Anabelle, Ava and Thomas

Anabelle is 4 weeks into preschool. She loves it so much. she is learning her letters and making lots of friends and singing lots of new silly songs (theres one she sings called a-too-day-ta). I think Anabelle will be able to write her whole name by christmas.
Ava had a hard time at first with Anabelle being gone but now she's ok with it because we do fun stuff. Like grocery shopping (which is fun because if she cooperates she gets to ride one of the grocery store rides) and makeing cookies. Ava is staying busy doing things I sometimes prefere she not do. On monday she found a glue stick and smeared it all around her mouth because she thought it was chapstick (I also recently found that she put some all over one of the many Doras that live here.)

Yesterday Anabelle and Ava were invited to a birthday party for a little girl in Anabelles class. It was the biggest party we've been to yet. There were pony rides and the games were actually fun and they got so much treasure just for being there. Anabelle smiled the whole time she was on the pony. Ava kept shouting "YeeHaw, I'm cowgirl Dora, getiyup Pinto!" (Pinto is Dora's horse) and then the second ride Ava was Jesse from toy story 2 and the horse was bullseye. great times.

Our new kitten, Nicolas Thomas Wright Bradley, named for Heaths favorite writer and theologian NT Wright (we're calling him little tommy for short) is super cute. I think he is about 4 or 5 weeks old now. We were feeding him from a bottle but he has recently started eating kitten food soaked in kitten formula. The girls really love him, sometimes too much. Ava is learning how to use gentle hands but sometimes she just loves him so much she wants to squash him. Yesterday she accidently sat on his head and I thought he was done for but he made it though just fine. Our other cat, Flannery, named for one of my favorite authors Flannery O'Conner, does not like Thomas. She seems frightened when ever he walks toward her even though he is small enough to fit in a small coffee mug. He's a really sweet kitten and likes to be held especially when he has a full tummy.

Softball Update

I am so glad to be back in the blogosphere. My first act of business is to give an update on my softball swing. I am sad to say that in our first game I didn't hit the ball out of the infield. I was very ashamed, worried, and flabergasted- how long, O Lord, until it comes back? My teammates surround me with mocks and jokes! How long until I am vindicated?

Turns out only a week. Thank God, last week I hit two doubles to the fence. Actually, I think God had little to do with it. I think going to a batting cage and hitting 96 softballs (in 8 minutes- 1 every 5 seconds) got the kinks out. (Of course, a synergistic account of divine and human agency could allow for both explanations, but that is for another post that I will probably never write.)

Next Sunday I hope to report the first dinger of the year.

the new blog

So our other blog has been down for almost a month now and so many interesting things have happened worth blogging about. So I have started this one as a temporary or permanent solution.
Posts to come include: Anabelles first day of school, a kitten so tiny we feed it with a bottle, my new voluteer work with the IRC and hopefully soon there will be a post about Ava using the potty.
Will you all please leave a comment so I know you know about our new blog?