A crazy time of year

I don't really love this time of the year. We have weather that keeps us from going outside most of the time, which means the kids and I drive each other crazy. We have the taxes to do, which is not fun for anybody. I'm trying to do more training for my triathlon, which just exhausts me, and to top it all off we are in the midst of purchasing the building my husband's office is in. That is just the icing on the cake right now.



We just had a nice visit from my friend Tracy who flew in from Virginia. They were here for a few days but it's always a whirlwind time.



Tate has one more swim lesson left and then we take a little break and practice on our own. He is still doing great. He can swim a little way from where we hold him close to the steps of the pool to the steps. I know I've said this before but it always amazes me how far he's come.



Ayden is running around everywhere. Once she wanted to walk (on a train, of all things!) she just took off and she hasn't stopped. She is the messiest eater, too. Tate loved the idea of spoon from about 10 months on. Ayden thinks spoons are for waving around in one hand while you eat with the other. And, of course, since she loves to get messy, you know she hates to get cleaned up. Unfortunately, shortly after she got better from that previous sickness she got sick again and it's still hanging on. I'm definitely ready for this to end!



It seems we already have a lot planned for this year. We are going to attempt to go camping sometime this year. It will be an experiment with two kids, especially one who likes to be home (Tate, who announces that to us quite often).

A case of odd/good children: A couple of days ago, I gave Ayden some pasta with peas in it. Now, most people would assume she would possibly eat all the pasta and leave the peas. Well not my child. She adores peas. She picked out the pasta and ate the peas. She had a nice stack of pasta by her bowl, and a bowl full of peas, which made her very happy. You should see how happy she gets when she sees she is getting peas! I never thought I would see that! I am glad that my children love their vegetables, which is probably why I had such a hard time when Tate wanted to eat only cereal. I am used to them eating such a varied diet that it threw me off. I am happy to say, though, that Tate no longer asks for cereal for every meal. (Although I agree with you Steph, when you say you would like it when Calvin asked for cereal for dinner because it was such an easy fix! Before he demanded it for all meals I would occasionally let Tate have it for dinner.)