Elyse is really starting to pay attention to books when you read to her. She likes to "paw" at the pages and look at the pictures. Her attention span is still very short and she starts to fuss after about the 3rd page to be put to bed which is wonderful and fine by us.....hopefully it stays this easy, but somehow I doubt that's the case.



Yesterday Matt's dad and Kathy took us to dinner which was a nice surprise. Matt's dad is just so cute with Elyse....anyone is cute with Elyse really, but men usually have a harder time with the whole "little baby" thing but his dad just jumps right in and wants to do everything (except diapers). The more I see Mark with Elyse the easier it is for me to see why Matt is such a wonderful dad.

We are able to see both of our families on a fairly regular basis and Matt and I are both very thankful for that. Of course it's still not as often as we'd like, but it's more often than a lot of families and it's easy to take it for granted. Elyse and I went to see my younger sister Erika last week after sinus surgery and my dad stopped in on his lunch break. The visit went so nice and I really had such a good time. Once I thought about it, I realized it had been nearly a month since I had seen Erika, and nearly 3 months since I'd seen my dad. It really made me feel bad that I don't see them more. My mom and Tim come to see Elyse pretty regularly, but I don't see the other people in my family nearly as much and it made me sad last week. Even with my mom, it's usually to babysit and I would like to spend some time with just her as well. Knowing they are only about 45 minutes to an hour or so away makes it harder I think. We're far enough apart that randomly stopping by isn't really an option, but close enough that being busy makes it easy to put off and I promise myself that I'll make plans to see them soon. Before I know it a month or two has gone by and I didn't even realize it. There are 101 reasons, but mostly it boils down to intentionality.......we need to find ways to make it happen because it's always so wonderful to see them and I love them all so much. I'm not sure if they think or notice the same thing, but either way I miss them.