Just like we promised, Daddy came home from work in an airplane today! (For two and a half days–yay!) It was a good thing, too–when I went in to get him up from his nap, Tommy had taken his socks, pants, and diaper off and was in desperate need of clean sheets and a bath. Good thing there was an able bodied adult here to bathe him since that is one task I am unable to do with my SI joint trouble.
Tommy has been telling me this past month that “Daddy wort hard” (Daddy works hard). Tonight he kept exclaiming, “Daddy home!”
Four weeks down, three to go…
I was going to let Derek do this post eventually since he is the spiritual head of our household, but when Christina 
We have been blessed with so many visits from friends since moving to Chicago. This weekend was a double feature, because a couple hours after my college roommate left for home, my college mentor arrived with her family! Tommy and I had not gotten to see Uncle Dan and Auntie Lisa and their little family since he and Kate were pre-crawling and there was no baby Jane. The three big kids played together beautifully, all four went to sleep eventually, and we parents indulged in several hours of gaming and deep conversations at night and in the morning. I SO wish Derek could have been here to see me beat Dan Simpson in a game (a FIRST!) two times in a row (a once in a lifetime achievement). Attica is now on my top tier of games.=) And I wish Derek could have been teleconferencing while we discussed parenting, homeschooling, large families, books, missions, and all the other crazy kindred spirity things that naturally come up with the Simpsons. 
Susan has always been dear to my heart–hearing her quote lines from her favorite movie (Pride and Prejudice, of course!) IN a British accent pretty much made my year. What 3.5 year old goes around saying, “I’m very fond of walking!” and talks about Mr. Darcy? Dan and Susan acted out a whole little P&P scene for my benefit. Can you be kindred spirits with a preschooler? I also think I have Susan to thank for Tommy’s renewed interest in the potty chair this evening (after four successes in two days, he completely lost interest for about two weeks in there). If someone as cool as Susan can use the big boy potty, Tommy wants to, too!
I make no secret about my future hopes for Kate and Tommy (with the realization that there are about four other quality 1-3 year olds who I would highly approve of as daughters-in-law, too, so I’m not totally limiting his options). I loved how affectionate these two were all morning. And it was so fun to see what a spunky little girl Kate has become! In true Simpson fashion, she can rattle off several Bible verses, hymns, and songs based on the Westminster Catechism. Tommy was too shy to show off his first third of the Greek alphabet (his only claim to Biblical scholarship thusfar). Oh well. Girls are more verbal than boys, anyway…
Sweet little Jane seemed to be wondering why there wasn’t anyone her size around, but I promised her a playmate when we see them this summer!
Mariel is in town this weekend to hang out with Hannah and me, and we sat down this morning to knock out her invitations. Assembly line method is SO much faster than sitting in one’s own bedroom, stealing 15 minutes at a time to do a bit here and a bit there. Why, wedding planning can actually be fun when you’re sitting around doing it with your girlfriends! Who knew?! Anyway, don’t we look productive? (And to the couple-who-shall-remain-nameless getting married a week after my roomie…now that I’m not in town to bug you anymore, take this as a gentle nudge towards getting your invites together, too!)
Since Daddy hasn’t gotten a chance to see the pics from Tommy’s photo shoot, here is a picture of the picture from Saturday…totally non-posed! Doesn’t he look like a skeezix?
