One step at a time

Although it is sometimes hard to recognize progress day by day, I am pleased to report that little by little I am doing much better. Some physical therapy was very helpful in getting the spasming muscles under control, and a couple of cortisone injections have put a real dent in the joint pain. Prayers, time, and some essential oils may be helping too. At this point I am pretty much able to take care of Lauren, walk around the store, drive the car, and sleep at night without a whole stack of pillows. It is still hard to lift her and lay her down, stand up while holding her, put things in the bottom rack of the dishwasher, carry laundry up the stairs, etc, but it is doable. I really appreciate just being able to move around the house, get up in the night and go the bathroom, and not have to calculate in advance every trip from the couch to the kitchen. All the things our bodies do every day are amazing.

Lauren is growing like a weed, and seems bigger every day. At 3 months old she is already wearing 6 month outfits (I think there is something wrong with their sizing). Her bright eyes and big smile continue to delight us. She has started to laugh when tickled, and sometimes gets distracted from her complaining by the sound of her own voice. (I can see why parents of teenagers who are rebellious and rude feel betrayed – they are remembering the days when just smiling big and talking to their offspring made them squeal with delight and thinking, what happened?) She doesn't hold onto things well yet, but she likes to grab and pull – a blanket in her lap will keep her occupied for a while. Her hair is starting to come in lighter – not a blond but sort of a light brown. She still has a few locks of long dark hair, giving the effect of a combover :). She has also gotten into a bad habit of waking up at midnight and 3 am from time to time, but other times she's good till 6 am. I am also getting a taste of being a younger child – if I were the first one to have a baby, the way I was first at most things while growing up, this would all be big news, whereas it is probably old hat to most of you.

Jim is hanging in there through all of this. He hurt his arm when we were moving a few months ago, and it still doesn't seem to be getting better, so he went to the doctor and got a cortisone shot as well. We'll see if that does the trick. After the great results I had, I hope they send him to the physical therapist I went to. He is plotting to start building a picnic table this weekend – he is excited to put his table saw to work. He got our Moravian star hung in the front window earlier this week, and also bought a bunch of LED icicle lights that he is planning to put up along the front of the house. I am lobbying for some lights down the pillars, and maybe around the door and window, but that may be overkill. Also on the list is to clean out our chimney so that we can start making fires in our fireplace.

We had a gathering of Jim's family at our house for Thanksgiving – it was a good motivation to get the family room and kitchen downstairs into shape. Jim got the bookshelves he built for the condo installed, and we put several books of non-fiction in them. We set up three tables, used both kitchens, and had a total of 17 people in attendance. Fortunately everyone brought different elements of the dinner. Jim baked the rolls, and I made a green salad (with spinach instead of lettuce) and a pitcher of the Jarvis wedding punch. There was excellent turkey, pies galore, all the usual fixings. I realized that one advantage of having lots of people is that you can have lots of different kinds of food, while making one or two servings of all of those things would have been ridiculous.

During the Thanksgiving weekend Jim tore up the last of the dreadful carpet that was here when we moved in. It was so filthy I hated to walk on it, and was singing “ding dong, the carpet's gone, ding dong, the evil carpet's gone!” to the tune of “ding dong the witch is dead” as it went out the door. The guy from Home Depot came Tues and took measurements, and Thurs we went in to order the laminate floor for the dining room and kitchen. I guess it will be our Christmas gift to ourselves. Both the installation and flooring itself were on sale, so it was hard to pass up.

OK, now a few pictures. We are trying out the Picasa slide show. The first two were taken when Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Christa breezed by on their way down to Quartzsite to clean out Grandma's trailer. Next is the group we had at Thanksgiving, and the picture taken of us at said gathering. Then we have Lauren sleeping, Daddy reading her a book, and her sitting in the rocking chair. After that are two of Lauren in her Halloween costume – a cat outfit purchased by Jim's sister. We actually missed Halloween due to illness, so we decided we had better put her in the outfit and take a few pictures before she outgrew it. Last, a cute smile while in the car seat, and Mom feeding her a bottle.

If you want to see the pictures bigger, just click on the slide show.