Five months old!!!

Nathaniel is already 5 months old - time flies when you're having fun, so Brian and I have decided we're really having fun with as fast as time seems to be going! And we truly are. Nathaniel is trying his darndest to crawl...we tell him he doesn't need to, he can wait a month or so, but he doesn't seem to listen to us. He discovered one of Joshua's Hot Wheels toys yesterday (Crazy Croc) and will turn and scoot himself to get it, but hasn't gotten his knees up and his tummy up yet. I'm waiting for rug burn on his tummy from the spinning and scooting! He's pretty determined. He's getting the hang of sitting up...though he still topples over. This usually happens because he wants to grab a toy - or better yet, his toes. He likes to suck on his toes - gross!

Saturday Joshua & Nathaniel got to go spend a few hours at Aunt Carrie's house. Joshua was so excited...he'd been looking forward to it all week! Nathaniel was pretty nonchalant about it all, but behaved well for his aunt. Brian and I were able to go to the Sacramento Temple for the first time. We had a very nice afternoon.

Merlot

Last Friday we discovered major lumps on our dog's neck. Merlot was a Cocker Spaniel and hadn't had a haircut in several months, so we must have missed them amid all the hair. We had been noticing his vision (or lack thereof) as he was stumbling over nothing, running into things (large things like flower pots and fences) and not finding food that had dropped on the ground. Also, a few days prior to finding the lumps, he'd suddenly had a lack of appetite - very unusual for our garbage hound. Our wonderful vet came Tuesday afternoon and confirmed our suspicions - lymphoma & blindness. She said he's relatively young (8 1/2) to develop lymphoma, but it's pretty common across the breeds. She gave us a few options - medication (with unpleasant side effects), chemo, and of course, euthanization. Besides being well out of the range of our budget, neither the meds or chemo would cure him and make him better - just stretch things out. So we made the hard decision of having him put to sleep. It wasn't the way we'd wanted to find a new home for him...something we'd been considering in recent months as his behavior had changed and he'd gotten more aggressive (playfully, not violent) with Joshua...some of that may have been an effect of the disease or blindness, we don't really know. Wednesday afternoon, our vet came and picked him up and took him to her office at home to take care of him. Joshua did well with this, as we had explained to him that Merlot was very very sick and wasn't going to get better so the vet was going to take him to a special place where they could make him feel better...we didn't want to have him think that the vet was going to kill his dog. We will eventually tell him that Merlot has gone to be with Heavenly Father, but not right away. Joshua gave a couple of bags of dog treats that we had left to the vet when she picked up Merlot and asked her to give him one for breakfast each day...that about did me in. What has saved Joshua a lot is that a friend brought him a little beanie baby puppy that he has been dragging around on Merlot's leash since Wednesday afternoon...that seems to really be helping him. It all happened so fast - but we didn't want to watch the poor dog suffer or maybe wait too long and have Joshua find him if he didn't wake up or something. Merlot had a lot of annoying habits and traits (the dining room carpet that needs to be replaced is a testimony of that!), but he was wonderful with Joshua as a baby and so very protective. He will be missed.

A CTR now!

Joshua advanced to a new class at Church yesterday...he's no longer a Sunbeam - he is now a CTR (stands for Choose the Right). And he and Cara are no longer loners...there's another little girl & boy with them that are a year older. He looks so much older than he did last year when he started Sunbeams! His other excitement yesterday was that he got to give a talk in Primary. He did it in true Joshua style...had everyone chuckling. He talked about the Iron Rod in the Book of Mormon. He wanted to act it out first, but we kind of talked him out of that idea. So he just designated thingd - like a chair was the Tree of Life and a table was the great and spacious building. He embellished the story slightly - with earthquakes & falling buildings (which was really just an idea he got from the Living Scriptures video) - but managed to still tie it to what he was supposed to be talking about - following Christ with Faith.

Haircuts & New Foods

On Wednesday Joshua and Daddy got haircuts...it was time! Mommy was about ready to start braiding their hair for them! Nathaniel decided to skip it this time...he's got ONE long hair that is about three inches long and sometimes sticks straight up and other times is starting to curl. We're curious to see how long it'll get. As usual, a new haircut makes Joshua look older.

Joshua has also managed to wound himself yet again...this time with a light saber. One of the light sabers has a button that you push and it pops out to its full length. We've talked with Joshua about not pointing it at other people or animals, but I guess we neglected to include himself in that. That same night, after the haircuts, he pushed the button to eject the saber - while pointing it at his face. Thank goodness, it hit him on the bridge of his nose instead of in his eye or something! It broke the skin and he has a small bruise, but other than that he's fine. So now, the light saber rule has an ammendment - it doesn't get pointed at animals or other people, including himself!

Nathaniel is enjoying the new adventure of "solid" foods. I use the term solid loosely - since the foods are so pureed that there isn't much solid left to them. In the past week and a half or so, he's enjoyed squash & carrots...nothing like those lovely orange stains on face and clothes. Today we got really adventurous and tried peas. To my amazement there were no icky faces made or anything - just hollers for more.

Nathaniel's front teeth on the bottom look like they are beginning to make an appearance...yipee. The past few days he's been showing more evidence of being in the teething process...more drool, more chewing on anything and everything and everyone, and some added fussiness. Time to break out the Orajel!

Happy New Year!!

2007 already!! Hard to believe one year is over and a new one has begun. Big things are in the future for this year - Joshua will start kindergarten in August - boy the time sure does fly!

We had a nice quiet New Year's Eve at home...Joshua was in bed and asleep by 8:30 or 9, so Mommy & Daddy could watch a movie...except Mommy kept falling asleep and ended up going to bed when Nathaniel fell asleep between 10:30 and 11. Which was a good thing, because he woke back up at 1 am and at quarter to 5 and again at 7! Daddy stayed up, watched the ball drop and finished watching another movie.

On New Year's Day we relaxed around the house a bit and then Daddy put the training wheels on Joshua's new bike. He had a blast!! He had one minor wreck and will be sporting a fat lip for a few days, but it didn't dampen his enthusiasm for riding one bit!

We learned about keeping a journal in Family Home Evening and Joshua thinks that it is going to be fun to draw and write what he does each day...and he enjoyed watching Mommy & Daddy write in their journals and listening to some journal entries from Mommy's journal from when she was only 7 years old.

We hope all our family and friends had a wonderful holiday time and also have a terrific 2007!

Our Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. Joshua was still getting over his cold & had a croaky voice, and Nathaniel was a little stuffy (cold & teething), but all in all we were healthy. Joshua couldn't wait to see what Santa had brought for them - Nathaniel didn't care. After emptying their stockings & opening the gifts from Santa (Joshua got a Cars comforter for his bed & a lightsaber and Nathaniel got a airplane on wheels that he decided tasted pretty good) we had breakfast and Nathaniel took a nap. Joshua was "Santa" and passed out the gifts to each of us and we took turns opening our presents...Nathaniel slept until Joshua was almost finished and then woke up to open his presents. At two days shy of 4 months, Nathaniel's favorite part of opening presents was pulling off the paper and trying to cram it in his mouth - he's at the "everything must be chewed on" stage. We talked with Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Lorrayne, Aunt Carrie & Great-Grandma Darlene and then Grandpa Val & Aunt Stacy. After cleaning up and playing with new stuff it was time to go over to Uncle Terry & Aunt Theresa's for dinner with them and cousins Tim & Elisha and Michelle. Joshua was very excited to get a bike for Christmas there and could hardly wait to try it out. Nathaniel just enjoyed smiling and laughing at everyone.