As an update for everyone, Bryan is loving his new job. He has his own office (albeit a small one) and gets to work quietly by himself all day and far from customers - his preferred atmosphere. His office mates are from his account a very nice bunch, who go out to lunch together every Monday and have a pot-luck at work once in a while.
When Christopher was showing his daddy yesterday that he's learning to count money (he has a few coins he's been allowed to acquire), Bryan said, "Do you know, that's what Daddy does for a job? I count money. There are some people with soooo much money that they pay me to count it." Christopher was not impressed.
Alexander is officially a toddler. Since that day he decided to walk, he's kept going. He still finds it faster to crawl when he
really wants something fast, but he seems to enjoy walking, and he definitely enjoys the attention he gets from doing it around grownups, more particularly his grandparents. As to other milestones, he isn't talking and doesn't have any incentive to with all these people catering to him. He's
finally sleeping through the night, 9-7. Only took him a year!
He eats a TON. It seems that I'm always feeding him because he's always wanting food. I know this because he'll climb on me, point at the food, and make sounds that are probably supposed to be talking but just sound like cute gibberish. He's getting better at not eating everything he finds, and understands when I say "Ick!" When I do that, he will usually throw whatever small thing it was that he wanted to eat, just for show. It's pretty funny. When he was sick a while ago, he also developed an ear infection, which he is getting over, but I believe he'll be sad when we run out of the medicine because he
loves it! He'll take the syringe from me when he's taken all the medicine, and he'll suck on it for a while just to be sure he got as much as he can.
Christopher is a wonderful 5-year-old. He's in a playschool twice a week and is both excited and scared that he starts "real school" this year. I think he's overestimating kindergarten. He's also got mixed feelings about our stated intention to get our own house. He loves to be with so much family, but he wants his own space and his own things. Lately he's been interested in learning how to count money since he's found some coins which we let him keep. He made a special jar for them and everything. He's getting better about going to church too, something that he couldn't seem to manage last year. For weeks we'd take him, and he'd cry before and during church, and during the week if you mentioned it. We finally gave it up, but every Sunday he'd ask worriedly if we were going to have to go to church. Now, church is later, his uncles are there with him, and he's older. It's going over much better. We had tears and distress at first, but they're nearly gone now.
Last week I took the boys to meet Bryan after work, and we went out for dinner. We asked Christopher where he wanted to go, and he said Sweet Tomato. When we said yes, he was so excited, he
sang about it the whole way there! When we pulled into the parking lot, he turned to me and said, "Mom, do you know why I like Sweet Tomato? I get to pick all my own food!" He eats very healthy, I love it. His favorite 'meal' lately is tomatoes, celery, carrots, ham sticks, and Ranch dressing. I'm not complaining! We took him to the park this weekend and he had a great time playing with his dad, who sent him on "missions", loosely based on the old Inspector Gadget movies that Bryan use to let Christopher watch. Christopher gets to be Little Gadget and fight the evil Dr. Claw. Or, something like that. It was a great family outing, we even took the dog.
As for me, I'm adjusting to things. I'm thrilled that Bryan's got a great job that he loves. I'm also sad that I get comparatively little time with him now. Although it was very difficult over this past year, it was also wonderful to have so much time together. The boys are also having to adjust to having just one parent around. I wouldn't have thought about it before, but it requires a lot more patience from them when there's only one person to help them. Before they got almost everything quickly because there were two parents to do things for them, and now it's just me. Another adjustment is that instead of sleeping until noon and being up until midnight, our family is now having to get up at 6am and go to bed by 9pm. Quite a change! But that's not a bad thing, there's a lot of quiet time in the mornings, and I was a morning person to start with. It's also good preparation for Christopher who will have to get up early for school later this year.
Aside from the adjusting, I'm quite happy to be a stay-at-home mom to my two fantastic boys, I'm very happy for Bryan, and I spend my remaining (
not free!) time looking for our own place. I'm happy that things are finally looking up for us.
