No, not really, but I'm sure anyone still bothering to follow my blog thinks so!! Thanks for stopping by and not giving up on me!! I was always one of the kids in high school and college that when given a journaling assignment wrote it all the night before- not such a good journaler!!! I'm not even going to bother to promise to try to do better-I'll just post when I can.
Anyway, life has gone on at a very hectic pace since my last post in September. Both of the kids are doing fantastic! Brody has fit into our lives so smoothly and effortlessly that I can't remember what it was like before he came along. He turned 2 in October and is growing and learning so much! Bernie and I sat down a few weeks ago and wrote down all of the words that he can say, and it is 80+... not too bad! He is putting words/ideas together, but no sentences yet. For instance, he will say "Daddy", "work", "go" and "car", meaning that Daddy went to work in the car, but you have to acknowledge each word as he says it, he hasn't put it together in sentence form yet, but I am confident he will soon. We have this conversation many, many times during the course of the day!!! He continues to go to Bernie's sister for daycare on Wed, Thur and Fri. He and Makenna get along like typical siblings, hitting one minute and hugging the next. He looks to her for guidance on how to behave, for better or for worse. Brody has picked up her habit of saying "Dat, Dat!!!", meaning "I want that!!!" everytime he sees a toy commercial. He still loves to be cuddled, and has a ready supply of hugs and kisses available whenever we want one.
Makenna turns 5 in August, just 9 days before the cut-off day for kindergarten, and we are going to let her go ahead and start this year instead of holding her back. She is very bright and very social, and I think she'll do just fine. Her teachers at preschool agree. So now the main topic of discussion for Bernie and me is public vs. parochial school. Our city has a fantastic public school system, but they are facing a HUGE budget shortfall and are looking for ways and places to cut the budget. The Catholic school is great, and they have full day kindergarten (which is what I want), but it's a little bit of a drive for me through city traffic every day. There are pros and cons, and I'll let you know what we decide! Makenna is receiving speech therapy now and really enjoys it. Her speech problems aren't severe, but we wanted to get started before she starts school. She mainly does some substitutions- for instance, she pronounces "f" as "s". Bernie has a friend named Fred, and Makenna calls him Shred (so of course now I call him Shred, too!), and she pronounces "k" as "t", so "coke" is "tote". As her mother, of course, I understand everything she says, but I have to translate for her pretty often. I want her to be understood by her classmates, especially once she starts kindergarten.
Bernie and I are doing great...we love these kids to pieces! They are very active and funny children, and I always tell people that they are either going to keep us young or they are going to kill us! Bernie is getting ready to leave for his annual sales meeting in Phoenix in two weeks, so I'll be alone with the kiddos for 5 days (yikes!). Brody has really enjoyed all of our special occasions...birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and especially Christmas! He also loves the snow, which is great considering how much we have had this winter so far! We have seen a huge change in his physical abilities since coming home. He can go up and down the stairs without assistance, he runs everywhere, floats in the bathtub, and can take anything apart and put it back together again. He also likes to help with the laundry and setting the table (we'll see how long THAT lasts!!). Brody is just generally a joy to be around- smiles all day, needs to have his boo-boos kissed, listens to us (for now at least!) and loves his sister, mom and dad! We are so lucky-for us, lightning struck twice.
Again, thanks for not giving up on me. I'm going to publish this now and put some pics up in a separate post. Talk to ya'll later! Monica
They love it! Go, Daddy, GO!!!
Look both ways!
It's never too cold to play on the swingset!
Decorating Easter Eggs- he's very neat and fastidious (like his dad!). 
My baby is going to preschool!!! Boo hoo! 
At preschool- really, he's happy to be here!
Beware criminals everywhere! Bridezilla Batman Supergirl is on the lookout! 
What a cheesy smile!
Brody is ready for his close-up 
This little bee goes outside when the weather warms up!
Cleaning the jello out of Brody's hair. Makenna would never let me do this!
