Oh my Goodness!

Has it really been like 2 1/2 months since I last posted?! Where has the time gone? Perhaps it flew by like the rest of the 13 months since Liara was born. 13 months... yeah, I know. Shocking. Anyway, it has been C R A Z Y around here and with Liara up and running (literally) for the last two months, I don't have a lot of time to sit still and blog. Again, as usual, I apologize. We'll leave it at that and move on.

Let's see... I'll give you a little update about what's happening with each of us.

Liara:

She's growing like a weed and exceeds our expectations every day. She can say Mama, Dada, Grandma, Hi (sometimes Hiya), Wow, Woah, Up, Bite, Baby, Tickle, and Book. I think that's all, but who knows, I might be missing something. She can walk like a big girl and run like a little kid (arms out like an airplane)! She loves to play with her toys, cuddle with Mommy (and Daddy too), blow raspberries, be read to (and join in too... she points at pictures and tries to say the word and flips flaps/turns pages), do puzzles, and empty and refill the movie drawers. She likes to go outside when it's not too cold and enjoys taking her coat off and on. She tries to climb on the table beside the couches and take everything off that, but that's not usually allowed. She loves to empty the cabinets in the kitchen and help with laundry (she takes the wet clothes out of the washing machine, puts them in the bag, puts a new load in, closes the soap drawer and then pushes the start button for me). Her favorite foods right now are blueberries, bananas, pasta and malt-o-meal. If asked, she can show you where her foot, ear, or bellybutton (beebo) is. She loves her stuffed animals (and dolly's) and gives them hugs and kisses. She is obsessed with shoes and MUST have some on at all times (whether it be shoes during the day or her bunny slippers on at night). We had to remove the front railings for her crib like 2 months ago because she was trying to climb out (even taking her socks off for extra traction... clever girl!) and we didn't want her to fall, so now she's sleeping in her toddler bed and LOVES it. It takes no time at all to get her to bed now, so that's a major bonus. She has 10, almost 12 teeth (front bottom four, front top four, two top molars (one on each side), and two bottom molars that are workin' their way out). She's had a hard time sleeping lately because of those two bottom molars, but the last two nights she's slept through the WHOLE night without waking up- from 8:30 until 7:30. I think that's about her in a nutshell right now.

Nick:

He's been working like a crazy man. He is absolutely swamped at work and has been a little stressed to say the least. He tries to come home for lunch, but doesn't always make it and usually only spends about 15 minutes instead of the hour he's supposed to get. Then he comes home at around 7, and eats dinner and tries to relax a little before the next day. They're supposed to get him some help soon, I hope they do! He could sure use it. When we came back from the US (I'll recap that trip sometime...) he tried to play a game he got as an early birthday present and his Xbox got the red ring of death. Anyway, after about a month of fiddling with it, he got it to work again! WOO HOO! He's super happy with that and has been playing every night while I'm working (after Liara's in bed)... more on that in my section.

Jen:

I've been busy watching/playing/teaching Liara and trying to keep this house in some sort of order. Between Liara and her master mess making skills and everyone else in this house (myself included) it gets messy fast! I was debating going back to work (in an outside location... believe me, I work!) to help Nick with the financial side of things since we're broke as sin, but after figuring out how much childcare costs and stuff it would have been pointless... I wouldn't make anything. So, I've started working with Cris (mother-in-law) again and I'm really excited about it! It feels really good to be productive and actually do something related to education again. It involves testing and has really got me thinking about what I want to do. Last night, Nic and I had a long chat about me getting my masters (something I've ALWAYS wanted to do...). I'm going to have to go back to school anyway to finish off my certification (I graduated with my bachelors in Curriculum & Instruction- emphasis on Early Childhood-4th grade education, and passed all my state tests to become certified, but still need one more semester of student teaching since we moved and I never did that)... I might as well get my masters while I'm at it right?! I've really enjoyed my experiences in testing and thought that it would be great to be able to do what Cris does (she writes tests, trains educators and creates educational materials, among other things... she's a very talented woman!) and follow along in her business. To do that, I'd need some more education and credibility, so maybe that's the road I should take! I'll talk it over with her and see what she thinks about it. :) That's about it for me... other than I'm down to 124 lbs! Woot woot! I haven't weighed that since I quit swimming, my sophomore year in high school!

Ok... I need to get off here before Liara pulls the cord out of the wall socket and uses it as a lasso for her rocking chair. I think it's going to take me longer to clean up the mess she's made while I've been typing than it actually has to post this! She's like a little tornado I swear! :) Oh, I love her!

I'll try and be a better blogger...