Grateful Friday

- Planning a birthday for Bill that he actually enjoyed. Sleeping in, followed by gifts, followed by some nice time outside in beautiful weather, followed by dinner at Maddy's Ribs and Blues, then dessert at One Hot Cookie. He got a little teary-eyed over one of his gifts, so I consider it a victory for me.

- A good appointment for Josie's 2-year checkup. She's doing great! Allergies are under control - for the most part. She's right on target for weight and height (both 66%). Her speech is improving, and she's doing really well keeping her glasses on. She was such a big girl, wanting to stand on the scale and have the nurse put the thermometer in her mouth instead of under her arm (she saw Maddie do that a couple of weeks ago at the doctor's office).

- Josie is potty-training herself. I can't freakin' believe it. I wasn't even going to start, but one day I heard Maddie say, "Mommy, Josie went pee pee!!" I went in the bathroom to find that Maddie had helped Jo take off her diaper, had sat her on the little potty, and then helped her wipe afterwards. Now she lets us know every time she has to go. It's been about 2 weeks now. The only time she has accidents is when she's actually wearing panties. Bare-bottomed and she doesn't have any. I'm still trying to figure out how to get her to wear something so we can actually take her out without a diaper. After the struggle with Maddie, I deserve this!

- Maddie first soccer game of the season tomorrow. Almost all of the same kids are on her team again, so it will be good for her to have some familiar faces. Oh yeah, and Coach Carter is her coach again. She LOVES him.

- An adult night out with Bill. A friend of ours was performing in an amateur night at a comedy club. There were about 16 different comedians. We got to see most of them before we had to rush home so the high school babysitter wouldn't be out to late. As it was, I still apologized to her mom profusely. We had a chance to go with some other friends of ours whom we haven't seen in a while. They lead the most amazing lives, so it's always fun to hear what they've been up to and where they've traveled lately.

- Beautiful beautiful weather, except for the day of thunderstorms and tornadoes. I just read that some people died locally in a tornado so it's bittersweet that we have such good weather a day later.

- The good health of my mother-in-law who had a little hospital scare last week. Everything turned out okay afterall.

- The upcoming birth of Bill's cousin's daughter. We're excited to meet the little one, who, apparently is taking her dear sweet time coming out.