Welcome to 2015.

Because that's how long it's been since I posted.

In fact, I never even wrote about Teddy's birthday.  Mostly because it was a non-event and I felt guilty about that.  His Dad was working.  His Baba was sick in bed.  One of his sisters was at a movie.  So it was G, T-rex and me.  I labored all morning to make strawberry cupcakes from scratch (which is very difficult with two toddlers around) and he didn't even like them.

On the upside, though, I get to tuck him in every night with the quilt I made for him.  He seems to like it, so I count that as a win. On my birthday last year, I decided I wanted to start quilting.  I have also loved crafts, and my most recent crafty interest was mosaicing.  But I had to do it in the basement (flying shards of glass belong in the basement) and I never enjoyed being in the basement.  Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, no where comfortable to sit, no windows, etc.  So I decided I needed a craft I could do upstairs, with children milling about (because it seems there are always children milling about).  Furthermore, I wanted it to be something not fragile.  So after thinking about it for a while, quilting was the decision.

I went to a fabric store on my b-day, T-rex in tow, for the one hour a week I have only one kid with me.  I bought everything I needed to get started, as well as the fabric for my first project, which I decided would be T-rex's birthday gift. With a birthday right after Christmas I knew a party wasn't really in the cards, so opted for something else special.

The thing is, I grew totally hooked.  So that's what I've been doing in my free time.  Not blogging.  Not playing Candy Crush.  Not cleaning the house (not that I ever was).  Not reading.  I'm still totally hooked.  I have since finished Greta's quilt and have several other works in progress.

Tonight, though, I feel a little under the weather.  So I finally dusted off the old keyboard to catch up a bit.

Catching up on everything is unrealistic.  But I can mention a few things.

We just returned from our first camping trip of the year, Teddster's third camping trip ever. This occurred only one week after returning from a week in West Virginia.  It turns out, he is not much for sleeping anywhere other than his bed, and it is making travel hard.  To be fair, he wasn't much for sleeping there for a long time either, so at least he finally figured that out (not until about 13 months... the toughest sleeper by far).  T-rex and I only camped for one night, because he wouldn't sleep anywhere other than on top of us, fitfully, even with the aid of Benadryl (taken under physician supervision).  I was just done with poor sleeping, so he and I came home a day early, and he slept wonderfully and I got some rare one-on-one time with my boy.

Teddy is a wild man these days.  He is constantly climbing everything. He was climbing before he was walking (the walking happened within days of turning 1).  He loves to climb on top of the table then yelp at me until he gets my attention and shout "Get down"!  He does it primarily because he knows he's not supposed to.  I tried to stop the behavior and it only made it worse because it became a game for him.  He's had 4 or so concussions already, none of which actually occurred while doing anything that looked particularly terrifying.  He was born to be the child of an ER doc.

Greta is now fully potty trained.  She basically potty trained herself.  We tried to encourage her but the more I pushed her the more she resisted.  I finally told her if she pooped in the potty she would get a treat, and that was the motivation she needed.  She started pooping regularly in the potty and has had only one poop accident since.  Next step was that I told her if she went a day without any accidents we would go to the store and pick out a baby doll.  She worked hard and has done amazing.  If I push her to go potty she will usually refuse, but if I let her do it on her own she does great.  Certain times are a requirement (you must pee before we leave the house, before nap, etc.)  Still a pull-up to bed, which is a-okay by me. This girl is so absurdly stubborn.  She is definitely a challenge to parent, as I usually have to think of how to get her to do something without being seen as "making" her do it.  I know this is a more effective way to parent, but sometimes you need to be able to just make them do it, and it never, ever goes well.

And the big girl.  She's a pretty amazing kid.  Fearless as ever.  But also creative and imaginative.  She entertains herself for two hours a day while her brother and sister nap.  Today she made a tea party for her dolls.  The other day she decorated the house with geese she made.  Sometimes she makes a boat out of bottles in the recycling.  Or cards for her friend.  She now has a best friend, and I'm so happy for her.  Our neighbor has become her besty, and they are such nice kids.  I couldn't have picked a better friend for her.  They imagine constantly, seem to get along well and generally lift each other up.  I feel so blessed that the kid my kid plays the most with is such a positive influence in her life.  She is also the most talkative person I know, which drives my quiet loving self batty.  Though I missed it when she was gone for a day.  I know this is the reason she is so eloquent, a comment we get again and again from strangers.  She has an amazing vocabulary, is friendly and outgoing with strangers, inquisitive about everything....  She has been working hard to learn to read, and I have to work hard not to push her too hard.  It's hard for me to be as patient as I need to be, and I constantly have expectations that are clearly too high.  Not doing anyone any good.

Alrighty.  That's enough for now.  Maybe I'll try to keep this old blog up on a more regular basis....