My Birthday Weekend

Yay!! It's my birthday tomorrow. It has been a fun weekend. Work has been really busy with trying to get everything done and fit studying in for the CPA exam. I finally scheduled my first of the four parts of the exam. I am starting with the easiest section to get a feel for what it is like. I will take it on the 27th, which leaves very little time to make it through the study book I am working through. I was out of town this past week and got a good amount of studying done in the evenings.

It has been nice this weekend to take a little break from the hectic pace of work and have some birthday celebrations. Thanks to everyone who made it to our little get together yesterday and to my in-laws for having us over for a special birthday dinner tonight. I got some new Wii controllers and games and some iTunes credit for my birthday. I only wish I were done with the CPA exam so I could play my Wii games.

I am really looking forward to these next two months being over. I will be out of the office most of these two months, and it is hard on the family. I definately notice a change when I am coming and going on these trips out of town. The kids adjust to me not being around, and I adjust to being on my own. Suddenly I come back and the kids are doing things to get extra attention and I am a little less patient with all their noise and whining.

Now Andrew is into hitting. He just really likes to raise his hands and slap them down. He'll hit the table that way, his stomach, our faces, our arms, etc. I don't know what to do about it. He knows it's wrong. He even has learned our time-out routine from watching Sam.

We'll sit him down against a wall and tell him he is in time out. He'll jabber a little bit or sometimes cry, but he'll usually stay there. After a minute or two I go over and tell him what he did wrong and tell him not to do it anymore. I'll ask if he understands, and he says "Yeah." I then ask for a hug, and he comes and puts his head on my chest. So I don't know what else to do. I can't really reason with him. Hopefully it is just a phase.

He is learning lots of new words. He answers all yes or no questions and some other questions with "yeah." He found a baby doll he likes and calls it "baby." He says "more" for anything he wants, whether he's already had it before or not. He also says "up" a lot. He is also the climber in our family. He can barely reach one step to the next on the bunk bed, but he flies up and down the ladder anyway. We got a bunk bed to eventually get the boys in the same room for the next time we have an addition to the family.

Sam always makes me feel good when I come home from work or from trips by telling me how much he really missed me. He gives me big hugs and always wants to play. He also talks to me on the phone on trips, but he seems to have an internal clock that tells him when we've talked enough. At very random points in our conversations he'll simply announce that he's done talking. He'll then tell me to have a good night and/or have good studying and that he loves me. Anyway, I will be glad when the warm weather is here and I am working a little less and we can all play outside.