School, bad preschool attitudes and pieces of veggies...

So, alot of things are changing in our life. First, I am going back to school! Matt and I took some time to pray and think and plan our life (as best we can!) and feel like the practical and blessed next step for our family is for me to resign my position at work and go back to school. I will be attending Capella University this spring to begin getting my Masters Degree in mental health counseling. Eventually I would like to work in family and marriage counseling, but we will see where God puts me. So exciting! The program is predominately online, meaning, my coursework will all be over the internet with on-site clinical hours as required. This is cool for a few reasons: 1- I get to be home with my girls until Kylie is in kindergarten and Madeline is old enough to go to pre-school, 2- my schedule can be super flexible, 3- I dont have to bother with the classroom setting, which can be distracting. My awesome friend Shannon is going back with me, so we can re-create our own classroom, study with one another and work together on projects. I think this is important because we ARE losing classmate and professor interaction in the traditional sense.

Other updates...Kylie is three now. This means she can yell at me, hit me and be overall hateful one second (simply because this is the right of a three year old, apparently) and quite lovely the next. Speaking of lovely moments, this morning I got back from the gym (TRYING- if I would just eat right- to lose 30 lbs!) and she said, "Mommy! You're home! I missed you and love you really much!" Very sweet.

Madeline will be one in less than 2 months! Holy cow, time flies! She sits and she lunges for toys, trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to get into a crawling position. She is a blast...she continues to be the SWEETEST baby EVER!!! She is just so lovely all-around. She can say Momma and Dadda and she tries to say "baby" and makes noises that sound like "I love you". Sweet! She hates eating vegetable baby food, but loves pieces of veggies. Whatever. :)

We are happy. Since I have my two-week-notice last week, I am stress free for the first time in a really long time. Not that my family and I weren't happy before, but the constant stress was really affecting my family negatively. I am happy now and I feel it in my home's atmosphere. Praise God for closing doors and opening others!

Life with a Three-Year-Old

Some new developments in our life...Kylie is 3 now and overnight it seems my life has drastically changed! No more quiet moments...if Kylie is awake, there is chatter going on. Here is what I read about this age recently:

"Your budding conversationalist loves to talk and sing. Lengthy verbal turn-taking is a hallmark of this age. He'll be able to answer simple questions and also ask questions of his own. Sometime he cares less about the answer than keeping the conversation going. "

I agree 100%. There is often no point to the questions she asks or to the comments she makes...it's just about keeping it going! Sometimes, despite the fact that I try to ignore the constant "Mama, Mama..." I snap back with a "What, Kylie?!" Not the most loving attitude, but it's the constant-ness of it that becomes a bit tiring. I love her so much and truth be told there are some really great things about all this verbal ability:

• Kylie now clearly communicates love- she tells me she loves me in her heart and that because she loves me, she wants a kiss (because I told her her daddy and love each other and so we kiss. Of course, right!?)
• Kylie tells us what she loves about each of us...she loves my hugs, she loves daddy's beard, etc
• Kylie can also describe situations now...soon there will be no talking about things discreetly because she picks up on it
• Kylie can sing songs from start to finish- I'm not talking Twinkle, Twinkle...I'm talking about long, adult songs on the radio!

Love my biggest girl, but life with a 3-year-old is way different...

By the way- Madeline is awesome! Nine months and so very sweet still. She needs me in a different way than Kylie ever has. Kylie loves to be with me, but Madeline NEEDS me emotionally. She is definitely a Mama's girl and she is all about being with only me. I can leave her with other people, but the second she hears my voice or sees me, she is no longer happy.

She can now stand up next to things (her bed) and hold herself in a standing position. She also does majorly great sitting. She has absolutely no interest in crawling or rolling to the other side of the room, but the pediatrician isn't worried and thinks, given her muscle control, that she will be one of those babies that goes straight to walking...although I think we can hold off another couple of months!