5

It's been a little while now, it feels like.  Between homework and an exam (and a final tomorrow), let alone the rest of life, I just haven't gotten around to this.  But here we go.

Julie is playing a concert tonight in GR, which means I am home alone with the kids for a handful of hours.  And this is a nice time, too.  It's a chance to spend one-on-one time with the kids, and while it may seem silly, I do love to do that.  The difficulty was that both kids are sick, have some sort of eye infections, and neither (apparently) wanted to sleep when bedtime rolled around.  Well, maybe that's not entirely true.  Both kids wanted to sleep, but they alternated being upset, which kept both of them up.  And then Lucy pooped.  So it goes, though.  We just had a few minutes of all sitting together in Tristan's bed and asking God for patience and strength and for two big helpings of sleep.  He delivered on all three, and nearly instantly.  It was honestly no more than fifteen minutes from that point until both kids were full-on asleep.  I know they both had a big day, with going to the doctor's and then playing at the mall and being sick and such.  Poor kids have been absolute troopers.  I'm so very proud of both of them.

And then Lucy cut two teeth yesterday!  Her bottom two front teeth have poked their razor-sharp heads through, and she is so interested in chewing anything that she can with them (including anyone's fingers that may stray too close to her mouth).  Good for her, though, because I know she's been working on them for quite some time.  It was the same with Tristan, too.  He went through all the motions of tooth-cutting (excessive drooling, head cold, fatigue), but then no teeth for quite some time.  Then he suddenly one day started pushing teeth out two at a time.  I kind of think that's what Lucy's doing, too.  But she's becoming more and more interested in the food that everyone else is eating, so it may be the right time for it.

I think we're all anticipating break just a little bit.  There's been a definite shift in the dynamic in the last week or two, and maybe we're all just sliding into break mode.  It'll be so nice being able to be home more with Julie and the kids.  It's pretty hard leaving for school every day, but, for grad school, I am getting probably much more time with my beautiful family than I should be able to, so there are no complaints by any means.  And this next semester, it looks like I have Wednesdays (mostly) off, which is excellent.  That should divide up the week pretty well.

I should get back to studying.  I wanted to take a short break and post something quick, which I've pretty much accomplished, I think.  Maybe I'll post more later tonight, but either way, here's something, at least.