Family Update

Though we are having a pretty slow and uneventful summer thus far, we are definitely feeling the crush as we look forward to what needs to happen in the next month and a half. I'm sure that The Chief and I are stressed about different things. Undoubtedly and understandably, The Chief is spending his worry moments thinking of the bar exam which is coming up in just about four weeks. He certainly is putting in his study time. I see less of him now than I did during school. He is a great studier! He has his rough days where he calls me half-way through the day to let me know that his brain has involuntarily turned off. I've advised him to schedule "vacation" days in between long stretches of studying, just so he doesn't go insane on me. Better to plan a mental retreat than to have one descend on you unexpectedly and at an inopportune time. The Chief is my hero! I am constantly in awe of how dedicated he is to his choice of career and the studying he does in order to get there. I don't think I could possibly concentrate on studies for as long as he does each day. I feel truly grateful to have a husband so willing to take care of our family. Other than studying, he does get away for an occasional nine holes of golf. Sometimes he goes solo, other times he golfs with his commiserating study buddies. I think his only other down time besides golf, is when he gets to play with his boys. He loves to tickle Bugga, sending him into peels of laughter and screeching. He often does this at the worst possible times (like when I'm trying to read scriptures for family scripture study...ahem), but it's endearing nonetheless. Bugga loves his Daddy and often rewards him with these huge, beaming smiles - the kind that I'm only graced with when I rescue him after nap time. :) Buddha is his Daddy's shadow when The Chief's at home. He loves to golf with him, color with him, climb on him, play cars with him, play catch with him, fall asleep on him, and the list goes on. It's good for boys to have fathers to learn to emulate. The Chief's a great one!

Buddha is my little chatter box with an astonishingly advanced vocabulary and increasingly impressive conversational skills. He's always making us laugh with his honesty and candidness and, of course, his pure innocence. The other day, we were returning from running errands in the evening and we were telling Buddha that it would be time to go night-night when we got home. Buddha replied, "First I gonna eat a bagel and cream cheese, then I will go to sleepy." It was so funny because he's obviously starting to grasp the concept of stall tactics when it comes to bed time and nap time. The amazing thing is that he seems to know that my one weakness is making sure that he has enough to eat. I don't ever want him to go to bed hungry, so even when he's eaten and I know he's satisfied, if he asks for food before bedtime, I have a hard time denying him. It pulls at my heartstrings. I guess it's good that I recognize it now as a stall tactic. :) Buddha loves to play with Bugga now. They follow each other around the house - Buddha taking stuff away from Bugga; Bugga tailing along behind Buddha, happily accepting his discarded and uninteresting toys. Buddha loves to pull Bugga around the carpet by his ankles and drape himself across Bugga's back to rest on him saying, "I love his fuzzy back" or "I love his fuzzy onesie" or "I love his belly, Mommy." I'm always reminding him to make sure Bugga can still breathe, but I don't think there's much danger in it, and, quite the contrary, it's quite heartwarming. We tried a little potty-training with Buddha a while ago, but he's not ready yet and I'm not willing to push it since we have a big move and lots of changes coming up that would probably just throw him off and cause him to revert. At least he tells me now when he's relieving himself and then asks me to change his diaper. It's a step in the right direction!

Bugga is our little GI Joe. He's all over the place. Scooting around the house in army fashion, growling all the while, pulling himself up on things (on his knees, not his feet). It's a bit wearing keeping him out of harm's way already. I'm sure it will only become even more tiring when he gets crawling and then walking. He's already banged his head a few times when falling over after pulling himself up on something. I'm convinced that some people who come to this earth probably require a few more guardian angels to watch out for them than others. At least I know I'll need a few more to help out with Bugga than I did with Buddha. I can think of a few friends of mine who probably needed a whole host of angels to keep them out of serious trouble (The Chief included - I'm sure Grandma will agree). :) Bugga is a great eater, and by great, I mean insatiable. He eats all the time! Besides eating three hearty solid food meals a day, he's still nursing four to five times a day. Sometimes I wonder if he has that disorder where he doesn't know when he's full. :) No, I'm just kidding. Our doctor says it's because he's so tall, he's got more area to fill out. He's seven months old now and weighing in at a whopping 19 lbs! He's grown out of all his clothes that he should be wearing and is now into nine month size clothes, though I'm not sure those will last very long either. He's really tall for his age, too, so that presents problems with onesies being too small for him (his height is in his torso). Oh well, I'll just always dress him in bigger clothes. It's really no big deal (no pun intended). Bugga is also sitting up now (see photos included below) though he rarely stays in this position for very long since he just can't stand to stay still! He's an explorer.

And what about Liz, you ask? Well, I'm busy taking care of my boys and our house and my books and our blog. :) My biggest stress, unlike The Chief's current concern, is the big move we're facing in just a few weeks. We still don't know where we're going to live or when we're going to go down to San Diego to look for a place to live or where we're going to stay when we go down to look or what we're going to do with our condo here when we leave. We do know that The Chief is starting work at the beginning of September, so we need to be moved to San Diego at the latest by mid-August. The Chief doesn't return from taking the bar until the end of July, so that leaves just two weeks to pack up and ship out. It's quite the daunting prospect. And so, most of the time, I just push it to the back of my brain, so as to keep from hyperventilating. :) We'll keep looking online at places and we'll pray that the right one for us will come along, putting us in a place where the Lord needs us. And we'll pray that everything else falls in line as well. I'm sure it will. We love you all and hope that all is well for our loved ones near and far!