A letter to Aunt Karen (9 days ago)

Hi Karen,
We are all doing great. The boys are changing so fast. Mac is really getting funny. He says some of the most hysterical things. He slays me most days. We are STILL working on potty training. Today was a big break- through though. He pooped twice on the potty. HUGE!!! Of course, he then immediately wants candy for his acocmplishment. Ugh! He loves school, and his teacher is very complementary of him. I sometimes wonder if she is really talking about Mac. ;) Oh..I joke...but I do think he acts differently around other adults than he does around me. Right now, we are working on riding a two wheeled bike. THe problem is, he is scared of the training wheels. Nathan let him fall a few times, and now he wants nothing to do with them. \We actually have had 2 bikes given to us. One with training wheels, and one without. He prefers the one without. So that means, Mommy is breaking her back to keep a hold of him as he tries to ride up and down the sidewalk. I can't wait for him to "get it" so he can ride along side of me while I run.
Eli is getting so big. Tonight he was in the bathtub and stretched his body out while lying on his belly. He almost took up the entire tub! I couldn't believe it. My baby! He is doing a little sign language. Very little at this point, but he really knows "more". :) He also did "duck" tonight too. I thought that was pretty cool. When we were at Larry and Cindy's over T"giving, Cindy has this musical toy that plays the "Chicken Dance" song. So now EVERY time he hears any song, he starts flapping his wings. It is really funny. He is not walking yet. Actually, he is not even standing on his own yet, but he does like to push around this little "walk and ride" toy he has. He looks like he is pushing a walker!! I guess we start with a walker and then end with a walker (as life goes). Right now, we don't have a big birthday party planned for him. If we were in Indiana, we'd probably do something...more so that family could get together, but here...it just isn't necessary. We'll have a cake, and if it is warm, we might grill out and see if neighbors stop by, but I don't plan on planning anything big. Poor kid. :)
We had a really nice New Year's Eve dinner here at our house with our neighbors and Larry and Cindy. THere were 10 of us for dinner and 4 kiddos running around. We invited 14 adults. Everyone brought something. We actually had TOO much food. We had appetizers, Lobster bisque, mushroom lasagna, beef tenderloin, a turkey, stuffing, rice, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes and dessert. It was insane. There was plenty of food to go around and enough for sandwiches the next day, and for people to take home a little bit of left overs. We had fun with the Wii and laughing at funny videos on YouTube! Then we watched the ball drop.
I should go. Part of my New Year's Resolution is to get to bed at descent times. If I start now (9pm) I might make it to sleep by 11. :)

hmm...I just went back and re-read this letter. It is a pretty good "blog entry". I think I will cut and paste it into the blog. So you will see it again! :)
Em