2017, man. it's been a rough one. a great one, but a rough one.

the first half of the year, mat was traveling back and forth between detroit and home. it was ROUGH. i would get the hang of things, get a good routine and get out of the house pretty much every day, which helped. but when mat would get home, my routine would complete derail, haha. not because of anything he did, but because when he's home, my mind goes on vacatio mode. so a week of vacation mode would translate to eating crap, disastrous house, and 100% pure laziness. what can i say? i like spending time with mat when he's home!

as you can imagine, when he was finally done traveling, we had an even harder time readjusting. none of his stores were opening for another month, so after a little while of hardcore vacation mode, i had to start telling myself to just do what i used to do when he was gone, and if he could join us, great, but if not, that's okay. if i kept revolving my schedule around his, i would get nothing done! so we finally got back into a good routine. we spent all summer together as a family, and as mat's stores opened one by one, he got more and more busy. the last part of the year has been the busiest for him, but he's got a good thing going with this job, and i couldn't be more proud of the hard work and dedication he has put into it!

benson is 3 years, 5 months now and is talking better than ever. still hard to understand for people that aren't around him or aren't used to toddler talk, haha, but he's good at rephrasing what he's saying if you can't understand him. he was once trying to ask me where the van was, and i told him i didn't know what he was saying, so he let out a huge sigh and said, "ugh. mom. where mom car?"haha. smart little bugger! he started preschool in august and has made leaps and bounds in talking and communicating. everytime we pick him up, he proudly shows us whatever he made that day.  i almost killed myself over potty training him haha. honestly, i wish there was a potty training boot camp i could send my kids to because it was a nightmare! we re-started potty training in april, and it was right around perry's birthday in november that he started to really get it.  he hasn't had an accident in forever, and when we're at friend's or family's house he'll regularly disappear then come back with his pants down asking for help to pull them up bc he just went potty haha.  benson is the sweetest and i couldn't imagine life without him.

perry is 1 year, 1 month and holy cannoli that girl. she wears every single emotion on her sleeve haha.  joy, frustration, pain, just being plain ticked off that she's on not getting what she wants. but there is nothing better than when she smiles when she sees you. it took her forever to like anything besides her bottle. tried at 4 months. tried at 6. it wasn't until about 9 months that she started to kind of like solids. but now she's an awesome eater.  its so fun watching her walk around the house like she owns the place. she could hang out by herself for hours if she didn't get tired for a nap haha.  she has always loved being upside down, so if we are out and she's fussy bc its close to bed time, i can just flip her upside down on my lap and she's totally happy. i can't wait to get her into dance and gymnastics. she's obsessed with her brother, and its been so fun to watch their relationship blossom. benson shares with her, when she fusses he always gets in her face and says softly, "peh-yee, its okay. no cry." and will usually try to find something for her to play with.

as always, i can't wait for next year.  i can't believe benson will be turning 4 (which feels like a graduation from toddler-hood to little-kid-hood) and perry will be 2. we've got a trip to mexico in april, and my family is tossing around the idea of a cruise. i'm sure i'll add another update in a few months haha. until then!