Happy New Year!

I admit it, I've been a little neglectful of the blog lately. Daddy's been working long hours so I've been pulling double shifts with the little ones. The good news is that we're all doing well and had a great holiday season. The not-so-good news is . . . on second thought, I'll get to that later.

First things first, Kaden and Sydney are still super-adorable . . .

But that's not likely to change anytime soon so you probably already figured.

Kaden's a really big boy these days. He's been trying to walk everywhere lately. He still needs help from us but he's taken quite a few independent steps and just seems more ready to be on his feet than ever before. Independent walking seems really close and we're extremely excited for him.

We've also recently begun experimenting with glasses. Kaden needs them to correct near-sightedness but so far he hasn't been willing to keep anything on his face. The doctor suggested that I pop out the lenses on a cheap pair of plastic sunglasses to "practice" wearing glasses before we try the real thing. Well, I tried but he only kept them on when I bribed him with the iPad and even then his max time was about two minutes. Within an hour they were broken. I have a feeling this isn't going to be easy . . .

By the way, every once in a while a picture of Kaden really makes me marvel at the awesome lip repair work done by his plastic surgeon at NYU. There's almost no trace of his cleft lip and barely any scar. Well done, Dr. Cutting! Bravo!

As for Little Sydney, she's 10 months old and growing by leaps and bounds. Right now she's determined to master the art of movement. Her moves on the floor often look like a combination of yoga and pilates as she goes from crawling to sitting to crawling in slow motion. She squeals in delight if you run in place behind her saying "I'm gonna get you" and she crawls away as fast as she can.

She's also babbling up a storm and seems to have whole conversations with herself, the TV, Kaden, me, and anyone else who will listen. When I ask her if she wants to play pat-a-cake or help mommy row, row, row the boat she exclaims "Yeeeeaaaahhhh!" How awesome is that?

On a different note, there's not-so-great news of the new year but it has a very nice silver lining. Basically, we've decided to stop having Kaden casted because it didn't appear to be working for him. We're disappointed the process didn't work and more than a bit apprehensive about the treatment options that lay ahead but for now the silver lining is that Kaden is cast-free. He's once again enjoying long, splashy baths and bending at the waist. That's what we're choosing to focus on at the moment -- the decisions and worries of the future can wait -- we've got no-more-cast celebrating to do!

Happy New Year to all! 2012 is going to be great, I can just feel it!