We had a great weekend, although we didn't do anything especially out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was that Steve didn't work at all the entire weekend! Yesterday we decided to take a mini-road trip to Warrensburg to visit our old college campus. It was fun driving around town and reminiscing. Emma had fun as well, except for the part where she smashed her fingers while playing air hockey with Steve in the student union.

In the past two weeks or so, Emma has learned how to say her s + consonant sounds. One night she was outside with Steve while he grilled, and they both came in excitedly to tell me that Emma had said "smoke". Not "poke". And then suddenly, she could say them all. Now there is nothing she can't say perfectly except for an "l" sound occasionally. I am sad that she will never again tell me that Noah is piling at her, or that she wants to go fwimming at the pool, or that she wants to fwitch pots (switch spots), or tell me that she is brave with takes (snakes). She seems so much less like a little kid now. I am still not used to it and it sounds strange to me when I hear her say ssssmell or something else that she used to not be able to say. At least she still calls napkins "nakumes" and sandwiches "canwiches".

This Kelsey Smith story has been on my mind a lot since it all went down. The girl was abducted in the middle of a crowded parking lot in broad daylight, and her body was found just a couple miles from our house. I feel so terrible for her family, and also really creeped out. On Thursday we were meeting some friends at the park by our house, and when we got there I could see there was no one at the park yet. The park is kind of down in a hole away from the street, and surrounded by woods, and I was too nervous to go there with the kids by myself even though we have been there about a million times before when no one else was there. We just walked around on the street until we saw our friends, then we all walked down to the park together. Then tonight when I was doing my run/walk with the kids in the jogger, I said hi to some guy on the street and he kept talking so I stopped because I didn't want to just ignore him. He kept talking, asking how old the kids were and stuff, and he was probably just being nice but I was getting really paranoid and I wanted to get away from him. Silly, probably, but I am all worried now about the creeps out there who are just waiting for a chance to do horrible things to women or children. Shudder.