Hey. Remember Me?

Okay, so here I am. Where've I been? Having two kids, I guess. I'd love to catch you up, but there is simply too much to fit into my brain or this blog to actually make that happen. In fact, I've been envisioning my insanely long UPDATE post for quite some time now (I even picked over 70 - yes, 70 - pictures to use), and I finally decided about 20 minutes ago that if I wait for the time to do that, then I'll never post again. So here we are.

It's a new year, and we'll just start from here. My mantra for 2012 is "Get It Together, Reagins." And that should cover everything. Life. House. Finances. Parenting. Everything. So far, it's going pretty well. We revamped/overhauled our house last weekend, moving our old couch that has been taking up a good bit of space in our garage into our bedroom. We cleaned. A lot. And I've managed to keep it somewhat picked up with Ed's help at night. And man, if I wasn't sitting in my living room at 1:30 am as we speak, I might claim that someone is breaking into my house in the wee hours and dirtying dishes the way I've been unloading and reloading the dishwasher every night (must figure that out).

Why am I awake at 1:30, you ask? Well... first of all, I blame Pinterest. Somewhat. I just joined after purposely avoiding it for MONTHS because I knew I'd love it too much. But truth be told, the reason I'm up so late goes back a few more hours to the fact that my kids were still up after 10:30. THAT is another thing "Get It Together, Reagins." will be addressing soon. Not that they are normally up that late, but I realize that I'm less 'good' of a mom when Avery is up past 8:30 or so because I need a break from The Age of Two by this point. Anyhow, we failed at getting her to bed when she needed it and were stuck dealing with the consequences. 

And then, sadly, she was having nightmares around midnight. I had to go in twice. The second time, she was calling me. And when I walked into her room, she was reaching up to me so pitifully. I crawled into her converted crib with her and asked if she was having a bad dream. Here's what she said after she affirmed my question and I asked her what was happening in it: "Monsters. (Pause. Pause. Pause.) I'm. (Pause.) Scared." So sad.

So anyway, here I am. Still awake. So I thought I'd bite the bullet and let you know that I'm aware I dropped off the blog-o-sphere, but now am trying to re-enter. Bear with me - you know I'm terrible about timely posts. But hopefully, the Great "Get It Together, Reagins" Challenge of 2012 will help me in this area as well.

First though, I need to work out a better system for getting pics from my new, awesome smart phone onto picasa and then to here. And for that to happen, I need to have a sit-down with Ed. And sadly, by the time the kids are asleep and the house has been shut down for the night lately, so has my husband. Perhaps this weekend though.

Before I go, let my think. What's happening with the kids that you might like to know? Well, Owen is 6 months old already. That's right, SIX months old! Where did my little baby go? In his place, is a rolling machine who is about to crawl any. day. now. He's still bald. Ish. He's finally getting enough hair that it feels like a nice fuzz when I brush my hand across the top of his head. And he's such a smiley boy. Who LOVES his sister and thinks she's so funny. 

Speaking of Avery... well, she got her first busted lip yesterday when she slipped on our step into the house and fell face-first into the door frame. She is SO quick. Remembers AND hears everything. Has a song for everything, too, which Ed and I both adore. And as always, she is super busy. Except when it's TV time. Then she wants to veg out. But if she could spend her whole life outside, she most certainly would. Tonight, it was the end of the world when Ed made her come inside at the end of her 10-minute-time limit from jumping in puddles. It was so sad, but it was cold and raining outside and Ed was in the middle of making dinner when they embarked on the task.

By the way, in case you didn't know, Ed is a fantastic dad. Yes, he works all day for us. And, yes, he comes home and then makes dinner for us, too. And he does bath time. You're amazed, right? You should be. He's the best and we're so lucky to have him.

So that oughtta do it for now. Here's a couple pictures for your time: