Toad's New Favorite Number

is FOUR!

Toad celebrated his fourth birthday a couple of weeks ago -- May has been a completely crazy month. It's hard to believe it's almost June and I will have to go back to work soon. Toad starts back at preschool full-time on June 1st.

Other family news: Hammer Guy continues to work on the basement with help from Grandpa A (thanks!), which means we've had lots of visitors lately with the birthday parties and weekend help.

Here are some photos from recent events:

Stacy gets out of Tornado Alley -- at least for a day

Toad's new kitchen

Party at the Park

Toad loves Thomas

Toad and Miss Birdy

It's Still Rock-n-Roll to Me

Wednesday night, after a lot of planning and preparation, I left Hammer Guy with both kids for the first time and went to the Billy Joel concert with Linda. For some time now, as the evening approached, I thought I was crazy for thinking I could make it work, but as soon as the lights went down and the music started, I remembered why I'd ordered the tickets in the first place. Read the review from the Star Trib:

http://www.startribune.com/457/story/1174360.html

Linda and I had a wonderful time and Hammer Guy did a great job with the kids!

The week ahead promises to be very busy as we prepare for Toad's fourth birthday. Stay tuned!

Highlights

Sleepytime

Wild Boys

So the last three weeks have been incredibly busy. Here are some highlights:

Little Birdy is now six weeks old and almost as long as her Moses Basket. She graduated to #1 diapers last week and is beginning to outgrow some of her clothes. She met her cousin Frog this past weekend as we took our first post-baby trip to Wisconsin. Frog and her parents have moved from the Detroit area back to Dairyland and we're so excited!

Toad had a great time visiting his WI family and playing with HG's old toys. For the first time ever he stayed in his bed all night, both nights! Hurray! On April 21st the kids and I were fortunate to be able to visit with my UMD girlfriends at Heather's house in St. Paul. Toad loved playing with her two-year-old son Will, even for the short amount of time he was awake! He talks about Will frequently and we are looking forward to another playdate soon. It was great seeing the "UMD gang" and finally meeting Heather's new son Charlie. This is a great group of strong women and I am blessed to have them in my life.

My short-term disability leave is officially over as of today, which means the paychecks stop for the remainder of my leave. I plan to go back to work June 18th. I've been pretty good about not spending so much money with this baby. Keeping busy during the day with both kids and trying to keep up with the housework, etc, has kept me from going out shopping too much (except for my weekly trip to Target, my Mecca). Lucky us, this weekend we came home with a whole tub full of wonderful hand-me downs from Frog that will keep Little Birdy well dressed without spending a ton of money! Thanks, Auntie Sara!

And of course, the Basement Saga continues. We hired a contractor for the bathroom work based on the recommendation of our chiropractor and a "two day job" turned into a five-week blunder. The rough-in is finally complete! There is still so much more to be done.

Going home to WI was a nice break and Monday we began our routine all over again. Yesterday Toad and I went to the dentist. Bad news for me -- #19 needs a crown. Great news for Toad -- our appointments were sort of at the same time, so on only his third visit to the dentist at the age of not-quite-four, he went with Linda his wonderful hygeniest to a chair on the opposite side of the office without me! We're so proud of him!