Hi, 3.5 years and 21 months

Hi everyone. I am sooo tired because I sleep about 3 hours a night. I don't know what is going on but my new sleep pattern has been...fall asleep around 11, wake up between 2 and 3 and toss and turn for the rest of the night!!! It is awful and I don't get it. We're thinking it might be because our mattress is caved in with the imprints of my body on my side and Mark's on his side. If we get out of the bed and take all the sheets off, you can see it is sunken in where we sleep, with a bulge in the middle. It is so uncomfortable and the worst part is, this is the second mattress this happened to for us. Are Mark and I just too heavy for a normal mattress to withstand our weight? Very frustrating. So that might be on our list of things to get replaced in our house. Other things include the dryer that is making a sound as if the buzzer is stuck and constantly going bzzzzzz and another is the pipes under the toilet downstairs that every time you flust-make a noise so scary and loud that it shakes the houses on both sides of us and my neighbors call to make sure we are ok. Seriously! We do finally have our complete kitchen set after first being delayed by 2 months and then getting the wrong chairs delivered to us 2 separate times.



I'm glad I held out and fought for the right chairs because I really like them!

Max turned exactly 3 and a half last week and Mallory is turning 21 months so I think it's a good time to do a kid update.

At 3.5, Max:

-Loves to ride his little tricycle around the house and says he is going to the store/work/etc.
-Goes to bed pretty easily at a pretty normal time (between 8 and 9)
-Wakes up at a normal time (between 6 and 7)
-Demands candy or some other unhealthy snack the moment he gets up and gets so worked up about it that I give in sometimes
-Has a really bad hour or 2 around 5:00 pm, especially if he took a nap
-Loves the book "Where the wild things are" and calls it "the Max book" because the main characters name is Max. Don't be surprised if there is a wild things themed party in our future.
-Is REALLY mean to Mallory. really.
-Is doing great at school. Loves to talk about Casey, Avi and his teachers
-Loves The Lion King movie but doesn't really ever watch the actual movie. He either walks around with the dvd cases or just puts on the dvd and leaves the menu on the screen and won't let anyone press play
-Wears underwear to school every day for the last month and hasn't had any accidents (maybe one the first week!)
-Eats a tad bit more than he did a year ago but not much. Some of his favorite things right now are cereal with milk (cinnamon toast crunch mostly), bagel with cream cheese, eggs, protein bars, string cheese, applesauce, yogurt, and any kind of candy or cookie!
-Has amazing language skills and barely has any articulation errors (even "th"!)



And...at 21 months, Mallory:

-Has about 20-25 words that she has used but doesn't use them very often (yes I have a running list)
-Loves Elmo and Barney and would sit in front of the tv all day long if we let her
-Dances around when she is excited, like a little skip, hop dance
-Loves if you're happy and you know it
-Loves to be outside and RUN
-Is starting to really throw tantrums
-Hits her head against the floor or wall when she is mad
-Puts up with ALOT from her big brother
-Loves to pour water on herself in the bathtub
-Can go down the stairs with only a little help
-Is down to 1 nap a day on alot of days but will still take a morning nap if I put her in her crib at any time
-sleeps great at night, around 11-12 hours and even when she wakes up in the morning she just hangs out in her bed and I usually don't even know when she is up
-Is still a pretty good eater but throws vegetables on the floor now. Some of her favorites are waffles, pancakes, cheese, yogurt, pasta pickups, mac and cheese, cereal bars, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, french fries, meatballs and any fruit
-Still makes a humming/singing noise when she eats-mostly when she is REALLY enjoying something or chewing something that is hard.
-Still puts everything in her mouth which is starting to worry me a bit but I'm telling myself it is because she was really late to get teeth and is still getting some.
-Started Mommy and Me!!



and wasn't so interested in following directions, or participating in circle time, or sitting in a chair or drinking out of a cup, but it was still very cute



She was very good at playing in the gym though




I have to keep reminding myself that when Max was her age, we would take him to a birthday party at my gym and he would spend the entire 2 hours playing with the door and stealing our phones and trying to break the computer behind the desk. It's just hard to remember that they change so much in such a short period of time. But I know she'll grow up too and I'll laugh that she was ever the one who couldn't even sit through head and shoulders knees and toes.

I was pretty impressed with this move though:



That's all for now. Happy almost weekend!