Life Update + Morgan + Things

Our lives feel like they are going a million miles an hour these days, I feel like we came out of winter hibernation at full speed ahead. Our to-do lists are still miles long, our calendars ridiculously full. But that's family life right? Juggling schedules, appointments, lessons, activities for 4 people and a dog. Homework, childcare, work. Maintaining and improving an old house. Having fun. Planning for big trips and big events.

So many happy things. My sister is getting married this summer and I have privilege of being her maid of honor. We threw her a bridal shower a few weeks ago and it was so much fun. Her bachelorette is a girls' weekend in Brooklyn and the wedding is on Cape Cod this summer (one of my favorite places on earth); we couldn't be more excited. We're also going on a cruise with Mike's side of his extended family this summer (a generous gift from my father-in-law to celebrate his retirement)... it's going to be a blast. Our pool opened and Oliver is now obsessed with the giant water slide they have there. Our local zoo has lions and hyenas now. We're planning his birthday party.

Mike also changed jobs. We are SO HAPPY that he found something new that fits our needs better. The new job is doing more of the technical stuff he likes to do and less of the managerial drama that was weighing him down. The hours are steady, he can still work flextime to be off one weekday each week (for childcare cost savings) and the pressure to be available to work 90 hours a week is nonexistent there. It's also much closer to home - his commute has changed from 1 hour each way to 20 minutes each way 3 days a week and 5 minutes away 2 days a week. He's even started riding his bike to work when he's in town. It's been great!

We are over the moon for Miss Morgan Mayhem. She's settled into our home and our hearts and we can't imagine life without her. She is such a good puppy and ADORES the boys (and they her!). Morgan loves to snuggle, play and get into mischief. She is a digger and an escape artist, and she steals the garden strawberries. She lets the boys do pretty much anything without batting an eye except getting her wet  (she hates water). We still miss Georgia, but Morgan's affections have really helped.

Overall the kids are doing great. Oliver's almost done with kindergarten. He has nice fiends, he loves his school and teacher, he's learned so much this year. This summer he'll be doing a local day camp in our town in the mornings and be with his grandparents in the afternoons with Matt. Matthew overall is great too - he's such a happy toddler! He is affectionate, smart and loves to play. We're not going to send him to preschool until he's 3, so he has another year at home with our much loved nanny and wonderful grandparents.

Of course not everything is rainbows and unicorns. On top of all the illness (like Matt coming down with pneumonia in June - who gets pneumonia in the SUMMER?!), worries and craziness this year, both kids have (minor) obstacles to overcome that we're working through. Oliver has been having trouble with his vision. We ended up getting him glasses in a very extreme prescription - it's helped him see a lot better (and we've seen huge strides in his reading since), but there have been side effects. Motion sickness on swings, rides and in the car and overall being prone to bouts of nausea that has been incredibly frustrating for him. And then Matt doesn't talk. We ended up having him evaluated by our state's early intervention program and he's now in weekly speech therapy. It's nothing cognitive (thank goodness), but he has a lot of catching up to do. We are very grateful to live in a state with such great EI programs!

So that's where we're at. Lots of good things, busy schedules, plenty of calendar juggling... but I think things are going really well and hopefully will only get better from here.