New Year

 Claire

She is starting to remember some of the letters when we do our flashcards, but is more excited about naming the pictures and organizing them. We always do it when Shay is sleeping so she is making sure to stay quite so she doesn't wake her up, but then immediately starts getting too excited again. Claire loves to play games but usually doesn't let Shay join so I am trying to force her by giving the toy she gives to me to Shay. She usually gets mad at me, but over time I'm sure it will work...maybe. Shay usually doesn't care for the games Claire likes to play anyway and often gets annoyed at being bossed around, I'm sure that this is only the beginning. there is so much energy in this tiny person that I am convinced she is sneaking caffeine or sugar right before dinner so she isn't hungry and all she wants to do is run around like a crazy child. 

Shay

She is trying to talk and uses her sounds to try to form her own imaginary sentences, it only started this week and it is so cute! She likes to point and say, "ah oh ah eh" with the cutest facial expression like she means it so much and she knows exactly what she is saying and I should understand her. Sometimes it is easy to understand because she points to something I know she usually wants like food, or to Claire who is stuck, or something that hurt her so she is mad at it. Her naps are getting later and later and there were two days she stayed up until 4 and we were convinced she wasn't going to nap but then she fell asleep in weird positions. It is hard to force her to nap earlier in the day when she isn't fully tired and wants to play, but it makes bed time hard too. She loves reading books still so maybe reading her a book before naps and bed time will make it easier, if she ever let us stop reading to her.

Anniversary

Chris and I celebrated 5 years of marriage this week and even though we didn't get to do anything big, our simple life is perfect. We did a simple celebration dinner, and traded back massages as our gifts because we don't want to spend money when we didn't need anything big or extravagant. It was fun remembering and talking about the past 5 years fondly and sharing our favorite moments and successes with each other. I love that we both love to keep things simple as long as we are together, even though we are celebrating 5 years and staying up to celebrate the New Year too. Half a decade done and an eternity to go!