Happy New Year!! A little late. Shouldn’t be too surprising. This past year has been quite a blur. Audrey was born, a week later Alex turned two, and then in July we celebrated eight years of marriage. Well, celebrated is a bit misleading – we dropped the kids off for an hour and ate at the local Mexican dive. But that does beat the seven year celebration of ham sandwiches and Kool-Aid.

This past Christmas was a blast. Alex and Audrey received several million presents. You may think I am exaggerating but we have pictures to prove it. These children are spoiled rotten. Of course, Alex’s favorite and most played with toy? Rubber lizards. I spent $1 for a package of 8 lizards and he plays with them, eats with them, feeds them, sleeps with them, bathes with them, etc. You get the picture. His other favorite toys include anything that Audrey has. It is interesting how that works both ways. Audrey wants anything that Alex has. Which makes for some fun times at this house. Alex yells, Audrey cries, I shake my head, the dogs bark – yes, it is that bad or loud.

Audrey is starting to talk. Her vocabulary includes “da-da”, “ma-ma”, “uh-oh”, & “pop-pop”. She probably says a lot more but I usually can’t hear her over Alex singing. Always singing. Always. The most sung song –“ Old MacDonald had a farm and Bingo was his name-o”. At the top of his lungs. B-I-N-G-O. Alex is also bent on being a baby whenever we tell him to pick up. “I can’t, babies can’t do that. I’m a baby.” And then he starts babbling. It is interesting that he can finally talk and all he wants to do is talk gibberish, especially when we ask him a question that he doesn’t want to answer. Go figure.

Audrey is trying to walk. She has almost taken a few steps on her own. But she isn’t as brave as she wants to be. She climbs on everything. Books, dogs, me, Alex, clothes, boxes, Lorelai (who does not like it one bit) nothing is exempt from Audrey. She also has eight teeth. Eight sharp teeth. Eight big teeth. She is so much fun. As long as she is not being bothered or getting her own way. But still a lot of fun. We love her so much.

Alex is getting so big. We are working on potty training. Not going so well. We try to bribe him but he doesn’t go for bribes. Even a sugar filled cupcake was no incentive. We still haven’t found the perfect thing. We have gone through stickers, plastic fish, tattoos, cupcakes, m&m’s. Nothing has worked consistently. I suppose in his own time.

“Green on the outside, red on the inside and filled with seeds…” Can you guess what show Alex is watching? Sesame Street. And the shape is an oval, hence the watermelon. Time to turn the TV off.