Dear Rhys, on your first birthday

Dear Rhys,

Friday was your first birthday! I can't believe you've been with us for an entire year. What a year it has been. You are full of joy and energy and never give us a dull moment. 

At 10 months you took your first shaky steps. By 11 months you were walking on your own but still crawling some. Now you don't bother crawling. Ever. However, you're a big ol' mama's boy and want me to carry you around a good amount of the time. Not that I mind.

Who needs a swimsuit? Clothes are just fine.

Gena's fourth Mother's Day

It's hard to believe this is Gena's fourth Mother's Day! I know Cora's not yet 3, but I believe women become mothers long before their baby is born. I don't think I was a Dad until Coco actually entered the world, but I know Gena was there long before.

Over the last year, Gena has completely redefined her role as "Mom", and I could not be more grateful for, impressed with, and proud of all she has done! Our baby girl is smarter than either of us already, absolutely LOVES to read, regularly states that she "loves science and music", has a penchant for composing beautiful music and lyrics at the drop of a hat, and occasionally amazes us with the love she has for her brother. Rhys is a crawling fool, pulls up on everything, has started "walking" along the edge of the couch or with the walker toy Cora lets him use from time to time, and will most likely be walking before Father's Day. Thank you, Gena, for being such an amazing Mother to our children. Here is Cora and Rhys's Mother's Day song for your listening pleasure.

Before I leave you with the apparently traditional Mama Collage, I want to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the other Mothers in our lives: Mom, Leta, Stephanie, Alison, Janna, and anyone else reading this post!

Christmas, yes Christmas, 2012

Yes, it's May. Yes, I'm just now blogging about Christmas. Please don't judge me. In case you haven't noticed, the last time I actually posted a blog was to announce Rhys's birth day! That gives you an idea of how this residency has been going. Busy, busy, busy. I try my best to spend as much of the weekend with the kids, and on the few days when they both nap at the same time, we're either cleaning, working in the yard, or sleeping ourselves! Gena has truly been truly amazing staying home with our little monsters this year, I don't know how she does it. I try to let her get out of the house alone (or leave her alone in the house) for a couple hours on the weekend, and I'm barely left standing by the time she comes back. She really is incredible. Enough gushing about her though, Mother's Day is next weekend (thanks Alison for clearing that up for me!). On to Christmas.

We started looking at flights in the fall and realized we would have to take out a 2nd mortgage on someone else's home to afford to fly home for Christmas, so we made the decision to travel in early January (cutting travel expenses by about 60%). This also meant we would be celebrating Christmas with just the four of us for the first time, AND celebrating Christmas with just US for the first time. The closer we got to the big day, the more we realized how uncharacteristically excited we were! Once we removed the stress of travel, we were like little kids looking forward to Christmas morning!

Big girl bed

About a month back we went crazy. We did the sleep training with Rhys and decided in the middle of it that it was a good time to change Cora from a crib to a toddler bed. Now, I had been holding off making this switch for one simple reason: naps.

See, Cora stopped really taking a nap sometime around Thanksgiving. I kept putting her in her crib and letting her play during nap time with the intense hope she would actually sleep. Alas, most times she just yelled loudly from her crib. I was afraid that if she wasn't contained in her crib she wouldn't stay in her room and I would never get a moment's peace! Finally, though, Geoff and I gave in and decided naps are a thing of the past for our girl.

So we started quiet time. Cora didn't know what to do. She would lay down on the floor with a blanket over her because she couldn't lay in her crib. She even fell asleep on the floor once or twice. Finally, I gave in. If she isn't going to nap then why not put her in a toddler bed? At least that way she has a place to sit during quiet time and she can fall asleep on her bed rather than the floor.

Not a baby anymore.

Hunting Easter Eggs

Easter Sunday started out rainy and gross around here. We had an egg hunt planned with the little boy across the street who is just a few weeks older than Cora. Fortunately the rain stopped and was replaced by humidity, mugginess, and mud. Pretty awesome, huh?

So, as the kids are both only 2 and not so adept at finding things right in front of them, the Dads didn't work too hard to hide the eggs. Even in plain sight we had to explain, and then demonstrate, the purpose of the egg hunt to the kids. Took awhile to get started, as we repeatedly had to encourage them to pick up more eggs and spend less time shaking each one and asking "What's in it?" Really, who knew egg hunts were so complicated?

Finally getting the hang of it.