February Goals

February Goals
Health goal- floss my teeth on a regular basis. Schedule a dentist appointment. Continued from last month.
House goal- Work on getting on cleaning schedule.
Monday laundry day, Tuesday put away laundry and clean bedrooms and upstairs hall, Wednesday bathrooms and laundry room and tiled areas, Thursday downstairs carpeted areas, Friday kitchen and wood floor areas. It seems to be working pretty well (with some help from Two Fish) but I need to work on doing a daily pickup so things don't get out of control.
Spiritual goal- Have Family Home Evening every week. Continued from last month.
Family Relationship goal- set aside specific time everyday to just play with Red Fish and New Fish and do nothing else. Go on a date with my husband. Work on including at least 3 art projects and music activities every week with my girls. Continued from last month.
Mental Health goal- Read two books a month. Continued from last month.
Financial goal- Put together a budget for the year based on our spending reports for the last year. Continued from last month.

January Goals
Health goal- floss my teeth on a regular basis. Schedule a dentist appointment. The last year of fertility drugs and pregnancy were really hard on my poor mouth.
I didn't schedule my appointment but Two Fish has an appointment tomorrow and said he is going to schedule one for me.
House goal- Work on getting on cleaning schedule
I got every part of my house cleaned (except my office but I'm not counting that until I get it back under control) at least once a week this month. My cleaning schedule seems to be working better but I need to work on picking things up on a daily basis or midway through the week it's a disaster.
Spiritual goal- Have Family Home Evening every week
We did this! Our lessons are super short and simple but I think it's working great for us right now. I'm hoping we can keep this up.
Family Relationship goal- set aside specific time everyday to just play with Red Fish and New Fish and do nothing else. Go on a date with my husband. Work on including at least 3 art projects and music activities every week with my girls.
Accomplished! Two Fish and I went on more than one date too which was especially fun! The musical activites are going really well. Red Fish and New Fish LOVE it.
Mental Health goal- Read two books a month.
Didn't quite make it on my two books. I'm about 80% done with my second book.
Financial goal- Put together a budget for the year based on our spending reports for the last year.
We got our spending reports done but haven't quit finished the budget.

Red II

New Fish is feeling much better but we've been staying home 24-7 to make sure she doesn't have a relapse with the RSV. She is growing so fast, I'm sad that nobody gets to see all of her cute little outfits before she grows out of them. We decided to play dress up tonight.
Lovely N made the hat and headband and the outfit was a gift from my friend Shannon. Isn't New Fish adorable? I know, I'm not biased at all.

Blue II

We have been in a collage/mixed media phase lately while talking about our colors. Red Fish is totally in love with the glue. I bought a gallon of nontoxic washable school glue because it's cheaper than buying more and more glue. This time I just poured some on a plate for Red Fish to dip her collage pieces in. We are going to make a collage in each color again.

Feathers, foam, felt, pipe cleaners, yarn, seaquins, popsicle sticks, and pom poms.

This is pretty much our standby activity when Red Fish wants to keep going and I'm out of creativity. We just get a bag of shredded paper, feathers, and random bits to stick on a contact paper collage.

Trying to look like the dog in his "cone of shame."

Playdough

I'm currently on a painting strike. I can't handle cleaning it up for bit. It really isn't all that huge a mess but I have cabin fever and the paint is pushing me over the edge. So we are sticking with easy to clean art this week. I finally got some new playdough tools and Red Fish is having a blast. I love playdough. It's so easy. It's a great activity for her to do while I'm cooking dinner because then she can "cook" too.

Tired baby.

The Cone Of Shame

Oh this dog. This very expensive dog. Last week he cut his foot outside and I didn't know until I saw BRIGHT RED BLOODY pawprints ALL OVER my house. Upstairs, downstairs, carpet, wood floor, EVERYWHERE. I washed his foot (and my whole house) and thought he was all good because it isn't a very big cut. Then he spent two days just laying around the house and I knew he was sick. Today I took him in and sure enough he has a terrible infection in his foot. Sigh... Poor dog. Poor wallet. Poor carpet.

What We've Been Up To

On Saturday we got in another day of skiing. We went with my brother M and his girlfriend E. It was 14-15 degrees outside the whole time and they closed the canyon because it was such a blizzard but we had a great time. The snow was beautiful and there was a ton of powder. I'm still a little sore. Brother M went off a big cliff and fell in a hole full of powder. On Sunday we went and visited all the great grandparents.

All dressed for church in her coat from London.

Shoes my cousin gave her from China Town.

Barbecuing some burgers with a friend.

Red Fish has been making Valentines for the last couple days. I found a foam crafting kit on clearance (how are valentines things already on clearance? The holidays just go by faster all the time.) It has stickers and foam to make butterflies. Red Fish mostly just likes using the glue. Any project with glue makes her happy. New Fish is really in to rattles right now. She really likes toys. It cracks me up a little because Red Fish never cared about toys. All of the old baby toys are practically brand new. Last night New Fish slept until 6am without waking. I feel like a new person!

Orange

Orange paint, orange markers, orange pastels, orange pencils, orange paper, orange junk mail, orange stamp pad, orange stickers

The wall in the playroom.

I Feel Like A Person

I've got this beautiful set of girls and a wonderful husband. Life is good. My two year old poured a jumbo container of formula all over my kitchen, dumped the dog's water dish in the trash and painted my bedroom (with the yucky stuff) all within an hour. It sounds like I wasn't watching her but she is just fast. New Fish has bowel issues from her shots and just doesn't feel well. I'm knee deep in sleep deprivation because I'm not any good at going back to sleep after waking several times. It's been that kind of day.

At the end of it all, I just stopped and thought "Hey, it's a bad day and I still kinda feel like a person." I'm sleep deprived, feeling a little burned out, and have cabin fever and YET I feel like a person. I don't feel sick anymore. I'm just a tired Mommy again and it feels fabulous.

Basically, I've felt crappy for the last four months. I've been sick since I had New Fish. Postpartum hasn't gone well. Well really I felt sick and threw up everyday for 38 weeks before that so I've felt crappy for a good year. BUT after a bunch of trial and error my doctor finally figured out how to help me and now- even on a bad day I feel like a person.

Green

3 Green papers, green ads, green stickers, green stamp pad, green slick stick, green oil pastels, green pencils, green markers, and green paint.

4 Months

Red Fish moved into her big girl seat to make room for her Bubba in the high chair. We took New Fish to the doctor today and Red Fish was so sweet holding her during the shots. She kept saying "Oh Bubba!" and giving her kisses.
Little New Fish is four months old! She had her appointment today and she is 12.10 lbs. She's hit the 27th percentile. She has now officially more than doubled her birth weight. Her height is 23 inches which is the 26th percentile. She was so sad when she got her shots today. I really hate that. At least she doesn't get really sick like Red Fish did. The one real bummer is she still has RSV. She's had it for a few weeks and we thought it was clearing up but the yucky air lately has made her worse. We are just really lucky she doesn't have a really terrible case of it. She's such a happy little sweetheart. She is really into grabbing things with her hands and playing with her toys right now. She watches everything Red Fish does and will be following her around in no time.
We fed her some rice cereal for the first time today. She just kept smiling at us and spitting it back out. I don't think she swallowed hardly any of it. Then she got frustrated with the highchair. We'll try again tomorrow.
This picture is really blurry but it's funny. Red Fish was very jealous of New Fish being fed so she insisted on being fed a bowl of rice cereal. Then Blue Fish ran into the picture and was trying to get a bite too. All my babies want me to feed them!

Blink - The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking

By Malcolm Gladwell
I've been reading a lot of Gladwell in the last year and I'm definitely a fan of his work. This book wasn't as good as The Tipping Point or What The Dog Saw, but it was still interesting. The main topic is rapid cognition thinking or relying on first impressions and our adaptive unconscious. As a graphic designer I always find it frustrating to explain to a client why one design is so much better than another. I can't explain why it's better, I just KNOW. It's part of the gift of being an artist- that part of you that just feels it when it's right. This book made me think about how much I use that unconscious part of my brain on a daily basis. Pretty interesting stuff. I have one book left to read of Gladwell's. I'm looking forward to Outliers.

Weekend

Two Fish and I went to see another play on Friday. Our date night for this month. (Although we went skiing on the 1st as well so dates are going well for this month.) We saw the world premiere of Touched. It's about a woman trying to care for her schizophrenic sister. Her dumb boyfriend takes the sister off her meds and thinks he has cured her. I'm not a fan. It was a little boring and tried to be racy but was just kind of strange. It wasn't terrible though. It was fun to be out with my hubby. I really needed that this week.

We experimented with color mixing in an egg carton. She started out with just red, blue, and green and I tried to show her how they could combine to make different colors. She was more interested this time but mostly she just liked painting the egg carton (and the table.)

There was more napping in strange places.

Dinner with Grandma. She knows all of these fun finger plays and songs that she put in a book for Red Fish for Christmas. She showed us all of the motions to the songs. We have been using the whole book pretty much everyday because Red Fish is totally obsessed with it so now we know some fun things to do with it.

Purple and Chunky

When I showed Red Fish that red and blue paint make purple she was just furious I ruined her red and blue paint. She is in this phase where she likes to paint her hands with the brush and then put a 1000 finger prints on the page. It makes me crazy because I hate scrubbing it off her and she got finger prints on my favorite pajamas but I need to relax about it. A purple fingerprint on polka dot pajamas isn't the end of the world.
New Fish is going to be four months old tomorrow. I can't believe how fast it is going. The saddest part of having a little baby in the winter is that all of their cute parts stay covered up all day. She is starting to get these fabulous chunky legs and I wish I could leave them out all day. I love all of the creases in her rolls. Chunky baby legs are my favorite.

Fuzzy

I'm not sure what Red Fish does every night to make her hair look like this in the morning. Everyday when she wakes up her hair is a curly, frizzy, snarly mess. I think it must involve a lot of acrobatics to make it look like that.

Red Fish has been creating from morning to night lately. She is all about stamps, markers and stickers. I've just been leaving them out all day. Things were going pretty well until she got out the pre-inked brushes and painted part of her face blue. It didn't come off all the way so she looks like she has a giant bruise.

Just Stuff

Things I want to remember before Mom-nesia takes over.

New Fish is at the most adorable age right now. She is super smiley and giggly. I am having so much fun snuggling with her. She loves to be held and hugged. Sometimes I wish I could do nothing but sit around my house and snuggle her. She likes anything that gives her legs free like having her diaper changed or having a bath. Red Fish likes to help me bathe New Fish and has to have her own rag so she can clean New Fish's feet really good. It's really really cute. Today I was playing peek a boo with New Fish and she was laughing and smiling so big I thought her face might crack in half. She's so cute I can hardly stand it sometimes. She spends most of the day growling and me.

Red Fish has had a huge week so far. She is super smart and communicative but not very verbal. She's had a vocabulary of around 5-7 words up until now, mostly repeating sounds. She relies mostly on sign language. But this week all of the sudden she has come out with: Hi, bye bye, on (as in put my shoe on), me, and mine. I'm so excited because they all came out totally unprompted. She has the highest, sweetest little voice. I got so excited when she told me bye bye on Monday night that she has been saying it all day and waving at me and leaving the room. Then she runs back in a shouts Hi!!! I feel like we are really turning a corner all of the sudden. It's exciting because she is so happy about it.

Also Red Fish has decided to start using the potty today. She has gone in there several times by herself to try the facilities out. I guess I better start coming up with a toilet training plan. I don't really want to put any pressure on her because she just barely turned two and if it isn't her idea it won't work. Any tips? Just the whole idea of it kind of overwhelms me. Maybe Red Fish will just train herself.

I love to watch Red Fish play right now. She is just bursting with imagination. She was playing with a baby doll today and she gave her a bottle, wiped her face off, changed her (apparently stinky) diaper, wrapped her up and kissed her. It was so sweet. Then when she was watching Peter Pan tonight (we got it from Netflix) she was just flying around the room like a maniac. I love seeing her creativity. She learned to peel the back off the foam stickers by herself and she has had a table full of markers and stickers all week. I haven't even had to think about coming up with an art project.

She also let the dog out the back door today and the two of them were running barefoot through the snow. Ay ay ay. I think I'm going to have to put chains on all of my doors.

More Matching

Because all three of us love it! I got the girls more matching outfits at the Carter's outlet for Christmas because Red Fish LOVES to match. Plus when you can get 6 outfits that are supposed to be $17 each and use enough coupons and stamp cards to pay $15 total it makes me happy. There is nothing I love more than a good sale. The little bunny slippers were Red Fish's as a baby but she's been pretty jealous of them now that New Fish is wearing them. When I saw the big ones at the outlet they had to join the Christmas presents for Red Fish.

Naptime

This is what naptime looks like around here. Red Fish plays in her bedroom when she is supposed to be sleeping so I find her sacked out all over the house in the strangest positions. Here she is all tuckered out holding a balloon, wearing her sister's coat around her neck as a scarf, with her sparkly cell phone.

Over the weekend we took Red Fish to see "The Princess & The Frog" while New Fish spent some quality Gammie time. Red Fish cheered the whole way to the movie theater and called the movie "Hop Hop." Red Fish has also been very interested in being a baby. She wants to sit on my lap and have me feed her a bottle and wrap her up in a blankie. It's pretty funny.

Today was also laundry day. Red Fish LOVES to help with the laundry. Today she took all of my wet clothes off the drying racks and put them back in the hamper. Twice. Then she helped me hang them back up and took them back down again and delivered them wet to the closets they belong in. She actually divided up the clothes pretty well. Then when I tried to take the sheets off her bed she tried to hold them on with all her might and screamed "No no no!". Laundry day is just funny around here. My little helper makes everything more exciting.

2010 Here We Come

This post is really just a conversation I've been having with myself or the past little while. The new year is always a good time for me to start fresh and make some changes.

Last year I announced my 12 month plan that was supposed to help me grow and become healthier in body, mind, and spirit. Well it didn't work out exactly like I'd planned. The same day I wrote my goals for the year I woke up puking. Then later that day it dawned on me that I was pregnant. So yes, I made ALOT of changes last year. Just not the ones I thought I would be making.

So I'm going back to my 12 month plan again this year. I have felt stretched very thin lately and overwhelmed and I need more organization in my life. I'm not great with organization or schedules but it's time for a change. I'm hoping that if I add things in a little at a time I can organize my life and keep my priorities straight. I feel like this is going to be a big year for my little family. Knowing myself, I know that the only way I'm going to make any big changes is a little bit at a time. It takes me 4-8 weeks to start to develop a habit. So I plan to make small goals towards my big goals.

First, I need to remind myself of the positive changes I made last year that have stuck.
1. Laundry- I have really stayed on top of my laundry for the past year. I've started doing all the laundry every Monday and putting most of it away by Tuesday. It's become a habit for the most part and I consider this a huge accomplishment.
2. Art- We did a lot of art last year.
3. Outings- we did a lot of fun outings last year. As soon as it's warm again I plan to take my girls out more to see the beautiful outdoors.
4. I survived 9 months+ of puking and got a beautiful baby daughter.
5. I improved my scripture reading regularity.
6. Successfully planned and went on an awesome family vacation. Everyone needs a vacation- camping whatever.
7. I read more books than I have in the previous few years. It's been really fun and good for my sanity. I read 25 books last year.
8. Two Fish put all of our spending and bills into Quicken so we can track our money more carefully.
9. Did a lot of spring cleaning and organization on our house.
10. Decorated and painted 5 rooms.

1. Big Plans

I've been thinking a lot about what's important to me with regards to teaching my kids. I want to expose them to art, music, good books, and spiritual things. I'm doing a good job at the art and books part but music and spiritual needs some work. This year, I want to take more seriously my responsibility to teach my kids. The world is getting to be a scary place and I really need to fill my children's heads and hearts as much as I can in these few short years that I am the most influential person in their life. There are a lot of ways I want to teach them but the tangible plans I've come up with are:
A. Music. I got a lot of stuff for Christmas to help me with this plan. We've been doing music activities every day for the past week and a half and Red Fish is having a blast. New Fish just likes the commotion so far but I think all children are deeply affected by music. We sing, play the piano, do finger plays, and listen to more music. Red Fish can't get enough. It's even helped with her speech a little bit this week. She picked up several new little words this week which is a big deal for us.
B. Spiritual Knowledge. I've been feeling some urgency to bring the spirit into our home more. I'm going to work really hard to have a regular family home evening on Monday nights. We've done it the past two weeks and though it's a struggle to know if Red Fish is even listening to a word we say I think we have to keep trying. I'm working hard to try and prepare nice lessons with visual aids and games and activites that we can use over and over. I don't think every week will be a keeper but I want to start building up a collection of lessons. I also want to make sure that all members of our little family are reading scriptures. We make sure that Red Fish gets read to everyday but we've just started nightly reading in her scripture picture books.
C. Art. I feel like this is really important for Red Fish. The way she has responded to my efforts to provide her with art experiences has been really rewarding for me. I'm excited for New Fish to become interested in creating. I tried really hard last year to commit to bringing more opportunities for art and creativity into our home but it takes a lot of work to make sure I'm keeping up with it. I definitely need to recommit for the year.
D. Read read read to my girls. I think kids can never be read to enough. Two Fish does the majority of reading to the girls because he does bedtime with them but I need to take more opportunities to read to them. (Plus I need more snuggle time with them!)
E. Provide them with a lot of attention and try to listen to them. I'm hoping that if I listen to them even before they can talk they will communicate better with me in later years.

2.My house is a battle that I never seem to be winning. The clutter and mess are starting to take over. I have a plan to stay on a cleaning schedule so that the whole house gets cleaned and vacuumed every week. I also want to try and get a cleaning project done every week. I cleaned the art cabinet out two weeks ago and I switched all the stuff in the girls rooms last week. I'm hoping if I get more organized it won't be such a huge hurdle for me clean my house.

Also the big goal for this year is going to be our back yard. It needs some help and we need to put some serious work into it. We already put in the window well covers so that's a start! I'd also like to make the curtains for my bedroom and bathroom so I can be finished with the upstairs of our house for awhile. I'd like to get some things made for the office, kitchen, and family room as well.

3.To date my husband more frequently. We've always been good at making our dates a priority until last year. No more. This year I want to go on a date with my husband every month. We have play tickets through April so that should help. We need to get to the temple more often as well.

4.Budget Budget- We got all of our bills and spending habbits logged into Quicken now so it's time for a new budget. Last year was a year of many many unexpected expenses so it's time for us to buckle down and get some money put back in savings. Also Two Fish is going to be taking his lunch to work more so we don't spend so much on take out.

5.Work
I need to figure out a better balance of working. I've been getting more done and trying to schedule my hours better. It's a work in progress.

6.Friendships
I have never had a great talent for making new friends. I'm good at keeping friends. This last year I've been lonely and I need to make a greater effort to make more friends in my neighborhood. There are some great women in my neighborhood, I just need to get out there and work harder to befriend them. I've been really lucky to have some great childhood friends and some wonderful friends from college who are spread across the country now. I also have some fun friends I go out with once a month from my old neighborhood who have been truly lovely. Red Fish needs more playdates and I need more friends to go on outings with or talk to so this is officially your invitation if anyone is still reading this monster post- Let's be friends! I apologize for my social awkwardness or any perceived stand offishness. I'm just not good at the beginning of friendship! I swear I'm really good at keeping friends! Let's plan some playdates, trade some date night babysitting, go to the aquarium and chat.

So here I go...one step at a time.

January Goals
Health goal- floss my teeth on a regular basis. Schedule a dentist appointment. The last year of fertility drugs and pregnancy were really hard on my poor mouth.
House goal- Work on getting on cleaning schedule
Spiritual goal- Have Family Home Evening every week
Family Relationship goal- set aside specific time everyday to just play with Red Fish and New Fish and do nothing else. Go on a date with my husband. Work on including at least 3 art projects and music activities every week with my girls.
Mental Health goal- Read two books a month.
Financial goal- Put together a budget for the year based on our spending reports for the last year.

Sticky and Red

Today I had planned to do Red with Red Fish but when we looked at yesterday's junk mail and ads to find red things to cut out she went wild. First she wanted me to cut out animals and food for her and then she just started tearing things out at random and gluing them onto papers with a glue stick. She spent a good hour and half filling sheets and sheets of paper and then newspapers with little pictures out of the ads. It was cute to see how hard she worked on it. She really really loves the glue stick. I wish I had bought more during the back to school sales.
The Red Fish returned to the red supplies. Red paper, red stickers, red markers, red pens, red stamps, and red paint. It was a lot of art today.
Little New Fish is becoming a Daddy's girl just like her big sister. As soon as Two Fish comes through that door both girls demand to be held. New Fish goes on Mommy strike around dinner time and wants to be held on Daddy's shoulder just like this. She likes to ram her face into his shoulder and go to sleep.
Red Fish has been up to all sorts of mischief. Today I went out to get something out of the mailbox (without my coat) and I came back to find the front door locked. I wasn't aware she could reach the deadbolt. It took nearly 45 minutes for her to figure out how to unlock it and let me in. She even tried using a little set of plastic keys. She was very upset she couldn't let me in. I thought I was going to have to use a neighbor's phone to call a locksmith or track down Two Fish. Luckily Red Fish finally got the lock turned.

Yesterday during her nap, Red Fish put diapers on all of her stuffed animals. It was hilarious. Then last night in the middle of the night I heard her talking to "Bubba" and found her in the baby's room saying hi. Little stinker.

Yellow

Yellow paper, yellow junk mail, yellow pastels, yellow pencils, yellow markers, yellow stickers and yellow paint.

Curtains

Colorful

Red Fish has been aware of her basic colors since early in the summer but she just becomes more fascinated with color all the time. We spend a lot of time talking about the color of things.
Today we made a blue work of art. Blue tape, blue stickers, blue paper, blue magazine bits, blue crayons, blue markers, and blue paint. I think her favorite part was learning to use the glue stick.

We also love this book Red Fish got for Christmas. It doesn't have any words. It has a CD of music that goes along with beautiful illustrations. Red Fish likes to make her fingers dance on the pages like raindrops. There are pauses in the music that tell you when to turn the page. Red Fish likes to look at the page and then dance around the room until it's time for the next page. She is all about books about colors right now.

Two Fish thinks this is a book for drug addicts but I think it's a classic.

A Little Happy

A little wet on wet watercolor painting. Nothing makes Red Fish happier than an art project. Our attempts at musical activities have been a raving success so far. We spent a lot of time dancing and twirling to this today. A dollar well spent.

Red Fish woke up today and decided to start calling New Fish "Bubba." I think it's cute. Bubba is currently fascinated by toys. Red Fish was never that in to baby toys. Bubba growls when she is concentrating really hard on her toys.

I spent the first two days of 2o1o skiing and hanging out with family. I think every year I forget how much I love to ski. It's unhealthy to be inside so much. I'm an outdoor girl at heart. Nothing cures my winter blues quite like skiing and being out in the mountains.

Big Girl Room

Before

Things are changing at a break neck speed around here and I'm dragging my feet. I'm not ready for all of it. Yesterday at my mother in law's birthday party everyone was talking about crib jumping and I said Red Fish wasn't a jumper. They jinxed me. Sure enough we put Red Fish down for a nap and out she flew. So despite my great resistance it was time for the transfer to the "big girl room."
I worked on this room like crazy while I was pregnant and then I just stopped in September and haven't had time to finish it. Someday she will have furniture (someday when I'm not worried about her climbing it during the night.) It always makes me feel good to make things special for my girl's rooms. I painted the nursery with a mural of fish. This room involved a lot of sewing for me. I had a friend help me put up the bead board and build the window seat. Then we got the stripes painted on and little vinyl damasks. I'm pretty excited about the way it's coming together. I made really cute curtains but we've had some problems with the curtain rod so they aren't up yet.

Seeing This Face Makes All My Hard Work Worth It!

Red Fish has known this was going to be her room for awhile. When we got out the clean sheets and told her she was sleeping in here tonight she got so excited. She jumped on the bed for awhile and then got under the covers. So far we haven't heard a peep but we will see if she makes it through the night.

The window seat. I will take another picture after the curtains go up.

Tomorrow New Fish will officially move into the crib and nursery. Her first step away from me and I'm sad that my little girls are growing up so fast. I'm so happy to see them growing up healthy and strong. These changes mean good things are happening. That's got to be a big part of my new year. I need to embrace the little things that make me happy. Sharing mac n cheese with a smiley two year old. Seeing my baby giggle and bond with family. Big gummy smiles. Big hugs and kisses goodnight. They are at such a great stage right now. They are both changing so fast and there are so many sweet little moments that make my heart sing. It makes all the sleepless nights and overwhelming moments worth it. I guess that's what being a mom is all about. (Cheesy I know, but I need to remind myself sometimes.)