First Time for Everything, I Suppose....

Well, let's see...

I never thought I would be one of "those" people that had a blog, myspace or anything of that nature, but alas here I am joining the masses and dragging my family along for the ride!

It makes sense now, I suppose. We have family spread out enough that this would make things slightly easier to keep in touch with everyone. Now, the big challenge will be to keep up with this. Family makes you busy and there is always a point during the day where you stop and wonder where the time went. I am hoping this also helps us cherish these times when our kids are so small and they are exploring, learning and developing into these little people. This never seemed so important to me until the day I had to go back to work full-time.

Our current arrangement is this, I work full-time and Dave is home on parental leave until sometime in July. That is, if the kids don't get to him too much first. I know he is really enjoying this time with them and just them, without me there to interfere with it, but he can't wait to go back to work. Can I blame him? Not at all! Is he doing a wonderful job? You bet, I couldn't ever ask for a better husband/dad. He gives them his everything and they soak up every little bit he is willing to give.

About the kids! Well, Hayden is doing great, a talker but I guess that's a good thing. He is in his first year of kindergarten and has become the mini Don Juan of his class. All of the girls just adore him, especially the 7th grade helpers. I wouldn't have believed it but I took him to school one morning and the 7th grade girls come running down the hall at him and start hugging him and telling him they missed him on the bus. His response to all this "Mom missed the bus!" I suppose I will have to resign myself to the fact that I will only be referred to as Mommy at home. Mind you it's better than being called "Hey You". He is really enjoying school itself and can't wait to go every other day. I'm quite relieved to see this because we weren't too sure how he was going to adapt to school. The poor child has had so many changes in his little life that I'm sure he's expecting another one to happen soon. He is preparing for his Valentine's Day and there will be a party for his class next week and this weekend we are going to get all of his Disney Cars Valentine's done up. I'll be sure to post a picture or two of him doing them.

Now my Max...what a little being he is turning into. He has this personality that just takes over. You look at him and would never believe he is only 19 months old. My mom and I went shopping today to get them snowsuits for next winter, since they are on clearance and all, and bought him a size 4! He is a force to be reckoned with that's for sure. He is really starting to come around on his talking. He has always been great with taking instructions he just can't seem to communicate with us the way he wants to so gets frustrated. He's making great progress though. He can count to ten (thank you Sesame Street) and knows the first bit of his ABC's. Don't let me steer you wrong here, he doesn't pronounce them really clearly but you can understand what he is saying. He's in the midst of terrible cabin fever. He just wants to get outside and run and play. Smidgen to cold for that though. He's been entertaining himself by driving Dave nuts and climbing on absolutely everything he can manage, the diningroom table, tops of the couch, pushing the diningroom chairs to whatever flat surface he can find so he can climb on it. You can't take your eyes off him for a second.

Finally, there is Charlotte, also known as Charly at home. She is our quiet observer and adores her big brothers to bits! Last night just before baths she was in her walk around (like an excersaucer) and the boys were playing around and with her, well she laughed like never before. This just egged the boys on more of course and next thing you know all three of them are in the middle of the livingroom floor laughing their little behinds off. I'm sure after awhile none of them knew what they were laughing about but they were having so much fun. She is almost able to sit up completely on her own now, we're working on it but it's hard when Max is also playing around. She is our tiny one, the smallest of the three but I am sure at some point in the future she'll be the boss and have her brothers wrapped around her finger.

So, there's the skinny on us thus far. I'm going to try my hardest to keep up with this, post pictures and just let everyone know how we are.