Almost 4

If you ask peanut how old she is she says "IT IS ALMOST MY BIRTHDAY.  IN 2 DAYS I WILL BE THIS MANY."  She then proceeds to show 4 fingers, which kind of drives me crazy.  Why doesn't she just say it!

The kids are doing really well.  BabyP is talking up a storm.  He pretty frequently puts two word sentences together.  The only verb he uses is nurse, but as far as nouns, he is really good at them.  He is in the middle of cutting teach which has meant he is clingy and grumpy, but luckily(?) only with me. He has also been waking up a lot to nurse.  His cry sounds like a tea kettle going off and can not be ignored.  shooo. I am ready for him cut these teeth almost as much as he is.

Peanut is doing well.  She is not taking naps these days, so we have moved her bedtime up to 7:30.  I would like to move BabyP's bedtime to 7:30, but around 7:15 he ignores his books and just lays there looking ready for bed.

She did something so great the other day.  Her friend was crying at day school.  Peanut grabbed her new plush toy from her cubbie and handed it to her.  She told her to cuddle it because it would make her feel a lot better.  Her teacher was touched by how nice that act was.  She really is a sweet little girl.  And in two days she will be four.

I love my kids.

It is nice to come home after a long day to see my kids.  They really recharge me.

A decade in review

I am totally stealing this from a friend of mine, but it seemed like such a good idea.  This is the first decade in my life that I was an adult for the whole thing.

2000 came in with me camping in Newton County with this really cute boy.  We had been dating for almost a year, so I was pretty sure he was going to be 'the one'.  I was working in Lonoke as an agricultural engineer.  He was working at UAMS, finishing a master's degree, and remodeling a craftsman style house.  I was climbing and riding bikes.  I was starting to learn to swim.  He took me snowboarding for the first time.

We ended 2000 with a trip to Sydney to 'meet the folks'.  It was the first big flight that I had ever taken and was really excited.  We flew to Tokyo, Malaysia, and Taiwan.  We brought in the New Year in the summer heat of Sydney watching the fireworks explode over the Harbor Bridge.  When we got home, Mr. T. asked me to marry him.  No ring, but just an agreement that yes, we should do this.  What we have is really good.

Later that summer of 2001, it became official with a ring and I moved in with him.  I was doing more triathlons and climbing less.  9/11 happened and our hopes of going to Turkey on a honeymoon were dashed.  I changed jobs to my current organization.   We spent Christmas at my parents.  I think it may have been a white Christmas.

In 2002 I got married!  We went to Mexico on our honeymoon.  I took the Professional Engineering (PE) Exam and failed it.  I went to Nicaragua to work for 2 weeks and missed my fiance something awful.  I smashed my bike, putting me in the emergency room.  I also cut my hand opening cheese, which landed me back in the emergency room.  I started graduate school.  I took the PE again.  My brother died which opened up a whole new dark and scary world to me where loved ones are not with you forever.  I learned what real heartache was.  We went to Australia and Fiji.  I spent my birthday on a Fijian island snorkeling and drinking wine.  I found out I passed the PE.

In 2003, I recovered from my brother's death.  I also did my first half iron man in Florida, which gave me a sunburn with marks that would last for two years.  I did it in just over 7 hours.  I did two other ones that year knocking an 30 minutes off of my time by September.  I was in school and started traveling a lot for work.  I was going to all sorts of army installations.

In 2004, more travel with the same job.  We started looking for a new house and actually made an offer on a house that fell through.  We went to Hawaii and enjoyed it beyond belief.  I did two more half iron man's improving my time by an hour from the year before.

In 2005, I did a bike trip with Meghan to Northern California.  I was 12  weeks pregnant with Peanut.  She was due at the end of the year, but that tax break was never realized.  Most of the year was spent prepping for her arrival and trying to get out of traveling so much for work.

In 2006, New BABY on January 7th!  I spent the first 3 months of the year on maternity leave.  I can totally understand why professors take sabbatical or why some countries offer long service leave.  It is really refreshing to not work for a while.  We spent the month of March in Australia.  It was probably the most peaceful trip I will ever go on with children in tow.  I went back to work part time.  I also switched jobs to my current position. 

In 2007, I got pregnant with baby number two.  I went back to work full time in preparation for BabyP's arrival.  We also were finally able to find a house that we liked enough to buy.  Buying was really difficult, but in the end, I think we are really happy with the house we chose.  Mr. T's aunt came to visit which prompted Mr. T.'s mother to visit as well.  I think from here on out we can expect a yearly visit from grandma.

2008 saw one more baby and another half marathon to celebrate never getting pregnant again.  The baby arrived shortly after my countertops arrives.  That may sound like an odd thing to say, but the kitchen was completely gutted and hardly workable up until the end.  Only on my maternity leave did we tile the floor.  This was also the year of the tornado and hurricane which downed two trees in our yard causing us to spend 8,000 dollars to remove trees.  The pines were pretty, but Mr. T. would move us to the basement every time the wind blew.  We also essentially moved house again while adding completely new flooring to the upstairs.  We moved the washer and dryer as well.  Hurray for projects.  I went to Portland for work which made us realize how much we really loved the Pacific Northwest.  I graduated with my Masters Degree in Engineering from Colorado State University.  GO RAMS!

2009 came and went in a twinkle.  We spent most of the year saving up our leave.  Mr. T. took some time to go to Portland and Seattle with me and the kids when I went for work.  A little painting was done on the house, but nothing like what needed to get done.  We did get new windows, which pretty much ruled the school of cool!  I spent most of 2009 trying to figure out what I was going to do next.  I want to figure out where I think I would like to be in the next couple of years.  How is my life going to be different?

Resolutions 2010 - Updated!

hmmm what to do this year.

1.  Learn tennis.  I have always thought I would like it, so i look forward to learning how to play.
2.  Do a race.  I think I might do at least one spring triathlon this year.
3.  Take some time off.  I have been working to build up my leave.  I have 4 weeks in the bank now, which is the cushion I wanted to build up since my sick leave seems to get used up so quickly.  I might take some time around the fourth to just hang out with the kids.
4.  Dance more.
5.  Introduce my kids to some language other than Spanish.  The Spanish videos are pretty good.  We need to listen to the disks more in the car. Peanut is interested in Spanish.  She asks what something means in Spanish or asks me to say certain phrases.
6.  Go to church at least once a month.  We got out of the habit and have maybe gone 6 times this year.  BabyP is better now so he doesn't scream when I drop him off at childcare.  That makes the visit much more enjoyable for everyone.
7.  Enjoy my job.  It has been a tough year for me at work.  I am actively working on making things better.
8.  Breathe more.  Relax my shoulders and work on my posture.

Christmas - that other holiday

You ask Peanut what happens on Christmas and she says "IT IS MY MOMMA'S BIRTHDAY!"  That is the kind of kid I hope I always have, one that thinks my birthday is just as cool as some fat dude with a sack full of presents.  I guess you don't have to be good for my Birthday to come, so maybe it is more of a given.

Peanut's "big" present was a wooden doll house for her princess.  She loves it so much she decided to eat some of the princesses.  (Side Note, but does anyone elses four year old still stick EVERYTHING in their mouth.  I trust her brother more than I trust her to not choke.)

The present I was more proud of for BabyP was a wagon, which turned out to be a big flop.  The pots and pans were a hit.  Also, I bought a screaming car thing at a yard sale for 50 cents which he loves.  The pots and pans are also nice to pile around you when you are trying to close yourself into a box.

Of course, if the box doesn't close, you should just scream.

(It is so funny to me that he is such a sweet good natured boy who just completely looses it, but then gets over it and moves on.)

So prior to the Christmas gift opening extravaganza, we painted some salt dough ornaments.  I think this is going to be one of the traditions we keep.  The kids seem to like it, and I enjoyed pulling out the weird looking ornaments that Peanut made last year.

We also made sure to paint our bellys a little bit.

Then we made cookies.  Peanut wanted to make oatmeal cookies so the reindeer could eat them.  She originally picked out ginger bread cookies to make, but rolling and cutting out dough with a four year old and a 19 month old did not sound like fun to me.  So this is what peanut looked like when we were making the cookies.

And evidently this is what I look like when she takes my pictures.  Why can't anyone ever get my head in pictures?  Am I really that tall?  Notice the fancy aprons?  My neighbor had them made for us.  She rulz.

So we made the cookies, and they were delicious.  Peanut did not eat any because she wanted to save them for Santa Clause and Ms. Clause. 

These two gangsters were sitting quietly waiting to open their Christmas Eve present.  We open one present on Christmas Eve. Their pajamas are matching grinch pajamas.  The LOVED having matching pajamas.  Peanut thought it was cool to match someone, and BabyP thought it was cool to do ANYTHING like his sister.  (Side note, aren't her chubby cheeks so cute.  I forget that she has them because she is growing up so fast)

Here is Peanut waiting next to the cookies and the stockings.  We put out magic reindeer food to make the reindeer fly really high.  She drew a bunch of cookies on a sheet of paper to let Santa know how many cookies he was allowed to take.  She even drew in the raisins for him.  Curious what she is eating?  It is magic reindeer food (when do they quit being so gross?)

So the tree looked lovely when we went to bed.  Santa wrote a nice letter, which was really exciting to find, but as always, he left a big mess.  He took some, but not all, of the cookies and scattered his magic reindeer feed all over the floor.

When we woke up at 3, someone, who had a lot of fiber throughout the night had to go to the bathroom.  She finished off the magic reindeer feed (which is oats, flour, and glitter) as well as finishing off the rest of the cookies.  It serves her right for needing to be outside.  I like to think she learned her lesson, but I think she prefers to be outside looking in on us as opposed to really being among us.

We had a great Christmas and a wonderful time off.  I have always enjoyed Christmas, but I think it is extra special with young kids.  It is just so magically because they believe everything about it. 

2009 Resolution Wrap Up

So I made some resolutions in 2009.  Let's see how I did.

1. Get Fine in '09. This resolution has a couple of parts. The first is to lose that last 5 pounds (or more) of baby weight.

I did this.  I lost the weight.  I am pretty sure it is back again, but we are going to blame it on water.
 
The second part to "Get Fine in '09" is to try to care more about how I look when I go to work. I am going to take 10 minutes 3 times a week to put makeup on. I am also going to buy and USE eye cream. 


Well, i mostly did this.  If you average it out, I am pretty sure I wore makeup at least 3 times a week.  I didn't do so great with the eye cream, but I did use face cream pretty regularly.


2. Take Classes. I am going to take a digital camera class. I have already signed up for a Zumba class. I also hope to find a nice glass or clay class. There is also a class that you can take with your 3 year old on Saturday mornings at the Art Center. Something like that would be fun too. I also think I might start one of those Rosetta Stone courses and learn to speak some form of Chinese.

I took the Zumba class, but not a camera class.  I am reading my owner's manual, which I think counts for a little bit.  camera class will come this year.  We signed up for the gym this year, so i do a Wednesday night class which is nice and gets me away from the house.

3. Do one BIG project by myself. I think this project is going to be building some cabinetry down in the basement for the playroom. 

No.  I didn't do this.  I got too busy.  I give myself a break though because I forced to go back to work full time.

4. Autocross. So I am not really going to start autocrossing, but I am going to ask for a day on the weekend to myself every once in a while. I might use this day to go to Memphis and shop or maybe go on a nice hike with Meghan.


This might have happened once this year.  I don't know that I want to give up a weekend with the kids though.


5. Project 365. I am going to take a picture a day. I have a website but haven't set it up yet. 
This sucked.  I hated it.

6. Finish in February. Finish the sweater I started. Finish the kitchen and the baseboards. Finish all the little things around the house that I need to "get to".
FINISHED and two more to add to the pile of done sweaters.

7. Finances. This last year wrecked havoc on our finances. I took off work for 3 months with minimal salary and went part time after that. Mr. T. took off work for about 6 weeks. We bought a "new" vehicle. We added another kid to daycare. We threw a lot of money into the house. Luckily prior to this year, we had saved money for the house and for my maternity leave, but we still feel a little tight. Once we get our ends tied up on the house, we can refinance and save ourselves some money each month. I am also going to start working an hour more a day to increase our income. We need to get ourselves back on track financially. We need to start saving again and get back on budget.

I did all of these things, but we still seem to be moving slowly to our goal.   We spend a lot of money.  We need to think more about what we are doing.  I do well with buying the kids used clothes and toys, but I draw the line at shoes.  No more used shoes.  As a family we don't eat out very often, but both of us have gotten into the habit of eating out for lunch.  This is going to go on the resolution list again this year.

So that is that.  I am already thinking about 2010.

For Christmas

What did BabyP get for Christmas?


A sister with Matching Pajamas!


No way!  Put it back!