January!!! What a long month. I don’t know if it is just me or if January is oftentimes a very painful month to get through. It’s a dark month, a long month, a generally cold month. You come off of all of the winter holidays and the buildup to the winter holidays and finally get a moment, which is then when you usually get sick. Especially when you are factoring in how many people are traveling and gathering over the holidays. So yeah, our January has been mostly about getting through the month. We’ve had a lot of sickness around here, a few activities starting up or ending, and a rare break in the rain. Let’s take a look by person:
Reese:
- Reese trialed a ballet/tap combo class with Lottie and really liked it so we are officially starting the spring season of dance once we are back from Florida.
- As we were signing up for dance we found out gymnastics on Saturday was going to be cancelled due to lack of coaches. Initially I was bummed but two activities is my max per kid so taking a break from gymnastics to try out dance for a while.
- Reese’s second activity right now is swim lessons which we are doing Tuesday nights. After having two classes Reese was moved up in level and now she loves class because she is getting to do so much more in the water and isn’t bored and has a cool, friendly coach.
- We had a science showcase at Reese’s school last week which was cute with all of the kids creating animal habitats with Reese’s group doing the tropical rainforest and doing a really good job with their construction.
- It’s been a flurry of summer camp registrations and planning (already in January!). I think we mostly have Reese set up for the summer with friends joining her for the various camps each week. I’m hopeful that we have her set up for a fun, and not overwhelming, summer.
- Reese is a Picasso Tiles mastermind right now. She’s been loving building elaborate buildings, houses, and whole villages out of her magnet tiles lately and it’s really fun seeing what she can come up with. The difficulty is keeping Brooke from smashing them until it is okay to do so.
- Reese has been coloring up a storm as well.
- This week marks the first week of Reese’s new after school schedule, where she will now be coming home four days a week on the bus instead of two, to work with me on her letters and reading. Hopefully this all goes okay.
- Reese is really into Bluey right now. We also started the Harry Potter movies and this is maybe the first movie I’ve ever known Reese to be scared of.
- Reese has discovered Nutella….
Brooke:
- Brooke has battled two different sick spells this month, each time taking a day off of school. The first sickness was just a fever and lethargy followed by runny nose and cough. The second sickness at the end of last week included her first ever vomiting experience. The poor girl threw up 10 times in 12 hours and still took about a day to eat anything solid. It was a fun night and day for all of us!
- Brooke got reunited with her friend Maya over dinner at their house. This reunion included lots of play with everything except each other and Brooke kept calling her Madison, which is her friend at her current school, so maybe their friendship is over?!?
- Brooke is really into coloring with the big dot markers and likes to sit at the table coloring while Reese does her coloring. She’s learned to be a bit gentler with her markers these days.
- She’s currently obsessed with the kid’s nail polish. Every single day she asks me to do her nails and it doesn’t involve one coat but four. Four coats of paint on each nail.
- Brooke is really into Frozen right now…and Bluey. But anytime a strong female singer is heard she exclaims, “Elsa!”.
- Brooke has a “wiggle” dance right which is very cute and funny. In general she can be a big goofball and loves to make her sister laugh. This is especially true at bedtime.
- Speaking of bedtime, Brooke is in the phase of taking forever to fall asleep. Both girls are going to bed at the same time these days but Reese falls asleep in about five minutes once the lights are out and Brooke takes an hour.
- I feel like every other sentence Brooke uses the word “cool”. Cracks me up.
Chelsea:
- I’ve also battled a few sicknesses leftover from the girls. After Brooke got the stomach bag last week I managed to get it although it only lasted 24 hours it was zero fun. I can’t remember the last time I felt like that. I had zip zap zero energy.
- I’ve really had a fun time cheering on the Lion’s through their playoff run. Unfortunately it ended the other night (to a team I really don’t like) but still a good run.
- I’ve had two baby showers in the past two weeks. The first was a massive baby shower that I was just an attendee for but last Wednesday I hosted Polly’s baby sprinkle. We did a paint and sip as a group and it was a lot of fun. I brought along a taco bar and chips and dips and made some baby rattle cake pops. We had a good turnout and it was fun to tune into my artistic side for a few hours.
- I got back into volunteering for the first Guest Chef Night back at FareStart last Thursday. They have plans to continue them once a month but the first one was dusting off the cob webs but fun and successful nonetheless. We couldn’t get a babysitter for the night so Bryan let me be the one to volunteer but we are going to try to nail down a babysitter for future events.
- I’m trying my best to study again but with the various sicknesses, planning parties, days off of school for MLK day and the like it’s been a struggle bus but going nonetheless.
- This month I’ve also had appointments to get my hair highlighted, a facial as a treat, a much needed dental appointment and a dermatology appointment for the first time ever (no issues just scalp irritation).
- And maybe it’s me being eager for spring or maybe it’s a study distraction technique but we are trying our hand at indoor gardening through hydroponics…and so far it’s been a fun experiment. We got a good but not very big or very expensive 12 pod system off amazon and seeds for growing a variety of lettuces and herbs. I had both girls help me plant them on the 20th. Everyday we get to watch the growth and it’s remarkable. Lettuces sprouted first and I was worried our herbs weren’t going to germinate but I think our last stragglers (mint and chives) just finally started showing roots!
Bryan:
- Bryan’s had a month. There was a family health scare, there’s been the Boeing drama over the Alaska incident, and just never enough time for our own R&R. He’s hanging in there though and doing surprisingly well despite everything.
- Bryan has been very good about keeping up his exercise routine and even just got a new kettlebell. I don’t know how he finds the time!
- Bryan has started monthly nights out with his buddy Philipp. They share so much in common when it comes to work and interests so I’m happy he is reuniting with Philipp on a regular basis.
- Bryan’s been a great dad and helping out with the few events I’ve had the past few weeks. The girls have had a really good time with Daddy dates. He also had to be a major player this weekend when I had zero energy. Somehow Bryan seems to have avoided all of the sicknesses this month. It’s a first!
- Bryan replaced our kitchen sink and it looks and works so much better!
- Bryan got his first Stitch Fix box and it all looked so good on him her kept everything! It’s been fun for me too getting him setup with it.
So that’s a summary of all things new over here. We have just over a week until we are heading to sunny Florida and we cannot wait!
—
Chelsea
