Catchup.

Let's all have a moment of silence, as I'm mourning something right now.  Synchronized naps. 

By some divine act of God (because I truly have prayed numerous times about it) I've managed to have both babies nap at the same time in the afternoon, pretty much every day since William was born.  Two hours (or more!) of quiet time for myself, where there isn't one child (or more!) tugging on me, pulling on me, stepping on me, begging for Goldfish, or milk, or whatnot.  It has been bliss.  And while I know it can't last forever, I'm sad to say it's coming to an end.  William has been sleeping later in the morning, and rather than wake him up so he'll take a good morning nap, I've been....wait for it....LAZY...and let him sleep.  Notice a trend here?  I'm lazy!!  Anyway, whereas he was once napping from about 9:30-11:00 and then ready for another nap around 1:00 (coincidentally when Amelia takes her nap -- score!  two points for mama!!), the later wakeup means a later morning nap, which means a later afternoon nap.  Which means my two hours of me-time has passed on.  I know it's good for one on one time with each babe, but I'd by lying if I said I wasn't a bit sad to see my own free time drift right on out the window.  Oh, and also?  Amelia took two naps until she was over a year old.  So I feel like from now until August, we are shackled to the house pretty much all day every day, because someone is either a) ready for a nap, b) taking a nap, or c) getting up from a nap.

We are back in Indiana for a bit, visiting the grandparents while Paul is out to sea...indefinitely??  When he left a week ago, he said, "Well, I should be back in about 6 weeks, but we might not come back at all.  This is the last sea trial before we're fully deployable."  Oh, lovely.  Thanks for letting me know in such a timely manner, you know, seeing as how you are walking out the door right now!  There haven't been any world attacks or bombings or sailors who need rescuing that requires his ship's assistance.  At least, I haven't seen any in the 10 minutes of news I'm allowed to sneak in between episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and other quality children's television programming.  So let's hope that continues!!

Amelia is talking pretty much from the second she wakes up until the second she goes to bed.  She makes me laugh all the time, and I am constantly amazed at the words she's learning.  Today we were reading a book, there was a school scene in it, and she pointed to the teacher and said, "Teacher!"  Clear as day.  Seriously.  I didn't have to translate or anything.  So proud of that little one.

William is teething.  Hardcore.  Maybe I don't remember Amelia being such a fussy teether, because let's be honest, if she was awake she was fussy, but my goodness.  I feel so helpless when he's gnawing on whatever he's managed to get his chubby little hands.  I know teeth are a good thing.  I just wish the process of getting them wasn't so difficult!

So that's what's up around here.  It's cold.  It's winter.  We're trying to deal with it, some of us better than others.