January gone and I've written nothing. How can I when there is always so much going on? Even as I sit down to write this I'm interrupted by a little person begging for food as if dinner wasn't an hour ago . . .
Where was I? Oh yeah, picking up where I left off. This is a pretty good representation of how things go most days.
Christmas was a lot of fun. Although we missed the family in NY, we were really glad to have stayed home. The traffic reports were awful on the roads and staying put allowed us a lot of time to just be together without running around the whole time, as NY visits tend to be. It felt like three long weeks of relaxing and being together. We had Tim and Jen around for a visit, as well as G'pa Truck. A few days of a lull then Matt and Joey were here. It was nice to have the both of them around for a couple nights, including new years. We planned on staying in but after some guitar hero and a dance party to start us off we went to neighbor Kate's for the rest of the night. The kids made it until 10:30p! Matt & Joe hung out there. I was opened one eye for half a second at midnight. Otherwise I was done! Joey stayed for a week and submersed himself into our craziness. We don't get to spend that time together so to have so much was a treat. To see all the brothers within a short period was definitely MY Christmas gift!
After the break we were ready to dive into work and school (well, I was!). We've been going non-stop since. I went away for another Nature's Pearl weekend in Advance, NC and have been sharing it with so many people. I love having this thing that is growing. That is fun and helpful and has so much potential. There are another few weekends of training coming in the next few months.
Nathan is registered for Kindergarten. He will start in July, but we aren't sure when exactly yet. They have tracks down here for the year round schools. It's a weird option but people say they really love it and our base school is the best around so we'll take it. It will be weird to have Nathan in school from 8a - 3p. But I think he will enjoy it when we get into the groove of it. Benny will begin Preschool late August for two days a week. I still can't imagine my little buddy going so young. But it will help him with his talking and socializing, and me with my sanity!
Benny has been quite the little talked though. He suddenly blossomed and has barely shut up since! We will go about our day, all of us talking about whatever, and Benny will copy every word. More like the syllables and some sounds, always leaving off the first consonant. So poop and soup sound the same. You can imagine how this can be confusing. He communicates better but there is often lots of guessing going on still. But we work with him to get it right. He's making progress.
Also, Nathan and Benny play together a lot. Benny goes where Nathan goes. If Nathan wants to do the bouncy house, Benny wants to do the "ouncy ouse." If Nathan jumps across the couch cushions, Benny follows. If it's playtime under the blankets in the bedroom, book reading, flash lights, music, etc - Benny wants in too. Nathan even seems to miss him during nap time. I can't imagine how it will be when school starts. They will have so much less time together. That actually makes me sad. I'm often thinking about how nice it will be for me to have a break or for each of them to have something new. But when it comes to their relationship with each other . . . I wonder if they will be closer because they will miss each other, or further apart because they will be into different things.
Leo is the same, working away upstairs. He's had some good luck playing around in the stock market. I don't understand it all. But he seems to have fun following it and making some extra money here and there. He and I recently went to the movies and then another night out for dinner and a stop at a beer/wine store where they have weekly tastings. We swap babysitting with friends, each of us getting one date night a month. Sometimes, we don't know what to do with our night out- we see each other so often as it is! But it's good to force us to do it, to spend time kid-free.
Benny turned two this past week. TWO! He such a happy, talkative, loving little guy. He is still big into snuggles and makes his way into our bed every so often. I don't sleep much those nights, but I lay there thinking about how I'm happy to have his warm little body next to me. We went to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate, Gigi and Grandpa bringing cake pops for the occasion. Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and we decided to do a joint Super Bowl/ Benny's Birthday party. We said we would keep it small. Apparently we don't know how to do that. We are expecting somewhere close to 40 people. We cleared the playroom for playing and bouncing and we will have enough food for all. I'm looking forward to being surrounded by friends and their families. We are so lucky to have such a big group of close friends we simply couldn't celebrate without.
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