Lets see... Katie turned 3 - Ben is days away from walking all on his own. (although he's a bit lazy so I am not sure he's in much of a rush) and we are all doing just fine:)

Katie had an awesome birthday party and got a big girl bed all in the same month. (we've been busy since Christmas)

We then took Katie's crib and put it in Ben's room because we think he's gonna be a climber and we just knew that he would have been able to climb out of the crib we had bought for him (it's much shorter than katie's crib)

He is Absolutely in love with Katie's Thomas the Train ride on/push toy - it's kind of hysterical how obsessed he is and if you put him on it, you better be prepared to push him around for at least 20 minutes. He's learning sign language (well, his version of sign language) but he can ask to eat, and knows how to ask for more. He isn't showing too much interest in talking yet - says the standard, ba ba ba ba ma ma ma and he likes to growl a lot like the animals in his fisher price zoo! He still doesn't sleep through the night - and is awake at least once in the middle of the night and then usually is up for the day around 5 am. (I keep holding out hope that turning 2 will cure him of his AWFUL sleep habits)

Katie is doing a GREAT job in Pre-school. She does all the projects, and is showing lots of improvement in things like coloring, drawing, letter recognition, etc.... I'm starting to freak out because she is going to have to re-peat pre-k 3 since she started a year early - which didn't bother me when we signed her u - but now that she has friends, etc... I feel like she's gonna wonder why she's the only one that isn't going to pre-k 4 come September... It's gonna suck for a few weeks I'm sure - but the alternative would have been that she be in the toddler room right now and she is literally miles away from where those kids are developmentally - some of them are literally just starting to put 2 words together - so I think this was the better scenario for her in the long run - I'm just starting to worry about her feelings being hurt, etc.

She has completely given up napping. (even though she's the youngest kid in class) and just "rests" instead - Dave and I are still holding out hope that maybe, just maybe we will get napping back sometime soon at least occasionally on the weekends so we can have some down time - cause she is EXHAUSTING and smart and manipulative without really knowing it and it's VERY hard to win any argument, debate with her.

Case in point - last night
Katie, "mommy I want cupcakes"
Me, "Katie's are you crazy? You've been eating cupcakes all week in school for birthdays and it's dinner time - and besides - we don't have any cupcakes."
Katie, " Well, we could make some"

Dave bought Katie a special order personalized Fortune Cookie for Valentines day and gave it today and she is SUPER in love with it! She shared it with us but not Benny, "cause he's too little"

We're doing well, just crazy, insanely busy as you can imagine with kids the ages they are. They keep us on our toes and occupy every minute of our day until they go to sleep at night - so Dave and I get to chat here and there during the week. To be honest, our best conversations are the ones we get to have during the day when we call during work because we can talk for 5 minutes uninterrupted:)

So, we're happy, mostly healthy (besides colds that won't go away) and excited for a VERY busy month of March including Ben's 1st birthday (I can't FREAKING believe he's gonna be 1), lots of baby celebrations, and a potential visit from Grandma from Puerto Rico.
Being a grown up is exhausting

BUT - if anyone is counting... I STILL have not gotten peed on - swear on my wedding rings (which are my favorite pieces of jewelry on the planet) He has pooped in the tub on me, but I have NEVER been peed on or sprayed

It's called, I. Win!

p.s. I still haven't gotten peed on!!!

Katie is 3.

I can't believe it!
Our little lady that started this whole thing is 3 years old today!

She woke up this morning singing and talking to herself and when I said Happy Birthday to her she asked me if after she ate breakfast if that would mean she was 3 - and I told her she was already 3 and she got the biggest grin on her face ever!

She won't let us sing happy birthday until she eats her cupcakes after naptime and we sing to her.

She opened her presents this morning and has been an angel all day long.

She even helped me decorate her cupcakes for school tomorrow with minimal interruption:)

Next weekend we will have our family over for her birthday dinner and she couldn't be more excited. She asked for a Pinata and streamers and balloons - I think we can swing that!!!!

So - things are finally looking up again after a very long, very draining week.

Happy January!

Finally catching our breath!

What a busy few weeks! Christmas with Grammie and Grampie, Braydons birthday, a virus infestation and now Katie's birthday!

I am just getting a few minutes to catch my breath! We had a great start to the year where everyone was feeling good, behaving and our house was working like clockwork.

Then I got a cold,
Dave got some sort of weird 24 hour flu bug,
Katie threw up the same day, (literally 5 minutes after Dave first threw up)
I got his weird flu bug only it lasted me a whole week and I never had stomach issues,
Ben got his usual bought of diarhea for days on end and got kicked out of daycare for being sick and one of our neighbors decided to be a jerk and start an argument over garbage that apparently got tipped over by an animal.

I'm over germs... I hate them. Whatever this weird mutated virus is it has taken different forms in just about everyone I know who has gotten it so I say GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Everyone is feeling better finally but we are a little concerned about Ben because he gets diarhea every few weeks and it lasts him up to a week. His doctor keeps saying it's no big deal - just different viruses he's picking up - but the daycare won't keep him when he gets it - so we want to run some tests just to make sure that there isn't anything underlying - which means we have to collect a sample. (YAY)

Since Ben has been sick so much - he has also picked up the habit of waking up every night around 4:00 or 4:30 to poop - he then decides to stay awake until at least 5 or 530 and then goes back to bed until 6 or 630 and then is up again for the day.

My thyroid is still all messed up - so poor Dave has to take the night shift because if I wake up, then I have a really really hard time getting back to bed and my energy levels are sapped to begin with - so he takes the night shift and then I wake up with him in the morning.

The good news is that I found a new thyroid doctor that is treating my symptoms better than my first one - so there is some hope.

The bad news is that he has double confirmed that I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which is a lifelong condition that is hereditary - so the kids have a 50% chance of also having to take meds for the rest of their life and generally being tired and cranky:(

Let's see... what else is going on? The kids are doing GREAT at school besides the getting sick thing. Katie is really handling being with the older kinds in preschool very well. (the other kids are all a year older than her)

Work is going well for both of us and as long as we can hold any more sick germs at bay for awhile - we should have a good few months before we celebrate Ben's FIRST BIRTHDAY!

"Christmas 2011"

My dad had to go back to Canada for work tomorrow night - so we moved Christmas up by one day. (good things the kids don't know the difference yet)

It was a great day even though both of our little guys seem to be coming down with something again.

Applying her "Makeup"

Dave's Major Award

Dave is serious about his icecream... He is a Metcalfe:)

In other news... work is going really well, Daycare/Pre-School is going well and we are just busy busy busy. Ben isn't walking on his own yet - but you can see he gets around just find with his walking toys!

Merry Christmas everyone!