Not keeping up

Today is February 11th, which means that, in addition to it being Jenn's real birthday (happy day, Jenn!), it's two days past Mallory's 22nd month birthday. Which didn't even occur to me until last night. I started out taking pictures of the kids on their monthly milestones, then relented and just did a write-up of the month and accompanied it by photos culled from the previous four weeks - and now the days are passing pretty much unmarked. I've been sitting here all morning, trying to think of what to say about Mallory this month, and I am coming up empty-handed. I have a few of her more memorable quotes, and the funny way she asks to watch The Aristocats (calling it "Aris-ti-ti-ti-cats"). I've made mention of the Vaseline shenanigans and the move into a big girl bed and the nightly request to dance to 'Single Ladies' 3 or 4 times in a row. And now I am stumped.

I am not entirely surprised that this is happening now, because I stopped these little monthly wrapups for Liam when he turned 2 years old, and though I've documented the big and little stuff since then, the means of doing so has changed over time. It's evolved into a simpler, less decorative, easier to manage form of record keeping. Partly this happened naturally; with more milestones under his belt, there was less to take note of. And partly it happened in a quest to be present in the present, to enjoy it as it passes. There are only so many hours in the day and I feel like I am being spread increasingly thin. Something had to give.

Of course... maybe it's just that I have some other things to attend to. I have four sewing projects in the queue and some around-the-house settling-in tasks still to tackle (there are vignettes still to arrange and some big blank walls still to fill, and the walls that do have frames do not necessarily contain what will be their final contents - more on that later). I have the kids' birthdays to start thinking about. And I'm daydreaming of summer. I went outside for a run on the weekend for the first time in months, and the to-do list instantly melted away, if only for a while. When I was out in the sun, it felt like all was right in the world.

Well, except for that crazy octuplet mom. She's still a whack-a-doo.