Summer Update

It's been a lazy summer, relatively, and it's been so nice to finally get a chance to kick back a little and catch up on other things. The past several years have been such a blur of babies and grad school and campaigns and jobs and miscellaneous crises. Now the kids are getting used to having mommy AND daddy around almost every day and I'm trying to adjust to the new "normal". The only drama right now is uncertainty about my job search and trying to get the house in shape after years of neglect, but as drama goes it's manageable.
Lena morphed from a walking baby into a little girl. She runs and talks and is starting to try the potty occasionally. She's so stinkin' adorable (aside from the usual irrational tantrums) but she's got a sneaky side that will be trouble later. Eli is either incredibly sweet and insightful or a real handful. There's not much in between. He still does a lot of whining and throws at least one low-grade tantrum a day and a full-blown kicking on the floor tantrum once a week or more. We do the stuff the books say (don't respond etc etc) but I've concluded that folks who have time to write parenting books either don't have children in the target age group or have exceptionally mellow-natured children that don't pull this stuff. Eli would probably fall into the "spirited child" section of parenting books. But he also is really good at figuring things out and retaining every random factoid and can be very compassionate for others when he's not pushing over his sister for touching his trains and whining about being too tired to put on his own socks. Consistency and routines help, but travel, sitters, etc just sets him back.
After Labor Day, Eli will start in the Pre-K class and Lena will move into the 2's class (where they start working on potty training if she is ready).