If at first you don't succeed...fake it.

Or in Zoey's case, give up and lie down. That apparently is the feline creed. Since the boy became mobile, we've put the cats' food up on top of the fridge so that little hands can't make little snacks out of the Cat Chow. This seemed the perfect solution since our feline friends are such naturally adept jumpers. This is clearly feline myth. Have you met my cats? Zoey weighs in at a svelt 9.3 pounds with Max anchoring his half of the furry pair at a robust 13.5 pounds. We grow 'em big here on the Mauk Ranch. So, one would assume that Max would, having to heft his great bulk up onto the counter and up again onto the top of the fridge, be the cat who is struggling to reach the food. Sadly, no. Apparently there is something to the survival-of-the-fittest theory because the offer of food seems to be motivation enough for Max to launch himself the 5 feet needed to reach his meals. Granted he uses the counter and seems to stay up there on the fridge for a large portion of the day, but he can make the jump. Zoey? Not so much, with the jumping. I have been sitting here in the kitchen for about 15 minutes now which has been enough time for Zoey to attempt not 1, not 2 but 4 failed attempts to merely mount the kitchen counter. The top of the fridge is clearly the goal AFTER she catches her breath from scaling the cabinets. She's not even really getting any "air". In 3 of the 4 failed attempts she only managed to get about 3 inches off the ground while also pityingly dragging her front paws down the front of the cabinets. I don't know if it was a ploy or if she truly can't jump that high very well. Either way, I couldn't take it anymore and I put her up on the counter. She then gingerly manuevered the eyes on the stove and leapt gracefully onto the fridge to have a bite to eat. I think I've been had.

I was attacked

By the vaccuum. Long story short, the vaccuum fell over, the attachment cord (which is an accordion-like structure) contracted with my neck in the folds. Voila - instant battle wound! This is reason number 7 I should not have to do housework.

Andy Update

I should be grading essays but this is way more fun.

Andy's version of an update, "I'm alive."

I'll try to do a little better. Let me sum up Christmas for Andy: traditional type gifts, horrible sickly wife and child, horrendous 14-16 hour car trip with no help from me, and lots of whining. His Christmas was spectacular. He can't wait for next year. Really.

In other news, Andy is in his 2nd year of 3 years of course work for his PhD in Higher Education. "What does that mean?" I hear you cry. Basically that means he's studying to work on a college campus either teaching classes like the very ones he's taking or working as a Dean of Students or Director of Programs or something like that. Or...as I tell most people, he wants to be a college student for the rest of his life. After he finishes Year 3, he'll spend the 4th year working on his dissertation while job-searching. He works 20 hours each week in the Office for Student Affairs under Mary Coburn, the Vice President for Student Affairs. He is also in charge of the Institute on College Student Values at FSU which happens every Jan/Feb. Last year his entire committee and office were praying that Jackson "stayed inside" until after the institute was over. Jackson complied. After he finishes work, he usually heads to the library for several hours to do his studying. He's very focused and driven - I would never be able to do it that way. But since he can, he still spends most evenings and weekends with us. It is great for the kids and me.

I am so lucky in the partner God gave me. Andy and I compliment each other so well and this move to FL would have ruined us if he wasn't such a wonderful man: mostly because we are so far from family and have very little help with the kids unless we pay babysitters. He is such a help with the kids and the house in addition to dealing with his own work and studies. I don't know how he does it. Emma adores him and Jackson has really begun showing interest in wrestling with Daddy and watching sports.

Our main goal right now with the job search is to get closer to family. A 14 hour car ride to be with family is NOT OK. If we can get within one day's driving distance or even 5 or 6 hours, that would be ideal. At this point, we don't really have any idea of where our next home might be (Dad, it's not going to be UALR) but we're drawing a circle on a map and looking within that circle.

I'm really proud of my husband for following his heart and getting his PhD. I think I always knew he would. I'm glad to be on this journey with him and I can't think of any other person I could take this adventure with - without losing my mind. And we all know how scary that would be.

The Institue looms near so Andy is especially busy right now as we prepare for Jackson's first birthday. How he manages to keep all his plates spinning I'll never know. But one thing I do know is that this brilliant, generous man I'm married to deserves all the accolades he has earned and will earn including these: Fabulous Father and Heroic Husband. Thus endeth the sap.

Jackson Update

Since you received the timeline in the last post, I'll just jump straight into Jackson's info. Jackson spent most of the Christmas break cruising around all the different houses. He started pulling up in November and has been on his way to walking ever since. He's even standing by himself these days. This afternoon he tried to take a step on his own. He collapsed before he actually made the step but there was no crying.

We did learn that Jackson is not a good visitor. He travels in the car fine but he doesn't like being in new and different places. He spent the majority of our trip to AR in an agitated state which manifested itself by his not wanting me to be out of his line of sight at all. If I left the room, he cried - loudly. In addition, due to 2 days in the car and lots of CR-V induced napping, he woke up in the middle of the night for anywhere from 1-3 hours at a time. Before we left home (and before the monster-cold that attacked him and me) he was sleeping through the night really well. The entire trip (including the nights in the hotel) Jackson spent lots of dark hours up and about. Andy took the brunt of it since I was sick as well but once I rallied, we rotated in 1.5 hour shifts. It took him almost the entire first week back in FL to readjust. But, being back in his house, his room, and his routine really helped a lot. When we returned home, we started putting hom down for bed without rocking him. He seemed to be ready for it. The first night he cried for a bout 20 minutes and after that he took to it like a cat to a down quilt. The entire past week, we've put him to bed and he's gotten to sleep himself. But, enough about baby sleep habits.

Jackson also got lots of noisy toys for Christmas. There is a baseball game that I think Andy will burn in effigy on the lawn one day soon. Jackson really likes electronic toys. Anything with blinking lights, sounds or music (all three if possible!) are real winners. He also seems to have an internal homing device connected to the TV remote. If it's in eye-sight, he's going after it. Although these days his favorite game is to completely unpack one of the cabinets under the stove. He also likes to take all of my books off the bottom shelf of the bookcase and unpack the bottom drawers of DVDs in the entertainment center. Basically - he's a boy. And he likes anything he can bang and use to make really loud noises.

He says a few words: he's said Dada and kitty for a while now. He finally said Mama and Sissy this week. He loves to wrestle with me and Emma on the floor and he's pretty fast when he chases her. Just wait till he can walk! He also tries to say Max but it sounds more like "asx". He's a lot like Emma - he loves to sing and he is OBSESSED with the bathtub. We've had to keep the doors to both bathrooms closed so he doesn't take a header over the side. And any time he can take a splash-a-roo in the potty is great fun. He points and "yells" at the cats and loves to chase their tails. Zoey is frightened; Max endures it with annoyed patience.

We are enjoying him completely and I can't believe he'll be a year old in 22 days. As Grandma Mauk always says: they change so much in one year. It truly is amazing.

Emma caveat: 2 things she did Friday that were hilarious. In the midst of abovementioned DVD unpacking, the Star Wars movies ended up on the floor. She brought one to me and said, "Look Mama, they have 2 light sabers and they're both blue." I agreed and then asked her where she learned the word "light saber". She responded, with hands on hips, "I don't know, Mama, I just growed up and knowed it." Right, how silly of me. And later, at bedtime I got her pjs out of her drawer and the shirt was inside-out. I asked, "Which silly person put this shirt up inside-out?" She looked thoughtful for a moment and then...raised her hand. Well, at least she's learning the ins and outs of school procedures.

Andy and Reagan updates coming soon.

Emma Update

I decided that it was too daunting a task to try and cover the entire family and the holidays all in one post so I'm tackling it one person at a time. Here's the scoop on Emma. Short timeline: we spent the week leading up to Christmas and Christmas Day in FL. Santa came to our house and while the kiddos played with their loot, Andy and I scrambled around packing for a trek to AR. We were both feeling under the weather but we soldiered on. We spent 2 days in the car, 3 days with the Sniders, 3 days with the Mauks (and Moellers on New Year's Eve!) and then 2 more days in the car to make it back to Tally with one day to spare to do laundry and unpack toys.

Emma, unlike the rest of us, was mostly healthy over the Christmas holidays. She wanted "lots and lots and lots and lots" of presents, as she told Grandpa on the phone about a week before Christmas. And she got lots of presents. I don't know how, but between E and J we managed to get everything packed in the car to make it back to FL after our visit to AR. Her favorite toy (until this evening) was her nursery set that Santa brought her complete with crib, swing, changing table and stroller. We were informed at dinner tonight that, "Santa never brings me what I want!" and asked if we could take it all back so she could get the pink horse she really wanted. Andy, Santa and I had never heard anything about a pink horse so this was news to us. After explaining that Santa has a No Returns policy, she seemed mollified.

She is loving school and is beginning to be even more observant than ever. She has started noticing the different races and ethnicities of her classmates and teachers. Mostly she describes anyone other than white as "brown" be they African American, Indian American or Hispanic. I guess that's a pretty accurate physical description though. She can recognize all of her letters and does pretty well with numbers 1-10. She likes to line up her foam letters in the bathtub and sing the ABC song while she points to each one. We're missing a few letters from wear and tear over the past 4 years but she leaves a space for the "broken" letters.

She is an amazing big sister. She is so helpful and she even likes to play with Jackson. Mostly they roll around on the floor like puppies, both yelping. She tickles him and he bites and pulls her hair. Then the screaming intensifies and things like, "Mama, Jackson's hurting me!" float to me from her room or the living room. I have flashes of the battles of the next 10-15 years but shake them off quickly. She helps me make bottles and change his diapers and even helps feed him - although she can never stand still long enough for an entire feeding.

She is really into verbal play and pusing her limits with language right now. She says mean things and then tries to avoid consequences by saying, "I'm just joking.." I think she got that from Horton Hears a Who. Thanks Mauk family! She also uses bathroom words like "poop" and "peepee" and "snot" and then smiles wickedly. We try not to laugh and discourage the budding tendency toward potty-mouth (pun semi-intended). She has also started saying, "Oh My God!" which we are trying to morph into "Oh My Gosh!" We think someone at school says it because Andy and I have been pretty careful to avoid things like that. There was my brief affair with saying "damn" under my breath when I was frustrated but when Emma spilled her milk and said, "Damn, Mama, I'm sorry" I nipped that bad habit in the bud quickly.

She loves to dance and sing and these efforts were supported by the Hannah Montana gear she received for Christmas. She has a guitar, a microphone, a purse and a double disk CD set. Thanks to all the aunts and uncles who will be paid back in kind as soon as you have your own rugrats. Particularly when you add in the GIANT PIXIE STICKS Uncle Scott sent our way, there were a few days of what appeared to be a 4 year old drugged out rocking on the ottoman in our living room. Have no fear Scott, there will be reciprocation.

We're looking forward to dance or gymnastics classes this spring. And she is taking all sorts of realistic and abstract photos with her new camera. She's still obsessed with movies and has started learning lines and inflections as well as just watching them. I think I told you about her school Christmas play where she knew ALL the parts. We're thinking acting classes are in her future as well.

I'm sure I've forgotten something but this at least gets everyone up to date. Stay tuned for Jackson, Andy and Reagan updates. Pictures will follow as well when I have more than 10 minutes to myself. So, sometime next year.