Family Update

It's been a long time since my last post. I haven't had as much time as I would like to write, but I've got a few minutes to catch you up right now.

Jacob had his 18 month well check on February 3, and he seems to be doing great! Though he continues to gain weight, he still weighs in at the 25th-50th percentile mark. The important thing is that he is being consistent. His vocabulary is also growing by leaps and bounds. He says about five to ten words now--or tries to, anyway. That may not seem like very much, but Jonathan was only speaking about 3 words or so when he was this age. Jonathan was about two-and-a-half before he really took off talking; I'm hoping Jacob will catch on a little quicker. Jake is 19 months now. He's walking, attempting to talk, and just plain growing up way too fast. It's going to be time to move him to a big boy bed and start the potty training process here in about six months or so. (I am sooo not looking forward to going through all that again.)

Jonathan is about to turn 4 on me. He's been potty trained for about a year and a half now. I've been making him wear Pull-Ups for naps and bedtime and also anytime we have to go somewhere. A little bit at a time, I've been weaning him off of that routine as well. I started by letting him wear underwear when we run errands or to church. Then just a few weeks ago, I let him wear underwear during naptime. When he went for almost two weeks straight with no accidents, I finally let him start wearing underwear to bed at night. So far so good. In the last couple of weeks he actually started going to the bathroom all by himself! He won't let me come with him, but he'll yell at me if he needs help with something. The little bugar has even started to dress himself a little. John and I are even thinking about enrolling him in preschool this year. That's right--THIS year. He would start this fall.

(Yes, I'm having a VERY hard time with this whole growing up thing. Does it show???)

Jonathan has almost finished his first year in AWANA. Each year, all the kids make little pine cars and the church hosts a Grand Prix. Jonathan made his first car and is super excited to get to race in his first Grand Prix this Sunday. (I'll be sure to post some pics from the big race!) Jacob will get to participate in a couple more years. If you haven't already heard, John got another test grade back. (He's been waiting for this grade almost 60 days now.) He PASSED!!! He got an 82! Now if that last grade would just come on back...
He's been working so hard and I'm so glad he finally almost has this whole thing behind him. He's well on his way to being a CPA, and I am so very proud of him! That's really about all that's going on with us right now. We have a plumber coming out in the morning. It probably isn't an absolute necessity, but I had one of my blond moments--or rather a sensory flashback followed by a blond moment.

(See, when we were living in our apartment, the owners shut the water off to do some maintainance work. They apparently turned it back on before they were supposed to, didn't realize that someone had left a faucet on in the apartment directly above us, and before long I was hearing water dripping. Then I was seeing it stream through our ceiling and light fixtures. So, anytime I hear dripping water, I flash back on that. Fast forward a couple of years to Dec. 31, 2008. I'm taking a shower and fifteen minutes in I run out of hot water. When I get out of the shower, I hear that our hot water heater has not kicked on. Long story short, we had it looked at and determined that we needed to get a new one. The old one was ten years old, after all.)

Well, I was taking a shower this past Thurs. or Fri., and about 15 min. in, I run out of hot water. I get out and find that the hot water heater has not kicked on. It finally did come on about 45 min. after I got out of the shower. It will also come on if you manually turn up the dial. But our one-year-old water heater does not click on when it's supposed to. Anyway, we got a new gas valve for it (the unit is still under warranty) and the plumber is coming in the morning to replace it. Isn't owning a home great?!? Our house turned 52 years old this year, and now it's falling apart! There are days I truly miss apartment living--until, of course, I flash back on the "flood" of 2005.