Playing Catch-up....

Where has the time gone! I can hardly believe January is coming to a close. Things better slow down a little because I have lots to do still before this baby comes. Speaking of things slowing down....my blog entries are becoming few and far between as well as shorter! I'm either getting lazier or just too busy with ever day life....or a little combination of both. I do love blogging though and am going to make an effort to get more entries in for the sake of the blog books that I want to make for the kids. I love that blogging allows me to journal our lives and I hope the kids will one day enjoy looking back at the places we lived and the things that we experienced.

So what have we been up to since the last post? Well Aniela is back in the swing of school. Her teachers say she is a "producer". Meaning that once she starts something she keeps at it until it's done and wants to keep going. Supposedly she is so focused that they can't bribe her like most kids. For example, "If you don't finish up then you won't get more play time", doesn't work on her. Most kids would toss aside their craft or assignment and find their favorite toys to play with. But not Aniela. She could care less about going to play. I do see that at home too. All this kid wants to do is craft and if it's time to go somewhere and she is not done it is a struggle. She just has to finish what she started. So to avoid tears and whining I set a timer and tell her that when it beeps she has to clean up and finish her project later...so far that seems to work.

And when Aniela's away Charles is my little buddy. He enjoys helping out around the house and pretty much as long as he is getting one on one attention is up for doing or playing anything. But those pesky terrible 2's sneak in throughout the day as well. Combine that with his very short temper and there are some not so fun moments in our day. Charles has also started speech therapy this month. He understands every little thing asked of him but struggles to put the words together. I never thought anything of it since he is so good at getting his point across in his own ways. Plus whats the point of talking when you get what you ask for without words! But we figured it won't hurt him to get caught up to where he should be in speech. His assessment showed he was at a 15-18 month level so we feel like we made a good decision.

Grocery shopping with mom is especially fun with a mini-cart

Both kids have also been busy with gymnastics. It's nice to be able to get them out of the house once in awhile to burn some energy. Charles has improved so much with his motordevelopment and loves jumping on the trampoline. He is also getting lots of practice in waiting his turn and listening to directions. One can never get enough of that kind of practice! Aniela is getting stronger on the bars, her "cartwheels" are looking more like cartwheels and she can now push up from the floor into a back bend. I enjoy watching her during class and am amazed how much she has come along since the fall.

Charlie this month has been busy working-out and watching his food intake. His division at work started "The Biggest Loser" competition, which was just the motivation needed to get Charlie back in shape. It's an 8 week competition with cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Quite a few people went in on the competition and Charlie promised me half of the prize money if he wins. So I have been trying to keep up my half of the bargain by preparing healthy meals. It's working too because the first weigh in at work showed Charlie ahead of the pack...he has already lost 14 pounds in 2 weeks! His goal is to get down to 195 and if he continues on this track I know he can win.

I, on the other hand, am working on getting bigger. While my husband is sweating his butt of in the work out room I am indulging myself in a big bowl of ice cream and catching up on my TV shows. And I am enjoying every spoonful too! Hey it's not everyday that I have pregnancy to blame for my growing belly, hips, and butt...I gotta take advantage of it.

This month was also a time of mourning. On January 3rd, Charlie's Aunt Julie passed away. She had been battling cancer for years and for those years had always been ahead of the battle. Unfortunately, at the end she had developed a very rare and aggressive form of cancer which took her life in less than a week. It's always at these times that you realize how precious every moment is. We recently decided to take great grandma Mullen out to Monicals for some pizza. Aunt Julie was her daughter and so we thought it would be a treat for Grandma to get out of the house and have some great grandkids to liven things up a bit. I can't imagine what it would be like to outlive your child...no matter how old they are. Plus the kids just adore the little tradition that we started with Grandma and love going to her house afterwards to look at all her things. She is an amazing lady and I hope I am as fortunate in health as she is at 92.

My nephew Tomasz's 5th birthday was this month as well. All the cousins had a blast at Chuck-e-Cheese. Now whenever Charles sees a commercial about the place he instantly gets so excited...it's like a drug for kids. Charlie said he will never step foot in the place again. In his defense it was amazingly busy. Note....Saturday afternoon on a long weekend is not the time to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. But it was well worth it for Tomasz's birthday!

Whew....I think that about sums up January. Oh wait....the kids have also been sick these past few weeks. Everyone is on the mend now and I'm hoping that "getting sick" has been checked off the list for a very long time!