Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was our trip to our friend Julia’s in Milwaukee for Thanksgiving.  It was a good trip.  The day after we arrived it snowed and the next morning Alice got to see and touch snow for the first time.  She was not that excited about it.  For Thanksgiving itself we watched a movie sat around and played some board games.  For dinner we had Thai food: fresh spring rolls, chicken satay and massaman curry.  We held off on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner until Friday when another of Julia’s friends could show up.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, and three kinds of pie.  It was a very good dinner.

During the entire vacation Julia was trying to encourage Alice to crawl, and Alice did learn a few new tricks while we were there.  She will now go down on all fours almost in a crawling stance but with one leg still underneath her so she can get back to a sit again.  She can extend her reach to nearly a body length, which is much farther than we were prepared for.  While in this position she can turn herself around and even scoot a little.   Sometimes she will let the other leg go out from underneath her so she is on her belly and then she can either army crawl forwards very slowly or push her self backwards a bit more quickly.  She is still getting used to it but no doubt she will be completely mobile very shortly.  Sorry we don’t have any video of her doing it just yet.

On Saturday we drove home but stopped off at the Chicago Temple for two sessions, one for me, and the other for Susan, so we could take turns watching Alice.  Alice slept through half of Susan’s session and all but the last 45 min of the drive home.  When we finally got home the entire family was very, very tired.  Alice and I fell asleep at 7 and Susan fell asleep at 8, she only woke up once to feed Alice.  We all woke up again at 7 the next morning feeling much better.

Today at church Alice was the most wiggly she has ever been.  I don’t know if it is her newfound mobility or just that she had more energy after sleeping so much, but she was all over the place and did not want to be still for even a second.

Thanksgiving

Well, it is Thanksgiving and we are in Wisconsin visiting Julia, Susan's former roommate in college. It snowed last night and today we let Alice experience the snow for the first time.

[flv width="450" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2007/AliceFirstSnow.flv[/flv]

As you can see she was not that trilled about it so Julia tried to encourage her.

[flv width="450" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2007/AliceTouchSnow.flv[/flv]

Once again not the most exciting thing.  I hope she learns to enjoy it more because this is only the beginning.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week Alice has really taken to the whole walking thing. She is still finger walking but just like when she decided that sitting was so much better then that whole lying down thing she has now decided that she would rather be standing, or even better, walking to sitting. You can be on the floor playing with her and she will reach over and grab your fingers telling you that it is time to take her for a walk now. She has also realized that walking can take you places. She likes to walk to our bedroom because there is a big package of toilet paper back there that she can hit. She also likes to go to the bathroom to visit the baby in the mirror. What is more I think she finds it exciting to be going so quickly. Sometimes she will just squeal with delight when she is walking. It happened today at church in the gym as she chased after Spencer who was only crawling.[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2007/AliceFingerWalk2.flv[/flv]

Tooth #2

Alice now has 2 teeth! We thought she was sick this weekend, but it was actually a little extra goo due to her tooth cutting through the gums. Poor kid. She got "sick" with the first tooth, too.

At least there appears to be a pattern that will help us deal with it better in the future. It's like the popping sound that precedes each eruption in the Fire Swamp of teething.

Bobby’s Sunday Summary

This week was a fairly typical week for me. I went to work and I came home. Not too much exciting in that. Susan, however, had a few days this week that were “crazy busy”. She has had several Cub Scout meetings, she helped out with Young Women’s giving them a lesson on nutrition, and she has also been asked to be “Programming Chair” for her Mothers and More chapter. She says that it sounds a lot more impressive than it is.

We have also decided that Alice is old enough to start sleeping all of the way though the night. In the past she would wake up occasionally in the night with a little “hold me” whimper, and we would go in and rock her back to sleep. We are now letting her have a little cry and fall asleep on her own. A lot of times she will not even cry, just a bit of a whimper and off she goes back to sleep. We are still trying to determine in exactly what situations we will go in and comfort her, because we don’t really want her to get used to having us at her beck and call at 2 a.m.

Saturday we raked leaves in the back yard and cleaned out the gutters on the roof. It was a lot of work, but it was a good thing that we did because that night there was a very unusual November thunderstorm, which dumped a lot of rain on us and would have made raking a lot more difficult.

We don’t really have any more pictures or movies this week, but if you are having problems with the movies, if they take way too long to download, or if you would just like the original movie or pictures in a much higher resolution format please e-mail me and I will be happy to put them in a place you can download them.

On a side note I think Alice has decided that she wants to sing. Today she has been sitting on the floor beating crinkly things against the floor while she yells. We didn’t catch it on camera but we will keep trying.

Alice tasting beef and Alice playing

At 6 months old, we started Alice on rice cereal and other pureed foods. The following clip documents one of her first experiences with pureed beef. It smelled horrible to me, so I don't blame the poor girl.

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/Alice_eat_meat.flv[/flv]

The following clip is from a slow afternoon at home one day a couple months ago. Note the constant verbal dialog with herself. This is still how she plays, generally, but nowadays she would fling that poor lion rattle as hard as she could to make noise. She has no mercy. Her current favorite "toy" is a package of fruit snacks (Oo! Crinkly wrapping!) that she whacks on a metal bowl.

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/Alice_play_6_mo.flv[/flv]

Alice in the sink

I know that Alice is going to hate us for this eventually. But, she seemed to be having so much fun in the bath that we could not resist.

Raking Leaves

Alice helped Bobby rake leaves in the front yard last weekend. We'll tackle the backyard this weekend.

Fresh/Sustainable Local Foodsystems Conference

At the end of November, there's a Tri-State Locally Grown Conference in Quincy, IL. This blurb from the registration materials summarizes the conference nicely: "This conference is designed for farmers, consumers, chefs, retailers, educators and others who are interested in building and supporting a sustainable local food system. Experts from Illinois, Iowa and Missouri will share their research and experiences in local food system work."

When I first heard about the conference, I was all pumped to go. I couldn't sleep because I was so excited! They'll be discussing all sorts of fascinating and relevant topics that just make me salivate. I was filling out the registration form when Bobby asked about Alice. D'oh! Who would take care of her that day? Bobby would be out of town on business that whole week. The conference would be all day, and it's a 3-hour drive each way. I would have to be gone from 5:30am to 7:00pm. Bobby had a good point...what about Alice? Uh...well...hm...I hadn't thought that far. Crestfallen, I decided that maybe this would be one of those sacrifices I'm supposed to make for my children. I had pretty much given up hope in attending. Then Bobby suggested he might be able to reschedule his business trip to CA and stay home with Alice that day. I can't tell you how that made me feel. And he did it. He actually rescheduled. What a gift. I guess this has turned into one of those sacrifices a husband makes for his wife :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Alice seems to have grown a lot this week. She has decided that she really likes to stand, and now it is one of her favorite games to grab our fingers and pull herself up to standing position. She is very brave too. She will usually let go with one hand and reach for things she is interested in. Needles to say this week she has also gotten rather good at falling onto her backside, although she has had a few crashes.

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/Alice_Finger_Walk.flv[/flv]

Halloween was a lot of fun. Last week we had the ward trunk or treat, and the trick-or-treating at the nursing homes that Susan did with Mothers and More. That was the majority of our Halloween celebrations. We did hand out candy but only about four groups came to our door. Our street is not that popular with the trick-or-treaters. So we rented a movie and watched it most of the evening. By the way “Meet the Robinsons” was good, but also very predictable.

Also Susan sent out an e-mail to the Mothers and More group, the ones that did the trick-or-treat at the nursing homes. She did a bit of a toy swap with several of the members and now Alice has a whole new set of toys to play with. She even has a lot put away for Christmas.

Girls Day In

I was sick with some sort of stomach flu earlier this week. It was all I could do to lay on the living room floor and watch Alice play. She actually loved the extra attention/security of having me immobilized right next to her, and I was surprised how much guilt-free fun it was to simply watch her. I didn't feel like I "should" be doing anything else, so I just enjoyed what I was doing. When I got really sick, Bobby was able to work from home (hooray!) and I got to nap in my bed.

Speaking Her Mind

From birth, Alice has seemed to have a talent for doing everything noisily. Even if she doesn't expect you to do anything about it, she wants you to know what she's feeling at all times. Alice vocalizes every emotion---joy, frustration, curiosity, fatigue, and even gluttonous pleasure. That last one got us in trouble. Last week in Relief Society, I was feeding her Cheerios. Alice's lip-smacking grunts and moaning sighs of pure delight actually turned a few heads and I had to stop before the teacher called on her.

Halloween Fun

Alice's costume was a big hit at the ward Trunk or Treat party. The darling viking hat was made by her Aunt Heidi. Heidi knit some soft boots, too (see below), but I couldn't keep them on Alice's chunky little feet (which are almost as tall as they are long, you know). Kids and adults alike adored Alice's luscious braids, and many were amazed that such knitting talent was still in the world today :) So, Heidi, what's Alice going to be for Halloween next year?

Fall "Hayride"

Alice is slightly amused on her first hay ride. We were actually in a trailer being pulled by a tractor running full throttle through a city park. Barreling over sidewalks, ducking under trees, waving to people out in their front yards...it was the best hay ride EVER.