January Random - Food Edition!

Since I seem to take so many food-related photos, they may deserve their own post.

January 11 - Homemade pizza night!  (Well, the crust was purchased, but we topped it ourselves!)  Spinach, mushroom, and cheese - my favorite.


January 13 - I eat at least one salad almost every day at home, and it rarely wavers from the following - baby greens, celery, heart of palm, feta cheese, and dressing.  Claire likes feta and heart of palm, so she usually asks for a few bites.  Tonight she asked for her own salad, and I gleefully made her one.  She ate most of it!


January 20 - Will feeding himself his yogurt - messy, but he has fun and needs to figure it out.  He did really well!


January 29  - Smoothies have become a favorite snack.  I've been making a lot of green smoothies - adding something green and leafy to get in a few more vegetables.  You can't taste it, and we all love drinking them.  I usually do spinach but tried kale today - I just had to have photos of my kids happily "eating" kale.

January Random

Last year I had my Project Life posts to catch all the random photos I took during the month; this year, I think I'll just do a post at the end of the month to capture anything I missed.

January 4 - Claire is entering the phase where she primarily wants to wear skirts, dresses, and/or leggings.  One of her favorite looks is a skirt with a pair of Baby Legs (little legwarmers that she used to wear with onesies - they are really stretchy, so she'll be able to wear them for a long time).  She accentuated her look with her new pink sparkle shoes.


January 11 - Now Will has graduated from just pulling things out of the drawer to putting himself in it.


January 16 - Today was Claire's first Little Gym class.  Afterwards she showed me her forward roll.  She loved it!


January 20 - So proud of himself for figuring out how to crawl into the drawer again.


January 23 - One of their favorite activities - rides in the wagon.  Will can almost push Claire.  It probably won't be much longer until he's really good at it.


January 30 - The kids were playing independently while I cleaned up the kitchen.  I had turned on a show I'd recorded on the Food Network (probably Pioneer Woman), and I had to laugh when Claire sat on the coffee table wearing her horns headband and intently watched along.

Catching up 2011

I've been going through all of our photos from the past year and have found a lot of things I never blogged, particularly in the last quarter of the year.  I dated everything close to when it occurred so it will be in the right place when I make our blog book, but here are links to all the posts I added for people who are interested:

Kate's Birthday
Project Life:  Weeks 40 - 41
Project Life:  Weeks 42 - 43
Project Life:  Week 45
Project Life:  Week 46
Project Life:  Weeks 47 - 48
Project Life:  Week 49
Project Life:  Week 50
Added a video to Christmas 2011:  The Bike

Train Fail

When we were in Austin with the kids on New Year's Eve, we tried to ride the Zilker Park train but couldn't get tickets.  We were back in Austin to see Grandmommy and thought we'd get in a train ride before meeting her for lunch.  We got tickets, boarded the train, and took off.  So fun!  So excited!

A couple of minutes into the ride, the train stopped just as it started to go under the first bridge.  We sat there a minute, and then people at the front of the train started to get off.

The conductor got to the back of the train and found a piece of chain that had fallen off.  That train wasn't going anywhere until it was fixed, and it was going to be awhile.  We were bummed, but fortunately it happened early in the ride and it was a short walk back to the park and to our cars - and we were glad it didn't happen once the train was actually under the bridge, because it would've been really difficult to get off.  Maybe we'll be successful next time!

Cheers!

Something Claire picked up from school recently was clinking cups/glasses/etc. together and saying "Cheers!" She does it pretty frequently, but I didn't realized how closely Will was paying attention until a couple of days ago.  He was sick earlier in the week and had to stay home from school on Tuesday, and while we were playing, he picked up two cups, banged them together, and said something that closely resembled "Cheers!"  It cracked me up, so he did it over and over again.  Now the two of them send each other into giggles by "Cheers"-ing drinks, snacks, sandwiches, and whatever else they happen to be holding.

Will's Words

At 14 months, Will is so much more verbal than Claire was at this age.  I wanted to start recording the words he is saying regularly now:

Ball
Throw
Apple
Banana (sounds like "Nay-nay")
No
Mama
Da ("Daddy")
Claire (sounds like "Caire")
Uh-oh
Up
More
Bottle
This
Hi
Bye-bye
Mine
Sock
Dora, map, & backpack (from "Dora the Explorer")
Blue (as in "Blue's Clues)

Dora, Dora, Dora

For Christmas, Claire got a Dora the Explorer game for her Leapster, and she was suddenly all about Dora.  It caused her television viewing breakdown to shift from primarily Blue's Clues to Dora (those two shows make up probably 80% of her television viewing, with the small remainder being occasional Praise Baby or Muppet DVDs).   

This has had a funny effect on Will.  While Claire had zero interest in tv (probably because we didn't really put on anything that would interest her until she was close to 2), Will is really curious about it.  Whenever he wants the tv to be turned on, he'll crawl/cruise/walk over, point at it, and say "Dora, Dora, Dora!"  (Although if he wants to watch something in one of the cars, which we don't allow very often, he will point at it and say "Blue!")  It's also taught him the words "map" and "backpack", singing the theme song is one surefire way to calm him down, and he loves to carry around a Dora book.  

The new found love of Dora has been really helpful this week - it's been really nice to have something to get Will to focus on during breathing treatments (he came down with RSV and was having to get treatments a few times a day).  He used to be a crying mess during the treatments, but now we just start the show, and he willingly sits in my lap without fighting the mask - except during the "Swiper, no swiping!" part of the song when he needs to vigorously wave his arm around like his big sister.

I definitely think there are worse shows for the kids to be attached to - I like that Claire really follows the story and plays along with the logic games during the show, besides helping Will learn some new words.  And, there are usually two new episodes almost every day, so there's almost always a fresh episode on the DVR to keep me from going crazy.  I guess Dora can stick around for now. 

The First Day

January 2nd was my first "real" day of my new job - up until then, the days after my last day of work were spent catching up on things around the house or during the holidays.

I started the day with my faux latte using two of my Christmas presents - warm milk frothed using my Aerolatte with coffee concentrate made using my Toddy Cold Brew system.  Yum!



We had an easy morning, and after naps we made Oatmeal Banana Drops.


Claire helped Will with his puffs during snack time - I think she ate as many as he did, if not more.


Good times in the play room - it will get a lot more use now!




It was a great first day, and to top it off Robert surprised me with flowers and a card!

New Year, New Career

In September, Robert and I had some uninterrupted time together during a quick trip to Dallas for a friend's wedding, and we were able to really talk for the first time in a long time.  One of the things that came out of that conversation was the struggle I'd been having in my mind - should I keep working or stay home with the kids?  We both took a couple of months to think through things, set expectations, etc., and right before Thanksgiving, I gave notice at my job that I would be leaving.  My boss and co-workers were very supportive and understanding, and I stayed for a few weeks to help with some big projects that were underway.  My last day was in mid-December, and my new career as a stay at home mom began with the new year.

So far, it has been terrific.  The kids still go to school two days a week (they really enjoy it, and we feel like the curriculum and social interaction are good for them), so I have plenty of time to run non-kid friendly errands, clean the house, etc.  We've been filling our days easily with play dates, library story times, errands, and lots of play.  I'm surprised how quickly the days go by, and we are adjusting well to our new schedules.  I know we are bound to run into a few struggles and days that don't go as smoothly, but I have no doubt that it was the right decision and am loving the extra time to focus on our family.

A night away

Last weekend Robert and I were able to use a credit we had at the Driskill in Austin for a little getaway.  My parents came for the weekend, and Robert and I left on Friday afternoon.  We started out by renting bikes for a ride around Town Lake.  It was the first time I'd ridden a bike in years, and I managed to not totally wreck - although I did have one close call.  We got cleaned up and walked to Frank for dinner, a place we've been wanting to try for awhile.  After enjoying our hot dogs, cheese waffle fries, and beer, we got a bacon chocolate chip cookie for the road and got a pedicab to take us to the mini golf place.



It was a nice night, so we walked back to the hotel, stopping to browse at Waterloo Records and the flagship Whole Foods.  The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at one of our favorites, Magnolia Cafe (pancakes for me and enchiladas with verde sauce for Robert, as usual), before driving back to San Antonio refreshed and ready to see the rest of the family.  It was a great little getaway, and I hope we can do it more often!

New Year's Eve

How times have changed!  Several years ago, I would've spent New Year's Eve day resting and primping for a night out.  The last day of 2011 was low-key, filled with family time, and I was sleeping as the clock hit 12 - and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

The weather was perfect, so we drove to Austin with plans to ride the Zilker Park train.  Lots of other people had the same idea, and rides were selling out quickly.  We didn't have time to ride before lunch, but Claire was quickly consoled by the park's great playground.

After lunch at Hula Hut, we tried the train again (still sold out!) and started back to SA.  After stops at a couple of furniture stores, we were back home to just hang out and continue our lazy day.  It was the perfect way to end the year!