28 MONTHS?!

Little Bear,

Yesterday you turned twenty-eight months old.

You are a rock star. A stud, rapscallion and scamp. You are a one-man circus. A comedian. You are a world full of love stuffed tight in a disheveled little body. You are both Cooper and Steere. You are a hungry billy goat, a filthy little rabbit and an adorable bear cub all rolled in one. You are a perfect set of lips attached to 32 pounds of pure exuberance. You are mine.

You are also TWO. You have been repeating the phrase “I want juice box” over and over and over for the last ten minutes in a high-pitched whine that makes me feel violent. Everything is YOURS and you will fight for it. You have opinions. Strong ones. You are destructive.  You break toys, furniture and appliances on a daily basis. You spit on me. You are still mine.

You are creative, defiant and messy.

You are sweet and earnest.

You are expressive and hilarious.

You roll like a BOSS.

And you complete our little family.

Thank you for another adventure-filled month!

Love,

Your Mama

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, friends and captivating strangers!

You guys, the past six weeks have been preposterously blog-worthy and, sadly, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write about any of it. Instead, I’ve kept the DLV’s busy with emergency lunches discussing mortifying email faux pas (ahem, AMY), outrageous behavior, and the fact that I had to MAIL MY POOP to someone.

Yup.

But, I just got home for a spur-of-the-moment weekend getaway with my boys (Big and Little) and it was precisely what I needed to recharge my batteries. Hopefully I’ll be able to regale you with old tales and we ease into the new year. In the meantime…

I’m a sucker for New Year’s resolutions. I love fresh starts, clean slates, and above all else, LISTS. But I’ve tried to keep my resolutions reigned in over the past few years to keep them relevant and (more importantly) doable. Last year, my single resolution was to raise Roper to love the outdoors. I think we may have overachieved in that area, since we can’t seem to get him to come back inside most days.

If you see him roaming the neighborhood alone, please return him to us. Fed and watered, preferably.

This year, we decided on the following (single) resolution for each family member in 2012:

TOBY: Get us moved into the shop/house.

ROPER: Get thee potty trained!!!

MOLLY: Quit having nervous breakdowns.

Each resolution is huge, each is important, and each affects every other member of the household, so we’re attacking them all as a team. Wish us luck!

P.S. Since starting this post five minutes ago, I came up with more resolutions for myself including: brush up on my Spanish, learn a song on the guitar, complete another triathlon and finish the novel I started in 2011. Queue the nervous breakdown…