Either life is too busy or I'm too lazy to keep this up. One or the other is true all the time. So I'll just start!
Yesterday
I went shopping for 6 hours by myself. It was glorious. It was my treat
because I survived 8 days of single parenting while Dan was in
Nicaragua on a missions trip with church. I have quite a bit of birthday
money, and I'm actually spending it slowly this time, instead of the
usual "spend it all in one day then return things because I'm
indecisive" thing I usually do. We also went to see fireworks with some
friends last night til 11pm and the kids are all soooo tired today!
The
month of June was crazy. Marissa had her last day of school and a
school program. We had a few weeks of nothing, then we DROVE to Disney
World with Dan's parents and bro & sis-in-law for a week. The kids
did SO GREAT, and it was so much fun. But it was exhausting! Then we
drove back through the night on Friday, and Dan left for Nicaragua
Saturday morning for 8 days. It was hard to be without him, but my
college roommate (Laureann) came for a few days with her two boys, and
we had dinner with some friends, so that helped break it up. We have
this week to catch up from that, and then next week is VBS (I'm watching
babies again of course), the next week is "practicums" for me and
Marissa to prepare for Classical Conversations homeschooling which
starts the middle of August. And after practicums, I'm driving the kids
to NY for a few weeks for an extended visit with everyone. I'm really
excited about that visit, just not so much about the 9 hours of driving
with no adult backup! Dan's taken so much time off from work in June
that he just can't take any more yet.
Marissa's adjusting to
being at home all day (and so am I). The kids play really well together
most of the time, and when they're not, they're fighting of course!
Marissa is in massive craft mode still, and makes the most creative
things out of paper and tape. Lol. Arianna is doing pretty well with
potty training - although we reverted to wearing a pullup all the time
because of her ongoing poop issues. She's still on Miralax everyday,
which usually does the trick, but for some reason it's not always
perfect. Roman got a hold of her cup yesterday (while I was shopping,
and Dan didn't realize which color cup was hers), and poor Roman had a
miserable day with lots of nasty diapers! Arianna's talking so well, and
copying Marissa like crazy. She knows all her letters and sounds, and
busts out the most hilarious phrases, directly imitating the things Dan
and I say (it's a good thing they're not bad phrases!). Roman still
really only says "mommy" "ball" and barks and quacks. But he's trying.
We're going to a class for him since he qualifies for help, but I'm not
really sold on it, and am trying to get in-home help instead.
Roman
and Arianna play like crazy together. And usually Arianna ends up
knocking him down or injuring him in some way. While Dan was in
Nicaragua, they were running down the hall, and A bumped R and he ran
smack into the corner of the mudroom doorway with his forehead. It was
BAD immediately, and I considered taking him to get stitches. It was
super swollen but didn't really bleed very much, and it's scabbed over
pretty well, so I think he's ok. But it was scary! He's still super
sweet and cuddly, and such a wonderful sleeper. But he's definitely
showing his age (19mo) lately...tantrums are starting!
This
morning I turned in my weekly editing work for probably the last time
ever! Between my vacations and their schedule and the ending of remote
reviewers anyways, I am probably done. It was the most wonderful job for
this time in my life and I loved the flexibility of it. But I will be
soooo glad to have my evenings free after the kids go to bed!
I
think that's all I can think of to update on. Wish I could have made
the time to chronicle in detail our Disney trip, but at least we have
pictures to remember it by! Maybe someday (in my free time - ha!) I'll
get back to updating this more regularly. For now, I'm glad I at least
do it once in a while.
