Because I do

The title of the post come from Julia; it was her answer when she's questioned about why she did something.  "Julia, did you throw that car?"  "Yes" "Why?"  "Because I throw it."

She's already getting better at expressing herself though.  Quite a bit of change lately all around by the kiddos.

As you can see, Ben is getting stronger.  Chess is in the past and he is now making up games for us to play.  His favorite thing at the moment though is baseball...he's pretty darn good at hitting the ball, and getting better at catching.  He's also reading, pretty fluently with small words and sounding out the big words pretty well too.  And he's got a tooth loose!

Julia is amazing as always.  She's 2 and can tell her right from left.  She's told me several times, spontaneously, "That's my right sock", or "This is my left hand".  You can quiz her and she'll tell ya every time...it's impressive.  Her colors are coming along, she's still working on those, but markedly improved from a month ago when she didn't know any.  We're working on shapes as well, though that's improved too.

Sam is an infant, not much to say.  He has no sleeping pattern during the day, and does ok at night (usually wakes up 2 times max).  He's a very cute little smiler though.  He actually laughs a bunch when I play with him, but this is the only video I have of it, and it's a couple weeks old.

Beth is back to attempting to find balance with work and home.  She's doing amazingly well for how much is required of her at work.

And I am not sleeping.  Not much at any rate.  Got kids waking up at night like popcorn.  I've also been working a ton on guitar and improving a bunch, which is nice.  Beth allowed me an early Christmas present, so I've got a sweet new guitar that sounds great.  It will sound better when I am allowed a new amp.  Perhaps for my birthday.

I almost forgot about halloween!  Ben went as a skeleton and Julia was a dinosaur.  My mom watched Sam.  It was raining, so I took the kids to Westtown Mall to trick or treat.  They had fun, and then played on the playground till mom got home from work, then we all had a special halloween mall dinner.

How to describe life in the Anderson house at the moment.  Picture your life.  Now take all the details out so that it only leaves the routine.  Now substitute in 3 kids.  We all have a routine, it's just the details that differ.  No one is busier than anyone else, there's only 24 hours in the day for everyone.  Just depends how you use it, but either way, you are busy using it.

Julia, Sam and I like to take little trips either shopping or to the zoo or for a walk, depending on if nap times, diaper changes, eating, and attitude allow it.  We are usually able to get to the gym on a daily basis, but not always.  I'm usually able to go grocery shopping with just Sam on Tuesdays when the Duffy's watch Julia, but not always.  Sometimes I get a chance to take the kids swimming at Harbor.

Almost daily I have to wake up Julia, and sometimes Sam, to go get Ben from school.  When we get home, they snack, and play, and fight, and laugh and cry.  Sometimes they play outside on the neighbors swingset, sometimes they chase each other, sometimes they play blocks, sometimes they play hide and seek and sometimes they go in the basement, but they always play and fight and laugh and cry no matter which activity they are doing.  Just part of having kids.

On the weekends we play it by ear.  Sometimes we go somewhere, most times not.  We almost always go to church on Sunday, unless someone is sick.  Beth usually goes to the gym Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon.

Sometimes we eat dinner together, but as Beth gets back into her usual schedule, mostly we don't.  I usually feed the kids, clean up, Beth comes home, we put the kids to bed, we eat dinner.

Routine, just like your routine, but with different details.  Sometimes it's fun...sometimes not.  Like when you can't sleep!