Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There are so many changes going on in my life that I find it difficult to keep them all in my head at once. I am 10 days from being a doctor. I have all but finished medical school. (One pesky paper left...) I am cooking up a new little human. I am about to start my training for my Real Job. Patrick and I have been trying to get our house, our lives, and ourselves ready for all these changes, which helps to keep focused without getting overwhelmed. We painted Colin's room in anticipation of sticking his little sister in there with him, trying to get day care sorted out for the baby, talking with financial friends about how to deal with our money and debt (oh, the debt), and are starting to have conversations that begin with "So, next year..."

And through it all, Colin has been steadily chugging along his merry way, growing up and up and up, talking and learning, becoming more of a kid and less of a baby. He exerts his independence at every  opportunity, testing limits and patience, and pushing out into the world. He has opinions about everything and demands that they are heard alongside everyone else's. He is one heck of a pain sometimes (oh, TWO, you are killing me), but I know that these pains are the growing pains of learning his place in the world. As he does, he is helping me to learn mine, as his mother, his guide, and I'm grateful to have such a funny, sweet companion on the way.