Delinquent Updates (not children)

Let's start with Alexis. Her favorite new phrase is "be quiet!" As you can probably assume, we're not overjoyed about this. She has hit that 2 1/2 year stage, the one when every six months a kid gets especially difficult. She definitely wants her own way, and I am constantly having to tell her to watch the tone in her voice, something that is difficult to figure out how to phrase for a two-year-old. However, she also busts out with hysterical stuff, like walking into her room when Jason and I are both already there and saying "hey guys!" Or trying to figure out how to say Periwinkle, the name of a cat, and saying "pinkywiggie" instead.

Potty training is going decently. I know that people have these stories of training their kids in three days, but that's just not Alexis. Or maybe I'm not dedicated enough. She has, however, peed in the potty at least once a day for about a week, and she pooped once last week, too! This is exciting news for me. Cleaning it up is not my favorite thing, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to pass them along. One great tip is to use a coffee filter when she's pooping, but it's a big pain when she's just peeing.

She's also still growing, but she's still so tiny! She barely fits into 24m or 2T stuff sometimes, and I just bought her an 18m dress a little while ago. But she's so cute in her petiteness! I chopped all of her hair off the other day. She now has a very short bob. Her hair was touching her shoulders, but it was so thin, especially at the ends, that I just decided to cut it off. Hopefully it's thickening up some. She's doing so much big girl stuff, though, like climbing the stairs at Chick-fil-a to go down the slide, or climbing up the swirly purple slide at the playground. She still wants to help with Micah a lot, which is nice, but she tends to get in the way a lot, too, so we try to find the balance between letting her feel free to express herself and do what she wants AND restricting her and pulling her back when necessary. It's quite a task.

Micah is just HUGE! I was so sad because yesterday I put him into some six month pajamas for the first time. And they fit. Where is my baby time? In a year they're going to look like they're twins... He has started to sleep through the night about half of the time, and by that I mean he goes in his crib around 9 and gets up at 5 or 6. The other half of the time he gets up around 2 or 3 and then I feed him again in the early morning. He lets me sleep more than Alexis ever did. I suppose that huge belly of his can hold a lot more food at a time.

He's a lot mroe interactive now, too. He likes to grab things and bring them to his mouth, he's playing with his fingers a ton and is learning how to suck on his hand and his thumb, and he smiles and laughs so much! I actually really like changing his diaper because 1. he usually only poops about once a day (Alex pooped ALL the time), and 2. when I start taking off his clothes, he gets this huge smile on his face and will usually start laughing because he knows what's coming. And then if I tickle his belly or kiss it a lot he'll laugh even harder, and it's so adorable!

The kids are doing well, and our life is getting really crazy. Jason has been working a lot lately because he's acting as a field office director for Bolivia for a few months, and I just finished training for the online tutoring company I'm going to be working for. I imagine that I'll start next week or the week after. I'll be reading and giving critical feedback about papers that students submit to the company. A bunch of colleges pay for the service, so it's not like it costs the students anything, and I'm supposed to do about one paper every 30 minutes. That part will be a challenge at first, but it will get easier as I progress. We'll see how it works; right now I have to work ten scheduled hours a week, which is a lot. I'm also going to be teaching another Eastern class in about a month. While it's not the ideal time and will make things really hectic, it's a great opportunity, it's a grammar class (I couldn't handle a writing one right now), and the pay is too good to pass up. New kitchen counters, here I come! Actually, my current house project is painting the grout in our kitchen, which is a dificult task. It's not going to look perfect, but it's going to look a whole lot better than the black, dirty grout that we currently have that will never get clean.

We're off to the park this afternoon. :) Pictures. Soon. I promise. Maybe.