Jeric's language development continues to astound me since the
placement of his ear tubes last month. He is communicating verbally more and
more each day. Sometimes he makes two-word or a word-and-sign sentence (for
example saying more while signing food). There are a few things we are working
on, like he'll only say the first sound of a word but not the ending sound
(sock is sssss), that are probably due to his hearing loss with his infections
but that my speech therapist friend is sure will correct themselves with time
as long as he frequently hears words pronounced clearly. So I try to be
especially clear when I'm talking to him. So far it seems to be helping.
He turned 18 months at the beginning of
March and officially began attending the nursery at church. LOVES IT. I'm glad.
It definitely makes things easier for me and Husband with our callings. I also
took him for his 18-month check-up a couple of weeks ago. He is still healthy
and growing! He weighs about 26 pounds and is around 32.5 or 32.75 inches tall.
He's grown a couple of inches since Christmas! My sister-in-law just loaned me
some clothes and I'm looking at them thinking they're going to be a bit long
but NOPE they fit (size 2T). Ugh! He is growing so fast. He nearly gave me a
heart attack the other day when he walked down the stairs, forward facing while
holding a sippy cup in both hands (the reason he didn't want to turn around).
It took all my willpower but I didn't freak out and grab him, I just stood by
ready to catch him if he fell. And he made it! I was so proud of him, and of me
for letting him do it by himself. :)
A couple of weeks ago we left Jeric with
my parents (he had a blast at the stake youth basketball tournament) and went
to the Raleigh
temple with Husband's brother
Kevin, his wife Joni, and her brother Ammon and his wife Jess. Confused yet? It
had been several months since Husband and I got to go, so it was a great day!
After the temple, we went geocaching with the others -- it's one of Ammon
and Jess's favorite hobbies. For those who don't know what it's all about, it's
like a high-tech scavenger hunt. People create "caches" (some are
large containers that people can put things in, others are as small as a button
and contain only a list of those people who have found the hiding place in the
past) and post the GPS coordinates on the website. Then other people can go and
find the cache and sign their name to the roll or put stuff in the container if
there is one. It's pretty cool. I will have to try it again in the future
because most of the ones we found were in the woods and I was having a highly
allergic kind of day, so I couldn't participate much. Sorry for being a bummer,
y'all! But I did have fun. There are a few pictures on Jess's blog -- here's
a link to it. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the pictures from
that day.
And yes, we did climb down into that huge
water-drain-pipe-thing in search of a cache (which we never found) that was
(supposedly) hidden under the road someplace. I still can't believe I did it --
I am SO not the adventurous type -- but everyone else wanted to and I certainly
didn't want to spoil their fun.
Husband is still just working hard at
school. He has a few classes this semester that are frustrating because the
teachers are incompetent (I'm being completely serious here; it's terrible),
but he's doing ok still. I know he'll be glad when it's over!
He spent a lot of time the last couple of
weeks helping some friends with some renovation work in the house they just
bought. They removed the popcorn from the ceilings, tore out the carpet, cut
out some doorways in walls, reconfigured the kitchen a bit (it won't get
completely redone for a year or so), did some electrical work, painted the
walls and molding, waited for the new carpet to be laid in the bedrooms, and
began installing the hardwood floor in the rest of the house. Then they moved
all their stuff in. There is still more work to be done but it looks AWESOME
and we are so excited for them that they finally have the room their family
needs! They are about our age but have two older foster children they are
adopting, as well as a boy about 5 months younger than Jeric, and she's
expecting another boy in June. I know that Husband has really enjoyed getting
to help out so much with the work they needed done.
As for me, I'm having a birthday tomorrow.
