Saturday, March 22, 2008

Catching up

I hesitated to post anything recently, because so much was up in the air. Now it seems things are finally quieting down, so I'll try to give an update.
I resigned from my position at Group Publishing. Gasp! Yes, it's true. I love my job, and it's really hard to leave. It's necessary though that I work at least part-time from home to care for the kiddos, and Group was unwilling to accommodate that request.
My last day is April 11th, and I'm actually starting too look forward to it. I've decided to start my own business, and it's amazing how well that's going already.
I'm calling the biz Nurtured Mother, and I'll expand on my doula services by offering resources for motherhood (a.k.a. breastfeeding equipment). Eventually I want to get a lactation consultant degree, and be able to provide those services too. I've started a blog for this endeavor too: http://www.nurturedmother.blogspot.com/. I'm working on getting a website up & going, and getting approved as a reseller for Medela.
Matt's still working at Starbucks & teaching (amongst other side jobs), and he really enjoys it. Now that I'll be home I'm able to also help manage the office/admin stuff for his music academy.

Okay, now for the updates the majority of you want to hear--the kids. :)

Owen is doing great. I think he adds a word or two a day, and can really be a jabber-monkey. It blows my mind every so often when a full sentence comes out of his mouth, like "Daddy, where are you?" Whoa! What happened to my little baby boy?
He LOVES to "help." He even says "Help Momma?" It's great. He has his own chores: clearing his dishes from the table, putting away silverware from the dishwasher, and putting away his clean clothes. Sometimes the "help" isn't so helpful, but for the most part it's amazing to see how tender his heart is for helping people.
When his friends come over the first thing he wants to do is get everyone a glass of water--we never "taught" him this, he just started doing it.
He's a big movie watcher, which has been how we've survived this cold winter. With nursing so much during the day a movie can really come in handy. By the way, if you haven't seen the "Curious George" movie, it really is good. (Thanks for the tip, Hillary!) There's a pic below of Owen & Eden watching a movie together.
Eden is coming into that really cute chubby phase--my favorite! She's beautiful, long eyelashes & sapphire blue eyes (yep, they're still blue). The best part--her smile. It will knock your socks off. AND she smiles ALL THE TIME. It's hard to be mad or sad around here when Eden's in the room. Now she's starting to laugh too. It's amazingly cute.
She looks a lot like Owen did at this stage, except she's definitely shorter (sorry, kiddo, that would be your momma's fault). She's discovering her toes, but it's been a bit difficult b/c she can barely reach them.
Any day now she's going to roll over--she loves to be placed on the floor to just hang out. We'll leave her in the living room & come back to see her "talking" to herself & scooted half-way across the room.
She sleeps through the night, but after moving her to her own room we discovered a new problem. The two kids wake each other up so easily. If one stirs in the evening or starts crying, it's guaranteed the other is going to wake up. Of course, with Matt getting up at 4 a.m. it doesn't help matters. We've tried creating white noise and playing music, but nothing seems to block the other one out. I moved Eden into our bedroom closet just so I could get some sleep (and while my folks are in town). She's still learning to put herself back to sleep, so I'm hoping a week or two in my closet will get her to where she's not so easily stirred.