Sparkly and new: 2010 (and some 2009 pictures)

We'll start with the only reason people even stop by this blog. Recent pictures (well, New Years Eve day recent):

A week of silence... It was not on purpose. Naturally, the night before New Years Eve, my modem up and dies. I called first thing the next morning. But between the holiday and the weekend the "3-4 days" delivery took about a week. Can't complain too much, I suppose. Could've happened on Christmas when there'd be 2 holidays to contend with! Anyway, I'm back and ready to blog.

It's funny, I've been such a slacker with taking pictures over the past year, but now that I have a decent camera, I've gone and taken 75 pictures this past month alone. Granted, we had Christmas and Christmas parties to bring a camera to, but still!

Cadence is learning words like crazy and doing even better at making up her own. Her favorite thing to do is meow everytime she sees a cat (picture or real). "Yish" is yes; "Da" is done; "Addy" I think is Daddy. She's taken to dancing whenever she hears music now, which is cracking us up. I thought she'd never hit that stage, but she has hit it with a vengeance and dances all the time. She'll laugh when you laugh. She immediately claps her hands and says "yay" when she hears other applause. And since I'm too busy to read to her every time she gets the whim, she's starting to read to herself as well! She'll plop in the middle of the floor and flip through a book and talk to herself. It's absolutely adorable.

Her next big step is to move into her toddler bed. We're buying it this weekend. We're giving ourselves about a month to get her transitioned to it. Hopefully it doesn't take much longer than that. From what I've heard, the transition should be pretty smooth, but we're still working on some last minute sleep training and she is a little young for the move, but she's starting to climb everything, including attempts to climb out of the bathtub. The crib is still a touch high for her for it to be a real problem yet, but she's sprouting up so fast (I swear she's shot up 3 inches since her first birthday) we're following the "better safe than sorry" parenting mantra.

Megan is dedicated to taking up all my spare time. She refuses to set her own schedule. Probably my fault. It was easy to recognize Cadence's natural schedule and go with it, since she was all I had to focus on all day when she was littler. Poor Megan. I'm so distracted by Cadence half the time I don't remember to watch for her natural schedule so I can go with that flow. Still, she's spending a lot more time awake and she's been giving out sleepy, crooked little smiles for a couple weeks now. She has no interest in the toys and books I shake at her. She's more intrigued by the pictures on the wall, her sister, and my face. She's a noisy little girl too. She talks, grunts, and whimpers in her sleep almost nonstop. She already has a strange throaty squeal that she uses to talk to us when she's awake and wiggles as much as she did before she was born. She wiggles so much keeping her covered is a pain. Hopefully over the next week or two I'll be able to understand her schedule and we'll all be much happier for it. I can't believe she'll be 2 months old in a week!

As far as updates on James and myself, there is little to tell... so far. We're waiting on big news about James's future that will have a drastic effect on our family. We were expecting the final news yesterday, but turns out we have to wait a big longer. The biggest change in my life, other than my children's milestones, is that I've started an exercise routine that's kicking my butt. Only been 2 days, so I'm probably whining prematurely. But if it's a success, I may be bragging about it in a month or so. If it's a complete failure you won't hear another word about it.

I guess I should get a little sappy sentimental about the new year before I end, this being the first post of the year and all. It's funny how much can happen in only a year. Every January you look forward, but you can never really see where you'll be a year from now. This time last year, I was debating having another child so soon, but wouldn't have dreamed it would happen so quickly for us. This time last year, I was anticipating financial comfort, instead we limped through a year harder than the year before. Oh yes, 2009 was not what I expected Written last year:

"I don't see 2009 bringing quite as many life-changing events, but I do have high hopes of it being a rather pleasant year. Pleasant in a quiet way. Nothing too monumental happening, but I hope I'll be able to look back a year from now and feel a sense of peace and contentment."

Funny... 2009 brought just as many changes as 2008 did. And looking back, there is a bit of peace and contentment, but it was not quietly pleasant. It was stressful, strenuous, and daunting. The peace and contentment is my being pleased that we survived it as strongly as we did. Of course, I'm hoping for big changes here in 2010, so who knows? Maybe this'll be my "pleasant in a quiet way" year that last year was supposed to be when I wasn't expecting any big changes...