Three Months!

I sat down at the computer to start working on taxes, and then the thought occurred to me that this would be a great time to write on my blog since everyone else in the house is asleep.
So I opened up my blog. And got distracted by reading some old posts. I love reading what's happened, and what I was worked up about, say... a year and a half ago or whatever. I really need to get these entries off of the computer and into a book. I keep seeing an ad for "Blog2Book" or something when I sign in here - does anyone know how that works? Since blogging has replaced my journal more or less, I should get a "hard copy."
Jacob is three months old today! He is getting so big! He can already wear some 6-9 month clothes. He's such a smiley guy. He loves to sit in his bouncy seat and watch us and then he'll randomly break out into a huge gummy grin. He's really making noises now, "talking" and cooing and even something very close to giggling. I swore he was teething. He has a tiny white spot that FEELS like tooth, but it's been there two weeks almost, and it still hasn't emerged as a tooth. But he's chawing on his fingers and biting me (ouch!) all the time, so I know teeth can't be far off.
On January 3rd, Paul's grandma passed away. She hasn't been doing well for a while, but right around Christmas, she really took a turn for the worse. We got the word on that Sunday morning, and on Monday evening, we took off for Colorado. We drove to Hays the first night (without stopping, miraculously), then from Hays to Fort Collins the next day (only stopping twice). The boys did excellent in the car, and really for the whole trip. We got a hotel room, so we'd have a place to spread out, and a place to take the boys away from everyone if they were cranky and needed naps. Nathan didn't have a single accident while we were gone (which really surprised me) - other than the car ride, which we didn't even try - we put a diaper on him. The memorial service was nice - Paul and Elizabeth and Janice played a lot of music, according to Grandma's wishes. I ended up being out with Nathan ("I need to potty.") and Jacob for the message. Grandpa seemed to be doing well, although I know it was hard for him - both having lost his wife, and having a deluge of people who want to pity and take care of him (two things a man like him hates). We made the trip back in one long haul, taking about 11 hours I think we stopped 4 times, including an hour and a half lunch break at the Burger King in Burlington, CO (they have an indoor kids play area).... Where we ran in to Paul's great aunt and uncle! Paul pulled me aside and said, "Who are my relatives that live out near here?" Pssht. So I just went and flat out asked them.
It turns out we were gone for one of the coldest weeks of the year (probably of several years), with temps hovering right around zero, and horrible wind chills (-20 or lower). This caused much nervousness on the part of Cody, who was taking care of our house and pets while we were gone. We'd warned him of the tendency of our pipes to freeze. He went into the cellar one evening to check things, and discovered water running down one of the walls. Fearing the lines to the kitchen had broken, he shut off the main valve and drained all the taps. This was probably the best thing he could have done, because when we got home, despite all the cold windy weather, all the faucets worked except the kitchen. It turns out (after the pipes thawed and we could investigate) that it wasn't the faucet, it was the kitchen drain that was leaking.... A joint had come loose, which was a cheap fix - though not necessarily easy, since Paul had to crawl into the crawl space under that end of the house, wearing 3 layers of clothes!
Nathan's vocabulary continues to amaze us. His newest, overused phrase is, "What you doing, Mommy?" And two that he can get rid of at any time are "Get up." and "Get out." Commando Demando. Those two are getting old. He got wooden train tracks for Christmas from Gramma and Grampa, and Paul and I have so much fun building the tracks with him that one of us has bought three more sets on EBay to expand the possibilities. We have a new layout built every day, if not more than once. And luckily, he's been extremely good about putting them away as soon as he's done playing. Potty training is going well.... He had gone over two weeks without an accident during the day (still not trained during sleep), and then he had an accident like four days in a row. Don't know what that's about. He's been very interested a few times recently when he watches me nurse Jacob, and also has climbed up on the toilet to watch while I chang Jacob's diaper. This has resulted in some "proper name" anatomy lessons. And may I just say, a two year old trying to pronounce "testicles" is hillarious.
I'm sure there's more I should write about, but Jacob is now awake and squirming on my lap. I need to go change the third "poop-plosion" of the day. And it's a cloth diaper. It's gonna be messy.