So, needless to say - it's been busy. Tons of things have happened in this last month (hence the late posting) and hopefully, I'll be able to touch on them all without dragging out into a huge post. So, with the prerequisite apologies out of the way, here we go.
Update for Matthew:
We're eating cereal finally!! He's loving it (and demanding more and more each time we put him into his highchair) and has really grasped the entire concept of eating off of a spoon quickly. It's really awesome to watch him every day grow up and make connections to things more and more quickly (tonight's 'revelation' for him was the beginning of feeling of faces, while concentrating on the nose and moving down to the chin). He's becoming more and more vocal (huge surprise there, for those of us who have known Anna for more than 5 minutes) and gets super excited whenever the 'big people' include him in their conversations.
He's also getting much better at looking around at his environment - starting to recognize the person carrying him, the sounds of people coming and going (and 'greeting' them with a smile), etc. Kyara is already one of his favorite objects around the house; she's going to be a busy pup when he does finally learn how to move on his own.
Update for Anna:
Anna's class is back in full swing - and she's really loving it from what I can tell. This semester is a seminar based course (which I believe I mentioned last posting) and has turned into a great experience. She's excited to be back into the swing of 'adult life' - and I imagine that the excuse for a bit of alone time is helping to...I have no idea how she manages to do everything that she does and I'll shamelessly make a plug here for how amazing of a person she is. She makes it look easy - even when I know it isn't.
I know that work has been somewhat 'slow' - though I can imagine that it's going to be picking up here soon of her as the next tax season starts to loom nearer. Thankfully, Matthew and I (with some much appreciated help from Anna's mom) have started to get used to spending a few evenings on our own while she's in class. Which means that Matthew has started to understand that the lesser of the two big people that he lives with is assigned to him to look after while mom is away. He's a pretty good sport about it - makes sure that we know exactly what he expects and how he needs it without causing too much of a fuss (most of the time). ^_^
Update for me:
Busy would be a rather small understatement for me at the moment. The new system is up and running fully at work (we've been live for 2 months now and have incorporated all the banks into the centralized system finally) and add the fact that quarter end is quickly approaching, it's going to be getting a bit more crazy before it calms down. Granted, it's not all bad - we have great support from all our associates and, while people are still going through the "Holy Christ, it's a new system" phase, they are really taking to it rather well.
Other Updates:
The house has undergone another renovation - this time an external one. My family was in town for Matthew's baptism at the end of July and we took advantage of the extra hands and went ahead in tearing down the front deck. Just this past weekend, we've finished having a close friend of Anna's family construct a new set of concrete steps - and they look awesome. We also threw together a rather nice sized firepit in the backyard with some of the extra materials that we had collected from the tearing apart of the old structure in the front of the house...so everyone came out a bit happier than we went in. I think we're going to be installing a small row of shrubs/bushes in front of the house and along the sides of the steps to finalize the new setup - but we're still in discussion on exactly how we're going to be handling that particular finishing touch.
Update for Matthew:
We're eating cereal finally!! He's loving it (and demanding more and more each time we put him into his highchair) and has really grasped the entire concept of eating off of a spoon quickly. It's really awesome to watch him every day grow up and make connections to things more and more quickly (tonight's 'revelation' for him was the beginning of feeling of faces, while concentrating on the nose and moving down to the chin). He's becoming more and more vocal (huge surprise there, for those of us who have known Anna for more than 5 minutes) and gets super excited whenever the 'big people' include him in their conversations.
He's also getting much better at looking around at his environment - starting to recognize the person carrying him, the sounds of people coming and going (and 'greeting' them with a smile), etc. Kyara is already one of his favorite objects around the house; she's going to be a busy pup when he does finally learn how to move on his own.
Update for Anna:
Anna's class is back in full swing - and she's really loving it from what I can tell. This semester is a seminar based course (which I believe I mentioned last posting) and has turned into a great experience. She's excited to be back into the swing of 'adult life' - and I imagine that the excuse for a bit of alone time is helping to...I have no idea how she manages to do everything that she does and I'll shamelessly make a plug here for how amazing of a person she is. She makes it look easy - even when I know it isn't.
I know that work has been somewhat 'slow' - though I can imagine that it's going to be picking up here soon of her as the next tax season starts to loom nearer. Thankfully, Matthew and I (with some much appreciated help from Anna's mom) have started to get used to spending a few evenings on our own while she's in class. Which means that Matthew has started to understand that the lesser of the two big people that he lives with is assigned to him to look after while mom is away. He's a pretty good sport about it - makes sure that we know exactly what he expects and how he needs it without causing too much of a fuss (most of the time). ^_^
Update for me:
Busy would be a rather small understatement for me at the moment. The new system is up and running fully at work (we've been live for 2 months now and have incorporated all the banks into the centralized system finally) and add the fact that quarter end is quickly approaching, it's going to be getting a bit more crazy before it calms down. Granted, it's not all bad - we have great support from all our associates and, while people are still going through the "Holy Christ, it's a new system" phase, they are really taking to it rather well.
Other Updates:
The house has undergone another renovation - this time an external one. My family was in town for Matthew's baptism at the end of July and we took advantage of the extra hands and went ahead in tearing down the front deck. Just this past weekend, we've finished having a close friend of Anna's family construct a new set of concrete steps - and they look awesome. We also threw together a rather nice sized firepit in the backyard with some of the extra materials that we had collected from the tearing apart of the old structure in the front of the house...so everyone came out a bit happier than we went in. I think we're going to be installing a small row of shrubs/bushes in front of the house and along the sides of the steps to finalize the new setup - but we're still in discussion on exactly how we're going to be handling that particular finishing touch.
Original Porch
Porch DESTRUCTION
New Steps
And of course, if you're ever in the area, please let us know (text or call)! We'd love to see you and have you over for a cup of coffee.
