To start with, I almost typed “January 2017” as the title to give you an idea just how my brain is functioning lately… not exactly all cylinders are firing and I attribute that to the cute nine or so pounds of noise that I feed cart around daily. (And nightly.)
It’s been a challenge to keep the house clean, keep the kids off devices, keep my eyes open, or keep much of any routine right now. Which is kind of driving me nuts because I feel like if you have a solid morning and evening routine, it sets you up for success everywhere else. I know this is all temporary and this phase of life goes by fast, but still. It’s challenging.
I think the biggest news to share from January is that ARES IS POTTY-TRAINED! At the beginning of the month he kept attempting to change his own diapers so we really had no choice. He has been doing fantastically. It’s no small thing to have your baby-of-the-family status taken away the same time as your diapers, but he has been handling it. He hasn’t been wearing diapers at night or during naps and has been staying dry. High-five once more, little man! We are so proud!
At the beginning of the month, Rosie started an 8 week session of Tap and Tumble at The Dancing House. She has been loving class and the brand spanking new studio space is FAB.
We also enrolled Cece in gymnastics. Even though it’s been a couple years since she’s officially done gymnastics, she has been enjoying it. (Her first day back, she took a two-hour nap afterwards… WHAT?) I’m glad we’ve been able to give each of the girls their own thing and outlet during this bleh time of year.
Archer has yet to be signed up for any extracurricular activities BUT he has been having longer stretches of awake and alert periods and has finally given us a few smiles to let us know that he, in fact, does like us. We especially get some animated expressions from him during bath time. Gah, I love babies in the bathtub!
As mentioned before, Little Mama Rosie has continued being a great helper and go-to “babysitter” whenever I need to do something like go to the bathroom, put food in the oven, switch the laundry, etc. She’s always compelled to “fix him” when he’s crying and loves showing him toys, singing to him, and explaining life to him. Also, Little Mama Rosie’s sounds like a really good Italian restaurant.
At the end of the month, Archer turned six weeks old and I got the go-ahead from my doctor to start working out again. AND Archer became legal age to go to the Y’s childcare so working out became a lot more doable. So far I’ve managed some light cardio, an extremely relaxing yoga class, one visit back to Boogie Fit at The Dancing House, and one day of weights with Joe. It’s going to take a whole lot of work to get my 33 year old self looking like either 43-year-old Shakira or 50-year-old Jennifer Lopez, but I’m just happy to be moving around again.
Speak of the Y, we took our whole family swimming recently which our big three loved. I’m hoping we can manage a round of swim lessons for them before summer hits this year.
I also got out of the house for a few much-needed play dates (and interaction with friends) this January. Bless all of the other parents home this time of year and who are not day drinking.
Going to end this blog post with a few photos from our recent visit to Sea Quest in Roseville. We had never been there before, but Ares kept watching this Blippi goes to the aquarium episode on YouTube and it seemed like an easier endeavor than getting to Sea Life at the Mall of America. (Anyone else familiar with Blippi? He just came into our lives this past month and I can’t figure out if I want to kill him for being so irritating or hug him for entertaining our toddler.) It was a fun and manageable aquarium visit and, again, just good to get out of the house.
As far as photography went in January, I managed to create and order one wedding album and write two blog posts. That. Was. It.
This month, I’m hoping to actually start booking sessions again. In other business lady news, Cece will be selling Girl Scout cookies sooooo…. if you need any photos or cookies, just give us a shout.
Sending lots of love out into the universe right now… it’s needed!
xoxo,
rachel