Okay, okay, I know, I have been horrible at this in 2011. Here it is April and I'm just now making my first post of the new year. There have been some changes in our house this new year (and the tail end of last) and it seems to have affected my ability to get posts on here (I have cut out much of my computer time, therefore I haven't thought to update).
The kids are growing and changing almost daily it seems. Maria celebrated her 4th birthday last month with her first ever "friends" party. She then followed that up with attending her first, non-family, birthday party the very next day. She loved both. She also participated in swimming lessons, attempting Sea Turtle for the 4th time, in March. But this time she succeeded in placing her head beneath the surface and thus graduated to Salamander. We were so proud of her! It's hard for me to schedule many extra activities around work, but I think the plan for the fall will be to try skating, swimming and possibly dance. We'll see what Mom and Dad can handle. For those wondering, Maria will not be attending preschool this fall though. Our dayhome provider doesn't transport the kids and I can't easily fit drop off and pick up into my schedule. Besides, our little girl is socialized 4-days a week, knows all her upper case letters, can stay inside the lines while coloring and can spell a number of words (Mom, Dad, William, Maria) without help. I know she would enjoy it, but then again they only have so much time to be kids before school is upon them. Why not let them enjoy it?
William is definitely a little man now. Since January he went from a vocabulary of barely 10 words to 2-word phrases in just 2 months. He is trying to talk all the time now (much to Mommy's relief) and is developing quite the personality. Unfortunately for Mommy, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. William is strong, stubborn and independent. This is translating into a number of daily tantrums (short-lived, but loud) prompting Maria to use phrases like, "William is really pushing his luck, isn't he Mom". However, in between these quests for independence come many, many moments of laughter and amusement and I wouldn't trade my adorable little man for anything.
Aaron's work venture is thus far proving very fruitful and this too has been a blessing upon this house. My work continues to be steady and continues to provide me with challenges and successes. Now to just make time to update this site on a more regular basis....