Daley Ponderings

Actually, the only thing written in my pocket notes from all this time is that on 11/16, Jon solved the mirror cube with his eyes closed.

Jonathan's 7th birthday was a very fun time.  He got a lot of cool presents and had a lot of cool people over to play.  Grandma and Dad-o were there for the occasion and the next few days were also busy with fun.

Three days later was Isaac's 8th birthday and he was not forgotten.  Here is something I wrote to Grammy on the day: "It's amazing how fast time flies sometimes.  8 is the age that I imagined him, just a few days after [his death], running up to me with a big smile on his face, saying, 'Don't worry, Mommy, it's fun up here!' and running off to keep playing.  I always thought that he was so old in that dream. And here he would be..."

As we prepared to head to Philly for Thanksgiving, Dad recommended that we get a car-top carrier for all our stuff, as all the seats in the van would be full.  That turned out to be a very good idea, especially because of all the presents we brought back home!  As usual, the time with family at Thanksgiving was full of feasting, games, little sleep, and lots of fun.  Noah made a good friend in cousin K, who played whatever he wanted very patiently.  It was a blessing to see little Faith Isabella, who has had many health issues in her short life and for whom we have been praying through her many surgeries and struggles.  Our Faith, when asked the baby's name, or when referring to her, calls her "Me" or "Baby Me".

Faith made great strides in potty training - I'm so glad I brought her little potty.  She now consistently goes in her potty for all manner of needs and has not had an accident in a while.  Also, her nighttime diapers had been dry for about two weeks, including during our stay away from home, so when we got home I decided to try putting her to bed in underwear.  There has only been one bedwetting accident since then, and that was when she fell asleep during a movie and I did not have her go to the bathroom before putting her down in bed.

We came home on Sunday and Monday was the last full day at home with Grandma and Dad-o.  We had a mini-Christmas with them on Monday morning and that was fun though rather chaotic.   Adding to both the excitement and the chaos was the arrival of birthday presents for all from Auntie E.

Tuesday, we all headed up to help our former pastor's family get unpacked into their new house.  It was very rainy and muddy, but the truck got unpacked by the end of the night.  We got enough beds together that they could sleep there that night, but Jon left all his tools there so we could come back Wednesday to finish up some projects.

Wednesday morning, the rain had turned to snow!  Happy December!  It was sticking, about an inch, though the roads were fine.  I brushed off my parents's rental car and we said good-bye.  Mom was going home and Dad was going back to Thailand. 

Then the Daleys headed back up to Indiana.  I helped get shelf liner in the kitchen and Jon continued to work on plumbing for the washer, dryer and utility sink.  I went to Lowe's three times - reminded me of when we moved!  It was a long but productive day and the washer was ready to be used when we left.

The next few days were spent in catching up on home things and recovering from the very full past couple of weeks.  It has continued to snow and be very Christmas-y.  Some friends gave us a sled and the boys have had lots of fun playing outside.  There was a snow penguin at some point but I think he is now just a large ball on the front walkway.

Today is full of jackhammering in our basement, as we finally decided to have people come in and put in drains and a pump to keep our basement dry.  We'll see if Jon wants to make a more detailed post when the job's all done.