Eight Days a Week....

Life is just busy! There is a random set of things itching to be typed, so hang with me on this one.
Last Thursday I registered my sweet boy for Kindergarten. I had to fight off tears- to the point where I called Steve at work to vent about it. I absolutely cannot believe that Josiah will be 5 in less than two months - and will head off to kindergarten in the fall. Where does time go? He is going 5 full days - and I know this will be great for him as he is so bored with preschool and is beyond ready for more of a challenge- BUT kindergarten is kind of the beginning of the end. It seems like once they are in school, time flies so much faster somehow. Life gets busy in other ways - activities, programs, sports, candy sales, etc. Plus it officially marks the end of 'little-kid-dom' - the stage of innocent, cute, pudgy faces and baby teeth. While he has already started to think he is smarter than us, this will only grow more rapidly now. Soon he will be doing multiplication problems instead of the simple adding and subtracting he does now. And I'm sure they will do math totally different then, so even if I am good at math, mine is 'old school' and won't help him. He will be reading his Freddy chapter books all by himself and need. me. less... (sigh). Yes, signing my name on the registration form was tough! On the bright side, Josiah will be in school all day, surrounded by kids his age, with lots of structure - he will do so well in that environment! And there will be more opportunities for the teachers to provide him with a challenge, which is exciting. And I have to admit, this 2.5 hour preschool stuff is kind of annoying - someone is always missing a nap to get him there/home, so it will be nice to not have that weird break in the day.

Delia is teething, if only in the very early stages. This marks the end of another chapter for us - she is no longer an infant, and we won't get to go through any of that again. Its been mixed emotions as she grows out of the cute new-baby habits, because we both know we won't experience that again until we have grandchildren. It even brought us to the conversation of reversing the tubal ligation! Don't worry, we ended that conversation with a resounding NO, but its been weighing on both of us as we deal with these "lasts". She is such a happy baby now - amazing what this past month has done for her (and lots and LOTS of prayers!). She is rolling from her tummy to her back, and halfway back to the tummy, but not quite there yet. She is exploring her vocal chords in a much more excited fashion than either Eden or Josiah did - but it makes me laugh out loud every time, even when she is squealing in anger. She is starting to giggle- the new-found kind of baby giggle that is kind of grunt-like. And she has the biggest smile! She likes her exersaucer now, and likes to be propped up or sit in her bumbo seat to get a new view of the world around her. She laughs at the ceiling fan. and she sleeps! She sleeps a lot like Josiah - sometimes taking 4-hour naps during the day and still sleeping 12 hours at night! LOVE it! For the most part she is putting herself to sleep and that is just awesome. We had her 4-month check up last week and confirmed that she is a chunky girl ;) She is just shy of 16 pounds (Eden is only 20!), and her head is almost off the chart - yet her height is only the 10th percentile. Too funny. We call her TubbyWubby - which we know is only appropriate and non-confidence-smashing for a short time ;) So many exciting firsts mixed in with so many 'lasts'.

Eden is in a category all her own. She is walking now - but only when she wants to. We still classify her as a 'walker' though - because she walks across rooms, down the hallway, etc... However, she will mostly only do this when there is someone there cheering her on. She likes to selectively do things when she can make people clap and say "yay" for her. Such a diva this one! And there we are like dummies, encouraging the habit by clapping and hollering when she walks to(for) us - but its just so hard not to when the thought that crosses your mind is "she wasn't supposed to live and now she is [fill-in-blank-with-any-new-accomplishment]". And so we'll keep clapping. We met with her new early intervention teacher last week and she was just in awe of all that Eden is doing. Even though Eden isn't saying words yet, she is signing a few and her motor skills are "amazing", so there are really no concerns. Its bothering ME that she won't talk yet, but the teacher is a speech therapist and saw all of the early communication skills and basic signing so she was thrilled with that. Phew! And then over the weekend we got "mamama" a few times ;) I'm still going to work on that one! She is just hilarious though - she has the biggest, or perhaps most vocal, attitude ever. She snorts when she is mad - or when she can get people to laugh at her, she has the biggest, crooked-tooth grin I've ever seen. She laughs hysterically at the dogs, or at Josiah, or when you tickle her - a deep, belly laugh that makes everyone else laugh too. Her favorite trick right now is sneaking treats to my parent's shitzu - she thinks it is the funniest thing when she hands him one of her goldfish and he bites it out of her hand! All you have to do is say his name and she laughs. Too funny. Most days she is still taking two good naps, and she sleeps so well at night - but she is anther early riser. She is up by 6:30 every morning. Usually this gives me about 30 minutes with her where we sit on the couch and read book after book before hunger kicks in. She LOVES books!

Steve is in AZ for his evaluation and graduation from this crazy training period. It will be so nice to have this over with! He is still loving his job, but the past few weeks have been stressful with all of the extra training criteria. He is definitely missing these kiddos, and I don't mind handing them over the minute he gets in the door :) He is anxious for more free time to master Rock Band 3 and the Lego and Green Day rockbands he got for Christmas. Boys and their toys!

And then there is me! I was supposed to be starting school next week, but it isn't looking likely due to a mix up at the admissions offices. They received my transcripts at the undergrad office instead of the grad school office, and it has taken them more than a month to get them to the right building - just a block away! This is beyond frustrating, since it should have been such an easy, instant fix and is now likely to prevent me from getting in this semester at all. Not only does that suck because I so badly wanted to finally get back to school, but because that leaves me home at least until fall. If you know me or you've read the previous posts, you know how I feel about that! So I'm trying to figure out what to do now. There are a couple of job openings in the HR field in neighboring towns that I would be qualified for, but do I want back into that field? And do I want to work full time? The whole idea of doing school now was that it would be like a part-time job until the kids were all in school. Plus if I go back to work full-time that means full-time daycare, which is fine, but expensive! So I am just praying that God will point   me in the right direction. Back to uncertainty instead of knowing "come January I will have school and be fine". I'm not a fan of the unknown, but I have to trust. and wait. and I hate waiting ;)

There you have it, sports fans. I can't wait to get back to speedy internet so I can put pictures on here without wanting to toss my laptop across the room! I'll try that again tonight maybe....