I love YOU, baby!

We're having an identity crisis. I feel assured that Birdie will be my last "baby" so sometimes I call her Baby but she wants to be a big girl ("big burl") sometimes and a baby other times. So last week, when I said, "I love you, Baby." She said back, "I love YOU, baby!" :) Her ability to effectively communicate has grown by leaps and bounds in just two weeks. She's adding extra syllables to longer words and getting it closer to the correct sound. I was a little nervous about her ability to communicate last year. When we had Nadya, who was three months younger, Nadya was making sounds and babbling but Birdie didn't. Beatle's such a big talker so I was hoping that Birdie wouldn't be overshadowed but once she made up her mind to talk, there's no stopping her. Some of her favorite responses are "Heck, no!" and "Shoot!" :) I don't remember Beatle parroting us as closely as Birdie does. Scaryville! But by far the cutest thing she says is, "Yes...ma'am." And when she says that to Brent, Beatle loses it. (I saw Nadya on Easter at church. I literally gasped and said "Nadya!" and then instantly reeled it in when I remembered that her new family renamed her and she wouldn't remember me anyways. It was really emotional for me; she looked so big and pretty. But as her new big brother marched her by the hand down the hall, she turned back to look at me again. I felt like God gave me that moment.) Go on a feeling journey with me. Sometimes I get these feelings that something epic is around the bend. It could be superstition, the Holy Spirit or just weird ju-ju but whatever it is, I like to have my eyes wide open for the next two weeks or so. Well, a week ago, I had that feeling. Every phone call Brent got, I perked up a little more but alas, nothing. Yesterday, I was getting the girls ready for church and as I was sheparding Birdie to the car, I felt this huge knot on the base of her head/top of her neck. Really bizarre. She indicated that it was tender to touch. I got to church and the message was about grieving well. I was trying to suppress my weird feelings about the knot. After church, I told Brent and when he felt it, he got really nervous. I was going to watch it for a day or two but he wanted to call one of our doctor friends because although we never came out and said it, our minds were going to a really dark place. We needed some other potential explanations to help us reason this out in our heads. Our friend eased our minds by suggesting that it could be a infected lymph node (I didn't realize that we had them on the back of our heads). We're still going to be watching it but we feel more comfortable now. Uncle Zac is back from Afghanistan! Hooray! We got to watch him coming home over the Internet on a live streaming video. It was way more emotional than I expected it to be. We're so glad he's back! We got to FaceTime with him and Suzy on Saturday morning and will get to see them in person this weekend! Yay! I am ecstatic to announce that after much eager anticipation, we found out that Beatle got Spider Solo #1 in the spring musical!!! :) She was SO hopeful that she would land it. We just squealed when she told me she got the part. She's going to do great! We're going to the Orthopedic doctor today to see if her hand has healed from her fall from the monkey bars. She's ready to get her splint off and get back to cartwheeling! Couponing Crisis: I have really tried to devote myself to couponing the last two months to save us some money at the store. The first time I did great but the last three trips I've made to the store, I haven't felt that successful. Of course the receipt says that I am, but balancing what we need with what's on sale with what's healthy for us with meal planning with our grocery budget with comparing it to the store brand prices is about to drive me crazy! There are so many things to factor in!!! Plus, crunching numbers does NOT play to my strong suits. I think you can really cash in if you devote lots of time to it but I'm not willing for that to be my part time job. I think it's definitely a balancing act but I'm getting close to waving the white flag once and for all and resign myself to buying store brands for the rest of my life. Justin and Jessica, our dear Seminary friends who live in KY now, had a conference last week in Dallas so we met in Memphis for lunch (We were in the area for a VBS clinic) and caravaned to our house. They stayed the night with us and then, after the conference on their way back to KY, they stopped back in for another night. We had such a fabulous time with them. It just seems like the longer I know someone, the harder I laugh. I don't laugh like that with new friends. We had such a great time!! We got to meet their baby girl, Katherine! One thing that they've taught me in the last 6 years is how to love other people's kids--the way they talk to our girls, send them things and just genuinely seem to appreciate them for who they are is inspiring and endearing. We just love those McDonalds! Thanks for making time to see us while yall were passing through. We're looking forward to Summer! Only 19 more days! Whoop, whoop!