August 2012

August was probably the most fun month of being parentd so far. Allison has really started to communicate and that makes things very interesting and exciting. Anything from hand signals for the words “please,” “more” and “eat” all the way to new words every few days, she is becoming her own little person! She has started using a fork and spoon and walking much better. We play different games and she will mimic many things we do. We also have a few songs that she gets real excited about and will do hand motions for, like the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “If You're Happy and You Know It.” Along with those things comes the words “no” and sometimes trying to figure out ways to distract her from something she really is wanting but can’t have (for example, living plants and the fireplace). She had another spill at school that caused Deb to need to take her to the dentist again. She is OK, but one of her teeth was jarred a little and it pushed us to ask for some extra TLC at school for a few weeks since she was falling pretty often at daycare. Not much has happened since except for the usual bumps and bruises. She went to the doctor for her usual appointment and she is 32 inches long and a little over 21 lbs. She is continuing to be long and lean. Her weekend naps have become a little more consistent since she has a routine during the week in her new daycare room. This allows for us to usually get a 1.5 hour nap on the weekends, but that can be shorter or longer, depending on how her week as gone and how tired she is!

The first weekend in August, Randy and Anna came to visit so Randy could have a shoulder consultation with a doctor at Deb’s clinic. They came away with some different exercises and hoping to avoid a shoulder replacement. We enjoyed the weekend, patching some drywall and putting up some blinds. It sure does go faster when 3 people can work and 1 can watch Allison! We enjoyed some kabobs for dinner on Saturday night after church.

We also went to West Virginia for an engagement party for Julie and Kyle. We left on Thursday around 3:30 and arrived 5 hours later. Allison did well traveling and we spent the time setting up for party. That was a challenge with Allison around, but everything looked great. Marty and JoAnn helped out setting up, so we had several hands to help with the party or Allison. We went there when Allison wasn’t quite steady on her feet yet, so we were chasing her around the house all day-long. I hope by Thanksgiving she has figured out how to go down steps, because there are transition steps throughout their main level and she just wanted to walk right off of each one of them. Anna had her stopping at the “step” because she would say it very quickly and many times Allison would just turn around, because she didn’t want to deal with it!

A few more items from this month:

• As a belated wedding present, Randy and Anna helped us purchase a new bedroom set of furniture. We now have matching items for the first time in our married life. And our new king bed allows for us to act like we are in different zip codes!
• I attended a Trivia Night with Beth and Matt for Timmy Global Health (charity Beth is involved in). It was fun and they had several local beers, including Sun King.
• We also took Allison to the zoo with Beth and Matt. It was fun and Allison has seemed to really enjoy it more each time we have taken her.
• On one Saturday when Deb was working, I took Allison over to Frank and Jan’s to hang out and have fun. We enjoyed playing and running around a new house, along with tumbling on a futon mattress.
• We are working on getting quotes for some work on the house. We are looking to have new siding put up on our house along with doing some additional work in the basement, which could give us some more living space.
• We tried to touch up the drywall we fixed when the Cyphers were in town, but the paint didn’t match. So we had to call in reinforcements (my Mom) to come over and help us paint 3 rooms on a Sunday in August. We also painted the main level bathroom.