We are still here

Hi everyone.

We are still here.

Jon, Nicholas and I have all been sick. Nicholas has been waking up at night because of his cough - and has been unable to take naps because his coughing wakes him up. This makes Jon and I very tired. So then we easily catch colds from Nicholas - which is what has happened.

But eventually they will go away! It is how long eventually takes that will relaly kill us.

We are piano sitting at our house. I am very excited and I play every day. Nicholas is also very excited and plays every day. And every night. And every morning. In fact, we have to keep the piano closed and keep him away from it so that he doesn't wake neighbors up at 6am with piano playing.

He is also learning to dance. It is very cute. He stands up and if he hears music he starts wiggling. Sometimes he just wiggles his butt, and sometimes he wiggles all over. But he likes to dance. Even better than him dancing is someone dancing for him. Expecially if that someone is mommy singing "head shoulders knees and toes." Over and over again - with the motions. The Hokey Pokey is also a favorite of his.

Nothing new going on at the Wunderlich household. Just getting ready for the transition for me to be a work-from-home writer. Which starts Monday! Yippee!!!!

We pray for everyone daily - and hope everything is going well.

The Going's -On of the Wunderlichs.

It has been a while since we last updated everyone on what is going on. So here's what is going on:

We are piano sitting for a family. So we now have a piano that I get to practice everyday on. Jon and Steve moved it into the house last night. I think they did their weights for the week lifting it. Nicholas spent this morning examining it and pressing the pedals. He's fascinated with pianos. If you sit him on your lap, he will actually play - nothing recognizable - but he will play.

I am loving being choir director at church. We get to do such fun stuff and I get to choose it all! I love it.

I am going to take a leave of absence from work starting March 1. I am going to be working as a writer from home. I have to make revisions to a book, edit some other things, and write for various employers who pay me to do it. I am looking forward to being able to spend the time writing in jeans. No more suits! It will be great.

Jon is doing well. He plays basketball on Thursdays. Which is great for him. Unless Nicholas hasn't gone to bed yet. Then it isn't so great. Nicholas loves his father, and will only go to sleep at night for his father. This makes it troublesome when Jon has an early game and needs to go before Nicholas goes to sleep. Eventually we will figure it out.

If you need any drawers or shelves cleaned off, let me know. Nicholas does a great job!

My debut as Ward Choir Director

For those of you who don't know, I now have an additional job at church - I am the Ward Music Chairman and Choir Director. Yesterday my choir debuted in church. They were so awesome! Everyone sang loudly and followed me. It was a wonderful experience. We sang Press Forward Saints - form the Hymnplicity book. I love Hymnplicity. They are wonderful. It is normal hymns, but in different settings.

So now I feel better about being choir director. People are still looking to the old director (Walter is now the official accompanist - which I was glad to give up) for some answers. But that is fine. We get along great.

So now onto bigger and better things with the choir right?! I just cannot get too ambitious.

We Have A WAlker!

Today marks an important day in Nicholas history - he took his first steps!!!!!

He was standing by his lovely Fisher Price Karaoke maching (well the mirror sing-a-long thing) and he let go, took two steps, and sat down - then smiled at me. He was so cute!

We have a walker.

Like there wasn't enough destruction occuring anyways.

Hives, Hives and More Hives.

I don't know about you guys, but I think all doctors should be required to break out in serious hives that cannot be cured so that they know what their patients are feeling when they come in and say they ITCH!

In case you haven't heard, I have been the user of my health insurance lately. I got hives. A really bad case. All over. I had to leave work and go to the emergency room because they were breaking out on my eyelids (?!) and in my mouth (which is just scary, not weird). Then I had an ER doctor not even look at them, basically dismiss me as a hysterical young woman, and give me Benedryl (which does nothing) and steroids (which helped). I ended up calling my own doctor from the ER (I called Kaiser from Kaiser) and she gave me better drugs to make the itching go away. When I saw her the next day, she gave me even better ones. Thank goodness for doctors who understand what it is like to have hives under the skin on the soles of your feet - you cannot even scratch them! I love my doctor.

And I love my husband. He has been great through all of this. He has totally sacrificed all his spare time (and more) and kept track of Nicholas the Destroyer.

Speaking of The Destoryer (as he will now be known), someone has learned (today) to open the drawer under the oven and pull out all of the cooking pans - one by one. Then he has to play with each one. He chases them around the kitchen giggling madly. And if you even try to close the drawer (even though there is nothing in it) he stops what he is doing and goes back and opens the drawer. It is really funny. It is also very loud.

I beg you, if you are going to invite us over, put anything that you want to keep in one piece above table level. He's very tall, and has learned how to use his reach. And he knows he can grab things - like blocks - to extend his reach.

Speaking of blocks, my poor and overworked husband got clocked by our son. The Destroyer had a block in his hand and totally clocked Jon on the lip. I was laughing - out of sympathy. I have had it happen any number of times for me. Thank goodness for shatterproof glasses. And hard teeth.

Anyways, we are all now fine. The Destroyer is going to bed now (hopefully) and The Husband is putting him to bed.

Our New Favorite Game

For those of you who don't know - Jon and I are avid board game players (although since we got that Wii, we play that a lot too). We are also super competitive. We got about 6 new games for Christmas that vary in their complexity.

Our newest favorite is Ticket To Ride Maarklen (Germany version). It is great. It is less complicated than Settlers, but requires strategy and things anyways. And it can be played with two players. The company that makes Ticket to Ride also makes lots of other Ticket to Ride versions, and all of them are suppsoed to be great. So if you are looking for a new game, this is the one I would get.

Jon beat me in our first game, but part of that is because he knows where all the cities in Germany are......it really helps to know the geography of the place you are playing.

So I am going to try and win tonight.

Playing Tag With Nicholas

Nicholas has learned to play tag!



It is very fun. Except he doesn't know the difference between "tag" and "hit." So sometimes you get hit HARD (you would be amazed at his strength - he has broken 2 necklaces so far, now I don't wear them when he's around). And sometimes you just get tapped.



The way it works is that he crawls over to you, and sits next to you (facing you) and gives you this little sly smile. Then he "tags" you with both hands and says "grebsjhkly" (or something like that really loud). Then he sits there until you tag him back and say "Nicholas is it, tag." Then the cycle repeats.



Amazingly enough, this keeps his attention for about 10 minutes - which is the longest something can keep his attention if it is not edible.



So we are playing lots of Nicholas tag at our house. He laughs and giggles, which is the most rewarding sound out of my baby ever (except his coo as he cuddles into you for a nap - that's pretty much unbeatable).



He's getting ready to walk any day now. He's standing on his own - but only if you pretend not to pay attention to him. He can cruise around the house using furniture, chairs, walls, blinds, cabinet doors and bags as his hand rail. So hopefully we will have a little walker soon. He's getting too heavy to carry!