Tomorrow is Jack's 9 month check-up. In advance of this I've been trying to assess what his capabilities are because I know I'll have to do the Ages and Stages questionnaire tomorrow. Within the last week I've taken note that he can now low crawl, push himself into the sitting position from the laying position, and pull himself up to standing in both his crib with bars and his pack and play without bars. He can pick up Cheerios but it's not a perfect finger/thumb pincher grasp. It's more like he uses his pointer finger to trap the Cheerio against the back of his thumb.

He doesn't form any words yet, but he does "talk" to you. If you ask for a kiss he'll lean in and open his mouth wide. He smiles all the time and is very sociable with everyone. However, he has started to show some separation anxiety and preference for Mommy and Daddy. When the occasional person comes on too strong he'll cry at them. Given time they can usually ingratiate themselves to him and become friends.

His favorite show is "Blue's Clues," but I think his absolute favorite is Moose A. Moose in between shows. He loves to play with toys, especially the ball popper featured in an earlier video. He has another Baby Einstein musical toy his Aunt Patty gave him that he loves. We call it the hammer :) Now that he's crawling he's ranging all around the house and finding small things we didn't even know were on the floor. Yesterday he had a whole hickory nut in his mouth before we knew it, and today it was a rubber pad from the bottom of some game. He definitely keeps us on our toes. Lord save us from the thousands of pieces of Polly Pocket.

On Sunday M planned to take Emma out to play in the freshly fallen snow. Instead of the predicted 20"-30" we got about 10"-12". M probably spent two hours outside by himself preparing for Emma. He built a snow fort and then he dragged an old tire up and down the hill to crush down a path for Emma's sled. I was afraid he was going to run out of energy before she even got outside. When she finally did go out they had fun for another hour or so.

By the evening M was beat. He got dinner, gave Emma her bath and story, and then fell asleep on the couch. He had to ask me the next morning who won the Super Bowl. I only knew because I got the push notification on my iTouch. He saw about 20 minutes of the Super Bowl and I saw maybe an hour. Oh well.

Oh, yay, G. I. Joe...


With meal replacement bars...


And freeze-proof water...hooyah!

...it sure does cut down on laundry.

This should make being snowbound all weekend a little more bearable. Wheeee!

Every once in a while I feel we can give ourselves a pat on the back and a "well done." As I tell you this I'm sure some of you will be saying to yourselves, "Well, duh, we've been doing this for a long time." But for us it was the first.

M took Emma by the convenience store to pick up "chicken bones" (fried chicken legs) for her lunch on Wednesday. In the store she saw a little stuffed puppy in a carrier that she wanted. She started in on her Daddy (which usually works when it comes to toys) and he wouldn't buy it for her. So she escalated the crying and dramatics. He stood firm. They walked up main street back to the store with Emma caterwauling the whole way. M was sure he was going to hear about it from folks later. When they got back to the store she was still throwing a fit. She refused to go home with Grandma for lunch and kept up with her hysterics. Then, like a bolt out of the blue, Grandma swatted her behind. A first. Shocked the fury out of her. Of course then Emma's grievance turned to Grandma, but she had too much sense to speak out.

You'd have to see Grandma to understand how shocking this must have been. She's bent over half by scoliosis and getting shorter and more frail by the day. But she has warned Emma in the past that she wasn't above swatting her if she couldn't rein it in. So, kapow! Fortunately, after leaving for a while Grandma came back later in the afternoon and everything was completely cool between Emma and her.

On to Thursday, after Emma gets off the bus she starts in with the whiny, pouty pleas for the puppy at the convenience store. Now seriously, it's so much easier to cave on this stuff than put up with the drama. But easy doesn't build character so the hard way it must be. M brought Emma to my work so I could bring her home later. When she got to me she started cajoling me to take her to the store and buy this puppy. I told her I would speak to Daddy about it.

M has this thing about not wanting to do the wrong thing when something really is important to his kids. He has vivid memories of times in his youth when his parents really didn't understand the enormity of his longing or need, no matter how he pleaded, and it wasn't just about stuff he wanted to buy. With those vivid memories in mind he's keen not to get it wrong with Emma. After some discussion we decided that we'd tell Emma she could get her own money at home that night and come back to town with Daddy to buy it the next day, if she really wanted it.

I was left to explain this deal to her. Of course she wanted it right now with my money paying for it. I told her "no" she must use her own money. "But if I spend my money then I won't have any money!" "Emma, that's how it is with my money, too." Finally, she began to grasp that we were serious about making her wait another day and using her own money.

Since M was shopping last night I had bedtime duty with both of the kids. I let Emma stay up and watch a Scooby movie because I knew school would be cancelled today. Then after I read to her I let her play Leapster. Still, I was a bit surprised when she came downstairs at 10:34 p.m. acting small and pouty. "Mommy, we forgot something." We hadn't found her money yet. So, I got up and went to her room. From her various wallets and purses we assembled $8.00. M had no idea how much the puppy was so I had to guess. Daggone it, if it was more than $8.00 he could make up the difference.

Around 9:40 this morning I called to store to see how it went. They went to the convenience store on the way in and Emma got her puppy. $2.99, so she got to keep some of her money to bring home. M said she had it named before they were back to the truck. "Toodles." Now I'll be interested to see if this lesson in "value" yield any more care and attention to this toy. I'll try and take a picture later to add to this post later.

My impression is that it wasn't nearly as bad as I was told it would be. Make no mistake, the actual surgery part was no fun. The hospital took great care of me. I love the nurses at RMH. That said, my IV insertion wasn't the best. The anesthesiologist even remarked on it. It was a bit painful; I never got used to it being there. It amazes me when they roll you into surgery and there are always so many people in the room. I'm talking seven or eight standing around for a laparoscopic gall bladder surgery.

Recovery is always bizarre and uncomfortable. I guess when you wake up they want to hear from you before they adjust your pain meds to where they work. They were generous with the painkiller. They kept checking to make sure I was sure I wasn't feeling too much pain. In the ambulatory unit after recovery I got to see M again. We weren't there all that long. I could have stayed there all afternoon napping. After the nurses pulled my IV we started the discharge process. My surgeon was caught in surgery so he gave me a phone discharge.

We stayed at Noni's one night and then M brought me home. The kids stayed with Noni and Popi till Sunday. Which was handy because I was on narcotics until Tuesday. Child care issues were all screwed up this week. Because of the snow days Emma only put in one full day of school this week. We had two hour delays and one early release. I was home all week. I did go to the office yesterday afternoon to clear my desk, but found it was more taxing than I anticipated.

As for the surgery aftermath, honestly, it wasn't that painful. I didn't have any issues with coughing or laughing. No need for pillows pressed against me. I had no gas pains. My surgery left four (or five) different wounds on me and those are sore, but otherwise it's been easy to cope with the pain (with the meds). I suppose having two c-sections has put this surgery in perspective. Not bad at all.

They're calling for 20 to 30 inches of snow here over the next day and half. This is on top of a 7" base we have already. Joy. We have had so much stinkin' snow this winter it isn't funny. It more than makes up for last winter when we got maybe one good snow of five inches.

We're planning to be housebound this weekend. M and Emma went to the store this morning and will stick with it as long as they feel like it. Meanwhile I'm home with the little boy who doesn't like to nap when he's at home with mommy.

M went over the mountains last night to shop for the store and because Jack was about out of baby food. He said it was nuts. There was no milk to be had at Walmart. None. No shredded cheeses. He went to three different grocery stores and there were no bananas anywhere. He did get all the baby food we needed. I think he said he was in bed by 3:00 a.m.

I had an appointment this morning over the mountains for the follow-up on my surgery. Thankfully they called me this morning. They were trying to move up all their appointments and offered to take me as soon as I could get there. Once they figured out that I was four mountains and an hour and a half away they offered to reschedule me. So next Friday it is!

We had plans with the whole family to rendezvous at Uncle B's this weekend to celebrate birthdays for M and Uncle B. We nixed that yesterday. Rescheduled for next weekend.

At least we have the Super Bowl to look forward to on Sunday. That will take the edge off the cabin fever. Maybe.

This was the night we took the wrong turn taking Emma to her friend's birthday party. It was snowing and the roads were already treacherous. We ended up on what was a glorified cow path up the sheer side of the mountain. I still get a knot in my chest thinking about it.

Tonight is the same girl's birthday party again. It's snowing again. This time I'm cozy and warm at home recuperating from surgery while M is taking Emma to the party. I get to wait for them to return safely. They're not home yet. I wish the snow would stop.

UPDATE: They're home safely. Thank God. The actual driveway to the little girl's house was harrowing in itself. Cut up a long hill with sheer sides. Two people coming to the party had incidents on the driveway. One ran off of it. It had to be near the bottom for it not to have been a catastrophic accident. The girl's dad had to tow the vehicle back onto the driveway. The other did a 180 degree slide and since they were pointing downhill went right home. No one could figure out where you could do a 180 without going over the cliff. M had taken the 4WD truck. Then he traded off at the store and drove himself and Emma home in my car. He said my car did great. So the party ended up with four kids, one more than they had last year. Emma said the little girl screamed a lot, but they all still had fun.

Hi Mommy & Daddy!

We sure hope Mommy is feeling better and getting plenty of rest while we're at Noni and Popi's.

Yesterday after you two left to go back home, Noni and Popi took us to Jess' for lunch and we met the nicest lady, Miss Angeliki. When she came over to visit Jack, he got a little scared and cried for a minute or two, but after he had a while to get adjusted to the place and her, he smiled for her and talked to her a lot. They made the best chicken tenders and I ate every bit of them. THEN ----- Noni took us to the Children's Museum and we had the greatest time. Jack liked sitting at the front window watching the cars go by and I had fun with a new friend, Cole. He and I played at almost every station in the museum. He was a very nice boy and his mommy went around with us to show us how to do things we didn't understand. We had a really, really, really good time.

Jack and I both ate a very good supper last night. Noni and Popi were very proud of both of us and told us so too. We were both pretty tired, so we went to bed without any complaints.

Today has been a very snowy day all day. We've done a lot of things indoors while the snow has been falling. Popi watched some Scooby Doo shows with me and he played the Memory Game with me too. Noni set me upon the computer so I could play the Dora game and she taught me how to play War. Noni won when I played with her and I won when I played with Popi. Popi beat me in Memory Game a couple of times too. I don't think I was paying attention like I should have. I was playing with Jack at the same time I was supposed to be playing the game.

Jack has crawled everywhere in the house. He's crawled in the rec room, all over the living room, in the kitchen and in the computer room. He's had lots of toys to play with and today Popi cleaned up an old metal fire/ladder truck for us to play with. Jack really liked to turn the wheels that raised and lowered the ladder and I liked playing with all of it. Jack tried chewing on a couple of spoons while we've been here and he really made a wet mess all over his front when he did that. He was pretty tired yesterday and today. He took two naps and then went to bed tonight about 8:30.

I've been writing sentences for Popi on the Doodle Pad. The first one said "Baby Jack lays on Emma's back", which he did while we were playing today. Then I wrote "Baby Jack loves mommy" and I drew hearts and flowers with that one. Popi has been a really big help with writing these sentences, and I'm doing all the writing.

It's still snowing here. Popi cleaned the driveway and sidewalks today and took his truck out for a short trip to get some bread. He said the roads weren't too bad, but hadn't been scraped yet by the big trucks.

Here's my last two big sentence: "Baby Jack likes to eat green beans and turkey", and he really does. "Baby Jack likes to drool" and we drew a picture of him doing that.

We miss you, Mommy and Daddy, and Noni and Popi will be bringing us home tomorrow. Sleep tight, and I'll ask God to help Mommy heal when I say my prayers with Popi tonight.

Noni is attaching some pictures of us playing in the living room this evening. Hope you like them.

We both love you a bushel and a peck, a hug around the neck, a barrel and a heap, talking in our sleep about you!!!!!

See you tomorrow.
Emma

Much different from Emma and the dogs. They were always wary of her. Sensed that she meant trouble for them so they gave her a wide berth. She liked them and wanted to touch them and grab them, but they kept their distance. They seem to view Jack differently. Maybe it's being more experienced around rugrats, I don't know. Neither dog has any problem with laying right next to Jack when he's on the floor. This afternoon I moved my footrest to make sure Jake had an escape route when Jack started playing on him and Jake did eventually get up...to lay on the other side of Jack. Maybe it's because the dogs are elderly now and they have more tolerance, or maybe they're just lazy. Interesting development...

Oh, joy!

Jack's Pop-up Toy from Alex High on Vimeo.

That's my new nickname for Emma. Every night after she's been in bed for ten minutes or more she comes out again with some ailment or complaint. Tonight it was that her eyes hurt. Last night it was hiccups that made her throat hurt. Another night her legs were hurting. Another night her legs will itch. I think every part of her body has had some problem or other ten minutes after lights out. The solution to tonight's problem was easy. "If your eyes hurt then go lay down in bed and close them so they can heal."

We took a trip to The Homestead to see their Holiday Lights & Ice display. The Homestead is a resort hotel that is favored by rich people and Congressional types. We're always hearing about this or that celebrity who recently performed there. In 2009 they made national news for a double-murder amongst employees there. We went to see the lights because we thought Emma would enjoy the treat.

Welcome! Don't be intimidated. Heh.


Their annual giant Christmas tree. Live, of course.


A gingerbread village created by their chefs.


A giant poinsettia tree in a random hallway. Man, to have that poinsettia contract...


Heading outdoors into the freezing evening...


Emma taking it all in...


One of the hot springs for which the resort is famous.


The temporary skating rink.


The Casino Club Restaurant on the grounds. Perhaps you can see the fire pit with the rockers around it.


The lights on the hill in front of one wing of the hotel.


Another area where you can see the hot springs.


The best of my blurry pictures of the hotel as we were leaving.


A tree festively adorned.