Four Random Things

One. You guys! We are officially no longer the parents of babies (how many times will I say this on the blog ;)?!?!).  Since we got back from Christmas break, the girls have not been taking naps.  It is weird and nice and tiring and exciting all at the same time.  It is weird that I don’t need to put anyone down for a nap.  It is nice that they go right to sleep at night (it was taking Emma longer than one hour some nights to fall asleep if she had an afternoon nap).  And they consistently sleep from 8pm to 6am (although we are sometimes successful at getting Everly to stretch her wake up until 7am).  It is tiring because there is no midday ‘break’ on the weekends.  We are trying to go for quiet time but we are really hit or miss depending on what we have going on.  It is exciting because we no longer have to plan our days around getting the girls a nap (since we don’t drive ourselves, this really helps our flexibility in the afternoons).  This is not to say that Everly will never need a nap again – she sometimes naps at school, but most of the time not; but, I really cannot remember the last Saturday afternoon that they took a nap.  

Two. Winter is hard. I definitely feel for people that live up North in the states – I really thought the winter blues were just a figment of their imagination, but, now, I definitely get it.  January in Chengdu was beyond tough.  It was polluted, grey, cold and just blah blah blah.  The sun shined for two days the whole month! That is all!! I really let the pollution and lack of sunshine affect my mood (for the worst).  In February, I started walking again (the pollution started going down too), there were three or four sunny days so far and I attempted to change my mindset (it was not all positive, but overall I felt much better about life).  January and February are also incredibly busy months for me at work, so it was not possible to go to Thailand or anywhere sunny (although Wes and I spent many days trying to scheme how we could make it work) and so I am now officially willing spring to come.  It has to be coming, I just know it! p.s. picture above from the sunniest day we have had in Chengdu since January (it was this past Saturday) - we made sure to spend all day outside!

Three. Everly has been saying some of the funniest things. Here are just a few that I jotted down.

Me: “Who (which stuffed animal) did you take to school today?”

Everly: “Zebra.”

Me: “That lucky duck.”

Everly: “No, that lucky Zebra, silly.”

Me to Emma: “I cant believe you are going to be five tomorrow. Soon you will be twenty two and won’t fit in my lap anymore.  You will have to sit in your husbands lap one day.”

Emma: “My husband is going to be daddy.”

Me: “Where is Everly going to find a husband if you have daddy?”

Everly (without missing a beat): “At the husband place.”

Everly: “You are twenty three and I am twenty three like you!”

Me: “Oh, really?”

Everly: “Yes! Ca-cause my legs are as long as yours!”

Everly (as she takes me out to the car each morning): “Look Mommy, the moon is smiling at us!!”

Four. I made cinnamon rolls yesterday (homemade – with yeast!) and they were delicious!! After I made the dough, I went on a walk and when I got back the dough had not doubled inside.  Wes helped me to remedy that situation with a quick google search and an hour later we were eating homemade cinnamon rolls!!!