Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a fairly normal week, nothing too out of the ordinary happened.  Just kidding, it was actually a very busy and rather family centric week this week.  The most obvious thing that happened this week was Thanksgiving.  I got off work a little early on Wednesday and I haven’t been back since.  We spent most of the vacation at home.  It was very nice and relaxing.  We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Bill, my brother’s family.

Yesterday we made our monthly trip to the temple.  We actually left Friday night and stayed at a friend’s house closer to the temple.  But in the spirit of our last trip we decided to go at the last minute and ended up leaving some important stuff at home.  It wasn’t too critical but Alice got the brunt of this one, whereas the last trip she was left relatively unscathed.  We left a number of Alice’s toy’s at home.  This is problematic for a very long car ride, and especially so when it is two long car rides one right after the other.  We also forgot to bring her coat.  Luckily we were meeting my brother Bill at the temple to switch off baby-sitting and Aunt Kristin was kind enough to lend Alice a coat way too big for her so she could play outside with her cousin.  Sorry there are no pictures we also left our camera at home.  When we get the pictures Bill took we will post them.

Other then that it was a fairly normal week where nothing too much out of the ordinary happened.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Hey, I don't want to steal any thunder from Bobby's AMAZING Sunday Summary this week, so I'll leave the details to him and just say it was an awesome weekend. Better in so many ways from what I had planned or predicted. I didn't get bored once, I got to try a few new things, and there was oodles of quiet time. So happy!

Mmmm, whipped cream.

Ah, the opera

As Bobby mentioned in his Sunday Summary, we were in Wisconsin last weekend visiting a friend of mine. We drove up Friday night (Alice slept most of the way and Chicago traffic was kind to us) and spent the night in her cute house. Bobby was kind in his summary, neglecting to mention that I volunteered to do ALL the packing this time and FAILED miserably. Namely:

• I packed TWO toothbrushes for Alice but absolutely no underwear for myself.

• Plenty of diapers, but no wipes.

• Travel shampoo, floss, and extra socks for everyone, but not Bobby's electric razor.

• I meticulously packed complete church outfits for all of us, including shoes (I was so proud of myself for remembering to pack the Sunday shoes!), and forgot to put THAT particular bag in the car. Julia had some clothes we could wear but Bobby had to go to church in jeans.

The food this weekend was excellent! I love food. On Saturday, we prepared fabulous meals like cinnamon vanilla pancakes for breakfast, broccoli cheese soup for lunch, and a ham feast with asparagus, herb-laced mixed salad, and potatoes for dinner.

Saturday night, Julia took me to see Madame Butterfly. There's nothing in this world like a tragic opera! I was sobbing LONG before the end and couldn't collect myself until after the whole cast had taken a few bows. The man sitting directly behind us enjoyed it thoroughly, shouting "BRAVO!! BRAVO!!" at the top of his lungs throughout the entire applause period.

As delicious as the tragedy was, I enjoyed the ride home best. An odd couple in the parking garage elevator had rubbed me the wrong way. One look from Julia told me she felt the same. It was instantly like we were in college again. All the memories came back...all those years living together...I felt like close friends again. Reconnected. It made me laugh. We laughed and talked all the way home. We stayed up late watching MORE opera (Merry Widow this time, a comedy) and finally went to bed too tired to converse any longer. That was a good day.

I've got this crazy brain, y'know, that forgets all sorts of things. This odd little brain that remembers only snippets of entire years gone by and creates teeny snapshots of entire relationships. Without constant reminding, it eventually reduces all past experiences into a dull glow of general pleasantness or unpleasantness, no peaks or valleys of emotion remain. A blessing and a curse, to be sure. It was great to remember something so fully for once.

Here are a couple more pictures from our time in Wisconsin. Hanging out in our PJs! Alice was the only one dressed because her clothes get changed with the first diaper of the day.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week Susan did a number of fun things with Alice, but I will let Susan tell you about them, because I wasn’t there. But, as a teaser here is a lovely picture she took of Alice and Baby. I am not positive of the detail surrounding this picture, but Alice has been known lately to set up meals for herself and Baby or Mommy. I hope Susan can explain the rest of it.

Sure, I'll explain. We put the kid table in the kitchen a few days ago when our friends and their kids came to dinner. The picture above was taken the next day. Alice got the brilliant idea that Baby might want some "bef-ess" after his "nigh-nigh" in her crib. She laid out his gray blanket, arranged the dishes, and served him a meal. I brought out the kiddie seat when Baby kept slipping off the bench onto the floor. Alice LOVES the kid table (thanks Rachel!) and eats all of her meals there now. Tonight for dinner, Bobby and I joined her there. Fun!

This week we also went to visit one of Susan’s Friends from College. It has been a fun trip, and Alice has been very patient with the hours and hours of driving. We did manage to snag some pictures from her that are of the last time she came to visit us.

This was taken when Alice used to smile like Popeye. Her Daddy taught her that, you know. 

Radio Silence

I've been a little quiet lately. No reason, really, but I have lots of excuses :)

Alice starts to maul me as soon as I put the computer on my lap. If I wait until her "quiet time" to write, then I'm sucked into family history "mysteries" like finding any evidence of my great, great uncle's existence beyond 1860. I found a man with his same name, age and location who enlisted in the Confederate Army and died in the war a few months later. Is THAT guy MY guy? A mystery! "Addiction" is probably a more accurate description. It's always an exciting thought in the back of my brain, but not always the most exciting thing to read about on someone's blog. Y'know?

I'm tempted to plan a research trip out to the Carolinas, but I get the feeling that no trip will be long enough to learn all I want to learn about these people. Perhaps in a few decades when I've exhausted all the OTHER resources available online and through the Family History Center and my local library's interlibrary loan program, I can justify a trip out east. Maybe.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was not that different form last week.  The one that we did not post a blog entry for because there really wasn’t anything to say and it made some people so nervous that they called. Because there really isn’t much to talk about and I want to avoid more calls from people who think we might be dead I will update you on some of the new things that Alice can do.

She can now open and close doors all by herself.  Luckily, not the front door but some adults that visit us even have trouble with our front door.  She has just started to be able to put together some simple puzzles.  There are some cloths that she can take off without any help.  This is mostly coats with zippers in the front, but she will take off diapers, and tee shirts half way.  And probably the one that makes her the happiest is that she can jump.  It is barely a jump.  Both her feet get about a centimeter off the floor.  But, she no longer falls down when doing it, and we have had to start implementing rules about where she can and cannot jump.

Belated Halloween Picts

Hooray! I managed to beg a few pictures from Crystal of Alice in her costume at the Halloween Parade. A few members of my community mothers' group (Mothers and More) met up at a local nursing home and went trick-or-treating in a parade-like-manner. Alice was tired and didn't feel like exploring much until she learned you were supposed to put these shiny bits of candy into a bag. She likes filling bags. Ashley and Crystal came along, too, which made it WAY more fun for me. Thanks ladies! Here are the picts:

And here are a few pictures from a DIFFERENT Halloween party with the Mothers and More group. They rented out a rec center that's associated with a Head Start program. The rec center puts out all the toys and cleans up afterwards. I took Alice and Will there to play.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

I don’t really have any pictures this week.  It is kind of ironic that we forgot to take pictures on Halloween, but we have a somewhat good reason.  This year on Thursday, the day before Halloween, we went to a trick-or-treat party at work.  Alice was scared., despite her love of candy and her yelling Daddy and Candy for 10 min. straight on the ride over.  When she finally got to the party she was too scared to even grab any candy from other people.  We got her a small bag of candy but she did not really have a good time, and it was so short we did not take any pictures.

On Halloween we almost didn’t even go to the party.  Alice was having a very bad day.  I worked late because Susan was babysitting and was going to pick me up on the way to the party.  When I called to setup the time for the ride Alice was in the background screaming the entire time.  In the car on the way over she was screaming the entire time.  She did not take a nap, and was very much on edge.  When we got to the party she calmed down and had a great time, but because we did not think we were really going to stay she was not in her costume and we did not bring the camera.  She did have fun running around the gym, coloring pictures, and eating dinner.  We did not stay for the trunk-or-treat because it was past her bedtime, and we knew what happened the last time.  Perhaps we will have to put her in her costume and snap some pictures.