Arie: Arie is 6 months old already! He's changing by the day, learning new things all the time. His latest trick is sitting up all by himself. He went from not sitting at all to sitting with support to sitting on his own in about 2 weeks. He also started going to day care on November 16. I'm just working Mon, Wed, Fri until after Christmas so he's only there part time right now. He's adjusting quite well after a bit of a rough start. He generally won't take milk from his carer there from bottle, cup, or sippy cup but he absolutely loves anything from a spoon so they feed him milk mixed into rice cereal and milk mixed into vegetables. He's actually started to take some milk from a bottle with his carer now that he's used to her, but it seems he sees it as more of a beverage than a meal. They all say he's a really happy baby and he's busy charming all the staff with smiles most days when I pick him up so I think he'll be okay there. He laughs very easily so it's fun to have an easy audience. Silly noises, songs, dances, faces, etc. all send him into squeals of laughter. We're having a lot of fun with him at home.
Ryan: For the last 6 months Ryan has been working in the design office of his company as part of a special project rather than the original group he was hired with. He's really been enjoying doing design full time and gets along well with the guys that work in that office so it's been a real answer to prayer. He's been enjoying his work for quite a while now. Unfortunately it's the busy season of his original group so they're trying to have him do things he'd rather not do (travel to mills, sometimes over night). We're hopeful that what's left of the special project will be able to trump what they want him to do, but we'll see. Other than work he is loving being a dad. He takes Arie in the morning now when I go to work and hangs out with him and gets him ready for day care so he's getting a bit less sleep than before.
Me: Back to work! I was really worried about going back to work and still feel like a bad mom at times for leaving Arie at day care during the day, but I'm loving being back at work. It's a good reminder how much I love my work. And the project that I'm working on is still going very well. It's a bit of a rough schedule when I'm working so I think it will be tiring when it's full time. I get up at 5:30, get ready for work, feed Arie about 5:50 and head out the door usually by 6:20 to cycle into work by 6:30. Then after work (usually about 2:15) I cycle home, change clothes, run the 1.75 miles to Arie's day care with the empty baby jogger, pick him up and run home. Then he usually wants to eat for about an hour. I'm a morning person anyway though so I really like being at work early and can hit the ground running when I get there. And Arie doesn't have to be at day care for a full day then which is nice.
General: We're headed home for Christmas in just a couple weeks! We're excited for our families to see Arie again. He's changed a lot in a few months! It will be a welcome break and hopefully well worth the 2 8 hour plane flights with a 6 month old...
In January my cousin Stacey is coming to live with us and work in the lab with me for her interim project for Calvin College.
We have under a year left in England after we get back from Christmas. Sometimes it feels like a year is a long time to have left and sometimes it seems to be coming to an end very soon. In general we're feeling ready to move back to the states but there still is some traveling we'd like to do this year. :-)
Here are some more pictures of Arie:
Very smiley
Snowsuit for his travels in the baby jogger
Arie pulled himself up onto the side of the couch
...and thought it was pretty funny
So the coat's a little puffy
Looking small in the big high chair (which we later got rid of because it didn't fit in our tiny kitchen)
Arie's very helpful. He helps feed himself.
Loves sitting on daddy's shoulders
Check out those crazy baby rolls
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