A LOT has Happened

On August 28, M left to go on a 3 week hunting trip with his dad. They ended up somewhere in north New Mexico the next day. Since he's been gone, a lot has happened. The only way I'm able to talk to him is if and when they "go to town" and they can get signal. I've only been able to talk to him twice and we weren't surrounded by ideal circumstances either time. The first time he called, he had left his cellphone at the camp, so he had to use a pay-phone. (Luckily, there was still one around). We weren't able to talk long because it was hard to hear him over the motorcycles that were driving by. The second time he called, I had just got home and I was SO tired, that I could barely keep my eyes open. At that point, he had been gone about a week and a half and they had not done any hunting yet and the other guys were just getting there.

When M left, I was truly worried that either the girls or I one may not survive. We were going through a really hard time and they were being very rebellious, which in turn, caused K to be more rebellious. About a week after M left, one of the biggest changes of our household happened and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to talk to M about it. Luckily, I was and he was in agreement with what was going on. The girls ended moving back home Labor Day weekend. Here it is another week later and they still haven't started school yet. Come to find out, one of the girls weren't given proper credit from her previous public school and the new school they are planning to enroll her in won't acknowledge her private school transcript because someone mentioned she was homeschooled. I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. She might have to repeat her 9th grade year.

With that being said, the house has been a lot more calm and relaxed. K has adjusted VERY well to being the big brother again. He's really excited about having a new baby "brother" as he says. Just last night he asked me when I was going to go to the hospital to get the baby. I explained we had to wait until my belly got really big and the baby finished growing. He seemed to understand.

L has learned some more signs. She knows how to say "Thank You" and knows how to get in her booster seat all by herself. If I'm not watching closely, I can even catching her refilling her cup of water at the fridge. Yep! She's done it a couple of times. It was a little messy, but she tried. She also used the bathroom on the potty once.

K says he's "independent" now and dresses himself completely by himself and does ALL the bedtime duties by himself. He's tall enough to turn the lights on and off, so I no longer have to follow him to the bathroom. He learned how to tie his shoes by himself, so now I have to plan way ahead to give him enough time to get it done before I need to leave. Now that he can do it by himself, he doesn't want any help and he ties everything that needs to be tied. The first time he tied something, he called me in from the living room to show me something. When I got to his room, he showed me that he had tied his swim shorts. I was impressed, but asked to see him do it again. I let him practice on his shoes since the strings were longer and of course, he did it. He was so excited and I was/am so proud. He had to call his Granny Nee and Nana to let them know. He would have called his daddy if he would've been able to talk.

Oh, K even learned how to count to 5 in Spanish. Kids are such sponges. They absorb everything!