February was a really fun month for all of us. Brodi has been staying home and studying once or twice a week, which is great! We don't really get to hang out, but it is just nice to have him here and when he does take a break he gets to play with Atticus a little bit, which is really good for both of them. We found out that we will be staying in the Des Moines area for Brodi's third year of medical school which is great. We were hoping to get the surgery rotation at Mercy, but that didn't work out which is probably a good thing because it would have been a little more demanding on Brodi's time so this way he can spend some more time with us. We are all looking forward to him being done with his second year so that when he is home, he is actually home and shouldn't have to study the rest of the night like he does right now.
We had a lot fun things go on this month, starting with the Chinese New Year's celebration at DMACC that I performed with our acrobalance team in. It went really well, which I was very happy about because it had been about five years since I had done any of that stuff. It has been great getting the team back together and working of new and cooler things, while perfecting the old stuff too.
For Valentine's Day we were not able to do anything on the 14th because Brodi had a really hard test the next day, but I decided I would make a special diner at home the next day and sprung to buy some crab legs at Wal-Mart. They tasted great, but there was one problem, I did not think about how we were going to eat them; so, we ended up having to use our hands to break them and our fondue skewers to get the meat out. It was actually pretty funny. The next weekend we used one of our gift cards to go to the Outback which was a lot of fun. We brought Atticus with and he ate almost an entire loaf of their pumpernickel bread by himself! He is now eating whatever we eat and no longer eating any baby food.
That same weekend we went out Atticus was really sick, but he also started doing a TON more stuff. He started pointing at things, dancing, clapping, putting his toy balls in the toy they belong in, and walking a lot more. He will now walk across our living room!!! It is amazing how he just all of a sudden started doing all of this at once. It is hard to believe he is already 13 months. We also had a good friend, and great photographer, take some one year pictures of him and they all turned out so well, it is really hard to decide which ones I want to post on here. (If you live in the Des Moines area and want her info, let me know and I will get it to you, she's awesome)
As for me, I just finished up my level one sign language class. It was a ton of fun and I really loved it. I need to figure a way to keep it up though, I really want to go on with it and become (somewhat) fluent in it. It is really hard, but so fun to do, my only complaint is my hands would always get sore lol. (It was worth it though) There is a woman my mom knows a the library who is deaf, so I am hoping to get together with her a couple times a month to learn more and keep up what I know. My knowledge is limited to VERY basic conversations about family, weather, dates, colors, and numbers :) and a few others that I learned through baby signing. Atticus seems to understand certain signs I use now, but he is not doing them for himself yet. It is great being at home with him and watching him grow every day. Other than that, I am not really up to much. My church position is going great and I LOVE working with the youth girls, I learn so much from them all the time, including how old I am getting :( But it's ok.
Finally, last weekend was the DMU Winter Gala, which was soooooo much fun!!! We went out the dinner at the 801 Chophouse with our friends Ellen and Bradly, which was AMAZING! It was, by far, the most expensive meal I have ever even seen, but it was so worth it. We got a great deal through groupons and were able to eat there for about half the price, but it was still a pretty big chunk of change. When we walked in we were kindly greeted and they took our coats, then we were shown to our table. Our waitress brought us the "meat tray" that showed all the different cuts of meat and she explained them all to us along with the different ways to prepare them. I got the ribeye and Brodi got a 2lb lobster and then we shared so we could have a little surf and turf. The steak was the BEST steak I have EVER had in my entire life. I honestly didn't know steak could taste this good, it just melted in my mouth. We also shared a fried zucchini side which was really good too. Our friends got the veal and a lobster pasta dish and they said they really enjoyed it too. When we were done with dinner we walked over to the dance because it was only about two blocks away and we had dessert and talked with some of our friends there. They had a great dessert table with Bachlava (I don't know how to spell that) and a chocolate fountain with cream puffs and fruits to dip. It was delicious, but I was so stuffed from dinner I could barely eat any of it. When we were done there we went to the other room where there was a lot of dancing going on and danced the night away. It was a lot of fun, but there were quit a few inebriated students there though. At one point a random guy just jumped between Brodi and I and was like "Woo hoo!" and jumping all over/I think attempting to dance lol, but it was still a lot of fun and just made us laugh. I really enjoyed the Gala even more this year than last. I thought the DJ was much better than a live band and the Temple of Performing Arts was a great place to have it. The staff there was great, plus having the two rooms made it fun so there was loud music with dancing in the one room, but there was another room that was quiet enough you could actually have a conversation without screaming at each other. I really want to go again next year and I hope they have it at the same place.
Love,
The Smiths
