Onward and Upward! Heave Ho.

A quick update on our lives:

Julia's mother is going home tomorrow morning, which is going to make life at home more of an adventure for Julia...Adrian is starting to get a little more fussy and Anson is teething in the midst of the terrible 2's. A special thanks to Mom and Dad for helping get the boys some winter clothes/shoes, some educational materials for Anson, a new car seat for Anson, and a double stroller for both of the boys. Early Christmas!

Julia is healing well and has a great deal more mobility back. She can drive and do some minimal errand running. Yesterday, she and Paul went to the temple together, and then today she and her mother went to the temple. In honor of Mom's last night with them, they went out for authentic Chinese food, then watched a movie while eating Hagen Daaz. Today, Julia's little monster painting landed a buyer and is going to make her $50 after Monster's Int'l takes their 50% cut. The amount of money isn't anything to shout about, but it is nice for her to feel like a real illustrator. Hooray for validation.

Paul is doing well in his program, the language acquisition process seems to be going smoother for him. His jobs are also a big blessing, since he gets to use his Chinese language skills with those. It has been so nice to have him home for both Veterans Day and the weekend.

Adrian is going to be blessed/christened this Sunday (tomorrow). He is getting so cute and fat. At his first doctor's appointment (when he was 13 days old) he weighed 9.0 lbs! The pediatrician said Julia doesn't need to worry about feeding him every 2-3 hours anymore because he seems to be gaining weight just fine :)

Anson is bumbling along as well as can be expected. He is having to adjust to a little brother who he wants to maul and play with. The other day he tried to share his cars and toys with Adrian, that didn't go anywhere. He also tried to feed him a bagel, which resulted in some funny faces on Adrian's part. It has been hard for Anson to grasp the concept of "soft" and "gentle." Poor kid is starting to realize that having a newborn baby brother is super boring. Despite the struggle, though, he loves Adrian. Every morning he runs in, peers into the bassinett and says "Hi baby brother! How you doin'?" Too cute. He is mostly potty trained now. He also is beginning to recognize some letters of the alphabet and sings about 75% of the alphabet song. He also likes to sing the Eensy Weensy spider and Twinkle, twinkle, little star...which he sometimes fuses with the ABC song because they are the same tune. He has had a big growth spurt and is looking much taller (and a little chubbier) than he was this summer.

So that's the update! Stay tuned.