Night call

Last week Paul was assigned to night call. This meant that during the day he was home, and any time after 4:30 pm until 7:30 am they could call him if there were any new admits into the psychiatry department (Psych is his current rotation). Most nights were okay...he was typically called around 5:00 pm and was home by 8:00. So it was a great schedule for a few days, working about 3 hours a day (there was one night he was gone til 3:00 am...lame). Having him home all day was like Saturday everyday. We tried to keep busy. Sadly, Lubbock is not the most exciting place on the planet, so we struggled to find fun stuff to do, but we did visit Apple Country in Idalou, Texas. I was excited because Fuji apples were ripe that week. I am somewhat of an apple snob...I don't really like anything but Fujis. So we went picking.

Gratefully they were dwarf trees, so Hattie could enjoy it too. They let you eat as many apples as you wanted while you picked...yummy.

We picked about 12 pounds total. I eat about 3 of them a day. We need to go back!
Here we were trying to find an Arkansas Black, which we were told were also ready for picking, but it turned out to be a Red Delicious...not so delicious in my book.

Now night call is over, Paul is finishing up his last 2 weeks in psychiatry, I'm getting used to having the girls alone all day again, and gratefully he is done by 2:00 a few times a week. I'm not really looking forward to the end of psych...the schedule has been pretty nice!

Random happenings

Here's just some random things we've been doing/capturing on camera lately:
Hattie LOVES it when people come over. Every morning she asks if Brooklyn, Juliet, Grandma, Jonas and Anson, Callie, etc are coming over. So when the answer is actually "Yes" she gets overly excited and positions herself in front of the door to wait. She is a little socialite.
We went to the mall, and Paul actually put quarters in the machine. I was hoping Hattie would live in ignorance about what those toys were really for. The girls loved it, but now Hattie always asks if I have a quarter when we pass.

Boxes, a child's favorite toy

18 de septiembre! Chile's independence day, so my buddy Kristina came over to make yummy empanadas.

And this is my personal favorite. We have had a few awesome thunderstorms recently, turning our back porch into a mini swimming pool. Anna toyed with the idea of going into the water with Hattie for about 20 minutes, then finally fell in. She was not happy.

Another birthday

Amazing to think that Hattie is already three! She is growing up quickly - vocabulary increasing daily, fewer tantrums, okay missing naps, and saying the funniest things. She had a marvelous birthday. We celebrated a day early, on Saturday the 25th, since that was when we scheduled the birthday party. Yeah, sometimes I still can't believe I threw a birthday party for a 3 year old. But when you are far from family, and your friends become your family, it seemed the perfect thing to do. Plus, her friend Juliet's birthday was just a few days later, so we combined parties to make things easier.
We opened family present first thing in the morning...it's becoming a family tradition.
We are getting ready to potty train so she was trilled with princess underwear.
Yup this girl is spoiled. She did need the shoes and Paul has insisted that our girls will play soccer as well as a boy, so he is starting his indoctrination. Hattie loves it cuz it's pink.

Later that day came the party:
The kids decorated cupcakes, played musical chairs, and unwrapped a box inside a box inside a box inside a box inside a...but of course I didn't remember to take pictures...too many kiddos running around.
And I got this awesome cake mold that makes a giant cupcake. It was lots of fun to make...kind of make me want to get into cake decorating...but not enough.
Juliet and Hattie were actually excited to blow out the candle. The picture is deceiving. Now Hattie proudly tells everyone that she is three...She's still working on holding up three fingers, but we'll get there.