Crazy Month

This month has felt nuts. The girls are great. Kayden is having sporadic growing pains. Rubbing her legs and putting her in a warm bath seems to temporarily help. She usually wakes up in the middle of the night, and the cramps are so bad that she cries :-(. She's a tough kiddo, so I'm sure it hurts. I remember my growing pains being terrible, and John had horrible growing pains. She's eating a ton, and she really has the cutest sassy little personality. My favorite thing about her is that she has a huge heart. Last night, she kept saying that she didn't want Kylee to sleep in her room with her, and that she wanted to sleep in her bed by herself. No more than 10 minutes after she was in her room, she came out and asked Kylee if she was going to be quiet if she let her sleep in her room. Of course Kylee said she would, and Kayden asked her to come and sleep with her. I LOVE how much they love each other.

Kylee is talking a blue streak. She really has been speaking in sentences for about a year or more, but she really is funny now. I got up this morning, and she said "Now, why are you getting up?", and she turned her little hand up and cocked her head to the side. She's shy about talking around other people, and she even takes a LONG time to warm up to family. Finally, all of her teeth have cut her gums. I think the only ones that are not actually "in" are her top teeth after her canines. Not having all her teeth all the way in certainly doesn't stop her from eating. Her favorite thing to eat ALL the time is a Honey Bun. She calls them "Honey Bunnies". We slowly but steadily have weaned her off of her sippy cup. She doesn't need to drink anything to go to sleep at night, and I (and my dentist bill) am grateful for that. She's now drinking out of a big girl cup all of the time, and she doesn't have a problem with it at all. Whew.

Both girls wear "night time panties" a.k.a. pull-ups at night. I'm not sure why Kayden still has accidents. At this point if we remind her to use the restroom before she goes to bed and during the night, she usually doesn't have an accident. I still have her wear her night time panties at night, though. If not, my washer and dryer would get a workout! Kylee is still wearing them at night, but there have been quite a few nights that she wakes up dry lately. Maybe there IS light at the end of the potty tunnel!

Kayden is getting to where she loves to pick out her own clothes, and if I were to have picked out the same thing, she wouldn't wear it ;-). Echoes of my childhood and teenage years, for sure. I don't mind at all, though. She needs to have the freedom to figure out her own little style. Pretty neat.


John went and got a physical, and everything came out fine. I was surprised, I have to say, because of how much he smokes. I'm glad he's so healthy.

As for me, I ran my marathon. It was the most incredible experience. The last quarter of the race forces you to dig deep into who you are as a person. Training or not, at that point it is up to you and God. It is spiritual, for sure. Your legs are done. They have made the transition from tired to exhausted to numb to shear pain. Every step tests what you are "made of". It's not for the weak of mind, that's for sure. You have to override the natural instinct to protect yourself and stop running. When I finished, the first thing I wanted to do was plan my next marathon. I'm in recovery right now, and my first recovery run will be today. I need to strengthen my hamstrings. That group of three muscles is really the only group that was killing me in the days after. I highly recommend that everyone tries to complete a marathon at some point. The life lessons learned in that 3 to 4 hours are invaluable, and there is no way to describe it.



So that brings me to Christmas. I. Can't. WAIT! Kayden is getting a DSi this year, and she is going to freak out. It was a last-minute thing that she asked for. In fact, we didn't realize she was serious about it until this picture that John took of the white board in her class room: