November 2012

November started off with quite a big weekend, as Beth and Matt got married! Deb, Allison and I were all in the wedding party, which was very exciting. Allison walked down the aisle with her cousins and with very little prompting (as I stood at the end of the aisle with Elmo!). Thursday of the wedding weekend, we all joined at Mom’s condo for a quick meal and to see everyone as they made it to town. On Friday, Deb joined the ladies to get their nails done and for lunch and I met up with the guys for an afternoon beer in Broad Ripple. The wedding on Saturday went well and everything seemed to go as planned, or if it didn’t, we didn’t notice! We enjoyed the limo ride between the ceremony and the reception with beers and music as you would expect! We danced and partied until the late night and thanks to Deb, I got an extra few hours of sleep that next day. Randy and Anna came that weekend to help out with Allison and keeping her where she needed to be all weekend long which allowed for Deb and I to relax a little more at the wedding.
Allison is all over the place. She is running and talking one moment, wanting to be held the next and upset or happy very shortly after that. I’m glad we already have #2 on the way, because if we had waited for this phase, we may have waited a little longer! She got an ear infection along with a viral infection during the last week of November. Deb, Aunt Pat & Uncle Paul, Mom, Beth and I all took turns over those 4 days to take care of her and she seems to getting back to normal. I think I’ve just accepted the idea that Allison will have a cough for the next several weeks (or months?). I was able to attend a Thanksgiving Lunch at her daycare, which was a little chaotic but still a fun experience. Now, I always admire the daycare teachers, but since the kids usually expect for you to take them with you as you leave, they all fell apart and those teachers had their hands full that afternoon.

One time when I was babysitting my younger cousin, she was crying and I stood up to go get her and my dad looked at me, told me to sit down and she would be fine and come to me soon enough. Sure enough, 2 minutes later, my cousin came around the corner. Well, I find myself doing that with Allison sometimes…she will be crying and I will move toward her and I will hear my dad, telling me to leave it alone and she will be fine, and sure enough, she will stop whining when I don’t react quickly and move onto something else or calmly walk over to me. Those moments make me happy, almost like I’m still getting lessons from my dad.

We also are completely done with the new siding and paint on the outside of our house. The overall project included some chimney work, new siding, new gutter guards, and painting of the outside of our house. The basement is 95% done, as we have added 2 new TV’s, a new couch, carpet, a new back-up sump pump, and new flooring in the work-out area this month. I’ve put up some baby gates and the only finishing touches that need to be done are a new entertainment stand for the TV, to hide some TV cables, and to re-arrange some of Allison’s toys to create some more room upstairs.

We were in WV for Thanksgiving this year. We had been road warriors with Allison, but we hadn’t traveled since August with her. Needless to say, she is nearing the end of her patience with the rear-facing seat. It has to be boring to stare at the back of the seat for 5 hours, but I did my best to entertain her for the first 3 hours of the trip, but there are only so many songs or games you can play with a little one. At least I had 2 seats! I can’t imagine trying that on a plane! Thanksgiving went well. Kyle, Julie, Aunt Wiz, and Uncle David were all in town for the weekend to help celebrate. Actual Thanksgiving meal could have gone better, but Deb and I traded off coloring with Allison since it appears that turkey isn’t her favorite meal. There was shopping, some time at the park, along with some wedding planning with Julie and Kyle over the weekend.
A few more items from this month:
* In the first year of cleaning up the yard, it took 50 bags of leaves. I’m going to learn from my mistakes and do a mixture of bagging and mowing next year, but taking 1-2 vacation days is necessary to get things done when the kids are at daycare next year!
* We had our 19 week appointment with the doctor and it included an ultrasound. Everything looked great and we didn’t find out the baby's gender again this time. We are excited to find out in April! Now, we just need to find furniture and a name! Man, it feels like we are way more behind than we were last time.
* We went to a Friends Thanksgiving at the Steffey’s new house. It was a great dinner amongst friends and the night was capped off with a couple’s ping pong tournament. Everyone knows I’m competitive, so if you thought I would push my pregnant wife to get to a ping pong ball, then you’d be correct.