Happy 2005!

Okay, so 2005 happened nearly 24 days ago. I'm a little behind! :D

Things here have been crazy hectic, but that's not unusual! We've been doing some minor home repairs and such to get our house ready to sell. We recently took out the nasty fluorescent side light strips in our upstairs bathroom, as well as the floral medicine cabinet. Keith replaced the lights with new sconces and also put in a new medicine cabinet. We could kick ourselves for not having done this much sooner because we are loving how it looks ;) Next we need to paint the bathroom and finally get rid of the nasty SUNSHINE YELLOW color. I chose a much softer muted yellow to help tie in the heinous yellow ceramic wall tiles.

Keith's ankle is doing well. He stopped going to therapy for a number of reasons and is trying to take it easy. He's been very busy this month traveling to Baltimore, Chicago, and Columbus for various meetings and trade shows. Whenever I ask Aaron, "Where's daddy?" He always says "Brrrrrrooooooooom" which means daddy's in the car! Yes, sweetheart, daddy certainly has spent quite a lot of time in the car lately! LOL.

Aaron is headed more and more into the two year old stage. He's having a hard time communicating when he wants something so he's starting to whine. I hate it when he whines. :( But his speech is getting better and he makes me laugh with the words he picks up. Lately he's been into saying B words, so belly, baby, button and ball are among his favorites. He knows far too many animal sounds to count and whenever he's cranky I find that I can amuse him with having him tell me what sounds a _____ says. My favorite sound he makes is his squirrel sound. He even clucks his tongue! :)
He loves to read and be read to and will often throw books to us so we'll read them. I actually love this because I LOVE to read (although I have to admit that I don't love reading, "Elmo Loves You!" 5,567 times a day so much!) and I've always heard that if a child sees a parent reading he too will be an avid reader.
His sign language skills are amazing. He can sign for: More, all gone/done, drink, eat, ice cream, banana, bib, hot, cereal, apple, please, sleepy, love, blanket, bath, stars, moon, book, bath, quiet and lights. I'm trying to get him to put short sentences together and he's doing well with, "More Please".
He's been very interested in learning short songs and dances. He loves "I'm a little teapot" but when I say, "TIP me over and pour me out" he stands up on his tip toes! LOL. He also likes Ring Around the Rosey but thinks it's hilarious to fall down before the end of the song. I don't find that hilarious, since I have much further to go DOWN than he does ;)
My friend Amy and I are going to be taking Aaron and her daughter Sophie to a class on Thursdays called Music and Movers. It's a 45 minute class of dancing and singing so I am hoping Aaron likes it. He doesn't see other children much so I think this will help his socialization as well. Oh, and I think it will be nice for MOMMY to have some socialization as well ;) One can only play peek-a-boo so many times before it gets old.

And for me, I'm plodding along. I got a temporary position doing data entry for a bank. The hours aren't ideal (4:00 pm until 12:30 am) but it's only for 2 weeks. I work Sunday through Thursday for 2 weeks. I am hoping they ask me to stay on afterward and let me work the 6pm - 11 pm shift they have available. It works out really well since I don't have to arrange day-care for Aaron, and Keith will watch him from 4-7 (when Aaron goes to bed) and have the evening to himself.

So that's what's been going on here in the H house so far this year. I wil post some recent pictures of a certain adorable 19 month old next ;)