Friday, December 20, 2013

Our Christmas Card

This year I have not gotten around to actually taking a decent photograph and getting Christmas cards printed and mailed. I even have $40 in gift cards to Shutterfly and it still didn't happen. So, instead I thought I would do a blog post dedicated to what has been going on with us this lately.


Sean: Moving to Florida was a great choice for us in regards to Sean's career. In mid-November he was promoted to Assistant Kitchen Manager, which is notable because he will now move to salary pay vs hourly, and he will also receive company benefits. In January he will begin manager training. All managers have to go through a rigorous training program almost always located at a different restaurant from the one they will regularly be working at. He will have to commute about an hour north of here for 8 weeks to complete this training. Mostly we are just excited for him to get it over with! Once he's finished his opportunities for promotions are much more easily accessible since there isn't any training between his current position and the Kitchen Manager. A new restaurant will be built on the west side of Tampa next summer. Hopefully it will cause some things to move around and allow Sean to take advantage of other opportunities. Sean loves his job, though. It's stressful and demanding and usually he works about 50 hours a week but I'm really glad he is happy with what he does and feels a great sense of motivation and accomplishment with his career.


Megan: Going from one baby to two babies has started to change everything more and more. Right after Jack was born I felt like the adjustment was very smooth and easy. The more time that passes the more I feel like having two is twice as hard because everything is literally multiplied. Twice as many diapers. Two mouths to feed and two babies who need attention. There are many moments during the day when I feel like I'm going to pull out my hair and shave their heads, but then of course I absolutely love seeing their smiles and seeing them continuously learn new things. After Lincoln was born I was already immediately making plans for my second pregnancy. I guess these boys were meant to be close. But this time around I feel absolutely no rush for a third! I am looking forward to being content with these two for a while. I want to take some time to let my body heal from both pregnancy and from the pains my arthritis causes while I nurse. Sean and I are also looking forward to hopefully starting to aggressively save money to eventually buy a home here so we can settle in one place for a while. 

Since Jack was about 6 weeks old I have still kept up doing my job at the Roadhouse, which is literally 3 hours a week. I also have started a little sewing gig on the side partially for fun and partially to make some extra cash. I make fleece diaper covers and pants that are to be worn over cloth diapers. Fleece is a stay dry material and so if any leaks occur during the night the fleece will keep the moisture off bedding and leave everything still feeling dry. They could be useful over disposables too, but they are a well kept secret in the cloth diapering world. I have had a great time sewing, coming up with new designs and communicating with the moms I sell to.



Lincoln: The gap between one and two is HUGE! Lincoln has grown up so much in the last year. Even in the last 6 months. He started talking and is constantly learning new words. He also amazes us all the time with how perfectly he understands everything we say to him. He loves playing with his toys. He likes blocks, cars, stuffed animals, and especially dinosaurs! He loves to play outside at the park and he also loves going over to his friend Ty's house (his dad owns the restaurant and they are in our ward here). Recently he has become completely enthralled by the Toy Story movies. He absolutely loves Buzz and Woody. I was able to have my family mail us my brothers old Buzz and Woody toys for Lincoln to have for Christmas. I am so excited to see his reaction to opening them! As of this week Lincoln has also started potty training. A few days ago he was naked in the house after his bath and I noticed he started to dribble a little. He kind of panicked and I ran him to the potty. He made it there and finished in the potty! It was monumental! Since then he has peed in the potty at least once every day, sometimes twice, and today he pooped in the potty for the first time! He is pretty proud of himself. At this point I'm just following his lead and not pushing it too much, but hopefully we will continue to make progress!


Jack: At 3 months now Jack is getting super chubby and is great at being interactive. He is ticklish and laughs hard when we tickle under his chin and his belly button. Like any baby that age he loves to be talked to and sung to. He sleeps fantastically at night, but during the afternoons he is a terrible napper and often throws complete fits from being tired and unwilling to settle down. Once when I was putting him to bed I got up to turn the light out. When he saw me leave he instantly freaked out and started screaming. I was back to his side quickly trying to talk to him and calm him down without picking him up because I was hoping that I could just rock him in his bed to sleep. I was trying to calm him for a good minute when all of a sudden he saw me and had a look of complete shock on his face like "wow! where did you come from?" and then instantly he stopped crying and started smiling at me. He is a very determined little guy. Once he decides he wants to be held or changed or nursed or put to bed he will not let up. It makes it hard when I am trying to help Lincoln with something and Jack is over there having a fit. He is quite a little charmer though and always instantly smiles when he sees our faces. I know he is already trying to figure out how to mobilize himself. Having two babies who are capable of destroying things will be a whole new adventure!

Well, that is us in a nutshell! We will be celebrating Christmas here in Florida this year. It will be our first Christmas with just our little family, but we are looking forward to it. We are planning to go to the beach in the afternoon with some friends. Not exactly the white Christmas I had in mind, but I guess we might as well take in the whole Florida experience! :)

Merry Christmas!

Love, The McWhorters

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