December Recap

December was a crazy month with little blogging. Ryan and Miller made a trip to MN to celebrate Christmas and Joann's birthday. Miller loved the snow and had a blast playing with his uncles. They made lefse, played video games (arcade style), built snowmen, had snowball fights, etc. Mason and I stayed home and had a little mommy and son time. Grandma Jean came to also enjoy some one on one time with Mason.

Mason is hopefully outgrowing his whiny troublesome phase (or at least until the next round of teeth come in). He's been much more fun to play with and his vocabulary is growing. He still doesn't say much for real words but his comprehension when you speak to him is quite good. He loved the snow globes in the house, snowmen (light-up ones are the best) and Santa (ho ho ho). He also did much better around the tree than I expected.

The one new blessing/curse Mason has discovered is tv. He started watching Thomas the Train and Fireman Sam. He loves them. I like that we can plop him on the couch and have 10-20 minutes without having to run or chase him but I hate to think he's already addicted to tv. I feel we do a pretty good job limiting the time spent watching tv with both kids except for every once and a while where a few hours is like a gift from God where Miller will sit and watch without asking us a question.

Emily and my parents came for Christmas at our house. It was the usual spoilage of kids, too much food, and elevated volume levels. The kids enjoyed their presents and time with the relatives. 

I have been crazy busy at work with end of the year projects, terms ending and other starting. I did take quite a few days off though because we have the use them or lose them policy on vacation days. Too bad most of those days were spent shopping, cleaning, or wrapping presents. Today I plan to return a couple things and then sit my butt on the couch all afternoon reading a book and doing nothing!

Ryan had some end of the year projects to wrap up too. I guess we should be thankful we are both busy at work.

We did escape for an adult Christmas party/dinner with our close friends. It was nice to have the group together without rug rats interrupting us. We enjoyed some good stories, reminisced about days pre-kids, and made it back home before the babysitters turned into pumpkins.

As for running, I took the month off trying to heal my knee/ankle. It's been touch and go but today I bit the bullet and gave it a try. I only ran a little over a mile but so far, no major pain or swelling. We will see how it looks on Monday because I would like to get back to at least running 2-3 miles a few times a week. I am not sure I will keep the constant 5K distance as my routine but I need to get some exercise in. It did help with the stress at work and I did feel better. Guess those darn doctors are right. Exercise is good for you.