November 25-December 2

On Sunday, Bryan decided to get rid of his beard.  Of course, he had to play with it while he shaved it off.  Olivia spent all of twenty seconds being concerned about the guy who sounded just like Daddy but didn't look like him before she decided it was safe to give him a hug.  ...Or at least safe to let him give her a hug while she stood there smiling at him.

"Spot of tea, anyone?"  (Bryan demanded this edit while lamenting his lack of monocle.)

Olivia is beginning to try to put shapes back into her shapes ball (instead of haphazardly scattering said shapes about the house).  She's pretty good at circle, octagon, and pentagon so far.  Less round shapes are more difficult since the corners get stuck, and there's just no hope for the scalene triangle.  ...I should note that she doesn't find the holes herself yet.  She can put shapes in if I rotate the ball to the correct hole and (for the harder shapes) orient the hole to match the way she's holding her shape.

I have an actual helper when cooking now.  I used to have a helper who would hold onto my legs and taste my batter, but did nothing else.  Now, though, Olivia will carry ingredients for me and has mastered turning a full measuring cup (or spoon) over to put ingredients into the batter.  Her aim isn't great yet, so I have to make sure I hand her the cup well over the center of the bowl.  Also, if I don't get out of the way quickly enough, I end up with a full cup of flour on my sleeve.  :)

A week or so ago, Olivia jumped.  By herself.  Without falling over.  Exactly once.  She was mad at me, and did it without even realizing that something had happened.  I noticed, though, and was impressed at her exasperation-inspired balance.

Bryan's days off used to roll over from year to year, but this year that changed.  He has to use all his days off by the end of December or else they expire into thin air.  This would not be a problem, except that he gave some of his days off to me and I've been hoarding them.  In mid-October, his boss mentioned to the department that they'd really like to have the rest of the days off for the year scheduled, so that they could plan big projects around who would be gone when.  I began looking for opportunities to use my days off, and even had one scheduled for Halloween before it got hijacked.  Then Bryan's department was reorganizing, so he needed to be there every day for the first three weeks of November while the transition took place.  Then Thanksgiving happened, and he already had a couple days off that week.  And Bryan had also already taken off the last week of December for Christmas vacation.  So there I was looking at my calendar, trying to find 3.5 days off that didn't conflict with Bryan's work schedule, Olivia's doctor appointments, my doctor appointments, or previously scheduled vacation days.  Since I like my days off spread out and spaced over several days, I decided to take mostly half days off, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December.  The upshot of all of this?  Bryan didn't/doesn't have to work a full week from November 18 through the end of the year.

I recently rediscovered Demetri Martin's Jokes With a Guitar, which led me to remember Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant.  Go ahead and watch (or rewatch) those two links; the blog will still be here when you finish.  :)

Okay, now that you're back...  I noticed one common thing about the above links:  Both comedians are playing the guitar.  This caused me to hypothesize...  Maybe I prefer comedy that has a guitar element?  Bryan decided to test this theory by having me listen to another comedian who plays guitar.  I can't remember his name, and his stuff wasn't really my thing, but I have to admit that it WAS better than it would have been if it had been presented without the guitar.  So my very scientific conclusion is as follows: All jokes are funnier when set to guitar.

More Pictures:

These reminded me of a homework assignment Danielle once gave me:

I tried to get a picture of her holding the balloon, but as soon as she saw the camera, she tossed the balloon behind her:

Writing a letter while sitting on the box Bryan made (haha, it's like "The House that Jack Built"):

I finally got some pigtails in long enough to take a picture:

Four months pregnant.  Go here to compare with my first pregnancy: