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Good morning! It's easy to lose track of the time and day, as we are still a bit turned around schedule-wise. Sunshine girl is on another 11+ hour sleeping binge, same as the day we got back. That was Thursday and after our Runza trip we went to sleep at 1pm and woke up about midnight or 12:30am. I didn't sleep that much as I kept going in to check on her. We got up and had breakfast. She wasn't crazy about cheerios with milk, although she did eat them dry. Also got a veto on toast with jelly. I told her she was running out of options, as we needed to get groceries.

I thought about going to the grocery store after breakfast, just to see the looks I'd get having a child up and out at 1am! But thought it would be too cold and we should wait until daylight - not as funny but a better choice. We played, had some "lunch" and then had a nap 6-8am and then went to the store about 9:30 or so. She was very good in the store, riding in the cart and also walking along, pushing the cart. She ran away from me once, and then came back and I put her right in the cart, as I had told her, stay with Mama or back in the cart. She wasn't happy but didn't fuss really. We are definitely making progress!!!

Home from the grocery store at 10 or 10:15 and then got a call from my sister Patty (cell phone), that she was in town to go to Nobbies and thought she'd stop by. Well, they live in Kansas, which is a 3-hour (one-way) drive away! Too funny - they brought flowers and a heart balloon and Amanda's first (of way too many) hand-me-down Barbies from Abigail. They also helped me carry groceries in and had fun watching/playing with Amanda while I organized a few things in the kitchen. We had some "supper" (hot dogs and macaroni & cheese) and they left about noon as they had to be back home by 3pm. Crazy Aunt Patty! I don't know that Amanda recognized her, but we have a picture of them together on trip one, which we showed her. It made her smile and give Aunt Patty a second look with a grin.

We then headed to Rod & Glenda's, my friends who cared for my cats. Amanda was scared of them and hid behind me, so Glenda brought out some of her grandsons' toys and we didn't worry about the koshkas just then. She warmed up to them, but that's more than I can say for Spook's reaction to me. I thought he would roll with the punches and Scout (the more skiddish of the two) would have a rough time, but it was the other way around. Spook came over to me at first and let me pet him but then he hissed and went off. He was VERY ANGRY with me! Sorry cat! I thought being in a home with friendly people would be better than being looked in on occasionally in an empty house for 2 weeks. He didn't really get much friendlier and I finally decided we just needed to get out of Rod & Glenda's hair and get home. I picked up Spook and he was so thin! He also had a bit of an eye infection thing going on. We'll see if he rebounds with being home or if I'll have to take him in to get some eye treatment stuff. They were happy to be home, and happier I'm sure when I told Amanda we'd leave them alone until later (pah-tohm, pah-tohm - later, later).

Amanda enjoyed her first bath here at home - her first true bubblebath (the bubblebath didn't make the packing cut).

Consumer alert: Do NOT buy the quacking duck (I think there was a croaking frog, too). It is VERY ANNOYING! Why did I not realize that water-activated meant that it would quack the ENTIRE TIME?!?!?!?! It was tolerable when it was upside down as the noise maker was under water then. I took it out a couple times but Amanda would have none of it. I'm going to try to put packing tape over the noise maker and see if that works. Good grief! How annoying. My worst purchase so far.

I thought I'd see how long she could stay up, to try to get us to central time, but by 5pm I had to throw in the towel as I was very tired. She is not good about falling alseep here at home - I have had to hold her (gently but firmly) until she stops struggling and then she will lay quietly and fall asleep. I'm sure that will improve as she learns we are here to stay and this is home, and nothing is going away.

I went to sleep about 5:30pm (Friday) and woke up about 2:30am (Sat.), but she's still going strong! I wonder if I should wake her, but figure just let her body determine her need for sleep!

Postscript: The answer to "How long will she sleep?" was 13 hours - waking up at 6:30!