones on her summer reading card). I guess a trip to the library may be in order sometime today so she can get a prize.

~Melody :-)