We are in Kansas now and are making adjustments. It took a long time to get into our house, much longer than we thought. There were all kinds of hang ups, but I can't believe we are finally in. This generated a lot of stress. Some of the stress came from the mere fact of having to stay in hotels and temporary on campus house when we weren't planning to. Then there was the stress of having to pay for said accommodations, which ate up precious money set aside to make our house nice and to have some contingency savings. And finally there was stress because when we did finally get in, it was already the first week of class and so we were out in the cold and snow with the baby strapped into the car seat, loading a truck from our storage unit trying to get all of our stuff out in and into our house when we needed to be doing our reading and writing our papers for class--or at the very least, helping Hannah settle in.
Brian was able to round up some good church men to help with the piano and the mattresses for our bed, but other than those things, we hauled all the boxes. Brian many more than me, but I unpacked every single one.
Classes are going well. We are teaching classes and taking them. The students at KU are nice. My classmates for my own classes are good. I am able to keep up with the reading and do the work.
Hannah has been going to my friend Mary Lynn's house for a couple of hours a week when Brian and my classes overlap. She likes Mary Lynn. They sing Baby Beluga and play with her cats. I tried to take her to another baby sitter but when I would go to pick up Hannah, she was red-eyed and sad. It took a long time to be playful again and it scared the crap out of the me that she was forlorn like that and so I stopped taking her there. I still need to find another long term arrangement for Hannah, but I am so glad Mary Lynn has been willing to help.
Hannah is also talking. She says short sentences now like "Me wannee up" (her first) and "Help me." She is starting to have those little fits that toddlers have because they can't communicate and they realize they don't have much control over their lives. Brian and I have really tried hard to think about what she might need or want and be accommodating before we get mad at her acting out. I hope we are able to make it with patience for the next little while.
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