A Week In the Life : Day 1

Ali Edward's is a huge inspiration to me as far as photography and scrapbooking goes.  I follow her blog and rarely miss an article she has wrote.  She has many projects that she does on an annual basis and one of this is called A Week in the Life.  Essentially you take a whole week and take pictures of what your life is like.  I've never attempted to do this project, since my life is very routine based.  We do the same thing day in and day out.  But this year Ali pointed out that just because your routine is the same everyday, is it going to be the same next year?  Uhhhhh....no!  So that little lightening bolt got me commited.  HOWEVER, I left myself plenty of room to say...I'm okay if this doesn't get done. Reason being that I've left it that way is because deadlines and commitments have stressed me out too much lately.  They cause me to not function as a mom, and that is NOT acceptable.  So if I don't get this project done oh well!  That being said here is a short synopsis of

Day 1

{Monday}

Get out of bed time.  I had been awake since 6:00 feeding Charlotte.

The face I wake up to every morning.  Yes we cosleep, you got a problem with that?

Frosted Flake Breakfast
{There is no natural light at this time in the morning, and my flash turns the girls into ghosts1}

In the car on the way to the gym.

9:00
Came home early from gym since Charlotte through a MAJOR tantrum in the childcare.  10 min of crying and they come get you.

Time to work on the computer.  Couponing and finishing up a overdue scrapbook layout.  Girls were watching a movie since they missed the one at the childcare.

All the essentials for working on the computer.  Yes a large Diet Dr. Pepper is essential.  I'm trying to quit but it isn't going well  : (

11:00
Arts and crafts time!
The girls felt like painting.

11:30
Charlotte wakes up from nap, and demands I take some pictures of my cutie pie!

12:00
Lunch

Charlotte trying to grab my lunch.  Sneaky little girl!

1:00 - 2:30
Ran some errands.  Being tired of hauling Charlotte around in her ginormous carrier I tried buckling her in the shopping cart.  She kept sliding down so I put my purse in front of her to hold her up.  She kept herself occupied by pulling things out of my purse to chew on.

4:00
Lily loses her first baby tooth!

8:00
Bedtime. 
Allie is back in diapers at night.
sigh

9:30
Watch X-Men with Russ

10:00
Read biography of J.K.Rowling

10:30
Wish I could capture a picture of the cockroach climbing the blinds in my kitchen.  That truly would document Texas life.  Lest you think I'm not clean many people have reassured me down here that cockroaches are just a part of life.  It doesn't mean you are not clean.  We've tried traps but so far they haven't worked.

10:34
Lights out!
Night-night!

Swim Lessons 2011 -- Allie v2

Poor Allie hasn't been able to go to a couple of her lessons this session.  We felt it was best to keep her out of the pool for a few days to let her medicine take affect so we don't start the whole process over again.  She was ecstatic to return to the pool to night with daddy.  While there I got comments from 5 parents that Allie is "fearless".  She jumps in the water with no reserve and loves going down the slide during free time.  Most the kids in her class scream and cry when their parents try and have them go down the slide alone.  It is great to see how far she has come since last year!  She would have been the screaming kid last year, lol!

Practicing her floating

 

Swimming!

Uh mom, I'm bored!

Yeah I'm bored too, oh and I'm a bit cranky!

Can I have a picture with Barbie?

More swimming....

Hi mom!

My fearless Allie!

Six Month Checkup: Charlotte

Weight: 15.14 lbs -- 50%

Height: 28 in -- +100%

Head: 43 cm

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who asked if Charlotte was still really big for her age.  I replied that I wasn't sure but she seemed to have put on more weight and less height lately.  Totally proved myself wrong on that point today!  The nurse didn't tell me Charlotte's percentages today, but I she did tell me the height and weight.  I knew that gaining a pound wasn't much and also that 28 inches was large jump.  The doctor came in and gave a little chuckle as he said, "Well, she is healthy, but we can't chart her height at all!"  It is still so strange to me that Charlotte is soooo tall!  

The rest of her checkup went well.  She is hitting all her developmental milestones and then some.  The doctor let me know that her four front teeth are racing each other to be the first one in.  Inwardly I groaned because last time I heard that was when Lily popped out four teeth in a matter of days.  Rough times may be just around the corner for us!  

A funny point in the checkup was when he tried to have Charlotte display that she could sit on her own for a few seconds.  Charlotte hates the paper on the tables and it wigs her out.  She startles and arches her back really far in effort to get away from it.  So the doctor set her up but she kept hearing the noise so she would arch and flip herself back.  The doctor noted this as she almost flipped out of his arms and said, "There is no doubt about how strong she is!"  Hehehe!

I did discuss with the doctor about Charlotte having a few problems with solids.  She now gets a bottle of medicine each night to help her take care of that.  I hate that she is so young on medicine but I guess if it helps her feel better, than that is what must be done.

The appointment wrapped up with three shots and oral vaccine.  Charlotte was a good girl this time and didn't store any of it in her cheeks.  She sputtered a few times but swallowed it down.  The shots were horrible for her.  The nurse did them very slowly.  I've found that one the nurses go slow my girls tend to flinch more and have more pain from it.  After was all said done though she was all smiles just like normal!

Blockheads

Russ enjoys LEGOS quite a bit.  I've bought him a few sets that enjoys switching up in his down time.  He also has taught the girls to love LEGOS.  He gets down there by them and shows them how to make fun creations.  With those thoughts in mind I wasn't too surprised to walk in on this scene today...

Charlotte was quite enjoying the daddy/daughter time.  Towards the end she was even grabbing the LEGOS to try and help build.

Family Fun Day: Bowling

Once a month I've been trying to plan something fun for the family to do together.  I want it to be something that we normally wouldn't do.  Most these activities cost a bit a of money and that is why they are being spaced a month apart!  Last month we made it to the zoo.  This month we went...BOWLING!

Lily and Allie were very excited about going.  They were literally jumping around with excitement.  We had never been to our local bowling alley before so i was a bit leery.  Turns out ours is fairly nice.  It did smell a bit like smoke but as far as I could see there wasn't a bar attached, and it was quite clean!  

We quickly donned our awesome shoes and started our game.  We got bumpers for the girls and both used the little ramp.  I had hoped that Lily would be  able to push hers, but who was I kidding?  That girl has no arm strength and her bowl went down the alley at a measly 2 mph!  At least with the ramp she topped out at almost 7mph!  We all enjoyed ourselves.  The girls could hardly wait for their turn to come around before they were hopping up on the deck for it.

Yep even Charlotte got in on the bowling!  ;)

A bit different than planned....

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the food, fireworks, and parties.  This year our 4th of July celebrations turned out a bit different than we had planned.

A few days ago Russ came home and told me that our city had cancelled their firework show.  Apparently since their has been little to no rain this year they had to cancel them due to fear of fire.  But come Labor Day we will have a good showing!  So no fireworks at all this year....boo!

We continued on with our plans anyway.  Every year I buy the girls a 4th of July outfit to take their pictures in .  This year mom gave the girls some super fun 4th of July dresses.  After breakfast we got all cleaned up and headed outside to get a picture.  My less than cooperative older girls allowed this shot to be the best:

We spent the rest of the morning lounging around watching Phineas and Ferb while eating carmel popcorn.  I had already made most of the food earlier in the morning so even I got to enjoy some down time.  Around 2:00 we forced Charlotte to wake up so we could head to the bowling alley.  Turns out the owners of the bowling alley closed up for the day so they could spend time with their family.  Go figure!

With two very disappointed little girls in tow we headed to the mall!  We bought some good smelly soap that I had wanted for awhile.  The girls enjoyed holding up every fragrance to me and asking me if I wanted that one.  In the end each girl got to "buy" two of them and carry their bag around with them.  We stopped at the playground after that to let the girls burn off some steam.  They enjoyed playing hide and seek there with Charlotte watching.  She kept smiling at them as they would run by.

Awhile later we headed home and fired up the BBQ!  We had scrumdidlyumptious meal of steak, corn, au gratin potatoes and green kool aide.  Russ cooks a mean steak I tell you!

For weeks now we have been promising the girls that we would take them to fly their kites, so we took the opportunity to do that.  We walked down to the park and the whole thing to ourselves!  Russ parked the stroller buy a set of bleachers so I could keep and eye on Charlotte but still enjoy watching the girls fly their kites.  The only problem was that the wind died as soon as we got there.  Russ put forth a valiant effort with the girls though to get their kites up in the air by running with them.

See he got one up there!

Charlotte was enjoying herself while I made funny faces at her!

Ahh Barbie took a nose dive.

 
Elmo got off the ground and Allie was SUPER excited.

But all fun things must come to end when we have an accident.  Allie was screaming, "NO MOM!  NO PICTURE!"  I'm mean I know!

We watched some more Phineas and Ferb before sending the girls off to bed.  Russ and I vegged on the couch, me doing some computer stuff and him watching some TV.  Our day didn't go as planned but I think it still turned out okay!

Giggles

Charlotte has a very different type of laugh.  It is sort of a content hum.  I finally caught her on tape doing it, se for yourself.