We're moving!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted, hasn't it? We've been pretty busy at the Alleman house for the past couple of weeks, so I apologize for the delay. Our biggest piece of news is (as you can tell from the title): we're moving! We've been looking to find a place with cheaper rent for awhile now, and we finally found a place that we love. It's a duplex, but we have the entire top floor (the bottom floor is kind of a basement...there are about 7 or 8 stairs once you get inside the front door to get to our floor), and it's in northeast Orem. So we're moving to a different city! We're very excited. The rent is a lot less than what we pay at our current home, there is a garage there (yay storage!), tons of closet space (yay storage again!), and we won't have to worry about lawn care as the landlord takes care of that. Those of you who have visited us at our current home may have wondered why there are boxes all around in almost every room...that's because there's hardly any storage space here. So, things will be a lot nicer with closet space and an actual pantry. Oh, and having a garage means no needing to scrape off the icy windows in the winter! And no incredibly hot steering wheel in the summer! Yay! As you can tell, we're looking forward to the change. Plus, as Joshua is becoming increasingly mobile (more on that later), we're seeing the need to have carpet again. Hardwood floors all over the house just aren't a good idea with a baby/toddler. We don't have an actual move-in date yet, but it'll be sometime around July 10-15th. It's coming up! This move will give us the chance to baby-proof our house, too. So we're excited.

Our second piece of news: I got a second job! Now, I know what you're thinking...I'm going to kill myself working so much. But this is a work-from-home job. I'm transcribing phone conversations for a company called KLAS. For now, I'm only working 1-2 hours a day, but once Cody gets a job and I'm staying home, I'll get a few more hours. It seems like a job that I'll be able to have for awhile, so I'm excited to be able to contribute to the family income once I'm a stay-at-home mom. Although, right now it makes my days pretty crazy: I work 8am-5pm at BYU, come home and watch Joshua while Cody sleeps, try to get Joshua to bed by 9pm (I'm hoping to move that bedtime up a little bit over the next couple of weeks), transcribe from 9-10:30 or 11 (depends on how much work there is), spend time with Cody, and then go to bed before Cody leaves for work around 11:45. It's a crazy schedule, and I have no idea when I'll have time to pack everything by the time we move, but at least I'll be bringing in more money. Now, everybody please keep praying that Cody will find a job so our life is a little less hectic!

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that Joshua is becoming increasingly mobile. He's not crawling yet, but it sure seems like he's getting close. In fact, just in the past couple of days he's learned to use a combination of rolling over and over and turning 90 degrees every so often to get across the room. His little legs kick everything in sight and he reaches for literally every single thing he can, so we have to be vigilant. Here are a couple of pictures:What a cute kid. We have his 6-month appointment tomorrow (almost two weeks overdue), so we'll let you know how big he's gotten. It's such a joy to be his parents.

Anyway, that's the update on the Allemans for now. I'll try to get more pictures and videos posted soon, but if I don't, know that I'm working away and getting ready for our big move and I'll get things posted as soon as I can! =)

Happy Father's Day! (a little bit late)

What a wonderful privilege it was to celebrate Cody's very first Father's Day this past weekend! We had just come off a rather rough week...we learned that Cody didn't get the job that he had interviewed for, and Joshua had been giving us a hard time (we think he's teething). So, to distract ourselves, we all went to the Hogle Zoo in SLC on Saturday and topped it off with a trip to Leatherby's (since there is no longer one in Provo...). It was really fun. Sunday was a good day. We had the missionaries speak in Sacrament Meeting, and one of them was from Brazil! Luckily, he was still around after I finished playing the postlude so I got to talk with him for a little bit. He had only been in the field for about 6 weeks, but his English was great. He really appreciated the chance to speak in Portuguese with me, though. And of course, I loved the chance to speak with a native! I realized I'm a little out of practice, but I still pray in Portuguese, read the Liahona, and IM with friends from Brazil...so I hope I'll at least keep it for awhile longer. Cody was sweet enough to keep Joshua during Priesthood/RS, so I actually got to pay attention to the lesson...and Joshua was nice enough to sleep for Cody, so he got to pay attention as well! When we got home, Joshua and I showed Cody what we got him for Father's Day--two framed pictures of the one at the beginning of this blog post. One for work (once he gets a job) and one for home. I had taken Joshua to get professional portraits taken on Wednesday, and they printed out this picture so I could give it to Cody. The pictures are great--I'll try to post them on our website if I get the chance later today. We ordered several prints, so if we don't have enough for you, then just let me know which one you want and I'll try to get you a copy! Anyway, back to Father's Day. After looking at all the pictures and seeing how happy Cody was to see his son looking so cute, we took a family nap and woke up just in time for me to make dinner. I made grilled salmon with garlic and lemon pepper--my first time making salmon, and Cody simply raved about it. It was pretty good, I must say. Also on the menu were rice pilaf and asparagus, and we topped it off with an ice cream cake I had bought at Dairy Queen. It was a great day! Happy Father's Day to one of the best fathers ever...my husband. He's so wonderful with Joshua during the day, works the graveyard shift so we can meet all of our expenses, and treats me like a queen. I'm so grateful to be sealed to such a wonderful man. =)

More videos!

Okay, so I'm a slacker. I promised to update this blog at least once a week, and look at me--I haven't posted since last Tuesday. I'm sorry! To make up for it, I have a few videos to share. Once again, I apologize for the lack of quality, as these were all taken with my cell phone. It's just so much more easily accessible than our video camera. They seem even worse on here...they really do look better on my phone. Much more fluid on there, even though it's a much smaller screen. Anyway, we'll start with the oldest one, which was taken about a week ago:

He's also learned how to blow raspberries. At least, I think that's what they're called. He'll just sit there, making noises and trying to get our attention all the time. It's a little hard to tell the difference between the noises I'm making and his noises, but it's still cute, I think.

Joshua loves to be bounced by his daddy, as evidenced by this next clip (please ignore all of my comments in the foreground...I think I was talking way too loudly):

And finally, this one is probably the best video we have of him laughing so far. This one was taken on Saturday, as Cody was blowing on his cheek and bouncing him on the bed:

I know, I know, maybe someday we'll post videos where you can actually see facial expressions. I hope these will do for now!

He's learning new tricks =D

So, Joshua has learned a couple of new things recently! And my dearest husband has been so sweet to send me pictures and videos via our cell phones so I can share in the joy while I'm at work (isn't technology amazing?). Anyway, the first trick is that he can kinda-sorta sit up on his own. He needs to be put that way first, and he'll usually fall over after a minute or two, but it's pretty cute to watch. Oh, and he's getting really good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. We should probably wash his toys more often. Here's a picture of him performing both of these tricks (the picture was taken last Friday):
And for his next trick, which seemingly came out of nowhere (for me, anyway): he grabbed and held onto his bottle! Of course, I'm not usually around when he takes bottles, so I had no idea he was anywhere near this milestone. Lo and behold, Cody sent me these two pictures today:I couldn't believe it. Our little guy is growing up so fast! It makes me so happy. I miss being home with him during the day, so I make sure to treasure the weekends. Cody has another job interview on Thursday, so everyone please keep him in your prayers! If he gets this one, I may be able to finally quit and be the stay-at-home mom I've always wanted to be. Thanks!

Our little kitty?

As many people can relate, it's pretty difficult to keep a baby's fingernails trimmed. Joshua doesn't seem to like it much, so we try to do it when he's sleeping--but those nails grow so fast, it's hard to keep up! Plus, even when we do trim them, they still seem pretty sharp. In fact, last night he scratched me on my neck while I was rocking him before putting him to bed, and it hurt so badly I could barely finish singing his bedtime song! The past couple of days, Joshua has taken to scratching our couches, just like a cat. He seems intrigued by the plaid design, and I guess he can't help but reach out and try to grab something. I wonder if it almost seems 3D to him or something? Anyway, since they're pretty old couches, we haven't tried to stop him and instead took some pretty cute pictures of him going at it: I think you can see the scratch marks best, accompanied by the ever-present spots of drool, in the last picture. Silly kid. We really need to be better about trimming those nails...

Joshua loves his mommy!

So, Joshua has learned a new trick. Now that he has great control of his head and neck, he likes to turn and look up at me in the passenger seat during car rides! Sometimes he just stares and stares. It makes me so happy, especially when Cody comes to pick me up from work--almost like he has missed me so much during the day, he has to keep watching me to make sure I don't leave again. This is a picture I took with my cell phone the other day. I guess he thinks I'm a lot more interesting than the toys we hang from the carseat handle or the scenery out the rear window!

Our Little Science Experiment

So, I got a call at work earlier this week from someone at the BYU Infant Development Lab. Apparently, they're doing a study on 5-month old babies, and asked if we would allow Joshua to participate, since he'll be 5 months old on Sunday (!!!). We scheduled a time of 9:15am on Friday, May 16th, and agreed to meet them over by the Joseph F. Smith Building.

Once we got there, we were led into a room and the two students there began to explain what they were doing. They wanted to test how infants process faces and voices. This involves putting a mesh beanie-type cap on the baby's head. The cap has little sensors all over it that test the thought processes and brain activity going on in the baby's brain. After putting the cap on the baby, the parent holds the baby in his/her lap while the baby watches a short, 2 1/2-minute film sequence. The film shows flashes of faces and says "Hi" simultaneously for awhile, then flashes the face and a delayed "Hi," and then a "Hi" and a delayed face flash. I hope that made sense. The point of this is to see if babies have the same reaction as adults when the face and the voice don't line up (like when the sound gets out of sync with the TV, and the mouths move differently from the voices you hear--that drives me nuts sometimes). Then they leave the cap on the baby's head for 5 minutes after the film ends, to have something to compare to. It all sounded rather interesting, so we agreed to let Joshua participate and signed the necessary forms.

Okay, I want to make sure you all understand: this test was completely harmless. Joshua was sitting on my lap the whole time, and the little sensors are merely little plastic pads. He wasn't in any kind of pain. In fact, he seemed fine with the whole thing, ableit a little confused at times. He did quite well, though he didn't seem to pay much attention to the film while it was going (they turned out the lights, but he kept looking around at everything but the TV...). The entire process only took about 15 minutes.

They even gave us a picture of our little guy as a keepsake. I have a feeling we can use it as blackmail once he gets older...Isn't that a cute picture? They also provided him with a certificate, thanking him for his service:
It was definitely an interesting experience. Hopefully they draw some good conclusions about how babies process faces and voices. And Joshua got to be a part of that! =)