Slight hiatus

Oh. Hello there. I almost forgot I had a blog. What's this thing about anyway? Oh, yeah, the kids.

Well, both kids are still alive and doing well.

Maureen continues to amaze me with her intelligence and good nature. Kristin is currently working on the alphabet with Mojo daily. The last two nights I've sat with her before bedtime playing a game where I spell out and have her sound out the names of our family members: "The next one is one of your uncles and is spelled J - what sound does a jay make?" and she tries to guess which family member as we continue to spell out the name. I'm not quite sure she fully gets the concept of sounding out - she's good at memorizing and I think her ability to spell certain words is done by rote.
Mojo seems to be doing well at the parents day out program (school) and is starting to learn quickly about group dynamics. She is having trouble with certain kids who seem to have no problem asserting their will on others without concern of feelings or consequences. Last night she said, "Hey Daddy, look at me" and stuck her tongue out at me. I knew immediately where she picked that one up, and told her that was not a nice thing to do. She scrunched up her brow and told me she was sorry and she'd never do it again. Her quick reaction told me she already knew it was wrong, but now is the time to test the waters.

Rowan is a showman. He loves to make me laugh and it doesn't take much to complete his task. He is still really into sports and we are trying to foster that by reading baseball books at night (thanks for the books Karen!) and throwing the ball with him. We haven't spent much time outdoors with him in a long while, but I plan to be able to go outside more in the spring to run him around and test out that little arm of his. And I'm anxious to fully test out that golf set and t-ball set he got for Christmas. I hope he keeps with this enthusiasm for physical activity as he grows, but if he does, I'll have to read up on how not to corrupt his enthusiasm with my poor athletic ability. I need to learn how to aim grounder so he can practice fielding. I wonder if there's a coaching for Dummies book out there? Perhaps we can send him out to North Carolina for spring training with his uncle Dolberry?

It seems that Kristin's quitting the Girl Scouts was the best decision made this year (actually last year according to the calendar). She's stayed super busy with Real Estate, but has had more stress free time to spend with the kids. She still gets frantic at times as her business increases, etching out time for phone calls and pop-up projects; but I can tell that she is more calm as a result of dumping the additional burden. Now, if we can only get me back on the right track...but that's a whole different blog subject, and I can barely keep this blog up!

I realize keeping this blog up is a matter of will power. I encourage the existing readers (all one of you!) to harass me about not writing.