Spotlight: Matthew

After giving Matthew a bath awhile ago we had a few meltdowns. First of all I had his blue beach towel in the wash, how dare I. He eventually got over that but then he tried to put shorts on for bed. This was the biggest meltdown by far (Matthew is just a little picky and stubborn sometimes). He cried "I want it to be the summertime." I went on to tell him that I wish it was the summertime too. He FINALLY calmed down and very seriously said "Mom, Let's pour some hot chocolate on the clouds to make them go away, that will make it warm. Laughing I told him that was a great idea. He then said, "Do you think we need a rocket to get up there to the clouds?" Days later while driving he said "Mom, we forgot to pour hot chocolate in the sky." If only it was that easy to make it springtime. Matthew is always saying funny things that just crack us up. 3 year olds are the best, sometimes they can be the hardest but overall it is such a fun age.

Matthew is such a sweet boy. He will tell me at least daily, "Mom, you are cute and pretty and the best mommy in the whole world and I love you." Lately he has said let's lay on the couch and watch Olympics. He likes to snuggle up with a blanket with me. So fun! Matthew LOVES to jump......on the couch, on his trampoline, off the couch onto his trampoline, and the other day he called for me to come watch and as I came into the room I see him jumping off the fourth stair and it scared me half to death, mostly because I thought he would hit our bookshelf. He still loves to play pretend and likes building caves out of the furniture. He does like to build tall towers with his blocks but mostly likes to play with me or Taylor. Him and Taylor love to just run together from one end of the house to another. He is very picky about a lot of things; what he wears, what color of cup he gets, and even cares what Taylor wears and does. He will come home and change into his pajamas or will find a short sleeved shirt and shorts somewhere. I am excited for the summer because he won't want to change his clothes so much because he likes his summer clothes a LOT! Matthew loves playing with his friends and hid Dad. He is enjoying primary a lot and loves singing time especially. He likes to play baseball in our kitchen which is fairly safe except that he can hit the ball pretty hard sometimes so I have to watch my head. Matthew also loves preschool which has been so fun. Matthew is silly, happy, active, and sweet. We sure love him!

Matthew really wanted to try on Taylor's snow suit awhile ago. He thought it was pretty funny.

I know I have been slacking on the blog lately. I actually had this post half ready for about a month now. March should be a little less crazy at our house.

SPOTLIGHT: Taylor

Taylor talking-16 months from Jill Lau on Vimeo.

AKA: Taylor Buggy

Chunky Monkey

My sweety (Matthew calls her this)

dolly

Taylor is now 16 months old and is full of life. She is such a joy to our family and seems to be growing up so much these days. Taylor is....

silly, happy, energetic, into everything, smiley, playful, loud, determined, giggly, a tease, and always on the go. She loves Matthew so much. They are either driving each other crazy or playing so well together. They will just run back and forth from end to end of the house just laughing. Sometimes I can't get them to eat dinner because they just are silly together and make each other laugh.

Taylor is talking a lot lately. My favorite is how she says Matthew; it is just so cute.

Taylor is going through a little separation anxiety right now but most of the time at home she will not let me hold her. She is a mover and always going....not a cuddle bug.

She is such a girl in certain ways........she already tries to put clothes on and my shoes, things Matthew did not do this early. She does love her balls and cars though. She plays with cars better than Matthew did.

Taylor climbs EVERYTHING and it drives me crazy. She moves those chairs in the picture below and gets on the table and walks up onto the counter. She climbs on top of the toilet and on our end tables. I can not safely leave her alone these days.

Taylor does not love to read books. Sometimes she will sit still for awhile if the books are short. So different from Matthew; he would sit forever and read books and still today I can read him tons of books in one sitting. I keep trying but this girl is just on the go. Just this morning I was reading them books and she was climbing all over me and trying to grab the book. Taylor can be loud and very stubborn or determined (whatever you want to call it) She is really good at saying no and mine and throwing fits.

Taylor can be a really good eater sometimes and sometimes be very picky. She usually eats more than Matthew these days.

Will when I ever be able to keep my house clean? As long as their happy and entertained I guess.

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago and Taylor fell asleep in the car. I came in the house and put her on the floor and she stayed asleep. CRAZY!! She has now done this a few times and Matthew usually wakes her up within 10 seconds. Oh well, it is usually lunch time anyway. Taylor loves her bed and will usually only sleep in her bed. Getting this girl to sleep on an airplane.....forget it.

Taylor is a sweetie; she gives us all hugs and kisses and wants to be right in the middle of all of us. We love you Taylor!

UPDATE: dancing, goals, February, health

We like to have dance parties at our house often. Whose invited? Usually the four of us but we sure have fun. I came home from a quick trip to the store to find this. I love these 3!!

January has flown by and I am optimistic about a quick February. I am not one to really wish for life to hurry on; I usually try to enjoy the everyday but I am already antsy for spring. Glen will be doing part of his surgery rotation in Lima Ohio during February and will come home on the weekends. For you phychos out there....don't even think about it, I have a security system now and a can of wasp spray (apparently it blinds you for awhile if sprayed in the eyes) Anyways, I actually think the month is going to be a good one. It's not like I saw Glen a lot the month of January. I do have a lot of things I want to work on this month while I will have lots of time in the evenings to myself. I have really dug into the scrapbooks and am going to be completely caught up before the weather is nice. Goal #1.....haha. I get a lot of satisfaction out of cleaning cupboards, closets, and getting rid of stuff we don't use anymore. Goal #2 Clean all closets and cupboards. I am already off to a good start. Goal #3 is a fun one; I want to take the kids swimming once a week. They love it and I love it too. We will continue to stay busy with walking group, preschool, playgroup, and visits to the zoo's indoor animals (aquarium and polar bears and others)Goal #4 is to get to the gym to workout.

This has been something very frustrating for me with the health issues I have been having, health issues I haven't talked about on the blog yet. So quickly for those of you who don't know. The end of October I started having tingling in my hands, feet, and legs. I also have a lot of pain in my feet when I walk. I get tired easily and just feel easily fatigued, especially in my arms. Holding Taylor for very long makes me tired and curling my hair makes my arm ache instantly. My hands feel a little awkward like they cramp us just holding a book. For a awhile my eye was a little blurry and my back and neck always feel sore. It all started within 30 minutes after getting the H1N1 vaccine which I am not sure if I think that is what caused this or not and doctors aren't sure either. I have seen the family doctor and seen the neurologist many times. I have had nerve tests, an MRI, and lots of blood tests. What have we found out........NOTHING. The doctors really do not know what is going on and have left things like that for now. I have really tried to be positive and hopeful and most of the time I am but some days are hard and I get down about it. I just want to be able to walk without hurting and do all the things I want to do. I am grateful though that things are not worse. For the first two weeks after I got this we were worried sick. The symptoms were so similar to what my Mom got a couple of years ago, Gillian Barre (made her not be able to walk within a week). That was the hardest couple weeks of my life thinking I might be in the hospital and not being able to take care and be with my kids. SO, I am grateful everyday that I can be with my kids and still do things with them. So we get by, day by day, things are not getting better but we are dealing and I try to just trust in my Heavenly Father and his timing.

So enough of that. Back to my last goal, I want to try to bike or do the elliptical; both will be less weight on my feet. I walked a few weeks ago at walking group and decided that I would just go for it and stay with the girls going fast. My feet hurt but it was okay and I thought I can do this. I was very excited until I got horrible crampy sharp pains in my feet that really made it hurt to walk. It lasted a couple of weeks and is just now feeling better. I attribute it to just overdoing it. I was frustrated but I want to exercise so i will try something else and just be happy about it. Hopefully I can do it; I know I can, I hope my feet can.

Enough words I know...... Kid updates to come later! Life is good.