=== Rollin' rollin' rollin' ===

     So recently Isabelle has decided that she understands how to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back. Lately she's been rollin' rollin' rollin' all the time back and forth. It's kind of adorable that she just does it whenever she pleases, but at the same time it can be a little bit dangerous and occasionally mind boggling when she decides she's too lazy to roll back and then cries about it.

     We used to leave her on the couch at times to hang out in comfort rather than being on the floor, but now we can't really leave her anywhere with some height to it because she might roll right off and hurt herself. This isn't too much of a problem, we just have to be careful to remember to put her somewhere safe before leaving her for a moment to do something else. I can't imagine how awful I would feel if she fell off of anything because I forgot to put her down.

     Then there are times when she wants to roll over a bunch but she's too tired to keep going. Sometimes she will roll from her back to her front then she'll get frustrated that she can't make it back over again. She'll start to cry like a banshee in pain so we'll go help her out and flip her over only to have her do it again and again. Sometimes I absolutely don't understand what could possibly be going through her head. Unless she somehow understands that it gets her the attention that she's looking for.

     I actually watched her one morning after putting her on the bed with Carley roll over onto her tummy... then Carley turned her back and she rolled right over again... so Carley turned her back and she kept doing it again and again until Carley adjusted and picked her up. I'm pretty sure it won't be long now until she starts figuring out how to move and then it'll be all sorts of fun having her wander around the house.

Good luck to us. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Crying, Babies, and Midterms ===

     So we've been handling our baby and wow, those midterms sure showed up fast; I didn't realize the spring semester would go by so quickly. Everything has been rushing by it seems with things to do every day followed by crying, crying, crying, and more crying... which results in sudden losses of consciousness at various times of the day when there is nothing immediately important to be doing. All of this however, is interrupted at equally random times of the day by more crying.

     This past month has been pretty much continuously assignments due at least every second day. As you may be able to imagine: driving 45 minutes to and from work every day, being short on sleep, trying to help with the baby, and then trying to get some school work done at the end of the day... it's a little bit difficult. There are times when things end up being late. There are times when things just don't get done at all. Currently, this includes booking a couple of my midterms... so I'm going to have to figure out how to still write those even though there is no available time to write them left in the system. Ugh...

     I look forward to the times when everybody is sleeping; the baby, the dog, and Carley. At these times I actually get some uninterrupted time to myself... for a bit. Inevitably someone ends up needing something. Carley needs a bit of help or attention or something to get done, the baby wakes up and wants........... I really don't know what, or the dog needs to get outside. I can't believe I'm thinking this, but the dog is probably actually the least needy at this time.

     I'm certainly looking forward to being done with my classes so I won't have to be doing so much all the time anymore. Oh how I can't wait to have proper time to think each day after I get home from work. One day Kyle... one day.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Puppy Training

     For anybody who has never trained a puppy, they can be a complete pain to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our dog, but he has been sooooooooo annoying for us to deal with at times. Usually he's pretty good for us, but he loves to bite as I would imagine most dogs do before they learn not to.

     Now some of you out there might meet Furgle and think, "How could he be a pain? He's such a sweetheart!" Well, don't let him fool you! He's actually a tiny terrorizing monster at all other points in time. Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit. He's actually not that bad when he isn't biting us all the time. We've recently started using a spray bottle whenever he starts biting to get his attention and get him to stop. He's not the biggest fan of water and to be honest, we're not really complaining about it. He's learning quickly what it means and hasn't been biting nearly as much as before.

     As for house-training him, he's been pretty good with that so far as well. He doesn't really seem to get HOW to tell us he needs to go outside yet and rather stops pretty quickly and just starts peeing... but at least he's learned to pee and poop on the pad (mostly) rather than anywhere in the kitchen. Probably in about a month from now he should be big enough to hold his waste long enough to train him to only go outside (mostly). He's progressing well I think and he seems like a pretty smart dog to me, so we'll see how long it takes him to learn everything we need to teach him. I'm looking forward to him being calm and mature enough to actually teach him some proper commands and things.

     With one solution comes another problem though. This problem isn't really a HUGE deal though compared to the issues that are possible with a dog. Furgle has... started to hump everything. Oh goodie.... I have to admit, it's a little bit funny, but I suppose it's not exactly something that I'd like him doing to things or people in public. He'll surely calm down once he gets fixed as most dogs do. We have no plans to breed any dogs, so I don't think that will be an issue at all. I'm sure just a little bit of persistence will get him to stop in no time. He usually picks up on things pretty quickly so I'm hoping we won't have too many issues with the coming baby on the way.

     So far, best Christmas present ever! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Understanding how to Learn.

     So I got an assignment for a class last week that was presented online as a recorded video due to my teacher not being there for that class. I found it much easier to follow along with what was going on because any time I missed something I was able to pause the video or rewind it and catch up. It makes me think about a couple things.

     First, I wonder if I would be doing a lot better if I were able to go over all my lessons as a video that I were able to pause and rewind... I'm thinking of buying a large SD card to put into my phone so I can record all my classes. I think I would then find it much easier to understand everything outside of class if I were able to go over the lesson as though it were happening again. Not to mention I think that actually might be a much easier way of keeping all my classes organized. I'd be able to upload them all onto my computer and rename them as their lesson names in the proper order. The more and more I think about this, the more I actually like the idea. I do in fact believe that is what I'm going to do next semester. Record everything using my phone. Yeah, definitely.

     Second, I think.... actually I don't remember what I was thinking of secondly. I probably just went over it because of how much I like the idea previously as I was typing it out. So I guess that's what I'm going to do next semester. So long as I'm allowed to, that's what I'm going to do. That way I'll be able to pay full attention to the lesson rather than furiously writing down notes as I go along, hoping to keep up and somehow understand what needs to be done at a later point in time.

     So now I understand what I need to do next semester to be more successful.

~ Kyle