We are still trying to settle into a routine here, but finding it difficult. My schedule isn't the same week to week. Some rotations have Matt working all the time and others have him working just most of the time. We've also taken many trips back and forth to Portland which leaves all of us a little disoriented.
Erin is enjoying preschool. It started off only 2 days a week in a very small class (3 kids!), but I convinced them to let Erin into the 4 year olds class too. She's now going Monday and Wednesday to the "big kids class" and Tuesday and Thursday to the "Max and Henry class." It seems to be working out well and she's getting more and more engaged. We're still looking for another preschool for next year, but I think this will work fine for the rest of the year.
Erin is showing a lot of interest lately in language. They started learning some Spanish words at school and she loves it. We're looking for a Spanish class to start her with and looking at the possibility of getting her into a Spanish immersion preschool for next year. As it is, Erin has been prompting us to use "Gracias" and "de nada" instead of our usual polite words and now uses "por favor" instead of please most of the time, but still working on the syntax and mostly says "por farvor for the milk please mom."
Erin's gymnastics class has been a dud. She's not into it and I'm not too impressed with it either. We've been a few times, but missed a few classes while we were out of town. I give us a 50-50 chance making it back again. Oh well.
She is big into imaginary play and takes her animals on trips to Australia and Minneapolis. She also likes playing house with bunny and instructs me on how to hold bunny so I'm gentle. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Dean got her a water table, but we filled it with rice instead and she's spent hours making quite the rice mess in the basement with it. I think we'll be spending a lot of rainy days down there playing. Erin continues to love books and wants to be read to whenever someone will agree to it. In Portland she's discovered a few of my old favorites: Oliver Pig, the Frances books and Frog and Toad. She also plays "Gallopy the pony" as she gallops around. Too funny.
Erin is also expertimenting with fashion lately. She'd make Jules proud...
Nora is also doing great. She's 5.5 months old now and boy has time flown. Part of me is shocked that she'll be 6 months old soon and part of me has trouble remembering how life really was before she was born.
She is still a happy baby as long as she's fed and well rested. She loves to flash drooly smiles and likes to laughs out loud. She's ticklish if you can get through the chub to her ribs and her goal in life is to get everything in her mouth. She's still drools a ton and everything around he is always damp with a mixture of drool and spit up. We do a lot of laundry.
Nora's sleep is a mixed bag. She falls asleep on her own, but often cries. I've tried to do more soothing to get rid of the crying, but she just gets more agitated the harder I try, so I guess we're stuck with the crying. She has a nice routine of 2 naps and on a good day takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and afternoon. She is like Erin and needs a lot of sleep and is down to sleep by 6-6:30 at night. She is still up 2-3 times at night, but loves to get up 4-5 times nightly when we're in Portland. I think that she'd settle into a better nighttime routine, but we keep taking trips to Portland just when thinks are getting better again. When we were in for her 4 month check up, our pediatrician advocated for putting her through "baby sleep boot camp," but I keep finding excuses to put it off. We'll get there eventually.
Speaking of Nora's 4 month appointment, I don't think that I ever posted her stats: she was 15lbs 9oz and 26 inches long. She had her appointment about 3 weeks earlier than Erin had hers, but Erin was just about the same size. Since that appointment, Nora has gotten really chunky and I'm sure that she's chubbier than Erin ever was. She just really likes to eat and she's so happy when I feed her.
Nora's latest tricks include sitting on her own and scooting around a bit. She also rolls all the time and I can't ever keep her on a blanket on the floor. She's never where i put her down in the crib and I'm afraid that she'll be crawling before too long. She continues to be very vocal and loves to coo and "talk" to us. Considering how much Erin talks now after not talking much at this age, I'm afraid that we may never have silence again in our house. As you can see, I gave her banana last week which was a huge hit, but I haven't really gotten started on solids yet.
Nora and Erin are still good buddies and love to spend time together. Nothing entertains Nora better than watching Erin dance and play and Erin still loves to get Nora to smile and laugh. I hope things stay this nice when Nora is more mobile and more into toy stealing.
We did some late preparation for Halloween today. I kept meaning to take the girls to the pumpkin patch, but somehow ran out of time, so we got pumpkins at the grocery store this year. Matt and Erin decorated some small gourds with glue and glitter to make "glitter pumpkins" which are a huge hit (thanks Jan). They also carved pumpkins tonight and we'll roast the seeds tomorrow. We are supposed to go trick or treating tomorrow with a few other families that we've met through the UW IM residency program. It's been great to start connecting with some other parents in medicine with young kids and our social life is beginning to pick up a little, even if it's just with kid activities. Erin is dressing up as a princess (I have mixed feelings about this, but she couldn't dissuaded) and Nora will be a monkey/mouse/bear (none of us can decide what it's actually supposed to be.
Work is going ok for me. I'm finding it tough to switch back and forth between work and home and also finding it difficult to invest as much energy into work as I should. In theory I do enjoy work, but find that it's difficult to really engage and get excited about it. There's just so much happening that needs my attention, work seems to be taking a backseat. Hopefully thinks settle down soon and work gets a little easier.
We've finally made some progress in finding some non-me, non-grandparent, childcare and that should help me have some time to put into work and into exercise. We got a recommendation from another fellow who loved this nanny. She's working on a degree in early childhood education and is a native Spanish speaker. Given Erin's recent interest in Spanish, we're hoping that they can do a lot more learning together. I'm thrilled about knowing someone that we can count on to help out for things that come up.
Like I mentioned, we've spent a lot of time down in Portland recently. I'm trying to get down as often as is reasonable to see Dad. He hasn't had a crisis for a month now, but is struggling with eating, drinking and has lost a ton of weight. He is in hospice now which has been a great addition to his care. It's hard to believe that this is where we are now and I feel the constant stress worrying about when the next crisis will hit or when the end will come.
The other sad event for our family was rehoming Duncan. He's had a really rough time with the move out here and the transition to being an only dog. He's been anxious, easily overwhelmed and upset by Erin, but we'd managed to keep things relatively peaceful. Unfortunately 2 weeks ago, Erin snuck up on Duncan as he was sleeping in the sun and tried to wrap him up in a blanket and he bit her in the face. She is fine, but we realized that he is truely miserable and not thriving with the kids. Luckily we were able to find a friend of the family who had been looking for a little dog for a while and it seems like a great match. We left Duncan down in Portland last week with Rebecca. As much as I enjoyed griping about Duncan, I miss him terribly and the house doesn't feel right without him. I just can't believe that he's gone from our family and that we have no dogs now. It just doesn't feel right.
On those sad notes, enjoy a few more pictures...
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