Update: Family

(this is one of the posts that was sitting in my drafts. LOL)

So I've updated about each of the kids, and about my teeth, but I haven't updated about how we were doing as a family.

When I met Asher on November 22nd, I was a bit surprised at how "young" he was. If I felt that way, I knew Dean was really going to have to adjust his thinking before we got home. As soon as I got back to the apartment that day we got on Skype. "He's really young Dean. REALLY young. Go get Little Earl (our 18 month old nephew) and bring him to the house to help you childproof."

He didn't do that.

So when Asher and I came home, that very first morning was a bit like putting a bull in china shop. And, Asher is pretty good about stuff, really only touching things that have dangle potential. But there was the diapering, the feeding, the general supervision required of a toddler, that we just weren't prepared for. Then the supervision of all the kids (that we WERE prepared for) as we made sure they could safely play with their new little brother.  Plus I was very sick, and then we were all sick, and then I got sicker. I couldn't even start the long list of Asher's specialist appointments.  It took us a couple of weeks to find our groove, and now I can say with confidence that we've found our new "normal". The house has a routine, the kids are used to one another, the play is mostly safe, Dean has relearned now to change a poopy diaper, the dogs don't care about the poopy diapers anymore, the visits to specialists are almost done, and in two weeks we'll get into a different groove. One that requires fewer trips to doctors every day.

So we've adjusted now, and we are absolutely loving our life with Asher. He cracks us up 75 times a day, and even Axel, who had the most difficult time with this new little brother, is beginning to bond with him. They've been playing together all morning.