March Goals

March Goals
Health goal- To eat a better breakfast.
House goal- My laundry has been a bit overwhelming the last few weeks. I want to get it back under control.
Spiritual goal- Work on our scripture study.
Family Relationship goal- To go on a date with my husband. A goal I have really been working on for a month is making a better dinner experience for all of us. We've gotten so used to Red Fish eating before Two Fish gets home and taking turns eating after he gets home it's become a mess. I've noticed a HUGE difference now that we are trying to sit down at the table together. I'm working on my menu plans and grocery shopping too as part of the new budget. This is all extremely hard for me.
Mental Health goal- Read two books a month. Listen to more music.
Financial goal- Transfer my 401k.

February Goals
Health goal- floss my teeth on a regular basis. Schedule a dentist appointment. Continued from last month. I did actually go see the dentist, and yes it was as awful as I thought.
House goal- Work on getting on cleaning schedule.- Did great some weeks and terrible last week
Spiritual goal- Have Family Home Evening every week. Continued from last month. Did great!
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. Went well!
Mental Health goal- Read two books a month. Continued from last month. Done.
Financial goal- Put together a budget for the year based on our spending reports for the last year. Continued from last month. Done and actually stuck to it.

A Proud Scuba Heritage

As most people know, we are a scuba family. My girls can be certified in 8 and 10 years respectively. They are being prepped already. =)
Here is Red Fish doing a little light reading. One of her favorite books currently is Basic Cave Diving by Sheck Exley. The cover just happens to be her favorite shade of blue. It's almost the same color as her beloved Uncle M's car.

Carrots

New Fish hasn't been very interested in the cereals we have tried so we decided to try some veggies. Mostly she just spit the carrots all over us and laughed.

Red Fish wanted to get in on all the action of course.

Cranford

By Elizabeth Gaskell

A comedy about early -Victorian life in a small town. Elizabeth Gaskell describes the lives of several elderly spinsters and their deep connections to each other. The novel has a strong feminist tone because it turns away from the traditional heroines of the 19th century and tries to show the dignity and value of these women's quiet lives. Gaskell beautifully portrays the importance of the female bond between friends and the poignant relationships that can only be found between women.

The beginning was a bit slow but it picked up toward the third chapter.

Refueled

Yesterday for some reason my little girls just wanted to be snuggled and read to pretty much all day long. I gave up on trying to "get anything done" and spent the day enjoying the extra snuggling. The girls were playing together and being so adorable. New Fish kept playing peek a boo with me or Red Fish by pushing her face into my arm or stomach and then whipping around really fast and laughing. I love it. We had a great time just playing together.

I was spoiled a bit this week. I went to book club and girls night. I got to leave the house sans babies (not even the dog whom I take with me some places) and spend two evenings with fun friends talking about motherhood and life. It was really refreshing and totally refueled me. My wonderful husband put the girls to bed both nights by himself. I love my family but sometimes it's just nice to spend time with other moms and laugh about what we do all day. (Plus I got some of them to try some sushi! Now I just need to get them all diving.)

Ready For The Day

I told Red Fish she was going swimming this afternoon so this is what she dressed herself in for the day.

Just Cute

The other day I made a bottle for New Fish and then set it on the counter while I answered the phone. I had to write down some things during the conversation so it took a few minutes. New Fish had been lying on the floor playing with some toys and Red Fish took the bottle to New Fish, laid New Fish on her arm and fed her the bottle. It was so sweet. I really wish I could have gotten a picture, but of course they stopped when I got out the camera.

Tonight Two Fish went to the store for a few things and the whole time he was gone, Red Fish kept referring to him as "My Daddy Mine!" It was so cute. She really loves her Daddy.

Resist and Shape Up

We've been doing some watercolor resist paintings. We've used crayons, oil pastels, and rubber cement to resist the water color. The crayons didn't work that well because Red Fish doesn't push very hard. The oil pastels and rubber cement have been really fun.
Now that Red Fish has all of her colors down we've been talking about shapes. We do two collages at a time so she has to match the shapes.

Moving Up

So I finally fixed the crib bumper (it had a big hole in it) and we moved New Fish officially out of the cradle. I'm a little sad the day has come so fast.

I think she was pleased to be moving to a more spacious area. It struck me tonight how much I think she is starting to look like Red Fish. It might be just because Red Fish was bald and chubby too.

This is Red Fish at 5 months.

Recent Outings

We still haven't been going out much. New Fish keeps going back to her RSV cough so we stay home. Red Fish has been pretty restless and she keeps trying to convince me that she needs her wading pool brought in from the garage. She also tries to sneak outside. Poor kid. Spring is coming soon we hope. (I wouldn't mind getting some more skiing in this year though.) This is a terrible photo from my cell phone but it's the only one that sort of turned out. We went to the dinosaur museum again with some friends a little while ago. This time Red Fish was tall enough to see into the water and sand pit so she and her little friend played in them for a good long time.
We went to the aquarium on Tuesday during Two Fish's eye exam. New Fish was asleep pretty much the whole time.

Here is Red Fish petting a sting ray. Usually she is too scared to touch them and rips her hand out of the water when the sting rays come close but this time Red Fish was brave.

5 Months and Surgery

Two Fish's surgery was a success. He now has 20/20 vision instead of 20/400. He could only kind of make out the biggest E on the eye chart before and it was blurry. So it's pretty amazing that he can see now. He put on his glasses to see how bad it was before and it made him a little sick.

New Fish is 5 months old now. The time is flying. She is rolling around and pretty close to sitting up. She can sit up from an angle but not from lying flat. She thinks it's hilarious to have her hands kissed so she is always holding them up for me. She is very smiley and happy. I thought she was teething earlier in the month but nothing has materialized. She isn't very interested in solid food yet but she can drink a bottle down fast. She usually plays around for a long time before she really gets to eating. New Fish is sleeping through the night until 6:00 am about 5 nights a week, which has been great. She loves to watch Red Fish. Everything her sister does cracks her up. She sings and gurgles all day long. She is quite a talker.
She has lost all of her hair except for this little patch above her neck. My brother M refers to it as "the skullet." I just tell him that fat and balding works for New Fish. Not a lot of people can say that.

Daddy's Valentines

*Notice that Two Fish is wearing glasses. He is preparing his eyes for his surgery tomorrow and hopefully he will never have to wear glasses again!These two girls love their Daddy. They get so excited when Two Fish gets home from work. There is a lot of jumping and smiling and two little girls who immediately want to be held. (I'm always happy to see him as well.)

Lately Red Fish has wanted me to play her songs out of one of our song books every night. She sits on the bench with me and picks out which songs I should play and sing. She really loves "Once There Was A Snowman" and "Popcorn Popping On the Apricot Tree." Tonight she requested a song about Daddy, so I played "Daddy's Homecoming."

I'm so glad when Daddy's comes home. Glad as I can be!
Clap my hands and shout for joy and climb upon his knee.
Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this.
Pat his cheeks and give him what? A great big kiss.

Red Fish kept breaking out into sobs through the whole song but every time I would stop playing she would get REALLY upset. She kept asking me to play it over and over again. Finally she told me "Dad no bye bye." I guess she was working through her feelings on Daddy leaving for work everyday. She misses him terribly when he is at work and asks me all day when he will come home. I tried to tell her that the song is about Daddy coming home but I guess that just reminds her that he has to leave. It was heartbreaking.
Two Fish took me to see a play on Friday night. We still have tickets to two more plays over the next couple months. We saw Twelve Angry Men. It isn't exactly romantic for Valentines but we had a great time. I liked the play. I've never seen the movie so I've added it to our Netflix cue.