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Vacation: Success

Our family took went on our cruise last month and we got just about everything out of it we'd hoped.  Rachael and I got to relax some, Joe got to meet new friends and played all day every day, and we had an opportunity to just spend time together as a family before everything got crazy again.
Joe and Nora at the fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico

We moved into a new apartment again, which is our 4th residence in a year.  We plan to stay here for 18 months, but it still feels like a bit much, even for someone used to moving frequently.  Fortunately I'm now close to work and I'm hoping I'll have more time to spend with the family once things settle down with school.  Unfortunately, though, school is 3 nights a week and right now I'm spending those 3 days studying right after work and leaving me missing both kids tremendously.  It's been hard with both of them-Joe says he misses me and Nora won't let me put her down when I do get to spend time with her.  I love that they're affectionate with me, but it does make it a bit harder when I have to leave knowing how much they miss their father.  The plan is to pare down to 2 classes next semester and see if I can take them on the same day to reduce the amount of time I need to be away from them.

Joe turns 4 years old next week and has been looking forward to the party for some time now.  He still really enjoys reading and has been getting into some Disney/Pixar movies lately.  His favorite at the moment is 'Frozen', but he did go through an 'Inside Out' phase a few weeks ago.  He's starting to learn to dress himself and has been doing better with helping out around the house and cleaning up after himself, although he does seem to be having more temper tantrums lately, which I very sincerely hope is not him acting out because of me not being around as much.

Nora is just about 10 months old and has really started to try to walk lately.  She pulls herself up, and can stand on her own with something to hold on to.  She still never learned to crawl but has been learning her first words lately.  She can say 'dada', 'mama', 'jojo', and 'hi', along with signs for 'up' and 'milk'.  

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