New Ventures

A few noteworthy recent achievements in the Doublestein household:

-Jemma is walking! Completely, totally, happily staggering down the hallway and across whole rooms with a big, proud smile on her face. In the span of a couple days she went from reluctantly taking a few steps when we encouraged her to doing it almost all the time, even when nobody is watching. She's so persistent and determined. Of course we're taking lots of video because it's so cute to see her toddling with her hands out in front of her.

-Annie had her first solo playdate yesterday with a friend from school. It was strange not to go pick her up from school at 11:15 and instead have Ella's mommy bring her back at 1:00. Of course, I was worried about how she'd do in an unfamiliar house without me, but she was a champ. The girls, apparently, had fun and did well (this, according to Ella's mommy), but then Annie kept letting little things leak out for the rest of the day:

"Ella threw her piggy bank and it broke so she might get a spanking."
"I said, 'booger' at Ella's house."
"We had a hot dog, string cheese, and an orange. I didn't eat my hot dog."

-I managed to find time last week to write something for a friend's business and actually get paid for it! (Thanks, Di . . .) That's right; I'm going to be filing a W-2 form this year for the first time since 2004. It was great for me to learn a new writing skill (it was copy writing for a business website) and interesting to think about other, broader ways I can ramp up my writing so that, hopefully, it can become more of a "job" and less of a "hobby" in a few years time.

-As for Jason, he's been working his butt off at the office, getting home late at night and being booked out over a month in advance. On top of that, he's been really into cooking lately (nice break for me), making some very yummy potstickers, bean dip, and some sort of french egg thing (not all for the same meal, obviously).

And, outside, the snow continues . . .