Anyone else feel like July went by too fast, but was incredibly long as well? Just me? Cool.

Needless to say, July was weird for us. We didn’t do much, as planned, but we had a few things pop up.

We started off with celebrating our oldest pack member’s birthday. Our sweet orange boy Jack turned 13!

This cat is far and away the best kitty around. He’s still as spry and ornery as they day we brought him home from the Beatrice (Nebraska) Humane Society at 6 months old. I hope he out-lives us all.

Then, we celebrated the 4th of July with sparklers and fireworks on post. We even got to hear/see Lynyrd Skynyrd perform.

The next day was an unexpected trip to the vet for Miss Independence. I noticed her licking her rear end that morning and noticed she was bleeding. Since she’s been fixed for years, I knew something was up. $200 and 10 days of medication later, we learned she ruptured one of her anal glands (gross!).

Thankfully, it didn’t require surgery and seems to have healed up without complication. The biggest hurdle was keeping her from licking (which she didn’t really do much). She was truly unbothered by the whole ordeal.

Luckily, the rest of the month was slightly smoother.

We really didn’t do much of anything for the remainder of the month. The Mister had 2 days of staff duty, so it was Little Man and mommy for the Lowes and Home Depot workshops this month.

Roxie went on a shoe eating rampage and shredded 3 different pairs of Little Man’s shoes.

Normally, it’s not a huge deal as we usually have backups for the next few sizes, but this took out all of the shoes he currently can wear. So we had to make a trip to Once Upon A Child for some spares (kids shoes should not be so expensive new!). Roxie unfortunately snagged those two new pairs from the counter as well. Since then, she has been good — we gave her some beef hide rolls to keep her chewing on something positive.

The Mister had some stressful few weeks of work. His new command SgtM has been getting on his case and being an absolute dick about stuff at work. He even told the Mister to get his act together in 30 days, or he’d fire him, but never told him what he was doing wrong or how he could improve. Needless to say, the Mister wasn’t very happy about that. Even his squad leaders were upset about it and kind of blindsided the new Lt Col with their unhappiness. The SgtM apologized to me at the monthly potluck but still got his backhanded compliments in. Had I been feeling more fiery, I would have called him on his bull, but…I didn’t want to cause more issues for the Mister at work. Apparently, the new Lt Col must’ve reigned in the SgtM as it’s all blown over now, thankfully.

The biggest change of the month is potty training is in full swing! Little Man has to be ready for preschool in a few weeks, so we got a jump on it.

He is doing pretty well with his big boy undies and doesn’t seem to mind the toilet. He doesn’t like to let us know he needs to potty yet, but he does do the potty dance and has finally stopped fighting us about trying when we ask if he needs to go.

We had a lot of house cleaning and laundry to be done there for a bit, but it was definitely needed as my mother-in-law stopped for an all too short visit on her way to Michigan the last weekend of the month.

We went to one of our favorite antique shops (which is getting new owners soon) and hit Kohls for the back to school sales. I didn’t get any photos but it was a nice visit.

The whole house has come down with some summer colds. Little Man and I have been coughing our lungs out for about a 4-5 days at this writing. We thought it was allergies at the start, but since then, everyone has gotten some type of sinus issue going on. The coughing is far and away the most annoying part. Mucinex seems to have dried me out entirely, but my throat is now super dry and scratchy. I’m ready for it to all to take a hike!

August is going to be the start of a huge change for us.

Little Man starts preschool two half days a week! I am excited for him to be around kids his own age, but I sure am nervous as well. His speech delay will hopefully improve as he gets to be around more than just me.

Speech therapy will also hopefully see a change. His new speech therapist Alexis has left the practice, so we are in the middle of getting all the paperwork in order to hopefully follow her to her new clinic. It’s been such a rough transition with all these changes and the current clinic he goes to has not made me feel very confident in their abilities.

I’m just ready for him to have more of a routine without all the disruptions to his care. It’s been such a debacle since Ms. Sydney left and seems to be an ongoing problem now. There’s been scheduling issues, poor communication, and with his most recent visit, I felt brushed off, so I’m eager to wash my hands of this place.

Despite all that drama, Little Man has been improving greatly recently. He is more willing to use words and imitate what you ask him to say. He’s started using short sentences and is doing well. Being sick and trying to potty train have somewhat slowed us down, but I feel like we’re making so much progress.

Since preschool doesn’t start until the end of August, we will likely spend the first couple of weeks practicing using his lunch box and putting on his own clothes with less help. I’m also looking forward to getting him into a regular sleeping routine. Everyone needs a bit of help with a better routine around here.

Here’s to hoping we can continue to recover and get settled in the next month.

Until then,

Cheers!