Nostalgia

Travis and I went on a date this weekend, so our conversation turned very nostalgic.  It's pretty easy to do so, considering when we get a chance to talk to each other, the first thing that comes to mind is how long it's been since we've done that!  or since I've had time to participate in a conversation without interruptions.  It was fun - we left the kids with my brother and (very pregnant) sister-in-law, and we went downtown!  We went a little crazy and ordered a bottle of wine and some classy stuff on the menu, then came back home because we decided that what we'd like to do most of all is hear about my brother's trip to India that he just got back from.  I kinda felt like a couple of high school kids who were out pretending to be grown-ups. Except, we were remembering all kinds of things - trips we took, good times with friends, all that fun stuff.  It was kind of fun to think that I used to be so interesting. :)  The girls had fun with their babysitters, who had fun practice parenting, and we had fun being OUT.  Win, win, win!

I also have been a bit nostalgic because I just had some DVD's burned of my old VHS tapes that were most precious to me: my senior recitals (high school and college), a couple of basketball games, and our wedding.  I watched a few things with Emily, and while she kind of enjoyed the basketball game, and seeing if the girl with the ball was Mom, she most enjoyed the wedding ceremony because there were lots of people she knew in it.  It was amazing to see how my grandparents have aged in 6 years, although I suppose passing the threshold of 90 will do that to ya.  It was also fun to see how many people have had kids since then.  We all looked so young and vivacious without our little monsters sucking the life out of us!  The other interesting thing for me was the perspective I have gained in the 6 - 12 years since these events.  Some things that I was really proud of at the time (my piano portion of my senior recital, for example) were not as impressive as other things (the trumpet solos I played - holey cow I had some breath control!)  I had totally taken some things for granted and been focused on other things instead.  Overall, though, I am very glad that I have documented what I used to be able to do, so that now while I'm focused on figuring out how to raise lovely little people, I can remember that it's okay if I feel unqualified to do so.  My training is in playing musical instruments and shooting 3-pointers, not potty training children, obviously!

Audrey took a few more steps tonight, and actually started to get excited about it.  I think she'll really only work on it if she's got me to fall onto, because she's kind of just moving her legs like crazy and then she's just amazed at what happens.  She is SO TALL, though!  I forget, because she's always cruising around with her little bottom wiggling back and forth (adorable!), but when she stands up, her legs are really long!  She'll definitely be a bit of trouble here soon. She doesn't have much for words, but she sure gets her point across.  She uses the word "Mama" for just about everything, which is so far pretty pleasant, or she "Oooo's" or sings and points.  Once she starts howling, I'll push her into her vocabulary more, but for now I'm just enjoying the few babyish things left about her!!

Emily has started counting with enthusiasm.  She's always been good at reciting the number sequence, but I think they've been doing a lot of counting at preschool and now she's getting the idea of assigning one number to each object until they've all been passed over.  She can count to 6 or 7 pretty reliably, but higher than that she just rattles off numbers and stops at 14 or so.  It's pretty fun!  She's also starting to hear more different letters in words, as in, there are "B's" in Hobby Lobby and there's an M and an L in her name, in addition to E.  It's pretty fun, letting her discover it on her own, rather than actively teaching it to her.  It's amazing what there is to learn in the world if your only task is to discover what's there.

Speaking of learning, Travis has been spending many evenings downstairs in his cave doing a Spanish-language program that he found online.  He started with a couple of CD's from the library, which he burned onto our ipod, but they were pretty basic and he decided he's really going to learn it, and be fluent.  So, he's spending about an hour on it, nearly every night.  I'm not really that surprised that he's this dedicated to it, because that's totally his character to have a project that he's obsessed with for a while, but it's still impressive.  For a while, he was "trying things out" on me, and it's tremendously annoying since 99% of my communication with him is in-the-moment, need an answer now without thinking kind of stuff.  It's annoying, to put it nicely, if he replies in his bizarro beginner Spanish.  He's gotten better about it around me. :)  And, I figured as long as he's working on this, I might as well too, so I'm trying to get through the CD's from the library.  But I find that I'm not up for mental exercises at 9:00 at night, and I'd rather do it first thing in the morning when I get up to work out, but of course lately I've been sick and exhausted and that was the first thing to get cut from my schedule in an attempt to feel good.  Last night, though, I slept uninterrupted from 10:00 until 7:30.  It's been at least 18 months if not 2 years since I've slept that long and that well.  I was beginning to think it could never happen for me until they leave for college! :)