Long time, no blog

Yes, I have been conspicuously absent. We had nice weather for a while (upper 70's) and I was obsessed with being outside or cleaning everything inside. A lot of things got done; garage swept out, basement organized, windows cleaned, kids' clothes organized, sorted through and sold to resale shop, etc.... It also helped that Jim was in Saudi Arabia for a portion of that time. Cleaning takes my mind off of things. So now Jim is back and the weather is crappy again - chilly and rain - so I am back.

Updates on the children:

Emma - she is talking up a storm right now with 3 and 3 word sentences. She is making connections that boggle my mind and worry me that I cannot think as fast as a 2 year old. We are also experiencing terrible twos, and somedays it takes all of my energy just to get to nap time - theirs, not mine. She is asserting whatever opinion she has, which is contrary to whatever my opinion is. Thankfully, I have found the best way to handle it is get REALLY silly about my questions (Do you want to eat pancakes with a giraffe?) and then get back on topic when she realizes I am being silly. We are also doing more time outs. She understands that she cannot get out of the chair until the timer rings now, so I don't have to stand over her and glower for 3 minutes any more. Doesn't mean I've stopped doing it! She has her well child 2 year check up this Friday, so we will see how big she is. Her face is changing and becoming less baby-like every day. We are getting glimpses of the child to come.

Mary - Just mastered the crawling moves Monday. Unfortunately, this brings a new wave of paranoia for her sister that Mary is after her or her toys. Usually, it is true. Emma has found that Mary cannot reach the ottoman (yet) and it becomes the toy refuge. A lot of my day is spent mediating and joining the playing to keep Emma from screaming and Mary from crying. That's why outside is such a good thing. Mary is incredible. She is already saying some words (Dada, duck, hola, hi) and imitates every sound and inflection we make. She can dump out containers and, to her amazing credit, can put things into a container. We have played roll the ball back and forth with her already. Emma, Mary and I play this every day. Since we use a huge ball, Mary was frightened at first. Sometimes she forgets and still is scared at the beginning, but she is getting the hang of things now. Mary will play peek-a-boo on her own and play independently with toys. Emma never did that at this age, so we are amazed.

Well, I will leave it at that so the post does not get too long. I have a couple in draft that I will leak out over the next few days, including my weekend get-away to Minnesota, where it was 60 degrees and sunny the day I came back to 2 inches of snow in Detroit.