7 months (and change)!

Our little Bear is 7 months old! Oh my goodness!

~18 lbs!

The GOOD

Bear is a sweet little guy. Rarely fussy, will ride well in the car now if he can look out the window, very active and full of giggles. He likes to blow raspberries and grab faces. He has zero stranger danger and loves it when people talk to him. He's got a lot of hair now that's got some blonde and red tints and decidedly brown eyes. He is getting very good at sitting and can drag himself around the floor though his preferred method of movement is to roll where he wants to go. He's very curious and will grab anything within reach and immediately put it in his mouth so we've had to be careful about what Z plays with. Also about dirty wipes during diaper changes (ewwwww).

The BAD

Bear has had his first big illness this month and is still battling it. It started with a croupy cough that morphed into a loose, phelgmy cough, then a stuffy nose, and capped it off with an ear infection! Yowsers! The crazy thing is he was still so jolly that I didn't even know! He'd been a bit fussy and sleeping poorly but I wrote it off to teething. I took him in to get a flu shot before we travel and asked if they would just check out his cough first and the doctor exclaimed, "Whoa! That ear is really infected!"

His sickness, coupled with him being a very distracted eater these days, has made breastfeeding challenging. He's latching poorly and I have to wear a cover or take him to a quiet, dark room sometimes to get him to eat well. This has contributed to blocked ducts for me a couple times. Ouch!

He also has four top teeth cutting at the same time. Yeesh. Poor guy.

Something else that he thinks is bad (I'm okay with it) is that he can't stand and crawl. He wants to so badly and will get pretty frustrated when it's not working out. He loves to stand and hold onto the couch, but he has very poor balance at this point so someone has to be right there at all times.

The AWESOME

Bear is such a real boy now. He chatters all the time and is very interactive and fun. His vocabulary is mostly restricted to "bla bla bla" and "mamama" but it's so darn cute. He lights up when he sees Joe, Z or me, which is adorable. He's starting to finally get into solids, which is encouraging since I was starting to think he would want to exclusively breastfeed forever. He is still working on really being able to effectively chew without gagging, but he wants it so badly, he's lunging at food like a starving hyena.

I don't feel like I'm just surviving as a mom anymore, I'm being able to really enjoy my kids.

I can't believe that Bear's babyhood is already halfway over! I'm going to have two toddlers running around so soon, it's ridiculous! 

November, farewell.

We have been so busy that this last month has really flown by. I wrote a separate update about myself, so I won't go into that anymore, but here are the other changes in our lives this last month!

Joe and I made the wise decision to stay home for Thanksgiving. Traveling with littles is just not fun and since we are traveling for Christmas we decided to hunker down at home. I had a great time making dinner even though I botched the mashed potatoes!

Joe also got to go to his first Packer's game with his Aunt Mary! (Thank you!) It was fun to have her for a brief visit and the boys definitely enjoyed seeing her. Also, the Packer's pulled out a win for that game, which was awesome considering the game before and the game after were crushing defeats. I was very happy that Joe got to have a positive experience! Being football fans is very stressful sometimes.

I was approached by a vivacious and lovely lady, Karyn, in my mom's group to join the board of the non-profit, Better Bites, that she directs and decided to accept. The mission is to bring nutritious food to the low income families of the St. Croix Valley (where we live) through a variety of programs that you will likely see me sharing about on my Facebook page. I'm excited about the opportunity and flattered that Karyn and Joe were both so confident in my ability to serve on a board of any kind. If you'd like to learn more about Better Bites, click here!

Z is making so much progress with his language! Sometimes I feel discouraged because I compare him to other kids but then his speech therapist reminds me of where we started and I see how much growth he's had. I'm really proud of him. He is pretty shy to use language to new people or in a new environment, but he's getting pretty brave when he's home with me. He's regularly using two word sentences now and constantly repeating after us. It's really great to see all the thoughts in his mind starting to come out.

He's also getting really good at listening and obeying, better at calming down when he is upset, and LOVES his brother. The two of them will just giggle up a storm and it makes me so excited for the future when Bear is actually big enough to really play with Z. They really seem to get a kick out of each other right now, it's pretty freaking adorable. Z also loves the snow! He was twirling around in our parking lot yesterday while I was putting Bear in the car with his arms out calling, "SNOW FALLING! SNOW FALLS! SNOW FALLING!!" It was hilarious.

Bear's 7 month post is coming soon, so I'll leave any updates for him to that.

Take Two

You may remember when I said that I wasn't going to be working in the fall. I was nervous about staying home full time with two kids and upset about losing my job. Then the call came from my department head and miraculously I ended up with two classes, daycare worked out, it was great!

Then the fall came.

I've been struggling. I have had twice the number of students and am teaching a new class, which is always harder. Also, I have almost no time to work while I'm on campus. In previous semesters I taught class in the morning and then stayed on campus and worked until I picked Z up at 3. This semester I leave directly after class and pick up the boys. Not really having any time to do my work at work has meant that all of my grading and prep time has to happen at home. That is really tough because there are about 1 million other things that also have to happen during those precious hours my kids are sleeping and trying to grade while they are awake is basically impossible. If I'm lucky, maybe they nap at the same time for 1-2 hours. If all goes well, they are in bed by 7:30/8, which gives me another 2 hours. Except that I also need to clean, make dinner, do laundry, have a relationship with my spouse, rest my brain, eat, shower, use the bathroom, talk to friends and family, return emails, etc. I've been managing, but just barely. I seriously think working full time was easier than this last semester has been. 

Therefore, when my department head sorrowfully told me that he didn't have any classes for me in the spring, but would have classes available in the fall I felt... relieved. RELIEVED. This has been so hard and even though I am still going to fulfill my compulsion to do something with a few other projects, I am grateful that I can have this moment to breathe and focus on my kids. I'm glad I'll be able to savor the last bit of Bear's babyhood and I think the consistency of being home with me is going to be helpful for Z as we continue with speech therapy. 

Now, this is not to say that I think staying home full time is going to be a picnic. I know enough from the last summer that spending my whole day with two littles is not always an easy task. However, I am going to be thankful for this season of life. It's going to be brief and I think that knowledge gives me a different perspective than if it was more ambiguous. At this point in time, I fully intend to return to UWRF in the fall semester, so that means I know there's an end date for spending my whole day surrounded by littles. Also, I know more people in my mom's group now, so I don't feel as anxious about not getting adult interaction. I'll just start randomly inviting myself over for playdates at my friend Katie's house (that's cool, right Katie?).

It's also not to say that I haven't enjoyed my classes. I have! I've really enjoyed teaching English 100, just with an infant and a toddler at home, it's been really challenging to keep up.

Disclaimer: Things can always change, but this is the plan for now.