March 14, 2005

Much of this was written a while ago, and I just never finished it. I'm just posting it up so I can move on to this year's info

It has been a long time. The months have gone so fast. My little girl is now almost seven months old. Elijah has handled the adjustments pretty well. He is a good boy and does me proud. There is much to say, so I will try to recap quickly. School has kept me so busy, it has been very hard to keep this site updated at all.

Halloween was a good time. Elijah dressed up as Woody, from Toy Story (1 and 2), while Ally dressed as a little pumpkin. We all attended a ward party and that was pretty fun. First time we took Allison out anywhere. Elijah spent his time running around with his little friends and causing havoc. That's my guy. We also went trick or treating, but Ally had to stay home. You know, because she is a baby. Elijah wasn't as excited as he has been in past years. He wanted to go home for much of it, and not even the lure of free candy got him excited until the very end. Of course, by then, it was the end and time to go home. He loved his little pumpkins, one painted and one carved. We kept the painted one for a long time. Too long. Elijah at lots of candy and got a little sick to his stomach, but that is normal for Halloween.

My parents came in early November for Allison's baby blessing on the first Sunday. They stayed here and got to know their grandchildren better. I think they had fun with my little family. My parents came with us to get Elijah's first professional hair cut. He was a very good boy that day. The blessing was very nice and we had a family luncheon afterwards.

November passed quickly and I don't recall anything significant happening for Thanksgiving, except that we had the traditional meal. Marie made the fixings and a lot of people in their family came to eat. It's always nice to see Kari's family. I think it was in November that Kari and I went to a department party. Mostly students attended, including a handful I knew. It was nice to get to know others I wouldn't otherwise see, because I'm rarely on campus for anything but classes.

Finishing out last semester kept me busy, but I finished it with fairly decent grades: one B and the rest A's. I don't care that two were A minuses. I don't count that in my book. All my classes crammed all the final projects and tests in together and I was exhausted, dying for a break by the time the end came. On top of all the projects and papers and tests was the stress of not sleeping with a new baby and planning for the next semester. Somehow, I made it through. The good thing is, Allison sleeps much better than Elijah did, so we actually get sleep, nowadays. Mostly.

After the semester was over, we went to see our friends, Allen and Jen Johnson, and their daughter, Anya. Elijah and Anya are pals. They play/beat each other up whenever they can. It's very cute.

Elijah thinks it was pretty neat to bring out the crib, once Ally grew out of the bassinet in December. He does not remember that he used to sleep there, so does not feel possessive about it, although he wanted to play in there a couple times and loves to climb up the side to see his baby sister.

Christmas was fun. The tree went up in late December, almost too late to put up, but Elijah was happy to help Grandpa and Heather with the hard work, by making it harder (as a side note, the tree didn't entirely disappear from the living room, even after it was taken down, until early March). We took Elijah and Ally to see Santa at the mall. Elijah thought it was pretty cool.

We spent Christmas day with Kari's family, minus Kerstin and Brent. Christian's girlfriend (now fiance) came over, as did Heather's boyfriend, Mike. He's a nice guy. Christian got a group/family picture of everyone to give to his dad. I got myself a new digital camera. I'll have to show some of my shots with it. I opened it early so I could "practice" with it for Christmas. We worked hard to get Elijah pumped up for Christmas. It became his primary focus of conversation. With the huge buildup, there is a risk of disappointment, but I think he had fun. He was not scared of the mound of wrapping paper this year. He was intent on just opening up his presents. Oh, and eating candy. Kari got "Ally" a Fisher Price house that Elijah assumed was his. Hmmmm. He also got a toy tool chest and an art easel. He still loves the toys he got for Christmas, a good sign that we all chose well for him. I think his grandmas and grandpas love shopping for him, too. We got Kari much needed clothes. After the presents, toys were played with and the adults relaxed. We watched Christian's copies of Napolean Dynomite and Elf together. It was a pretty nice time. Kari's extended family came by for Chistmas dinner that afternoon, and Elijah got to play with his second cousings, Daniel Chapman and Matthew Steed.

After Christmas, Kari, Elijah, Ally and I all crammed into our Honda and drove to California. We stayed in Vegas, at the apartment of one of J.J.'s friends. It was very nice to let us stay there. Unfortunately, the cat there wanted to spend time with us while we wanted to sleep. As people who know me understand, I don't care for pets any more, especially the fur and smell they leave all over. This cat excelled at both. Oh, well. It was a place to stay.

In California, we stayed first in Thousand Oaks with Debbie and Gary Griffin. Alexis and Elijah played pretty well together, which is always gratifying. She has become quite the little cutie pie. Timothy, being very young and colicky, didn't seem to have much fun, except in the mornings, poor guy. Deb and Gary are troopers who just kept their little family and ours happy. Elijah and Alexis had a couple baths together and played with Lexa's toys. We went to see the duck pond and visit the library. Elijah seems to love visiting duck ponds. Unfortunately, he did not sleep very well and we had to lay with him for an hour to get him to take his nap or go to bed, meaning that one of us or the other kept missing excitement. Ah, well. We got to ring in the new year with the Griffins. I also spent some time fixing up Gary's computer. He gave me his old monitor, which I somehow fit into our trunk and we managed to get everything back home with us. I thought the trunk was full before the monitor. It all fit, though.

We went to the beach one Saturday morning to eat breakfast at a restaurant whose name I can't remember but is very famous. Afterwards, we played on the beach. I caught Elijah frolicking in the water on both our digital camera and our digital video camera. He had fun throwing stuff in the water. Kari was up on the hill with Ally, far from the water, with Debbie and Timoth, while Gary and Alexis were far down the beach playing. The camera wasn't on at the time, but suddenly, Elijah fell in the water and a wave started pulling him in. Reacting quickly, I was able to pull him to safety without damaging the cameras in the process. However, if the cameras had to get damaged, I would have been willing to do it to save my boy. I was very scared for a few seconds. Everyone came running when they realized what happened. It was a chilly morning and we were far from the Griffin home, so cleaning him off had to be done at the beach showers. Elijah was just a little cold.

With the problem of no spare clothes, we drove to Chinatown and got Elijah a set of traditional Chinese clothes (don't ask me what you call them). He didn't want to but ended up wearing them for much of the rest of the day. Several Chinese women thought he was cute, and some laughed, but he was really cute, I must say. We went looking around in Chinatown, went shopping, even ate lunch there. It was a pretty fun, but very exhausting day. We also got a little pink Chinese outfit for Ally that she looks adorable in.

After spending the first half of our trip to California with the Griffins, we dashed off to see Craig and Lynnette Olson's family (Kari's uncle and aunt). Craig checked out our teeth, including Elijah's. His teeth are doing pretty well, but . . . he has a strange pacifier bite, because that thing is always in his mouth. Craig advised us to not forceably remove it, because he seems to still need the comfort. No permanent damage has been done, yet. Elijah sat in the chair very well. Kari's teeth were in good condition, and I had two cavities. Thankfully, neither were large, but they were needing attention. *sigh* I'm now taking better care of my teeth.

Elijah loved seeing his "other papa," Craig. I guess it's because he reminds Elijah so much of Chris, his live-in grandpa. While there, we got to see Rees and Mari's family, as well. Near the end of the trip, Elijah began to get grumpy and wasn't as fun. Ah, well. Ally was very easy to travel with. On the way back, we stopped to see Kari's friend, Heather Cobb and her family. Her husband, Matt (good name) wasn't there and we just missed him by a half hour or so, but we had to get going again. Elijah had a big poop that got his shoes while we were there. Instead of staying in Vegas, we drove to Mesquite and stayed at the Oasis for dirt cheap prices. Of course, we got the no-frills package and it was a weekday night, but I was still amazed. I payed $10.30 for a nice room. Just a small note: while there, Elijah got his head temporarily wedged between the bars of the protective railing of the third floor, where we were staying. He was just looking out at the pool and . . . oops. We later walked around by the pool but did not go in. No swim suits and children not allowed inside after 10:00 or some such.

The drive through Utah to get home was a little scary. We kept hearing reports of nasty weather and kept coming close to it, but not once did we actually get hit by the heavy snows. I think we were being protected, because it was very close a couple times. We made it back home in time for me to start my next semester of school. Perhaps I will write that one another day.