Happy Birthday, Mom!

(now Grandma!)

Indiana!

For the last week, we have been visiting my family in Indiana. The main reason was to see my sister Grace who has been back in the States after a two-year period in Kenya. She was only here for three weeks, so we’re glad we were able to make it out to Indiana for some time with her, my parents, three more of my sisters, my baby brother, my nephew Benito and – of course! – all the dogs. We didn’t do anything very exciting, but we sure had a lot of fun!

Benito and Emry eating cracking nuts with Grandpa.

Grandpa, would you like some of my food?

The trampoline was the best!

Ethan riding Uncle Caleb’s old car.

Benito and Emry drawing on Aunt Jenny’s special wall.

 

Decorating cupcakes with Aunt Sally.

Teaching Aunt Abby and Uncle Caleb how to play.

Because Gus’s kennel is way fun!

 

Ethan and Max!

 

Emry playing the little piano from her great-grandmother’s house.

Family photo!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

11 Months!!!

This past week I was looking over Emry’s 1^st year scrapbook. Her 1-year pictures are so cute and she was so easy to take pictures of, but I couldn’t help thinking, “Ethan’s 1-year pictures will not be this easy.” And after attempting 11-month pictures this week, I KNOW they won’t be easy!

Our little man is never still. He crawls, he climbs, he walks along furniture. Steps are the favorite object in the entire house, even after Christmas. And he’s fast! One day, he was at the top before I got to him…and it’s not like I just let him climb. Even though I don’t feel like I’m loosing any weight, I must be burning a million calories a day just chasing him.

He’s a happy little man, laughing at his sister and just about everyone. He now claps his hands. And “talks” in “full sentences”. We’ve no clue what he’s saying, of course, but apparently it makes perfect sense to him.

He simply did not want to leave the sticker on…most of the pictures were blurry in a vain attempt to stick it on and quickly snap a photo.

And if he did leave the sticker alone, he wasn’t about to sit still.

Neither was Sock Monkey…

Yea – at least one decent picture!

2018

Today is the very first day of 2018. Both kids are down for naps (Ethan is actually sleeping while Emry is…well, it’s suddenly gotten quiet in her room so maybe she’s fallen asleep now!) and I thought I’d post a random blog.

I confess I slept through the 2018 festivities, although they must have had quite a firework show just down the road where the Ohio River meets the Beaver River because I did wake up enough to hear it for a few moments. I think I’ve slept through every New Year since I had kids. And yet I still don’t get eight hours of sleep a night…I’m lucky to get six!

Today my new year starts out very much like I imagine 2018 is going to be: work, picking up toys, baths, laundry and random projects that take a lot longer than planned (and, no, not because I have to stop every five seconds to chase Ethan up the stairs).

I did work today. We’re going out of town on Thursday to visit my parents for a week, so I needed to at least look at what the accountants will need by January 31. Most of it I have done (or completed today) so one good day on it in the office should have it done, mailed and off my desk. Over the next few months, MTR (the firm I started work with three years ago) will be closed and I will take on a different form of work for the new firm. It will be interesting to see what I take on from home. I’m rather looking forward to it.

Since we’re going out of town, I’ve got a checklist a mile long. It includes digging my mom’s empty jelly jars from my cupboard to return, washing clothes in order to pack them, clean the house from top to bottom (I’m still not sure why I always want to clean my house before I go on vacation, but I do), empty the refrigerator and tag on all the tasks that come up during the completion of my initial task. Because that I always happens. For instance…

Today I decided I would at least get Ethan’s one-year scrapbook out, make notes on what each page should entail and put in the additional 12X12 sleeves. That ended up being a project in and of itself when I realized the scrapbook I bought had it’s posts in the most ridiculous way I’ve ever seen and I didn’t own a single empty (or full) sleeve with holes punched like that. So, I punched my own. And am seriously considering writing the scrapbook company a huge complaint. (Really? Being impossibly different than every other scrapbook isn’t going to make you more money because now everyone has to buy your brand of sleeves. Everyone is simply not going to buy your brand of anything anymore. And I will step off my soapbox.)

Then, of course, I have a mile-long list of everything I have to do to close out 2017: accounts balanced, everything prepped for taxes (because I like to have mine done February 1), 2017 pictures backed up, blogs filed, random lists happily typed up as completed and probably a lot of other things buried on my desk.

Yeah, that’s another thing: clean my desk. We teased my mom mercilessly about her block-hole of a desk. Now I have one. And it literally takes weeks to clean. Mostly because every other paper on it leads to a project in and of itself.

But that will all have to wait…Ethan is stirring, calling “Mamamama!” and making all the fun noises he loves in order to tell me he’s awake and ready to play. So, it’s off to be a mom!

Happy 2018!