Well...

I suppose I'm not very good at this so far. Although, I shouldn't sell myself short. It's been incredibly busy for me lately. The students are back at VT, and that makes life a little more hectic. I just haven't had the time to focus on blogging.
A few things going on in our lives:
We're counting down the days until the beach! Abbey and I made a paper-chain counting down the days. I made the mistake of telling Abbey we were going to the beach back in July. So we've been counting down the days ever since! We're heading out September 24. I'm so excited! The girls have never been, and it's been several years since I've been.
We are in the process of getting our house market-ready. We'll probably be putting it up for sale in the next few months. I have to admit that I have my reservations about it. Am I ready to be out of that house? YES! We have outgrown it by a mile and the 30 minute commute to anything is wearing me down. But the process of moving and finding care for the girls...that's very nervous-making. Things will work out how they're supposed to though. And I have complete trust in Matt. He knows what he's doing.
Natalie is moving up in daycare-land. She's spending most of her time in the Toddler Room, as opposed to the baby room. She even has her very own little cubby. No more diaper bag to take to daycare. She'll be 15 months old tomorrow! The time does fly. Miss Francis at the daycare asked me if I was ready for her to be moving up to the other room. I said I wasn't sure about myself, but there is NO DOUBT that Natalie is ready. She's so over all the baby stuff. She's only nursing in the morning (sometimes) and then at night. I'm not even doing my "motherly-duties" at work anymore. I'm happy and sad about this change.
Natalie is such a different child than Abbey. I envision the way they will get in trouble in the future, and believe me, they WILL get in trouble. I imagine their conversation being something like this:
Natalie: Come on Abbey! Let's go do something extremely out of bounds and mother-terrifying!
Abbey: Sure that sounds like fun! I like having fun! Fun is fun!
Natalie has no respect for the word no. In fact, I do believe she thinks it means "keep doing that". She hits, she bites, she gets ANGRY. She's like a little Incredible Hulk. She screams and says "NO" in a way I can't even imitate. But she's also a real cuddle-butt and I love her oh so much.
And it's not like Abbey doesn't have her struggles. She's pushing her limits (and ours too) so much these days. Seeing how much she can get away with. She's been openly mocking our punishment techniques and laughing when we trying to be serious with her. She's been sent to her room several times in the past week. She hates having to go to her room and be all alone. No one there to react to her fake crying and other attention-seeking methods. For the most part she's a good kid, but right now she's just learning. And it's definitely testing my Mommy-Patience.
But man are they cute, and man are the a blessing, and man don't I just love them to pieces.