whats new

stephen is in his second month of mothers day out at the church down the street. he is doing very well. he of course cries when i drop him off but has a great time once i am gone, or so they say! we're still not walking, but if i've learned anything its that truly you cannot make your kids do anything! they grow on their own time, and why walk when you have a mommy that will carry you? he is getting much more vocal and communicative. he waves hi and bye-bye. asks whats that? says da-da frequently as well as brother & cat. he shakes his head no. its amazing how much he understands at 14 months old. if he's hungry he goes to his highchair (or reaches down my shirt!) we're down to nursing twice a day and i am really working on breaking him of his nursing in the wee hours of the morning. he has learned to climb up the ladder into the fort in the back yard, goodbye the days of him being in the backyard with minimal supervision. (yes i let me one year old play back there without me. his brothers there, and i check out the window. ok, i probably shouldn't let my four year old supervise the baby. whatever) he has 16 teeth now and loves to bite and hit me. good times. he loves it when daddy chases him around on the floor and has found a "safe zone" behind the side table.
mason is doing extremely well in school & will become an afternoon worker int he spring. this means instead of being made to have rest time he will work with the older children. he is learning to write his name and is starting to draw pictures, rather than just scribble-scrabble as he calls it. he's really into star wars the clone wars and loves to run around with his light saber. he asked me why darth vader is not in clone wars last night. i tried to explain that anniken skywalker is darth vader before he joined the dark side, this really upset him. maybe this conversation was a little premature. it is quite confusing and a little upsetting, even to me. apparently he has been asking mike how he got into my belly before he was born. so we are figuring out how to best explain this to him, without being too graphic, but yet honestly. i feel there is no shame in the birds & bees convo. and why the heck do we say birds & bees anyway?
both of the boys had an awesome time when grandma & grandpa came from a visit a couple of weeks ago from canada. they LOVED having bailey, their golden retriever, here. mason has been asking alot about what happened to sadie after they left (that was our beagle that ran away 2 years ago) he's missing the furry four legged friend companion. one day. just not today, we'll get another dog. maybe when there are no more diapers or nightime feedings happening!
freedom house is rocking & rolling. we've ben open for almost 2 months and have been succesful so far. we're keeping at least a few guys in at a time and have been full a couple of times. the drama is definitely there, which we expected. and know is just the nature of the beast. mike started back to school and will be kept busy taking 9 hours on top of his jobby-job, on top of freedom house. so all in all we're good. i've been in a constant state of funkiness, trying to get out. staying busy with the boys and the service work the man upstairs has been hurling at me. i'm thinking the message is "get the hell out of your own head lady and think about someone else". i'm trying.