First and foremost, everyone is healthy and happy. Kole is tall enough to turn lights on and off. That's a head trip. Talk about a senior moment, one day I stood spinning like a top, hands on hips and eyebrows furled, trying to figure out how a hall light kept coming on that I had turned off. Karissa silently gets into mischief when she gets into any room so we try to keep all the doors closed. Kole comes and goes as he pleases and never remembers to shut a door. So, in the evening, I try to restrict activity around the front of the house where their bedrooms are by keeping the hallway lights off. And one day, magically, it kept coming on moments after I had turned it off. I finally stepped into the kitchen and listened closely to anything and finally saw and heard the light switch on. Yes, it was Kole. But, it wasn't with the aid of something to boost him up a step, quickly propped and disassembled in the flash of an eye. He just stood on his tip-toes flicking the switch either way.
It's a moment that quickly freezes in time, where physical, literal signs of our little boy growing up just randomly drop in. It is an ice cold can of beer on the back of your thigh - shocking you into into a dance and realizing that while life seemingly just sat in neutral and coasted along, our boy was growing and becoming wiser.
Karissa's walk has become a rapid trot. She is cutting molars, and all the discomfort that comes along with teething has been the theme of the
past few months. Her babble is more babblish, but she still doesn't have an official first word - clearly identifying something with a word, be it Mommy, Daddy, cracker or milk. She is a great eater, but is slow as the Great Northern Glacier. She carefully chews and is easily distracted by the TV or her brother. She has figured out that if she presses down the spout of her sippy cup onto her little table it will create a small pool of milk that she can then splash and spread around. She is interested by books and TV - things draw and 
hold her attention more quickly than they did Kole. Like her brother, she's not a frequent cuddler. She'd rather squirm away and do her own thing than be held and loved by her mom or dad, but just often enough she will not only allow it but enjoy it.Kathy has been challenged with motherhood duty of a 1-year-old and a potty-training 3-year-old. It depends on how you slice it up, I know, but I can't imagine that it gets any tougher than this year. She's been phenomenal. You wouldn't know that if you were conferenced into my calls home after 5:00 when I head home and she's on the verge of tears from either Kole being a brat or deciding that he's forgotten where the potty is and deciding to crap his big-boy underwear (or on the floor). She has decided recently that she will go back to work part-time in January, working at her old job. That will get her out of the house, around adults, put some cash in the bank, and hopefully allow everyone to see some new faces and refresh.
This has been a strange year for Dad. Very thankful for a great job that provides a great creative outlet and an environment around cool people. This has been a great year for sponsors, which I'm thankful for. Being in cable television, success of my shows are shown with sponsors, not ratings. SportClips Haircuts, On The Border, Woodmen Of The World and Texas Pete hot sauce have all stepped up to the plate, earning my Big 12 Showcase program a nice paycheck, which reflects well on the producer.
2011 has been a real up-and-down year, to say the least. I'll write more about this at the end of the year, but as it is I'm 60 pounds lighter than I was on July 1. I survived Thanksgiving - enjoying myself, splurging on pies and all, but still maintain a new mindset and eating structure.
I'm thankful my family is healthy, our faith is strong, and we still have a good roof over our heads.
No comments:
Post a Comment