September 4th, 2013
Nora is now 3 weeks old: she is the sweetest little thing. she has so much black hair. it is slowly now starting to thin out. i am so curious if it will grow back in black. we have several nicknames already for her cupcake, toad, little rose and butterfly. she loves baths, being held, &; is starting to smile lots more. She is so strong. After being about a week old she got a round rash on  her forehead. the dr said it looks like ring worm, but it's rare in infants and he has never ever seen it. i feel so bad,  think it's disgusting that my little one has that. Carol recommended using bleach on it. However, I just didn't think that sounded good....made me too nervous.

Josh is talking a lot, and when he talks it is LOUD. He wakes up at 6 or 6:30 each and every day maybe a day with a surprise 5:30 or 7:30. It does not matter when you put him to bed. Josh loves airplanes. He is also into eating a lot of steak. He loves it can nearly eat his own piece. He also loves carrying around a ball, bat or mit. Some really exciting times for Josh are when we turn quickly in the car, see the trash truck come, a motorcycle, train, bus or taxi, and he also loves watching "the MAN" mow the lawn. However, the only naughty thing he does is pinch and nothing is getting through to stop him. He is a great listener, and follows directions better than Addie a lot of times... except about pinching. Love his smile, and he is most certainly a mommas boy.

Addie started transitional kindergarten. she is loving all of her new friends & her teacher mrs. peterson. she started soccer, and is hilarious. she doesn't follow the rules in the tag dribbling game they play. she always just outside the cones so the coaches can't tag her. She gets a bit confused at which goal to kick the ball in, & often scores in the wrong goal. it's a little painful to watch, but i thought it was going to be a lot more complaining coming from her about how hot it was outside. But no she's doing much better. We've had a few hiccups with a carpool. The two kids addie jackson don't get along very well at least right now. It's like a love hate relationship. Addie is always telling me who was naughty, and all the dramatic things that happen. For instance an older girl on the playground told her friend she had an ugly shirt or something similar. Addie was really upset about this. Another instance was when one child told her vampires were real. The little girl told her she saw them flying around with a vampire dog. Addie was convinced this person was telling the truth even after much reassuring that this was not the case. she slept in our bed for one night because she was so scared. the next day she told the girl vampires are fake. But now it's been a few weeks she still gets a little scared of them every now and then.

Tim: continues to do great at work. we are considering moving to Texas. I am excited & very sad all at the same time. It's hard to word the next part, but it's so nice to be able to visit the cemetery whenever I want. The only thing I can do for this child is on special occasions & when I want to put flowers on her grave. The thought of not being able to do this makes me sad! Because then there's nothing at this time that I can do for her...there will be occasional visits back, but it's just not the same. It's not at the cemetery I feel closest to her. I obviously know it's not where her spirit dwells.

I love being able to stay at home & have been so grateful to have my moms help the last few months. Nora looks a lot like my mom. My mom has bathed Nora, done my laundry and gotten Josh out of bed & taken him to the park. I feel grateful for her help.