Naptime Sweetness

Edward rarely resembles my sweet baby anymore. He is working hard at developing his tantrum skills. Usually, I get sick of him and decide to put him down for an early nap.

The instant his door closes, the screaming stops. I hear "On, on!" Edward helps me turn on his night-light and white noise machine. Then he snuggles in while we sit down. I sing his song while my adorable boy tells me where my nose, eyes, mouth, ears, and head are. After I lay him down, I always say the same things. Today, I heard them before I could open my mouth. "Goo-nie. Uv-oo. Byeeee!"

It was so hard to not go back and give him a big hug. But I really needed those two hours without screaming, yelling, and hitting. So I just smiled as I left.

I'm glad that I still have the naptime sweetness to remind me how much I love this guy.

Talking over Ice Cream

Ethan's directorial debut!



John reciprocated. (Please ignore the mess in the background. And Ethan's horribly long hair. It's been cut. But not Edward's. I'm not ready to give up the curls.)



And because I still can't believe it, this is how John let Edward eat his dinner a few weeks ago.

Checkups

Both boys had their well-checks today. They were champs.

Edward is at 25th percentile for weight, but 50th for height. He's already leaning out some like his brother. But with John's family's genes, so he won't be as tall. The dr was again impressed by his vocabulary. We've switched to only counting words we clearly understand, but that's still 50 or 60. And he's cutting 6 teeth at once, by my last count. Needless to say, he hasn't been very pleasant lately.

Ethan is at the top of the chart for height, but at 50th percentile for weight. (Yay for his weight coming up on the charts!) Long and lean. His checkup was more through. Cognitive and developmental tests, hearing and eyesight exams. He passed all but one with flying colors. The one was his eyesight. He's at 20/30. That left eye had a hard time with two letters on the small row. Not a worry at all right now, but he'll get glasses in a few years, I'm sure. Obnoxious genetics.

Ethan also got a prescription for allergy meds. Hopefully our days of sniffles and nights spent listening to him cough are over.

My favorite part of the boy's checkups is always the response these guys get from the drs and nurses. This dr calls them the smart brothers and praises them for their big brains. And one of the nurses today asked me if I was a school teacher because she was so impressed by how Ethan answered her questions during the eyesight and hearing test. (He was so cute. Whispering that he could hear the beep when it was a quite one.)

Unfortunately, the visit had to finish with shots. LOTS of them. I think that both boys hate being constrained even more than they hate the shots. So they start yelling at me the second I get their hands, and it turns to screams with the added pain of the shots. Unpleasant. Luckily Ethan is done until he's 11. Edward... he'll survive a few more.

Austin Singers Shameless Plug

Come see the Austin Singers! We're performing a collection of folk-songs arranged by John Rutter and a Haydn mass, with a chamber orchestra and wonderful soloists.

It's been fun (and a lot of work) to sing with this group. I can only hope that I'll be able to adjust my work schedule and be able to sing with them in the future. So just in case this is my only concert with the group, come hear us this saturday and sunday!

Saturday the 18th at 8pm, or Sunday the 19th at 4pm. Locations and ticket prices can be found here.

(For those of you in the ward - Tim Workman is the director. It's fun to see him in his element.)

Talking with Messy Boy

Just in case you missed this on John's blog---

Whirlwind

My typical day goes like this:
- Get up a little after the boys do and let John get out of the house
- Run errands, play, or if Edward's in a good mood, take care of some chores
- Lunch
- Put Edward down for a nap, Ethan in front of the Wii, and take a shower
- Get ready for work and sneak in another chore or two
- Hand-off the kids to John
- 8-hrs on my feet in the lab
- Come home and crash into bed

Working every evening is creating some problems that I'm not sure how to deal with. Notice two things. I only have time for a small handful of chores each day, and usually most of them involve loads of laundry or cleaning up after the last meal. And there is no down-time for me.

My house is becoming progressively messier and I just can't spend all weekend, every week, cleaning.

And I've started cutting back on sleep to get a few quiet minutes every day. Not a good solution.

I'm not complaining. I really enjoy my job and know that it's what I'm supposed to be doing right now. And part of the reason this job is right is because it allows me to be home with my boys for much of their day.

But after two weeks, I'm seeing that we're going to need to make some changes around here. It's been a whirlwind. I need to feel like I have my feet under me again.

Any suggestions?