Some updates as of late:
Alex loves swimming, reading books, watching one of her many princess movies (and even a few non-princess ones), doing ANYTHING outside, laughing, and just generally being a happy kid. She is SO smart (says her biased mommy), and comes up with the most amazing observations and comments on life. She is a master negotiator.
She is the pickiest eater, and generally eats like a bird. I'm amazed at how little she eats, and yet how much energy she has. Her favorite foods are not always the healthiest choices, that's for sure: macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets, waffles & syrup, bean burritos, and anything sweet or junk-food related. She loves all her fruits, but is SO resistant to vegetables. It's a daily frustration for me and something I have a hard time relating to, because I pretty much love anything that is edible. We just keep hoping she will turn the corner and start eating more things. We don't make separate meals for her or cater to her tableside tantrums, but she is just stubborn and will skip a meal rather than eat a vegetable! Grrr......
Alex is an amazing big sister. I have no complaints in that department, and I'm just so happy to see her love and concern for Kathryn. She helped teach her to walk, she pretends to read books to her, she plays with her, and is always looking around making sure that baby sister is ok.
Kathryn has been going through a very needy stage lately and has been having some very serious separation anxiety from me. It gets to be so bad that I can barely walk out of the room at home without her screaming like it's the last time she will see me. She wants to be held ALL the time. Not exaggerating, seriously.....all.. the... time! Alex didn't go through this, (at least not anything noticeable) and I am not sure exactly how to handle it. My first inclination was to just let her cry for a bit (while staying close) and saying, "I can't pick you up right now while I'm cooking dinner, but Mommy is here, don't worry Kat!" Nope. Didn't help. So then I thought, maybe she just needs some Mom time, so I started picking her up--- while cooking dinner, folding laundry (her in my lap), sitting at the computer----pretty much anything. But it didn't really help reassure her; she still screamed bloody murder for the rare minute that I had to put her down. My back is killing me and although I love the extra snuggle time, it has been three months of this. Rich and I both noticed that Alex has started misbehaving and talking back more, and I think it's related to the need for attention since Kat has been taking nearly all of mine. We are hoping for a change on the horizon soon.
But Kathryn isn't all tears. She is a sweet girl who idolizes her big sister, loves food (I mean LOVES food, almost anything), and has now taken off walking & running everywhere. She talks a little, but most of her words are only understandable to us: she says MORE, GO, THANK YOU, BALL, BITE, EAT, BYE-BYE, HI, MAMA, DADA, THOR (our dog's name), WHAT'S THAT?, WHERE IS IT, GOOD GIRL, THERE SHE IS, and a few other little phrases that I can't remember at the moment. She is definitely a mama's girl and loves just sitting quietly on my lap, sucking her thumb and looking around at whatever action is happening in the room.
Life is just crazy lately. I'm a little overwhelmed with working full-time and the 1.5 hour commute I have everyday. I enjoy my actual job, but it takes so much energy to get the girls ready, get myself ready, drive them to daycare, then drive to my territory---I feel exhausted by 8:30 each morning! The daycare being so far away from my house, and my sales territory being pretty far from that---those are the two things that cause me the most stress. I keep trying to come up with a solution--I really do hate complaining about things without coming up with solutions, but I'm kind of stuck for now. Oh well.
There are so many other updates, but this is a crazy long post, so I'll end for now.
Some recent pics:
And a really cool look at Alex in 2010 and 2012......crazy how much she looks the same!
