Tuesday, November 29, 2011

November ramblings ...

I'm coming up on the last week of class for my first college course.  I'm happy to be moving onto the second one, and found this one to be very easy.  I've gotten a 100 on each and every assignment, as well as my journal submissions and class participation.  It's a little different going to school online than going to a class on specific days.  You have to log in at least four out of 7 days and post twice four different days.   You can't do everything in one day or you lose points for participation.  I think that is probably the hardest thing that most people have found to do. 

About half way through this course, University Success ( a dummy course really, to just get you acclimated to taking classes and learning how to use the system) I decided to change my major to Education/Special Education.  It's a dual major which will give me a teaching degree as well as a degree in special education.  So I'll actually be attending a sister college of Phoenix, Grand Canyon University, which was created as a teacher's school in the 40's. I'm really excited to get started, I feel like this first "real" class that starts on December 12th is when I truly begin my college education. 

Enough of that .....

Mikaela turned 10 months old on Friday .... 10 MONTHS OLD!!  I can't believe it, time has flown by so quickly!  Then again, Aislynn is already going to be 15 in a few weeks, and wasn't it just yesterday I brought her tiny self home from the hospital?

She had her check up and she is now 17 pounds and has 8 teeth!  She is walking, tentatively up until a few days ago, then all of a sudden it's from one end of the living room to the next.  She's definitely begun to develop her own little personality and invariably cracks herself up throughout the day along with us.  She has her Dad wrapped around her little finger, just like Aislynn, and she loves to throw things on the floor from her high chair just to watch him make a funny face at her and keep picking it up.

She "talks" all the time, a never ending stream of baby words that sometimes sound like something familiar and we respond in kind.  I swear one night she said "ok" in response to my saying it to her.  She loves the cats and the dog and Remy will play with her, tug of war mostly with his toys, the cats generally stay away or tolerate a few minutes of hair or ear pulling.

We had to get a new babysitter a few weeks ago after the other quit suddenly and without warning.  Luckily, we have a great friend who comes to the house now and plays with her all day.  She's been a gift from God or the gods or whomever is watching over us.  There isn't much I could really do to repay all she does for us.  She is awesome with Mikaela and Remy gets up in the window and watches out the window for her every morning.  There is nothing more important to parents than being able to leave your children with someone you trust.  To be able to leave for 7-8 or more hours a day, leave our hearts behind with someone and trust them to do as good a job watching over our children as we ourselves do, well it's priceless really. 

We are really excited for the upcoming holidays, even though Mikaela doesn't really understand the whole Christmas = gifts thing, it's still going to be fun watching her pull the paper off (and of course stopping her from eating it) and discover a new toy inside.  Also, Aislynn turns 15 on December 17th and she doesn't get quite as animated about her gifts as she used to, but it's still great fun watching her open the things she has asked for.  The pleasure is always there just watching my loved ones that morning open up their gifts hoping that it's just the right thing, or even if it's something they asked for, knowing the pleasure they will have when they see they got it.  Well ... that's part of what Christmas is about.