Fun at the Park

The sun has been shining and the temperature perfect, so when Auntie Kari walked to the park to study this afternoon, Alec and I tagged along. I pushed him over in his car, so he was naturally excited. Once at the park we went on the swing, which he enjoys at a slow speed. We went down the slide together which he loved, then played in the grass. Living in Vegas he's not used to grass and immediately tried to grab bits and put them in his mouth. After finding he didn't enjoy the taste he was content to crawl around and practice standing (we're up to 9 seconds now and a wobbly step forward).

I don't know if it was just the sunshine (or the fact that his top incisors FINALLY came through, so now he's happy), but he seemed very photogenic today and I took loads of pictures. I've included more on his photo website. Also, because we put so many photos on it, we've created several separate photo albums and the link on the left side of this page is showing 9-10 months old and will continue to show the most recent photos, otherwise there were just too many photos-well over 300...

Milo's Summer Cut

Las Vegas is definitely not the best climate for our two fluffy puppies. Milo, our keeshond, especially has a difficult time coping with the heat. Since he's begun shedding his winter coat (they shed twice a year), we decided it would be a good time to clip his hair. So, I've included a before and after shot. His fur was around 3.5" long, I trimmed it to 1". We think he looks adorable and he was sure happy, jumping and running around.

Triple Date

Saturday night we went to dinner at the Muckleroys, a family we enjoyed getting to know in the Cimarron Ward before we moved. Cat is only 9 days younger than Alec is, so we were able to enjoy dinner and some adult company with Hilary and Martin, while Alec was able to enjoy some pint-sized company of his own. At this age they were more interested in the toys than each other, but it's nice not being at the screaming, biting or pulling phase. Hopefully we'll see them a few more times before we move to Colorado and we can watch the two of them grow. Then we can begin the arranged marriage preparations...

Settling in

Paul and I managed to get everything moved into my parents' home last Thursday, thanks to my brother, Kevie, and his friend Adam. It's been a bit manic cramming all our stuff into one room, but luckily it's a huge room, so even the two dog crates fit with all Alec's furniture and our bed, leaving a play area for Alec. Good thing Paul and I tend to be minimalists.

Alec had a hard time adjusting to other noises in the room (the dogs tend to move from our bed to the floor several times throughout the night) and woke up a lot the first few nights, but he slept all through the night on Monday. On the other hand, he's adjusted quickly and happily to extra people around constantly holding him and pushing him in his car. He's such a social little man! While people push him in the car he waves goodbye to people he passes and will sometimes put out his index finger to touch someone else's-a sort of E.T. moment. He's also begun imitating animal sounds. When we were reading an animal book yesterday I was making a quacking sound for the ducks and he tried to imitate it, he did the same for elephants and kittens. It was so cute!

Paul and I are not enjoying our commutes now and lunchtime seems so dreary since he can't come home, but otherwise we've settled in more quickly than we'd expected to. Paul hasn't had much time to work on his PhD yet, but we still don't know for certain his extension was accepted and we didn't think he'd have much time before returning to finish.

The dogs are doing so much better than we expected. Paul walks them in the morning, then later in the morning I put them on the side of the house to rough-play together outside while Alec naps and I exercise. This seems to use up their energy, as the rest of the day they lay around the house. The collars are reminders if they get a bit excited, but we rarely need them. No one's bothered by them wandering around downstairs and we keep them in sight or sound at all times so they can't get up to much, it's turned out to be a huge blessing being able to keep them in the house here.

Kelsey's Christmas puppy was finally old enough to leave her mother. A little shih tzu she named Kippie. There are now 5 dogs in the house (my parents have a shih tzu and a pomeranian). I've included some pictures of Alec and Kippie, though we can't ever leave them alone since Alec's used to larger dogs he can tug on. During the day when I'm alone with the dogs and Alec it often feels like a mini zoo. Luckily the dogs all get on well and they nap most of the day, so with Kippie in my lap and the others laying around I can get some lesson preparation done during Alec's afternoon nap.

Let the birthday celebrations...begin!

My parents offered to take my brother, Christopher & I (and our spouses) to the Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur for our birthdays. It turned out to be a lot of fun! Paul and I really got into the table banging, 'huzzah' shouting and eating without utensils. We sat in the 'dragon' section and enjoyed cheering for...the villain. (Paul was very good-natured about the inevitable, 'does this make you feel homesick?' teasing).

Afterwards, Paul and I wandered the Excalibur, as we'd never been in it before (we don't like being on the Strip), and the best we could find was the SpongeBob statue to take a picture with...so we did.

It was our last Sunday in Cimarron Ward, which is rough. The hardest part about moving (for me) is getting comfortable in a new ward. We had really enjoyed the strong spirit in the Cimarron Ward and all the friends we'd made, also the opportunity to teach Primary so we could spend all 3 hours of church together.

At our Sunday family dinner mom had a strawberry cake for me and Alec helped blow out the candles. Everyone wanted him to put his hand in and make a mess, but he hates being messy. Kelsey and I put some frosting on him and he did NOT like that.

This brings me to an interesting subject Paul and I have been discussing (in jest) recently and Paul may have won-maybe Alec will be a clean astrophysicist like his daddy, and not 'dig in the dirt' as my mother so elegantly describes my choice. Too bad, I had high hopes of training a little anthropologist/archaeologist like me.

I've also noticed I only seem to take pictures of him in his little blue moose outfit lately...I'll work on that. Maybe it's because it makes his dark blue eyes stand out?

Alec had his 9-month old wellness checkup today (no shots-yay!) and he's now a staggering 20 pounds, 1 ounce and 27 inches long. The doctor was so happy, Alec's back on track, as far as his weight is concerned.

Classes began last week, and the first day was rough (partially because my textbook only arrived at the college 4 days prior- not much time to prepare), but Paul gave me great advice (and held me) afterwards, so Thursday went great and now I'm excited. I start teaching human evolution this week and am unsure exactly how I feel about it, so that should be interesting. Church leaders have all given very different personal viewpoints (McConkie's against it; Widtsoe, Eyring & Talmage all feel it has some merit), I guess I need to figure it out for myself. Any thoughts? Heavenly Father works with nature, not contrary to it and the outline in the Bible follows the fossil record. The more Paul and I use science to understand how Heavenly Father has created a natural order, the more my testimony increases (Paul can better comprehend how planets and galaxies are formed and I can better see species and ecosystems), we don't see science and religion at odds at all. I'm not sure why right-wing christians' hackles are automatically raised at the thought of evolution, but after discussing it with Paul several days now, we both feel the evolution of man definitely has some merits (we agree with the scientists in the Church), I have more specific ideas (since I've been studying it for over 10 years), but would love to hear others' thoughts on the subject. Obviously we don't have all the answers, all general authorities agree that the dating of the earth is better referred to in the POGP where it's explained as 'periods' rather than 'days'; as each one may have taken a different amount of time and radioactive half-life dating allows us to extract a date range from existing material when it was formed into our world of several billion years ago. As to man's spontaneous creation or evolution, we're just curious about opinions.

Everything is going ahead for our move on Thursday. My brother Kevie's been stopping by on his way home from work and carting boxes over for us, which has really helped. Moving down to one room is going to be tricky, but we're working really hard, so it should all fit. We're still concerned about the dogs in my parents' home, so we'll see how this first month goes, then work from there.

2008 Plans...so far...

Well, we were planning to move to Colorado this year and that hasn't changed, but Paul may need to return to England for 2-3 months in order to complete his PhD. So here's our plan so far:

To help us save up money more quickly, my parents have kindly offered for us to live with them, so we'll be moving in at the beginning of February.

I've agreed to an adjunct professor position at the College of Southern Nevada teaching one World Archaeology course. The Tuesday/Thursday morning (8-9.20am) class wouldn't interfere with my mother's job, so she can watch Alec for us two mornings a week and I won't be out of the home long. We will stay at my parents' until the end of the semester, then move to Colorado at the beginning of June. Paul will fly to Birmingham from Denver. Hopefully he'll be done in July or August, then he'll prepare for his first actuary exam that he can take in November or December. We're hoping it all works out, but 'the best laid plans of mice and men'...

In other news, Alec is doing great, the reflux is getting better and he's begun gaining weight-he weighs nearly 18 pounds now! He can pull himself up to stand and 'cruise' around furniture, but he's not too interested in walking unsupported yet. He loves crawling now (since the reflux got better and he can be on his belly) and he's into everything-his favorite pasttime is to tip over the dogs' water bowl and then crawl through it. He loves dancing and will wiggle back and forth when music comes on. Last night he started smiling for the camera-well, scrunching up his nose. It's so funny! This picture of him is his smile.

Alec and Milo have become little buddies (our little boys) and they enjoy playing several games: 'tug' over the dogs' rawhide chips, or Alec will dangle toys for Milo to try and bite or Alec simply crawls all over Milo. Alec actually tends to chase Milo around the house to crawl on him. We are grateful to have two dogs that do so well with our son. I've included a video of Alec and Milo playing tug over a rawhide chip, it always makes me laugh:



Because my parents have two small dogs, training our two puppies even quicker became necessary. (I plan to take them to my aunts' home during the day to play with her boxers. In the evenings they will go for a walk with Paul, then relax with Paul in our room while he works from the laptop.) After reading online recommendations, we decided to get the dogs remote control training collars. The system has one remote and two collars (Innotek Ultra Smart). If the dogs do something naughty we can give them a warning beep sound, then later a shock if they persist. I promise it's not cruel, the dogs just tilt their heads slightly or flatten their ears (it's like the shock you get when you scuff your feet on the carpet, then touch a doorknob). Now they come right away and listen quicker, usually with just the beeping sound. It's made morning walks a lot easier for me! No more barking at other dogs or people who get too close to Alec! I had always planned (in about 2-3 years) to have Maggie take the 'therapy dog' test, so this will really help with her training. Maybe it will even calm Milo down enough to make him a candidate also.

Also, to answer a popular question, we can't plan for another child until we have health care (for Paul & I, Alec is covered). So, it's unlikely we'll begin planning to extend our family until we're a little more settled, possibly later this year.

Happy New Year

On New Year's Eve, Paul and I went out for Buffalo Wild Wings with Christopher & Joleen, Kari & Ben, Kelsey & John and John's brother. Alec's begun teething again, so he was getting fussy, which meant he got to spend the evening with his grandparents. It was nice to have a meal out without trying to keep him entertained. Kevin was supposed to come as well, but thought we were at the other Wild Wings and went there.

Paul had New Year's Day off, so we decided to join Kelsey and Kari & Ben for a hike at Mount Charleston. Hiking is the perfect family day for us. Paul loves the mountains and being outdoors. The dogs and Alec love being outside (as long as we're moving-all 3 get fussy if we stop to rest).


When we got to Mount Charleston it was incredibly crowded and there were cops writing out loads of tickets for the horrible parking jobs. So, we decided to head back down and just happened to find a small side street with an empty parking area. Jackpot! We were able to park easily. We got out and headed off towards the snow...which turned out to be packed down so well it was like trying to walk on ice. This made it difficult for Paul who was trying to be cautious while carrying Alec in the Bjorn. It made it a game for me to try and hold onto the dogs and let them pull me around, without falling over. Kelsey decided to try the 'sled dogs' out and let them drag her around the rest of the time. She loved it and the dogs were so happy to be sniffing pine trees and exploring the outdoors. We plan to harness them to sleds and pull our children around when we move to Colorado.

Alec was so happy with being outside and seeing snow for the first time that he just kept laughing and kicking his legs. He was so cute all bundled up with his hat and mittens. Another family we passed actually took a picture of him. Maybe we should be worried about that...

After about 2 hours in the cold we were ready to go home and have some soup and hot cocoa. The puppies and Alec fell asleep in the backseat on the way home, which signified a successful trip to Paul and I! Fresh air, exercise and time together, what could be better?

Cousin Michael

We were so excited to hear that Paul's brother, Nicholas, his wife, Morgan and their son, Michael were out visiting Morgan's family in California the same weekend we were in California! We were able to visit with them at the airport before they flew home and watch Alec & Michael interact for the first time.

Mikey's just about 5 weeks older than Alec, but he certainly has more hair (my poor, bald baby) and he'll always be taller than Alec so he seemed a lot older. At this age they were mainly interested in poking each other, grabbing each other & blowing raspberries at each other. It was very cute to watch, especially the attempted 'kisses'.

The Great Escape (Artist)

Alec has always been wiggly, but lately he's been trying to escape from everything. Last night he was in a little camouflage outfit, which possibly inspired him. It was so cute to watch him crawl and wiggle across his playmat until he reached the gate. Then he stared out for a while, as if contemplating how to escape, while taking his socks off (another favorite pasttime). We put the gate up to keep the dogs away from his toys, so Maggie gave him some kisses of encouragement. He got stuck on his back between the couch and gate, but didn't let it slow him down, he just rolled over and continued on his way to freedom...






His other favorite place to escape from is the bathtub. He loves splashing and making a mess, then trying to crawl out.

Christmas Tree Hunting

Last night Mom and Dad invited us out to dinner and then to help them pick out their Christmas tree. John and Kelsey, and Kari and Ben were also able to come. Alec didn't enjoy being out in the cold to look at trees, but he sure enjoyed mashed potatoes and looking at trees indoors with his grandpa. Guess he's a Vegas baby so far...