Happy Holidays

Well, we certainly had a lot of fun over the holidays. We spent Saturday at Paula's for some gift opening and to see the family from Roseburg. Some of the awesome presents were a Marble set from Great Grandpa George for Odin, a plastic stool (which is easier for Odin to move in the bathroom) from Grandma Paula, some great Little People toys, and tons of clothes. Freya also got a lot of clothes, as well as a cute dog to chase after when she starts crawling and some Bum Genius cloth diaper stuff. Also, she got Warmies, which are cloths wipes made from Bamboo (these things are the softest cloth I've every felt) and they stay in a container which keeps them warm and moist so they feel better for her.

Sunday we went up to Portland to see Nana and Grandpa Mark, and then off to hang out with Zaideh and his mom, Great Grandma Janet. More toys and clothes, including some stuff for Odin to use with his train tracks, and one of the coolest things Odin and Freya got was from Great-Grandma; a needle-point picture with their names stiched in. It's haning in their room right now.

We took Monday off and kept Odin home from school to have a recuperation day as a family. (Which mean crusing the mall all day having fun!)

Doctor Visit

We took Freya to her 2-month check-up last Friday to discover that we were right in thinking she was getting heavy. She had a 15.5 inch head (52nd percentile), 22 inches tall (25%), and 13 lbs 4.7 oz (90%). The doctor was really impressed at how well she was doing, and we gave her some immunizations. The funny thing is that Freya was more upset about how cold the alcohol swab was than the shots themselves.

Happy fun times

Freya's been smiling and talking so much lately! Alyssa and I were just talking about how nice it'll be to experience a bunch of firsts all over again, like the first tooth, first steps, first solid food, etc. She's really getting good at holding up her head and moving around, I think we're gonna get rolling soon and creeping after that.

Today we took our family to the mall to get Odin and Freya some gifts with some holiday money we received. Scored tons of cool stuff, and Odin asked to sit with Santa. We got a super cute photo of Odin sitting with him:

From Oct - Dec '09

Alyssa and I are focusing on trying to get ourselves to focus on studying for the upcoming term, yes, we need to study over vacation, but oh well.

Dentist!

Odin had his first dentist appointment today! (I know it took forever, we had insurance issues.) They told him about flossing, and looked at his teeth to discover they are all perfect! We were told to keep up the good work and he went home with a new toothbrush! I added 3 pictures of him sitting in the chair with Alyssa to the Oct - Dec '09 album.

About half an hour ago I shot this video of Freya smiling at her Jungle Bouncer:

From Oct - Dec '09

Putters

Today we took Odin, Freya, and Zaideh to Putters for pizza and mini-golf. It was tons of fun, though Odin's attention span barely made it past the front 9. Odin played a lot in the indoor slide area and we all ate pizza together. It was tons of fun. I've put the pictures, as well as a few random shots of Odin and Freya together, in the Oct - Dec '09 album.

Free at last!

All the finals are done, the end-term projects, the tests, everything. We're on vacation.

It's been an interesting term; having a baby, helping Dad with his heart surgery/recovery, dealing with school, etc., etc..... Somehow we made it through, and even passed our classes at that. Imagine.

Freya's been smiling quite a bit lately. No laughs yet, but we're working on it. Odin comes home singing a new song almost every day. He's having a great time at school. Today he came home and was singing We Will Rock You by Queen pretty well, which is an interesting coincidence because I was practicing the solo at the end of that song a few weeks ago, so maybe we can play/sing it together now that I'll have time to practice.

Alyssa's been talking about how relieved she is that she can spend some quality time with Freya now that the term is over. Actually, we've both talked about that. It's really nice being able to pay attention to our kids for once, led. than knowing in the back of our heads that there's still homework to get to. We said we wanted to plan next term better so we wouldn't have to bring work home with us.

Speaking of next term, we've already picked our classes, kind-of. Alyssa is in more of the same really; lots of music classes. She's working on a piece to be performed live (by her and one other instrumentalist) in the FMO concert next term. Should be interesting. Unfortunately her Gamelan class ended up being canceled.

Next term I'll be in Ancient Greek 102, Victory Art of Greece and Rome, and Intensive first-year Italian. Right now that last one is up-in-the-air if I can resolve an issue with a blocked History course I need for my major.

It's just so nice being able to hang out at home and do things we want to do without worrying about what we have to do.

That's all for now. I'll write more soon, now that I have time to!

Going well

This morning Freya had a fever so we took her to the doctor. They swabbed her nose 3 times testing for different things but didn't find anything and the last test takes a day to do so they sent us home (back to school) with the instructions "just watch her closely." She's quite fine now so I'm sure it was nothing serious.

Odin had been having some trouble being picked up from school a few weeks ago but the teachers worked with us and now he's doing a great job.

Tomorrow will be the last day of class for Alyssa and I this term. We'll have the weekend and part of next week to study and then take our final exams. I have already passed (just barely!) the astronomy class I was taking so I can focus on my other classes. Next term Alyssa is in more music classes and voice lessons, but also a Gamelan Ensemble. She'll learn how to play, and the teacher might select her to compose for Gamelan with half of the class. I'll be in more Ancient Greek, an Intensive first-year Italian course, and Victory Art of Greece and Rome. Very excited.

Anyway, that's all for now. Back to studying.