The holiday season is upon us and Christmas decorating, shopping, and planning is on my mind more and more each day, it seems. Not only that, but our 3rd anniversary, Garrett's 1st birthday then my twenty something-th birthday. Oh man, it's going so fast, and so much needs to be done.
A couple more weeks and Tim will be in finals, then one last semester to go. Then we are out of here. Where?! You might ask? ...VERY good question, without an answer yet. Tim has begun applying, but I don't think we'll find out right away, unfortunately.
Everything in life is a surprise anyhow, I guess. You think I would be used to it by now. Funny how we think we have things "planned," isn't it? We really can't control the future, and I guess it's best that we don't. Left to our own we as human beings don't seem to be managing the present very well, even.
So. What is new? We'll start with Eleanor, I guess. BOOKS. Lots of books. She's still enjoying her play food set and of course, Minnie Mouse. She also gains a quick fondness for anything Garrett is playing with that she didn't hand to him. But she's also learning a lot and is a pretty good big sister. She can probably understand much more than I give her credit for. Some days I'm reminded of this like the day she brought me the letter A that fell off the wall from Garrett's name saying "A fall down!" My thought process: Oh my gosh! She knows her letters- she can spell- she can read- she's writing a thesis paper! AHHHHHHH! This is going too fast. :)
She also tries to say big words like "absorbent" "octagon""tortilla" and "potato chip" with some interesting results. Her sentences seem to get more and more complex each week or so. It's crazy. So smart yet trapped in such a little body with little understanding of many things and BIG emotions to go along with it. She is doing MUCH better in nursery now, thankfully. I guess from what I hear she is also a rather dominant personality there, but very kind. I'm really pleased to see her be confident about something, I think it is helping her a lot. I'm not always the best example, so I'm glad she is doing so well, and not being so clingy. NOW the struggle is just to get her to last through sacrament meeting well until she CAN go to nursery.
Garrett is doing well, too. 10 months old and SOOOO smart (okay, I may be a bit biased)! He's said mama, dada, Boo Boo (Eleanor's nickname), bup (poop), more, puffs, hi, bye bye. (and I know I'm missing one but can't think of it off the top of my head.) He understands when I ask him to hold the bottle, pat the bottle, or give me a kiss (he makes a sound like MMMMUAH! after it!). He points to things and chews on things (two teeth, still a lump on top where nothing has come through yet). He eats meat and more chunky foods now, not just purees. He puts things inside containers and takes them out again (most often by waving it around or dumping it out). He's pretty good at feeding himself puffs... he's pretty easy going. Not crawling or walking yet, but I did get him to stand holding on to the table leg for a few seconds. He's also very interested in learning about Jesus. I know this because he saw my church manual with Jesus on the front and he was very fascinated by it then tried to eat it. "No, Garrett, no! Don't eat Jesus! No!" :)
I am looking forward to getting all these short term goals met and will be thrilled to be settled somewhere next fall, even if it's only for a couple more years or something. It is hard to say what to expect.
Here is my happy thought of the day: Christmas is coming and it gives us another chance to start over, to think about what we need to fix and about who we can help. It gives us another good opportunity to get to know our Savior better and develop a personal relationship with him so that someday when we see him he will not only know us but we will know him. And hopefully, be more like him.
