-1-
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.
-2-
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.
-3-
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!
-4-
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?
-5-
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!
-6-
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.
-7-
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!!
