My sweet boy

We had a rare experience in our house this week.

R spent two nights at her grandparents' in Titusville while her only girl cousin was in town for Spring Break. That meant B and I had one-on-one time from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. And really, we hardly saw R Sunday at all once her cousin arrived. Those two were stuck on each other.

B was a trooper and accompanied me on all the Monday morning errands to church (where we ate snack with R's class and B showed off his alphabet flash card abilities. I did not make him, let's get that clear. It's MC's fault.), the OB's office, Publix, and the mall. All after waking up at 5:30 AM to get Daddy to the airport.

There's such a difference between these two kids of mine. (Duh, I know). But having B alone reveals that much more. I worked for quite a while in the kids' closets one morning while he played at the train table in the playroom out of sight. R would have been at my elbow the whole time. His tantrums were short and mild. And though I figured I would have to do Moe's Monday for some company and conversation, he kept up his end pretty well. I'm amazed all over again at how kids learn to talk and at what he wants to talk about. We snuggled, read Curious George stories til I lost my voice, vacuumed (his favorite activity lately) and consumed scrumptious banana bread warm from the oven. (New recipe from the King Arthur Flour people--sooo good!) He's also becoming a bit of a neat freak--not in that he doesn't make messes as much, but that he insists on getting mess off of himself immediately. Which mostly means he spreads it around more or brushes all the crumbs onto the floor. But he also insists on lining up his shoes and he's putting things away better, lining up his cars neatly too.

In other news, we did not get the house we put an offer on. After an agonizing week of back and forth with the owners, we finally just threw up our hands and walked away. With 9 1/2 weeks to go until Baby, I can't believe we don't have a place to live in TX yet. And in this economy, knowing what we do about the owners' situation, I can't believe they let us walk away! So D looked at more houses yesterday to buy and/or rent and he's at two more today--on the same street as the one we bid on. And it just may be that I will have to trust my husband to choose our next house--just as I've trusted him with the job, the move, a church, a neighborhood.

See, I'm growing! (and not just my belly!)