Quick Takes

* We're getting closer to a decision on whether we are going to put our house on the market again or begin construction to add two more bedrooms and stay put. There are a confounding number of variables that are going into the decision, hence why it hasn't been made yet. We saw just about the perfect property come on the market yesterday, unfortunately too soon for us to be in a place to put an offer in (and it will be gone before we are ready). It was nice to see something worthy come on though, because there's a SERIOUS lack of inventory in our area, similar to many other areas in the country right now. Anyway, we should get the remaining data we need to make a decision hopefully by the end of the week. One way or another, changes are a-coming.

* I attended Pacey's spring conference at school on Friday and came away feeling so good. He's progressing really well and I just cannot say enough about what a great team of people we are working with. We are in the process of scheduling a meeting in the next few weeks to get ourselves all on the same page before we do his IEP in May. In the meantime, we are planning a few ways to increase his independence before the end of the year which, selfishly, will make my life a little easier. I'm conscious that while I'm keen to be involved and support his educational process however I can, I also don't want to be overbearing and get in the way of his being independent. Anyway, the conference came at a great time because I've been feeling overwhelmed and discouraged in light of some challenging behaviors with him lately. I keep sitting down to write about it but I just don't quite know what I want to write. I mentioned to a fellow parent lately that while the first few years of parenting a child with special needs has its own challenges, I feel like as your kid gets older things get more complex and the challenges can be more emotionally and mentally taxing.

* Brighton continues to be maddening, entertaining and completely irresistible in equal parts. She has become weirdly accident-prone lately, which combined with a few unusual afternoon naps leads me to believe she may be undergoing a growth spurt. Unfortunately her accidents have led to several facial injuries so, well, let's just say we opted out of spring school photos. Chris has been working with her on some basic addition and she is showing an aptitude for and, more importantly, a real interest in numbers. He's geekily thrilled.

* I think I mentioned that I dropped our iPad and shattered the screen. It took me a few days to bring myself to send it off for repair so only got around to it on Friday. We are currently on our fourth iPad-less day and Pacey is in serious withdrawal. When I reminded him yesterday that iPad was "at the doctor," he retrieved an Amazon box that was waiting to be broken down and recycled, got inside and politely requested that I send him along after the iPad.

* I didn't take a 21-week belly picture, but rest assured things are all still happening and growing, etc etc. I maintained my personal tradition of exposing my fetuses to paint fumes nice and early by painting our master bathroom (hey, someone has to take over my position as Master Painter, might as well get it into their blood ASAP). I feel a lot of kicking and wriggling but my recent ultrasound showed an anterior placenta so it will likely be a little while until Chris or the kids can feel the movement from the outside. I still sort of suck at being pregnant (the amount of general whining and complaining I do is pretty uncharacteristic for me), but I feel like I've grown into a pretty ok mom so I'm looking forward to getting through the next four months and into more gratifying territory. My belly has grown enough to comfortably rest a small bowl of ice cream upon, so there is that.

* It snowed several inches this morning and is due to be no more than 20 degrees for the next three days. This is...unacceptable. We are all well and truly done with winter - even Chris now that the fishing season has ended for most of the fish varieties.

* In order to write this post I just invented a seriously genius activity for the kids. I am sending them off with my phone camera to take photos of various groups of things. The options are endless....color groups, shapes, textures, patterns, objects that start with certain letters, etc. And I am alternately specifying that they look upstairs and then downstairs so they are running all over, burning off a little energy in the meantime. Win.