First, our nephew Luke is doing much better. He is still in the ICU, but he gets better every day. He is able to move on his own, communicate, and do so many things. Now he just needs to start swallowing on his own and increase his muscle movement. Thank you all for your prayers on his behalf.
Afton turned 18 months a few weeks ago. She's 87% for weight (24.5 pounds or something), 82% for height (can't remember specifics), and 92% for head size. Of course. She isn't talking much, but has started to try more now that the pacifier is out of the picture. Speaking of, thanks to the pacifier's removal, her nap went from 3 hours down to about 1. But now that she's getting used to not having her pacifier, the naps are getting a little bit longer again. We love her.
Before church bedhead.
Dan and I went on a date to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo again this year. If you'll recall, last year was hard to top. So we didn't. But we still had fun. We got great seats and loved the whole rodeo. We also stuffed our faces on the free food - burritos, nachos, sodas, skittles, m&m's, snickers, ice cream bars, etc. You know I stuffed my pockets, too.
During the opening parade thing.
This picture is for all of you who think I'm 100% supa glam all the time. As if there are any of you out there. Thanks, Dan, for capturing this side of me.
Creeper in the back. I called him out on this one. I don't know why there's a weird shadow, either.
His name is not Eli Young. It's Mike Young. I don't know who Eli is.
The band that night was the Eli Young bad. They were not very good. We also rode a fun carnival ride where I felt like I was getting tossed around like a rag doll and the guy next to me (not Dan - the guy on the other side) complained that he would be unable to father children. Nice. Dan thought it was just so-so. And he will still be able to father children. TMI?
Today I took the kids to the rodeo during the day. It was fun until the meltdowns. There always have to be meltdowns!
On the shuttle.
In the petting zoo. Afton was fine with it until she came face-to-face with a goat. Then she flipped. Sam loved it, though.
Eating lunch on a Texas bench.
I bought enough tickets for Sam to ride a few things. Here he is on a giant slide. I meant to put him on the smaller slide ride to the right, but I got confused. I'm surprised he did it!
I've taken a few more videos lately, so I'll put those up in the next few days, too.
Afton has hit 18 months. Dan mentioned that it seems like we've had her forever. We're lucky.
Afton is:
A-dorable
F-un
T-errific eater
O-verindulged (I carry her all the time, she gets her way a lot, etc.)
N-ever without her pacifier
She now has 4 teeth all the way in and is getting a molar. She whines a lot. She's got super cute chub. She has an awesome waddle walk and she's starting to figure out how to run. She loves her brother. She loves her parents. She loves her Aunt Gretchen. She'll try any food. She likes to dance.
To celebrate, we're clipping the tip off her pacifer. She's going to hate it. It's going to be a LLOOONNNNGGGG night!
Our sweet little nephew, Luke, fell from the second story window of his house on Thursday afternoon while playing with his brothers. He is in critical condition in an ICU in Spokane. Please remember Luke and his family in your prayers.
Valentine's started off wonderfully. Dan and I exchanged gifts. I got our engagement picture framed for him to take to his office. He got me a garden gnome. Love it.
I tried to take pictures of the kids similar to last year's. Remember these cute pics?
Man, they were little!
Anyway, I tried to take pictures again. One of the kids was being sweet and accomodating.
Afton wasn't really feeling it.
She cried when I tried to take out her pacifier.
Sam got me a sweet treat. He picked one out for himself, as well.
And I almost forgot to mention that the GE guy came and fixed our fridge! Yay! He also doubled charged me a $90 fee, but I go that taken care of. Now I'd like to turn the blog over to Dan to report on the remained of our day.
Last night, K&G babysat the kids so that Kristen and I could go out. I took my cues from the Bachelor and asked Kristen to go climb the rock wall with me at the gym. It had been about 15 years since I last climbed a rock wall, and Kristen never had.
We each climbed up the easiest wall, which was, not surprisingly, pretty easy. It was straight up, and there were lots of big "rocks" to grab onto. Then, we moved on to the second-easiest wall. I went first, and about half-way up the wall, there was a point where I had to hang on with my right hand and only the tips of two fingers on my left hand. I couldn't get past it, and eventually I came off the wall like an out-of-shape polar bear falling out of a tree.
I'm sure I looked around in embarrassment just like the bear.
Then, Kristen took a turn. She sped up the wall like a caffeinated spider monkey. It was amazing. Frankly, I was too amazed to be ashamed that she outdid me. I told her that it was her most amazing act of physical achievement ever, childbirth included. I'm convinced that Kristen soon will have her profile inserted into this video:
I love you, squirrel baby! Thanks for a hot Valentine's date!
The GE repairman came yesterday. He's a nice guy. He took a quick look at the back of the fridge and determined that we have a freon leak. He gave me a first estimate of over $1400 (that's more than a new fridge). He said it was ridiculous that we were already have problems with our 2 1/2 year old fridge. He called his people and they offered us the parts for free. So now we're talking $424. But the parts won't come until Monday, so he won't come until Tuesday and we can't use our fridge until Wednesday. Nice.
So this is what our kitchen will look like for the next few days.
Coolers, coolers everywhere.
In other news, I copied Candice and tried putting Afton's hair in a little ponytail. She kept playing with it and tried to take it out.
Usually it stays put. I think it's so cute.
Sam and Afton hanging out on Mommy's bed.
I take Sam to a free preschool program a few times each week. Each class lasts an hour and half. It's pretty great. Yesterday they made Valentine's crafts. Here's one of Sam's crafts. They had like 4 different colors of paper to use for skin tone and Sam chose the darkest one.
He sure is cute.
I think we can safely say that this (above) is his favorite shirt. Although I put him in his room for naptime and he came out wearing this:
Please note the black church shoes.
And last, I taped him singing the Spiderman theme song. He's got that thing down, but he can only sing it superfast.
When I woke up yesterday morning, a puddle of water stretched across our kitchen floor. I traced it back to the ice dispenser on the door of our GE refrigerator. The freezer had stopped working overnight, and the ice in the icemaker was melting all over. All our food had thawed out and had to be thrown away. We later determined that the fridge had stopped cooling too, and most of that food got thrown away also.
The fridge is less than three years old.
Of course, the customer service folks said that they would offer us $50 toward the purchase of a new GE refrigerator if we pay $90 for a repairman to come diagnose the problem but choose not to have it repaired. I only have to pay $90 to get $50 back (for an irresistible net value of -$40!) on the purchase of a new GE refrigerator that will break in less than three years? Gee, how could I pass up an offer like that!?
Hopefully the repair doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
She has a few different kinds of laughs: One geeky hiccup-y kind of laugh, a big belly laugh, and a giggle kind of laugh. So cute.
She's got the cutest little waddle walk. She can't run yet, but walks really quickly when she's trying to get away from Sam.
She loves her shoes. She only has a few pairs - sneakers and church shoes. I just bought her shoes that have a strap between the toes and she hates those. At least they were only 50 cents.
She has three teeth - two on bottom and one snaggle tooth on top.
Since she only has three teeth, I constantly think she must be teething. I really think she is now, though, because she's a little more grumpy and whiny lately and she chews on her fingers sometimes. She also wants her pacifier all the time now.
She only says a few words, but she makes a lot of inflections with her throat. It's really cute.
She does a kind of roar/growl thing, too.
She loves her big brother and running around with him, but he often pushes her and pokes her and ends up making her cry.
She's getting better at following directions and will hand you things, go get things, put things away, etc.
She sleeps with one blanket, a dog, and a hippo.
Her hair is getting quite long but she'll only keep a clip in for about 5 minutes.
She's got her daddy wrapped around her finger.
We love our Afton!
The weather has been gray lately, so pictures are lacking, here's one.
Sam really likes to ask "Why?" Often, he'll keep it going so long that I no longer know the answer. That or I just get sick of answering his questions, so I finally say, "I don't know why." He'll come back with, "Well, why don't you know?" I tell him that I don't know everything.
So the other day we were in the car and that happened. I admitted that I don't know everything. Here's the rest:
These are the rest of the books I read in 2011. I think the total was 40 books. This year my goal is at least 30, but if I read more, that's good, too.
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Room with a View by E. M. Forster
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
The Book of Mormon
I really liked most of these. Lost in Shangri-La is a true WWII rescue story about 3 military survivors of a plane crash in the middle of New Guinea. Wives and Daughters was really great, too. Anyway, just wanted to document these. Now I can start my new list.
The first book I read of 2012 was The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. (A few months ago I discovered the "Classics" wall at the library, so now I know where to go to browse if I don't have something specific in mind.)
