Well Hello!

Long time no blog, eh? We have been in Texas for the past few weeks. The southern most part of Texas. You know, where people from the Mitten state go in the winter to get away from the cold temps. The only problem we encountered was that the cold followed us. It was 30-40 degrees for the majority of the time we were down there. Blech. We were not down there for a vacation though. My father in law (who hates to have his name mentioned on that "dang internet" so will now be referred to as the Fisherman) had valve replacement surgery. McGyver, Dreamsicle and I (along with Aunt Genious) traveled down there to be with him. The surgery went fine but he developed complications afterwards which caused him to teeter on the brink of never being able to fish again for quite some time. Thankfully he has recovered and is now at home. Dreamsicle handled the disruption to her life like a pro. I had purchased a pack and play and a stroller while we were down there and on our last day I packed them up. She became quite upset as she watched me. I felt horrible. I wonder how much her little mind remembers from her days in China. She was really upset, I kept holding her and reassuring her that it was okay we were going to go home but it really made me pause. I wish she had the words to verbalize her feelings at that very moment. I had made the critical mistake of leaving her lovey in the car when we left for Texas. I bought her a substitute lovey while we were down there and I thought it had served its purpose until we strapped her in her car seat once we landed and I gave her the old lovey back. For the next twenty minutes she kept kissing that crazy little blanket, squeezing her eyes shut and hugging it with all of her might. Big lesson learned for the mama-never, never leave the lovey behind.