Quick Family Update...

Addie:  She is now NINE months old.  I'm not sure where the time has gone.  She is a beautiful, outgoing and playful little girl.  She is working overtime to learn to crawl, but not crawling yet.  Although there is no crawling, she is quite the yoga master.  She can do downward dog and other things that I'm sure are some yoga position!!  She has 2 teeth on the bottom and no signs of another tooth for a while.  She is babbling all the time, mama, dada, baba and she loves to laugh.  She is also kind of vicious!  Her nails are weapons and we have all had an Addie related injury.  

Tucker:  He is potty training with quite a few successes!  He had an accident yesterday, but we were kind of experimenting with him by not asking him to go to the bathroom and waiting for him to tell us.  He told us when, "Mommy!!!  The potty is coming out!!!"  Clean-up aisle 2.  He is doing well and responding to the potty chart.  He likes the idea of getting rewards but it also equals time focused on just him which is making him much more agreeable.  I think he was acting out to get attention...even bad attention was good attention in his eyes.  Makes me feel like a bad Mommy that my kid has to act out to get my attention.  The other day Tucker told me, "Whoa Mommy....easy!"  He was basically telling me to settle down!  SO FUNNY!!!

Matt:  Matt is in the process of going through a background investigation for a police department near Portland!  Things are looking good for the first time in months.  We still have to wait to pass through 2 more hoops, but we know this background investigation will come up clear.  He should be getting a conditional offer of employment in the next few weeks.  I will be sure to write about that...HUGE NEWS!  After the background is done he will have to go through a physical check-up and a psych evaluation, then off to the academy in June (am I getting ahead of myself?  I hope not!).  He is very anxious to find out what will happen in the next few weeks.  We are both getting excited about looking for a house and getting on with it!

Tami:  I am busy.  BUSY BUSY BUSY.  I feel more busy now than I have in a long time.  The potty training seems to take up every second of the day.  I had no idea how exhausting it could be.  I think the other thing that makes it so energy-zapping is that we are constantly backing the potty training with rewards.  Many of Tucker's rewards are outings that he enjoys so we are on the go nearly every day making good on what we call Potty Chart Rewards.  Addie is more active and so leaving her on the floor and expecting her to be in the same place when you get back is a long gone concept, so she needs way more supervision.  I finished The Secret Life of Bees, which I am very proud of because Addie is 9 months old and I've read 2 grown up books!  Tucker was 18 months before I read my first grown up book, sad but true.  The next book is the Twilight book, I'm excited to see what the hype is about.  I am also in full blown quilt making mode.  Not to mention the cleaning, laundry and cooking that just happens in daily life.  So I'm feeling tired and at the same time energized by the possibilities in our future and feeling good about all the extra things in my day that make my life my own for a little while, even if that means staying up late to feel like I've done something for myself.