Sunday, February 21, 2010

So much to do, so little time

Things have been pretty busy in the Canfield house. We have one very tired and growing boy who has now proven that he can sleep anywhere. We have been out a few times lately for various reasons and Thomas is a champ at going to sleep somewhere else and sleeping in the car all the way home and going straight to bed.

First we had a great night out on Valentine's Day. It was the night of my book club, so we planned to have dinner with each other and our husbands. It was a huge hit. We had really interesting conversation and we all got a night with adults on Valentine's Day that was way better than going to a restaurant. One thing I've really enjoyed about being on maternity leave is that I have had more time to get to know some of these folks and I'm really happy about that.

Second, we continue our daily family workout time. I'm really going to miss mornings in our house when I go back to work. We all get to hang out together and eat breakfast after our play time. I'm going to continue working out, but I'll have to do it earlier and get out of the house by 7am so that will change our routine. Look at these kids - so cute :)

The other big news is that we bought a new car. We went to look at the Chevy Traverse, but they didn't have any in stock and it turns out that the Chevy Traverse, the GMC Acadia, the Buick Enclave and the Saturn Outlook are all the same car. We were looking for a car with three rows that would have decent mileage and be able to tow the jet skis during the summer. We loved the Acadia when we drove it and it turned out that they had a used Saturn Outlook with low mileage and we were able to negotiate all of the features we wanted (like a tow package and navigation).

Otherwise, we are busily preparing for my return to work - only one week of leave left. I'm really going to miss all of this great time with my family. I'm planning to really soak up the weekends with them. It is amazing how fast the kids are growing. Charlotte is really active and so chatty. Thomas is full of energy and he gets new words every day. He said a two word sentence this week - "Bye bye Doggie" to my parents dogs and "bye bye Daddy" when Josh went down the stairs. Pretty soon they will both be competing in the Olympics (Thomas on the USA Hockey team and Charlotte in speed skating). I better go to sleep so I can keep up with them tomorrow.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

30 Day Challenge

This morning I completed my first 30 day challenge on EA Sports Active. It has now become a family activity :) We all get up in the morning and do our workout together. For Thomas this means a lot of playing on the slide and laughing when the program tells me to jump (I'm not sure why he things jumping is so funny, but he does). I decided to give myself a little treat for finishing. No, not food - shoes. I figure shoes will continue to fit, even as I lose the weight, so they are a good investment.

Charlotte also got in on some of the action today. We brought out her activity gym and laid her on it. She doesn't get a lot of time on the floor to exercise since we want to keep her protected from Thomas. But, he has been really good with her, so we are doing new things like putting her in her swing and using her mat. She loves it - kicks her legs, rolls on to her side and smiles at everything she sees.

My other big project this week is clearing out the storage closet in our loft. We have boxes up there that never got unpacked from when we moved in here in 2007. Most of it is my stuff and I have found myself much more willing to get rid of things than I used to be. We want to close off the loft and make it into a bedroom for Charlotte. That way we will be able to maintain a guest room in our house. The storage closet will have to be turned into a real closet, so we can't keep too many things in there. The final part will be going through all of my knitting supplies (I have tons of yarn), organizing them into projects and then clearing out some of the yarn that I'm never going to use.

This week went by really fast - probably because I spent another 2 days at the dentist. I have only 2 appointments left with the dentist and then a couple with an oral surgeon to fix up one last tooth. It is so great to get this done - even though it is not a lot of fun.

With things going by so fast, we didn't take any pictures. We'll try to be better about that this week.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Where does the time go?




Last week, on Josh's birthday, we went to lunch at Chuck E Cheese. Yes, Josh is over 30 and he picked the place - he thought it would be fun for Thomas :) We had a great time. Even Charlotte got in on the action by driving the jeep.

Friday was Charlotte's two month appointment and she is doing really well. I had to go back and check on Thomas' stats and she weighs more than he did! She is 12 pounds, 12 ounces, 23 inches - he was 12 pounds, 1 ounce and 23.5 inches. We'll have to see is she keeps up the trend. We've been trying to give her more opportunities to explore. We got out the bouncy seat for her and today I got out the floor mat with all of the hanging toys. It is so different the second time around because we have to keep her protected from Thomas so she doesn't get as much time on the floor as he did :)

We are definitely starting to see some personality from our baby girl. She smiles and coos at us and she just loves to interact. She does not like to be poked by her big brother and I'm starting to sense that he is going to have to watch out for her when she gets mobile. I think she will be chasing him down and poking him back.

Both of our kids are finally healthy again. It is great to see Thomas happy and hungry again. He is definitely starting to test his limits. He loves to climb and wants to go and explore everything. We are trying to keep a balance between letting him explore and keeping him safe. We bought him a slide that we put in the workout room. He loves it and it allows him to do some good climbing.

Josh gets up with Thomas every morning and feeds him breakfast. When I come out later (like an hour or two later) dressed for my workout, Thomas comes running over and is so excited to "work out" with me. He especially likes the running and the jumping :)

After my last post, I went to book group and had a great discussion about Omnivore's Dilemma. I also discovered a new place in Bremerton that sells local food called Fresh Local. They have produce and cheese and locally raised grass fed beef. Last week I made pot roast on Friday and it was really good. It was also really expensive. Which means that we are eating a little less meat. I also got some great lentils there and made lentil soup. It turns out that Thomas likes lentil soup, so we will be making that again. I've also been making bread in my bread maker again. I have a great recipe for parmesan peppercorn french bread and Josh and Thomas love it, so I have been making it over and over. I haven't been able to get the whole wheat bread to work right in my bread maker, so I am now off to locate better recipes for bread machine wheat bread.

It has somehow gotten late again, so I must be off to sleep.