Um, it's January?

It’s no secret that instagram has killed my blogging. It is so easy for photos and quick updates that it has made me lazy lazy lazy. I am glad to have that daily record of our lives to look back on, but I do miss writing and this is my space to do it. So here I am! Happy New Year!

Our holidays have been fun and exhausting. Sleep round these parts is, to put it delicately, not good. Mila has had back to back to back colds and is now getting two molars and four canines at the same time. Most nights Ryan ends up falling asleep in her room with her. Hey, whatever works. At least I get to sprawl out in the bed? Lily on the other hand was sleeping great, but finally (at 3 ½) realized that she can get up and leave her bedroom in the night. Fancy that. She is really so good though, she just comes to our room and pats me. After I jump out of my skin she puts her little hands up and with her tiny voice says “It’s just me. Lillian.” She is very serious about making sure I’m not afraid. Just Lillian. I tried bringing her into our bed (for the first time in her life!), but she was too restless and has way too many bony joints for my liking. She would prefer I come back and lay with her in her bed until she falls asleep. This is all fine with me as she has a full size very comfy bed. Sometimes her bed is too comfy and I fall asleep there for a couple hours before sneaking out and cursing all the squeaky floorboards like I did when she was an infant. Sometimes I get stressed because I have trouble falling back asleep, but I know it won’t last forever and I kind of love snuggling her crazy bedhead.

Besides our midnight shenanigans, things around here have been pretty rosy unicorn rainbow sparkle-factory-esque. Three (and ½)  and 1½ are awesome ages. Lily is rounding the corner out of the boundary-pushing phase and Mila is entering the crazy walking/talking/belly laughing/growling phase. Is that not a normal phase? Well it is around here and it is super cute. They are so fun and love playing together. Lily gets upset when Mila doesn’t understand what she wants to do and I often hear her yelling “EMILIA!” trying to get her attention. Poor Mila has no clue her name is Emilia so this is not super effective.

Mila is honestly the most affectionate kid I’ve ever seen. So many unprompted cuddles and hugs and kisses. Oh the constant kisses, I just melt a thousand times a day for that girl. She is suddenly obsessed with dogs. It was one of her first words, but recently “dog” has become “DOGGIE!” followed by huge dimpled grins and giggles. She has about 5 different stuffed dogs now and can be seen carrying between 1 and 3 dogs at any given time.

Lily has grown so much just since starting preschool in September. She still needs about 5 minutes to warm up to new people/places, but then she is off making friends and introducing herself to people. Oh by the way, she is Lillian now. We still call her Lily, but they call her Lillian at preschool (there is another Lily) and now that is how she refers to herself. She is so smart and is such a sponge soaking up knowledge and asking questions about everything. I can’t tell you how many times a day I say “I don’t know, let’s look that up.” Thank goodness for iPhones. What did parents do before the internet? Make things up? Maybe that is why I don’t know this stuff…

I was about to finish off this post with some holiday pictures and then realized, I’VE DONE STUFF TOO! Oh yeah, me. I am training for a half marathon! I ran one half marathon right before I got pregnant with Lily and I haven’t run much since, what with all the baby creating. My sister is a running rockstar and has been incredibly patient, willing to run veeeeery slowly, and the most excellent cheerleader as I begin my long road back to being fit. I've been at it a few weeks now and I already notice the difference in how I feel both physically and emotionally. I am meant to be an active being.

And now for pictures. Try to guess how my kids feel about Santa.