Quick (or not) Little Update

Things are going okay.  Our current living arrangement is less than ideal for all of us but hubby and MIL went to check out a few apartments today.  One of them is very promising and we'll get the news by Monday whether or not our application is accepted.  Then if we get accepted we'll be in a mad rush to come up with the money to move in!  Coming up with 1st month rent and a security deposit all at once is a pain, but I think we can pull it all together if we get the chance.

Hubby is loving his new job and impressing everyone.  He's about 1/4 through his training and will soon have the "Assistant General Manager" title officially.  He got a tip off from one of the big bosses that if he does well as assistant GM he will get promoted to GM in about a year (which would more than double his salary, literally).  As of right now, he isn't making enough money that we could get by on our own without sharing a place and bills with Mom-in-law.  At least not without government assistance and living in a dangerous part of the city where rent is ridiculously cheap but people get shot frequently.  Obviously living with mom-in-law is a much happier and safer option for all of us right now! But if he gets another promotion in a year we'll have no financial problems whatsoever and we'll be fine on our own if mom-in-law wants to get her own place.

Ricky is doing great.  He's happy as a lark- but still not really talking.  In fact, he says fewer words now than he did a few months ago.  And the "words" he says aren't even real words.  They are sounds (like "buh-buh-buh" for instance) and only we know what they mean.  As soon as we moved he regressed.  But he was really behind to begin with, so even if it weren't for the move, I'd still be concerned about his development.  The pediatrician told us a while ago that he doesn't think Ricky has autism but I'm really getting nervous now that he might because his speech is not developing at all.  I don't know what's wrong with him.  He seems pretty social, other than not talking.  He smiles, claps, and giggles a lot, gives kisses, cuddles, and tries to make us laugh.  He knows what a lot of words mean when I say them, but he makes no attempt to say them himself.  He knows some parts of the body by name including eyes, nose, belly, and toes.  He knows what "Elmo" means, he knows when I say "mmmmm" that I'm referring to food, he knows what "nighty-night" means, he knows what "blankie" means, he knows what "coloring" is, and he knows what "cuppy" is.  I think he also still associates "bow wow wow" with books, but we haven't read lately because all of his books are packed away except for one, and he's tired of that one.  He is starting to be able to feed himself properly and drink out of a cup with a straw without spilling it.  He likes toy trucks, stuffed animals, blankies, eating snacks, going for walks outside, watching Elmo songs on YouTube, and coloring (for only a few seconds at a time, he has a short attention span).  He's really nosy about people and doesn't like to play at all when there are people in the house. Whether it's a stranger he's never seen or someone who lives in the house, he has to watch what they're doing at all times.  If they walk out of the room he follows.  When someone he loves walks into the room, like daddy or a grandparent, he runs over to them smiling and begging to be held.  Nothing about his development or social skills seems off to me other than the lack of talking.  The pediatrician wants us to take him to Early Intervention to be evaluated, but it's so hard to come up with time to do that when Eric is working almost ALL the time and we only have one car.  Don't worry, we'll do it soon if we have to.  It's just not something we wanted to resort to.  I guess I'm also in denial.  My brain realizes that there is something seriously wrong with his speech development but my heart feels like he is perfect.  If I didn't know that other children his age can talk, I wouldn't even realize there's anything wrong.  I keep going over and over in my head how terrible it would be if we find out he is autistic or has some other mental disability.  But I'm trying to remind myself that he is amazing just the way he is.  No matter what diagnosis he might end up with, that won't change who he is or how we feel about him.  He's an amazing little person whether or not he EVER talks.

I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant now, which means I'm almost in the third trimester!  Owen probably weighs over 2 pounds and could be almost 15 inches long already!  Ricky was only 17.5 inches when he was born, so it's crazy that Owie is almost that long already!  The pregnancy is going fine, although I'm getting nervous about the birth.  And I'm even more nervous that we won't have a home to take Owen home to after he is born.  I told Eric that if we don't have our own place when Owen is born that we are giving him up for adoption because he deserves so much more than we can give him.  Eric agreed, but I know neither of us would realistically ever consider adoption no matter how crappy our circumstances are when he is born.  If anything, we were just trying to give ourselves another incentive to find a home already!  It's taking longer than we thought and we're all going a little crazy.  We are in love with our youngest little boy and can't wait to hold him, smell him, kiss him, and introduce him to his brother.  I think our family will feel complete once he is here.  We've talked about possibly having a third child someday (in the DISTANT future, once Ricky and Owen are both in school full time) but I'm starting to think we might feel like our family is "finished" once we have our two boys.  

Physically I  feel pretty good.  I'm still having some pain in my pelvic joints when I move, but not as bad as I used to.  I think I threw my right hip or leg out of alignment a few weeks ago when I was shaving my legs in the tub.  I had my right leg up in the air and I accidentally let it fall too far to the side and had severe pain.  Ever since then it always hurts if I move certain ways but the other leg feels normal.  My hips hurt if I lay on one side for too long, I'm having crazy dreams, my weight shot up like 6 pounds in the last 2 weeks (I know, that's NOT good), and I occasionally have heartburn.  I think I felt a lot worse when I was 28 weeks pregnant with Ricky though, so I'm thankful that I'm doing so well this time.  I was worried that this pregnancy would be unbearable because my last one was miserable and I have an almost-2-year-old to chase around this time.  I actually think that I feel better this time BECAUSE I'm chasing around an almost-2-year-old all day every day.  Last time I wasn't very active at all which probably made things worse.

Well I guess I better head to bed now.  Back to the grind tomorrow.  Hubby had off work the last 2 days and it was amazing.  He even took me out yesterday on sort of a date!  We haven't seen each other much lately because he's been working over 50 hours a week and spending about 1.5 hours each day commuting to and from work.  Most of his shifts lately have been like 10AM-8PM (which means he leaves at around 9 AM and gets home around 8:30PM or later).  I hate it when he's gone the entire day.  On days like that he leaves right when Ricky wakes up, sometimes before, and he gets home after Ricky goes to bed.  I'd much rather he work from 7am-5pm or 3pm-1am.  Then at least he could he home for half the day with his family.

BTW Owie is hiccuping right now, so adorable.