Average Update

I feel like there hasn't been much of anything to talk about lately, but for many members of our family this blog is the main way they find out how we're doing because I don't post multiple times a day on Facebook, and when I do post it isn't usually personal stuff.  So here's a small update.

Mc
Mc's job is going well, for the most part.  He likes the people he works with and the bulldog who sits behind him (in his building the employees are allowed to bring their dogs to work, and the woman who sits behind him brings her bulldog).  He likes the work he is assigned to do, but there are too many things that need to be fixed or automated that currently aren't, and often he feels like there are just not enough hours in the day to do everything that he's expected to do.  He's doing his best, though, and he is getting things done.  He gets home late but he still has about an hour or two with the kids, and they're happy when he comes home.

Me
I'm doing fine.  I take the kids to the park when it's not raining and I get to read books while they play and make friends.  A young couple in Mc's church lives just down the hall from us, and the gal and I have become friends.  We've been over to their house to play games, and our kids get along great.  She's invited me to a couple of activities with other church ladies (which I don't mind), and one of them was a book club meeting.  I found out about it a week before they were going to meet, and I got the book from the library the next day but I only got about halfway through the book by the time the meeting came around, so I didn't go because I didn't want the ending to be spoiled for me.  But the book is very very good.   It's called The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, and I would put it in the mystery-romance category.  It's very well-written, and even though it's almost 500 pages long it's a quick and easy read and it's the kind of book you don't want to put down.  In general, the books I read make me think about deep things or at least semi-deep things and they appeal to my intellectual side, but it's not often I read a book that can make me cry and where my heart breaks for a character, and this was one of those books.  I'm actually going to buy it (I only buy books that I know I will read again), and I definitely recommend this one.

Baby Girl
Baby Girl loves school.  Every day when I take her to school she's excited to be there, and she's happy to see me when the teacher walks her out to the car after school is done.  Next week is parent-teacher conference week for her class, so I'll find out more details from her teacher on how she's doing.  She's made a couple of friends, and we saw one of her classmates the other day at Papa Murphy's, which was a pleasant surprise.  She still makes friends at the park, too, but because it's been raining so much the past couple of weeks, we haven't gotten out of the apartment much.  She still loves to read books and she loves to color in her coloring book, and she and Little One play well together.  I think she feels like she can bond with him more now that he's been talking more and he's begun showing an interest in her and what she's doing and saying.

Little One
Little One is slowly learning more words.  We've been working with an early intervention program to help him learn to understand words and concepts and to vocalize what he wants.  Physically he's a big kid-- he's in the 90th percentile for height and weight-- and he's healthy in every way.  He is definitely a kinesthetic learner, which is frustrating for me because I don't know how to teach a kinesthetic, gestalt learner.  But that's what this program is for-- teaching him, but also teaching Mc and me how to teach him.  We're looking into a preschool through the public school district for Little One that's designed to help kids like him, and they also have a program for kids who are more kinesthetic learners, and we're looking into that as well.  It's going to be strange having both kids at school at the same time (Little One would start as soon as he turns 3 years old), but everyone will benefit from where they are: Baby Girl at her preschool, Little One at his, and me alone at home with some peace and quiet.  ;)

As a family we've made a Saturday tradition of going to the children's museum near us.  The kids walk in and they remember where we are and they know the areas they like to go in.  If the kids are in the same area then Mc and I talk, but I also bring a book in case the kids want to do different things and I need to follow one of them.  It's kind-of funny, I see lots of parents sitting and reading, but most of them are on their phones or kindles; I think I'm the only one there who has a physical book.  I like it, though.  ;)  On Sundays Mc still takes the kids to church and I get those 3 hours to myself, which I need.

Well, that's pretty much how we're doing.  Nothing really exciting going on, just the usual day-to-day stuff.  We're doing well up here in Washington, and I'm looking forward to seeing what a Seattle winter is like.