New Year's Resolutions...oh, wait...it's February

And to think I was on such a roll...5 posts in December and then all of a sudden, it is February 8th!  Such is life.

We are all happy and healthy and looking forward to a great 2013!  I personally have a few New Year's resolutions but choose to keep them to myself this year!  It is hard to believe that this time 5 years ago I made the resolution to keep a blog as a means to document all the fun, exciting, and trying times we encounter through this journey called life.  I can't wait until I finally get the opportunity to print off my blog books - it is so fun to look back at the pictures and read the funny stories.  I think I can proudly state that resolution was a success.

The first 5 weeks of the year started off with a bang, to say the least.  After enjoying a little unplanned downtime at the end of 2012 (hence the extra posts), things quickly picked up with the start of my new job, the completion of my GMAT exam, a little strep throat, and the transition to a big boy bed, which turned out to be the toughest of all.  Update: I can happily admit that my extra hours of studying for the GMAT paid off in that I was accepted to IU's Kelley School of Business starting this Spring.  I am already enrolled in 2 courses - Financial Accounting and a Statistics course, which I must complete prior to my start date of March 2nd.  And to think I had February to relax...  My new job is okay.  I have completed home study and through the process of taking a step back to sales, I have learned A LOT about myself and what I want to do professionally.  More on that to come.  As for the transition to a big boy bed, well, that was tough.  In mean, newborn tough.  The sweet, innocent, precious, cute little boy that we had through December left us for 12 days. As with most 2-3 year olds, he is in the process of expressing his independence and we found out that he is REALLY good at expressing it!  So good that his daycare even got in on the fun :)  It was hard to be tough on him but he did respond well to the heightened discipline.  

Quick story: After spending 20 minutes or so with his teacher expressing how I was losing my mind with Jake's defiant behavior, she reassured me that it is just a phase.  That the sweet little boy we all know and love would be back, he just does not handle change very well.  We changed his nightly routine and there have been some small changes at school - all of which have had a great impact on him.  She reassured me that we need to stick with our current parenting practices and let him know that we are always in charge (Ryan is much better at this we come to find out).  If we want him to stay in bed, there needs to be a consequence for getting out.  So we did it and it worked!  He is back and better.  As for his sweet teacher, she liked adding a few extra notes on his daily report to get me laughing/in a tizzy. The Satan part was pretty funny.  Between Ms Anne and Ryan, I am reassured (have I said that word enough?) that laughter will get you through anything.  Here are a few of him most recent notes.  Yes, he has a moderate case of OCD (see 2nd note below about the mis-matched snow outfit which turned into a 30 minute tantrum) and yes, he likes his routine but at least we are self-aware and now we just need to figure out what profession that can be most useful.

It was just a phase and yes, our sweet little boy is back.  He is well rested each night and wakes up happy as a lark.  His sweet smile and loves each morning just melt my heart.  I know there will be more phases (Lord knows we are going through a talking back stage right now with his sister) but I am at peace right now as I am reminded that everything is "just a phase".  Get through it and things will be even better.

Otherwise, Kate is still rocking 1st grade and we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her sweet teacher.  She aced another report card and we could not be more proud of the way she handles herself (well, except the talking back but that is worthy of another post).  We are in the trenches of basketball for Kate (#3 below) and Ryan is busy training for another 1/2 marathon.  Actually, as I type he is skiing and snowmobiling in Northern Michigan without me but I won't hold it against him.  He deserves the break in honor of his 38th birthday!  Kate, Jake, Eve and I are all off to the UK gymnastics meet tonight and I'm looking forward to a low key weekend with the kiddos (and hopefully a visit to my moms).  Happy February :)