(30 December 2012)
It came down to the wire, but we were successful in closing the deal on our new home on time. Since then, we've been busy moving in and making renovations. As of today, the siding on the north side of the house (as well as the old windows there) have been replaced. The siding on the east side is about half-way done but will go much faster since there wasn't nearly as much wood rot or even square footage on that side since it is up against the hill. The ducts for the HVAC system are mostly in place. We are being told that tomorrow they'll hook up all the ducts underneath the house and we may have heat for our New Year celebration. That would be nice, but if it doesn't happen until Wednesday, that's fine too. We've dealt with it this long, we can survive another day.
Cosmo and Mikey have adjusted well to the new house. Cosmo loves to explore all the nooks and crannies and climb up on every high place he can find. Mikey is loving the bigger place, though I think he'll be happier when the heat is on in the house. We need to finish up a fence so he can actually explore the territory, though I'll feel better about doing that after we take care of some of the blackberry bushes which are trying to work their way down the mountain.
Cody also likes the new place. I think he especially likes that there are lots of wood floors which are easier for him to walk on with his little push-cart. He really loves going up and down the stairs, it being a new skill he's developed in the last little while. He's saying sounds which are close to actual words ("na na" for banana - we think - for example). He just keeps getting cuter and cuter!
(29 November 2012)
If all goes well tomorrow, we'll officially have bought a new home. It's ~2500 square feet on 1.75 acres in a more rural setting. The house itself needs some work, which we'll do. There are apple trees, walnuts, filberts and tons of blackberry bushes. Here are some pictures, if you are interested.
(15 November 2012)
At work, a computing shutdown is giving me three days off this week, so I'm using it to get caught up! I finished the 12th-13th month movie! I'm also using the time to start packing since we are two weeks away from closing on our new house. The original closing date was supposed to be today but due to the need for some repairs, it was delayed.
Cody continues to do very, very well. He just gets cuter and cuter by the day. He loves to chase toys that can roll (balls, cylindrical cups, etc) as well as drive toy trucks all around the house. He's learned how to climb up the stairs and can sometimes go down too. Every night, he takes his daddy's fingers and walks laps around the house while flashing a huge grin.
He has a healthy appetite and eats everything put in front of him. He can drink from a sippy cup on his own, which still amazes me.
All in all, the first year has been an awesome experience. It had some really hard times (like - the first two months!) but also some exquisite joys (too many to list). How I love my son.
(20 October 2012)
Is it really almost Halloween? I'm slowly making progress on my to-do list, which includes posting videos/pictures of Cody's first birthday, but I haven't gotten quite that far yet. I did post some pictures from July - September though. :-)
(30 September 2012)
Life is busy, so here are the highlights from the last few weeks.
- After an amazing defensive showing, BYU lost 7-6 to Boise State when they tried a two-point conversion (for the win) and failed rather than kicking the extra point.
- BYU completely smashed Hawaii 47-0.
- Cody is cruising, and walking if holding on to hands or his little doggy cart. He'll celebrate his first birthday on Saturday.
- The 11th month movie is posted here.
- ... and we bought a new place. Pics coming soon.
(16 September 2012)
I can't believe Cody is less than three weeks away from his first birthday. Wow!
Yesterday, I watched the BYU-Utah game. The Cougars were making a lot of mistakes but had somehow managed to keep it even with a 7-7 tie at halftime. In the 3rd quarter, Utah capitalized on Cougar errors and made some good plays to break it open at 24-7. Somehow, the Cougars pulled within a field goal as time was winding down. On 4th down, BYU gaineda chunk of field position and were able to stop the clock with under 10 seconds to play. They tried a pass to the sideline but it was incomplete and the Utah players and fans stormed the field. The refs did an official review and determined that there was still one second left on the clock, so the fans were cleared off and BYU lined up for a 51-yard field goal attempt. The Utes blocked it but BYU recovered and tried to advance the ball, but the Utah fans were on the field again. The refs flagged Utah for encroachment, cleared the field, and BYU lined up to try a 36-yard field goal. It had the distance but bounced off of the goal post, so Utah got the 24-21 victory. While I don't like losing, especially to the Utes, the fact that it was a nailbiter makes me feel better about it. I hate losing by a landslide and, really, it isn't fun to win by a huge landslide either. I like the game to be competitive.
One of my favorite comments about the game is that the kick went off the goal post because it was a few minutes to midnight. Had overtime been necessary, it would have been Sunday and the Cougars don't play on Sunday, so they were spared such by having a dramatic ending instead. :-)
Here are the new polls.
(11 September 2012)
I may be too busy to update this on a timely schedule, but I'm not too busy to watch the BYU football games! Cody and I had a blast getting together with friends last Saturday to watch the game and play some games ourselves (though not football). BYU trounced Weber State 45-13. With the win, the Cougars break into the top 25! I should note that Friday night, I cheered as Utah State (a team we will play later in the season) took down Utah (who we'll play next).
(6 September 2012)
Cody is 11 months old today. Unbelievable! Yesterday, he got a new cousin as my sister's daughter was born. Can't wait to see pictures! In the meantime, I'll have to settle for the poll results for this week.
(30 August 2012)
Finally! College football season is here!!! Here are the preseason rankings. Opponents that BYU will play are highlighted in yellow.
BYU dominated against Washington State today, winning 30-6! YAY!!!
(21 August 2012)
Wow. I certainly didn't intend for a full month to go by without updating this page! Cody got his first tooth (two actually on the same day), started crawling and started sorting shapes during the last month. He rolls over at will and eats as much table food as he can get into his mouth. The 10th month movie is posted!
In other, very important, news... it's almost FOOTBALL SEASON!! BYU kicks off the season next Thursday and you can bet I'll be watching and cheering!
(11 July 2012)
At Cody's 9-month checkup, he came in at 17 lbs 13 oz and 28 inches tall. This puts him in the 20th percentile for weight (up from 5th percentile at the 6-month checkup) and 30th percentile for height (about the same as before). Yippee!!!
The 9th month movie is posted!
Here's another comic that I can't resist posting. When my husband and I were visiting the Japanese area at Epcot (Disney World), we were signing to each other as he was looking for a specific book. He started chuckling and signed to me that the workers were discussing, in Japanese, how they were going to communicate with us. Obviously, they thought we were both deaf. When my husband turned around and asked (in Japanese) if they had such-and-such a book, they literally jumped with surprise that, not only could he hear, he understood Japanese! Sooo funny!
(3 July 2012)
Cody is almost 9 months old!! This last week, he's mastered rolling over from back to stomach and he's also figured out that he can roll over several times to get somewhere. No more immobile baby. His favorite pasttime still seems to be playing in his exersaucer/jumper thing. I'm not sure where he gets all the energy from but he has it in spades.
I posted some pictures from the first half of the year.
(26 June 2012)
This comic is drawn by a deaf guy and his hearing wife, usually about their hearing son. I see so many similarities between that family and my own.
Here's a recent picture of the lad. He looks so good in his BYU shirt and jeans!
(8 June 2012)
I have an 8-month-old??? Time is flying by and we're enjoying it. I feel no shame, whatsoever, in doing whatever it takes to make my son laugh -- because it is so cute!! His toothless grin is one of my favorite sights. He's started laughing hard, especially when Daddy tickles him. He sits up well now and has even started to show signs of rolling over from his back to his stomach, but only if he wants to. He absolutely loves his solid foods and has been taking everything we've given him. He doesn't quite have the idea of putting food in his own mouth yet, but I trust he'll get there eventually.
(28 May 2012)
This has been a great Memorial Day. First, Cody slept until 9am. Then I was able to cross a bunch of small things off my to-do list and spend time with Cody. Daddy watched Cody while I went to pick out a new grill since mine, which has served me well for 10 years, stopped working. I brought it home, assembled it and cooked a delicious meal of chicken, steak, hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob and potato salad. YUM!!! Oh how I missed having a functioning grill!! In addition, the seventh month movie is done!
(13 May 2012)
The sixth month movie is done! My husband asked me yesterday if I'm going to make one of these each and every month for the rest of Cody's life. No, eventually they'll be consolidated into bigger chunks of time but right now he's hitting so many new milestones that I've gotta show them off!
(7 May 2012)
Cody is 7 months old! I can hardly believe it. He's such a good baby. He usually smiles and easily laughs, sometimes really hard (usually at the dog or cat). He can sit up by himself now but still falls over if he tries to reach for something. He was standing on his own yesterday, holding himself up with the backrest cushion thing we have. It won't be long before he's mobile!! He likes to babble about whatever is on his mind and he sleeps through the night. We'll see how well that continues when teeth start coming in, but we're loving it right now! Cody absolutely loves solid foods, even vegetables [is this really MY kid?!]. So far it's been all stage 1 foods but we'll shortly start transitioning to some stage 2 foods, which should be exciting. He got to ride in the front of the shopping cart this last weekend which he seemed to think was the greatest thing. He held onto the front with one hand and the side with the other to stabilize himself while looking all around at all the goods on the shelves and all the people who were commenting on his cuteness. All in all, he's an absolute joy to be around and we are loving parenthood.
(17 April 2012)
The movie of Cody's fifth month (February) is up! OK, so it took a while to make... what can I say? We've learned that our expectations of how much can be accomplished in a day need to be drastically altered from the pre-Cody days - but we wouldn't have it any other way. It just means it takes a while for things like movies to show up on my web page. :-)
(15 April 2012)
Happy birthday to me! It's been a fabulous birthday weekend. We went on a date to a delicious BBQ joint on Friday and the hubby made sure I got a nap today after church. (contented sigh) Such a wonderful weekend. This comic was in the paper today and I'm convinced it is true, though we've only just started the ride.
(6 April 2012)
Happy half-birthday, Cody! It's a little hard to believe that it's been 6 months since we finally met the boy. He can roll over from his stomach to his back, but pretty much refuses to do so unless he really wants to. He's liked every solid we've introduced to him, though carrots and bananas are apparently preferred over peas.
(3 April 2012)
Wow! We're just a few days away from Cody's first half-birthday! Wahoo! What a ride it's been so far, but we wouldn't miss it for the world. Here are a few pictures to tide you over until I get around to actually finishing the latest movie. This one was taken today while Cody was at his grandparents' house with his cousin, Dora. I love how he's acting all "I wonder what this button does..." while Dora is stealing his pacifier.
Here is one from a few days ago. Cody has been extremely fascinated with faces, but Daddy's in particular.
(21 March 2012)
Here's a comic that was in the paper the other day. Mostly I put it here because it brought back memories of the day when I took a hearing test at school but failed. The nurse told me she'd call my mom and let her know, which terrified me. I'd failed a test! I didn't quite comprehend that this wasn't the kind of test that one could study for and that I wouldn't be in trouble.
(17 March 2012)
My mom spent her spring break down here so she could spoil her grandson. Here's an awesome picture she captured.
(12 March 2012)
Just because I feel like it, here are a few more pictures of the lad.
(3 March 2012)
I finally got around to finishing up the videohighlights of Cody's fourth month (January). In other Cody news, we now have a jumper/exersaucer thing which he absolutely loves! He likes to push himself backwards (like a swing) rather than jump up and down at the moment. I'll get some video of that too. :-)
(24 February 2012)
Cody turned 20 weeks old yesterday. Wow! It's hard to believe that my husband and I could be so enthralled with such a little guy, but every day after work finds us cooing over him and watching as he hits new milestones. He rolled over from his tummy to his back yesterday - just once but we both got to see it. Really, he started off slightly on his side and I think it was just luck from there, but he's certainly working towards being able to roll over.
Here's a new picture of my grinning boy.
(12 February 2012)
You know that feeling you had as a kid when it was the last night of summer vacation and tomorrow you would be back in school? That's how I'm feeling tonight. I'm excited to be going back to work but I'm going to miss the free time I had the last month or so. Granted, if I wasn't going back to work, I wouldn't have Cody in daycare and wouldn't have the free time anyway but it sure was a nice little break. Cody is now used to the daycare schedule (which includes time with the local grandparents until they leave on their mission) so tomorrow won't be any sort of adjustment for him at all.
I saw this online and I can completely see this happening someday! The joys of being a deaf parent of a hearing child.
(8 February 2012)
Cody had his 4-month checkup today. He currently weighs 12 pounds 7.5 ounces and is 24.25 inches tall. Here's a picture I got of him this morning. Such a cutie!
(5 February 2012)
I had to laugh when I read the comics today, as there were some which perfectly describe us.
While I haven't seen any snowmen in my house, I wouldn't put it past that husband of mine. He is always saying it is cold (at 72 degrees).
Mikey L-O-V-E-S to ride in the car, especially when we visit the "magic window" -- any drive-through. At KFC, sometimes they even give him a little piece of chicken because he is so cute. While he isn't thrilled about going to the vet's office, he tolerates it better than other dogs I've seen.
(2 February 2012)
This is probably my favorite picture of Cody with his daddy so far. Not sure why exactly, but it is.
(11 January 2012)
The compilation of clips is finally condensed into one movie - showing here. Cody also has his own picture page. Enjoy!
The college football season is over. How sad. But, my BYU Cougars finished the season ranked #26 in the AP poll and #25 in the USA Today Poll! Yay!
(5 January 2012)
I can't believe 2012 is here! On one hand, 2011 was a painfully slow year but, somehow, it also feels like it went by in the blink of an eye. I'm not exactly sure how it was both, but it was. A few days before the new year, I got this picture which shows a good size comparison. So cute!
BYU took on Tulsa last Friday. The Cougars trailed most of the game but it was always within reach. With 11 seconds remaining, BYU got near the goal line and lined up as if to spike the ball to stop the clock. Instead, Riley Nelson faked the spike and tossed the ball to a waiting receiver for the winning touchdown [24-21]!!
Cody is a day shy of three months old and has discovered his hands -- well, the right one at least. He hardly pays any attention to the left one so far but I'm sure he will eventually.
