Highlights

*My friend Kathryn does "QT's" or quick thoughts and I like the format and the fact that I can condense random happenings into one entry. Except mine aren't so quick.

Max and Kate are 16-months old. Stop growing!

We love smoothies! Max especially loves smoothies. He will just sit and suck down his smoothie non-stop, rarely coming up for air. This boy is focused! I love watching his intensity and when his little cheeks collapse from his effort. This boy has my heart.

Kate only likes smoothies. She can't handle the cold, something to do with no body fat? She will cry and we think it is because she gets a brain freeze. She is not as devoted as Max.

Max has done much better with hitting, we really haven't had any incidents this past week. He now grunts/growls at Kate if she gets near whatever he deems "his".

I have gotten serious about finishing the kids' quiet books. Max's will be done first because I don't like to hop back and forth between "designs". I am crazy. Two quiet books, each with 24 pages?! Pictures of progress to come.

We have begun the one nap a day transition. It's tricky business.

We have 8 weeks until Max and Kate attend nursery. 11 o'clock church is also their nap time. Please bless their nursery leaders!

Phil is in the throes of his toughest month(s) of medical school yet. Exams twice a week means we are missing our daddy. He didn't even see the kids awake today; left before they woke and got home after they were in bed. Boo!

I'm kinda tired of my wellness challenge and it is only the 3rd week. I just don't like having to do xyz everyday and some days I just don't want to exercise or I need some sugar!

Over the holidays I worked quite a bit and Phil was Mr. Mom. He did well. He appreciates the wonderful job of caring for Max and Kate all.day.long. He was happy when I was home. He tried to clean and tend the children. This may or may not have happened:

I love that I can just open the back door and let the kids run in and out. Hooray for Arizona weather! I know I'll change my tune come summer.

Kate's a good kisser and tooth brusher. She says "teeth" in the cutest way. My hygiene heart is so proud.

Discipline

I have remarked to Phil and a close friend that this parenting stuff is hard. In the first months of life I was beyond physically exhausted, not sleeping and being the sole producer of nutrition may have had something to do with it. Now everyone is sleeping wonderfully, Max and Kate are proficient self-feeders, though I feel like I never leave the kitchen. Parenting has additional meaning and while I am still primarily responsible for their physical well-being and needs I am starting to wade into the unknown land of discipline. I am responsible for creating little people who can successfully function well in the world. I must teach them how to be kind, respectful, polite, responsible beings. Not to mention assist in language development, teach them to navigate social interaction and the like. No pressure!

This sweet boy has begun to hit out of frustration. He will hit Kate when she doesn't give him the toy he wants, he will hit me if he doesn't get his way, he will bat at a book or Kate if she is touching him as they share my lap during story time. It isn't even noon and Max has been in time out 3 times already for hitting! All this in the past hour and a half!

When Max hits, I take immediate action. I firmly grab his hand, make eye contact and tell him "that's a NO!, we don't hit." He is then taken to his crib for isolation. He of course cries and is very sad and contrite when I go to get him. I give him love and he cuddles into me. And then not 10 minutes later we repeat. Ah. It makes us both sad. I know that I need to be consistent and with time I hope and pray this sinks in and he understands that hitting is not okay. I hope as his communication skills evolve he will not feel the need to hit.

I lamented to Phil again last night that this is hard work. His reply? "It's only going to get harder." That it is. But I hope that by laying down a good foundation we will be able to navigate the course with few bumps in the road.

You've had a birthday shout Hooray!

Today Phil turns one year older and hopefully wiser. When I asked him he said the only reason he is wiser is because he is studying for 3 exams this week. Three!  And then that information will leak out to make room for the next onslaught. Sign of old age? I kid.

We had a simple celebration; dinner with friends at Sauce- 1 marguerita pizza, 1 caprese salad, 1 side order of fabulous mac n' cheese for the kids (foodie style, no blue box here folks) and Phil splurged and got a soda. Wooo!

After the grub was inhaled we convened at our house to gorge ourselves on homemade Heath Bar ice cream and ridiculously moist double-layer chocolate cake with silky chocolate frosting. aka, we are so overloaded on rich sugar-laden fat we need to purge. Thankfully, it is no more sugar for the rest of the week for me! Actually, that is sad since there is more cake sitting in the fridge staring at me. Will it wait seven more days?



Phil's cake had so many candles (33!) on it the fire darkened the chocolate frosting as it sat waiting for the grand whoosh of hot air and hopefully a wish. Perhaps the only wish he made is to get a good grade.







Love this boy. Happy day darling.

Running

I got an email last night regarding the 10k I signed up to do in February. It is being moved to a park in Gilbert and downgraded to a 5k due to vendor issues. Boo! I opted to get my money back and just a bit relieved that I don't have to run 6 miles in 4 weeks, though at the same time I am a bit disappointed. I wanted to see if I could do it. I will run one someday.

I am excited that Phil & I are running the Warrior Dash on April 30. Crazy excited. It is a 3.4 mile run with 12 obstacles; climbing hay bales, running down a river, going through dark tunnels, climbing up cargo nets, speeding through hundreds of tires, rappelling down a ravine, jumping over fire, slogging through mud, etc. It is going to be fun! We have some friends in Mesa joining us and a classmate of Phil's. We would love to have more friends come, hint, hint!

In the meantime I am going to continue to run a 5k 3x/week and mix in my Jillian DVD. I signed up for a wellness challenge and am in my first week. My biggest challenges are no sugar and 6 days/week of exercise. Some days are hairy and I just don't want to exercise, it has to get done in the morning! Thankfully I learned from the last time I did the challenge that sugar free chocolate pudding is my friend when I have a hankering. Whip it up, let it chill and serve with peanut butter whipped cream and I feel like I am cheating! Good stuff. And I wonder why I can't lose a few pounds...

Nine Years

Tuesday, January 5th Phil and I celebrated nine years of marriage. Wow! It certainly has not felt that long and I can't imagine life without him and our three children.

Phil had class and I had mommy duties with the littles. We kissed each other that morning and wished "Happy Anniversary!" to one another and went about our day, not planning on anything grand or at all for that matter. Luckily for us we have amazing friends and had several offers to watch our kids so we could do something. Last minute, after dinner for the kids, baths and jammies, we dropped the kids off at David and J'lene's house and snuck away for an hour for a bite to eat.

We ate at Sauce, shared a chicken caesar and parmesan pizza and an order of bruschetta. This is Phil's new favorite restaurant for delicious food and quick service, and he is pretty hard to please. We shared a dish of frozen yogurt afterwards and hightailed it home after 1 hour and 10 minutes, picked up the kids, put them to bed and watched netflix while folding laundry. Very romantic.

Before:



After:





Goodness we have aged. For the better I think (I hope!). Happy nine years and here's to 99 more!

Kate Walks!

Finally our little peanut has gotten brave enough to venture out on her cute little legs. She started taking off over Christmas break, Phil has always said she'd walk by Christmas and I'll admit I was skeptical. She proved me wrong.

This past week she has progressively gotten better and gone farther. Hooray for Kate! She thinks she is pretty special (she is) and squeals with delight at this newfound independence. I love that I have two babies toddling around. I was sitting on the floor today and was overwhelmed as two little bodies threw their arms around me wanting some mommy time. I soaked it up, showering kisses on soft sweet cheeks.



Below are completely unrelated walking Kate pictures but I love them so.

My breakfast baby stripping down.



Phil snapped this for me one night when I was working late.



No words for this cheeser.





We love our Pip! It is fascinating to look back at the past year in pictures and see how much she has changed, that will be another post.