I know, I know. About damn time.

The usual "I've been busy" excuses, frankly, don't fly, so I'll go into a little more detail. In the past month and a half, we have:

1. Dealt with Aunt Emily having a stroke, bein g in the hospital here in Columbus, and the like. A very rough time for us all, although it looks like she'll be OK.

2. Gone to Kings Island. (Well, I went to Kings Island for an outing with my co-workers. Jason couldn't take off work and Veronica is still a little too young.)

3. Visited the Ohio State Fair with Veronica, where she laughed at some jugglers, pointed and yelled "Tick-ens!" at the roosters, and went on her first carousel ride - which frankly seemed to bore her.

4. Babysat Zane for a day, resulting in us getting the kids' portraits taken together. Too cute. He's a ball of energy - he can run already, for crying out loud! - but he's a very easygoing, nice little boy.

5. Which leads me to dealing with Veronica learning the fine art of the temper tantrum, accompanied by her new skill of shrieking.

6. Dealt with Veronica's new mobility. She'll crawl now, but still prefers to scoot on her butt. Her favorite thing now, though, is pulling herself up on every surface she can reach and cruising along as far as she can. She will even hold onto me then let go for as long as she can keep her balance. She's even trying to free-stand in the middle of the floor, although she giggles every time her knees bend and she plops back down on her butt.

7. Read to Veronica. A LOT. We encourage the fact that she loves us to read books to her, or sometimes to just leaf through them herself. I read one called "Bumble's Sweet Surprise" so many damn times that we put it up for a while - although she can identify a picture of a bumblebee now. She has one book that she knows some of the words to, and says them whenever she's holding it. "No, no!" she'll coo while "reading" the same in the book, and it's almost too adorable to handle.

8. Kind of went "huh?" when the most absurd phrases popped out of her mouth. Jason was changing her at the grocery store restroom the other day when her little head hung over the back of the changing board. "Whaaa, I'm upside down!" she exclaimed. Lord knows when we'll hear anything like that again...

9. Melted when she learned to give kisses.

10. Went to a cookout at my boss's house, which totally got rained out but was a hoot nonetheless.

11. Went on lots of evening walks.

12. Juggled a good bit of overtime work. (At least I did, as Jason's schedule is frequently erratic.)

13. Thrilled over the fact that Veronica seems to finally be getting her first tooth.

14. Took Veronica to her therapy appointments and a checkup (those were both Jason.)

15. Hung out a lot with our friends Brandon and Amanda, including hitting Shadowbox Cabaret on Saturday night.

I know, it might not sound like much - although the crisis with Emily was two weeks right there - but there's more that's just too involved and not too interesting, which is pretty much life in general. This weekend my folks will be watching Veronica while we head to the Akron/Canton area for a wedding. So who knows when the next update will be. Hopefully, much sooner, as there's so many little things lost to time in the past six weeks. :-(