Muh bay bay

Hux isn't a wee babe anymore.  Fourteen months old and CRAZY active.  Specifically, he and Gabe and Nana oftentimes tag team me with their crazy energy.  Sometimes, on really awesome days, they all play together and try and wear each other out.  I LOVE days like that.
About Hux: he still isn't really talking (he kinda says a couple of words...and he sometimes sounds like he's trying to mimic us, but doesn't really say much himself; he's still just playing around with sounds).  He walks, runs, balances, climbs up on anything possible, loves to take things out in the kitchen and bang them on the floor, together, etc.  His favorite thing: balls.  All sizes.  Little bitty ones.  Tennis balls (so cute when he "throws" them for Nana).  Soccer balls.  Balls as big as his body with spikes.  Last night I just blew up one medium and one XL exercise ball and he's loved rolling those around too.
Gabriel started preschool in February outside of our house for the first time.  Since we moved to Tucson, Gabe had been...off.  He used to LOVE preschool and would beg for more after two hours of working with me.  Since we moved, he wasn't even wanting to do the funnest of things.  It didn't help that we hadn't made any friends his age that we could routinely meet up with.  That was REALLY hard on him.  He's an extrovert and was really really struggling with all of the changes.  So I looked into it and got a scholarship.  It's still hard to pay for preschool (even a discounted rate) when I'm a stay at home mom, but he's blossomed since enrolling.  There have been some not good things: he's been bullied a couple of times; he's struggled socially relating to peers; someone in his class taught him a word that we never, ever say; he throws fits every time he has to leave to come home.  But there have been so many more benefits: he has two good girlfriends there now (although one of them we haven't seen outside of school yet...but I have her contact info somewhere...); he's been wanting to learn at home again; he's starting to read and spell aloud (he's known his letters for a long, long time, but now he reads something, sounds it out, and tells me what the word is (this is actually proving problematic as I'm going to have to come up with a new code for talking to Chris when I don't want Gabe to know what we're talking about).  Overall, it's been a definite blessing and I'm so grateful for the scholarship that let us do it.  There's absolutely no way I could justify spending a hundred dollars on three three hour days of preschool a week.  That would literally eat up all of our savings and entertainment money.  But a discounted rate we decided to test out...and have enrolled him for full time three hour days (which is only a bit more) for next schoolyear.  I'm hoping this works out better.  Gabriel won't throw fits when it's time to leave because everyone will be leaving.  There will be an easier way to go to the store, take Hux to appointments, have any foster child appointments scheduled during that time.  I'm four sections away from being done with my personal finance certification and my goal for next month is to decide if I want to try and volunteer one or two days a week with it or try and find a 2-3 day job with it (I'm pretty evenly torn on what I want to do).  Either choice will be easier once Gabriel is in full-time care for three days a week.
Size-wise, Hux is about 23/24/something pounds (he keeps getting taller and taller but doesn't gain weight; he's 99% height but about fifty percent weight as compared to others his age; I wonder where he gets that from).  Gabriel is slightly more than thirty pounds now (yay Gabe) and still relatively short (I think he's hanging around twenty-fifth percentile for both weight and height) and that kid is all muscle and bone I swear.  Totally honest: I kinda want to feed him ice cream and donuts everyday just to try and fatten him up a bit.  But then I find my logical side and know that won't help us reach *actual* goals so I keep desserts as a reward.