Mr. Fox

Most people do not like aging. Well, that’s not entirely true. Most people wish that they were older until they reach a certain age, usually somewhere in the low to mid 20’s, and then spend the rest of their mortal existence looking back longingly on the days when they were fit, strong, full of energy and life, and with a world of hope and promise laid out in front of them. Well, Alixa just keeps distancing herself from that point in time. On Groundhog Day she began her 27th year. For her birthday dinner Courtney Bleyl offered to babysit both Jenna and Kenna so that all four parents could have a nice meal at the Outback, one of Alixa’s favorite places. That night her mom arrived. She had decided to visit to celebrate Lixi’s birthday and attend the baby shower that the nice people in the ward were throwing for her. The weekend was filled with lots of eating out and getting presents, and little Bo now has more clothes than he’ll be able to wear for the first few months of his life.

Jenna made this arrangement of her animals. You can tell that Alixa took the photo because the camera strap is in the frame. Ansel Adams she is not.

Jenna also seems to be aging at an unbelievable pace. She has started walking up and down the stairs “big girl” style, which means not on her hands and knees. And she gets very upset if you try to carry her up or down, going so far as to insist that you take her back so that she can do it herself. She has also progressed significantly in her talking, and now strings sets of words together. She is getting better at speaking clearly, and is quite patient when her parents don’t understand what she is saying and she has to try and explain it to them. She very much enjoys practicing, and will repeat things that people say, especially in songs. Lix takes her and Kenna to a singing group every Tuesday and they are both learning the words to lots of songs.

As you watch this video, keep in mind that we are still working on her counting ability and request that you be patient with us.

There was also a small milestone in Jenna’s eating today. Lix made some meatloaf for dinner and Jenna was told that she could not leave her highchair until she had a bite of it. It took about 20 minutes, but finally she wanted to get down so bad that she decided to try it. She seemed to like it, but not enough to take another bite. Alixa could not have been happier.

We also had our first experience of “trying to teach your kid a word and it comes out as profanity” today. Jenna has a puzzle with a number of barn animals on it, and outside of the hen house there is a fox. X is a hard sound to make, because you have to combine the K and the S sounds into one. So I guess Jenna just decided that once she makes the K sound she is done, saying fok instead of foks. I am sad to say that as soon as Jarom realized what was happening he began laughing hysterically, which only encouraged Jenna to repeat the word over and over. For the moment, fox seems to be one of her favorite words and we have irrefutable evidence that Jarom is a bad person.