Visitors From Beyond Illinois

It’s been an exciting week as we’ve prepared for guests. The first was not so much a guest as a visitor. She was my classmate in El Paso, who was coming to Chicago to run in the marathon happening today. She, her husband, and I met up in the city near my office and had lunch while we caught up on all the goings on here and back on my old stomping grounds. It was a fun visit, and got me looking forward to the conference in March where I’ll see most of my UTEP buddies. 

The second visitor really is a guest! Kira’s college roommate, Caroline, lives and works a few states over. She likes to travel, and wanted to catch up with us, so she is joining us for a few days here in Illinois. She has been a wonderful presence to have in the house, as she is great with kids (and we have a lot of kids). The boys instantly took a shine to her and have been battling for her attention every minute since she arrived. Thankfully, she takes it all in stride, patiently letting them show off, playing games, and reading to them. We will be sad to see her go on Tuesday.

Merritt’s sleep has been chaotic. He tends to take little cat naps during his feedings, with one longer nap about midday. He continues to get Kira up for a nursing during the very early morning hours, but made it especially challenging for us last night. He was out at 9, but when Kira tried to lay him in bed his eyes opened up wide and he started grinning like a kid on a snow day. I stayed up with him for about another hour and a half so that Kira could get some sleep (she’d let me nap earlier in the day), but the little scamp refused to nod off without getting his mother back up. 

On top of it all, he then woke her up again around 2:30 a.m., and then again around 5. We hope that he is just trying to gain weight and catch up with his peers. If this is the new normal, we are going to need a bigger boat, as it were. 

He is getting better every day at sitting up on his own, and he rolls more from back to front and back. He’ll be mobile in no time.

Avey has the next two days off of school, so she is looking forward to soaking up the leisure time. Otherwise, we are healthy and surviving.

#Happenings