Nicole's Writing

We made turkeys tonight for the teachers at Nicole and Chris's school

but I was most impressed by the letters Nicole wanted to put on the back of her Language Art teacher's card ("because she teaches me letters")

(for reference the second letter from the right bottom corner is a "b". Right below her backwards J is a "g". For some reason she didn't know how to do an "x" so i had to draw it. The "w" is totally unrecognizable (it's situated between all of the "u"'s. Her "F" made me smile because it took six penstrokes to create.)

Life around here

• Jim's family's Thanksgiving was this weekend. I drove the "to" leg and got a speeding ticket on the way. It was really lousy because he pulled me and the guy behind me over (80 in a 65) so the cop got a 2 for 1 deal. Per Jim's suggestion I'm taking it easy on my speeding as a result. On the way to work I only did 4-7 mph over the limit. I drove in the center lane and sneered at the cars who continually passed me on BOTH sides.
• Chris frustrates me with his behavior. At school he's rough with the other kids. At home he's whiny and wants me to hold him constantly. At other people's houses he's adorable, playful, and self-entertaining. Maybe if I redecorate our house he'll be confused and act the way he does when he's visiting?
• We took advantage of the 66 degree weather yesterday and put up the wreaths on the outside of our house. I have not yet done any internal decorations- those I'll save until this weekend.
• After some irritating experiences at 4am on Black Friday a few years ago I vowed to never again wake before dawn to go shopping. While I still get the online BF ads and have scoped out some deals, my full intention is to online shop as much as possible.
• There have been several break-ins in our neighborhood lately. I've gotten two suggestions for a dog. We are dog people but we would be very bad dog owners because we aren't home enough. One of our neighbors has a dog and their window got shot with a bb gun (a pattern for the robbers) so my new response will now be- "dogs don't work".

Building Vocabulary

This morning Chris said two new things that he's never said before:

"Nope" and "Down Low"

"Nope" was an answer to "Chris, do you want some milk?"

"Down low" came out "ow low" but he did it in the right context of me giving him five.

He's coming along!!!

***** UPDATE******
At LaRosa's he was eating apple slices and bit part of one so that the peel had a tag (was hanging off). He tried to pull it but it wouldn't tear. He handed the piece to Jim and said "off".

Now, 3 measly letters might not seem big, but it's 1) a new word he's never said before and 2) a pretty abstract concept for a 16 month old to say.

*hoping i have a baby genius* - ha!

He tried!

Last night, while getting Chris ready for bed, Chris was standing on his changing pad. I took off his shirt and blew a "raspberry" on his belly. Laughing like crazy he bent over as far as he could and went "pflleeeebbbb" in the air.

As flexible as he is, he couldn't get his lips to his own stomach.

Blah!

Our household has been SICK lately and it's getting old.

• Chris got a cough and then a rash that led to $105 in prescriptions
• I picked up a cold that had me taking off work last Wednesday. I'm still not fully over it.
• Nicole's nose got stuffy last week but she insisted she was fine and never needed to blow
• Jim and Nicole got a pukey virus that had them out of commission on Sunday night. I was up all night with one or both of them and had to take a half day yesterday just to catch up on sleep
• Chris now has a new, blotchy red rash on his arms and legs. He'll need to go back to the doctor today
• I just got an annoying cold sore on the inside of my top lip. It's all irritated because it rubs against my gum line when I talk.

Enough already!!!