6 months, 2 weeks

Happy Tuesday!  We had an extended weekend due to Presidents' Day, so Luke and I were able to enjoy an extra day at home with Maxwell before jumping into a shortened, but crazy busy week.  Why is it that the shortest weeks always feel the longest?  We've got 3 more work days, and then two full weeks before the end of the Trimester.

This past week, I finally got a chance to work on our taxes.  In the past, I used to LOVE putting together and filing our taxes because we always got some money back (I know, I know... free loan to the gov't... should try to get as close to $0 as possible...blah blah blah).  It was always a welcomed chunk of cash that we could put toward something fun.  Then, two years ago, Luke got a promotion and it bumped us into the lowest part of the next tax bracket.  That year, SURPRISE!  We owed a couple grand in taxes.  We made some adjustments for the next year, but apparently we weren't actually savvy enough to figure out the amount we needed to have withheld, because again, we got slammed in April, owing another couple grand.  Thank goodness I have all the money I make for night school deposited into an extra account, so about half of that went to paying off the amount owed each year.  For this tax season, we were excited to add Max as a dependent.  The second I entered his SSN, I watched our total owed roll down, and this year we only owe about $150 (much better than the thousands we thought we might owe!).  Just for shits and giggles, I took out my night school job to see how much we would owe if our income dropped, and I found that if I didn't work my night school job, we would get back just about what I make teaching 1x/week (after we take out what we typically owe).  Which takes me to my big announcement:

I'M QUITTING NIGHT SCHOOL!

I've totaled it up, and after tonight, I have only 14 more sessions to teach, and then I'll be free.  While this year has actually been the most rewarding night school experience I have had in the 5 years of working here, I miss being with my son more than I am enjoying teaching at night.  You have NO idea how badly I want to run around the halls, telling people that I'm not coming back next year, but I figure that I will save that conversation for May.  I really like the students I have had this year, and I will miss them, but I will definitely be much happier spending the evenings with my kid.  I know it's cliche, but he is growing up SO fast, and I don't want to miss a minute.

Speaking of my kid....

Coasters are the best.

Max and baby cousin Adeline chilling in their carseats.

He's been a blast lately (90% of the time).  He's so smiley, and so proud of his ability to get himself wherever he would like to go.  His crawling skills have improved even more, and he crawls up on all fours without dragging his belly on the ground!  He also does a perfect downward dog, and attempts to "walk" like the dogs do in that position.

We have found that he really likes the Happy Baby sweet potato pouches.  He has been wary of the spoon lately (probably from the time we tried to feed him pear with cinnamon, and he HATED it), so it has been helpful to let him play with the pouch, open it, let him put it in his mouth, and then give it a little squeeze so that he eats a bit directly from the pouch.  Once he's remembered that he likes the sweet potatoes, he'll accept it from the spoon (with occasional slurps from the pouch).  He wouldn't be a member of our pack if he didn't have some strange little quirks :)  He also likes the Happy Baby teether wafers.  He had his first one yesterday, and it was fun to see him feeding himself.  He's also tried feeding himself steamed broccoli and seemed to enjoy the fact that he could put the food in his own mouth.  Luke and I get nervous when he tries pieces of real food, but he's getting pretty good at figuring out how to mash things with his gums.

My kid now has chunky thighs!

The other 10% of the time, he's been a bit of a terror.  This happens almost exclusively at night.  The last two nights, he's been so clingy, and refuses to sleep in his crib for longer than 1-2 hours, and then he needs to be touching me.  Two nights ago, he was up nearly every hour, and it was hard to get him to go back to sleep (he hadn't pooped yet, so he was uncomfortable).  Last night, after his hour in the crib, he woke up SCREAMING, and it took us a good 20 minutes to comfort him to the point where he was ready to go back to sleep.  It hurts me to see him so upset :(  I'm glad that these moments aren't too frequent, and that he is a perfect kiddo for my mom during the day.

Hopefully next week's update will include more positive sleep news, but if not, that's okay.  He won't want to sleep in bed with us when he's a teenager, so it will end someday... I hope...