Dear Friends and Family,
This past year has been incredibly wonderful and we’re sorry that we haven’t been able to visit, call or write more often (actually ‘sorry not sorry’ at all, parenting three kids under six tends to suck the life and apologies right out of you), but we’re hoping to catch you up on the past twelve months with this letter! Grab some ADULT hot chocolate and settle in…
2015 started with us finding clumps of Ava’s hair strewn around her bedroom floor. Turns out, she’s emerging into a budding stylist and has a real flare for stealing Daddy’s nose hair scissors (TMI) and creating bangs for herself.
We celebrated Mason’s first birthday in January and if you didn’t make it to his party, you’re basically dead to us. Kidding, maybe.
February was brutal as far as the temperature and snow was concerned, but we found some time to get outside, build some forts, sled and piss off the neighbors, literally. I’m raising a young ‘Cousin Eddie’.
March brought us my 39th birthday and an opportunity to take the kids on a cruise to Mexico. There’s nothing quite like traveling with the whole family.
Aside from Charlie dialing 911 from the phone in our cabin after flooding our bathroom, the cruise was a blast and Ava got her first kiss!
I even got to take a break and play some video games with Mason. I think we’ve got a real gamer on our hands!
After we got home, Charlie missed his toys and play room so much, that he dove right in, head first. We’re just so proud of how he’s able to occupy himself – he’s really maturing!
We found some time over Easter to visit my parents and were able to capture our true personality in this family picture.
Ava went to the dentist for a cleaning and listened to the doctor explain to her that all of her teeth are going to fall out… eventually. She seemed to take it really well.
Mason took time out of his busy schedule to make us our very own doggy door that leads to the deck. We’re lucky to have such a wonderful handyman around the house.
As most of you know, Jen and I don’t adhere much to schedules. We never liked the idea of being anchored to a specific ‘nap time’ as it might impede on our important adventures, like shopping for yoga pants or sports bras.
We worked on our potty-training incessantly, mom and dad almost got divorced over whether or not Charlie should ‘ball’ or ‘fold’ his TP and we successfully neglected to focus on the core idea of bathroom hygiene and cleaning up after yourself.
Ava finally lost that first tooth!
Jen came home from work and saw what Mason did to my stress relievers and began weaning him off the boob almost immediately… for obvious reasons. He’s turned into some kind of hybrid vampire/mad wolf.
With Ava starting Kindergarten and Charlie going back to pre-school, we took time to go back-to-school clothes shopping so that we might nail down the perfect picture. WTF – are you serious? No one is stabbing or biting or spitting? This is crazy.
We sneaked in one more weekender before school started – and managed to have some fun together…
At the end of the day (or year), Mason seems to be taking after his big brother. This lovely necklace was re-purposed from it’s original state, a toy lawnmower.
And I finally got my parenting report card.
This past year has just been a blur. I guess time flies when you’re having fun, right?
I really do say that with a limited amount of sarcasm. Too often we try and make ourselves look perfect in the eyes of social media, when it’s the imperfections – the clogged toilets, chewed up crayons and son walking up to you with a handful of poop from his diaper that are the funniest and most beautiful parts of having a family. They’re also the moments collected in #ParentingUnfiltered – a campaign from one of our personal favorites, Plum Organics.
I’m really glad that they asked me to share our year in review, even though this letter is only the tip of the iceberg. They also want you to join in on the fun this season by making your own Parenting Unfiltered Newsletter with their hilarious and easy-to-use holiday generator and sharing it across your social channels using #ParentingUnfiltered.
And if you’re already contemplating what your New Year resolutions are going to be, what big achievements you’re going to shoot for or just stressing yourself out about 2016, just CHILL like my boy Charlie in his most recent preschool photo.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a sponsored post, however, Plum Organics had nothing to do with this circus of a year we had in 2015, all opinions, thoughts and chaotic debacles are my own.
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