Home Improvements, Piggies, Words, and other new things

I figured it was well past time for another update, so here goes… We are keeping busy, as usual. Rather than the satellite navigation I was doing full time before, I have been working on designing new satellite missions since that is stuff that I can do at home (Emily is in daycare, allowing me to be in the office, only 3 days a week). Sean is starting an online grad school-like program where he will be learning the art of computer animation. So, he is hoping to get a job animating characters for movies or video games or something when he graduates in January 2007.

We are finally getting some real work done on our house (we’ve only lived there for almost 2 years…). We got the horribly ugly, covered with overgrown bushes, chain-link fence pulled out of our back yard and had it replaced with a block wall. Our yard looks so much bigger, brighter, and cleaner now! We also got our kitchen cabinets and counters replaced a couple weeks ago. We are still waiting on the electric work to be finished – we have just one working outlet in the whole kitchen, but it is so much more functional now, not to mention prettier! We also decided to pull out the sink and tile (three layers of it, as we found) in our bathroom and are in the process of painting and redoing all that. We seem to be on a roll now, so hopefully we can tackle the beige and pink striped wall paper in our room next.

Emily is continuing to talk up a storm, only now we are beginning to understand what she is saying. Her first word was “uh oh”, but her vocabulary seems to increase exponentially, and includes “mommy”, “daddy”, “Wally”, “dog”, “birdie” (which also refers to planes, or anything else flying), “more”, “no”, and many other words that I can’t think of right now. Her current favorite phrase is “Hi baby!” said not only to babies, but to any person in sight. She has also started walking without holding on to anything. She’ll go back and forth between Sean and me, but that’s about the extent so far. At her (belated) 15-month checkup Tuesday, they said Emily is 50th percentile in weight, but 90th in height and head circumference – our tall, skinny, brainy little lady! I’ve attached the latest picture I have on my computer – taken last month when Em was visiting work with Daddy.

As for our other “babies”, Wally and Alpha are still hanging in there. They are both very interested in our new guinea pigs (3-month-old sisters named Lucy & Squeakers who we got in April), but we keep reminding them that they can’t eat the piggies. Emily is also very interested in the piggies and loves when she gets to pet and/or hold them.

I guess that’s the big news for now. We hope to see you soon – we’re trying to get back to MI this summer, though we haven’t made any plans yet. Otherwise our guest room is available if anyone wants to visit…