Don't call it a comeback

Least Likely to Maintain Her Blog. If blogs existed when I was a senior in high school, this is the superlative I would have won.

It has been exactly one year since my last post. And, of course, in that year so much has happened with my kids. Where should I begin?

Let's start with talking. I never thought my kids would start. Now, they will not stop. Not a waking second of the day goes by without one or both of them chattering away about something. For months, people were telling me that it would just click, that one day the boys would figure out how to string words together to form sentences. I'm a skeptic, so naturally, I believed no one. But it happened. Some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the boys started speaking in coherent sentences (to the trained ear, at least) and they haven't turned it off since. It's amazing. It's adorable. It. Does. Not. Stop.

Another major milestone is the potty training. With the start of preschool looming, we decided to start potty training. No more of the 'sure you can wear your matching Ikea potties on your heads--we just want you to get used to them.' In February, we got serious. We went to Target and Buy Buy Baby on a mission. We bought out the supplies of awesome underwear (Paul Frank and Thomas the Train) and a Bjorn toilet seat. I even stopped my Amazon subscription for regular diapers, which may sound minor, but was a huge step for me.

In one day, Drew figured out how to pee in the toilet. Henry figured it out a day later. Pooping was another story. That took about a week or two for Drew and nearly a month for Henry. In Henry's defense, he gets constipated (yes, my boy, your poop problems are documented on the Internet, forEVER). So we had to tackle his physical and psychological issues along with training him to sit over a hole for number two. It's still an ongoing struggle, for both boys. Just when we thought Drew was completely trained, today, he had an accident during naptime and is suddenly afraid of pooping. Fortunately, we have several months before school begins to work out the kinks.

Finally, and most importantly, my kids turned three. THREE. Let me be clear, threes are way worse than twos. I don't know who came up with the phrase, 'the terrible twos'. That person must have given her kids away before their third birthday, because three is immensely more difficult than two. And that is putting it nicely. These boys test my patience on a daily basis. Bickering, whining, toddler acts of defiance, and that's just before 9am. More than ever, naptime has become my oasis, my Calgon moment. In the last five months since the boys' birthday, the circles under my eyes have darkened and my hair has turned gray.

Despite the exhaustion and constant craving for wine to get me through each day, I would never change a thing. It's been a crazy year since my boys transitioned to toddler beds and I wonder how we made it through. But I am continually blessed. And I promise (pinky swear) to keep a more regular log of what we're up to. If not for our family and friends, then for posterity. Since, like my youth, my memory has long left the premises.

We turned three in January!

Easter and a rare family picture