We're back.

SO. I took some time off on the blog.  I realize so many people like to "keep up" with us and I also know that in keeping true to my transparency, a lot of other moms feel like they aren't alone in learning to love their kids.  I'm back.
Here's some highlights of the summer of 2014:

• Etienne went to summer school.  All day, 4 days a week, for 5 weeks.  We were sad to send him but didn't want to regret it down the road.  He ended up loving every moment of it.  The rigid schedule is good for him; when he knows what is going to happen each hour of the day,he has a lot less vigilance and anxiety.  Which means a lot less hyperactivity to try to be patient with.  We would pick him up every day, head to the pool and stay until dinner.  
• We spent a long weekend celebrating my grandfather and all things related to Paxton, NE.  It didn't matter that we were in a teeny tiny town in Nebraska- all 6 of us in a hotel room was some kind of crazy trigger for Etienne.  After that, he thought he should sleep in the same room as everyone in his family every single night.  For real.  He did his best to sabotage every routine and plan so that he could end up with his parents (and if possible siblings too) in the same room.  Since we never want him scared, and its so hard to know what his brain is doing, we bought into this for awhile.  Yikes.
• Ryan, Molly and I were in Rwanda for a couple of weeks and the boys loved having Grandma and Grandpa Camp and Nana and Pops Vacation.  They got to do "things that cost money" and "drink pop a lot".  We are so thankful that our parents love us well.  We can continue to do our Imana Kids work because of their support.
• Blake played select baseball and did his best to recruit E, but E only wanted to DH.
• On that note, all the kids watched "Field of Dreams" with Ryan for Father's Day.  And just yesterday, after seeing a long line of cars, Zeke quoted the movie.  #awesome
• Decided to jump on the no dye, no dairy, no processed foods train.  We are trying this in hopes of decreasing the volumes and amounts of bed wetting and maybe knock E's hyperactivity down a notch.  The no dye, no dairy isn't hard and most days, I already feed us freshly prepared foods. But when I'm baby catchin', it is harder for Ryan.  We aren't doing awesome at this.
• The boys sat through all (!!!!) of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," by CS Lewis.  This was thrilling for me in so many ways; it's my favorite book and it's the first time I have been able to keep my Rwanda babies attention with a book for more than a few minutes.
• Ezekiel can run 1.78 miles with me. It's a blast having him as a running partner.

  I'll be back to blogging again.  We've been approaching a lot of our E struggles with a fresh angle. Like everything, it's two steps forward and one step back.  More to follow...