Julianna's Joy: The rest of March and April

Much of the rest of March, I spent sewing. I was working on making baby blanket sets that I presented to the two MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups at my church. Initially my goal was to make 25 of them. Then I thought maybe 30 would be better. During that month, I sold 6 sets prior to the presentation so I ended up making 36 blanket sets that month, which for me is quite a lot. I was fortunate to have help watching Courtney. My mother in law watched her in the afternoons during their visit and my mom came out a few times a couple of weeks later so that I could get more sewing in. I was happy to achieved my sewing goals. The presentations went well and helped me get my name out there if nothing else. Oh and now I have some ready to go inventory should anyone order the patterns I already sewed. It's been fun having a little hobby to do from time to time, but I am thankful that it is not too overwhelming or consuming.

At the beginning of April, Christopher left for 10 days for his annual real estate cruise. It is interesting to see how differently Courtney reacted this year, which I expected since there is a huge difference between a 5 month old and an 18 month old. She asked where he was more and got to learn a few new words in the process like 'boat' and 'bon voyage'...she had a bit of trouble saying that one though. She handled it well, but boy was I exhausted and ready for a bit of a break by the time he got home. Courtney had gotten sick near the end of Christopher's trip and ended up having a fever for 12 days. It perplexed her pediatricians and became a bit disconcerting (it never seems like a good thing to perplex dr's). After 4 visits to the dr and various tests, they still couldn't come up with much so they opted to give her a shot of antibiotics to see what would happen. Within 24 hours her fever was gone. Apparently her tests results indicated that shouldn't have fixed the problem, but we were very glad it did and that no hospital visit was required.

At the end of April, we enjoyed a few visits with Gigi (Courtney's great grandma on my mom's side). Courtney really enjoyed her time with her and has since included Gigi in her prayers every night. While I say nearly all of the prayer, she always reminds me to pray for Papa, Gigi, and sometimes daddy too (although I do pray for other people as well, this is apparently her current 'list'). Courtney's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds and her personality seems to be coming out more and more. She is a sweet, funny, helpful, and detail oriented little girl. It is so interesting to see the characteristics that she has from both her dad and I. Here are some pictures of the things she is into lately.

Still loves, loves, loves reading