summer update!

To say this blog has fallen by the wayside would be an understatement--yikes!

In the past four months a lot has happened.  James has stepped down from Dean of Students, I've picked up more tutoring gigs, we bought a lake house, moved houses at Webb, and the French exchange students came and went.  Asher is 1, Cadence is 3, and James and I are tenuously holding on to our sanity most days.  Some days are obviously rougher than others, but as of late I feel like things have calmed down a little and the kids haven't been so difficult to parent.  Cadence is becoming a better listener, helper, and learning ways to effectively deal with her emotions, and Asher is beginning to be able to play with her with fewer meltdowns--the moments when they are playing happily are the best!

They have both had bouts of constipation this summer, and I still am completely at a loss as to why!  They eat tons of fruits and vegetables--mostly berries and grapes, so they are definitely getting a healthy dose of fiber every day.  I think we've got things smoothed out now, but I'm sure we'll be thrown for another loop soon.

Asher's sleeping....well, we've essentially given up at the lake house.  One of us lays down with him every night and for every nap and then once he's asleep we can get up, but he definitely stays in our bed all night and still wakes up every single night.  There were about two weeks where I got him to not nurse in the middle of the night anymore, but since his constipation I've been giving in since he really doesn't drink much during the day, so maybe that is part of his problem.  He shows no signs of wanting to give up nursing now, so who knows when the weaning will happen!

Cadence is growing and learning so much, and although she is headstrong and opinionated, she's also very sweet and loves to be a helper and make things for her friends.  She loves swimming in the lake and going "too deep" with Daddy, and the number of hilarious things she says on a daily basis are too numerous to keep track of.

9 months

Looks like I've missed a few months!  I do have notes about some things that have happened since my last post, but I wanted to do 9 months before I forgot!

Asher is now 9 months old, and he just recently got over a little virus, which just brought about a really high fever and discomfort, but was unsettling nonetheless.  We even took him to the doctor for our first non-well visit ever!  The doctor said he wasn't going to give him antibiotics just yet, but he sent me with a prescription just in case, and sure enough Asher was better within 24 hours.  This month we also left Asher alone for the first time overnight--over 4 nights in fact--as we took a school trip to Quebec.  Grandma and Pa took care of him.  He's also started eating more bits of solid food and fewer purees, and he loves those little cereal puffs of course.  He also started crawling full force, and he loves to move from room to room and play with Cadence's puzzle pieces...or really whatever she has that she doesn't want him to get.  He is still not sleeping through the night, and usually ends up in our bed most nights, but we're holding off on any sleep training until after we travel for spring break.  He does take really great naps during the day, so that's one positive!  He is still a very happy and easy-going baby, and we are enjoying his sweet personality so much.