The Segeberg Scoop - January 2008
After several months of sending all of my Scoops out on time, the past two months have been so crazy that it just hasn’t happened! At least January’s is just a little late, instead of completely skipping it, like I did in December. Since this is for the past 2 months, there is a lot to update!
I’ll start with December. We started the month off with a bang--two sick children. It seems that one, the other, or both were sick for the few weeks from Thanksgiving until Christmas. One week, we were at the doctor 4 out of the 5 days the office was open. Turns out we had Rotavirus, Croup, and a couple other random sicknesses that came through. Between finishing the Christmas shopping, getting ready for our trip to Seattle , and taking care of two sick kids, I was more than busy! I was incredibly grateful that Ryan and I didn’t catch any of it.
In December, Whitney celebrated her first birthday. Because of all of the sicknesses running around our home, we had to postpone her party and cake with the extended family until we came back to Utah at the beginning of January--but she still got to open her presents in December.
About a week after Whitney’s birthday, we packed up and headed to Seattle for Christmas. It was wonderful to spend time with Ryan’s family, whom we see much too infrequently. Kallie had a fabulous time running around and playing with her cousins. Ryan and I had a great time seeing everyone and spending time relaxing and enjoying not dealing with school and homework. In fact, I think we watched more movies while we were there than we have seen in the past year! Minus Snoqualmie Pass , (which wasn’t THAT bad), the roads were all clear and nice for our trip there and back.
Ryan finished up his first semester of Grad school in December. He did really well, (did anyone expect any different from him?), and started plugging away again at the beginning of January after a 2 week Christmas break. Although his course work includes computer graphics, bioinformatics, and a computer security class, his most important task this semester is to find a research topic so he can focus on his research this summer.
And that brings us to January. I have long believed that the busy-ness of December dies down with the arrival of January. This year, I have not found that to be true. After coming home from Seattle , my brother’s family was still in town for a week. Since they live in Texas , (and the kids were sick when they arrived in December), we tried to spend as much time as possible hanging out with them while they were here. Kallie’s cousin fun continued until they went home early in the month.
As soon as they left, I decided to start potty training Kallie. She tried to start training herself back in November, but with the craziness of the holidays and then the sicknesses, I decided that waiting until that was all over would work better for all of us. She’s been potty training for about 3 weeks now and is doing great! She still has accidents from time to time, but has been a very fast learner.
About a week after we started potty training, Kallie and I were invited to participate in a neighborhood preschool co-op. I was a little hesitant because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start her in preschool yet, since she is still only 2. But, after remembering that Kallie LOVES social interaction, and that it would mean I would have 2 hours to myself 2 times each week, I decided to jump right in. It’s been two weeks since we started that and Kallie absolutely LOVES it--and those 2 hours that I don’t have to entertain Kallie are heaven. I’ve been so much more productive!
After reading over this, I realized I haven’t given much of an update on Whitney. Besides getting over a yucky cold right now, she’s doing great! This past month, she has really started to pick up on signing. Her favorite sign, (and the one that she does for almost everything), is baby. She LOVES her babies! Her limited sign repertoire includes milk, cheese, noodles, bath, and “all done.” Whitney also LOVES her baths. If she hears the water running, or even just SEES the bathtub, she’ll start signing “bath” like crazy. As far as walking goes, Whitney is starting to show a little interest in it. She got a walker toy for Christmas and hasn’t had much of a desire to push it across the room—until this week, when she’s used it for a few minutes almost every day. I’m more than ready to have her start walking because I’m tired of carrying her everywhere. :)
As for me, I’ve been keeping busy potty training, teaching sign, cleaning the house, participating in (and organizing) an FHE Lesson swap, teaching my Relief Society lesson, and doing all of the other random things that pop up in a family. I’ve also found time to get some reading done in the past month and have discovered some great books! (If you want to know what they are, feel free to check out my blog at sympatichna.blogspot.com.)
Ryan celebrated his 27th birthday last week--and we had a great time! The girls and I met him on campus for lunch with a bunch of balloons. He wasn’t too big on carrying them back across campus after lunch, but how else would anyone know about his birthday? :) That night, Ryan and I went out to dinner and then spent the rest of the evening watching a few shows we had recorded, but hadn’t had a chance to watch. It was a nice day!
Well, it seems that’s all our news for December and January. Have a great February!
Love,
Ryan, Amanda, Kallie, and Whitney