Big, Big Girl

We spent the long weekend in Chicago with my family. All of the cousins were there and the kids had a blast. Andy never even got out of his pajamas on Saturday, basking in the glory of spending the entire day in my brother's man cave in the basement playing Little Big Planet 2 on his huge screen tv. Yes, it is really that big. My brother summed it up when he said that Andy's attention span for video games was amazing. Several of the kids came and went but Andy kept playing the entire time and never looked tired or lost focus. He only came upstairs to eat, and I don't even think that included lunch. Yes, we're so proud. If that kid didn't get such good grades his lifestyle would seriously have to change. He is my brother to a T.

The girls did all sorts of things to keep busy and there was hardly any crying or whining the whole weekend, except from Amanda, who cried anytime anybody looked at her. She'll get better, but it's getting a little old. Luckily for her she's cute so everybody forgave her.

Despite her clinginess, Amanda demonstrates her independence a little more everyday. This trip it was all about pulling the backpack. Everybody in the family has their own backpack for travelling, filled with things to occupy their time during the flight and any downtime we have on our trip. Amanda doesn't have one, but will get Sarah's old one on our next trip. She wanted so badly to pull a backpack like the big kids. At first Sarah wasn't too keen on Amanda stealing her backpack and pulling it through the airport, but then she realized if Amanda had it then she didn't have to pull it. Somebody else was doing the work for her!

Our next big trip is in a few weeks, we'll see how it goes. As Charlie reminded me, we're going to have to build in some extra travel time now that Amanda isn't being whisked through the airport in the stroller. She wants to walk and she' going to do it her way.

If you can't see the video above, you can click on the following link to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mxf5xYpsvA