Blank Canvas: September

School started again for Atom on September 4th. Once again, he had to go through an adjustment period to get used to the morning drop offs without getting upset. Then, only about a week and a half into school, he got sick again and had to miss a several more days. And, later on towards the end of the month, he got another little cold! All this getting sick and interruption in patterns made things more difficult and stressful this month for everyone. Trillian's sleep has been really messed up since she caught Atom's cold too. She's gone from sleeping solidly through the night, to waking up multiple times and not going back to sleep easily. It doesn't help that she's also teething now and has a lingering cough that makes it hard for her to sleep comfortably. I resisted getting sick until the last cold of the month, and then I finally caught it too. Like Trillian, I still have a lingering cough and congestion from that. Scott got sick as well, but it was much more mild for him, mainly just a sore throat.

In spite of getting sick, Atom is still really enjoying school! He always seems so happy and excited about the day he's had when I pick him up. He's getting along well with everyone, but he's also made one friend in particular so far, a 4 year old girl named Ireland, who seems to have taken Atom under her wing and helps him out a lot. She's only there 3 days a week, but I always see them playing together on those days!

Along with getting several teeth this month, Trillian has been vocalizing a lot! Lot's of Ma-ma's and Da-da's and Ba-ba's. I don't think she's using those sounds specifically yet to identify anything, but it's still nice to hear! She also learned to wave hi and bye, which is really her first purposeful signing kind of gesture. I've been trying out some other signs occasionally to see if she picks them up, but I'm probably not using them frequently enough. With her, I'm finding it much harder to focus on the kind of "teaching" things that I did with Atom when he was this age. I'm constantly amazed at how much harder it is having two kids than it was when I just had one. It probably has a lot to do with being outnumbered here by myself with them during the day. Many days I'm lucky to just make it through the day without falling apart, let alone getting anything done that I want to accomplish. One more reason I'm really happy that I have the mornings now with Atom in school! I think it's a really good thing for both of us!

Scott's work has been relatively calm lately, without a lot of the stress and wacky hours he has to deal with sometimes. He has had a few deadlines where he's been more stressed, but mostly it's been okay. It's still quite busy at Itec though, with several different projects that Scott is working on.

I continued through August and September trying to find a new tenant for unit B of our rental house. So far no luck, though I've shown it to a lot of people, I haven't found anyone suitable yet. I keep trying to schedule most showings for Saturday, to make it easier for me to do that without the kids, but then of course it takes up a lot of our weekend together. :( I'll be very glad when I finally find someone and am done with this process.

Messy baby and messy house!

Sliding

Walking

He's getting so big!

Two cute pictures of Daddy and Trillian

Getting all twisty!

This is what happens when I don't take the double stroller.... Actually, this was taken after Trillian's 9 month doctor checkup, waiting to get bloodwork at Labcorp, on a day when Atom had just gotten a cold. He was not feeling well at all and Trillian was very tired and cranky from being out and awake so long. Since that setup was only practical for snapping a quick picture, I had my hands full that day!

Trillian has also been more interested in books this month and I need to try to read to her more. There's one book in particular called "Babies" that she always wants to read!