JOURNAL ENTRY #1

To keep all the writings I do on the family together, I've decided to keep the family journal on the blog too. That way all my entries will be in here when I go to print the blog. I am hoping I don't have to publish these until I go to print it because I don't want EVERYTHING about out us out floating in cyberspace for everyone to read.

Family update: January shaped up to be a lot busier than I thought..and a lot snowier than I thought, too. We have had the most snow this year than in the past 12 - 15 years! The sad part about that is we haven't had the chance to go downhill skiing once!*sigh*

Diane's business of over 15 years, Twin Peaks Distribution, went under this month. Jevan is helping her move things out of her warehouse as we speak. She is now trying to find a 9-5 job that will meet all her bills. The whole family has been praying for her. She is in a tough spot and feeling a lot of stress. Hopefully, things will work out quickly for her. She has a side business selling funny/sarcastic greeting cards, "Any Horrible Occasion" and we are hoping that takes off soon as well.
My mom had surgery on her shoulder because her tendons were separating from the bone. She seems to be healing well and is finding that the hard part is not going crazy from having to be so sedentary.

Jevan was offered a position at another company called "Omniture" where his friend works. It is an offer that would make a big difference for us financially, and he would work in Provo, making my dream of living in Heber quite a bit more feasible. He is trying to decide whether to take it. He really likes the job he has now at McCann and he knows he is good at what he does. But the money is hard to turn away from and the job may offer better upward mobility in the long run. It is just a scary feeling for him to suddenly go back to learning a new job, not knowing what he is doing, and wondering if he will be any good at it. We'll know what he decides in a couple of weeks...could be life changing for us!

Jane has started the toilet training process (for real this time). I tried once when she was 20 months and again right after she turned 2. Both times, she didn't really seem ready...didn't really grasp the concept. She is now just a few months shy of 2 and a half, and doing great! We started yesterday, and today she has gone all morning and most of the afternoon with no accidents! She even is able to tell me when she needs to go which is wonderful. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up yet that this is going to be easy, but so far so good. I still put her in Pull-Up training pants whenever we go anywhere because I know she is apt to forget to tell us if something exciting is going on, and I forget to ask her every 30 mins. But, I am glad she has latched on to the concept as well as she has.
Here's the process:
She tells us or we tell her to go sit on the toliet. She sits for a while and reads her book. When she's done, we make a big deal of it all and she gets a "treat" which is a few chocolate Whoppers. She calls it "SCHOCK-LATE!"( which she pronounces in a voice which I can only think to describe as a mischievous pirate voice...if there is such a voice. I'll have to video record it.
I really hope we have a made a breakthrough and I now have one less child in diapers! It would be so nice not to have to empty the diaper genie what seems like every day.

Jane is also really getting into playing pretend. She likes us to call her different animals or people all the time. She likes to have dialog where she is someone else and I am her. It's really funny. Her use of vocabulary continues to amaze me - she is really advanced verbally. Her sentences get more and more complex all the time and she is starting to understand how to be clever and use humor. She likes to ask trick questions, and laughs meniacally when we pretend to get them wrong. It is so fascinating to watch her imagination develop. It is really taking off. For instance, yesterday we had an entire conversation about a giant that happened to be in our car with us. He would make the car "fall". I'm not sure what that means but Jane would yell, "Mom! The gi-yant in da car! He's in da car! The car is faw - ing (falling)." I would get very concerned about the giant that has seemed to have some effect on gravity and would commence to ask her all sorts of questions about her giant, what he's eating, his name, etc. It made for a really interesting drive. I must admit though, she talks NON-STOP in the car and after a while, it kinda drives me insane! As long as I direct the conversation to different topics, it's okay.

She is still relatively good natured and a really good minder for her age. I have only witnessed 2 true tantrums which make the "terrible twos" so famous. I hope that doesn't all change when she turns 3, like some of my friends tell me it does. She is very loving and affectionate and outgoing. However, she can be pretty naughty, especially with other kids around her age. Jane and Calvin are quite the duo, either fighting or doing mischievous things. Yesterday, when we were over at Grandma Diane's for dinner, she had to be put in time out twice for crawling up the back of her couch after we all told her not to.

I can also tell she is flexing her self-independence muscles because she is starting to try to change her routines, and asking to do all the things I would usually do. Like just now for instance, I just put her down for her nap and usually when we do naptime, we read 2 books and then sing a few songs. This time, she wanted to read the books to me (which I happily let her do) but then she didn't want me to sing any songs! I asked her many times as we rocked there in silence and each time she adamantly said "No!". It made me sad. I hope it isn't a permanent change in routine!

Allison just keeps getting cuter as she gets older. She has a darling face and darling smile. She still has her little forced, grunty laugh which cracks us up everytime. She is also getting more interactive with people, as long as it is on her terms. If she is in a good mood, she will go to anyone but if she is at all tired or out-of-sorts she will only have her mom. We are trying to teach her to say "Hi" and wave. So far she just squeals and flaps both her arms up and down like a strange sort of chicken greeting.

She still will NOT snuggle with me either. Or anyone for that matter. She only likes to pull hair and strip all the skin from your face. I try to hold her arms down when I nurse her or give her a bottle and she fights all she can. When I let go, she starts swinging her arm about wildly, like I have done her arm some injustice and I must pay. It's frustrating that she always wants me to hold her, but not snuggle her. Oh, and she also hates to be changed. You have to either be a gladiator to hold her down and get a diaper on, OR you have to be magician and always pulling out new tricks to entertain her and get her to hold still. Drives me nuts.

But don't let all this talk make you think that she isn't the cutest thing. She is really happy, smiley little girl, very curious and VERY strong. Even though she doesn't have a ton of interest in walking, she is incredibly steady on her feet, and I'm sure when she does decide she wants to walk, it won't take long at all. Now, at least, she will walk around holding onto our hands for a while. Before, she would collapse instantly onto her knees. When you are such a speedy crawler, who needs walking?