Tomorrow, it will be a week since our family grew by two feet. It has been an emotional ride, as well as a physical one. My body is no longer trained for the rigours of carrying around a teething, 26-lb. toddler, nor for waking once or more at odd hours in the middle of the night, nor for surviving on army sleep rations—6 hours or less!

Emotionally, we and the Stanleys have been working out the details of a transition that was too fast to be healthy... in retrospect. Now that it has gone down the way it did, we are having to work things out backwards a little. This has not been as easy on any of us as we would like, so I would ask that you continue to pray for us, but especially them. We are merely dealing with a little extra busy-ness, and the joys of getting to know this little guy. They are dealing with a gaping void that suddenly appeared in their lives, and although there is less work for them, they also are missing the many joys that come from having a baby in the house.

I am going to keep the overall tone of the rest of this post positive, however.

Sleep training is progressing, but not "there", yet. Levi is cutting his top left-of-the-middle tooth (which will make 6 total), and that has made him fussy, not to mention the major changes he has experienced recently. All things considered, things could be worse, though. Incidentally, I found out that Frankincense oil diluted 1:4 with vegetable oil is a fairly effective teething remedy for babies, you just have to apply fairly frequently when the pain is really bothering them.

As of today, I pretty much have all of his stuff unpacked and sorted through, so as soon as I can put the yet-to-be-grown-into clothes out into the Seacan, and give the just-grew-out-of-them clothes to a new friend of mine with a 3- or 4-month old boy, he'll be "moved in."

Last week saw me doing some significant rearranging of our living room, purchasing new storage and shelving units to keep things safer for little guys, and throwing in some spring cleaning and mouse-proofing (a recently-discovered issue) to boot.

Last week when we brought Levi home, Jabin laid out his Big Brother plan:

"First, I'm going to teach him to walk. Then, I'm going to teach him to talk. Then, I'm going to teach him to read!"

Well, this boy has taken being a big brother by the horns, I tell ya. He dotes on Levi, as do the other boys, but it has been such a joy to watch Jabin really dive into this new role. He has fed him lunch several times, and enjoys entertaining him for me at such times as I can't be carrying or holding him.

Two of the kids have caught a stomach bug that's been going around recently—Jude and Jabin. I am hoping that it stops there, as some of my least-favourite memories of this stage are cleaning up pukey crib sheets and blankets several times a night, and middle-of-the-night baths. So far, so good.

Levi turns one next Tuesday, so I am going to be spending this weekend planning a birthday/adoption party for next weekend. And hopefully, while my husband is home, getting caught up on a little sleep!

On an unrelated note, I started the Young Living Slique Experience diet last Sunday (March 17), of which a key component is using Slique Essence to control cravings and regulate blood sugar. Alongside that, I have been severely limiting grains, especially wheat (not quite a full elimination, but close), and also dairy in my diet. So far, I have lost 6 pounds. Not bad for 12 days, I guess! My total goal is to take off the 20 extra pounds that have snuck onto me without permission over the last several years. As an added benefit, the extra exercise Levi is currently adding to my day is inadvertently aiding the process. :-)

Here's a photo that Jude took last night. It's blurry, but he's still cute!!