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Big news of the week – Violet has plumped up nicely in the last six weeks! You may recall in my last update on Violet we were a little concerned about her weight gain (or lack there of), so we stepped up nursing, added a substantial amount of table food & additionally started offering 4-6 oz. of formula per day and the little peanut gained 2 full pounds in 6 weeks!! Looks like we are in the right groove now and we should be able to coast into her 1-year appointment. For the record books, she weighed 17 lbs. 10 oz. at her 10.5 month weigh-in.

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So last week I wrote about teaching the girls Spanish and we’ve been talking about how to do that. JR has always wanted to learn, too, and even talks about getting a Rosetta Stone program for himself. It’s definitely still on my mind as we’ve had workers here fixing up the house. They are listening to Spanish radio stations and talking amongst themselves in Spanish and I’ve been conversing with them about what we want done and how the work is going. Livy is really intrigued by their Spanish and has shown more interest today in repeating Spanish phrases. In case you were wondering, the work on the house entails replacing some siding and trim that has rotted, followed by painting (we’re sticking with the same colors), and a new roof (thanks to the hail storm in March). After this work is complete, we will start talking about landscaping again, but that project got put on hold when we got substantial hail damage to the roof & both vehicles.

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Every time I go out to chat with the workers, I am shocked at how quickly I start sweating and how unbearable it must be to work outdoors everyday. I mean I’m sure they’ve acclimatized to some extent, but this is the hottest July EVER in Texas with 41 days this summer over 100 degrees and many of those closer to 105. Thank God I was pregnant the last two summers, but not this one!

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Last week I mentioned the 5k I did, but JR noted that I neglected to mention my time. It was 36:11 (just over 11 minute miles, which was my goal). Not bad for the first one. I was happy that I met my goal of not stopping to walk. Speaking of exercise, we toured a Lifetime Fitness just up the road last night and they had a 30-day free trial so we decided to give it a go. We were mainly interested in a place to take the family swimming, a place to work out, and perhaps a place to where I could go to get a little leisure time (put the girls in the kidcenter & lounge by the pool or something). We’ll see, it wasn’t everything we were hoping for, but it could be good. Mostly, we were disappointed that there isn’t really anything that our girls are old enough to do except swim and the pool has a sloped entrance, but not gradual enough that our little ones can play without very close supervision (which is hard for one Mama with a baby, a toddler & a preschooler). They also cannot take any floaty things in the pool so I cannot just put Violet in her water walker and have hands for the other two. The indoor rock climbing wall was really cool and JR could probably really get into that. As for me, the group fitness classes seemed a little intimidating, but are probably really effective. We decided we’d go all out for 30 days and then evaluate how much we really got out of it. The biggest hurdle for me will probably be getting comfortable with the kidcenter (and actually leaving Molly & Violet, which I haven’t done yet). My plan is to go during non-peak times so it is not so busy and they will get more attention and everything will be cleaner. They have a pretty nice toddler area where all three of ours can play nicely (the setup is pretty similar to our living room), but the ratio of kids to adults can reach 12:1 which seems awfully high for my aged children. Any tips for making the most of gym childcare?

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We went to Sea World last weekend and it was HOT (see #2 above) and crowded, but the girls loved it. Molly was especially enchanted this time and learned two key phrases that she has been using ever since – “Mama, look!” and “Did you see that?” Pretty darn cute. Everything Molly says lately is awfully cute, though. My favorite word this week is “boobabies” (blueberries). Even made my first batch of blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries tonight. I thought they were really good. But back to the girls, I have been asking them every night for awhile now to choose the prayer we sing before bed. Livy always picks the Hail Mary. Just this last week, Molly started saying, “R Fodder, Mama!” And she knows what she’s saying and expects to hear her prayer. Of course, I indulge both of them and we have a lovely little chorus going. And Molly singing is 10 times cuter than Molly talking (if that’s possible). She sings the ABCs (doesn’t miss a letter), Twinkle Twinkle, and several others she has heard enough times on her children’s CDs. Livy is really getting quite good at singing. Yesterday she was singing, “I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream . . .” all in key, all very pretty. Oh yeah, back to Sea World. The cool thing this year is that if you go once, it’s a season pass so it is like half price this year. Livy’s already planning to spend her birthday there (in December – and it’s fabulous in December), so we figured what the heck. Next time we’ll pack swimsuits for the girls because there is a sprinkler park that they can do in the kids’ section. That would’ve really helped to beat the heat (they are too young for everything in the water park). Oh, and Liv rode her first roller coaster – the Shamu Express!

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I have been reading A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul. There is a lot of good stuff in it. A little overwhelming if you try to do it all at once, but I think little by little we will all be happier if I can get a routine down. This week, my goal was to get comfortable, consistent nap & meal times. Looks like we’re going with naps for Violet at 10 & 2 and Molly at 2 as well. Livy is to the point where she isn’t really sleepy enough to take a nap until 3:30 or 4:00 and by that point if she naps, she won’t fall asleep until 9 or 10 at night. So no more naps for Liv, but I think we will start doing “quiet time” where she sits on the couch reading stories while the babies are napping. We haven’t had overlapping naps for months so it has been heavenly this week to have time to regroup while the babies are BOTH napping! I’m also going to start looking through the on-line resources for the book.

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We are starting to plan a trip to Nebraska in late September. I’ve been thinking about what we kind of fun things we could do with the girls and grandparents, cousins, etc. And that gets me to thinking about weather. Will it be too cool for swimming? Too hot for a full day of fishing? It has been 7 years since we were in Nebraska in September (it was shortly after Sept. 11th for Jane & Drew’s wedding) and despite the fact that we both grew up there and spent 23 Septembers there, I cannot really remember what the weather’s like in September. I have a suspicion that’s because the weather is pretty variable at that point. My friend, Livy, said that one son born in early September needed only onesies and one born in late August needed long sleeved newborn clothes so who knows. For you Huskers, what do you like to do in late September?

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

After a long hiatus, something tells me this is the week to jump back into

7 Quick Takes . . .

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Today I hosted our bilingual playgroup. I started hanging out with this group when Olivia was around a year and a half old, I think. She was one of the oldest children, so none of them were talking and it didn’t really matter that the other ladies spoke Spanish almost exclusively to their children and I didn’t use hardly any Spanish with Olivia. We’ve attended sporadically since Molly & Violet came along, but have stayed on the rotation for hosting because I do enjoy visiting in Spanish and there are some really fun gals in the group. I have not, however, taught my girls to speak Spanish and today I realized that I am going to have to re-think things a bit. Livy was excited for her amigos to come (she knows which group it is if we use that one Spanish word), but found it disconcerting that the children were talking to her in a language she found completly foreign. As a result, she took extra long to warm up. When she did, everyone had to play in English to accommodate my girls even though it is supposed to be a playdate in Spanish. No one gave us a hard time or anything, but it made me realize that I haven’t really kept up with what I thought I’d do when I joined the group. It’s not that I don’t want to teach the girls Spanish, it’s just that . . . I haven’t gotten around to it. But I see that with Olivia, my window is closing. In two short years, she will likely head off to school and my ability to influence her on language (and all manner of other things, but that’s another post) will start to diminish. So if this is my goal, I better get on it. “Research shows that children need to hear a language at least 30% of their waking hours to become fluent” (source: WebMD magazine – specific research not cited but it sounds about right). Am I up for speaking solely Spanish to the girls for two full days out of the week? Part of me thinks, wow, that’s all it would take? And part of me thinks, holy cow, that’s how much it would take?! Guess it comes down to how much I really want it . . .

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That same WebMD magazine had a little blurb about sexual report cards that I found very interesting after working at The Medical Institute for Sexual Health. Apparently, “the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Internet Sexuality Information Services partnered to launch inSPOT.org, a website designed to prevent and control sexually transmitted diseases and to increase the notification of partners. InSPOT’s email service allows users to send e-cards to sexual partners – and even remain anonymous if they prefer. Every e-card includes links to information about how to get tested.” My first thought was holy cow – can you imagine getting one of their e-cards? What does it start with – “Thinking of You”? What kind of artwork do you put on an e-card like that?? But then I got to thinking, you know, it’s not such a bad idea. Knowing that 1 in 4 people over the age of 16 will be infected with a sexually transmitted infection sometime in their lifetime (with two thirds of those infections occurring before they turn 25); and STIs are highly asymptomatic; and people who do know their status are reluctant to admit such infections; it is probably better for the people who were exposed to get an anonymous e-card than to go on unknowingly infecting others (and missing an opportunity for treatment). When I was leaving MI, the doctors on staff were just finishing up what we called The STD Wizard, which was a 5 minute survey people could take to see if they were at risk of infection. Looks like it’s still running! In case there is any question, there are only two primary methods of prevention – abstinence prior to marriage and fidelity within marriage. Period. This is the only method of prevention that is 100% effective. Condoms are really only effective against HIV and even then only reduce the risk of transmission by 85%, which is a significant reduction, but still leaves a fairly large gap for a deadly disease. For other infections like Chlamydia and Gonohrrea, the risk of transmission can be cut in half, but for something like HPV (the most common STI), there is no evidence of risk reduction with condom use. Go read about What Happened in Uganda to learn about what a country can do when they focus on primary prevention – they are the only country to see dramatic reductions in HIV infection and they did it through abstinence & fidelity.

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About a month ago, I ran a 5k. I am not a runner, but two of my brothers were quite successful at Cross Country and with JR training for the marathon, I figured I’d give running a try. JR knew a great trainer who was running a 12-week program to prepare for a 5k, so I signed up and started meeting weekly with other beginning runners. There was a fairly large group with a lot of diversity. Here’s the biggest lesson I learned about running – you cannot make any predictions about how fast someone is by the way they look. There were several people I sized up ahead of time and thought, oh, I’ll be faster than her, only to be humbled shortly thereafter as older, skinny, younger, larger and every other kind of runner ran past me. JR keeps telling me running is an individual thing – you’re just trying to beat yourself. It wasn’t natural for me, but I’ve come to see the benefits in that way of thinking. And to be honest, I actually enjoyed training for something, challenging myself, meeting a goal, celebrating my success. For several weeks after the race, I was “on a break” from running, but have finally decided it’s time to get back on the horse and took Red for a morning run before JR went to work twice this week. Surprisingly, it still feels pretty good.

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JR & I have been talking about going on a vacation. We haven’t been on a real vacation for a couple years now and since our girls are getting older, it seemed like this would be a great time to get out and do something/go somewhere. Afterall, we won’t have a nursing baby and the girls are so much more mobile. So here’s the dilemma – where do you go on vacation with children who are 3, 2, & 1!! It feels like we have reached this great plateau with all toddlers and there should be some magical vacation perfect for us, but when I google vacationing with young children, all I get is where NOT to vacation with young children! So here we are ready for a big vacation and wondering what we could do that would suit our family. Here are my criteria:

be together
change of scenery
relax
have fun
new experiences

Any ideas? We’ve considered the beach, and the mountains, and the staycation. At this point, the staycation might win out as it is easier on the girls to be in their own environment & there are plenty of cool things we could do in Austin that we never seem to get around to doing. I have to admit that the “change of scenery” was highest on my list of criteria, though!

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I’m on a big oatmeal kick lately. I read at KellyMom that oatmeal can help to increase milk supply, so I figured with Violet’s weight gain issues, I might as well give it a try. Don’t really know if it’s helping, but I am realizing that I love oatmeal. Just the little instant flavored packets – super easy, filling & tastey, too! There are all kinds of other things related to nursing that you can find on KellyMom including basically every answer to the most common nursing question – Is this safe while breastfeeding? I highly recommend it. Thanks, Laura, for directing me there.

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My sister, Rachel, just became a Tupperware dealer (is that how you say it?) Need some tupperware? Go check out her website and order to your heart’s content! I’m excited to host a catalog party soon, so if you want to help me get free tupperware, order through me instead!

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Don’t miss the updates on the girls I wrote over the last couple weeks. Updated photo album coming soon (and I mean it this time!).

Violet

Molly

Olivia

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!