Still Kickin'!

Hey all,
Sorry for the massive delay since L's last splendid post. Hard to believe time has gone by so quickly; such is life w/ 2 little ones. Right now, Louise is holding Teia-no-nap-unless-you're-holding-me while Kai-Never-Stop is chattering away in his crib.

After making us a little worried with quiet-ness last year, Kai is making up for lost time in a big hurry. Tonight was a typical scene - non-stop chatter from the moment I got home till, well, now (30 min after being put in his crib for a night's sleep). We're not really sure how he keeps going - I think he only gets 10hrs of sleep a night and doesn't nap anymore. Toddlers are advertised 12-13, so we're looking into our warranty on this one. Some typical phrases: "Teia's real!" (as opposed to "pretend"), "Teia's hands small, mommy's hands big", "Red door has handle" and even occasional zingers about poopy and peenies (best left off of our G-rated blog). It definitely keeps Teia entertained - check oot the vid of our 3 mos old wondering what the heck is this household she's stuck in (at bottom).

On the school front, things are a little easier this month. We're working on a ship conversion project (taking a navy ship and doing some mods to have it do something else). Pretty interesting from a naval architecture point of view, but probably boring to the remaining 99.99999% of the earth's population. Oh well... :-) We're hoping to keep this 'less time at school, more time at home' trend through the spring semester without putting my thesis plans too much in peril. I'm hoping to avoid the final semester panic attacks that I saw last year's graduating class go through - wish a life-long procrastinator luck!

Louise is getting her game face on already for her morning bike training. On Saturday mornings, she heads down to a local bike shop to hammer away for 2 hours on a bike trainer. Pretty dedicated! Her dedication did waiver last week when she was stuck next to a pretty odoriferous older gent, so wish her luck to get a spot next to a cleaner coiffed fellow or female!

Speaking of biking, I made two trips into school this week. It wasn't too too bad - lots of layers, wool socks, and a smooth hand on the snowy sections of the bike path. I decided to not push my luck and only went on the bike path once due to the snow on it - my wrist, injured in a running fall a couple weeks ago, can't handle any more shocks if I fall again.

Leaving the last Fennell for last, Teia continues to amaze us w/ her chill-ness. When you think of lounge music, swinging in a hammock, or pupu's on the beach, think Teia - she's one chill chick! She does cry, don't get me wrong (and she's probably going to read this blog tomorrow and huff "I'll show THEM I gotta set of lungs!") but overall she's pretty easy to get to sleep and is fairly perky when awake.
Unfortunately, she doesn't always STAY asleep, especially when she's not glued to one of us, so it has taken one-armed multi-tasking to a whole new level as we spend much of her napping time holding her. I was even able to get Kai out of the high-chair one day w/ one arm (he sorta slid out w/ me sorta slowing him down) and I can type almost as fast w/ one hand as I can with two. But we're still trying to get her to sleep more on her own so we can, at the very least, limit the amount of damage Kai does to the house and himself at any given moment.

We'll do our best to keep this blog updated more often (even if we're typing w/ one hand).