This morning, I got a call from Julie, our family specialist. She wasn't at the last two foster-adoption training sessions, because she was sick. She has been with the agency 1 month, coming from hospice care. She is therefore going to be sitting in on the training with us. She asked me where we were with our paperwork. I said that it has been completed. She seemed surprised but added that she heard we were a good family.
Jeff heard from his boss today re: the company. Jeff had spent yesterday terminating the computer accounts for employees who had been laid off. Received an email from his boss saying that they needed to talk one-on-one yesterday and the boss would be calling him. No call came. So one can imagine how just how fun last night was. Not that we really thought Jeff was going to be laid off, but given how crappy the economy is, it was in the realm of possibilities, although fairly slim. The long and the short of it is that Jeff will be taking a notable pay cut like everyone else remaining in the company (including administrators). Hard times, hard measures. It sounds like the company is trying hard to be sensitive to the needs of their employees, while also keeping the company is decent shape.
Patti, who cleans our house once a week, arrived this morning. Henry called out her name and said "Mic!" Patti knew that "Mic" means music, so she pulled out her small hand-held radio for Henry to play with and dance.
In the afternoon, Henry read some books with Dada. We are pleased to see that he is again interested in books. He was completely obsessed with "pics" over the holidays that book reading truly got the short end of the stick. Turns out that may have been my fault. We originally had kept his books along the step in front of the fireplace. When the holiday season came, I moved the books to his water table (absent water of course). Now that they are back in front of the fire place, they are suddenly very interesting. He had Jeff read him several. After my afternoon conference call, I read three to him.
Then, we went for our late afternoon walk. We went across the street to see Dakota and Outlaw, Nick and Janice's horses. Dakota and Outlaw always watch us as we take our walks. Outlaw was waiting for us at the edge of his corral. He let Henry and me pet his nose. When we walked a few feet to the side to say hello to Dakota, Outlaw sidled Dakota out of the way. Henry was pleased to touch Outlaw's nose. He wanted down of course, which just wasn't going to happen. It's only the second time that I've pet Outlaw, and I was pleased that he was so open and willing to have us touch him. I did let him sniff me a bit before I stroked his cheek. Although we've been neighbors for three years, they only know us by sight. Better to be cautious.
We walked up our road, crossed the wash (Henry let me hold his hand going up and down the hills in the wash), and then down the road toward the end. When we got to the driveway of the last property, Brandi came out to say hello. She is an incredibly sweet dog but has always been a bit hesitant (a good trait in a dog that spends as much time off leash outdoors as she does). Jeff informed me a few days ago that Henry could say her name. He talked about her and Luke the other day in the car. Henry was ecstatic to see Brandi. Brandi was a bit confused and scared of him. He chased her around a bit. She'd run but not very far. Eventually, she and Roger played as they like to do. This set Henry off in a fit of excited giggles. He tried to get in on the fun, but Jeff and I tried to monitor it because we didn't want him to get inadvertently trampled. Roger's backside has a mind of its own and had already knocked Henry down once on the walk. It was probably the most that we've ever seen Henry laugh. I mean, he is a really happy kid. But he was just laughing out loud and laughing and running and laughing. Of course, we didn't have the camera. We're definitely bringing it with us tomorrow.
As I was changing Henry, I noticed a couple of spots on his stomach and one on his face. I'm wondering if this is a rash from the measles shot. Rashes occur for every 1 in 20 who get the MMR. I couldn't find any similar statistics for the measles only shot. But normally for those who get the rash with the MMR, it doesn't appears until 5-12 days after the shot. Anyway, we'll keep a close eye on it.
We decided to go out to dinner and have a "at least you weren't laid off" celebration. We decided to go to the Thai-Chinese place that we went on New Year's Eve. It is new, so it isn't very busy. We haven't been impressed with our Chinese options in Tucson, but we really like this place. Keeping our fingers-crossed that it can make it in this crappy economy. To my surprise, Henry tried and really liked my Hot & Sour soup (vegetarian!). I would have thought the sour taste to be off-putting, but not to my son! He wasn't willing to try Daddy's wonton soup though. His kids meal consisted of fried rice, an egg roll, sweet and sour chicken, and French fries. The French fries were a hit. He had about two or three bites of chicken w/o sauce. He tried the sauce but didn't like it. He had a couple bites of rice. Didn't get around to the egg roll. He has been going through a phase that when he drinks from a cup, he really wants to share his cup with me. If Jeff shares a glass of water with him, Henry will insist that they give Mommy some, even if I already have a glass of my own. It's cute.
He said "Vove, Daddy" at dinner. That's Love, Daddy. When I have tried to get him to say "I Love Daddy" before, he'd say "I ____ Daddy." He'd pause when one would normally say "love" but he doesn't have the L sound down yet so he'd skip it.
We went to Basha's (nearby grocery store). It was an excellent time to go, during off hours, given that we don't take him into crowds. He had fun running up and down the aisles. Definitely kept us on our toes.
We came home. Henry had a bath. He did a new thing in the tub where he would get in a prone position, stretch out his legs, belly down, and straighen his arms to keep his head out of the water. He tried to put his face in the water several times. He doesn't have the "hold your breath" thing down so a little bit of water went up his nose (not much, but enough to give him something to think about). As usual, he was an excellent splasher.
After he got dried off, he wanted to look at "pics" and "mic." It was "Lime in the Coconut" night, although we also listened to the theme from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." During the Coconut song (Muppet's version), Henry shouted out "Doctor!" during the appropriate time in the song. At one point, I let him create his own blog entry. It's the one before this one (in case you hadn't guessed). I showed him an entry from June 12, 2008 where he is riding in a seat on Jeff's bike. Henry calls out "Bike!" Where the heck did he learn that? Jeff and I are puzzled. We can count the number of times that we've taken him riding on the bike. None of those times are recent. We don't recall using the word "bike," so how he knows what a bike is, with no prompting, is a bit of a mystery.
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