Dreadful December

I don't mean to sound depressing, but this December has been quite dreadful. Let's just say it's one I don't think we'll want to repeat.

I got sick again and was out for a couple days. Then Constance broke four molars in one week and was cranky, feverish, and restless. She even gave up naps for a little while and would jerk wide awake whenever I attempted to lay her down in her crib. But those were actually the lesser problems of December.

A surgery that was supposed to be fairly straightforward and only require a few days in the hospital ended up a lot worse than we ever imagined. After over two weeks in the hospital and a handful of emergency procedures, we are very happy to have Grandpa home with us again.

We hardly saw Grandma during that time. She would leave for the hospital early in the morning and come back home anywhere from 9 pm to 3 am. Every day we waited for her to come home and give us an update. It seemed like the only thing we looked forward to all day. Of course, by the time she got home she was exhausted and we all felt bad keeping her up.

We had planned to all drive to Idaho for Jessie's graduation but that plan quickly changed after the first few days. Jessie ended up packing up and coming home early and then spent a lot of time at the hospital after she got home.

We spent Christmas Eve in an empty house and finally decided that to save the evening we would let Constance open her stocking.

Christmas day we took some presents to the hospital and opened them with Grandpa. We were really happy that at least by this point he was feeling a lot better and getting his strength back. For the longest time he didn't laugh or smile because it hurt. So when he started making pronouncements with his back scratcher, we took it as a wonderful sign.

Grandpa got to come home the day after Christmas. And finally after all those sleepless nights in the hospital, he is getting some rest.

It's sad how one day, one week, can change so much in our lives. I'm positive that if we can go one week without anyone in the house going back to the hospital, the ER, or Emergicare then we can take a deep breath and start to relax a little--that is, until the medical bills start coming in the mail.

What does Constance love?

One of Constance's favorite books is What Does Sunny Bunny Love?

She discovered it in Grandma's toy box one day and has not parted with it since then. The book talks about all the different things and activities that Sunny Bunny loves to do. Following that same pattern, let me tell you what "Booster Baby" (as we call her) loves.

1. Constance loves books. Usually the first thing she wants to do when she wakes up is crawl over and grab her book that we keep nearby. And the last thing she wants to do before going to sleep at night is to read all of her books multiple times. Also throughout the day, she spends lots of time examining each of her books and carrying them over one by one to plop on my lap so I will read them to her.

I point to each page as I read the words to her. Now she has started sticking her index finger out and running it up and down the page while she peruses.

2. Constance loves to play peekaboo. Most of the time she plays it with you by hiding behind something or her hands and then peaking out, and she is overjoyed when someone plays along with her. She plays peekaboo at church, in her crib, at the store, in the kitchen--and makes friends along the way.

3. Constance loves to snuggle. She is so cute and cuddly when she lies down and leans her head on me. But this girl has taken snuggling to a whole different level as well because she snuggles her shoes, her toys, a piece of tape, a lint roller, a cheerio, and the carpet.

4. Constance loves Grandma. She calls Grandma "Mamamamamama" (I am now "Mommommom"). The first thing she does in the morning when we go upstairs is she crawls down the hallway and into Grandma's room to say good morning. She always wants Grandma to hold her because Grandma always shows her the decorations around the house. And when Grandma is doing the dishes, Constance tries to help out.

5. Constance loves her GrandBob. She is the one who came up with the term of endearment "Bababob" and it's stuck. Constance really likes all of Grandbob's accessories including his glasses and briefcase which supplies an endless amount of paper and goodies to sort through.

6. Constance loves phones. This girl wants to stay connected and carry around someone's phone as she's crawling through the house. Unfortunately, Grandma's messages have been inadvertently erased multiple times, and my phone has endured some severe scratching (from being rubbed on a stone surface). Prank calls are also common.

7. Constance loves to shake her head, which often means that she shakes her whole body too. She doesn't seem to really know what "No" means yet and mostly just has fun moving her body and being dramatic.

8. Constance loves to roll all over Pumpkin and pat her down. Pumpkin loves the attention but the cats have been less amused. Cheeto turns and runs when he sees Constance coming for him.

9. Constance loves to press buttons, whether it is changing the TV channel or punching Mommy in a game of Smash Brothers. 

10. Constance loves Christmas, from the twinkling Christmas lights to the empty wrapping paper rolls that she can use to tap Daddy on the head. Based on current evidence, this baby has lots of treats under and around and in the Christmas tree.

On one final note, Constance has finally made progress on walking. She will now take a few steps on her own, but only when no one is looking or calling attention to it. If I start applauding her, she immediately drops on all fours. I think if trends hold, she should be running around the house Christmas morning and waking everyone up with a friendly pat on the face.

Constance's Birthday

One year ago, our little Lux Constantia was born at 8 lbs 1 oz. She snuggled in her warm blankets and only opened her eyes a crack to take a peak at whoever was holding her. 

 Now, one year later, Constance is about 18 lbs. She can crawl, scoot, slide, roll over, climb up on things, fall down things, pull herself into a standing position, take things apart, splash, laugh, giggle, say "dada" and "ya," and attempt to comb her own hair.

She woke up bright and early around 9:30 on her birthday and was quite upset about the day starting already. But then she got dressed into her 1-year-old outfit, complete with a hat and butterfly wings, and crawled into Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom to say hello to Grandma. After the reassurance that Grandma was getting up, she sat on the couch and ate a cracker while Mommy tried to get the perfect picture of her.

Mommy made her a special 1-year-old pancake piled high with bananas, which she absolutely loved. It was gone in just a few minutes.

 Next, we let her open one present in the morning to keep her entertained for the day until the real party when Grandpa came home from work. Hmmmm. Wonder what's in that huge box?

 Dada's present was a hug success. She loves all the toys in the front and insists that the phone must stay off the hook at all times. A baby with this much to play with can't be bothered with unexpected phone calls.

 The real benefit of the toy is that it is a walker that she can push around. As soon as we situated her behind the wheel with her hands firmly on the handle, Constance took off across the room. After observing great-grandma maneuver her walker up and down the hallway, Constance was a pro at walking with her walker.

 She tried to use her magic wand to turn Cheeto the cat into her personal butler, but unfortunately he ran off before the magic could take.

 The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. Lots of walking around and playing. A nap was involved. Some special carob cupcakes were made during the nap. Homemade pizza went in the oven. Then it was time to open presents.

 Last week when Constance and I went to the store, she saw these shoes on the store shelf and immediately reached for them. When I tried to put them back she became very upset. She was very happy to pull them out of one of her birthday bags

 Daddy gave her a number 1 plaque with Tinker Bell so she would not forget her accomplishment of turning one.

There were also new books, a hoodie, and tights in the birthday bag--also some very soft and warm pajamas from Uncle Daniel and Aunt Melanie.

 But her all time favorite present was the baby smart phone from Grandma and Grandpa. She got busy right away texting all her friends.

The pizza was ready so everyone enjoyed a piece and then Mommy put another pizza in the oven and everyone enjoyed some more. A game of super smash brothers ensued upstairs while Grandma and Grandpa retreated downstairs so as to not miss the legendary Bill O'Reilly.

 Pumpkin was not forgotten in all the festivities and greatly enjoyed chewing up her birthday hat.

The mail finally came and in it was a special card from great Aunt Fern and a new knit skirtie with some colorful balls from Obaasan.

 Mommy prepared the celebratory cupcakes and Daddy lit the candles

 At first Constance wasn't sure about her cupcake and just wanted to play with the frosting.

 But then Mommy stuck a piece in her mouth and Constance's life was never the same after that. Next thing we knew, she was cramming handfuls of fluffy goodness into her mouth.

Just before bedtime (an unspecified hour usually some time between 9 and 12 pm), we remembered about the one last gift we had left in the bedroom....

Everyone, meet Maximus the giant monkey. Don't let his size fool you. He is very soft and cuddly.

It's been a great year and I can't wait to see what new things Constance will discover and do as a toddler.

He's a Real Lawyer Now

The process is complete. Tom finished law school; took and passed the Colorado bar exam; attended a professionalism course in Denver; and finally, on his birthday, was sworn into the Colorado bar association.

The night before this momentous occasion started out badly. Constance cried for two hours straight; I ended up going to Walgreens around midnight to get her some medicine; we finally got some sleep after 1 am; and Tom started getting what seemed like kidney stone pains.

In spite of our grumpiness in the morning, we headed off for Denver an hour later than expected but with everyone piled in the Expedition, except for Pumpkin who stayed home to guard the house and Kelly who had jury duty.

In honor of her Daddy's birthday, Constance enjoyed Thomas the Train apple juice

In order for Tom to register for the swearing in ceremony, we had to go all the way to downtown Denver, into a new stately building and through metal detectors (that of course caused problems with my belt). Before we could even proceed up the elevators, the front desk had to take our mug shots and give us ID tags which we had to then swipe in the elevator before we could go anywhere. As the official "Attorney Regulators," Lucy and I escorted Tom to the registration office where he submitted his paperwork, paid a fine--I mean fee, then breathed a huge sigh of relief.

We had about 3 hours of time to kill before the ceremony, so we went to the natural history museum and wandered around for a bit learning about birds and mummies and space.

After just a little bit of difficulty, we found the concert hall.

 Constance was supposed to sleep through the ceremony but of course woke right up and wanted to crawl everywhere and squawk as loudly as possible.

 All the lawyers sat with their families and then at the very end stood up and took the oath.

 We were all starving, so we hurried over to Casa Bonita. Constance really enjoyed the Mexican rice and made sure to leave a nice sprinkling of it on the floor next to her highchair. 

 The food must have been really good because no one paid me any attention when I got up and started taking pictures.

Of course, the best came last: cheesecake and birthday presents. Tom even got to conduct his own birthday song. . .

 . . . while we all sang along as cheerily as ever.

What a lucky lawyer: a new expansion pack for his zombie game and an original version of the Book of Mormon.

 It was a long day. Someone was tired.

Murder Mystery

For Halloween this year, we decided that in addition to dressing up to a Futurama theme . . .

. . . we would put on a murder mystery party. At first, we attempted to write a new murder mystery story (so far, Tom has written two); but between work and Halloween costumes and bar exam related things, time slipped away. So the day before the party, Tom dusted off the first murder mystery he wrote for our very first date and we decided to use that one.

That first date Tom and I went on was quite memorable. I borrowed the dress; he wore his fat tie. I had the opportunity to get in a scuffle with the soon-to-be Abby Shawcroft (as part of the story). Tom got in a wrestling match with his cousin Ryan (presumably, as part of the story as well). I impressed Tom with how pretty I was. Tom impressed me with what a sophisticated gentleman he was. It was a win-win.

For this murder mystery, we held it in Alamosa. Daniel and Melanie did a great job of decorating and providing refreshments.

 After everyone arrived, Tom introduced the story and told everyone how it would work.

Then we started round #1

Everyone got to know each other.

  Then rumors started circulating.

 As the story went, Jennifer and Tom may have gotten a little water on their attire.

 Mr. Harris and Mr. Hayward enjoyed each other's company.

 Mr. Sexton and Mr. Gifford swapped stories.

 The respectable Jerome and Angela Harney checking to make sure all is well with Mr. Gifford's horse farm.

 Lee Davis and Mary Sexton sharing opinions about the secret murder.

 The ladies having quite the time.

 Then suddenly Lee Davis confronted Mr. Harris, and Mr. Harris disappeared for the rest of the evening, though we had the unsettled feeling that he was watching us.

 When it came to the accusation round, there was a show down between Mr. Gifford and Mrs. Sexton who disagreed on some important points.

Overall, we were really impressed with everyone's attire. It was very appropriate for the time and setting of the murder mystery.

 Mr. and Mrs. Harris (Jonathan and Brittani Bush)

 Elizabeth Gifford and Lee Davis (Rachael Bush and Scott Shawcroft)

 Jerome and Angela Harney (Craig and Brianna Shawcroft)

 Montgomery and Anne Marie Gifford (Matt and Jennifer Bush)

 Mr. and Mrs Sexton (Melanie and Daniel Stone)