Oh, hai!
Yeah, I disappeared. Sorry about that, anyone who cares. :) I hit a point in my life where a 400 character facebook update was suiting me much better than writing and keeping up with lj. Unfortunately, that means I don't know a lot of what's been going on with my lj friends. :( That's the worst part about poofing for a year. I fell out of touch with people that I adore.
Quick updates: Melissa is doing *faboo*! All of her health concerns dropped away, one by one. Her followup MRI showed no lingering hemmorhage. It also showed that the blood that had bled out was reabsorbed. She's still a teeny thing, just now outgrowing her 3-month clothes (she's 17 months old, tomorrow). But she is so fabulous. She's started expressing desires (boy howdy!), with a little bit of verbalisation. Of all the skills, she's most "behind" in language. I'm not worried, just yet. She's also walking (!!!). I've got to say, it is the funniest thing to see a little 5-month looking girl stomping around on her feet. LOL So cute!
James is 7-years old, and absolutely amazing. He just finished his first year on the Virginia Renaissance Faire cast, and did so well! We had a few hiccups, when he forgot to take care of himself during the day. An overheated, underfed boy sure knows how to throw temper tantrums. The thing is, he was throwing sticks and stuff, which was endangering patrons, so we had to put the kibosh on that behaviour pretty darned quick. When things went well, though, they went super well! He was probably one of the most photographed people at faire. LOL
He just finished up first grade at his montessori school, and is looking forward to moving up to second year. He's done so well in his classes. His teacher is really very good for him; putting just the right amount of pressure, and knowing when to let him free. We'll continue to pay this tuition, as long as we're able. He'd never get the education he needs in public school. And I don't really want to see them crush his spirit. Now the big trick will be having the money to send Melissa, when she turns 3. Heh.
In slightly related news: So Jason and I had planned to get ourselves "fixed" when Melissa turned 2. It's kind of icky to think about it, but we wanted to make sure she was really going to survive before we completely ended our chances for having two children. We picked age 2 as just a good "future" time.
Well... so it turns out I was likely getting my contraception from a combination of nursing and the pill. The second she weaned, even though I was on the pill... yeah. So we're now expecting #3. ::headdesk:: It was terrifying to find out. Now we've resolved ourselves to the idea of me going into the hospital to live, in a few months. I really hope we don't have to reexperience NICU, but we've got to resolve ourselves to the idea that we might. As of right now, fortunately, we're having a very normal pregnancy. Baby growth is solid, my blood pressure remains normal/steady, and the baby is about 9 weeks along. And, no, just like the others, we are not finding out what the sex is until it's born. :D
This really throws things in the air, though. We were done. We had our two; one boy, one girl. It was perfect. Then... oops. SURPRISE! LOL
The thing that this spurred, which is hopefully going to be an amazing experience: We can afford (mostly) two kids in daycare (Melissa in actual daycare, James in aftercare at his school). We cannot afford three kids in daycare. Doing the research, and talking with a coworker who has an au pair, we've decided to bring a girl into our home to help out. Financially, it's going to cost about the same as the current day/after care. When the third comes along, it'll save us about $1,000/month. We also stand to gain a whole lot, familywise. The kids will have someone solely focused on them. James can come home right after school and go play at the park, go to the water park, or play with kids in the neighbourhood. Melissa (and, therefore, we) won't constantly be exposed to the germ-pool that is daycare. We'll get some assistance with their needs at home (au pairs do the kids' laundry and help keep their rooms clean). And, if we wrangle the hours right, Jason and I will finally be able to have a consistent date night! Woah!!!
Over the past couple of weeks, we threw ourselves into the au pair search. Last night, we had our second Skype interview with a lovely young lady from Brazil. We were already very impressed with her after the first interview, and all the references provided. We decided, after introducing her to the kids and then talking with her more, last night, that we wanted to ask her to come join our family for a year. She was so thrilled, she started crying. It was so sweet! :D We have just a few more things to get through, with preparing ourselves and the house. If we hit all the right marks, though, she's going to be arriving in DC on 12 August. Woot! She's our 10th anniversary gift! LOL
So... big changes on the horizon. Woof. I think we're up to them, though. We'll see. LOL So much for the plans, but it's all good.
And maybe I'll see more of lj in the time to come.
Quick updates: Melissa is doing *faboo*! All of her health concerns dropped away, one by one. Her followup MRI showed no lingering hemmorhage. It also showed that the blood that had bled out was reabsorbed. She's still a teeny thing, just now outgrowing her 3-month clothes (she's 17 months old, tomorrow). But she is so fabulous. She's started expressing desires (boy howdy!), with a little bit of verbalisation. Of all the skills, she's most "behind" in language. I'm not worried, just yet. She's also walking (!!!). I've got to say, it is the funniest thing to see a little 5-month looking girl stomping around on her feet. LOL So cute!
James is 7-years old, and absolutely amazing. He just finished his first year on the Virginia Renaissance Faire cast, and did so well! We had a few hiccups, when he forgot to take care of himself during the day. An overheated, underfed boy sure knows how to throw temper tantrums. The thing is, he was throwing sticks and stuff, which was endangering patrons, so we had to put the kibosh on that behaviour pretty darned quick. When things went well, though, they went super well! He was probably one of the most photographed people at faire. LOL
He just finished up first grade at his montessori school, and is looking forward to moving up to second year. He's done so well in his classes. His teacher is really very good for him; putting just the right amount of pressure, and knowing when to let him free. We'll continue to pay this tuition, as long as we're able. He'd never get the education he needs in public school. And I don't really want to see them crush his spirit. Now the big trick will be having the money to send Melissa, when she turns 3. Heh.
In slightly related news: So Jason and I had planned to get ourselves "fixed" when Melissa turned 2. It's kind of icky to think about it, but we wanted to make sure she was really going to survive before we completely ended our chances for having two children. We picked age 2 as just a good "future" time.
Well... so it turns out I was likely getting my contraception from a combination of nursing and the pill. The second she weaned, even though I was on the pill... yeah. So we're now expecting #3. ::headdesk:: It was terrifying to find out. Now we've resolved ourselves to the idea of me going into the hospital to live, in a few months. I really hope we don't have to reexperience NICU, but we've got to resolve ourselves to the idea that we might. As of right now, fortunately, we're having a very normal pregnancy. Baby growth is solid, my blood pressure remains normal/steady, and the baby is about 9 weeks along. And, no, just like the others, we are not finding out what the sex is until it's born. :D
This really throws things in the air, though. We were done. We had our two; one boy, one girl. It was perfect. Then... oops. SURPRISE! LOL
The thing that this spurred, which is hopefully going to be an amazing experience: We can afford (mostly) two kids in daycare (Melissa in actual daycare, James in aftercare at his school). We cannot afford three kids in daycare. Doing the research, and talking with a coworker who has an au pair, we've decided to bring a girl into our home to help out. Financially, it's going to cost about the same as the current day/after care. When the third comes along, it'll save us about $1,000/month. We also stand to gain a whole lot, familywise. The kids will have someone solely focused on them. James can come home right after school and go play at the park, go to the water park, or play with kids in the neighbourhood. Melissa (and, therefore, we) won't constantly be exposed to the germ-pool that is daycare. We'll get some assistance with their needs at home (au pairs do the kids' laundry and help keep their rooms clean). And, if we wrangle the hours right, Jason and I will finally be able to have a consistent date night! Woah!!!
Over the past couple of weeks, we threw ourselves into the au pair search. Last night, we had our second Skype interview with a lovely young lady from Brazil. We were already very impressed with her after the first interview, and all the references provided. We decided, after introducing her to the kids and then talking with her more, last night, that we wanted to ask her to come join our family for a year. She was so thrilled, she started crying. It was so sweet! :D We have just a few more things to get through, with preparing ourselves and the house. If we hit all the right marks, though, she's going to be arriving in DC on 12 August. Woot! She's our 10th anniversary gift! LOL
So... big changes on the horizon. Woof. I think we're up to them, though. We'll see. LOL So much for the plans, but it's all good.
And maybe I'll see more of lj in the time to come.