Homecoming

Jason was in Peru and Ecuador for the past week and a half. Alexis wasn't very happy about this and was missing him a lot during this trip, understandably so. She was a little mad at him I think because she (pretty adamantly) refused to talk to him on the phone. When we got home from picking him up, Jason put her to bed and she rolled ovver like she would go instantly to sleep. However, she then popped up quickly and said "Now, don't go to work EVER AGAIN." And rolled back over to go to sleep. I think Jason's heart melted right then. Cutest thing ever.

Jason is home, and we had a nice day with the kids yesterday since he was off. We were going to go to a festival, but it decided to rain all day and we stayed home. On Saturday (if our car is fixed... again...) we're going to go out and celebrate our anniverary. Seven years. Hooray!

Micah has a 15 month appointment on Monday, and I imagine his doctor will tell him he is completely fine. He still never walks anywhere, only runs. My favorite is when he gets some speed up and is jogging along making little grunting happy noises and his fat cheeks start bouncing up and down. All he wants all of the time right now is to be up on a couch or a chair. Literally. He's trying to climb into my lap right now as I type. The problem is that he hasn't yet figured out how to get up on his own. Hopefully that's coming soon, but I'm glad it didn't come earlier like it did with Alexis. I think if he tumbles off a couch it's not really going to hurt him at all right now, which is what I always worried about with her. He'll sit on the couch, though, and if you have a few picture books, he'll usually be content for a LONG time just pointing out pictures and having you say the name of the picture and then trying to repeat it. You can really see his vocabulary beginning to take off and he readily knows words like milk and banana and will point or go to where they are when he wants them. He's also starting to point out some pictures like clock and pig, which is very cool to see. And, of course, He adores his Guapo, which is his best friend elephant. He also enjoys playing chase with his sister. It was amazing the other day to hear them upstairs, playing in their rooms, and laughing for over five minutes straight while they were doing this.

Alexis is turning into a super cleaner upper in the evening. She has the responsibility of cleaning up the basement and her room, and (most of the time now) she does a really good job. She gets incredibly excited about us seeing what a good job she does and thrusts her head into the bed or sofa until we come and see her handiwork. Her favorite thing right now is making crafts, and our dining room table is usually littered with scraps of paper and crayons and stickers and glue and foam and yard for her to create something special. (She has also started saying, around 7:30 at night when we go to bed), that she REALLY wants to do something SPECIAL tonight. It's pretty funny. She is developing a good vocabulary and busted out with the word purchase a few days ago at the store, and a woman overheard her and laughed because she thought it was very impressive to hear that from a kid her age. That made me feel good. A few months ago I got the most recent Ramona Quimby book at a used bookstore, and she saw it in her closet and claimed it as her favorite book. We've actually been reading it at night, and she will begin chapter 3 tonight. We'll see how long this lasts, but it's pretty cool that she's listening. I sometimes have to convince herto listen a bit, but she always enjoys it, especially when she can delay bedtime! The one thing I'm really trying to work on with her is consequences. She has a hard time focusing on things, so I'm trying to learn to appropriately enforce her decisions. For example, if she says she wants to go outside and play sidewalk chalk and then she plays for about twenty seconds and then stops, we'll go inside. Last night when I told her she could have a cookie after she did a good job of cleaning up and she didn't do a good job, she didn't get a cookie. Hopefully she's learning from these things.

Overall, the kids are doing really well. Alexis prays for her new cousin, Elizabeth, every night, along with her parents. Elizabeth was born at 27 weeks and just over two pounds and is quite a feisty one I've heard. She had surgery to correct some birth defects earlier in the week, and she'll have to have more done at 3-6 months. It looks like she'll be in the hospital for 6-9 months at this point, which is incredibly difficult. We pray for them. We also pray for Earl every night, and mom, as he goes through shemo treatments. Jason has today off, too, so we have a long, four-day weekend to enjoy together since he was gone. Hooray for family time and relaxing!