Lately

The last time I had a comprehensive update was April so we're due for one now that it's nearly the end of September.

Work: After a month of maternity leave, I returned back to language. Only now, it's mostly just 2-hour tutoring sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with my language teacher and nothing else. I don't study, review, work on projects, keep up my sign language journal, upload video after video to be evaluated, etc. I'm trying to settle into a routine of work and baby. I am learning, sometimes well and sometimes nearly having a meltdown, how to juggle Darcy and concentrate on language during each tutoring session, even resorting to holding my video camera with one hand and feeding Darcy in my other arm. My teacher laughs at me. As for G, he is now taking Tkish (verbal language) for the next three months so that will help a lot. He is enjoying it. He also has found a tutor for the sign language, too. That's huge since he has been without one since March. 

Culture: The previous post before this one was about the baby myths and culture clash that I've run into. Read that.

A: She keeps us busy, laughing, and frustrated all at the same time. She's challenging and absolutely endearing. Her preschool went into play mode all summer and now it's back in session so she'll be learning. I love her preschool. She is learning to draw lines from object to object, tracing, and draw a line in a maze, all in this workbook that her Nonna gave her. I've decided that she's a warrior princess because she is so girly yet plays like a boy. She would be that girl in a tiara and princess costume streaked with grass stains, running and out-climbing boys. She would have a dainty tea party and turn around to play monsters. She'd color sweetly in her Color Wonder princess book and then go build "scary robots" out of Legos with her friend Owen who would be building a landscape (this one happened today). I love this mixture in her. My hope is that she will continue to be girly and also be athletic because I think playing sports is a great teacher in confidence, teamwork, perseverance, and self-discipline. A will always be my wonder child because she is the first to do everything and I will always be admiring her as I watch her develop before my eyes. 

DB: She is so sweet. She's 7 weeks old and has kept me very busy. She's been a great night sleeper once she got her days and nights straightened out and started sleeping 8 hours straight at 4-5 weeks (I think it's because of her weight). Her daytime naps are improving. Now that she's past the 6-week hump of newborn fussiness, she has become very laid-back and happy. I just love her. I am definitely eating up every cuddly minute I have because I know what is coming...she will grow up and away from me.

Hearth and Home: 

• It's messy, ha! G does a great job in helping me keep the house in order and he has been very helpful in every other way. I'm having trouble getting in a new routine of keeping the house in running order but I think since DB is starting to fall into a more predictable routine, I can develop a routine again. 
• After a year of living here, we still have nothing on the walls. We keep talking about hanging the pictures but somehow, it never happens. I've been meaning to sew up curtains for Ava's room but that hasn't happened either. 
• I normally try to decorate a little for the fall season and later on, the holidays (wreaths, pumpkin spice candles, etc), but I haven't had any interest this time. Maybe I'll make cookies celebrating fall and I'll be on the lookout for pumpkins later. I love pumpkin madly. 

Free Time: What free time? Ha! While I was on a month-long maternity leave, constantly nursing, changing diapers, wiping spit-up, soothing DB to sleep, I was pretty much chained to one spot on the couch. It was hard to get much done. As I sat and nursed, I watched a lot of TV shows on Netflix and Hulu. I remember doing the same thing with A. My maternity leave ended three weeks ago and I stay pretty busy but I'm always forced to stop and sit down to nurse so I don't mind taking a few minutes to relax. I don't watch Hulu and Netflix while nursing anymore. I managed to get about four hours of alone time to myself out of the house at Starbucks last week on a cold, rainy day which was perfect for snuggling up with a book, the Word, iPod nano, and my journal. Of course, decaf coffee. I'd been cooped up for four days straight prior to my Starbucks escape. I don't see my date with a cup of coffee and a book as free time as much as I see it as necessary for survival and for being a good mom. Anyway, I have not stopped reading, even if it has taken me all summer to read thirty chapters in a single book (Future Grace by J. Piper). I have read two books by John Irving (A Prayer For Owen Meany and Cider House Rules) and I'm slowly working through The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. The fiction books are actual paperbacks (after reading on the Kindle for over a year and half) that our friends brought us from the States back in June.  

Upcoming Holidays: Thanksgiving is a long way off. Yes, I intentionally skipped over Halloween because it's not really a family holiday and it's definitely not a holiday here so it doesn't count in my book. 

Weather: After a hot summer, the cool weather we've been having is a big welcome. I actually got chilly sleeping under just a sheet last night. Pretty soon, we can pull out our bedspread from storage (we were sleeping with either nothing or a sheet covering us so it was pointless to keep a bedspread around) and sleep comfortably. I think hot weather is gone for good. 

Visitors: We recently had G's parents come for a visit and we loved seeing them. We hadn't seen G's dad for a year and half and his mom only once in the same time frame. It was great fun seeing them and they were a big help in keeping A busy and soothing DB. G and I even got to go on a couple of dates. My mom is coming in a week, also a year since we last saw her. I've enjoyed having family visit. We also have a friend coming to visit with us in late October on his way to the conference. A couple of co-workers (working with the Deaf) will visit us after a conference in a nearby city in December. 

Maybe the next comprehensive update will be around the holidays.