Updates

Just some updates...

-I guess I should start with my token house and adoption updates even though there's not much to report ;) Still hanging in there on the house front. We had two serious prospects a couple of weeks ago, but sadly, neither of those worked out. We haven't had any showings in the past two weeks, which is a little discouraging. They always seem to come in waves, so hopefully we'll get a new wave soon. We have a found a couple of houses that we're excited about, and that's a good thing, but it also makes waiting for our house to sell a little harder. I would have loved to move before Aubrey starts back to school so that our homeschool routine doesn't get messed up once we get started, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. We're learning some patience through this whole process, and that's definitely not a bad thing! :)

-As far as adoption updates, the only one I have is that we officially turned in our profile books! We made them on Shutterfly, and we're really happy with the way they turned out. It felt so good to hand those over because now we've REALLY, TRULY, 100% done everything we can. Hopefully the next adoption update we have will be a baby :)

-We are in the throes of potty training Jude. I say throes because this has NOT been an easy process. At all. We've literally been "potty training" him for MONTHS and MONTHS (after he initiated the whole thing!!). We did take a little break somewhere in there because I was just at my whit's end and needed a break, and he just wore pull-ups during that time. After his birthday last week, I told him that he is now a big boy, and he's not wearing pull-ups anymore. It's all underwear all the time now (except rest time and night time). He was totally fine with that, and sometimes he does great. Other times.... well, he doesn't do so great. I KNOW my child, and I am positive that this isn't a lack of understanding or ability to control when he goes to the bathroom. If that were the case, I would be handling this differently. He just plain doesn't like going on the potty. He will hold it and hold it and hold it, and I KNOW he has to go, but when I ask him, he passionately denies it. Then he has an accident 2 minutes later. Ughh. It's been hard for me to know how to handle this and to remain patient. I've been making him help me clean up the mess, and that seems to help some (he doesn't enjoy the cleaning.... yeah, I don't either, Buddy). Other times, he goes to the potty all by himself with no prompting like he's been doing it all his life. So, we're just pressing on. I can say that we are NOT going back to pull-ups no matter how frustrating all of the accidents are. He WILL potty train eventually. Right?? ;)

-We had a meeting at Aubrey's school yesterday to discuss this coming school year. We found out what curriculum we need to order for our homeschooling, and I'm looking forward to getting started in a few weeks. Aubrey is REALLY excited about starting back to school. I love that she loves school and learning so much! This summer break has been really good for me. I feel like I've been able to enjoy my time off, but I'm excited about getting started again soon. This year, since I'll have two little ones to work with, I want to be more structured and consistent about having "school time" at a set time everyday. Last year, we were really laid back about it and just did school when we had a break in our day. That worked fine, but I think it will be good to have a little more structure this year. I'm going to be VERY laid back with Jude. One thing they stress at Aubrey's school is that preschool is a time for our children to learn to love learning. I feel like they really succeeded in that with Aubrey, and I'm hoping the same will be true for Jude. My plan for Jude is to let him do as much "school work" as he wants to, but I'm not going to push him. I'm guessing he'll like it and want to do as much as Aubrey is doing. We'll see!

-I still want to post pictures of all the changes we've made to our house. I realized I don't have any great updated pictures to post, though. Hopefully the next time we have a showing (and our house is really clean) I will remember to take some pictures!