Update

Eric

On August 21^st Eric and I celebrated our 10^th anniversary.  We were in St. Louis at the time.  We went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Chet.  Then we walked around the mall.  (Eric’s favorite activity.)  I am so good about taking pictures of the kids but didn’t get one picture of us on our anniversary! 

Football season is upon us.  Eric loves his fantasy football with friends he has collected throughout the years.  He is an assistant coach to Blake’s flag football team.  The coach is a friend of ours in the neighborhood.

Katie

I love having a school schedule now.  It is helping me start to feel like a person again.  I am slowly starting to get a little more sleep at night.  I’ve started running again and am at two miles.  I feel very busy with limited down time during the day.  Lots to remember, cook, clean, wipe, change, do.  I like it though.  I am teaching primary now—10 little 6 year olds.

Blake

Blake is loving school.  It is so helpful to have him and Janie separated for a good portion of the day.  They fight nonstop when they are together.  He is always making her scream or cry.  He either physically hurts her (he cannot keep his body to himself when it comes to her or Ty) or says something to bug her.  Yet when I ask the kids to go play in the basement—Blake can’t go without Janie.  So he comes up and asks for her to go play with him downstairs.  Within two minutes she is crying and comes upstairs.  Then Blake follows to get her to come back downstairs.  It is weird.  He can’t live with her/can’t live without her.

Blake is playing soccer on Monday nights.  The league he is in plays 4 tournaments on Sundays so he won’t participate in those.  He just practices on Monday nights for 1 hour.  He is also playing flag football two nights a week with games on Saturdays.  His schedule might be a little too full.  But he loves his sports.  After his game on Saturday a parent commented about Blake “He has some wheels.”  He had scored a touchdown and it was pretty exciting. 

Janie

Janie loves school too.  She is always  trying to figure out when she gets to go again.  I told her she goes every other day except for the weekends when she skips two days.  I think she has her schedule down now so I don’t have to tell her every five minutes. 

I just signed her up for ballet.  She will go every Thursday morning for 1 hour.  She is pretty cute in her little ballet outfit.  I’m excited to put a bun in her hair.

Ty

Ty is my buddy during the week.  It is nice to have some one on one time with him when the kids are at school.  He is a happy little dude.   The other day I was reading/singing him a nursery rhyme book.  He looked at me and said “zip it mom.”  (Perhaps I say that to them.)  So I stopped singing.  Then he turned the page and looked at me and said “sing the song” (with his lisp).  It cracked me up.  But then later that day he said “Put Chet on the floor right now.”  It’s hard not to laugh but I don’t want him to get too sassy with me. 

My favorite thing he does lately is using plurals.  He adds an –es to lots of words when there is more than one.  Chip-es (chipis), book-es (bookis), fruit snack-es…He loves the cereal Kix.  One ball of Kix is a “kick.”  When he wants a bowl of Kix he asks for “kick-es.”  Is this translating in writing?  Because it is pretty funny to hear him talk like this.  He uses the /f/ sound for /s/.  He wants me to spin him.  “Fin me!”  When he asks for food or drink he always wants “yots of em” (Lots of them). 

He hates nap time and bursts into tears when I say it is time for bed.  He still naps for me though.  And he is still in his crib.  I’m so grateful he hasn’t tried to climb out. 

Chet

He is starting to sleep for longer stretches—seven hours is the most he has gone between feedings.  Those nights are awesome.  Otherwise he goes about five hours for the first part of the night.  Can’t complain.  He is great during the day and rarely cries.  When he does it means he either needs to eat or sleep. 

I love the brief periods of time when he is alert and focuses and interacts—especially when he smiles and furrows his eyebrows like he is trying to figure out how to communicate.

Life is good.