So many changes lately with my littles!  First, Ocean just turned 10 months and is just so brave and climbing everything.  He stopped trying to walk and won’t even hold my hands and walk anymore – just crawls with furious speed.  He loves all food, now has 4 teeth coming in, and loves to watch Koral and play with her.  He’s getting pretty rowdy and can take a fall, so they are starting to become more equals than big sister and little baby.  He climbs on the couch and has learnt how to get down feet first – he has used his drum to climb up onto the coffee table, and then fell off.  If allowed in the bathroom, he will do everything he can to lope himself into the bathtub, which is so scary I always keep the door closed unless I’m right there. 

Koral has found her words this week in a big way!  She suddenly clicked and is full of new verbal observations and questions.  The very first conversation we had was “Mom –why yellow?  Orange juice, why yellow?”  I suddenly realized why she was calling all the yellow things orange for a week – she loves orange juice and we call it orange.  We looked at oranges, then the juice, called oranges by name, and she seems satisfied.  What a great little brain!  Later more followed, like why Milo doesn’t woof, etc.  Yesterday why said “Koral go beach.   Koral like beach!”  Wow, I certainly hadn’t heard her say “beach” ever before!  It’s been amazing! 

I also began a new thing myself – a daily calendar video for kids.  Why?  I used to teach preschool for a year, and every day we did “circle time” – it was always the same sort of introduction to the day:  Calendar with songs, weather, and intro to the day’s activities.  So, being in a world now where absolutely everything is on YouTube or online, I looked for a current daily circle time for Koral to watch with me in the mornings.  And there was not one.  So I milled it over for a month, and decided it would be easy to do – it’s very repeative.  But the thing is, you can’t skip a day.  So it’s EVERY day, in case viewers rely on it, like teachers that have lost their voice and don’t want to struggle through calendar and just play this one, or kids that need routine, etc.  So far we’ve done this for a few weeks and it has been simple enough.  My goal is to continue for a year and see if I get a following worth continuing.  Plus, as an added bonus for me, I get to put some cute moments from my kiddos into a little edited vid every night!  We do each day one day in advance, so on Friday we film for Saturday, etc, and everything comes out on time.  #FunDailyCalendar

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQ9pZ3vfadN6DvKlbg0RSQ

At first I wondered if it would end up being a stressful time suck – but actually, I’m getting MORE done!  Its exciting to plan the fun thing each day, and Koral and Ocean are loving it, too.  When I might have just watched tv with them – more Sherriff Callie’s Wild West, again – instead I would clean up things and prepare for a fun, unique activity!  The weather has also been heaven this warm winter and we have lived outdoors from 10 to 5 most days – Ocean will nap in the middle and Koral and I will play sandbox, do DYI home improvement projects, and play all sorts of things.  The only part that really takes time is the editing and posting, which I do after they are in bed.  I enjoy it, and I’m getting faster, but that doesn’t mean that some nights I would rather curl up with a book instead.  The last two nights, I was done in time to sew some projects, and I have invented a new lily pad for jumping on made out of outdoor marine vinyl.  I plan to sell them in sets of 3, 6, or 9 – I will be working on the design and making more.  Also, yesterday I made a prototype of one of the little Resurrection Gardens I plan to sell for Easter.   These have a little cave and look a lot like a fairy garden. Koral’s is a “bear cave” for her littlest pet shop bear.  Finally, I will be working on turning an old vintage crib with the spindle bars into easter crosses to also sell – or for memorial day.  J 

Synopsis – The kids are amazing and I am LUCKY.  I love playing with them and love their sweet natures.  I enjoy #FunDailyCalendar immensely.  Life is good. 

It's been a while - Ocean is 9 months!!  Koral is a very smart 2.5 and talking more and more.  Senthil has adopted the task of reading her a bedtime storybook after bath and tonight reported that when reading the book with the little mirror on each page, when it said "Donald Duck has a boo boo - can you show your boo boo, too?" Instead of mimicking the thumb like donald, she took her foot out of the covers to show a little scrape that I put a bandaid on.  Sweet smart girl.  Also, she is starting to parrot all the shows and us.  The best is when she is really feeling it singing along to something or even just her own song - she sways dramatically and either yells loud or using she "singing voice" and closes her eyes and gets really into it.  So precious.  Her hair is all curls right now and she does not like a pony tail, even though it's just long enough for pig tails.

Ocean is SO close to walking.  He is so different from Koral - more cuddly as a baby, more social and less independent - and omg, the boy has a love for food like she did not.  I think he's in a growth spurt but he's foraging and begging for food all day long and eats more than Koral does already - at 9 months he is eating more solids than her.  He is ready to tackle it all.  He ate half a veggie burger two days in a row for lunch with sides of veggies and fruit.

I am amazed at how well they play together and I hope it continues.  They are two peas in a pod, and Koral is realizing he is changing and plays differently with him.  She really can't wait for him to be able to stand up and take her hands and dance in a circle.  I recently hurt my lower back and it is taking its time getting better, so I haven't been wild with her and she misses that wildness, always asking me to dance and give her rides.  However, in a way, maybe it's been good because she isn't relying on me for all her fun - she has invented a game of pulling Ocean's socks off and teasing him to chase her for them, and he will laugh and crawl after her.  Sometimes it's his whole pants!

Right now they have a ball pit set up in her bedroom that they both periodically love playing in, and that has been great on the colder days and mornings.

On my side, I'm currently reading The Magnolia Story and my long-time love of Fixer Upper has only grown.  Also, I'm working on a project that I might be able to sell - after my surprise success with selling orders of felt play christmas trees in early December, I was thinking of offering another creative play item.  Perhaps I'll try to do one every few months.  Also, the corporate tax season for HealthPlotter is here, so getting that going, and then personal tax season.  I DID get behind totaling our finances for three months.  That feels yucky.  I LOVE knowing exactly where we stand.  I usually do it every Sunday.  But, there has been a huge lack of time and energy with sickness and cold after sickness and cold.  Ocean cut his first tooth on his 9 month birthday, and has been teething badly since so he's up often and unpredictably at night.  I'm so often torn between letting him cry so I can be rested and getting up with him or giving him tylenol.

These kids are amazing - I can't even believe how wonderful they both are.  That said, my goodness, I have never been more tired as this last year.  It's unbelieveable how much work, how many tiny tasks every minute holds - not just diapers but picking up things that are constantly moving, dirty, clean and need put away, attention being desired, shopping for them, preparing things, changing bedding - it simply does not end.  If we stay home as we have done lately because they got runny noses and then I got a GI track bug, things just keep getting behind even though I'm always working on it.  It's much better to get out for a while and come home and then tackle it for a bit.  I can't wait for the cold season to sort of fizzle out and for people to no longer be scared of being social again.  It's such a gamble right now.

Senthil and I have changed so much since our beginning.  Technically, we started dating 9 years ago.  We have been married for 5.5 years.  It's been rocky.  He really pivoted in every way.  I don't write about that side of things much as it's just not what I want a record of - the kids, my goals, that's what most of my posts will feature.  I have hope with him, but it certainly has not been anything like what I would have thought or dreamed.  This is something I struggle with, but try to have optimism about.  Everyone has their battle.