Keeping Up With the Stevenses: Don't Blink

Don't do it, especially if you are a parent. If you do, you'll realize a whole year has gone by and meanwhile you feel like you were just pregnant with your last little one. I am in complete disbelief that my Little Man is going to be ONE in less than a month. How?!

My little babies are getting so big!

I hope most, if not all, of you follow me on Instagram because that is where I post most of my pictures of the family and life stuff. My username is "mamstevens."

Abby is big enough to do chores now (and she gets a penny per chore!)

Shane is now 11 months old and he LOVES.TO.EAT. I could have probably told you that when he was first born and wanted to nurse every hour, but now that he has started to eat solids at every meal with us, it has been completely proven. Three days ago he had a very lazy, drawn-out two hour breakfast! He likes all food equally but he draws the line at anything that is spicy, yet again proving that my genes have won genes out over Rock's! Haha!

Food is GOOD!!

Shane can also say all of the following things: hi, bye, mama, dada, Gigi (what he calls Abby from Abby G although sometimes it sounds more like "GheeGhee"), dog, all done, you, and my all-time favorite giggle-giggle! I have no clue where the last thing came from but I LOVE hearing him say it and he uses often. He loves to wave hi and bye and he does this hilarious thing where he will point at you and say "YOOOOOU!" I will come around the corner and he will look at me, smile, point, say "YOOOOU!" and then laugh and it makes my heart melt every time. He also claps when someone he likes walks in the room and lately whenever I put on his favorite show. He started to stand up on his own when he was 9.5 months old, but as of now, has not made any attempt to walk. He prefers standing up, getting a lay of the land, and then plopping to his butt and taking off at a break-neck crawl toward his objective.

Abby's first haircut

Abby continues to be a great big sister. If Shane starts to cry when I am changing him or getting him dressed, she'll almost always run and get him a toy to play with or make him laugh with her silly faces. They have started to play games together like ball, Zombie Baby (aka catch), and Batman and Robin. They do have their sibling squabbles over toys or the iPad, but I can't tell you how amazing it is to see how good they are together and I am so proud how amazing Abby has been with him from Day One.

In footed fleece jammies watching the iPad together

My beautiful big girl

My dapper man!

Rock and our Purple Princess at the Renaissance Festival

Rock and I have both said we can't believe that we are back in Maryland because sometimes it feels like we never left and other times it feels like a completely different experience albeit taking place in very familiar places. Luckily, several of our really good friends are still in the area and it has been so nice to see them and catch up.

Such a charmer!

Learning to ride her bike with Daddy (and training wheels)

Rock has been VERY busy with work, but he seems to enjoy it overall so I am happy to see that he is somewhere he can use his amazing brain!

Miss Sassy Pants in the scarf I made her to match one I have

Cart buddies!

Getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating

Halloween dressup library class with Gavin and Claire (aka BFFs)

I love how they have the exact same stance here

Our spooky Halloween morning

Duck duck Abby in 2011 at 11.5 months old and Shane in 2013 at 9.5 months

How THRILLED do they look to be posing for pictures before a Trunk or Treat?!

I have been running a lot and started running 5K races in early October. I had races lined up all the way through December and my goal was to get a sub-25 min 5K by my last race (Reindeer Run December 14th) and I did it (24:29)! I did most my training runs with the kids in the Double BOB (HIGHLY recommend all moms with two stroller-sized kids just get this stroller from the beginning because even if you don't run, it has amazing handling and is just worth it), and we have a lot of hills in our neighborhood so I got pretty good at attacking hills WHILE pushing 80+ pounds of children and stroller, which made hills in the races no big deal. Unfortunately, I have an old back injury from college (anterolisthesis and bulging disc of L5 vertebra) that I have been seeing a chiropractor/physical therapist for and he wants me to stop running for a bit while we do some rehabilitation of my back. He says running (especially pushing so much weight) causes my hip flexor muscles to become really tense, which in turn pulls my spine forward and that it is causing my back to ache even more than it has the past 9 years. If I had to be told not to run, I think this is the best time of year to hear that because the weather is starting to get really cold; for example, the other day I went for a run (in 28 degrees) and while I was dressed appropriately and my body wasn't cold, my eyes could NOT stop watering uncontrollably from the cold and wind--my tears even froze to my eyelashes. Right now I can focus on my therapy while doing Pilates and Yoga (which my doctor recommends and is OK with me doing) and pick the running back up once things start to get warmer outside in the Spring.

Official chip time of Reindeer Run 5K

Mimi and Poppy with the kids on Abby's 3rd birthday

(Fun Fact: My mom has been there for all of Abby's birthdays!)

Other than that we are just enjoying the Holiday season and trying to make memories and traditions with the kids. I love that for Shane's first Christmas he is old enough to enjoy it and participate (versus Abby who was only 7 weeks old for her first Christmas).

First snow of the season

Building Abby's first snowman (caught her eating snow!)

Pedro the Snowman

Abby, Rock, and I made cinnamon Christmas ornaments with just a simple recipe and mini-cookie cutters and the house smelled AMAZING and I love how easy of a project it was for everyone to do. Shane decided the ornaments looked too much like cookies and decided to bite off a leg of a gingerbread man and I thought for SURE he'd vomit it back up (the recipe calls for nearly TWO CUPS of cinnamon!!) but he didn't even make a face and SWALLOWED the whole thing. Needless to say, we hung all the cinnamon ornaments up high on our tree to keep out them out of the reach of our little Shaney Monster.