Crap.

Uhh... so...

hi.

Long time, no update.... I even know it.  I know it as time is zipping past me that there's crap I need to document and get on my blog so that in 3 months when I've forgotten all this amazing stuff my little guys do, I can read back and go "oh yeah..." and then you know... I don't even KNOW what happens and it's freaking January and there's SO.MUCH. I'm behind on.

The blog falls to the bottom of the list.

Which sucks.  I've looked back on it several times these last few months, to see what sorts of shenanigans Ben was up to at Matthew's age to remind myself.

Ugh.

There's simply too much.

I had plans to write individual posts for some big things that have happened since like... freaking September but I didn't make very much progress.

It ain't happening.

So instead, I'll sum up and then maybe get back to doing this more regularly.

Anyway, let's see... I so wanted to take monthly pictures of Matthew in the same set up each month to compare and I did actually do it for 2 months.  Then I just didn't have the time to cut out the numbers, glue them on the calendar and try to find a time that he was in the mood to be laid out mostly naked on cold paper for photos.  I should have picked something WAY easier.  Oh well.

We waited til 5 months to start him on solids.  I decided to skip the store bought rice cereal and started him on home made sweet potato puree.  He really likes it.  He had that pretty much exclusively til a few days ago, when I introduced a few more foods.  He's had banana, applesauce, avocado and my home made brown rice cereal.  He's not a fan of the rice cereal by itself (but I can get him to eat it mixed with banana) or the avocado by itself (but again, with banana).

December was mad busy.  So crazy.  I actually feel like I went full out non stop from about November 1st til yesterday.  Plus, we were all sick (still are) pretty much all of December.  We went to the doctor 4 times in December.  That's pretty much a trip a week, folks.  I've had this cold crud twice, Matthew had a sinus infection and now has this cold thing, Ben had bronchitis and an ear infection and a 12 hour tummy bug that he shared with me the next day.  Even Nick (who rarely gets sick) caught this last cold crap.

I made Ben an advent calendar.  Well, I'm almost done.  It was usable, but I need to finish decorating the pockets.  I copied this idea and wrote out each note with an activity to do (like make salt dough ornaments, take a drive to see Christmas lights, make a gingerbread house, decorate cookies for Santa, have a Christmas movie night, etc) or prizes to get (like a couple matchbox cars, some new Christmas books or coloring books and a few pieces of candy).  Ben really looked forward to it each day.  I saved all the tags and plan to reuse most of them next year.

Ben also turned 3.  I feel like I totally dropped the ball on his party this year.  The past two years, I've done so much more in terms of decorating and making the day festive and fun.  This year, I combined our play group's monthly mommy & me book club with a party for Ben and had a bunch of little friends over to play the day of his birthday.  That evening family came over for dinner, presents & cake and ice cream.

I need to write a post just about turning three and the things that happened over the last year.

Part of his birthday present was riding the North Pole Express train.  We'd been talking to him about this pretty much all year and he was really looking forward to it.

I think he might have been slightly... bored.  It's a long ride if you're 3 and it's not that exciting.  We did get to see Santa & Mrs. Claus, drink cocoa (Ben took one sip, make a horrific face and spit it back out), have cookies and all that fun stuff.

We also visited Santa at the mall.  You might recall previous years, looking well... devastated:

So I really had absolutely NO idea what to expect this year.  A repeat of the last two years?  Both boys crying hysterically?  I actually felt BAD taking them to see Santa, I was afraid they'd both be terrified.

It was, in fact, the opposite.  Ben didn't cry at all and both smiled awesomely for the pictures.  I just wish they had better equipment and that our photo wasn't blurry.

Then, of course, was Christmas.  This year we stayed home for Christmas Eve and started a family tradition of a lasagna dinner followed by opening presents from each other.  Then we left out cookies, milk & the reindeer food Ben made at school and went to bed.  Ben woke up to a stuffed stocking and a few prizes under the tree from Santa.

Then we headed over to my dad's for Christmas brunch with the family, more present opening and good times.

And that, I think is pretty much it.

But I'm probably forgetting a whole bunch.

Oy.