Babbling, going pottie and working

So it's mid-January and here's the update:

Gavin is as cute, chunky and happy as ever. Perhaps more so. We think he weighs between 21 and 22 pounds now. Though his teeth haven't come, they've at least eased up a bit. A while back he learned how to stick his tongue between hips lips and blow, which he loves to do. I call it watering the crops, as it shoots saliva everywhere. He enjoys it, or at least does it frequently. He also babbles, "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da..." all the time. I tell Amy that he actually knows what he's saying and "Dada" is his first word, but she's in denial. He hasn't crawled yet, but looks to be getting ready. He'll launch himself forward from a sitting position onto his stomach to get things. We can't sit him on the couch anymore--he'll go right over.

Amy has been careful to keep Gavin nursing (Sahara weaned herself at 6-7 months old). This is a good thing, but it means he still doesn't sleep through the night. Some nights are better than others. Gavin--or Gavi as we like to call him--likes to sleep in between mommy and daddy. We're not fans, but it's easy to feed him laying down then just leave him. He's a big boy though and takes up a good chunk of prime real estate in the middle of the bed.

Sahara is two and a half and going on eleven. She likes to play with older kids and is a barbie/princess devotee. Amy got her the Barbie and the Diamond Castle soundtrack and we've listened to it so many times that I've got every song memorized. That's right, I know the words to every song in Barbie and the Diamond Castle. Thank you Sahara. Of course, Sahara wants me to dance with her every time the music plays. OK, but her idea of dancing is holding my hands while I spin her around and around me. After a few minutes of the room whirling around and Barbie music playing I'm righteously nauseous and have to sit down.

Sahara is also in the middle of potty training. Amy had dabbled in it before, but now it's on. Sahara is to the point where she usually does fine at home, but other than that...not so much. We were at Grandpa Hansen's office this week and she kept saying she needed to go potty every five minutes. Amy would rush her down the hall to the restrooms only to come up empty. Then, when Amy took Gavin into another room to feed him, Sahara walked over to me and announced, "I made a poopie in my panties." Terrific, I thought as I prepared to take her down the hall and change her. Then she looked me in the eye and whispered, "I'm peeing." "Noooo!" I roared and grabbed picked her up like a football to rush her to the restroom. But as I scooped her up, I could see the wet sprinkles already on her little pink boots. In the mens room, I extracted her from her boots, which were filled with pee, then began the thankless process of changing and redressing. Luckily, Amy jumped in about half way through the process.

Sahara still sleeps all the way through the night, but she's taken a turn for the worse when it comes to actually going to sleep. Instead of laying down and going to sleep, she'll stay up for hours until sheer exhaustion overtakes her. We watch her from the video monitor and intervene when necessary, but no combination of action/inaction on our part seems to matter. She's almost old enough to go without a nap during the day..but not quite. So she'll fall asleep in the car at 5:30pm and be up until nearly midnight, despite the fact that we put her in bed by 9:00pm.

Sahara is really enjoying her toddler group and nursery at church. We've been shopping preschools for next Fall. You've got to register early around here, as they fill up fast. We have our eye on a coop preschool that looks like the right combination of fun and structure. We visited it Saturday morning during an open house and Sahara seemed to really like it. Towards the end of our visit Gavin blew out his diaper all the way up to his shoulder blades, so we had to leave like we just robbed a bank.

The final update is that I've got a new job. Following layoffs and three and a half frustrating months of searching for work during a grim recession, I got an excellent offer from a company that does web-based project and portfolio management software, which is exactly what I'd been working on at my old company, Daptiv. I'm now a product manager at this new PPM company, and very happy and grateful to be there. As a bonus, I now work in the same building as Nate Ricks, a high school friend of mine from Pocatello, ID. Nate, who I met while working as a wilderness survival instructor at scout camp, manages an investment company a few floors below my new company in downtown Bellevue, WA.