Growing 2 month old, active 2 year old, losing weight, gaining business!

We blessed Malcom at church a couple weeks ago!

Today is Malcom's  2 month birthday! He is such a great little baby. Doug was gone all last week in Salt Lake City for some training for work and it was really hard for me. But, every time things got really crazy with Vivi (which they did often) or I missed Doug, I could just look at my little guy and everything felt better. He's like my own personal Prozac...he just makes me feel better! Now that he is smiling and cooing more, including every time I change his diaper (I think he smiles out of appreciation of a clean bum), my heart just grows. I work so hard to get him to smile (because he's so darn cute when he does) that my cheeks hurt!

Mac still eats about every 2 hours except for a couple longer stretches throughout the day. He does pretty good some nights, lasting as long as 4-6 hours, but that's only as long as he's in bed with me. I think we will start putting him in his crib and sleep training around 3 months. Although, I do love my snuggle buddy.

they are buddies!

Vivi is still great with him. She always wants to bounce him in his chair, which gets a little too rough sometimes, but she's pretty good most of the time. She always wants to hold him. She makes  a big deal out of it when he poops because she likes to help 'change' his diaper. And Malcom returns the favor by smiling when he sees her (and can focus on her); they love each other. But, if you ask Vivi if she loves her brother, she just rolls her eyes, sticks out her hands and says 'I dunno.' But she does :)

Vivi is just blossoming. We signed her up for gymnastics once per week as a way for her to get out some of her physical energy and she loves it! They get to play on lots of equipment and just have fun. And she's a natural, if I do say so myself. That girls is just fearless. She keeps trying to do the balance beam without my help (she says 'Mommy, self. I do it self'), falls off, sometimes gets hurt, but then jumps right back on. Today was her first day back at 'school' which is actually the Shoreline School District's free 'Play and Learn' program that we started going to in January last year. It's amazing the difference a couple months can make. Without clinging to my leg once, she just went to the downstairs play area with her friend Wyatt (an older boy who she quite likes...or at least tolerates), she played by herself, and did circle time without me coaching her. I only had to pull her away from the stupid water fountain a few times (my nemesis last year since she always wanted to play in the sink. She still yelled at a couple kids (mostly one little boy named Lucas...poor kid), but she's improving.

We've started a family Biggest Loser and I'm pretty excited. I lost 20 lbs before the competition started, but I still have 20 lbs to go. I want to get back to my pre-baby weight before the end of the year and I think I can...I just have to be careful so I don't lose my milk because I want to nurse Malcom quite a bit longer. That could be tricky.

In addition to watching Malcom grow into happy boy, helping Vivi direct her energy into positive outlets, losing weight, and...just keep everyone alive, I've started a new business venture! I want to use my education (Journalism degree) and experience (PR, marketing) to help smaller businesses with their marketing, specifically written content. I loved writing all the content for the Skagit Valley Family YMCA web site and worked on the Port of Everett redesign, too. A lot of web developers don't offer that kind of help and it renders small businesses to content that is full of mistakes or poorly written content. I can also help with business email content, newsletters, blogs, etc. I'll write it or just edit what businesses have. If you know of anyone who'd be interested in my services, just point them to writeonsolutions@gmail.com! That's my business name "Write On Solutions!"