back to work

Well, we are headed back to work. This week was "Professional Development" and John and I both have been working in our rooms as well. My room looks like a disaster area. I don't know how I will get the mess cleaned up and organized before school starts.



John got good news in that his science teaching partner was recalled from his layoff. The kids are adjusting to going to Nancy's all day. Anna is starting to cry and fight being dropped off in the morning, at least when I drop her off. She also is not getting as much sleep as she did while home all summer. Needless to say her temper runs short. Evan seems to be adjusting well, but only takes two bottles most days and then nurses like a crazy boy all evening long. I don't really mind, it is just hard when we have so many things to do in the evenings and I want to spend time with Anna before her bedtime. We took them for portraits today and neither of them cooperated. I am not thrilled with how the pics came out and will regret spending so much on them when we weren't really satisfied. But the alternative was coming back another day and trying again. UGH.

Anna is talking up a storm. She seems to go in spurts of new words. Lately it is monkey, ribbit, and (finally) mommy. We put together her family photo album (still need a picture of G&G Badham) and she carries it around pointing at people. She can do all the animal sounds in her Busy Bee book and can point to all the animals by name. She can say many of the animal names too. She has 10 teeth now. We have her 18 month checkup tomorrow with Dr. S. John and I are both going to express our concerns about her walking/falling.

Evan has found his feet and grabs them and puts them in his mouth.
He also can roll over from his tummy to his back. We put him in the exer-saucer the other day and he LOVED it! He is very active and interactive and reaches out to grab faces, hands, clothing. Watch out! Evan takes after his sister as a good eater. He is eating cereal every day and either a vegetable or fruit. He sleeps with us most of the night now. He wakes up sometime between midnight and 3am and ends up in our bed so I can get more sleep. He seems so much more content and sleeps so much more/better. So for now we are going with the flow, especially as he adjusts to me being gone all day. It is kind of nice to be able to spend some extra time with him, even if it is while we are sleeping. I kind of wish we had done this with Anna when she was a baby. It is so hard to be gone to work all day and just have a few hours with her in the evening before bedtime.

It is hard to believe that September is starting. Where did the summer go and how can our children be growing up so fast?

a very busy weekend

It has been a wonderfully busy weekend. Last Thursday we drove out to Port Sanilac to visit G&G Kish while they were camping. It was a long drive, but well worth it. Anna had so many new experiences - running around the campsite, exploring the trailer, walking on the bridge, meeting Buddha the kitty, eating at a picnic table. So much fun! It typical Badham fashion, we headed home much later than expected. Anna was exhausted and not so much fun in the car on the way home. She tried to sleep, but yelled out at regular intervals letting us know how much she would prefer her own bed. Evan is Evan, he hangs out no matter where we go. As long as there are a pair of arms to hold him while he sleeps, he is happy just about anywhere. We got home around 11pm and both kids were asleep by 11:30. Wouldn't you think Anna would sleep in after all her adventures? No way, she was up before 7:30am on Friday.....

Which made packing up for our next car trip nearly impossible. "Evil Anna" came out of the crib Friday morning. Absolutely nothing made her happy. We had originally planned on hitting the road to Kalamazoo by noon so she could take her nap in the car. Around 11am she was melting down and we thought she would go down for a nap. No such luck. We finally managed to get her and Evan fed, packed, and loaded into the car with the dogs by 2:00. Again, typical Badham fashion, two hours later than planned. Fortunately for us, Anna did take a very good nap in the car while we drove to G&G Badham's house. Evan was also quite the trooper, sleeping and playing most of the way there. Around Galesburg Evan generally decides he wants out of his carseat, and on this trip he pretended to be hungry. So we obliged him by pulling off at a stop and I attempted to feed him only to find his goofy grinning face looking up at me with absolutely no interest in eating. But he got a break from his carseat long enough that he was willing to go the rest of the trip with minimal drama. We finally got to Kalamazoo to unpack and unwind.

Saturday was the family cookout at Emily and Joe's new house. We got to see all the family and Anna got to play with Audrey and Kaleigh. Another day full of wonderful adventures for that kid. She has never been so dirty, and probably never as happy. She ran around, ate at a kiddie picnic table with her cousins, jumped in a bouncy house, went for wagon rides, chased the kitty, played with HUGE puppies. Evan also had a wonderful day being loved, hugged, and held by all his cousins and aunties. The food was great, John's mom always takes such good care of (me) us, and everyone are great cooks. It was so nice to hang out and get caught up with everyone. I hope it becomes an annual event. Emily and Joe's huge backyard is the perfect place. We got home just in time to get the princess bathed and put to bed. She certainly didn't fight going to bed that night. We all got to sleep in on Sunday, which made it easier to load up and make the drive back home. We only left an hour later than planned, so maybe we are getting better at this. We did have to stop and change Evan (blowout) and stop again to feed him. The trip home took about 3 hours. Anna only slept about an hour in the car, so sleeping beauty went to be at 6:30pm. I think her busy weekend has taken its toll. I hope she sleeps well.

Getting Started

Well, I am just getting things set up. Hopefully I will be able to get this going before going back to work. My plan is to be able to put pics of the kids and what's new so everyone can keep up.