February - Peace out!

So, we say goodbye to another month. A cold, cold month. Cold and stressful.

Joe

Under a lot of stress. Send him cheerful messages and such whenever you may think of it. It's hard to be in limbo job-wise and still be dedicated and work hard. He's doing a great job, but it's not a really fun time in our lives. Also, the improv community here is hard to break in to and that has also been discouraging.

Sara

Sick. I can't seem to stay healthy for any reasonable stretch of time and it's wearing on me. Also, my job existing in the fall is not looking great right now. I'd say I've got maybe a 30/70 chance. Other than that, my classes are going well and I'm getting more involved with the Moms Group I joined and went to my first book club, which was fun. I even have a "mom date" this weekend, which I'm excited about.

Our Jobs

This whole job thing is just very discouraging for us. We moved here with a lot of optimism and River Falls rose to our expectations. We're loving the area, we've just started to find our place. We were really looking forward to settling down here for awhile. It's a huge disappointment to potentially have to leave somewhere that we've found such a great life balance. Working part time has been fantastic for me and I've loved the work. Joe's been doing great at his job and has a lot of support from his dean. But, now there may be no money. Which means most of the projects they were planning and hoping to do will not be able to happen. Enrollment may drop. Things could get very bad for UWRF and that's really upsetting for us. It really felt like this opportunity and life had been given to us as a gift, but I guess maybe we only get to have it for a little while.

I'm trying to be hopeful, but it's hard to not get gloomy sometimes.

Our Boys 

Z has been testing a lot of boundaries and just got through a week long phase of refusing to eat dinner just to prove that he would not be owned. He also was sleeping TERRIBLY. He would wake up nearly every hour from 11 PM on and decide to have full out parties. He seems to have gotten over that and has slept like a champ the last few nights. Lord only knows what that was all about.

He is learning SO MUCH. It's amazing. My anxiety about his speech is starting to fade away as he adds more words to his vocabulary daily. He's just very cautious about his speech. My best guess is this: He will test out a word, check our reaction, see if he thinks it sounds right and if he doesn't, he will NOT say it again until he's secretly practiced it about 1000 more times.

He knows pretty much all of his animal sounds now, can identify (verbally) three colors and knows the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 9. Yes, 9. I'm not sure why, but he knows that number in particular. We were at the library, playing with a numbers puzzle and he took the 6, flipped it around, held it out to me and proudly proclaimed, "9!! 9!!" I just stared at him because I had no idea how he came up with that and so I asked him to tell me again and he did. I'm still not sure what it is about 9 that intrigues him, but whatever makes him happy.

His other big accomplishment this week was peeing in the potty for the first time! Being the emotional wreck that I am, I started crying about my little boy growing up. This is by no means the result of any potty training. We've just been setting him on the potty before bath time to get him used to the idea. He did request to sit on the potty one day, so I obliged, but I'm not going to really put in effort until Bebo is born unless Z really takes the wheel. At this point I don't think he's really ready to use the potty. He doesn't care a lick if he soils his diaper, nor is he really showing any other signs of wanting to potty train, but we just wanted to have it around for him to explore. Some of the older kids in his class at daycare are potty training and sit on the little toilet they have in their room so I figured he might get curious.

Bebo is in great health, so at least I can take some solace in that. Whatever issues I seem to be facing, my little bundle is growing with no issues whatsoever. He's gotten very active and strong lately, and can really deliver some wallops. He's much more of a night baby than Z was, and I feel him a lot right as I'm going to bed or in the middle of the night. He was really not a fan of my stomach bug last week and I'm not sure he's completely forgiven me yet. It's okay, we will forgive each other when we meet face to face and he's no longer giving me indigestion and I'm no longer jostling his home around so much.