Our Family's New Focus

Greetings, from our busy family to yours! A few photos by way of a quick update...

We're trying to get Simon out to enjoy the not-yet-winter weather, when we can. Although he often insists on the park or taking a walk, when we can convince him the backyard is a worthwhile destination, he has a great time out there. Mom and Simon typically end up drawing with chalk (Mom drawing "more OOO's!" on command); whereas Dad and Simon typically end up shooting baskets until Dad's arms get tired.

slam dunk!

Simon is quite busy during the week at child care, but that doesn't mean he has run out of ways to exhaust us in the evening hours we spend with him. We're a little too exhausted to deal with the potential mess of real paint at this point, but we did get these great paint cups and paint brushes for him to use at some point--for now he is thrilled to "paint" with water!

Simon still loves his binky, puppy, taggie, and nursing before bed and first thing in the morning. We're thinking of weaning him from the last and first at some point in the not-too-distant future, but with all the recent stresses in our lives, not at the moment. He was very proud of himself the other day for figuring out how to fit two binkies in his mouth at one time!

A few weeks ago we unfortunately had to say goodbye to our Taurus. It was a bit sad--our first car as a couple, and it served us well for five years. But it came back from mechanic with a list of problems and estimated price for fixing them that just made it clear it was time to upgrade. We have since welcomed this 2006 Ford Focus* into our family--four door with a hatchback, for those occasional times we seem to find when we need to move something big. So far it works great, and Jess is glad to have a reliable car for her twice-weekly commute!

(*Now go back and read the title...haha...I'm so clever. I bet you thought we had some great ideological shift over here...)