Week in Review

Things are finally starting to feel like we are settling in here and this has been a week of normalizing.  Turns out, while I have a spontaneous and adventurous side of me and don't necessarily love sticking around the house all the time, I am also a major creature of habit and like structure and schedules and needing to be places.  Having Rose finally really settle into a predictable routine has been a major boon as far as structuring things goes.  Most days she is up at 6:30 (Clara too, although sometimes she sleeps until 7:00 or so) and we do breakfast, read books, get the girls dressed, etc. then Rose is back down for her morning nap around 8:00.  It seems excessively early and she only naps for about an hour but the nice thing is that it means by 9:00 a.m. or shortly thereafter we have the rest of the morning free to get out and run errands.  So that's when we hit up Costco or a park (because it is too hot for this in the afternoons) and go to the gym. 

I joined 24 Hour Fitness since there is no YMCA up here and I am LOVING it.  I checked out the insanely, outrageously expensive gym that has every amenity known to man attached (along with an extreme price tag of $255/month) and frankly, I sort of hated it and don't understand why it is such a widely regarded gym in the area.  24 Hour Fitness is a WAY better facility with a better layout and support staff.  I seriously cringed at the kids' area of the other gym because it seemed so dingy and gross and was full of stuff like arcade looking game areas and frowny staff to take care of the kids whereas 24 Hour Fitness has a huge play structure and toy area and the staff are so nice and have been gushing about how Rose is the happiest baby ever (she is) on a daily basis.  Anyhow, the Friday yoga class is one of the best yoga classes I have been to in a long time and will be a weekly thing for me and I'm sort of into this intense boot camp type class held multiple times a week called a Nike Training Class.  I've also started foam rolling and using the TRX area to build strength and basically, the gym is my happy place these days. 

And speaking of gyms, I found one for Clara that seems to be a really good facility and got her signed up for the "Mini Mites" Tuesday afternoon class.  She hadn't been to gymnastics in almost 2 months by the time we finally were ready to take her for a trial class and I worried that she would be clingy or refuse to participate or something (she has a tendency to be that way until she warms up again) but man alive she was pumped to put on her pink leotard and was bouncing around waiting for her new coach to call her class onto the floor for warm-up.  And she smiled and laughed and focused the entire session so I signed her up right then and there, which was good because apparently the afternoon sessions fill up really fast and a morning session would have been a lot trickier for us since I'm planning on putting Clara in a Tuesday/Thursday co-op preschool this fall (not sure how that is all going to work out but I've met some other moms in our ward here who are planning on doing this and invited me to join so I figure its worth a shot). 

Other noteworthy news:  after Rose relapsed and started waking up every morning around 4:00-5:00 a.m. because she would come unswaddled I finally bit the bullet and weaned her from the upper body swaddle.  It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be and only took about 30 minutes of tears the first night and that was it and we haven't gone back since.  I still swaddle her lower body and she gets annoyed when she kicks her feet out but we have definitely made progress.

Have I mentioned that we got rid of our kitchen table?  The day of the big move we ran out of space in the moving van and for the life of us couldn't fit the thing in.  And it was in awful shape anyway and we only paid $100 for it 10 years ago anyway so we left it on the curb with a free sign and it was gone the next day.  So now we are stuck eating on the card table, which isn't so horrible but also isn't my favorite, until we can find a new table that we like (haven't even started looking yet).  Also, Rose likes to ham it up for the camera.

My friend Lisa called me out on not having posted "after" shots yet and that's because we really aren't quite there yet.  The bedrooms are totally livable and we are really enjoying them but they are still missing trim, crown, closet doors, vent covers, touch-up paint, and having everything caulked and filled where there were nail holes to install baseboards and doors and such.  I have just been grateful to have the closet shelving installed over the past week or so which has made it possible to hang up clothes and put toys and things away.  Only I have to redo Rose's clothes because I realized after sorting and hanging everything that her 6-12 month sizes just aren't fitting and the 12-18 month sizes are perfect on her (I think I have been in denial about this fact).  So I need to go back through and pull all the 6-12 month stuff and rearrange her closet again.  The girls have been pretty good about playing together in a room while I am working on sorting, at least for 20-30 minutes at a time, which has been helpful.  Also, we really, really need blinds in her room because it is way too bright without them and I loathe having makeshift blanket curtains tacked up as a stop-gap measure. 

I don't know what I was thinking letting Clara blow bubbles indoors.  Of course she spilled the bottle.  But Rose was sure entertained for a while.

Rose has two teeth now and we actually got a picture of them the other day while we were at the fairgrounds for a stake pioneer day party.  Rose's smile is totally indicative of her personality, which is happy, happy, happy unless she is tired or hungry.

This is just a random pic from the pioneer picnic.  They served some of the most amazing tri-tip I have ever had.  Rose loved being the center of attention.

Now that we are living in the house I am working on adjusting Rose's schedule to staying up a little bit later so that she can see Paul each night when he gets home from work.  Some nights she just can't quite make it, especially when he works later, but I have found that if I take the girls outside with some books and a quilt we can hang out in front while we wait for him and that seems to help Rose be happy even when she is getting pretty sleepy. 

The girls are my little grocery shopping buddies.  Clara likes riding in the basket and loading items onto the belt to be scanned and Rose smiles at everybody in the store.

The farmer's market here is sort of sad but it is right next to a splash pad, which is pretty much perfect on a 100 degree day.  I let Clara gorge herself on peaches and strawberries and pluots then she washes off the sticky juices and has a ball while tuckering herself out and staying cool. 

And part of our farmer's market bounty this week was some excellent vanilla almond granola that we used to make fruit and yogurt parfaits for breakfast on Friday.  We layered blueberries, raspberries, granola, and raspberry yoplait and plain greek yogurt and they were excellent.  But Clara really just wanted to pick through and eat all the blueberries.

And that was our week!