Greg has taught our family the joy of playing Don't Eat Pete, an absolutely hilarious game. Greg drew up some monsters, or did I? I have no idea. It's all crumpled up and used, but it's become our weekly FHE activity (if we remember to have FHE) and M&Ms are the chosen treat.

Scarlet requests it all the time. It's pretty funny, because she can hardly hold still, waiting for her turn, and when it suddenly is her turn she takes one m&m and just stares at us, she won't even put it in her mouth. Then if she DOES put it in her mouth, just just stops and stares at us. The game is at a complete halt. We almost have to yell at her to keep the game going. I'll never understand it.

 Oh man, Brighton loves anything with chocolate involved. He is just now starting to catch on to the rules instead of just quickly popping all the m&m's in his mouth. So that's fun, but when it's not his turn- oh man- DRAMA. This boy seriously has a chocolate addiction. It didn't matter how many turns he got, every time his turn ended- INSTANTLY he does THIS until his next turn.

 The kids have been helping me make bread lately. Even though it only takes 5 minutes, half way through I'm so frustrated with the increasing pile of flour on the counter than I take them off the counter and say, "We're done!" I've always struggled with "helping" in the kitchen. But each week I try again. How can I resist us all baking in our aprons? When the mess stays under control and no one is in danger of burning off their fingers I LOVE to cook with them, I think nothing is sweeter- but it usually doesn't end up that way and I get a little crazy.

The day after my big post about my kids not eating my food, THEY ATE MY FOOD!!! I had to take pictures to document that they ate my incredibly veggie filled Asian Quinoa.

I'm not claiming this has happened since, but hey it happened this day and I was thrilled.

Since then, I've instilled the philosophy of, "If you're not going to eat at meal times, you can go hungry." And it's not without drama but it is working and I'm glad. It kind of stinks though, outside of the house. I have to bear the looks on my friends faces that obviously say, "Your kid is crying and begging for food and you're NOT going to feed them?" Even though I explain my reasoning, I know they don't get it and think I'm a psycho. It was really hard the first couple weeks, but now I'm passed caring, because it's working and I seem to be able to explain the whole basis of my decision better. The thing that gets REALLY frustrating is even AFTER I explain myself, they offer my kid food. "I have some bread, if she wants" or the unbelievable "I could give her a couple pieces of candy"- say what? CANDY!!!!! Why would I give my whiney child CANDY when I'm trying to teach her  something? Are you CRAZY????!!!!! This tells me they clearly don't get it, but I do and it's working for us so I'm sticking to it. Basically, we've come to a desperate spot and this is just the only thing that's giving us progress. I think some kids must have CONTROL or naturally be good eaters so they just don't get it. Like one time someone said to me, "I think kids know what their body needs and so I don't force them to eat things." Yeah, if I stuck to my kids requests it would ONLY be chocolate and grapes. Their reasoning is, "Why on earth would I eat spinach when chocolate tastes so much better?" And I know they really think this way! I used to too!!!

We went to the mountains again and there was more snow than ever! It would have been an absolute perfect day except . . . 

This.

Yes and I DO mean "THIS". Ugh. If the weather and scenery weren't so perfect, she would've ruined the whole day. Imagine THIS face (plus some thick runny snot) and a constant, "WHAAAAAAA!!!!!!! I'm cold!!!!! I wanna go home!!!!!! WHAAAA!!!!!!!" Seriously the worst. I don't know if I've ever detested my child so much in her 3 years. It started the moment she got out of the car and didn't stop for a moment, until we returned 3 hours later. We went through phases of  consoling, threatening, yelling (me yelling), consoling again and then just ignoring. It didn't matter what we did, like she was making up for all of her wonderfulness the last 3 years by being really unbearable. It was so sad because the snow was absolutely amazing. So playable. Soft and fluffy and SO DEEP. Like to our thighs deep. Greg dug this cool half cave and we all just sat in it and hung out. It wasn't FREEZING though. The temperature was so bearable and perfect. Brighton was having a BLAST. It was strange to have one child constantly screaming and miserable and the other one so unaffected and playful. It was so fun to see him roll around in the snow. I just kept thinking he was like Greg. He was just enjoying the whole thing so much. All this wonderfulness to the soundtrack of Scarlet the Terrible.

It just stunk because we probably would've stayed the whole day there, but Scarlet was so unbearable, we came home after a few hours and that was a major accomplishment and a lot of patience.

Kid Updates . . .

Brighton loves to play Simon Says and Red Light Green Light. He doesn't fully comprehend the rules, of course, but he still LOVES to play and gets so excited. He runs around yelling, "Gme! Gme!" (game! game!) It's so cute. He also love Ring Around the Rosy or any kind of game he can play.

Scarlet has just been becoming so ACTIVE!!! It's been so great! She starting to run everywhere, the way all toddlers do. She's starting to do so much that I didn't realize she wasn't doing, until now she does. She was always a mellow baby, and I don't know if she's sort of "late" in a lot of these normal behaviors because she was sick for so long and just didn't have the opportunity, or maybe it just interested her later than most, but I LOVE watching her run around and play and climb and run and jump. I absolutely love it. She's so much more ADVENTUROUS than she used to be and just pretends constantly. We jump from couch to couch, fighting off sharks with invisible sticks and throw things at them. She often speaks to me with a British accent (well, her version of one) and it's super funny. We sing our conversations constantly. She's just a lot of fun.

B actually gained 1.5 lbs! He's growing again! Amazing! He's gone from the 4th percentile in weight, just a month ago,  to the 14th! What a jump! 2 or so months ago I decided I wasn't gonna worry about it because he was happy and acting healthy and I couldn't make him eat any more than he was. Force doesn't work on my 1 year old. But now he's just doing it on his own! It makes me happy. Hopefully he'll stay on the path.

My Zumba instructor went to a week long course in Moscow to get officially certified in zumba and our first class with her since was SO MUCH BETTER!!!! It makes me so happy! I already liked it, but it's such a better work out and more fun. But, in the middle of class she shouts to me not to do this hip circle move. First of all, this move was beyond slow, even if it was considered "risky", which it wasn't. So she solos me out in front of the whole class telling me not to do it and I yell back (because the music is loud) "it's ok!" and do the move. We go back and forth, "don't do it!" "it's ok, I'm going to do it" 3-5 times until I really yell, "It's good for the baby!" or something and the whole class laughs and we move on. This woman has ALWAYS been anxious about me being pregnant. So after class I decide to just tell her about all the research I've done and that ab exercises (especially standing up) are actually REALLY GOOD for pregnancy and I SHOULD be doing them. And the whole time I'm talking she just has this look on her face that I'm telling her a bunch of crap. So hoping I was going to settle the situation from now on, she proceeds to tell me that at her class in Moscow they talked about pregnant women and zumba and that I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO RAISE MY HANDS ABOVE MY HEAD. I couldn't even hold back my response. It was just so ridiculous. I made one of my faces and said, "What?!" or something. At that point I just thought, "Ok, this conversation is clearly going nowhere" so I said something to the effect that, "We're getting our information from different sources, I trust mine, she trusts hers" and I really want to exclaim, "You seriously think your russian zumba instructors know more about this that AMERICAN DOCTORS THAT SPECIALIZE IN PREGNANCY!!!!!!! INSANITY!!!!!!!" She then tells me she HAS to worry about me because I'm in her class and it's her responsibility and I told her I understand that. And then she told me she won't hassle me that much. So we seem to have the understanding that she's going to tell me not to do stuff but that I will anyway. It's just frustrating and makes me wish I was done being pregnant already. Even though, I don't know if I'll be able to return afterwards. I HOPE I can, but it all depends on the baby and feeding and how regular the babe manages to be. I'm a total wuss for letting my babes cry, especially with hunger. It gives me great anxiety when I leave the house, which pretty much has made me never leave their side their first year. I know it's not a healthy take for a mother, but it's one of my struggles.

We're going 3 weeks strong with no one getting sick and it's been pretty awesome! I like having a life worth living! It sort of sucks feeling like you have no purpose but to be sick. I didn't think we could have so many playdates or activities and I still have energy to make dinner! It's so much better! I don't want to jinx it by talking about how great it is, but it really has been great.