Adjusting...

I know it has been a very long time since I updated. Give me a break though! I am a full time mom and a full time student and a full time housekeeper. In the last couple months, we went to UT for a visit and I ended up staying for a very long time. I still am not sure why I did it, being a mom with three kids and no husband around sucked big time. I had lots of friends and family around to visit but the majority of the care fell on me regardless. That is how it is being a parent. Not complaining, as I would not trade the experience for anything! Well, except for the last weekend which I spent recovering from an evil bout of criptosporideum. My dad introduced me to 'raw' milk. Milk that has not been pasteurized is supposedly good for people with lactose intolerance. We went to a local dairy and picked up a couple jars. The first jar was so tasty, I have never had such lovely milk before. I had a bad feeling about the second jar but I took a small glass anyways right after my dad. A few days later I started shivering uncontrollably and my temperature skyrocketed. My dad came down with the same symptoms at about the same time. I went for 24 hours dealing with the horrible effects of the stupid bacteria before I finally decided to go to the hospital. My fever was at almost 104 and had been for 24 hours. I needed help fast so that I could take care of my kids. Got me some antibiotics and was told not to drink unpasteurized milk again. That is a check. My brother in law coined it well when he said, 'ya know, there is a reason they pasteurize milk!'. I said that to myself over and over as I was wracked with stomach cramps. Sheesh.

Jared spent 4 weeks without us. He worked, and worked, and worked. Played a few video games here and there, cooked a little, and spent time bonding with himself. I felt bad because we didnt even get to communicate much because of the attention I had to give to CJ. He didnt have anything really eventful going on, just beginning to gear up for a summer of TDY trips. Boo for me. For Father's Day we got him a charcoal starter and a how-to book on Dutch Ovens. My dad gave me one right before we got married and it is still in the box. A friend of ours cooked a dutch oven meal for us when we were in UT and Jared mentioned a desire to learn more. I am a little over excited about this prospect as I LOVE dutch oven food. I cannot wait for him to get his butt in gear and get learning! He is planning on building a fire pit in the back yard this weekend so that we can put the charcoal in there and not have it burn out by the never-ending El Paso winds.

As for me, I am still plowing through school. I only have a few more classes for my Associates degree and I am contemplating on whether I can handle doubling up for my Bachelors. I really want to get moving on my education and it may be worth the struggle. I will make that decision in the next few months as I graduate at the end of the year. I recently took an Algebra class that while was not necessarily hard, there was a ton of homework. Several assignments due per week and they were not small assignments either. I spent all of my free time in the evenings after the kids were asleep working on that class. Glad it is over but I know that I have one more before I am done this year.

Kayla is adjusting very well to being a big sister again. She is constantly playing with CJ and begs me to let her play when I am playing with him. She hovers and coos and nurtures him. She makes him laugh and spends hours willingly playing and entertaining. She helps me out with whatever he may need and does it quickly. She has also decided that she has a right to tell me 'no'. Needless to say, that is not going over well. We are working very hard on teaching her the difference between wrong and right decisions and that there are serious consequences. Not sure if she is getting it or not but at least we are trying.

Madison is not adjusting so well. She has always been a little clingy and it has doubled now that I am expecting her to be more independent. She is not getting attention from Kayla because she is focused on the baby and she is not getting attention from me because when I am not focused on the baby I am working on homework or housework. I give her undivided attention every day but it is not as much as she would like. She is definitely having a hard time adjusting to her new place in the family and I have to keep reminding myself that I need to be more understanding when she is whining and hanging on my leg. She is also growing and has become incredibly clumsy. Poor kid has gone through a box of bandaids in a month.

CJ is my little angel baby. He is so incredibly sweet and easy going. He sleeps for 5-7 hours at a time at night and then again for another 4. Last night he slept from 7:30 until 4:30 and woke up for the day a little after 7. I never believed people when they said they had babies who slept this well. The day naps are not going so well however, but I will take day problems over night anytime. This means that Jared and I can switch off getting up with him so that one of us always gets to sleep through the night every other night. It keeps me sane! He is not the biggest eater, nor is he my biggest baby. He is the tallest, but also the scrawniest. I am hoping he chunks up soon. He is so tall that he keeps stretching out his clothes lengthwise but definitely does not fill them out widthwise. I figure that as long as he is growing well and he is healthy and happy I will not complain. He is quick to smile and even to laugh. He loves to be tickled and is incredibly social. He does not like being startled and gets very upset when his sisters yell, especially Maddie with her overly loud voice. He is currently holding his head up by himself almost 90% of the time. He will be 3 months old on Sunday! I keep having to remind myself that he is only 2 months old and to give him time to make his adjustments. I am looking forward to the upcoming growth spurt because I want to be free of this Alimentum crap. It is costing us a fortune to feed him!

Our trip to UT was a lot of fun. We spent most of our time with Jared's family and my friend Lauren and her son Teagan. We do not normally see much of Jared's family when I visit each year so this was a nice change of pace. We saw the siblings play baseball on Tuesday nights, Kayla spent many nights over with her grandparents, and we had a few family parties that we got to attend. Lauren is currently very pregnant with her daughter Charlotte (I get to call her Charlie! LOVE IT!) and her hubby Corey has been in Afghanistan with the Air Force. She is due in 6 days, and Corey is currently en route home. I keep telling him to hurry so that he can be home for the birth! I tried to see them as much as possible as Lauren and I have been very close over the years and have been through a lot together, deployments, babies, miscarriages, etc. I also have a new nephew coming on Saturday at the latest. Braxton will likely be CJ's partner in crime as we really hope that they will be close since they are so close in age. When we move back to UT next year we plan on spending a lot of time letting the two get to know each other. So, thats about it for now because this has taken me several days to type so I better get it posted. I will get pictures on when I can but at least this is something right? RIGHT?