Bits of things

There have been little things that haven't fit into other posts, so I figured I should make one random post about what each of us are up to.

Kaitlyn-
*This girl cracks us up lately! Chris likes to call her a "monster", mainly because she is very fond of communicating by growling at us. There are happy "attack" growls, and "I am not happy with what you just did" growls, and "I just conquered this mountain" growls. I have to laugh sometimes when I put her in dainty, feminine dresses and she starts attacking everything in sight.
*She has learned her first sign- "all done!" I remember when Tyler was this age, and I kept telling Christopher's family all about the wonders of teaching babies sign language. Many of my neices and nephews learned sign language starting at about 10 months, and it did wonders for the "terrible twos" because they could communicate even before they could make their mouths work. And then Tyler learned nothing, no matter how hard we tried. I felt kinda silly about talking it up so much. But Kaitlyn picked it up right away! Every time she eats, she munches on stuff for a while, then starts to fling it around, and then turns to me and signs "all done." She also likes to sign "all done" halfway through getting her diaper changed. As in, "hey, can we be done with this yet? I think I would rather be naked here."
*She is sooooo close to walking. She can walk holding onto one of our hands now, and is pretty good at standing. But when she takes steps, she usually just topples over. Sooo close . . .

Tyler-
*I go though cycles with him, where sometimes I want to pull my hair out because he doesn't seem to be understanding anything, and sometimes I can't believe all he has learned. I think it is good to document the successes for when I need the pick-me-up. And he has been doing so well lately! Our biggest problem since the beginning has been that he didn't request things. I have never met a kid with this problem. But even when he knew the word for water, he wouldn't tell me water when he was thirsty. He would just wait until I thought of it and then down three cups of water in a row. But he has been requesting left and right lately! He figured out that if he wants something, he just tacks on a "please" to something, and we hop right up to help him. So now he comes up to me and says "sandwich please". Hooray! And he even has learned to eat the sandwich still together, instead of pulling it apart and making a huge mess. Hallelujah.
*Tyler loves playing with his baby sister. The funniest part is that he is a HUGE cuddler- he comes to me all the time and just says "hugs!" And so he is really intent on hugging his sister- the non cuddler. You can pick that girl up out of a dead sleep, or when she is screaming because she fell down, and it doesn't matter. She is still going to push you away if you try and hug her. But Tyler doesn't understand what her frantic noises mean, and he thinks she is playing a game by trying to yank away. So he hugs her anyway. Priceless.
*He loves the songs that he has learned at his preschool. He knows almost all the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", and adores "Wheels on the Bus", and is constantly wandering around the house singing those to himself.

Christopher-
*He is loving his new gym membership. He is only gained 10 pounds since we got married, but he is determined to get back down as skinny as possible. His last marathon time was a 3:50, and in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon he needs a 3:12. For those of you not familiar with marathons, that is dang fast. 8.2 miles per hour to be exact. It's not impossible, and he got really close once, so I know he can do it. I kinda miss him for all the time he spends at the gym lately, but I think it is awesome that he is so dedicated to it.

Sarah-
*Has yet to use the new gym membership. I know, sad, huh? But I hate calling ahead and making sure there is room in the playroom for the kids, and the truth is I am just not motivated here. Kaitlyn is still a very picky eater, and so she nurses a LOT to make up for it. Which is good for me, because I eat whatever I want and still lose or maintain my weight. My problem here is that the summer after I had Tyler, I worked out EVERY SINGLE DAY of the week. I busted my rear end off, running for 45 minutes at a time, swimming laps, you name it. I never lost a single pound. Yeah, I know, muscles is more dense than fat, I got more tone, yadda yadda. But that still stunk! And now I am losing weight sitting on my couch with a baby in my lap. I know I need to go back to the gym and get in shape again, but I just can't figure out why!
*I am trying to figure out a new quandry. Every year I enjoy making our Christmas cards on photoshop, so I always need to get our picture taken ourselves so that we have rights to the file to put on the cards. And I just spent a lot of money on the new camera, so we are set there. But if I am in the pictures . . . who is taking the picture? We tried setting a timer one year, but babies aren't going to smile pretty for the blinking light. Yet, it would be silly to pay to have our picture taken, because that's what we bought the nice camera for. I might need to trick a neighbor into helping me or something.