Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Catching up

I know I haven't written in ages, and I haven't had much time lately, and a lot has been going on, so I will bulletize just to get stuff down. I hope to write more soon.

  • Tadpole and Turtle are 19.5 months old, and I LOVE this age. They are so much fun. They go to gymnastics twice a week, which we all love, and playgroup once a week, and they'll be starting music classes next month, once a week. I'm trying to have one activity per day, because otherwise we get bored and cranky.
  • I'm starting an Italian language playgroup. We've met twice, the first time was a bit of a failure because it was cold and we met at a park, and mostly non-Italian speakers showed up. The second time went well, and now I need to figure out where to go from here.
  • Tadpole has had recurring diaper rashes leading to infections, and I'm crossing my fingers that this time we've beaten it. Poor, poor baby girl, I can tell it's been uncomfortable for her.
  • Both babies are talking up a storm, and talking mostly in Italian. I've been making an effort to speak mostly Italian to them, which helps, and my in-laws were here for two weeks, which helped even more. They say a few things in English, like shoes, water, hi, bye, bottle, etc.
  • Both babies still take bottles, twice a day. I am working on a plan to cut out the naptime bottle, which I think will go ok, since they don't take one when they nap in the car or stroller.
  • Speaking of strollers, they HATE sitting in their tandem double, Turtle pretty much refuses and I end up carrying him while pushing Tadpole. They also refuse to sit in supermarket carts, so shopping has become a nightmare. I could use some advice on this point.
  • The only stroller they'll stay in for longer periods is the bike trailer, which I use for jogging, too. It is not realistic to use regularly, because it doesn't really fold and is extremely difficult to get into the car. Especially if there is anything else that needs to go in the car. I need to solve this soon.
  • BUT! I have been biking and jogging a lot more lately, which has been nice. We all got sick about a month ago, and it was miserable, and my jogging came to an abrupt halt, but I've managed to ramp it up again and we've been biking around town with the trailer, and i went out on a long ride this weekend. It helped my mood immensely.
  • Because of the illness and my in-laws visiting, I pulled the kids out of daycare. It would be more than a month that they couldn't go, and I saw no point in continuing. I am enjoying them so much more now, and I like going to gymnastics and doing other activities with them. The only problem is getting major chores done around the house that I can't squeeze into an hour, like organizing closets, cleaning up the garage, etc.
  • So! We've asked my cousin-in-law to come stay with us. She just broke up from a long-term relationship, doesn't have a job, and seems unsure where she is going with her life, so she is thrilled to come to California for a few months and take a break from life, and we're thrilled to have her.
  • My in-laws left last Monday, and as always, the first couple days are a bit of a shock. They are very active, get up early, and like to keep busy. They cleaned my house, cooked meals, entertained the kids, and helped out so much. I almost cried when they left.
  • Back to Tadpole - she is ADDICTED to her pacifier, and I've been reading about how it's probably time to start thinking about limiting it, so I'm coming up with a plan for that as well. Not sure how that's going to go, really. I'm nervous about it.
  • AND - we're looking at preschools for the fall. The one I really liked has a waiting list, and the hours are a bit strange (you can do either 8-2 or 8-6, depending on what you want to pay for, but my kids normally nap 1-3, and well ... I don't know. I was hoping they'd go 5 partial days). The other one that I liked had two part time spots open, twice a week for the full day, so I signed up. They also will have at least two friends there that I know of so far. It's a great school, sort of expensive (but not that much more than any other place in town), but the main drawback in my opinion is that it's a bit far. It's only about a 10-15 minute drive, but it's really too far to bike, and I am really enjoying biking with the kids more than driving.
  • We are having a serious drought, and as much as I am loving this weather, it is really not good for California. Please send some rainy thoughts our way.

And that's all for now. I could expand on just about all of those points, but I need to get some chores done while they nap. Hope all's well in your world!

1 comment:

  1. I'm really pondering the stroller question because with Ginny being 18 months when the new baby comes we'll need a different stroller. I'm not a fan of the side-by-side strollers I've tried, and the other style (front and back) seem a little hard to steer. There is one that I really like, in theory, but I haven't tried it, and it's super expensive. It does, however convert from a single to a double, which I like.

    http://www.lussobaby.ca/Baby-Jogger-cCity-Select-Single-Stroller-in-Ruby-81263.htm

    Would one of those sit/stand strollers work for you, do you think? Where one rides in the seat and the other stands behind? Just a thought...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!