More Things

There are a few other things I wanted to make sure to document before we get too far into the new year:

• Justin made some great projects in therapy last month.  It's really hard to see because it's not very dark, but Miss Caroline drew a Christmas tree and then Justin drew circles for ornaments and squares for presents.  It was too cute!

And then he made this snowman with Miss Sarah.  They practiced saying "arm" and "hat" and just having fun I think.  We taped this on the wall behind his chair at the table and he points to it all the time to remind us of his beautiful picture.

Miss Caroline photocopied Justin's hands (they totally look like x-rays though, and that's what both Travis and I thought they were at first!)  Then she practiced turning the scissors while cutting.  So he is missing the tips of a few fingers, but it's the cutest little reindeer antlers you ever did see!  Miss Caroline said he wore them for the first 10 minutes of therapy and didn't want to take them off. 

• Randy won his fantasy football league!  The first time he ever played fantasy football and he won.  I am so proud of him.  It was really interesting watching how they figure all the numbers.  I am glad it got him rooting for my team (the Packers) since he had some of their players on his team.  He's already planning his strategy for next year.  He's going to do some scouting and analyzing before draft day.  If we weren't a football house already, we sure are now!
• Justin even knows what to do when a team scores.  He raises his arms and shouts, "Yeah!"  He just doesn't know how to descriminate between our team and the opponents.  Still workingon that.
• He knows our teams logos and he can almost say "fooball" when he sees them around the house.
• We have begun brainstorming some names for our little girl.  Travis suggested "Travis".  I said that might be a little confusing since we already have a Travis.  Travis said it was just as confusing as when I call one of the boys "honey" since they don't know who I am talking to.  Yeah, he got me there.
• Travis might not be the best one to name our daughter anyway since he named his cousin "Shoehorn".
• Then Travis started throwing out names like Summer, or Spring, or Lady of the Fall.  I said, "Lady of the Fall DeCarlo?"  He said, "Well, we would need a middle name too."  Yeah, no seasons I think.
• We started first grade this new year, since we finished kindergarten around Thanksgiving.  Here's the picture from the first day.  I am not sure why the boat had to be in the picture.  I don't even ask.

• How early do you need to call for a cardiology appointment?  Five months.  Are you kidding me?
• More pipe leaks.  Too many even to count.  We have a routine:  Randy turns off the water to the house, I fill pitchers with water, I get the flashlight, Randy scopes out the situation, we open all the faucets to drain the pipes, Randy calls the plumber.  They fix it two days later.  Do you know how hard it is to go without water when you're pregnant and have to use the bathroom all the time?  Our neighbors don't even flinch when they see us filling our buckets from their outside faucets.  We are getting estimates on repiping.  We heard that it's the chemical they use to treat the water that's tearing up the pipes, and everyone is having the same problems.  And the new chemicals are really hard to get out of water, so we're all drinking them too!  The current water filtration systems have been focused on chlorine and they are good at removing that, but not the new chemicals.  Thirsty anyone?
• We are now on a first name basis with the pharmacy staff at Target.  We have been there four times in the past week.  They know all our health problems.  And they know we're having a girl, thanks to Travis.
• We received our first little girl outfit, the most adorable pink dress with bows and flowers and everything.  I love it!
• Miss Sarah asked me if there were any words I especially wanted her to work on with Justin.  I couldn't really think of anything I really wanted him to say (that I know wasn't really hard, like "I love you" - what mom isn't dying for her child to say that?)  But there are a few questions I hope she could get answers for, like what does he mean when he babbles and spreads his arms way out like he's opening and closing something?  And what does he need when he keeps waking up during the night?  She laughed and said she'd see about that....  Not holding out much hope...

That's a little of the past couple of weeks.  Things have been going well and we are excited about 2012!

Happy New Year!