Bye bye July!

July was a tiring month for me. I've been so tired, in fact, that I've almost wondered if I was sick. I think I'm fine. I got myself a little down time this weekend, and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to tackle August. I'm forgetting to look for the photo worthy moments in my life lately. Today's should have been my feet covered with bubbles as I got to soak in a luxurious bath for about 45 minutes this morning while Lee took the girls to the park. Instead, I pulled this one from 3 years ago today out of my iPhoto. I was 14 weeks and 1 day preggo, and I guess I thought I was ginormous haha!


We have come such a long way in 3 years! I can't believe how easily my kids go to bed now, and Mariele sleeps through the night, and she is weaned! She has also decided to potty train herself. She gets panties out of her drawer and puts them on. She brings me her little froggy timer to set, and when the timer dings, she sits on the potty by herself and sings the ABC song until she starts to trickle. Little Miss Independence wants to do it herself!

Yes, we have (almost) arrived!

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My Sweet Loves...

Tiring Thursday...

Thursdays are full and tiring, but fun for the kids. Mariele had fun at Kindermusik, followed by lunch out with Mommy! Love my cute little lunch buddy.





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Riveting!

No, contrary to the expressions on their faces, they are not watching C-SPAN to see what is going to happen to the nation's debt ceiling. They are, however, watching "Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper." Analese loves that the main character of this movie is Princess Anneliese.



Now, I'm going to whip up some energy balls. Thanks, Janna, for the recipe!

Pool Love!

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Not so bad Monday...

So far, this week has a better pace to me than last week did. Exercising will be a bit more of a challenge this week, since the treadmill is disabled until next Monday. I will have to do Jillian Michaels workouts, or jog on the Wii Fit Plus, or...GASP...pound the pavement!

I'm thinking Analese's loose tooth may have actually been a false alarm. I could swear that the tooth shifted a little, and was slightly loose that night. Maybe she knocked it on something. It seems to be well rooted now. I'm glad. I really wasn't quite ready for that!

We went out to get Lee a car battery this afternoon. Then we got to eat dinner at our favorite Tex-Mex place. Lee went right up to the tortilla lady as she was busily making tortillas and basically asked for the recipe! She did not speak English and got her manager to speak to Lee. He was so very nice and actually gave Lee the recipe for the tortillas! YAY! So as soon as I procure the corn flour, I will be trying to reproduce a Chuy's tortilla!

Analese goes through several swimsuits per season, since we swim so often and she just won't stop growing. When we were at Sam's waiting on the car battery, I decided to buy her this cute Speedo tankini. In the first photo, she was too busy showing Mariele something on the computer, but you can see the back of the swimsuit. I finally got her to strike a pose for the second photo.




Oh, cute story from Sunday morning. Analese had come into our bed in the early morning hours (dark early morning) because she said her nose was sniffy. Well, turns out she had a little nosebleed. We were all sleeping in a bit, and when Mariele woke up in the other room, she was quite peeved off. She was yelling "ME WANT MY DIDDY!!" (Diddy=Sissy) I don't know what I'm going to do with her in a couple of weeks when Analese goes to a sleepover. She is so used to having her bed buddy.

I am awaiting news any day now for my sister in law to go into labor with her first child. My girls will have a new cousin, and we will get to find out if it is a boy or girl cousin upon birth.

Mariele says "swim"

Mariele has always pronounced it "whim." Today she learned the proper articulation. And she is quite proud of herself.

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Finally!

The week is over!


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5 years ago today...

Had to do another "look back."

This is the never-ending week, and my day is just now drawing to a close.

And of all the weird happenings, my fingers are burning like I have a sunburn, and the only thing I can trace it to is the fact that I cut up jalapeño peppers earlier today. My skin is so freaking weird!!

Note to self: wear gloves next time.

The positive? The dish turned out really yummy, albeit a but fiery.

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Thursday... And I'm tired!

Today, Analese had cheer camp. They took a funny face photo.


Mariele had so much fun playing the triangle in Kindermusik.


After all of the morning running around, and the afternoon grocery run, I could barely peel myself off the couch after a dinner of hummus and pita chips (I fed the kids pancakes, eggs and fruit). My solution to this extreme fatigue was to suck it up and do a double treadmill workout of 4.2 miles. Now, I think I will go and crash in bed for 8+ hours.

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Of Busyness and Fleeting Moments...

This is a tiring week. It is a bit of a tail chasing week, as we are preparing for a special church service and fellowship potluck this weekend. I was just thinking this afternoon about how these really are the best years of our life as our kids are growing, but we often seem to be too busy to fully savor the moments. The busyness leads to a lot of fatigue and tiredness. We do plan on slowing down very soon, and this week is unusually busy for our family.

Then...here is the kicker....Speaking of fleeting moments, or fleeting 5 years, Analese pops up with a loose tooth today!! The other night, I looked at her as she was getting out of the bathtub, and I thought her right front tooth had shifted or something. I felt of it, and convinced myself that I was imagining things. But it does seem to be loose tonight! She is so excited. She can't keep her tongue off of it, and she keeps looking in the mirror and saying things like, "I'm really growing up!"

This also prompted me to measure the kids tonight and calculate their growth percentiles. Here is the breakdown:

Analese

40.8 pounds (52%)
42 3/4 inches (45%)

Mariele

26.6 pounds (24%)
33 1/2 inches (5%)

Analese has always hung around the 50-60% mark on the growth charts since infancy. Mariele is my tiny, petite, short one. They are both perfect, in my eyes. Total healthy cuties.

I took loose tooth pictures while Analese was in the bathtub tonight. The loose one is the front right. And, as you can see, her tongue is constantly pushing on it. She is so very proud!

A look back...

July 19, 2009

Play day!

We had an unexpected visit from a friend this morning, so School room Central became Play room Central. It was a nice drizzly, rainy morning, just perfect for playing in the cozy school room. Still loving the flexibility of homeschooling also. This was a nice vacation day.

Superb Pool Day...

This afternoon, during "quiet time," Lee encouraged me to go float in the pool with my kindle. I seriously almost cried, because I've had such a deep longing to do that for the longest time. I spent an entire hour on the pool float reading my kindle, catnapping, and eating an ice-cream bar before the rest of the family joined me. It was a most refreshing, much needed mommy break!

The kids love to swim. They really can't get enough. Mariele was playing with the empty (rinsed out, of course) pool acid bottles. They served as a rather interesting pair of floaties.


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Whirly Twirly Girlie...

First Grade Ergonomics

As part of her Computer Skills & Technology lesson today, Analese had to exhibit good posture at the computer. I give her an A+ haha!


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Fun Thursday...

Thursday is our extracurricular day. Mariele has her gymnastics class early, then Analese has her day camp until 12:30. Today, and for the next three Thursdays, Mariele gets to do Kindermusik classes. I have a friend who is in training to be a Kindermusik instructor, and she has to do four practicum classes to complete her training. She invited us to be a part of these classes. Mariele had a blast. She really does love music, and her favorite thing was playing the triangle. After we picked Analese up, we all went to lunch at a wonderful coal fired brick oven pizzeria on the waterway. Lee had a day off work, so we were able to have fun as a family. The pizza was, oh so good. The girls got to play with pieces of pizza dough. Afterwards, we took a short walk in the intense heat. The girls love the sidewalk that winds down the hill. Analese (the one who was born and spent the first two years of her life nestled in the foothills of Colorado) calls this a "mountain."





After all of that activity, Mariele was hot, sweaty and tired.


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How do they sleep like this?

Since sharing an entire queen sized bed, my girls very often fall asleep practically on top of each other. This morning, this is how I found them when I went in to wake them.


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Ahhh sunset...

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Happily Busy...

I just can't believe that we are already in our fourth week of school. We are hitting our stride, and the days are nicely busy. I was, however, looking with longing out the window at my pool float thinking I wish I had an hour out there by myself with my kindle. Not quite sure how to make that happen, but I'm going to try to find a way. That would be the most refreshing mommy/teacher break. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my job, but everyone needs a brief escape now and then.

Today's photo was taken five years ago on this very date. I can't believe how big she is now!

Things that make you go hmmmm...

It was 94 degrees, after a brief rain, and Lee turned on the gas fireplace for the girls and made them hot cocoa to drink.

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Fearless...

Mariele jumped from this high wall about a hundred times at this pool party we went to tonight. I thought it was too high for her, but she had a different opinion about it. She just had to do it after watching all of the bigger kids jump. That is the dutiful teenage lifeguard (it's her pool) catching her.

Here is a short video clip.

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Me wanna wew panties wite now!!

Mariele gets ideas into her head that she want to do things "WITE NOW!" Every day lately, it's "Me whim (swim) WITE NOW!" This morning, she got the idea that she really wanted to wear panties after seeing the Elmo potty training video. She is almost 100% #2 trained, but she is 0% pee trained. I figured that it would not hurt to let her feel the sensation of wetting her panties to start to make the connection, so I let her choose a pair of panties and put her out in the backyard for awhile. She did wet 2 pairs of panties (and 2 shirttails) in a 2 hour period, but it was probably a good introduction to potty training. Analese was trying to instruct her by saying, "Mariele, if you need to go pee pee, you just need to hold it like this [I guess she was demonstrating a kegal?] until you get to the potty." What does anybody ever do without a big sister in their lives?

Dinner tonight and other randomness...

Dinner tonight was awesome. Our garden is going crazy, by the way. We had tomato basil pesto bowties and chopped salad with red wine vinaigrette. Yummo. If I was not so tired right now, I would go snack on some leftovers.


This morning was the big butterfly release. One of them flew out like a jet airplane and never looked back. The other one was a little more hesitant, but it had also flown the coop by the time Mariele and I got home from grocery shopping.

Analese made a friend in Little Gym camp today. It was sweet the way she and this little girl seemed to have such great chemistry.

Mariele is becoming an awesome swimmer. Lee and I even sat in the hot tub tonight and watched both girls swimming in the big pool. Mariele with no floatie! The girls like to hold hands and jump in, then Mariele swims to the steps.

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I'm so tired, I could sleep like this...

This is a photo of Analese taken five years ago on this date.

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Monkey in a tree...

Took this one yesterday in the mall play area.


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Fourth of July!

It was a firecracker free Fourth of July in these parts. Texas is in a severe drought, and the burn ban is in effect, to include any and all fireworks. It was a little strange having NO fireworks and not hearing all of the pops throughout the neighborhood, but this Fourth of July was SO EXTREMELY BETTER than last year's. I really could not complain at all. Here are my favorite people all snuggly in the bed this morning. Mariele has her naked dolls, of course.




We enjoyed a lazy morning, followed by lunch at Freeb!rds. We then went to the mall for a bit, and then braved the heat out at the botanical gardens. We came home, I exercised, then we jumped in the pool for the evening. It was, all in all, a lovely holiday.

OH, and we have a butterfly!! Still waiting for the other to emerge.

Mariele's (current) favorite dolls...

The first thing that Mariele does with any doll is to remove every stitch of clothing. We have many naked dolls in our house.


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Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

And remember Texans, no fireworks!

Night night...

Tired from the week. Hitting the sack.


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