The Cousins

Dallas has the wonderful opportunity to be less than three months younger than his cousin, Adalyn (my brother's daughter). They haven't been able to see much of each other since Dallas was born and raised so far in Utah and Adalyn in Washington (and she will move to New York for her daddy's school in a few weeks). The times they are able to get together they seem to have a blast.

Adalyn and her parents were in Utah for much of July and Dallas got to play with Adalyn twice. Dallas loves kids his age/size and is very social (his verbal skills need to develop a bit more though). He and Adalyn had fun running around and terrorizing the house or wherever we happened to be.


They are so close to the same size it is amazing (although Adalyn is a bit taller and more wirery, taking after her father). And I think we all agreed that the two of them could be mistaken for twins.

Dallas and I will be up in Washington next week (which is Adalyn and her parent's last week before the big move to New York) so I am looking forward to more quality time and cute pictures.

Being Bored

So Cam has worked at least 10 hour days so far this week. Monday was 11.5, Tuesday and Wednesday were 11, and yesterday was a little over 10. He leaves at 6:15 am (before Dallas or I wake up) and gets home between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, depending on how long his day is. Dallas usually goes to bed around 8 or 8:30 pm.

I am happy about the extra money that will come next pay check, but I am not so thrilled about Cam not being around and him not being able to spend much time with Dallas. Also next week Dallas and I are going up to Washington so we won't see Cam at all then either *sigh*

I have gotten used to Cam being home at 4:30 pm that I don't know quite what to do with myself in the evening when he isn't here and the days seem so long.

Cam had been moved to a retirement and estates team a while ago (without any pay change or option to say "no" really) and it has been taxing on him. I think dealing with dead people and sometimes emotional family members all day would do that to anyone. This week though he is covering or someone covering for someone else at a training session. He answers questions and take escalated calls (if any) from the new employees. He only take retirement calls if the queue is overly full. He commented that his 11 hour days this week have seemed shorter than his 8 hour regular days. He keeps applying for anything that opens up, so hopefully something will catch and he can move to a better paying, less stressful position.

Beds and Things

Well here is a picture of the top of Chelane's quilt, the colors are a bit more vivid in person. We went to Wal*mart and perused their $1 a yard shelf and since it only takes about 3/4 of a yard per pattern, this was a pretty cheap quilt. Plus I love the colors. I wasn't too sure about it at first, I was pulling out lots of bolts and laying them next to each other while Cam did some other shopping. I had been looking at the possible combinations for too long so I made Cam - I mean gave Cam the privilege of making the final decision. I am glad I did! He seems to pick good combinations.

We got Dallas a twin mattress a few weeks ago. It sits on the floor in his room and he adjusted with no problem. The first week/week-and-a-half he would get out of bed and fall asleep on the
floor and he even fell out of the bed a few times (luckily the mattress is on the floor so it is a 6" fall).


We would find him like this on the floor more often than not and move him gently back into his bed. After the first week/week-and-a-half though he is getting the hang of falling asleep in bed. It is still obvious that he isn't necessarily falling asleep right away every time (there will be clothes or toys moved around) but he is making it back to his bed when he decides he wants to sleep. I am happy he is able to make the decision more for himself now. And he seems to like it too.