About once a week,

both boys end up in bed early and about the same time! Kevin and I break out the ice cream and a netflix movie to watch on his laptop. Tonight is that night, although, Kevin is still laying down with Kyle. We actually had both boys in bed and started the movie when Kyle peeked his head around the wall and said: "What's that chocolate?!?" in reference to Kevin's ice cream, lol! We gave him a few bites and shuffled him off to bed, which is where Kev is right now.

The boys are doing well. Micah is always happy unless he is hungry or tired. I went to Bible study on Tuesday morning and Micah slept in the nursery the whole time! I couldn't believe it. It was wonderful! I had him all swaddled and laying in the crib with his binky when I left him. The baby sitter said all she did was rock him for a minute and he was out. Oh the joys of being a parent the second time around and having an easy baby!

Kyle started drawing today! He was tracing his name with a crayon, I had drawn it out for him in pen and he started coloring the page. I asked him to draw our family and he up and started drawing stick figures with faces! It was awesome, so cute. I still have no idea what handed he is. He was using his right hand earlier today with me, but was drawing with his left hand this evening after dinner when we showed Kevin what he had been doing. Kyle has never ever been interested in writing, coloring, etc... I've never pushed it, so that is why this was so cool to see!

We had our home inspection today! There are a few issues that we'll address with the owners, but no deal breakers it seems. We'll have the full report tomorrow.

Micah is:
Doing better in the car; he doesn't scream every time!
Sucking his thumb when he isn't swaddled.
Going for nightly walks with me in the stroller around our apt. complex.
ticklish! His giggles and laughs are like music to my ears!
Always happy, he wakes up happy and smiles at anyone who will talk with him/give him attention

Kyle is:
Getting smarter everyday as he tinkers with/takes apart various things around the house (like our digital camera)
A rhyming machine (I love you pove you, Micah picah, mommy pommy, daddy paddy, etc...)
Sleeping in his own room again, in the new twin bunkable beds we found for him (and eventually Micah) on craigslist
More imaginative than ever before, playing pretend not only with his cars, but with his stuffed animals and his hands (his fingers are a make believe spider that crawls around our house)
More loving and protective of Micah than I ever imagined he would be, in fact, he asked for us to have "lots more kids in our family"

That's all I have time for tonight! Movie is over and I'm off to bed.

Celebrate with me!

God has provided at the last minute and we are buying a house! I say last minute, because our lease is up here at the apt. on October 20th. It seems you need a good 30-45 days to close on a house, so this was going to be our last weekend looking and then we were going to "break up" with our agent (poor guy has shown us upwards of 50 houses, with two small children in tow) and start looking at rentals.

We couldn't be more thrilled with the location and neighborhood. It's a listing I found, because our agent was only showing us 3 bed/2 bath homes, but these were not in desirable neighborhoods for our price range. I started looking at 2 bed/2 bath homes and asked him to show us this listing last week! We saw the house on Thursday, put in an offer on Friday, they counter offered this evening, and we accepted.

It's a 2 bed/2 1/2 bath townhome on a cul de sac. We can walk everywhere: groceries, mcdonalds, library, park, even the boys' pediatrician that I picked out not knowing where we would be living! The only two places I have to drive are preschool and gymnastics, which are both closer than where we live now. Poor Kev does get a longer commute though, at 11 miles away from work.

So where is this perfect place? Here.

And a bonus! I saw two little boys bikes outside the front door of the house next to us; the one we will share a wall with!

That's my good news tonight!

Birthday boy

Birthday cookie cake in Nashville!

Kyle starts preschool tomorrow! He is so excited.

Kyle had his fourth birthday last week. We had a party in Tucson with his friends before we left and a small family party here on his actual birthday. We went to the ice cream plant that morning, McDonalds for lunch, and then he chose to watch movies all afternoon, lol! We had pizza for dinner and a cookie cake with candles for dessert. He has continued to receive little packages in the mail from family and friends back home and loves it! He wants to know what is in the mail for him everyday when we go check the box.

Now that he is four years old, he has started doing things that he told his he couldn't do when he was three because he wasn't a "big boy"! He started standing up to pee on his birthday eve, gets dressed and eats by himself, clicks himself in to his own car seat, and is "brave" when faced with potentially scary experiences.

I feel like I missed out on his whole 3 year old year with us moving right before his 3rd birthday, the adoption classes, and then Micah's pregnancy. Kyle was required to grow up more this year than any 3 year old should have to! Despite all that Kevin and I have been dealing with the past 12 months, poor Kyle has been stressed out too. The other day he asked me when we were going back to AZ and I told him sometime in October, and he goes "To stay?!?" and I had to tell him no, that we would come back to Nashville. Then he has days when he tells me he loves it here and doesn't want to live anywhere else, lol!

We are starting to have a couple of good days every week, but the bad days are still really, really bad. I continue to feel defeated in our housing search and if something doesn't work out this weekend, we will start looking for a rental.

The boys continue to grow grow grow! We met our new pediatrician and she's wonderful, although the office isn't great, so I'm not sure we'll stick with her. Kyle is hovering around the 50-75th percentile for height and weight while Micah is up in the 90-95th percentile for height and weight. We kept thinking he was quite a big boy! I'm excited Kyle's growth spurts have slowed down, as this means we can keep using his 5 pt harness in his car seat for a little longer. Kevin has graciously allowed me to purchase some new baby carriers, as Micah can get very heavy, very fast, and of course, he loves to be carried as opposed to sitting in the car seat or stroller!