Seaboard, Inc.

I suppose now is a safe enough time to finally post this announcement. I've been putting it off while final things are negotiated and the ink is drying. Well, the ink isn't quite dry, but it's pretty much a guarantee at this point. Just waiting on odds and ends. So I can post!

We haven't been very public with his info, but: James has been extremely stressed and unhappy at work due to recent changes they've made and things management has done. On the heels of dealing with almost no work for him to do (and thus losing large amounts of hours) for the majority of last year, a few changes in how things are run have just become constant daily sources of stress and frustration. We have been looking for other options, but those options take time.

Tuesday morning, though, James got a phone call from his previous employer: Seaboard Wellhead, Inc. He'd left them for Elco two years ago due to some issues (that I will not go into detail about), but over the past two years Seaboard has undergone a lot of changes and the people in charge now are people James feels very comfortable working for and his previous issues are no longer relevant. So, when they called offering him a 15% raise over what he's making now, he talked it over with me and we accepted that same day.

We're very excited. It's a work environment James is happy to be in again (especially with the changes that have been made). Plus, every 3 months, the day and night shift can swap, so it's possible that James'll have a day shift more often. He'll still do night shifts at least half the time, but the other half, he'll be home by 4 at the latest to spend the rest of the day with us.

Other bonuses include: Less work hours overall (his 15% pay raise means he doesn't have to work overtime anymore). So even when he works nights, he'll be able to wake up sooner and spend more time with us. Another bonus is lower insurance premiums, but comparable co-pays and deductibles.

And another thing that has us talking: The company is moving all their CNC machines over to Houston, Texas in the semi-near future. James and I are not 100% certain whether we'll move with them, but it seems to be a great opportunity that opens James up to some great positions within the company (plus, they'll pay our moving costs). The decision can wait awhile. From the sound of things, it'll be about 3 years before it's even an issue. James is continuing to pursue his degree so that we have all out options available to us when the time comes.

9 Month Stats

Megan had her 9-month check-up this morning. I thought we'd be waiting around forever, since it was fairly late in the morning, but surprisingly, we'd barely sat down before we were being called back. It was very weird being out and about with just Megan. It's not often I get to sit down and play with her without Cadence rushing to be a part of it.

So, I enjoyed those 5 minutes that we were in the exam room just waiting for the doctor. We played with the mirror, she gave me sloppy kisses, and attempted to climb into the sink to reach the mirror image of herself. The doctor, of course, walked in, as I was teasingly protesting some of her sloppy kisses and getting giggles and more kisses in response.

I really like her doctor. He does the majority of the physical exam while she's in my lap. The only time he had to take her from me was when he was checking her hip joints and took off her diaper to check other things out. He also started playing with her, head butting her to get a response and laughing when he'd stop just short of head butting her and she'd head butt him. Yes, her doctor's pretty awesome. Cadence's is too, but in a totally different way.

Oh, and Megan's doctor asked where Cadence was when he came in and saw it was just the two of us. I love that he remembers us!

Anyway, stats:

Height: 28" (just under 75th percentile line)
Weight: 16lb 4oz (just under the 5th percentile line)

For comparisons sake:

Megan's 6 month stats- 26.5" long, 14lb 12.5oz
Cadence's 9 month stats (9 1/2 months)- 27.5" long, 17lb 7oz

And now to go chase down Cadence. I told her it was time to change her diaper and she ran away... little turd.

Cady-isms

With a bunch of new words in her arsenal, I'm finally getting a few Cady-isms to share. Though most of her cute things only involve the occasional word (but I'll tell the stories anyway).

-This afternoon as I woke her up from her nap, she immediately noticed the television had been turned off. She's recently begun saying "Oh, man" when things aren't as she thinks they are supposed to be. Upon seeing the darkened TV she began: "Oh, man! Where's remote? Oh, man! Oh, man." (For the record, she knows the word "remote" because I constantly ask her to give it to me when she snatches it from wherever it is, lol. And the TV is not on all that often now that she's begun showing an interest in it.)

-She is crazy about coloring nowadays. We constantly have crayons and colored pencils being pulled down. Luckily, it means she's really easy to entertain during Sacrament meeting. In fact, I've taken her to a story time and Barnes & Noble three times. On the third time, as soon as they said "time to color", though she'd been distracted the entire time playing with other books and ignoring the storyteller, she instantly dropped everything and raced to kneel at the edge of the stage. She even waited (though she bounced impatiently) for the paper and the crayons to be handed out. Of course, if Megan goes near her coloring utensils, she shouts "Megan, no!" and moves them away. If this doesn't work, a meltdown shortly ensues, especially in the middle of Sacrament.

-Cadence tends to break into song randomly. Most days, it's a gibberish version of the ABC's, but she does put actual letters in there. At the very least, she gets A, B, & C usually in the right order...

-She hates the vacuum cleaner. As soon as she notices me picking up the living room floor while she's still awake, she knows whats coming and goes running. Today, as soon as I pulled the monster vacuum of mine out, she grabbed her blanket and ran into the hallway to watch. When I got too close for comfort, she hid in the bathroom. I paused to finish moving furniture out of the final corner and she came out asking "All done?" When I told her "not yet", she immediately retreated back to the bathroom and waited until I'd finished and told her "Okay, all done". At which point she ran out to play as if she'd never been upset in the first place.

-She's added "knees" and "hand" to her body part knowledge. The other night during bathtime I noticed a red spot on her backside and asked: "What's that on your butt?" She immediayely pointed to her bellybutton. I corrected her, saying "butt" and tapping her butt. She cracked up and began repeatedly patting her butt and saying "butt" over and over again.

-The other day we went over to Nana's to play with the hose, since our pool was closed and it was hot. At first she ran through the sprinklers, but then we handed her the hose and turned it on and off. Every time she put it down, Chad would turn it on. Then turn it off as soon as she picked it up. Being the brilliant child she is, she quickly decided that putting it down was what caused the water to turn on. So after awhile, every time we turned the water off, she'd immediately lay it down. If it didn't work the first time, she'd pick it up and put it down again. As soon as we turned it off, she'd immediately lay it back down and watch it expectantly and even appear confused if it didn't turn on as soon as she'd laid it down. She also mastered drinking from the hose and thought that was the coolest thing ever!


Megan's learning new things. She barely holds on to things when standing most of the time, but doesn't have the confidence to let go entirely and immediately panics and falls back on her butt if I try to trick her into doing it. She is a master at crawling now, and can crawl almost as fast as Cadence can walk (okay, not really, but it's pretty stinking fast!) She's still babbling like crazy and I swear she's sprouted up 2 inches over the past few weeks. Guess we'll find out at her appointment this week. Anyway, she's everywhere and into everything. She loves loves loves her Daddy, too. Every time she sees him, if it's been too long, she just lights up and wants to be near him. If she's with me when we wake him up in the mornings, she'll lunge towards him and lay against him and grin up at him. If she's playing by herself and sees him, she'll get the biggest grin and crawl to him as fast as she can and beg at his knee to be picked up. She's still got a mommy preference, since I'm the one home with her all day, but she loves her Daddy alright!

Random Pictures

Playing together. Cadence is actually laughing, not screaming, lol:

We played with stickers today. You might notice a bit of swelling on her lower lip. She cut it up pretty good when she slammed her chin into the table Sunday night. She did a pretty good job. Good enough that we took her to urgent care just in case:

I just loved the look on her face, lol. I think I have a picture of Cadence with this exact same look at this age:

Oh my goodness. How old/big does she look in this picture?:

Megan just looking 200% adorable. She's crawling everywhere, getting into everything:

The pantry is no longer off of limits, and Cadence is frequently asking for a cookie, ever since Daddy taught her that word. Luckily they're out of reach on the top shelf:

Astounded

I knew that toddlers learn a lot quickly. I'd taken child psychology classes, I'd been quizzed on their development. I even did a report on the toddler years. I worked in a daycare for a year and a half. I knew they learned a lot.

But actually experiencing it, day in, day out, as a mother has be completely astounded. Cadence surprises me daily with all the things I didn't know she knows.

Today, we were playing in their room and I noticed Megan needed a diaper change. Off-handedly, I asked Cadence to go get me the wipes, fully expecting to get up myself in the next minute to go get them. To my surprise, Cadence ran out of the room, into the living room, and returned with the pack of wipes.

Later, I got her to start naming her body parts. Normally we stick with the tried and true: eyes, nose, mouth, ear. But randomly she held up her foot by her toes and announced "toes!". She also pointed to her hair. And when I asked "toes" again she grabbed her toes, when I asked "foot" she moved her hand lower towards her ankle and held that up for me. Then, she pointed to her nose, said "ear" and busted up laughing. There's that sense of humor the developmental timeline was warning me about.

I love that out of nowhere she began folding her arms for prayer and saying "Amen". Her deciding the closing prayer of Sacrament was too long still amuses me.

We're finally learning boundaries when it comes to coloring. It helps that we keep crayons out of her reach and make sure she has paper on hand when we do give her the crayons. She still tries to get away with coloring on the coffee table. But just my looking at her has her quickly go back to the paper.