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- Hey guess what? It finally snowed!!
Typically, we get some snow in December (although rarely at Christmas), and last year (meaning, 2020) was no exception. In fact, we got multiple snow-storms leading up to Christmas 2020 (evidenced by all of the photos popping up on our Echo from “one year ago”).
But this winter? No snow. In fact, I’d say for the most part, it was unseasonably warm in December (except for the 2 days when we went to Virginia, those 2 days were unseasonably COLD).
But yesterday – all of that changed!! Thursday night into Friday, we got about 2-3 inches of snow & the kids went nuts. They were up before the sun (but, let’s be honest, they’re up before the sun every day) 100% ready to go play outside. I made them wait until the sun came up, we had breakfast, and school was done for the day (which we accomplished at record-speed).
Unfortunately, our snow was not very “good” snow – it wasn’t packable at all, so Braelynn dreams of building snowmen & having snowball fights went out the window. That didn’t really bother the kids though – they loved making snow angels, running around with Abby, sliding down our slide into a pile of snow – the quality of snow really doesn’t matter to kids, they were just thrilled to be outside in it! - Otherwise: it’s been the first full week of the new year! That means no more “vacation mode” & getting back into our regular routines – waking up to an alarm clock (for me), exercising every day, back to school, adjusting to Daddy being back at work after (almost) 2 weeks at home – it’s been a transition. But a good one. There’s something comforting about getting back into routines & regular life (even though we loved Christmas break!)
- So, I’m not sure if it’s been the transition from “vacation mode” to “regular life mode” or what, but the kids have been SUPER clingy this week. Leander just wants someone to sit with him, Braelynn was wanting endless snuggles, they both want someone to play with them – it’s been a little strange.
- The kids are still very much in “Christmas” mode though (even after a week of being back on routine) – Leander still asks for presents, Santa still comes up in daily conversation, but my favorite is that every night, when I put Leander into bed, I lean down to give him a kiss. He grabs my face & kisses me, then pulls me closer for a hug, and says “Merry Christmas, Mama” in my ear. I don’t EVER want it to stop!!
- How about a potty training update? (Feel free to skip ahead of potty-talk grosses you out!) Leander successfully pooped on the potty 3 times this week – which is a MASSIVE win!! He also went several days without having an accident at all (but then peed on my couch the next morning – oops). Needless to say, this week, it finally feels like we’ve gotten somewhere! After 41 days (ay yi yi) of potty training – I feel like we’ve finally reached a good place. He’s not perfect, he still gets super distracted & forgets that he needs to stop & use the potty, and sometimes he waits just a little too long to sit on the potty – resulting in Mommy getting “fire-hosed”, but overall, Leander has come a long, long way. In fact, I probably won’t give any more formal “potty training updates” here, because I feel like – we’re hitting our stride! It’s still a work in progress, but we’ve made enough progress that it doesn’t need reported on any longer. I’m SO proud of my little dude!!
- I finished putting together our December Abbey Archives video – meaning I now have 12 months of home movies curated & edited together!!
I can’t even fully describe how it felt to put the finishing touches on our December video & then to stand back & look at the full year of videos I now have of our family doing daily life. The proof of how much fun we have together & what a great year we had in 2021 is all right there, easily accessible, easy to sit down & watch & enjoy, keeping so many of our memories safe. It’s so incredible.
I love that it wasn’t this huge long, overwhelming task that has to be undertaken once a year – I love that I could create the videos every month as we went along & so the task isn’t overwhelming at all. (Kind of like our family yearbook – which is quite the monumental task to complete! I love it, but yikes is it a lot of work in January & February!)
I’m not going to stop creating a family yearbook & I’m not going to stop creating monthly home movies either – I love them both equally & cannot wait to keep going! - Speaking of home movies: I officially announced the soft launch of my new business on Instagram this week (say, what?!) – come follow along!!
I’ve been working my tail off to put together my new website, write copy, pull together numbers & pricing, and get things in order so I can officially launch! I’m not 100% there yet, but I knew I needed to do SOMETHING, so I did a soft launch on Instagram & plan on beginning to build momentum toward a bigger, official launch!! I don’t have a date yet, but I’m really hoping soon!! There’s a lot of work to do in the back end to set everything up & I’m trudging thru that work as fast as my little feet will carry me – there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
