A new normal

Marissa has been in school for a few weeks now, and I think I've finally figured out a new normal for our days. It hasn't been as hard to adjust to (for me or Arianna) as I expected it to be. Roman takes nice long naps on a very regular schedule, so every morning from 10:30-12:30 I get to spend quality alone time with my middle child. It's actually quite wonderful, something I never would have predicted 11 months ago. Just before Roman was born, and for several months after, Arianna was a mess and very hard to appreciate and interact with. But she's such a lovely, sweet, thoughtful, imaginative, communicative person lately! She has ideas and opinions all her own and shares them all the time. She loves to ask "I cuddle you?" and "go upstairs, listen to songs, and jump?" and gets so excited when it's time to get Roman up from his nap.

Roman is standing up every chance he gets, and cruises all around the living room. He looks like sometimes he might forget to hold on to something, and I can't believe he'll be one in a little over two months! He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth are about halfway in. He's still so tiny, but looks like such a big boy when he's standing up grinning at me with all those teeth. After several weeks of waking VERY often at night, he's back to sleeping pretty good. He sometimes wakes once or twice, but goes right back to sleep after nursing. He still loves to nurse, and although I'm not going to wean him as soon as he turns one, I would really like to not nurse him as long as I nurse(d?) Arianna. We'll see how that goes...

Marissa is loving school still. She's made several friends, got invited to a birthday party (that she can't go to since we'll be busy), and discovered a friend that lives in our neighborhood. Somehow, miracle of miracles, she manages to finish all of her food for lunch every day. After months of taking over an hour to eat, we were very worried about that aspect of her day! Some days she comes home and wants to color or write at the table, and I can't imagine her wanting to after spending all day at school! She was sent home with a "baggy book" to read at home last night, and it was supposed to be independent reading - she did great! She's sounding out words she sees everywhere, and has a good grasp of reading already.

I'm almost finished sanding the beds for the girls. We got a set of (college dorm room) bunk beds that we'll bunk when the girls get (much) older, and I've been sanding them down to get rid of the grime and in preparation for painting them white. I'm excited to get them finished and set up their room. Arianna's been sleeping on the floor (or the Dora foam couch) for weeks now for some reason, she refuses to sleep on her mattress on the floor. Hopefully once they have cool new beds, she'll get over it!

Last week my hometown of Owego, NY was hit with massive flooding from the river that it's near. Entire first stories of houses were flooded, and it's going to take a long time for the area to be rebuilt, if they can even manage to do it in the first place. Such a hard time for everyone who lives there. I was so glad my Grandma and parents live high up on hills and weren't affected by flooding, just lost their power for a few days.

My sister has a boyfriend as of last night! I'm so excited for their relationship and how happy she seems to be.