April

Well, when did that happen? The days have been passing so quickly lately. We've all been keeping busy with programs (the kids), courses (me! What was I thinking?), work (Jen), and just life (all of us), but the days are slowly getting warmer and the sun is out and things are pretty good.

Honestly, I barely know what to say, it's been so long since I've been in this space.

Sprout has given up naps completely. She still does a "quiet time" in her room. Some days that goes better than others. She's been managing to hold herself together emotionally in the afternoon for the most part and crashing pretty hard at bedtime, which is a nice change. Her schedule is busy with Music on Mondays, Nature Camp on Tuesdays, Swimming on Wednesdays and Ballet on Saturdays, but it actually doesn't feel like too much. All but the Nature Camp are short drop off programs, so she's getting used to spending some time away from Mama, which is a good thing. She isn't very enthusiastic about starting school in the fall, but I'm hoping they'll place her and The Bean in the same class (with his current teacher) and that that will help with the transition.

The Bean is doing pretty well. He won't usually complain about going to school, but I know he rather be home most days. He did spoken to by his teacher the other week for getting carried away with his two best buddies, so now he's playing with some other kids, which isn't really a bad thing. I don't think he's being very challenged at school, so we've started doing a little bit of "homework" in the evenings. He seems to like it. At least for now. He's also taking Swimming on Wednesdays and keeping up with Gymnastic on Sundays and just last week started Skateboarding lessons with a young teenager from down the street which is is SUPER EXCITED about. He's such an athletic/agile kid. It's really quite incredible.

As for myself, I started some career counselling, but have kind of dropped the ball on it. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for and the counselor isn't at all familiar with my field. Still, I know I should follow up... I also started taking a course which is keeping me pretty busy most evenings. It's a bit frustrating, because though not a requirement, most of the assignments seem to be written for teachers who are currently in a classroom. I addressed this with my prof, and her response was basically just to make shit up. Super useful. At least at the end of it I will have my Specialist qualifications (which may or may not help me in future job searching). Sunday I start a tutoring job for a little boy. It's only an hour or two a week, but at least it's something. I'm a little nervous about it and hope that he makes progress while I'm working with him.

Jen's doing well at her job. She seems really happy there and any doubts about her leaving the other place are long gone. After taking a bit of a hiatus over the winter she's also back to commuting on her bike, which is a good thing for her as she really seems to enjoy the physical activity. (Much like our son.)

Two weeks ago Jen and I took a weekend trip to Boston for our friends' wedding. We're both very happy that our long-time friend has found a wonderful person to be her partner. Their wedding was very nice with delicious food and lots to drink. We also got to see some friends of theirs that we're friendly with and it was nice to catch up with familliar faces. AND we got to meet some long-time blog friends in real life which was also very cool.  (Hi R! Hi S!)

And... a photo dump?  Because it's been forever? And a picture is worth a thousand words?  Well, why not...

FEBRUARY

Goofball.

Sweetheart.

My other sweetie.

Indoor snow play.

Playing dolls.

Hockey. He isn't happy that we won't sign him up for lessons. 

Creating.

Pirate.

Baker.

Princess. (Always.)

MARCH

Play "shoe store."

Skateboarder.

Rock climbers.

Tree climber. (Fearless!)

Nature lover.

Bookworm.

Bunk beds!

More bunk bed fun.

 APRIL

Botanical Gardens.

The four musketeers.

Ballerina.

At the Zoo.

Sprinkler in April.

Artist.