I'm BACK!

The last year has been intensely busy so some things had to give – I stopped volunteering for Kelsie’s school (though to say I was ever an “active” volunteer might be a stretch), and I simply ran out of energy for the blog. Our camera has also had a slow and painful death, which has slowed down some of my posting as well. Excuses, excuses.

Bottom line is I like having this blog – it’s my own form of scrapbooking, it’s fun for me and sometimes cathartic – and I’ve missed it. So I’m back.

I’ll admit, another thing that has slowed me down from jumping back in is that I don’t know where to start. Almost a full year of holidays, birthdays, milestones, priceless quotes, and just everyday laughs and hassles has passed. There’s no way I can remember and report on all of it, but here’s a quick recap:

• Kelsie turned 6 – she had an all girls birthday party (plus Dylan) at a fondue restaurant where the girls enjoyed cheese, chocolate and manicures. Very fun.

• Dylan turned 3 – a boy to the extreme, he wanted a construction truck theme. We did it at Chuck E. Cheese (never again!) and instead of a cake we filled a big toy dump truck with brownies to look like dirt.

• Kelsie is about to graduate from kindergarten – she is a born student. She loves school and has tested at a 2nd grade reading level. She’s a bit of a teacher’s pet (okay, she an enormous teacher’s pet and will get her ass kicked one day), but for now it’s serving everyone well.

• Dylan is thriving at preschool, the same one Kelsie went to. They always tell us he’s the happiest kid in the school. He apparently reserves all his tantrums just for us.

• They’ve been taking gymnastics classes. Kelsie approaches it like everything else – she wants to show the teacher that she can be the first to complete the task. Grace is not her style. Dylan considers it a playground of sorts, so he wants to run and play and doesn’t like having to wait his turn or listen to his teacher. Switching to soccer soon.

• Kelsie lost her first tooth (bottom right; the tooth fairy brought $1)

• We are officially done with diapers now that Dylan decided he’s potty trained at the ripe old age of 3+ (he was the last hold-out at his school – they threw a pizza party when everyone was out of pull-ups; why are my kids late potty trainers?)

That doesn’t even scratch the surface, but I think that covers some of the big things.