I realized that I haven't posted in a couple months. I've just been so busy and overwhelmed with all the little details that have surrounded our move and settling in here that I just haven't had time. My days are consumed by the kids and my evenings are consumed with work, Joe, and creating tools to help me work with Z during the day. We've had a lot of visitors, which has been great, but has kept us really busy. In fact, my parents are visiting right now!
Canton is certainly different than River Falls and we've had some days where we have really missed Wisconsin. I especially miss the moms group I was a part of in WI and haven't found anything like that here yet. However, here's a little glimpse into our day to day lives right now.
Joe is working as a full time videographer now, which means he spends all of his time shooting footage, doing interviews, editing, and lots of meetings with all of the many departments and offices of the colleges that are longing for videos. It's a really big adjustment for him to not be teaching and he's really missed working with students. He was just asked to be the adviser for the student film club, so I hope that will help fill that void a little for him. Thus far his videos have been really well received and he's gotten a lot of accolades. But, as with any new position, there have also been a lot of growing pains as everyone figures out how to effectively communicate their visions, etc.
We decided that this year I am going to be a full time stay at home mom and I have been working really hard to engage in that role, especially as this is Z's last year before preschool and I am trying to do everything in my power to help prepare him and get him on par with his age group. I spend a lot of evenings I'm not working putting together charts, schedules, games, etc. I'm also keeping up with some freelance resume writing to keep bringing in some income.
Z currently has home services for speech therapy two times a week and an itinerant special education teacher two times a week that both come to our home to work with him. (Yes, visitors 4 days a week. My house has never been cleaner and I've never been more frazzled as I follow around the 1 year old tornado desperately picking up toys before Z's appointments.) I'm probably going to reduce or eliminate the special education teacher's visits soon since we are doing a lot of the same activities with him and I think he's getting very tired of being prodded at all the time, but we'll see. Z finally seems to be adjusted to Canton and doesn't appear to be attempting to get us to drive him back to River Falls anymore. I would say his best progress has been conquering the toilet (!!!!!) and his biggest challenge has been that he has a deep and inexplicable dread of a blue jay's "jeer." Whenever he hears it he completely flips out, which took me months to figure out since he doesn't really have enough language to explain it to me. Unfortunately we have a robust blue jay community outside our door and I haven't hit upon a successful method to address this problem yet. Suggestions are welcome.
Bear is getting so big and real that I can barely believe it. He adores all things on wheels, stuffed animals, and legos. Dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves, climbing stairs - all things he gives a big thumbs up to. He's talking quite a lot, which is really exciting and, honestly, a bit of a relief. He loves dancing and can't hear a beat without at least stopping to briefly headbang in acknowledgement of the tunes. He's relishing the fall leaves, being able to chase Z around, and being a big boy (or so he thinks.) He briefly tricked me into believing he was going to potty train himself when Z was using the potty but has lost his steam once Z moved on to exclusively using the toilet. Getting him into his own room dramatically improved our sleep and his, which is great. However, he is proving to be a VERY picky eater, which is a brand new experience for me since Z has always eaten pretty much anything.
We've settled into our house and while it has its issues, we couldn't ask for a better location. Our neighbors are kind, we can walk to a lot of great places, and I am definitely enjoying the luxury of the kids having their own rooms. We're starting to meet people and I get out with the kids a lot. Tuesdays and Fridays we generally go to the Farmer's Market. Every other Friday we go to a playgroup at a church. Storytime at the library has just started up on Wednesdays. I'm looking to form a little play date group with a couple other stay at home parents that I've met but I haven't gotten myself together to do that yet. Maybe by my next post update I will!
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