What We Did:
07. Visited Mae-Mae and Papa and ate some “Papa
Donuts” 08. Decorated Valentine’s
Cookies 14. Valentine’s exchange at
Daycare 16. Mommy and me day –
Breakfast, Visiting Mommy’s doctor, and visit to the Discovery Museum 21. Another day at the museum (David’s new
favorite place) 22. Newborn photo shoot
at the Lowry’s 28. And yet another day
the museum!
Watched:
Maleficent on
cable – I really enjoyed this one. Very colorful and imaginative and a great
spin on a different side to Sleeping Beauty.
Gone Girl on
Demand – I read this book so I knew the plot already. Kind of spoils the
surprise element, but they did a great job with the movie. Very dark and
twisted, much like the book.
Read:
When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde – a very touching
story of a man in his late forties, with no children and an unhappy marriage,
who finds a newborn in the woods and saves his life. He feels an immediate
connection to him that would last the rest of his own life and eventually bring
them back together. The boy has a tough time growing up, but when the boy and
the man are brought back together, the man tells him he will never give up on
him. Something not a lot of troubled teens hear often and a great lesson to the
reader about patience and true love.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova – this was a very sad and
depressing book, but was also a great read. It is about Alice, who is a Phd
Harvard professor, who in her late forties gets diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s
disease. You feel how particularly troubling this could be for someone who has
made their career on their advanced cognitive ability, which is now going to
all slowly disappear. It touches my heart in particular because my grandmother
had dementia, though later in life than this, and this is a disease that is
hereditary. Alice has to face the possibility that she has also passed this on
to her kids and what torture that can bring to her peace of mind. In the end,
it raises a good question, does love in the heart or in the head? Will she
remember the love she has for her family, even if she can’t remember who they
are? It is a really great question that eventually has to find out.
Listened To:
Lots of music has been playing in the car and in our house.
David asks for dance parties now and we all dance around the living room. He is
starting to say “I like that song,” or “That’s Daddy’s favorite” when he hears
songs we listen to together played. He is also starting to sing along to
choruses of songs, even when it is the first time he has heard them. We are
going to have be more careful about what songs we play around him from now on!
The Stories:
- We visited Mae Mae and Papa up at
their house. Mae Mae broke her ankle just before Christmas and has been house
ridden for several weeks, so we popped in to provide them with some company. Of
course, Papa was prepared with some donuts. Papa is known for giving each of
his grandkids some donuts when they come visit, just like his dad gave us ice
cream when he came to visit us. I love that David has these moments with his
grandpa and that the term powdered donuts does not exist for David. There are
chocolate donuts and then there are “Papa donuts.”
- We bought a membership to the
Children’s Discovery Museum this month, and have already used it three weeks in
a row. They have lots of imaginative play areas for kids, and David just loves
it. His favorite is playing with the “vacuum,” even though he was deathly
afraid of it the first time he went there. It is a giant wall of tubing that he
can put different objects into and they will shoot through the tubes and out
the top. It’s amazing to watch how much he enjoys himself there.
- David’s language continues to
develop and impress us. He has started using more descriptive words like “yellow
bus” or “big truck.” His sentence structure seems to be developing as well. He
is putting the correct words in order and putting together some pretty lengthy
sentences. It is incredible how much he grows and learn every day!
- I applied for a design team this
month. It’s a little premature since I have not been very actively blogging or posting
on boards, etc for a while since Two Peas in a Bucket closed. But I made it a
goal for myself to get active again this year specifically so that I could
apply for more design teams next year. It would be awesome if I could make this
one and I was glad I put myself out there. There was a question that was asked
about what really motivates me and I had to say what I have experienced lately
with David. When he sees me on the computer or making scrap pages, he tells me “I
wanna see pictures.” And we will sit together and look at photo slideshows
while he gets excited naming off all the people in them and places we were, and
I get excited by seeing his excitement. Just experiencing his excitement has
made me realize all the work I put into taking photos and documenting our
lives, is SO worth it!
- Family time is hard to find
sometimes. With me having a crazy amount of work to do these last few months, I
have been spending a lot of Saturdays working, sometimes in the office and
sometimes at home. Jonathan got his boat fixed and was able to return to
fishing this month (though it pooped out on him again after two trips, ugh!).
So we have to make the best of the time we do have. Usually the time David and
I spend together contains running errands, so he asks every day now if we can
go shopping, though it sounds more like chopping. It’s pretty cool to realize
it isn’t just about the going shopping, it’s about the time he gets to spend
with his mommy. There has been an added incentive this month since he gets to
pick a candy bar if he is a big boy and doesn’t get scared going potty at the
store. Now he wants to go potty a dozen times every time we do go shopping. But
I like the spending time with mommy version of the reason he wants to go
shopping better!
- We introduced a lot of new games
into our house this month and David has gone wild with wanting to play all of
them. The first was Pop the Piggy, which when he asks for it sounds like “papa
piggy.” We also played Elefun where you have to catch the fireflies that shoot
out of the elephant’s trunk. And Don’t Spill the Beans came out last week too,
though he has not taken as much of a liking to this as the others. Now he asks
for “Papa Piggy” almost every night!
'Til next time!....
