7 Weeks ago (1/30) Christopher learned to crawl and this weekend (3/22) he walked (pushing a toy bin) 
all the way across the living room. It feels like he went from crawling, to creeping, to attempting to walk and climb almost overnight–like the light-bulb came on and he realized there are more dimensions to the world that he’d like to explore. Fun and scary at the same time. Scary because it’s hard to keep ahead of the childproofing when the stages move so quickly; fun because he is all smiles when he learns something new and will have such a great time in the yard with his big brother this summer. Christopher is still only sporting two teeth, although I think the top two are on their way. It sure would help him eat more stuff if he’d get a few teeth already. He does manage pretty well with the 2 teeth he has. I’m pretty sure at 1 year old he will outweigh William’s 1 year old measurement by a few lbs. I guess we’ll see next month!
Big brother William has officially turned 3! The week before his birthday we took his 
first trip to the dentist. They were awesome with him, and he did great! He’s finally making some progress with potty training. He uses the potty pretty consistently at daycare although it can still be a struggle to convince him to stop long enough to go when we are at home. He has very little interest in wearing underwear, and I tend to let him wear a diaper–with working nearly full time I can only find the time to wash so many pairs of peed-in pants. I wish I could afford to buy 35 pairs of 4T pants and underwear so I could choose to do laundry at my convenience while still getting some potty training experience for William. On his actual birthday (Wednesday) I stayed home in the morning and we had pancakes for breakfast and took a trip to the store to pick out a birthday treat for the daycare kids. He picked out some kind of strawberry shortcake Little Debbie snack. All afternoon he played and was spoiled at daycare. By the end of the day he was starting to understand how his birthday was pretty cool and we opened some presents. On Saturday we had a little get together for his birthday with cupcakes and ice cream. He played so hard with the other kids that by the end of the afternoon he was sporting a couple new band-aids and some serious exhaustion. “mommy, carry me.”–now that’s a successful birthday party. 
It has been ridiculously warm so we’ve been aggressively spring cleaning in the yard. We’ve managed to clean out a couple flowerbeds, move some bulbs, relocate some grape hyacinth to the garbage can, play with our new lawn edger (a Christmas present from Jason!), spray some weeds, and rake up a bunch of pine needles. We’ve been trying to time some of our yard work with nap times, but the boys spend plenty of time outside with us as well. William tends to run all over the place, playing and fighting bad guys. Christopher crawls wherever he can get to; unlike his bigger brother, crawling through grass doesn’t bother him one bit. This is one of the few reasons I hope he learns to walk soon, because I know he and William will have so much fun in the yard together once he’s on his feet. (Perhaps being up off the ground will slow down the amount of dirt he eats as well.)
I am officially a coffee aficionado. What I mean by this is that after giving up my Starbucks addiction several months ago, I have not only found a type of coffee that I find enjoyable enough to brew at home, I also now own my very own coffee grinder. Better late than never I guess. 33 years old and I can brew my own coffee.
I don’t like to write about work on here much, but for a second, let’s talk about work. The great news is Jason got a pretty big promotion. The bad news is I’m still working slightly more than I’d like and one of my coworkers just gave his two week notice so there’s no end in sight. It’s hard to see good people leave and have no ability to do what it takes to retain them. We’re spread really thin at work right now and I’m not sure when that will change. Staying at home with the boys and starting an etsy shop is looking like a better option all the time. I’d like to be working 3 days per week instead of 4-5. The problem is, if I cut back my hours, I have the same amount of work to do and just less time to do it. Something needs to change. Any advice from those of you that took the plunge to stay at home? (I’d like to keep working, but if things don’t get better soon I’d consider staying at home).
In other neighborhood news, one of the Midvale city councilman happens to own a lawn care business and makes really awesome chainsaw-carved bears. When we go out for walks with our stroller we notice these bears all over Midvale. This past week Olympus Street got its very own set of bears! (Technically brother and sister Walker got a set of bears…but they’re waving at OUR house!). The new creation generated quite a bit of oogling in its first few days. What was especially interesting was watching a plain tree stump turn into something fun over the course of a couple weeks. There is one remaining stump in the Walker’s front yard and he tells me they are considering getting that one carved into a set of small bears climbing. I hope they decide to do it. I love seeing all of the bears in Midvale.