May 1st

Can't believe it has been over a month since I wrote and so much has occurred.  Anita has continued to make improvements with her health and her allergy medicine has doubled which we think is helping.  She has enjoyed being outside the last few weeks and it is a battle to get her in.  She enjoys collecting rocks wherever we go and yells for birds, squirrels and even some bugs.  Anita is saying more words all the time and the few I can think of right now are: ready, okay, pa, ma (for grandma), tree, and she even put two words together when she didn't want to talk on the phone, "no talk."  There are so many more I'll have to continue thinking of and writing.  She is chattering all the time and lets us know she understands what is being said.  She is a ball of energy running through the house and often times yelling while she does it.  Anita enjoys life and wants to be busy playing.  She would also like to play more with Gorgeous the cat and attempts to catch her.  She says Go, go for the cats name and is allowed to pet her sometimes.  Jim started a new job this week at Gelita and is happy to find something that pays well in this area.  Downside is the long hours that vary from day to overnight shifts.  This will be a transition for all of us.  We are also in the process of trying to sell our house and looking at others for sell.  We have been busy cleaning, organizing and painting the last two weeks and the time flies when you are trying to work, care for Anita and get ready for a sell.  Grandpa and Grandma are involved and searching for homes with us and helping around the house here.  I'll post pictures again soon to show the activity.  During this time we also had Easter.  On Good Friday, Anita and I went up to Hull to visit her siblings and had fun participating in an Easter egg hunt.  Anita was happy with one egg as long as it had jelly beans.  On Easter we went to church and then out to cousin Patti's for lunch and another egg hunt.  Again, Anita was not too interested in eggs and instead found lots of rocks to take care of.  Yesterday we went to Target with all the girls and found Anita a drum set, and another rock.  She drums on everything possible and really loves her music.  With the drum set came a harmonica and she has had a blast playing that.  She walks around playing it and even while laying down for bed she played a few notes.  She has also enjoyed the drums and before playing them she bangs the sticks together while we count out, one, two, three, four and then she can play.  That is off one of her shows the Fresh Beat Band where the drummer bangs her sticks and counts before the band plays.  Anita constantly amazes me with her natural abilities with coordination, music and dancing.  She is also very sweet and lately she will kiss her babies or animals and then look at us and say "ahhhh."  She will also do that when reading books and she loves her books but also loves the hugs and kisses she gets when she is so sweet to give them to others.  Forgot one of her other words is "cheese" when I am attempting to take her picture and then she wants to see how it turned out.  I have created a camera monster for sure and she is now 18 months old.  Can't believe how fast the time is going.  One year since Anita came to be with us.  Six weeks since she was considered legally ours and now four weeks until I am on "maternity" leave (FMLA) and get to spend a great summer with Anita.  Also looking forward to spending some time with Kristina as we haven't had our time together that we used too.  Now she will choose Anita over me which is great but I miss our time together and this summer I will have the time to go swimming, to the art center, the zoo and the waterpark with my favorite little red head.