Much has changed

When we last left off, our intrepid adventurer was but a novice, young mother to a baby a mere 3 months old.  Today, she is a seasoned veteran-mother of a toddler of a ripe old 19 months.

Sir Jack is now a professional Goldfish cracker eating, "NO!" shouting, bathtub splashing, nap resisting, Elmo loving, amazingly bright little dude.  Here's the handsome young lad now:

We had many sleepless nights while adjusting to parenthood, which by the way, has not been the 100% puppies and rainbows that people claim it is.  However, as Jack's becoming more vocal and independent, it's definitely getting more fun and less stressful.

Quick recap time!  He had near-constant ear infections until we had tubes put in at 9 months. Which was also right around the time that we took on one Dr Richard Ferber as our personal mentor.  So when he's not sick, we finally have a toddler who sleeps in his own bed for upwards of 12 hours a night.  That's been a major factor in the "life is looking up" department.  

He's in the Toddler room at daycare now.  Jack and I both definitely cried when I dropped him off the first day in a room full of "big kids".  But he's flourishing with his peers.  And he has some older (I'm talking 3-year-old mini cougars) female admirers who apparently chase him around for kisses, and he loves it.  Player.

As far as mom and dad go, things are good.  I'm currently working 2 part-time jobs, one of which I thoroughly enjoy, and the other, not so much.  D is rocking at his job.  He recently got an amazing raise, which is helping us to get out from under some debt, and we've started talking more seriously about getting out of our tiny apartment and into a house, which excited me to no end.

Basically, we're just living every day.  Parts of me wish it was more exciting than that, but most of me really likes the day-in, day-out routine.  Since I'm not crazy busy all the time, I'm getting to watch my son turn into this awesome little person.  Every time he looks at me and says "mama" or gives me a kiss, I feel terrible about how awful I thought the first few months were. And I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

Jack is 19 months, 4 days old, and life is pretty nice today.