It seems that an update is overdue!

Last week we left Ellen and Lewis with my mom and stepdad in the evening to go out to watch a preseason Blazer game. This was not the first time we’d left the kids, but it was the first time we left them at bedtime! The first time we left them, Lewis was napping and I believe Ellen also slept the whole time we were gone. This time, they were both awake AND they needed to be fed and put to bed. A big milestone, but both Kyle and I were comfortable and relaxed about it because they were with professionals. Mom and her husband both raised three kids apiece, so they had everything under control, and we had a great time getting out!

Ellen has earned a new nickname – she is “Ellenblob”, because look at her. She keeps getting rounder and rounder. I find her physique both amusing and confusing. She looks hilariously, adorably chubby, but I also don’t understand how I made a person quite that big. I must be honest, I feel a bit self conscious about it, although I’m not sure why, because she is cute and perfect and healthy!

Ellenblob has been showing signs of improvement on the sleep front. Instead of one good, long stretch at the beginning of the night, we now get two 3+ hour stretches in a row most nights. But everything still falls apart after that because she always needs to poo in the early morning hours and that is a noisy, difficult process for her. She makes noises like a cartoon character – just totally over-exaggerated pooping noises. It’s hard to believe it is real! Anyway, that keeps me up and I wake up exhausted every morning and giggle at my FitBit sleep tracker, but I’m trying to focus on the positives from the beginning of the night instead of the rough endings. Depending on how tired I am, I have varying degrees of success in maintaining my positive attitude.

We’ve been seeing a ton of baby smiles and cooing lately. Instead of truly being a blob that just lays there, Ellenblob has become interactive to some degree! I was so looking forward to this, and it does not disappoint!

I took Ellen to visit my workplace last week and she charmed all my coworkers. It was great to see everyone, and I dare say I even got a little excited to go back to work. But don’t quote me on that, because I imagine as it gets closer, that feeling will fade.

Lewis is hilarious and challenging, as always. I spotted a little white dot on his gums in the back right side of his mouth – Molar incoming!!! He’s showing no signs of pain, however, so it looks like growing up has been good for his pain tolerance. Woohoo! He’s doing a lot better at sleeping through the night again too, after that small regression right after Ellen was born. So the teething truly doesn’t seem to be affecting him. The other night he even slept so long that the monitor ran out of batteries! Of course, Ellen was awake and finally fell back asleep right as Lewis was waking up, so I didn’t get to enjoy the sleep-in. Oh well.

I’m continuing to settle more and more into this new life and get to know my new self even better. I feel a lot calmer these days, but it ebbs and flows. Just like with Ellen’s sleep trends, I’m going to feel satisfied that things are trending in the right direction in this arena. There is no endpoint for this adjustment, I’m sure, because the kids are forever changing. But if I can keep up the positive trend, then life is good!