Has it really been that long since we last posted? I tried to hold out, but I think Angie has me pegged. Actually, my bet is that after I post, she’ll feel guilty… wait scratch that… get defensive, and will have something written before long. It’s not like there isn’t a million things to talk about… (Just for the record, I was on the phone with her when I wrote this… so hopefully that means I won’t be on the couch on Valentines Day… no guarantees.)

Let’s start with this… Happy Valentines Day. Mallory actually got a card this year and it was cute. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but we have pretty much worked all the details for Mallory’s future husband. Our good friends Rich and Leigh have an adorable boy named Brady who is about 10 months older than Mallory and who sent her a Valentines Day Card, asking her to be his valentine. Mallory had a little trouble reading the card, but once I had her sound out the syllables, she smile really big and then got shy. I think she’s happy with our choice. :)

OK… it’s official… Mallory has started crawling… She’s been trying for a while, but just couldn’t get much traction with her legs… she actually spent more time in reverse than drive, though she did get pretty good at getting to what she wanted backwards. Then on Tuesday we noticed that she was actually moving forward a bit and on Wednesday I stayed home with her (long story… I may go into it later) she figured out how to get into 2nd, and now we have a new problem… she’s mobile. I imagine our weekend will be spent buying and installing safety and containment devices throughout the house. There is video of her achievement which will hopefully be posted soon.

On top of that, I’m pretty convinced she’ll be walking in the next few weeks. She has figured out how to pull up on stuff, and is getting pretty good at it. When she decided to start cruising around the living room, I thought I would be smart and surround her mat with cushions from the couch. She proceeded to crawl toward me, pull up on the cushions, and yell at me. At one point I was convinced that she was going to successfully scale the 2-story cushion barrier and continue on over. She really likes standing up… she really hates being contained. I let her complain for a good 45 minutes and then went to her rescue. She had worn herself out so 2 minutes later she was asleep in my arms.

The sickness in the Brandon household continues. Angie’s boss refers to our house as the petri dish. Mallory just wrapped up her 4th (or was it 5th) ear infection. This time she got 3 shots, wait I’m sorry…. injections, over a little less than a week. We are meeting with an ENT to talk about options (including tubes we assume) next week. Kylie was feeling bad Tuesday night, and woke up Wednesday morning with a 103 degree temperature. She went to the doctor and they sent her home with antibiotics… thankfully she started feeling better this morning.

I had strep throat a few weeks back, and then the doctor called a few days later to “check on me” and to let me know “oh… by the way, how’s the mono working out for you?”… yeah, I have mono… best part is that either I’m so used to being tired that mono is nothing, or I don’t have any symptoms. Aside for the week I spent with strep in bed, I haven’t really felt bad… maybe they got it wrong… maybe it just hasn’t hit yet… oh well. Probably got it from one of the kids at church drinking out of my can/bottle. I think to pay them back, I’ll keep letting them. :)

Ok… that’s probably enough for now. I don’t want to steal all of Angie’s thunder. You are going to post, right honey??? I hope everyone is doing well, and check back for the videos… we’ll try to get them up soon.