A little bit of catch up

First, two new web albums- one from New Orleans (k, this one isn't THAT new, I just haven't blogged in a while), and one from this month (I didn't take as many pics in San Antonio, sorry... I will have to steal some from my mom). My favorite from the whole bunch is probably this one:

Man, does that make me laugh. The man had just said not to squeeze the gator and here Daniel grabbed it with everything he had.

Daniel's speech is coming along nicely. I don't know if it's the age he is at, or the speech therapist folks (who, while I like them and their visits, don't do much other than tell me I'm already doing things right), or school, but he finally has the following words:

• momma
• dadda
• sock
• shoe
• stuck
• rock
• stick
• hot
• no (it's actually a very cute "no"- sounds like a cat meowing)
• down

He also signs milk, baby, please, thank you, sorry, help, water, eat/food, bird/fly, and down. He's tried Banana a few times, too:). He sings along with me sometimes and understands so much these days.

And check out these curls!

Bucket List

Things I want to do before I die (some items are bigger than others, and many things are related- and they are in no particular order):

• Publish a novel
• Teach harp lessons
• Grow my own herb/vegetable garden and cook from it
• Live in the country
• Participate in a theatre musical
• Have a homebirth
• Become a Doula
• Become a Midwife
• Own dozens of shoes (and actually like them all well enough to wear them regularly)
• Learn how to take professional-quality photos (and have a nice enough camera to do it)
• Visit Italy
• Show Kenny Paris
• Scuba Dive
• Visit a coral reef
• Swim with dolphins
• See a child of mine read and enjoy Les Miserables and/or Lord of the Rings
• Send at least one child to BYU
• Send at least one child on a mission
• Get a full spa treatment
• Go on a cruise

I'm editing to add in an important one I forgot: own a duck. I would love to own a duck someday.

Life update

If you didn't notice in my last post, Daniel is one smiley smiley little man. He is so full of hugs and kisses for the world (including strangers and worse yet, strange animals). We have problems with independence just like any toddler, but he is overall a very smiley, very friendly baby.
He met with therapists yesterday to discuss getting him to use some words. He uses maybe 6 words on a regular basis (and by regular, I mean a few words a day, tops). Mostly, we communicate with gestures and guessing games. I'm not worried about his brain- I think he doesn't talk because I cater to him pretty well without it. But I'm eager for ideas on how to get him interested in talking and hopefully get rid of that annoying "eh eh eh" sound he makes all the time. He's finally started doing animal sounds, so that's some progress.
He climbs EVERYTHING. It is amazing. This kid is fearless. Today he went down the same slide he sprained his hip on, so he is completely over his fear of tunnel slides as of this week. He is definitely happiest outside- anywhere outside. He'd be content to play in dirt or sand or sticks or puddles for hours.
School continues to go well for him, but I'm struggling at home to be motivated with my work. Working at home does not suit me. Still, we've appreciated the extra income.
Schools are finally posting openings so Kenny is applying to area schools.
My parents come down for a week next month- we're going to join them and my brother's family for a trip to San Antonio and Sea World, and we are also planning a week-long trip to New Orleans where our best friend Ben will be joining us from North Carolina. So lots of excitement in March!
That about covers things currently. Sorry for the infrequent blogging!

Picture Update

I finally have a collection of good pics to post.
First, the haircut:


Note, my hair never actually looked like the before picture. I mean, that's awful. It was ALWAYS in a ponytail. With the new haircut now I need to style it anytime I shower- definitely more high maintenance. But I do like it, and that says a lot- I've hated every haircut I've ever had other than 1.

Next, Daniel going to school:



Daniel loving his christmas present from my mom:




Daniel in the backyard with Lucy (don't worry about our grass, it's not dead, that's simply what Houston grass looks like in the winter, it will be a thick green jungle in a few months):



Random pics from various Park outtings:






Daniel has climbed this all by himself a few times now, no help or encouragement:


Daniel's new favorite game is pushing a chair over to a counter and getting into stuff (like knives, cd players, security systems...) Here he is pretending to roll out dough like his daddy:



Finger painting:



And many, many bath pics (it's the only place where I can take out the camera without him attacking me to see the LCD):

He's finally learned to smile on command:





He drew a perfect little heart with his bath crayons (which are a big hit):


All this and more at our web album.

Day School

Last week we decided to find a 2 or 3 day-a-week day care for Daniel so I could get some consulting done. I now have 2 consulting jobs and an offer of a third- I feel like quite the hot commodity.
Anyways, I couldn't find a daycare I felt 100% happy about. Then one of the places I called (that didn't have availability) recommended Cypress Creek Christian Preschool, which has a Mother's Day Out program. So I looked into it, and it is PERFECT. It's at the big church next door to the Barbara Bush Library, and it's every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-2:30 (for only $220/month!). It was the cleanest, most trustworthy, and one of the closest of all the programs I looked at. One of his teachers is LDS, and they said overall about a third of their students are too.
Monday was his first day of school. He took to it pretty well. The teacher's described him as "very affectionate", which I take to mean he's been smashing the other kids with hugs all day. He's good at that. The most impressive part is he NAPPED. He naps great at home in his crib, but this kid NEVER sleeps anywhere other than his bed. But he got a good hour-long nap in with the other kids. And he came home with this awesome finger painting that he made (with help):

It's just about my favorite thing ever.
The program director and his teachers have been so nice. They have called me 3 times to let me know he was doing wonderfully and not to worry (which is great, because I do worry). A mommy could get used to this!

New Car!!!

I'm sure by now some of you have heard about our new car:

A family in the ward gave it to us and Daniel LOVES it.
Oh, wait... you weren't thinking of that car, huh? Maybe this one?:

That's right, we bought a brand-spanking-new 2010 Hyundai Elantra.
"But wait", you say, "aren't you always whining about how poor you are?" Yes, yes I am. But the last few months taught us we couldn't afford an OLD car anymore. The durango had recently cost us at least 2000, was due for new tires and a $1500 routine maintenance for it's 120k mile mark. For what we've paid for our two old cars in the last 6 months, we could have made almost 2 years in payments on a new car. And we decided to go completely new, rather than slightly used, because we wanted a great warranty. We're so sick of car problems.
The car that wrecked two years ago was an Elantra and we loved it. And Hyundai is just getting better with time- it's got the 4th best resale value on the market. And it only bumped our insurance up 16 dollars per 6 months.
Yes, I am a bit defensive and can go on for a long time to justify this purchase. It took a long while for Kenny to convince me. I don't come from a family that buys new cars. But then, I come from a family with the worst car luck ever.
We're so glad now. A huge weight was lifted from our shoulders. And since I'm going to have to work in one way or another for a while yet just to sustain the necessities of life, we figured we could afford to throw a car into the mix. We got an AWESOME trade-in value on the durango which helped a lot.
So we bought Merlin. He's dark blue, magic, and wears a pointy blue hat:

And yes, it's a decepticon just like the durango was. Merlin-icon?
It's not the gutsiest car- It has a squirrel running on a wheel in the engine. (The durango had a badger. The vespa had a caterpillar. Ask me what kind of engine a car has, and I will tell you it's animal equivelant.) But he's clean, comfortable, and reliable and we're very happy.


(ignore my honkin nose in that last picture).

Busy busy busy

I figured I should let you all know why you'll be seeing even less of me soon. I just picked up another job. An old client emailed me asking if I want to do contractor work for his company (which in turn provides analytics for other companies). I had worked with them before for about a year while I was still consulting and I remember them favorably. I'll work from home and the pay will be about 6 times more per hour than my B&N job, and they say it'll stay under 10 hours a week (I'm dubious about whether or not that's how much I'll work or just how much I'll bill). It's an awesome opportunity to make lots of money quickly, I'm very flattered that they reached out to me with such a generous offer, and I'm thrilled to once again use the 3/4s of my brain I devoted to web analytics knowledge, but... working from home was hard (there was a reason I quit), and I'm already feeling that nagging sensation whenever I'm at home of "are you sure you shouldn't be working right now". Not only that, but with my B&N job I've already been as tired, busy and sore as I've ever been for an extended period of time. I'm going to try to do both as long as possible- working at B&N is good, it makes me happy, and if I keep at it I could get health benefits at last, saving us about 600/month. It's also more predictable in the long run than consulting. So I'll continue doing that in the evenings, about 25 hours/week, then somewhere I'll squeeze in 10 hours of consulting, 168 hours of babies watching, and hopefully some time with my husband at some point...
As for plans for the future... we're clueless. We know that we don't want to get pregnant until we know where we'll be 9 months later (and whether or not we'll have insurance), so it may be a while before our family expands (a plan I will admit I haven't adjusted to very well, logical though it may be). Kenny is currently searching for teaching jobs- mostly in Texas, Oregon and Washington. Unfortunately very few schools will post opening before February or March. Once we know where he'll teach next year, we'll make the decision of whether or not to move. Even if he teaches locally, we may still downgrade so we can save up to move out of Texas in a few years.
Daniel is so much fun. He's currently under the weather, but today aside he's just been a blast lately. He's a great helper, and loves watching sesame street on the computer or movies upstairs (unfortunately he has learned how to pick out which movie he wants, and it usually ends up being the stupid Super Mario Brothers cartoon from the early 90s). His speaking isn't progressing much (I think it may have actually gone backward a bit), though I'm pretty sure he doesn't speak because he spends all his time with me and I understand his grunts/gestures well enough he doesn't see the point in verbalizing. All the same, if things don't change in the next few months we'll go in for a screening and some advice on how to get him talking before he turns 2 in april. Also, if any parents out there want to reassure me that it's perfectly normal for a 21-month-old boy to have a very limited attention span for mealtime, library story time, or church, it would help me out a lot.

In other news, I have about 3 months worth of news, videos and pictures to post. I promise I will someday. Oh, but this is fun. Kenny bought me this Goomba bag from Hot Topic:

It makes me happy.