Food, health and other fun topics

My son has been sick for a long time - like most of the last two months. I think he was well for maybe 2 weeks. First he got a cold and that led to a horrible ear infection and two rounds of antibiotics and now he had another cold which also led to a round of antibiotics. This week, Charlotte finally caught on to the trend and got sick. She has RSV. Crazy. I think we have finally turned the corner - Thomas is getting back to his old self and Charlotte is not having any trouble breathing.

The other big health topic in our life right now is working out and eating right. When I was pregnant, we got lazy with the eating and exercising. We knew that we would have to turn things around once Charlotte was born. We started the eating right thing in December, but I started exercising again last week. I have to be honest - I have a real love/hate relationship with exercise. I get up in the morning and grumble my way over to my workout and moan my way through it. BUT, after it is over, I'm ready for more. Like, I'm ready to move more and I feel better (sore, but better). It makes me really mad. I'd much rather lose weight by sitting on the couch and knitting, but it turns out that knitting only burns 2 calories/hour.

For working out, I am relying on several Wii programs. First, I use EA Sports Active for my morning workout. I am doing the 30 day challenge. I like it because it let me choose the intensity of workout I wanted (Medium) and the kind of music I want in the background. Afterward, for fun, we use the Wii Fit Plus. I like to play the games :) If Josh is around, we sometimes play Wii tennis. We plan on going to the park and playing real tennis when it gets a little warmer and less rainy.

And, as far as eating right, we are trying several things. I plan meals in advance - usually for the week. We eat lots of whole grains (especially for breakfast), I have several cookbooks that I like (Healthy in a Hurry and The Healthy Slow Cooker) and of course I rely on the internet for recipes.

Here is an example of a couple of things that we have made and liked:

Last night, we ate Pork Tenderloin with green beans and Sweet Potato and Chickpea Puree. Thomas ate all of it (as you can see from the pictures above). He loved it so much he rubbed some of it in his hair and decorated the table with it. Josh and I though the Pork was a little dry, but it was really good as leftovers for lunch today.

Tonight, we had Pot Roast and Salad. For the pot roast, I used the recipe on the back of the Lipton's Onion Soup box, but used red potatoes instead of white. It was REALLY good. I could eat pot roast every day. But, that is part of the deal - moderation on the pot roast.

For breakfast these days, I'm enjoying steel cut oats (also known as Irish Oatmeal). We eat ours with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a banana. I would never have thought of putting peanut butter in oatmeal, but it is delicious and the whole bowl is only 350 calories.

At book club tomorrow night, we will be discussing Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. A lot of our eating lately has been influenced both by this book, the next book he wrote, In Defense of Food and the movie Food, Inc. I don't ever want to be one of those people who goes around telling other people how to eat or what to eat. I respect that people have to make their own decisions about food (and a lot of other things in their lives). These books and movie made me think and one of the things they reminded me (again) is that I am grateful that we can make healthy food choices. The most heartbreaking part of Food, Inc was the part where they profiled a family with a limited budget trying to choose between eating fruit and vegetables and eating off the dollar menu at (fill in the fast food place).

The healthy choice for me now is to go to sleep since both of my babies are sleeping :)

Just one of those days

I was thinking earlier today that I could look at this day in either a positive light or a negative light. I am generally more prone to look on the bright side of things, but some of the negative things were really funny. For example, both of my children threw up on me a little today. Thomas was coughing so hard that he gagged and Charlotte just had a little too much bottle (so technically, it was just spit up). As a parent, these are the moments that you remember and (in the future sometime) make you laugh.

On to the details of the day.

Thomas has been sick for a while. He had a cold and then got an ear infection (he pretty much gets ear infections every time he gets a cold). We discovered this ear infection in mid December when Thomas was having trouble sleeping and pulling his ear. It was a pretty bad infection in both ears. It took 4 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics to clear it up. We went to the doctor last Tuesday and finally got the all clear. Friday night into Saturday morning, Thomas started coughing a lot again. Saturday he still seemed pretty good. He was eating well and in a pretty good mood all day. This morning, he was still coughing, but only a little, so we went to church. After church, we went to lunch with my parents and Thomas could not stop coughing. He also refused to eat. After lunch, Josh called the on call doctor and went to get some cough medicine since Thomas was coughing so much. The doctor called back and told us to come in to get checked. The verdict? You guessed it - ear infection.

I've never seen him this sick. When he got back from the doctor, he took his medicine and then sat on my lap, ate a yogurt, curled up and went to sleep.

I spent a lot of time after that thinking about all the things I am grateful for. First, I am grateful to have such a great husband. He took called the doctor, took him in and then got the medicine. Second, I am grateful for my parents and Josh's parents. Both of them were really helpful to us at separate times today and we really love the fact that they are so involved in our lives. Third, I am grateful that we have good health insurance and we can see a doctor on a Sunday and get our boy help right away. Finally, I am grateful that we have such a good baby girl. She took a long nap this afternoon and then woke up in a great mood and smiled at me.

So, this is just one of those days. Definitely a lot of challenges, but also a lot of reasons to be grateful as well.

Life in the Canfield house

Sunday morning we took some pictures of the kids because they were being so cute

I decided that Charlotte should start wearing some dresses - and some fancy boots. She just looked so cute. She got these boots from her cousin Catalina who outgrew them quickly.


Thomas found a key chain and he carried it around. He likes to shake things to see what will happen. He loved this one for some reason.

Thomas likes to help us do the laundry. Or he really likes to "put your pajamas in the bag". It is amazing to me how much he understands now. I can say "pick up the toy and bring it to Mommy" and he does it. Amazing.


Charlotte is starting to smile more and to interact by copying what we are doing. Yesterday she giggled. And, she makes a lot more noise than she used to. She coos and babbles. I don't remember Thomas being very verbal at this age. He was pretty quiet.

We've been putting into motion a lot of new house projects. Because I am at home, we have more of an opportunity to do things. I made a list of all the things I wanted to do during the rest of my leave and got started by reorganizing my desk in the kitchen and then reorganizing the bedroom. We bought a great new dresser for the kids clothes. The dresser we were using was a little too small and Thomas' clothes are getting bigger and bigger. Now we have everything put away.

I still have a lot of things on my list. Next up is getting rid of my books. I am having a really hard time deciding which ones to keep and which to give away. We don't have the space for them anymore and I have been reading exclusively digitally for 2 years now. The room that all the books are in is also the music room and the Wii/workout room. We have actually been using it for workouts every day, so I can't wait to get more room in there.

The other things on my list involve some more organization (I have to get my knitting stuff under control and also go through my yarn stash) and lots of cooking. I have been trying new recipes - first I tried a lot of Crock Pot recipes and now I am doing some more regular cooking on the stove. Tonight we had lamb chops and cous cous salad (Josh did not love the cous cous), but the best thing I made this week was a pot roast in the Crock Pot. It was so easy (and I could have eaten the entire thing in one sitting it tasted so good).

Tomorrow I am going to cross the worst thing off my list (right below exercising consistently). I am going to the dentist. I've put it off for too long and now it is time to face the music. I'm a little afraid of how much work I'm going to need, but it is time to get it over with.

That is all the news fro our house. More pictures and stories to come next week.

Catching up with some pictures

Life at our house is pretty exciting right now - as you can tell from the picture above. I love this picture because the toy that is sitting on Josh was put there by Thomas. I had forgotten that kids don't really understand "Don't bug Daddy, he's sleeping". Thomas thinks it is hilarious to put things on Josh and also to pull his hair while he is sleeping.

Thomas got his first haircut the week before Christmas. He was starting to have a really out of control mullet in the back, so we finally took him in to get some trimmed. He was really good for the whole haircut which is amazing since his cousins were there and we were taking a ton of pictures and videos. Afterward, we took him over to McDonald's for some lunch. It was a little crazy since all the kids were out of school.


Here is a rare picture of Josh and I with our baby girl. We are always taking pictures of each other, but rarely have a chance to get a picture together. She is so precious. We took a picture with Thomas as well, but it did not turn out as well since he is so squirmy.


We went to visit my grandparents the week before Christmas and Thomas really liked this rocking chair. It belonged to my aunt, Jeanette, when she was a little girl. He loves having chairs his own size, although he is also now able to get up on chairs that are adult size, so he wants to sit in those as well.

My grandma with Charlotte. She slept for most of the visit...

We are getting back to the more normal routine of life after the holidays. Charlotte now has longer periods of wakefulness. I have been carrying here around a lot in the Bjorn because she likes it and sometimes will fall asleep a little easier if she is walked around.

Thomas continues to grow like crazy and has a lot of energy. We are really thankful that he goes to Robb and Rebecca's twice a week. He needs the change of scenery and his cousins keep him busy so he can get some of his energy out.

Josh has been busy working on a couple of websites and work for the gym.

I have been tackling all of those projects I didn't have energy for when I was pregnant. In addition to trying a lot of new recipes in the crock pot, I've been working on getting rid of things we don't need/use anymore and better organizing the things we do use.

Hope your new year has started off as good as ours!