It has been way too long since I have written a blog. Life has been busy- but that is nothing new.

So what is new? Kisa is now walking, and I have to say, I am loving it. Every parent in every grocery store over the past 13 months told me that when my daughter started walking my "life would be over". Well... whatever you say, crazies. It is fun to watch her take so much joy in her ability to move around. She gets so excited sometimes that she will run up and down the hallway just for the sheer joy of it. That is always fun to watch, and in terms of getting into stuff, IMO, it really makes no difference if your kid is crawling or walking. Either way they require constant supervision!

I am finally entering the phase of parenthood that I most anticipated: toddlerhood. I know I am flying blind here, so all you seasoned parents might be shaking your heads at my naivete. I'm sure discipline, potty training, and the terrible twos will give us a run for our money, but all in all, I am enjoying watching my daughter grow. There are so many new things we can do now that she is walking. We have been "exploring" the area around our condo every afternoon. She is a very tactile little girl, and she is interested in all the different textures found outside (grass, flowers, rocks, dirt, pavement). I have never seen anyone so fascinated by anything in my life (except maybe Elmo). I am looking forward to taking her to the park, the pumpkin patch, and the Children's Museum. I am sure we'll be making a trip back to the zoo soon, now that she and Matt can move on their own and she has a little more patience for finding animals.

Another great thing about this age is that we don't have to tote so much stuff with us when we leave the house. Kisa can eat and drink real people food... soooooo nice. She can even use a straw to drink out of a regular cup if there's no sippy cup on hand. It really makes life a whole lot easier at mealtime, since she can self-feed and chew things up... no more preparing special meals and less of cutting things into tiny pieces. I'm loving that!

In other news, I'm back on the WW wagon and running 5-6 days a week. It's been good for me both physically and mentally to have some "alone time" every morning. We have a jogging stroller so Kisa joins me on my runs, but she is content to sit in her stroller pointing out birds, cars and squirrels the whole time, which leaves me free to think. Initially I had planned to not exercise on the weekends, but I've been finding that I miss the routine and the exercise on Saturdays and Sundays, so I usually sneak a shorter walk or jog in on those days as well.

Over the past month I've lost 9 or 10 pounds. I'm not to my goal weight, but I have been sticking to my diet and exercise and that's what's important to me. Matt is fond of telling me that weight is a poor measurement of fitness anyway... when your body is replacing fat with muscle you can be in better shape at a higher weight.

Finally, in 9 days Matt and I will be hopping on a plane to Southern California for a 5-day trip (it will be the first time we've been away more than two days together since our honeymoon, and our first trip without Kisa). Matt is going to be in his friend's wedding, and we'll be hitting up Disneyland for the first time in Matt's life, so it should be a really fun weekend.

It is actually really cool how planning this whole trip has played out. We live on one income and we don't have a whole lot of money, so we were stressed about the cost. With airfare for two people and four nights in a hotel, plus meals and tickets to Disneyland, it would have been a crazy expensive trip. We finally decided to just put on a happy face and try to enjoy it (since most of the expenses were unavoidable anyway).

I feel like God has been blessing us a bit though, because this is something that we REALLY need and I have seen the way he has orchestrated events so that we're now able to take the trip without blowing a huge chunk of our savings.

First, we found out we had some frequent flyer miles that we were able to use to buy a ticket for Matt. Then, his friend offered to get us into Disneyland for free on our second day down there. Finally, another friend offered to let us crash at their place for the whole trip! So now I'm feeling like we can enjoy our trip without feeling guilty about spending money we shouldn't be. Isn't God good?

I'm sure I have more I could blog about, but as usual I'll cut this short so I can get back to my mommy duties. :)