1978 Catherine's Letter -April 4

Tuesday morning

April 4, 1978

Dear Mom, Dad, and Mary Virginia,

Hi!  Thanks for your long letter which arrived on Saturday.  We were glad to hear that Grandma made it to Ohio and hope she is doing OK.  Is the weather staying springlike?  We are noticing a big difference here with the sun coming up earlier each morning.  Of course, in a few weeks daylight saving time will make it come up an hour later.  Wendy has been waking up around 6 AM lately which I attribute to the morning light.  She doesn't make too much noise though and usually goes back to sleep or at least lies fairly quietly until we get up about 6:30.

Yesterday was a traumatic day as Wendy fell off the counter in the bathroom.  I had bent down to put the diaper in the diaper pail and whoosh she was down on the floor beside me.  Needless to say she cried for awhile and the bump on her head swelled a little but she didn't have any of the danger signs that Dr. Spock says to watch out for after a fall.  She seems to be doing fine today and I have been keeping my hand on her whenever I put her on the counter.  Other times I keep her either on the floor or in her walker.  She has discovered that she can get around faster by rolling over rather than crawling.  She twists the front of her body or should I say the top (meaning her head and shoulders) in the direction she wants to go and then she rolls.  She moves all around the living room with no difficulty at all.  She especially likes to push herself sort of halfway into the open parts on the end of the coffee table and chew on the edges.  I put all her toys on the bottom shelf of the bookcase so she can reach them.  Right now her favorite seems to be the pooh bear you got her at Disneyland last year.

Sunday we went to the Pinnacles.  We went to the reservoir where we made our little hike to before.  We were going to go further on the Chalone Peak trail but the strap on Wendy's backpack broke (the one I had sewed) and since it is much more difficult to carry her when she is not in the pack – especially now as she seems to be really squirmy and grabby  – she'll grab at anything that looks like it might be within her reach and when there isn't anything in her reach she practices clapping her hands together.

We finally finished the roll of film and the pictures are to be ready on Thursday so I'll send you some.

Love,

Catherine, Gerry

& Wendy