What We've Been Up To

I can't believe that it's already the middle of September. This month has flown by! I've been on "summer break" since the 2nd week of August, but life seems busier that before. I think that part of that is that I'm going back to teaching (part time) this fall, and whenever you have something you're not completely looking forward to, time seems to speed by.

Steven:
We started potty training about 3 weeks ago, and it is going extremely well. He stays dry most of the day and has been wearing underwear a lot of the time. He's even started telling me when he has to go and is going almost as soon as he sits on his potty seat. Instead of potty training in the bathroom (which is pretty small), we keep his potty seat in the living room with a big plastic mat underneath it. He sits on it when he's watching Sesame Street or his Noah video, and that has worked really well.

Steven is currently teething--he's getting SEVEN new teeth right now, and he only had eight to start with! Fortunately, he's a great teether, and I didn't even realize he was teething until I felt around in his mouth out of curiosity.

He's started developing an imagination and likes to pretend. He is completely into Noah and loves watching his Noah video. Last week, he pretended to call Noah on his cell phone and asked him how his boat was :) It is so fun to watch him learn more about God!

Steven's also adding new words to his vocabulary everyday. This week he started saying haircut, arm pit (learned that one from bath time!), washcloth, and a couple others that I don't remember anymore. I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of what he's saying since he's using so many new words, but I'm catching on as he uses them in context or shows me what he means.

Michelle:
The peanut is on the move! She is crawling (but not on her hands and knees yet) like crazy and wants to be wherever her big brother is. Steven didn't move until much later, so it's a huge adjustment to have to chase her down all the time! She loves to play with toys, and I spend a lot of time making sure that Steven doesn't steal her toys. She rarely cries when he does, but it's not something we want Steven doing. He is starting to catch on, though, that if he brings her a different toy, she'll usually drop the one that he wants :)

Michelle is also learning new things. When I went to get her out of her crib last week, she was clapping, and just today, she pulled up on the baby gate so she was on her knees. Of course, she was crying because she was over tired and Mark and Steven were on the other side of the gate. She's definitely not as content playing by herself as Steven was, but I am seeing more and more that Steven was an exception to the rule.

Mark:
Mark's been super busy at work consolidating the Michigan and Ohio offices of the company. His overtime was eliminated over a year ago, but he is now approved for a few hours during the busiest week of the month. It does mean that he is home more, and that is definitely nice. Steven loves playing with him, and Mark enjoys teaching him all about basketball and baseball.

Me:
As I mentioned, I'm going back to teaching a week from tomorrow. I haven't taught since Steven was 4 months old, so I'm nervous about going back. On top of that, they have 100% changed the curriculum this fall, and I missed all the training in the spring since I didn't know I'd be teaching. It used to be a literature-based writing class, and now there is no literature in the book at all. I've been working through the different material I've been given, and my project for the week is to read the new text. It's also going to be a huge adjustment to go from working one day a week with no prep or grading to working three days a week and a lot of prep and grading, esp. since my class is full.

Tomorrow the kids and I are meeting up with my parents during their layover at the airport, and I am really looking forward to it. Steven and I spent time with my dad last Saturday when he was flying through, and Steven was crying "More Grandpa, more Grandpa!" in a very sad voice when we dropped my dad off at the airport. I felt so bad for him! This time I'm going to remember my camera, so I should have some good pictures to post tomorrow. I've hardly taken any pictures this month, so I have a lot of catching up to do. Pictures posts are so much more interesting!