The beginning of April was pretty much a blur. Two days after Easter Tim left for two weeks of work in California. I debated going to my parents house or to the Chapmans, but decided to just stay home and try to keep Ian and Emma on schedule as much as possible. I made it to day 6 before I broke down. I plopped Ian and Emma in front of the computer and had them talk to Tim in California so I could just deal around the house. Thank goodness for our friends in DC! I relied upon them a lot during these two weeks and they were amazing. One friend even watched Ian and Emma one night so I could go hang out with other friends. Despite being exhausted at the end of the day I was able to catch up on a lot of house work such as painting trim and finally cleaning our windows and blinds. I have a little bit of nostalgia looking back on those two weeks now despite missing Tim tons. Ian, Emma, Pippin and I got into a groove. We ate vegetarian and enjoyed having the car every day to go explore DC. Bedtime was difficult without Tim around but we enjoyed reading books together in Ian's bed. I have a newfound respect for single mothers and those in the military. God bless you!!! Emma started talking a lot more while Tim was away...linking words together like, "I did," and "me too." However, "NO" has also become Emma's favorite word. It is her response to everything. Her voice is so darn cute though...she says it in a sing song voice so it sounds more like meow than no. Emma, almost two years old, is all about independence. She wants to do everything herself. She wants to change her diaper, use the toilet, dress herself, put on her shoes, climb into the car, climb out of the car, up the stairs, down the stairs...you name it she wants to do it by herself. Don't even dare hold her hand. She will meow "No" at you. This spark of independence has made my children even SLOWER. It takes them forever to leave the house. We are perpetually late for everything. It is 5:00pm before I know it. We don't accomplish much, but Ian and Emma are busy busy bees attempting to do everything themselves and therefore the day flies by. I really can't believe Ian is going to be four soon. He talks and sings all day long. We can have hour long conversations. We just chat and chat. I am trying to really enjoy this time as I know it will come to an end at some point. Ian still is so interested in everything and how everything works. He still asks Why and How a million times a day. I have found that my answers aren't enough so I pull up Discovery videos on youtube. How is honey made mommy? How is wood made? Why do the rollers go over the asphalt? What is asphalt? I need to go back to school to answer this child! I have zero pictures of those two weeks because Tim took the camera with him, but here are some recent pictures from when Tim's mom came to visit!