Update

My poor little blog.  As if I wasn't a bad enough blogger, now I've gone and left it for months.  Well, I'm hopefully back now.  Now for a quick catch-up:

January: Judah was born a full six days early on January 4th!  He decided to surprise us by coming on the most inconvenient day of that time period right after Andy's Christmas vacation, but before my sister arrived to help out.  His birth was rather chaotic mostly due to the nutsy hospital staff.  The labor itself was pretty smooth, but I was darn lucky this was our second kid and I knew what I was doing.  The dramatic part of the story is that Andy almost caught him.

The rest of January we spent adjusting to a new little one.  Lu went through a crazy sleep strike that was super fun.

February: We continue learning how to take car of two.  I pick back up working 15 hours a week grading papers. Andy's family came to visit to see Judah Baptized.

March: Work, work, work, and studying on Andy's part.  I also turned 25. I started running again thanks to the sweet new running shoes Andy got me for my birthday.

April: Andy really starts to kick it into high gear preparing for finals, and writing his thesis.  He spends many nights studying late, I spend many nights on duty with the kidlets so he can work.

Now, gloriously, Andy has his final final on Thursday!  It has been a long three years of school for him, but he will finally have his masters!  I am so proud.

I think we have also adjusted well to having another kid.  It's busy and tough, but awesome to see the little sibling relationship bloom.  I am able to enjoy Judah so much more than I was able to Luthie at this age because I am just so much less nervous! I worried about everything with her.  With Judah figuring out what to do has been easy.  I'll get more pictures up soon :)

Judah

Well we have a baby--Judah Andrew Horner! He was born January 4 a little after 1pm. I went into labor around 9:30am, and fortunately Andy had not left for work yet. My sister wasn't arriving until the evening so we scrambled around, got Luthien to her beloved babysitter, then took off for the hospital. He came fast, and we stuck it to the man by not listening to most of the instructions from the hospital personnel. Andy was a great support and advocate for me. I am so glad he can support me like that.

Thinks have been hectic but I think we are adjusting well here. The boy himself is super chill. It feels so easy taking care of a newborn this time around. He nurses well, and rarely cries. He's a tiny little guy, only weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces at birth. Today was Andy's first day back at work since the baby was born, but my sister has been helping out a ton. We have been enjoying her cooking thoroughly :)

Luthien has had some rough times. She is extra clingy, and has been having some trouble getting into a regular sleeping pattern. But she loves Judah, and tries to hold him and kiss him as often as possible. I'm sure it's quite an emotional adjustment for her.

It's so amazing to see our expanded little family. It is crazy and hectic, but there is so much joy and laughter too.

Travel season

For about two months during the Fall, Andy lives in 'travel season.' From mid September to mid November he is gone at least a couple days a week recruiting as part of his job. October is the most intense. He is gone four days this week and four next week. Sometimes it's really tough. Taking care of Lu without her dad around is more challenging. We both miss him. We tend to get a bit house-bound (that's mostly my fault since Andy is the extrovert in our relationship).

However, this travel season I've been thinking of the upsides as well. First off I appreciate all the more how much he does! Between taking care of Lu with me, and doing other house work my husband takes his family work seriously. I really notice how much more I do when he is gone.

Mostly though in some ways we take his travel as a way to appreciate each other all the more. Something about missing someone, laying in bed at night and wishing he was here, is a powerful reminder of how much I love him.

We also take full advantage of our possible modes of communication. We often text during the day, and we usually end up talking on the phone a few times a day too. This year we've been video skyping before going to sleep. It's good to see his face before going to bed. Even Lu gets in on the skyping provided we can set it up before she goes to sleep!

My point is we stay close despite the distance. Missing him during the day and making our sappy phone calls is a good reminder of all we have in each other, and I am grateful. Plus every weekend feels like a vacation, a time to spend as a family.

(PS. I try not to write to many of these romantic posts, because then people will find out that I am really just a big sap.)

When Andy proposed to me

Two years ago last Thursday (September 8th), Andy asked me to marry him. It was a crazy crazy time believe me. It came after a difficult and strangely joyous summer. We were really poor, poorer then we were even in college. I was four months pregnant, and I know people assumed we were getting married due to our little, growing love child. We just wanted to finally be married to each other.

Bonus, Andy managed to buy me a sweet ring while working at Starbucks. Here it is now (with scab)