Hsieh Family Update

Things have been pretty quiet on the homefront. No special field trips. No milestones conquered. The new camera has collected some dust on the end table. But the wheels are still turning and there are a few happenings to report. I guess we'll start with the youngest.

Ian must have read a recent blog post about doing no wrong and decided to test the theory with some early morning wake up calls and new levels of clinginess. There were a few days last week when we weren't on speaking terms. I've decided to stop being passive aggressive and try direct confrontation and sarcasm. Neither has been effective. On a positive note, he seems to have perfected his grunt. He can now use his skill to get one of us to read him a book, get him a bottle, or take him to the window so he can point at the squirrels that rummage through our yard.

Ava is obsessing over numbers so I made her a number line across the dining room and it seems to be her new favorite thing. She can now count to 100, with the exception of 23 (because 22 sounds like tutu and it always throws her off). Her favorite game is to have me cover a number with paper and have her guess what it is. It's fun until the 20th time when I have to make suggestions of other things to do. We also suspect that she has her first crush. His name is Asher and he's the pastor's son. What can I say? She aims high. She says he would make a very good prince one day. I like her thinking.

Besides the daily challenges of counting to 100 and navigating the fragile emotional waters of a one year old, I've also just discovered that I have athlete's foot. Apparently I've been spending too much time rubbing my feet around the locker room after football practice. I mean could our family have any more embarrassing ailments this year? And to make things worse I had an allergic reaction to the anti-itch medicine and my face has puffed up like a balloon and turned bright red. An allergic reaction to allergy medicine? I honestly thought the doctor was going to laugh when I was talking to her today. I'm pretty sure I need a vacation.

Ben is currently in the first stage of grief over not being able to get a satellite dish installed on our house. After eight years of marriage I finally agreed to let him get cable, and the trees around our house are too tall to get a signal. I am trying to pretend to be sympathetic. Luckily my face is too swollen to smile so I think it might be working.