Bad news, good news

Every town, has its ups and downs, and this weekend we had some of both. The rollercoaster started on Thursday when the doctor’s office finally got in touch with Alixa after several days of phone tag. It was Nurse Kitty (names have not been changed so that the responsible parties can be held accountable,) and she had some troubling news about the ultrasound that had been taken. Upon further review, she said, there was a bright spot on the baby’s heart, which is an indicator of Down syndrome. She told Alixa that this was normal for 10% of cases. Obviously, those are not good odds. For the next 5 days we spent a lot of time worrying and preparing ourselves for the probable arrival of a baby that was going to be different from what we had been hoping for. There were some tears shed, mostly by Jarom, and some research done on what having a kid with Down syndrome would really entail. Lix tried to call Dr. Kitty (not to be confused with Nurse Kitty) to get some answers to a few questions that she and Jarom had, but was unable to get in touch with her because of some days off and some night shifts that were being worked. They set up another ultrasound appointment for Tuesday afternoon, and were cautiously optimistic. The ultrasound went well, and the Tech had nothing but good things to say. The weird thing was the calm, nonchalant way that she shared the good news. It was like it was no big deal at all. Then the ultrasound doctor came in, and it was more of the same. “Everything looks good”, “perfectly normal” and “no big deal” kept being thrown around, but without any of the excitement that might accompany finding out you were in the lucky 10% of a group. So Jarom asked for some more detailed clarification about the risk probability. The ultrasound doc said that the white spot was a calcium buildup that raised the baby’s risk factor from approximately 1 in 8362 to 1 in 8000. She said it might be more worrisome if Lix were older or if there were other signs (there weren’t) but that given her age and other test results everything looked pretty normal. This was both a huge relief and very confusing to Jarom and Alixa, who then went down the hall to talk to Dr. Kitty. They voiced their confusion at the 180 that had been pulled, and then got their explanation. It turns out that about 10% of all babies develop these calcium buildups in their hearts, and that of those who have them, only a very small percentage have Down syndrome. So I guess Nurse Kitty went to the same medical school as the guy from Arrested Development.




After all is said and done, I guess it was a good experience because Jarom and Lix found out that this baby is still healthy, but also learned that they will still love him even if he isn’t perfect.

Doing her best seductive pose

Sometimes it is hard to find a place to put your cup when you finish drinking

On a lighter note, Alixa had an embarrassing moment yesterday. She was babysitting Kenna so that Nate and Kenz could go out for their anniversary, and while she was over at their house she heard a knock on the door. As she typically does, she assumed that it was someone trying to break in and kill her, but was also polite enough to knock. She called Jarom and explained the situation in her best library voice, but he simply laughed at her and told her to go look through the peephole to see who it was. He even offered to stay on the line so that he could call the police in case of an attack. However, she refused to go near the door, using the classic 2-year-old reasoning of “If I don’t look at him, he will disappear.” Jarom continued trying to convince her to at least go to the door and look outside. After about 5 minutes of making the intruder stand out in the below-freezing temperature, Jarom remembered that she had told her visiting teachers to visit her at Kenzie’s house that evening, and she went and let them in. It is amazing how strongly paranoia governs some people’s lives. Merry Christmas nice ladies who came to share a kind message with me, hope you didn’t get frostbite.

This table had been set up for guests, but Jenna thought it would be fun to rearrange it so everyone had to eat backwards

As promised

12 Days til Christmas

The past few weeks have been a nice break from vacations and strange schedules. November included a lot of going places and a lot of nights being awake, so it has been sort of pleasant for everyone to just go to work, come home, hang out, sleep in their bed, and rest up for Christmas.

Jenna visited her dad at work and rounded up all of the stuffed animals from the entire department

Alixa is still trying to sell all the stuff she made for her big craft fair a month ago, so she and Jarom drove to a little place called West Point about 1 hour from here to hawk her wares at a little town Christmas show. It was fun, and they sold a few things, but the towns main reason for being is that there is a paper mill there. Any of you who have lived near or driven by a paper mill know that they are famous for two things: making paper products and making you want to rip your own nose off so that you don’t have to smell it anymore. The fair was inside the local firehouse, and as long as the doors were closed it was okay because there were some baked goods for sale there that dominated the odorscape. But every time they had to step outside it took all their effort to not gag.

Why don't more people buy her stuff? You can here.

Back at the ranch, the big recent development is that Jenna has finally thrown in the towel and decided that it is okay for her to drink milk out of a sippy cup instead of a bottle. This has been a battle that has been going on since Lix stopped giving her bottles in early November, at which point Jenna essentially stopped drinking milk. She likes milk, and she likes sippy cups, but she apparently did not like them together. But she has now relented, and is back on the wagon, happily drinking her chocolate milk while she watches her show (usually Curious George or Handy Manny.)



As any child ages there are certain photos that all parents are required to take of them. Naked bathtub pics, kissing brothers/sisters/cousins/some other kid pics, trying to put on mom’s shoes pics, etc… We finally took care of a pretty big one this week, the “Look Ma, I unrolled all of the toilet paper!” pic. Next up, crying on Santa’s lap and getting into mom’s makeup. Stay tuned for those.



Jenna’s favorite treat these days are M&Ms, which she calls niminiminiminims, although the length of the word varies from long to interminable. She knows where her mom keeps them on the kitchen counter, and will stand below them and point at the desired snack and say their name until you come and get her one.



Jarom continues to have bad luck with glass. His leg has scarred up nicely so he decided it was time for a new wound. So last night he smashed a glass in the sink and sliced up his finger. It was bleeding like crazy but didn’t seem to be too deep or long, so he just cleaned up the blood and picked up all the broken glass bits and threw a bunch of bandaids on it and went to bed. Today he is waving the white flag of surrender by going to Walmart to get some plastic cups before he loses an arm or something.

A Series of Jenna's Hats

Jenna's favorite Christmas present, a new reading chair

Fancy or Bruce?

A few weeks ago the Winn’s Thanksgiving plans involved staying in the nice, warm Richmond area and having Alixa’s parents drive down from Cleveland to hang out for a few days. Jarom was scheduled to be working the night shift at the hospital until the end of the month, so they were unable to go anywhere. But things went remarkably well at the most recent go-live (that doesn’t make sense to most of you, and it’s okay. It’s boring work stuff.) so Jarom was able to work from home Thanksgiving week. And he can work from home equally effective in Richmond or Cleveland, so they packed up Carlotta and drove to the bitter cold of Northeast Ohio. PJ and Mars were thrilled to have the company and Jenna was super excited to have a giant new house to explore.

Practicing her headstands

The week was pretty laid back, consisting of some game playing and assorted activities and lots of time sitting around relaxing. Jarom and Lix got Mimi to babysit a few times while they went out for a nice dinner together or braved the 38 degree weather to play a round of golf. The whole crew went bowling one night, and Jarom brought his A-game, topping his personal best with a round of 184. Jenna also enjoyed rolling the ball down the lane, although she had to be restrained after she pushed it or she would run after the ball in an effort to catch it.



Another highlight of the trip was the many hours that were spent in the car. Most of that time was filled by a single children’s music album by Raffi. One of those songs is about growing up, and there is a line in it about how the kid can finally reach the faucet today. We are starting to have a lot of those types of moments with Jenna. At the bowling alley there was a step to go from the carpeted level to the wooden bowling surface, and for most of the night Jenna would approach that step and crawl up it using her hands and knees. But after they had been there for awhile, Lix and Jarom were sitting there talking and Jenna approached the step. Jarom reached his hand out to assist his daughter in stepping up, but she ignored him and simply stepped up and kept moving like it was no big deal. Jarom and Lix shared a look that said “Well, I guess she’s a big kid now.”

Look how well she can drink out of a big girl cup!

Maybe not that well

As with all their vacations, this one seemed to end too soon. PJ did her best to fill Carlotta with food and other stuff that we may need, and Alixa did her best Nancy impression and cried like a faucet as they pulled out of the driveway. It really is nice that Jenna gets to see so much of her grandparents, and they love to see her as well. Jenna still asks where Mimi is sometimes, and Jarom and Lix would love to have Opa around again to bear the lion’s share of the “reading with Jenna” burden (I know that makes them sound like horrible parents, but after you’ve read a book 22 times in a row you need a break!)



Back in the warmer climate of Southern Virginia everyone had to go back to work. It had been over a month since Jarom went into his office, having spent all of his time recently on site at the hospital. And Lix had only worked sporadically as Kenna’s babysitter. But they will get back into the swing of things for a few weeks until Christmas throws them off once again.



The other interesting tidbit from this week was the ultrasound appointment this morning where they found out the sex of the new baby. Alixa has been not so secretly telling people that she really wants another girl, and wouldn’t you know it, she is not going to get one. When the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy Lix died a little inside, but she is recovering well and is getting more and more excited about it by the minute. She is still unreasonably terrified of being peed upon, and is not nearly satisfied with her stable of boy names, but she has accepted the fact that she will be having a son and is coming to terms with it. We are all very excited about this new development and especially happy that he seems to be perfectly healthy and normal. We have been seriously so blessed this year and hope that all of you have been too.

Life of a Salesman

Some might say that Alixa is accident prone. Others may say that she is clumsy, or doesn’t watch where she is walking/driving. I’ll let you make your own judgments. A couple weeks ago she was driving the Carlotta (the new Santa Fe) around near our house when she ran over some sort of puddle. Unfortunately, that puddle happened to consist of yellow road paint, and she splattered it all over the driver’s side of the car. So they had to take it in to get detailed at the hefty pricetag of $350. The reimbursement from VDOT is in the works, but now that the government has announced its spending freeze, I am not sure when we might get that money back. For the rest of the post, I’ll let Alixa tell you about her vacationing.





Since the craft fair was so hectic and so much time was spent preparing for it, I decided that I needed a break and the next weekend Jenna and I took off for Delaware. I invited Jarom to come, but he was still working the night shift at that point and was sleeping all day so he said to go without him. Turns out he stopped working the night shift the day after we left and actually had the whole weekend off. He ended up golfing and playing paintball while we were away. I am pretty sure he just wanted some alone time but he claims he didn’t know that was going to happen. Whatever. One of my excuses to go up was that Annie needed to find a house, and I am an excellent house shopper, so I was going to go help her look at houses. Well, that didn’t actually happen, but we had a lot of fun and I am really glad we went up.

We started our trip on Friday and left Richmond around 10 am. We would have left the previous night, but Annie called and said her kids were puking and that I should give it another day, if I came at all. Well, I wasn’t about to let some flu symptoms ruin my weekend, so I waited until Friday, packed up the car and left. I was so proud of myself for driving the whole way by myself. I had never done that before because I get really sleepy when I drive and Jenna isn’t much for coherent conversation, but I did it and we made it in one piece. We only stopped once for lunch at Panera at the busiest shopping center in the world. After that we hit traffic and it took forever. So the trip ended up taking about 6 hours with stops and all, but Jenna was really good and only whined a little.



When we got there we started having fun immediately! Annie and Jamie are such good hosts. They let us eat their food and play with their toys. Jamie even bought us doughnuts! Jenna still only eats baby food and spaghetti noodles so I mostly enjoyed the good food by myself. Jenna did LOVE playing with her cousins though. She thought Hailey was awesome and had lots of fun jumping on the bed with her. I know she liked her because she kept calling her “Nenna” (Kenna) and that term is reserved for only the best of friends! There was one incident where Hailey stole the toy Jenna was playing with and after having to give it back picked up whatever toy she could find and threw it at Jenna as if to say “Fine, take them all!” But they all narrowly missed her head. Hailey has a surprisingly good arm! Other than that they got along really well. Jenna also tried to play with Luke, but he loves his mom too much and wouldn’t leave Annie’s side long enough to play. So Jenna played in Adri’s and Juliet’s room. They have awesome toys! Her favorite toy was the doll stroller that she pushed around the upstairs landing for at least 3 hours a day. She would put a purse on each arm, put a doll in the stroller and push and push. It was pretty cute. She became very independent on this trip. One minute she would be in the kitchen with me and then next she would be headed up the stairs to the girls’ bedroom to get the toys. Then she would play up there until I came to check on her. It was really fun to see her be so independent. While the kiddos played, the moms chatted. It was great to catch up with Annie and Jamie. Annie and I even managed to sneak out and do some shopping while Jason watched the napping kids. We also had dinner at Gramma K’s house on Sunday night and ate some delicious chicken tacos. Kimmie and her family came and we chatted all evening.



We were supposed to leave on Monday so I could be back to watch Kenna on Tuesday, but Nate called and said he had the day off and he could watch Kenna, so we stayed another day. We went up to Lancaster, PA on Monday and hung out with Amanda Boyd, a friend of mine from back in my BYU days. We ate at the Olive Garden and did some outlet shopping. Jenna had lots of fun with her daughter too. Her name is Addison and she is almost three. She called Jenna “Jenny” and it was super cute. They ran all over the Gap together while we found some Christmas dresses. Once again, a successful shopping trip!

Tuesday we finally left because we missed Jarom and Jenna really missed Kenna. Jenna was so exhausted from the fun weekend that she slept nearly the entire way home. We didn’t even have to stop. We had a fantastic time up in Delaware and will probably make more weekend trips up there in the near future. It is so awesome that Jenna has so many cousins her age to play with!

It's not fair!

Alixa is roughly halfway through her pregnancy, and we have now left behind the nausea phase and entered wholeheartedly into the hormonal weepy phase. Over the past month or so there had been subtle hints of this transition, but events of this week really brought it into focus.

The first event was movie night, when Lix rented Toy Story 3 to watch with Jarom. The latest offering from the Pixar crew follows Woody and the gang as they struggle to deal with their abandonment issues when Andy gets ready to leave for college. It was a wonderfully done movie, as Pixar movies usually are, and at the end there are some scenes where Andy’s mom is giving him a hug and Andy has to give his childhood toys away to a little girl. **Spoiler Alert** Jarom was just trying to enjoy the movie but he kept getting interrupted by the sniffling coming from the girl on the other couch. After the movie ended, Jarom tucked Lix into bed and got ready to leave for his night shift, but before he left he checked on Jenna and then made a comment to Lix comparing Jenna and her stuffed animals to Andy and his toys. For some reason this set off the waterworks all over again.

Someday these two will grow up and leave Mr. Tiger and Midnight behind

The next day was the start of the craft fair that Lix and Kenz have been working so hard for over the past few months. The booth that they set up looked great, they had made approximately one trillion bows to go with the hats, bow holders, carseat canopies, and blankets. The doors opened and the people began to trickle past, admiring the display and commenting on the cuteness thereof, but not offering to buy anything. After a few hours Lix left to grab a bite to eat and had a breakdown. She thought of all the people she knows and wondered who would be the most sympathetic, perhaps someone who regularly weeps for apparently no reason at all. That person is Jarom’s mom. She was a great virtual shoulder to cry on, consoling her about the slow pace of sales at the fair and empathizing with her on the unfortunate truth that children inevitably grow up. Between that call and her always understanding and ever supportive husband Lix recovered admirably.



Business at the four-day fair improved each day, but after it was all said and done it fell short of the lofty expectations that had been set. Two days before the fair the inventory had been tallied and the anticipated gross sales amount was over $20,000. The first and most important business lesson that was learned is that theoretical sales are just that. I guess there is a reason that most start-up businesses fail in the first year of their existence. It is tough work. But the products that they have are well-made, so they will keep tinkering with the prices and look for new outlets for sales. I’d be remiss if I did not do my part by plugging their website, www.babybabblesboutique.com, where you can see examples of the things they do and place your orders. Free shipping on orders over $25!* Tell your friends! They do custom orders, too! (*offer not available in all areas, see website for details.) Hopefully they will be able to continue selling their inventory, and while they will certainly not reach the $20,000 mark, they can still make a little money.



Profitability aside, the experience has been a great one for Alixa. She very much enjoyed improving her seamstering talents, and has become better friends with Kenz as a result of their shared time and effort. And should she ever try her hand at another business venture (investors, hide your wallets!) she will be that much wiser about how to do it. Jarom is very proud of her for going out and doing this, and is also happy to have a new well from which he can pull jokes out of. Seriously though, go to the website and buy some stuff, or Jenna won’t get to go to college.

This is what happens to Jenna when she gets tired.

Recently we took a field trip with all the Richmond Winns to the petting zoo, where the goats apparently love Ritz crackers more than anything in the world.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

I don't know if WonderWoman flies or not, since I wasn't alive back when she was a big deal, but irregardless, Halloween was a smashing success. The festivities began on Friday at the Ward Halloween party, which Alixa was helping to put on. Jenna got all dressed up in her WonderWoman costume and Alixa made herself into a q-tip by gluing cotton balls to her head and feet. The party went well, with lots of kids in cute costumes. Jenna spent most of the evening looking quizzically at all of the strange looking people and playing with Kenna, who came as a bumblebee.







On Sunday the girls headed over to Kenzie’s house around 4 to take some pictures and start the trick-or-treating. As usual, pictures were difficult because these little girls have no interest in sitting still. So after playing in the front yard for a bit they decided to get going, even though it was still very light out and at every house people had to go searching for candy because they weren’t ready yet. The girls were a little shy at first, but it didn’t take long before the excitement of getting candy overcame any apprehension that they may have had about the strange people they were meeting. At each house Jenna would happily take the offered candy and put it in her pumpkin bucket, and then reach for more. It is hard to say no to cute little kids in costumes, so more they would get. Jenna got very good at going up to the door and knocking, and even did her own version of trick or treat, which was basically just a series of grunts.







After getting her candy Jenna would quickly turn and head to the next house. Unfortunately, Kenna did not share her long-term investment strategy of collecting as much candy as possible while the getting was good. She wanted to eat each piece of candy the moment she got it. In fact, she was in such a rush that she didn’t even wait for Kenz to unwrap the candy, opting to try and chew through the wrapper instead. As a result of all of the stoppages to eat candy, it took 45 minutes to get through 8 houses. After they had hit up all of Kenz’s neighbors they picked up Jarom and headed down to the hospital where Nate and Jarom are spending their workdays. All of their coworkers enjoyed seeing the enna girls, and they collected many more handfuls of candy.







They stopped at a few more houses on the way home so that Jarom could see Jenna in her now expert trick or treating form. It was fun to watch her enjoy the experience so much. She was loving every minute of it, and seemed to be aware of her cuteness. She even got comfortable enough to do some poses, sticking one arm up in the air whenever Lix would say “do-di-di-doo!” Lix probably loved it more than anyone, in part because she believes that her child is the cutest kid in the world, and in part because she loves trick-or-treating, and finally got the chance do it again after a many-year hiatus.



Other than the joys of getting free candy and dressing up, the only real news from the Winn house is that Lix is going to divorce Jarom. This is because Jarom has started working night shifts and must get his sleep during the day. Alixa, ever the reasonable spouse, automatically assumes that since Jarom doesn’t have to be at work during the day he should be available to do things around the house, babysit, and run errands with her. But instead of doing those things, he can sometimes be found lazily sleeping the day away, sometimes for as many as 7 straight hours! She has made her displeasure known, and now the ball is in Jarom’s court as to whether he will continue his delinquent behavior or get his butt in gear. Happy Election Day!

Do you believe in Halloween?

That’s the question that Nate got from one of his neighbors a few days ago, and the answer is definitely yes. Jenna is very excited for her first real Halloween (it doesn’t count unless you can walk around and get candy) and Alixa is thrilled to unveil her costume at the ward party that she is helping to put on. To better get into the fall/Halloween mood the Winns took a trip to a local pumpkin patch. Jenna loves pumpkins and scarecrows, or at least she loves the ones that she has been seeing several times a week in front of the local YMCA. Apparently the scarecrows at the pumpkin patch were meaner, because Jenna would not come within 10 feet of any of them without freaking out and trying to get away. For horrible parents like Jarom and Alixa, this was very amusing. Fortunately, there were other things to do, like taking a hayride, petting the incredibly docile farm golden retrievers that were laying around, and feeding the oddly shaped pair of goats that lived there. Jenna had a blast doing those things, which made up for the terror she experienced out in the patch.

Does this scarecrow lion really look that scary?

Jenna is especially fond of dogs that don't yip at her

A Jenna-sized pumpkin that's just right

Back at the ranch, Jenna has rekindled her love for scarecrows, and can even say the word scarecrow with a reasonable level of clarity, which is easily the largest word she knows. Lix even found a small scarecrow that now resides in our kitchen, and Jenna excitedly points to it while she eats and tells you “scarecrow.” The other new toy that Jenna has goes by the name Bendy Pete. Pete is a super fluffy pillow that can be folded in half to look like a cow. Lix named him, and he has quickly taken a place in Jennas ever-growing menagerie of stuffed animals.

This was the scene when Jenna decided that instead of taking her afternoon nap she would take all of her blankets and stuffed animals and throw them out of the crib. She was quite pleased with her work.

Jenna continues to be neater than we ever thought a kid could be. She definitely did NOT get this trait from her mother, who will throw trash and clothes anywhere and everywhere. Case in point- Jenna was recently playing in the huge pile of clothes that can always be seen on the floor between Alixa’s side of the bed and her dresser. While rummaging around, she noticed that there was an empty water bottle underneath the bed where Lix had tossed it. She reached under to get it, because she enjoys playing with bottles. After a little while, Jarom finished whatever he was doing and was heading back downstairs, so he told Jenna it was time to go. As usual, she obediently followed him downstairs, but not before putting the water bottle back where she thinks it belonged- shoved one arm’s length under the bed. She is a constant source of amusement for us.

Jenna's new slipperboots

She is also getting smarter, which is beginning to cause trouble. Like all little kids, she loves to play with mom’s and dad’s phones. Until recently, they would simply lock the keypads and give her the phones so she could push the buttons. But this week Jenna learned that if she slides Lix’s phone open it automatically unlocks and she can then send text messages to people. One evening she was typing away on Lix’s open phone with a silly grin on her face when Lix asked her to give the phone back. She immediately began running away from her mom, going through the dining room and kitchen, finally going into the pantry and closing the door behind her, so that there was only a small open crack through which two mischievous little eyes could be seen. After she stopped laughing Lix got the phone back and saw on the screen a message asking her to confirm the purchase of some phone app that was going to cost $3 a month. Oh dear.

Working on her putting at the mall

In preparation for his upcoming switch to working night shifts, Jarom had his “weekend” on Wednesday and Thursday, which allowed him to go with his girls to the gym in the morning. He finally got to meet Miss Evy, who works at the YMCA daycare and is Jenna’s third favorite person in the world (sorry grandmas.) She spends the entire time sitting on Miss Evy’s lap, coloring and reading books. And Evy doesn’t seem to mind in the least. He also got to watch Alixa in one of her old lady aerobics classes, stepping and spinning and kicking with the best of them.

And since Wonder Woman would never be caught dead with shaggy bangs, Lix took Jenna to the salon this week to get a trim so that she would look sharp in her costume. She found a nice place where they put you in a car and let you watch cartoons to keep kids from squirming around while they cut your hair. It isn’t much of a change, but it was certainly needed, because if there is one thing that Jenna has proven to be good at it is growing a lot of hair.

Before

During

And after

The adventures of Midnight

For those of you who have known him a long time, it will come as no surprise when I tell you that Jarom is not a man who is full of holiday spirit. This has been a point of contention in his marriage with Alixa, who enjoys putting up decorations and participating in all of the shenanigans that accompany each holiday. For example, she is adamant that as soon as they spend a Christmas at their own house they have to get a real tree, while he steadfastly refuses to accept that as a possibility. Up until now Jarom has won many of these battles, mostly because of their poverty and vagrancy. Now that we have a home and a job, he fears he will begin to lose more and more often. It is only a matter of time til there are dozens of boxes in the attic full of cheap trinkets with labels like “Thanksgiving”, “Christmas”, and “Flag Day.” Jenna has only accelerated the process, because who can resist a cute little kid dressed up for a holiday?



And this is how we came to be the proud owners of Midnight. Midnight is a little stuffed bat. He was found by Jenna, along with a little stuffed Turkey, while Lix was doing some shopping at a local craft store. Jenna was permitted to play with them during the shopping trip, and by the time Lix was done, she was unwilling to part with them. A compromise was reached, and Midnight was chosen to stay with her so that she could more properly celebrate Halloween. Since his purchase, Midnight has barely left Jenna’s hands, much to Mr. Eagle’s chagrin.

Midnight and the turkey, in Jenna's death grip

On the way home, still in the death grip

A slighter looser grip while eating a snack

A few days ago Lix and Jarom traded babysitting nights with Nate and Kenz and had a wonderful date night at one of their favorite places, Outback Steakhouse. It had been a while since they had gone out to eat by themselves, and they very much enjoyed it. And Lix loved the new fire-grilled steak option at the restaurant. They’ll probably try to make that a monthly habit.

This was from the zoo trip a few weeks ago. Gross, right?

Last weekend Jarom finally got around to installing the new faucet that was purchased to go with the newly repainted bathroom. It had been sitting on the bathroom floor for about 2 months, and Lix’s patience had run out. So he spent the morning on his back trying to loosen and tighten things at awkward angles inside the vanity, and trying not to throw up when he pulled the foot-long tangle of hair and gunk from the drain. But he seems to have done a decent job. The sink looks great and there are no leaks to speak of. And there is more room on the bathroom floor now that the box is gone. Perhaps there is hope that he might one day become a handyman around the house.

Jenna may have a sticker problem. We are planning an intervention, but she won't ever sit still.

Jenna continues to be the most entertaining thing around here. She is becoming more vocal, and loves trying to say new words. While she doesn’t actually say many of them, she at least makes distinct enough sounds to be able to tell what she is talking about. She now says book when she wants to read, and says choo-choo when she pulls her train around the house, and says Kenna anytime she is getting in the car because that is who she is usually going to see. She is quite helpful around the house, and loves to lend a hand unloading the silverware from the dishwasher or helping her dad put his shoes away and take off his socks when he gets home from work. She still has no idea that a younger sibling is on its way, and demonstrates that unawareness by jumping on her mom’s tummy all the time. Alixa loves it. Oh, and for all of you who have asked, Alixa’s due date is April 22. That puts her around 13 weeks pregnant.