We sure do love living in our home. I, however, do not appreciate the mouse that has also taken up residence here. It doesn’t seem to bother Chris, but then a lot of things don’t bother him that do me. Amy and Alicia are both growing and changing all of the time. Amy is two. Enough said. Sometimes she is sweet and angelic and wonderful to be around. Other times she can be so annoying and disobedient. There are days when having two children is more than enough for me.
Amy loves to wear hats. Whether it is a big straw hat of mine or a colander from the kitchen, she’ll put it on her head and sleep next to it in her bed. In fact, she has to sleep next to a lot of things when she goes to sleep. There is always her “baby”, a doll that Susan gave to her last year for her birthday. She didn’t really become attached to it until five or six months ago after I took her pacifier away. Now “baby” goes to bed with her at night and for naps and is in Amy’s arms as she wakes up and comes in to our room in the morning.
She also has books next to her in bed. We ordered “The Friend” for her and she has been attached to it since the first issue came last week. She sleeps with it, eats with it and plays with it. It is so cute to see how much she loves to have a magazine of her own. I realize that it is going to get smunched and loved a lot, but that’s what it is for. After her books, she sometimes has a teddy bear, sometimes a hat, her pillow, and two blankets that Grandma Rice made.
She is becoming much more vocal and is able to express herself pretty well. I suppose if I wasn’t around her all day long and knew what to anticipate at times, I would have a harder time understanding her language. She frequently talks in sentences, but they are usually “I need this...” or “I want this...” and even “I don’t want...” When she knows that I am making lunch or dinner, she will get into her chair at the table and “I’m ready.” Most of the time she doesn’t understand that it takes time to cook food, but I try to find something to placate her.
Amy is much more comfortable going to nursery now and looks forward to being there. She knows that you wear dresses and tights to church and loves to wear her “clip clop” shoes. They make a tapping noise on the hardware floor and she loves to walk around making noise.
I tried to give Alicia a bottle tonight. She took it for about 10 seconds and then realized that it wasn’t the real thing. She got mad at me after that for trying to give it to her. I, however, would like a little more freedom. She eats every two hours and that’s every two hours from the time she starts eating. Since she won’t take a bottle, I can never be far away.
She sits in her little walker and will push herself backward and is pretty mobile in it. I imagine that she will be walking long before her first birthday. For the most part, she is a sweet, good-natured baby. Our friends comment on how content she is and willing to let other people hold her. That will likely change around six months or so when most babies become very attached to their mothers.
Alicia goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30 and sleeps until at least 7 am and often longer. It is so wonderful to be back to sleeping through the night. It is amazing how much that takes out of you.
Candace had a baby boy two weeks ago on the 15th. Jonathan Michael Ball was 10 days early and weighed 8 pounds, measured 19.5 inches and is healthy. I guess he prefers to sleep all day long and stay awake at night, much to his parents’ chagrin, but they really enjoy him. It is interesting that both Kevin and Becky chose Michael as a middle name for their boys. Chris says that it isn’t a family name.
We had Thanksgiving here with our friends. Originally, Dallin and Donna had planned to come and then Shane as well. Dallin called a couple of weeks ago to say they had problems with their car, didn’t have the money to fix it, and didn’t trust it enough to drive to Colorado in it. Then the day before he was to come, Shane’s ride fell through. I was rather bummed that they weren’t coming, but we still had fun with Mark, Malinda, Shane and Rochelle. We had a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings and then played games afterward. I guess I spent a lot of time cooking, but it was still enjoyable to be together.
Mark and Malinda moved into their house two weeks ago and Shane and Rochelle will be moving in to their new home in two more weeks.
Chris was authorized to begin working one day a week at home in November and then two days a week in December. It has been nice having him around during the day. I was spoiled when he was working at home all of the time in Utah. It is possible that he will get back to that point.
This is a note from Chris to his wife to say that he really loves her and admires all the things she does each day to keep a house and children clean and fit. It isn’t easy, and I think I sometimes have it easier at work where I can somewhat control my activities. Jo is one of the sweetest people I know, and I’m so glad that she chose to share her life with me.
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