Life Lately

The whole month of June seemed to breeze by.  It was a good month, but a lot kept us on our toes.  I accomplished a lot of dissertation work.  We had quite a few visitors.  We dogsat my parents' dogs while they were on vacation and watered their palm trees.  Our AC broke--but we got it fixed the next day, so no big catastrophe.  Eliot visited his grandparents in Woodbridge for about five days.  We had Jack's party....  Nothing bad, just a lot of little events that made it difficult for us to maintain a routine.

I think July will be much more calm, though.

Jack had been fussy almost all of June.  He was crying more than he was happy, which can really wear a momma out.  I noticed that a tooth broke through on the bottom yesterday, though, so maybe that was part of his fussiness.  Also, I know he has just been so angry about not being able to walk for a while.  He wanted to run around with freedom like his brother, and when it didn't work out right away, he would cry in frustration.  And then he walked!  And then he wanted to be able to stand up without pulling on anything.  More tears.  And tears when he would fall down.  However, he started standing straight up and doesn't fall much anymore, so he is happier.

People warn you to "watch out" when baby starts walking, but for me, it honestly seems so much easier.

Before Jack could walk, we couldn't just hang out in the backyard.  The kid will eat anything.  He loves to choke on gumballs.  He consumes dirt by the fistful.  And if I sat him down on a blanket, he would crawl off to find dirt to make a mess.  If we were outside, I would need to hold him the whole time.  Not so easy.  However, now that he can walk, he loves to stroll through the yard, touch new leaves on bushes, kick the soccer ball, climb up (!!!) and go down the slide, play in sandbox....  The list goes on.  He is so busy and entertains himself.  I love it!

I mean, trips to Target are harder now because he wants to walk around the store and shop too, but I usually try to only go to Target once a week so I don't buy the whole store.

I try not to write about my dissertation on here too much.  It's boring to read about when you are so detached.  I have spent the past few weeks gathering data, though, which is great.  I needed 30 participants to respond.  I have 37!  I will continue gathering data over the next week because the more data, the better.  Then it will be time to analyze the data, which I know will bring me so many new hurdles that I had not clue about.  But I've come THIS far.  I know I can make it through.  And after kicking around this idea for four years, I am so excited to see the results.  I have SO many ideas of different ways to adapt the study and expand it for future research, which I hope to do maybe next spring--of course, after I finish up my dissertation.

 A tropical storm is supposed to come through on Friday, so we got in some beach time today.  We played in the sand, swam in the bay water, and had a picnic on the beach.  By the way, if you live near the beach, do yourself a favor and invest in one of those little tent-shelter things.  $20 at Target.  Best.thing.ever. because it doesn't blow away like all of my umbrellas and I can keep the babies in some shade when they seem hot.  Anyway, Eliot fell asleep in the car on the way home.  That never happens.  He was oddly fussy.  After his bath, I noticed that he was warm.  Yep, he has a fever.  Enter crazy worrying about dry or secondary drowning (even though he didn't come close to having any sort of "struggle in water" at the beach).  After some Tylenol and another nap, he seemed a lot better.  Well, he woke up sweating and screaming first, but then he evened out and ate dinner.  I'm hoping he'll get over this quickly and easily.