Dreadfully Busy

Remember that Veggie Tales song, "Busy, busy, dreadfully busy! You've no idea what we have to do! Busy, busy, shockingly busy! Much, much too busy for you!"? Sorry, my blog readers, but right now that is how I feel about you. =) I'm just too busy to blog and I expect I will be for the rest of the month. I'll try to get on here and post some cute stuff about the kids from time to time, but it is really best for my sanity for me to cut back on the blogging. And facebooking. And interneting (is that a word?). And...gulp, yes, even couponing. Sigh. But before I do that, I thought this would be a good time to do a quick update on each person in our family.

Kevin: After over a month of crab gear work - which was originally only supposed to be two weeks - this past week was Kevin's first full week back at home. For Kevin, this means that he is busy catching up on paperwork and doing various computer projects, such as the Flash video presentation he's creating right now for his brother's business. And hopefully he will get to some house projects too before crab fishing begins (December 28th) - it seems like there's never enough time for those anymore! For Abby, this means she is enjoying having her daddy home all day again and is privleged to have him make her breakfast most mornings, usually scrambled eggs or hot cereal. She also prefers daddy to help her go to the bathroom which is especially nice for me to get a break from assisting with the potty training! ;o)


Sara: I'm still couponing away even though I keep telling myself to take a break from it - the deals are so addicting! I never knew the things I could get for free or ultra cheap, such as cat food, diapers, Christmas card photos, razors, and even some Christmas gifts! After only 4 months of couponing, I don't think I'll ever be able to pay money for a toothbrush or toothpaste again! =) Thankfully, I have gotten a lot quicker at it and know when to recognize the so-so deals from the can't-pass-it-up deals. I have also found that it saves me a lot of time not to blog about my deals, so for now you can just click on the "Couponing Blogs" links down on the left-hand side of this page if you are still interested in couponing. And besides all the regular Christmas-related activities on my to-do list (decorating a tree, putting lights up, sending out my free Christmas cards, baking, wrapping presents, attending get togethers) and all my regular house-wife/mommy duties, December is going to be crazy because I have to finish my course by December 30th that I already received the one and only allowable extension on and that I've only completed about a third of the material. Pressure, stress and more stress.

Abby: We have decided that 2-years-old is the best age. I know I've been saying that every age Abby has been since about 6-months-old is the best, but it just keeps getting better and better! It is so much fun to watch her grown and learn (I know, I've said that before too). One of my greatest pleasures lately is to watch her play and talk with Ben. They enjoy each other so much that I kick myself for ever even having the fleeting thought that perhaps one child was all we needed. =) Abby is going through all the typical newly turned 2-year-old stuff right now, such as opening/closing all the doors inside the house just because she can, showing her independence by getting into her car seat by herself, singing quietly to herself while playing with her toys, and taking the "two steps forward, one step back" approach to potty training. But one thing I never expected from a 2-year-old is calling her parents by their first names - maybe from a rebellious teenager attempting to show independence, but not a sweet, kind 2-year-old. Thankfully, Abby is not trying to do it in a disobedient way; she has simply picked up on the fact that most people call us "Kevin" and "Sara" and so she occasionally does it do. For instance, when she's trying to get Kevin's attention from another room she'll sometimes call out to him, "Daddy! Daddy!" and then if he doesn't respond, she says, "Kevin! Kevin!" Hmmmm, I wonder where she got that from. ;o) Occasionally, she uses our first names in casual conversation (we of course remind her that she gets to call us "Mommy" and "Daddy") and it always throws me for a loop. I'm sure it is a phase she'll grow out of soon, but it is certainly not something I expected!

Ben: Ben continues to smile away and is improving his sitting ability all the time. He can rock back and forth as he sits and when he eyes a toy he wants, he will purposefully fall over and try to reach out to grab it. He is starting to love to play with Abby's toddler toys, which at times means interference from mom is needed but usually Abby does a good job sharing. =) Ben has become a good eater now, preferring my vegetable purees to fruits. He thankfully doesn't drool or spit-up very much anymore. Up until two weeks ago, his sleeping pattern had seemed to settle into bed-time at about 9:30pm, awake around 5-6am for one feeding, and then back to bed until wake-up at about 8:30am. Unfortunately, two weeks ago he started waking 4-6 times a night and that last for about 10 days. We ruled out constipation, cold, ear infection, hunger and finally chalked it up to teething. Needless to say, we felt like parents to a newborn all over again and I've been exhausted and sick some of the time due to the lack of sleep (also a major reason why I haven't been on the computer much lately). Thank goodness Ben has gotten back to a better sleeping schedule these last couple nights and I hope it stays that way!