We are here and we are 'appy (happy). Alice has started telling us when she feels 'appy and it is so fun. The two times she usually does this are (1) if she's frustrated about something, she'll go find a quiet corner to sit down and pout in for a minute or two, and then when I go sit by her she'll inevitably take another 30 seconds and then smile and say "'appy!" and (2) When we tell her it's time to take a nap, she'll often try to get out of it by saying, "'Appy! Me 'appy! Me no sad. Me 'appy!" We think she came up with this by noticing that when Jack gets EXTRA mean and grumpy we tell him he should consider a nap or an early bedtime. She's very observant and socially aware so I think that's where this strategy came from. It's so cute that it's actually kind of effective. We'll usually give her an extra 5-10 minutes and then mention the nap again. Eventually her insistance that she's still 'appy starts to get frantic, and that's when we know the 'appy is wearing off and the tired is taking over. She is just so fun.
Jared and I are having lots of fun finding moments to sneak over to the new-build neighborhood and walk through the houses under construction. We've had a few meetings with the sales office and we are 80% sure we've picked out the floorplan we'll be going with, and that we'll be in our (likely) forever home by the end of the year. I give a 20% chance that we'll wait an extra year for the next phase to start being built, which would allow us to live even closer to the mountain than the current phase going up. We're a little nervous about being priced out of the market though, so it's definitely more likely we'll pick a lot in the current phase that will be built later this year and go with that.
Let's get to our pictures from the week:
^^Our Thanksgiving Points passes are getting their mileage. Me and Alice snuck off to the dinosaur museum last week and then stopped by their creamery for an ice cream date--something I wouldn't normally do, but am really glad we did. I know these years of just me and Alice home together during the days will go by quick, and also the ice cream was really good.
^^New clothes and a trip to the dmv. Jared dressed her in this outfit, including the socks and jelly shoes. I give it a 10 out of 10.
^^She randomly looks like my brother Tim here and it makes me 'appy.
^^Ragamuffin. I know this is an Alice-heavy post. And I won't apologize!!
^^Jack and Alice snacking and coloring and giggling. But not getting too close to each other because that would surely end poorly. Sibling dynamics are *fUn*
^^We got our new library cards this week. Jack is starting to get more into reading! He's an advanced reader but hasn't been all that into books in the past. I am really hoping to change that by the time summer break comes around.
^^Alice's cooking phase is still going extra strong. She might even turn ME into a baker. I figured that if she is asking to cook 5 times a day, we might as well cook constructive things together instead of random terrible concoctions she invents. So now she's helping me cook dinners, breakfast smoothies, muffins, ninja Creami mixtures, pesto bread . . . really anything. I love cooking but have been out of the swing of it since Alice was born. Fun to get back into it together.
^^Sledding with cousins! Jack kept sliding on his belly and it was pretty impressive.
^^Alice bouncing down the street as we walked Jack to school. This was an awful idea. What would otherwise take 5 minutes took half an hour. Next time I'm insisting she sits in her own big stroller and I push her. She ain't gonna like it.
