October was...

The Winner of the Kelly Bermudez giveaway was 

 Emily28.10.13 

Favourited! She does BEAUTIFUL work! Watercolour art has always been something I fancied. :)

  

Congratulations, Emily! E-mail me by Monday to claim your prize!

The word that comes to mind is progress. Slow, steady, progress.

Progress with Oli starting to enjoy daycare. He rarely cries when he goes now, and always comes home saying "fun at school!".

Progress with Chloé's feeding. She was breastfeeding with additional nutrition coming from formula but that wasn't suiting her at all. Extreme gas, constipation, discomfort, and so much crying I was sure she had colic. We switched her to a lower lactose sensitive formula and she's thriving on it. Rarely crying, diapers are regular, it's such a wonderful change.

Progress with becoming a family of five. To be honest, it wasn't too hard a transition. I think becoming a family of four was harder. But the older two are older than Lily was when Oli was born, so they understood the transition more. Brad and I have slowly been learning how to handle three kids and what new responsibilities we'll each have (i.e. Brad now does the older kid's bath every night which I used to do, I wake with Chloé in the night, etc). Our church plant only meets together once a month right now, and we went as a family for the first time this month (Chloé was born a few days after September's gathering).

Progress towards normalcy again. I'm cooking and baking again - a sure sign that life is returning to normal. Not every meal or every day, but just being in the kitchen has been great for me. I love it.  I'm being creative again (a few DIYs that I'll share here soon on my frame wall). Which totally makes me feel alive. I'm in the Word more regularly again, which I definitely missed and couldn't find time for at the very beginning of Chloé's life. I'm getting dressed every day and not staying in pjs 24/7. Brad and I are spending time together, without the kids again! Oh this is amazing. With Chloé sleeping more at night and me being less sleep deprived, we have our evenings together again which is sweet.

Some things feel like they're not changing at all, but I think they probably are we just can't see the fruit yet. Really really slow progress. A certain three-year-old's temper tantrums. A certain two-year-old being too aggressive. Trying to transition Oli from the crib to the trundle bed (we put that on hold after the initial four nights of trying and recently started trying again - spoiler alert: it's not going well). These things are progressing. I'll say that in faith ;-)