Ch-Ch-Changes

My little boy has his first really short hair cut. It makes me a little sad, but he loves it. He looked in the mirror and said in a very satisfied voice, "I look like Gail." I couldn't think of who he meant and then he said, "You know, the one who gave me an apple!" Our neighbor, Gail, gave him an apple on Halloween which was a highlight of his night. He wants it shorter so he can "be completely bald".
Josie is 14 months old today. She is working on her sixth tooth...finally the girl is getting her teeth in. She is super affectionate and cuddly. She loves to kiss/hug her brothers and her dolls/stuffed animals. She is so into Rob and looks forward to playing ball with him when he gets home from work. She loves to ride on the peapod bike seat on my Xtracycle and still only signs bike (which is tapping her head to signal a helmet). She doesn't say "no" or "yes" yet, but she shakes her head negative or positive to any question asked of her. I'm glad the "nos" haven't started yet. Josie loves to take the boys by the hand and "position them" in the house where she wants them. She puts Parker next to the refrigerator in the kitchen for some reason. She loves to play hide and seak with them and throw balls. She will take me upstairs to the bedroom when she wants to go to sleep or take a nap. She will go get a new diaper when she needs one, but she has refused to pee or poop on the potty lately. She is easy going and laid back, but also strong-willed and stuborn if that is possible. She is a complex little girl and a complete joy.There was a fire in our little rockin' downtown this morning. It is sad and scary. I don't know what started the fire, but a wonderful old historical building (a block away from where Rob and I met and I worked for four years and a block away from where my father worked for 30+ years) is not completely gone. No one was hurt from what I read, but it must be a mess because Rob couldn't even bike past on the way home with all the police and crews cleaning up. A building is there one minute which I pass every day (on the same street we live on, but about a mile form us) and today it is gone. (AP Photo/News-Gazette, John Dixon)
Rob's job is laying people off after Thanksgiving. If he gets laid off this would be the second time since I've been pregnant with Josie. We moved to my hometown back when I was pregnant with Parker (he'll be 9! in February) for a computer consulting job which was for one year. It lasted several years and then they offered Rob a full time position. He didn't take it and instead took nine months off where we didn't have any income. Then he worked at a company he liked, but after about two years they closed the office here and laid off pretty much everyone. A new company came in and hired a lot of the people who were laid off and now they are laying people off. Rob is at that point in his life where he would really like to be settled in a job until retirement, but it doesn't look like that type of job exists anymore.

I was at an age, being nine and half years younger than him, that I was still wanting to take risks and didn't get too worried about layoffs. Now two days away from my 37th birthday. I am in a very reflective mood. I am officially middle aged (or worse since my mother and maternal grandmother died in their 50's). I've noticed that instead of being the youngest in my friend circles, as I as for most of my life, I am now older than most of my friends. I'm an adult. I've been on my own since I turned 17 years old, but it has hit me in the last couple weeks that I'm really an adult. Maybe it has something to do with being married to man who is the age of our next president so I feel like we are really responsible people now and not just "playing house" or something. I know, I'm a little slow on these things.

I'm happy about the election and cautiously optimistic about the future, but I also feel it may be too late...all the change we've been promised. I just hope it isn't too little too late. I have a big urge to move back to the DC area now. I don't know if it is the change in the political climate or just a point in my life. I do love our neighborhood and our life here, I just feel the allure of DC. I feel very unsettled these days.

Lots of changes.