Educating the Wheelers

It’s been a pretty crazy couple of months here at EtW. Not that you’d know, of course, because the blog has been largely silent. But the kids keep getting bigger. And cuter:

Audrey is really starting to read more and more, and is starting to sound out words that she doesn’t have memorized by just hearing the same book 100 times. Owen is flipping himself over and starting to army crawl. And babbling up a storm! When it was just Audrey and I at home alone, I hadn’t really figured out the whole how to talk to something that doesn’t talk back thing, so she grew up in a very quiet world. Our doc had us bring her in some time after her first birthday to check her hearing since she wasn’t making any moves towards talking. Owen’s world is much louder, crazier, more boisterous … and he definitely wants in on the conversation.

Finance-wise, everything is in … well, let’s not call it turmoil due to negative connotations, though it is the first term that came to mind. Let’s call it “in flux.” Andrew loves his new job, and we’re still in the process of figuring out our new insurances, new savings plans, the whole shebang. We’re sitting on a junkload of cash, but that’s only because we’re still squatting at my parents’ house.

Actually, living at my parents’ house is not the nightmare that it could very well be. The weirdest thing for me is not being in my own space. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom now for almost three years, and it’s weird being in another mom’s [my own mom’s!] domain all day. Not my kitchen, not my pantry. Not my fridge! I’m doing a fair amount of the cooking, but my parents’ have, let’s say, a different palette than we do. But we’re finding common ground.