Taxes complete!

Now that I've FINALLY finished with my taxes, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. For what seems like the last month, I would spend each night after putting Penny to bed crunching numbers, reading instructions, beating my head against a wall of forms as I got my act together so I could even begin to use TurboTax. I perhaps make things a little more complex than they need to be, but with tuition, retirement plans, inheritance, etc. there are actually a fair number of factors that were coming into play. Any night I didn't do taxes, I just went straight to bed because I've been absolutely exhausted lately.

But now....spring has finally sprung with some really nice temps (a bit rainy, but that's not a problem for folks who lived in England and a country with a rainy season recently). On my days off, Penny and I have been thoroughly enjoying any outdoor time we can lay hold of. She loves blowing bubbles, which I'm sure Nanna is excited to have us do outside instead of on the carpet. I love the commentary and now even story telling that Penny is developing. With such an improved ability to communicate, I sometimes erroneously hope that she'll be able to accurately relay how her day went. Unfortunately, either with little concept of time or generally having more fun telling stories than being accurate, I get some pretty goofy responses. I still love that when I ask her how she's doing, more often than not the response is an emphatic "Great!"

Penny has been spending more time with her cousin Christopher of late. Christopher's nanna has been ill, in the hospital and now out again recuperating. Auntie has a long road to recovery ahead, but I think she may get lots of little visitors to help brighten her days at home. Christopher here appears to be quite a speller (check out the purple) and potentially a budding musician. We'll see.

Next week is spring break and my big giant program that my grant is funding, so no promises about blogging much in the remainder of April, but I might have some sweet pictures of kids doing fun environmental things. Those would be cool to share. We'll be doing everything from meeting endangered species, to recycling games to hanging out with pullets (those are the things that get turned into McNuggets). Should be a blast and a half. So if you're in the area, do swing by Brooklyn Children's Museum as it promises to be a blast!