Fike's Lives

Daily, I feel like there isn't anything to write about on here, but as I look back at the last couple of weeks, a lot of things have happened.

Awhile ago, Mark got too close to our propane heaters and singed his hair. In an attempt to save it, we just cut off the orange parts, but finally gave into buzzing it all off. I don't like. I miss his longish hair, and I think he looked better with it. It will grow back. See buzz cut in pictures from previous post. He is talking a lot and very cunning. He will do anything to get Lyssa's pac. And I mean anything. I have had more than one person mention that he seems a little old for the pacifer, and I am in complete agreement. But good luck keeping him from it. I mean it. I took my Aunt out to Ohio on Thursday and she got to see first hand just how far he will go to get it. He is at the point that first thing in the morning he brings me one for Lyssa, I say thank you, two seconds later, he has one in is own mouth. Thinks he should be able to keep it because he was "sharing".

Lyssa is doing extremely well, a bit of a lightweight right now. Check ups were this last week with a new doctor, and as much as Lyssa has only gained 1 lb in the last three months, her growth in general is still great. Many speculations for the lack of weight gain being due to a very cold winter, the fact that she is very mobile (not crawling yet, but is on all fours trying the torpedo launch forward) going backwards, rolls over, all that fun stuff. She is starting solids and despises rice cereal with a passion. She can sit up, no teeth yet, but is a drooling machine. Sleeping through the night was something she did very early on, and luckily for us a habit she decided to keep. Overall, very cute, very cuddly, and very lovable baby girl. Six months last Sunday!

Around the house, with the tax return, we have been working on finishing the kids room, they are painted and just need the trim and baseboards put on, then we are finished!!!!! Mark has been moved out of the toddler bed and into the double bed that we have. His room is a ridiculously bright yellow color, and we found the playmats that you connect together, got a bunch of them and uses those as his carpet. Lyssa will stay in her crib for a long time to come, but is now in her own room which is green with pink ladybugs, flowers and dragonfly decals. We bought a new window to replace one in the living room, and now that it has warmed up, it will be going in soon. The shelves in the storage room were finished as well!!! It looks so nice.

Also with the tax return came a downpayment on a new car. We had a '99 Hyundai Elantra with 102k miles on it. Struts were gone, crack in the windshield, brakes and roters have been needed to be replaced every year we have had it, recently replaced the clutch, basically it was becoming a money pit. Since we live in PA where all the season are actually tangible, not just a change in clothing lines, we had only three criteria. Decent gas mileage, 4 doors and at least allwheel drive. This last winter reminded us how much it would have been to have allwheel drive. We went to three different dealerships before finding one. I got to try my hand at truly haggling prices. I don't like it but I did managed to bring down the price by about 2K. YEAH ME!!!

A 2007 Suzuki SX4 with 43K miles on it. YEAH!

So that pretty much sums up what has been happening with us. Ethan is still working, I started going back to the theater for a whole 4 hours a week. I am still watching my S-i-L's girls three times a week, but they will be leaving soon to a brand new life down in Texas. Mark is going to miss the girls, but I'll be honest, I will not miss the messes of three of them together.