June Recap!

Whew! Busy month.

My brother Aaron and his wife Becky came for a brief but fun visit one weekend and then Joe's brother, Luke, and his girlfriend, Shawn, came the following weekend. It was great to have people to play with and give Z a lot of attention.

The Man of the Family: Joe's into his summer schedule which means he works four day weeks instead of five, which is great. We love having him home with us for that extra day. He takes Z for "Father/son Friday Adventures," which they always return from happy, dirty and ready for a nap or quiet time. The only downside is that he actually has a lot of work to do this summer including remodeling the studio at the University, so he has to squeeze in as much as possible on the days he works.
Aside from that, he makes himself busy being the baby whisperer of the house and putting Bear into coma-like sleep with his signature fluffy blanket shush march.

The Lady of the House: I'm getting into a routine with the boys (as much as you can get an infant into a routine) and have made it a goal to get out of the house every day, even if just for a walk. I've started meeting up with a couple ladies from my mom group for play dates, which is great. We all have ~2 year old sons and I love that they understand if I just have to call it a day and leave. This is something I've had to learn: if my kids are losing it, I need to know when to just say, "enough is enough" and go home instead of trying to accomplish a task or stay somewhere for hours. I feel like I'm getting a handle on things a bit.

My brand new news is that I am going back to work in the fall after all. UWRF had more students enroll than anticipated which necessitated the addition of two more sections of English 100. The department chair needed to bring back an adjunct for these classes and they chose me. I was really flattered that they picked me even though I only have the one year of experience. After talking it over, crunching the numbers and checking with a daycare, we decided I would accept the position. The boys will go to a daycare at one of the Lutheran churches in the mornings on MWF that is maybe a 10 minute walk from the building Joe and I work in. We were really excited to find this daycare that allowed for a schedule with only three half days, which is really all we need and makes it affordable.

The Eldest Child: Z had his post-op checkup and his tubes look great. He also had another hearing test and did well. His language has made huge leaps forward. He repeats words constantly and has started using the two word sentences that everyone was wanting from him. He has gotten more obedient and is learning to use his words to make requests. It's been really exciting to see his improvement.

He's continued his love of books and memorizing chunks of his favorites. He has nearly the entire book of Bear Snores On memorized, as well as The Napping House. Surprisingly, I have them memorized too. So does Joe.

He is still adjusting to having Bear around, and even though he loves visitors it does tend to send his schedule into a crazy spiral. He throws a lot more tantrums than he did before and will get really frustrated if he wants my help or attention while Bear is nursing. We're also still battling his frustrating habit of hitting, both in anger and play. The kid spends so much time in time out for hitting some days that I feel like that's all we do. For some reason it will only stick for a couple days and then he's back at it. I'm starting to think time outs might not work for this issue since a lot of the time his goal is just to get my attention and he is pleased as punch when I stop what I'm doing because he hit me and I take him to time out.

The Smallest Child: Growing like a weed. Eating a lot though at 6 weeks he started spacing out his feedings during most of the day as well as giving me one longer night time. At the time of this writing the best nights are 5.5 hours. Woooot. He started smiling, which is really nice. It makes him feel more like a real person and nothing warms mommy's heart like getting a gummy smile from her little guy. He's also very, very strong. Beside rolling over (infrequently), he has really excellent head control and will bear his weight on his legs. His preferred position is to be held up high on one's shoulder so he can lift his head up and look around. More to come in his two month update.