I feel like a fourth grader writing up the first yearly assignment summarizing the summer vacation. It seems a bit silly, but this summer has been full of crazy life changes that are just too good not to share. Plus I can show off a couple of the lovely photos Mickyla Jackson of Ferret and Dove Photography captured while were in the states this spring.

PAUL is now a cyborg! Two and half years since his dramatic hearing loss, Paul has gone from hearing 20-40% of words to understanding 80-90%! The audiology team has been amazed at his progress. We’re so grateful! I’ll be posting more about our hearing journey soon!

In addition to regaining one of his senses, Paul has also been working on starting his own freelancing business. In addition to tons of prep work – putting together his work space and showreel – he’s taken on a couple gigs! Shameless plug: Does your business need an animated video for your website or social media? Paul’s your guy!

EMBER started crawling in May and she’s been nonstop ever since. Now she’s zooming around, standing up, dancing and trying to climb the stairs! She has two sharp little teeth and her favorite food is greek yogurt. She’s so funny and engaged. We’re really, really enjoying this age. She’s crazy, don’t get me wrong, it’s still exhausting but so fun!

The game changer this summer has been the installation of bedtime. We went from waking up every 3 hours to asleep for the night at 7pm! Hallelujah! It’s been so good. Sleep training was really tough and I still have some mixed feelings about it, but ultimately it’s been really good for all of us. Not only do Paul and I have time to do a bit for ourselves, but Ember’s days are so much better with the extra sleep and adequate sleep is so important for baby development.

BRI Despite all these great things, I’ve really been missing home since our visit this spring. The homesickness comes in waves and I don’t expect that to go away any time soon. It doesn’t help the our kitty Elphi has been missing since May. With that, it’s been really great to start some adventures of my own since we’ve been back. I started my inburgeringse curses – language and citizenship classes. About 85% of my coursework is language and the other 15% is living in The Netherlands, covering the basics of government, taxes and even how to properly recycle. It’s so nice to be in a classroom to learn and to be out meeting people.

With Ember developing into parallel play, I have more time and energy for sewing. My mission this fall, in addition to launching this blog, is to put my fabric stash to use. I’ve done a good job collecting fabrics since I’ve been over here, but not as good of a job making them into garments. Plus, I really need some non-maternity autumn and winter clothes. Stay tuned for my September plans video next week!

Thanks for catching up with us!

Bri, Paul and Ember