Catching Up

As usual, life has been busy and blogging has fallen to the bottom of my to-do list. Especially given that the last few weeks gave us the Winter Olympics and a renewed commitment of mine to exercise. The baby weight is, ahem, over a year old now, and much to my dismay those last 10 pounds or so aren't going away on their own. I'm trying to exercise at least 3 days a week, which still isn't that much, but it's a reasonable goal for me right now. I've been doing Jillian's 30 Day Shred, which is a 20 minute workout that combines strength training, cardio, and abs. It's challenging. And it's 20 minutes. I can do 20 minutes, so I'm going to try and keep that up. Scot has been doing it with me too, which really helps!

We had a really great weekend - Ava had her final ice skating lesson on Saturday. I'm so proud of her and how far she's come! Glad we stuck with it. The weekend before I took the girls out to the outdoor rink again and Ava was actually pulling Reese in the sled on skates. We'll give it a rest now and probably sign her up again next winter for something to do. I really enjoyed getting back on skates myself, Scot bought some new skates too. It's a nice family activity we can do for many years to come.

After Saturday's nap, we took the kids over to Woodbury's Central Park, which has an indoor playground - Ava had a blast as usual and Reese thoroughly enjoyed her first visit. Just like Ava, Reese has no fear and will climb on pretty much anything.

After the park, I had a major craving for Angelo's, which is a local pizza place that delivered to our house in St. Paul - now that we moved, we can't get it delivered, so we went there to eat. And, oh my gosh, we had the best dinner out ever with kids. EVER. Ava colored quietly, she ate her entire plate of spaghetti (remember, she's the kid who doesn't eat pizza), Reese sat contently in her highchair, eating and flirting with the neighbors. At one point, I asked Scot, "Who are these people?" It was a HUGE small pleasure to have a night out like that - ha, yes we are sad.

Sunday. Scot wins The Bravest Dad award, as he took Ava downhill skiing for the first time. They had a special military day at Afton Alps, a ski hill about 10 miles or so from our house. His lift ticket was half price, Ava's was free, and rentals were $10 a piece, so it was a great deal. If it was going to be a disaster, at least it wasn't going to cost a fortune. And Ava LOVED it. She really, really enjoyed watching all of the skiing during the Olympics, so I think that helped her get a sense (albeit unrealistic) of what it was going to be like. And again, the girl has never had any fear, so we didn't anticipate that that would be a problem. It took her awhile, of course, to get used to the skis. Scot painstakingly tried to teach her how to snowplow and maneuver and that frustrated her (I hate it when Scot tries to teach me stuff too, LOL). So, he finally gave up and let her go and she zoomed down the hill on her own agenda and had a ball. Her favorite part was the chairlift and she's ready to go back. So, I think we can call it a success. I picked her up after a few hours so Scot could ski by himself for awhile longer. Hopefully they can get out more next winter, I think it's a great thing for them to do together.

Definitely a busy weekend and in the middle of it all, Reese got a cold and started cutting some of her top teeth. At almost 14 months, she still only had her bottom 2 teeth...but 2 of her top teeth finally poked through on Sunday. The poor girl has been a train wreck, between the pain of teething and the constant stream of snot running from her nose. I stayed home with her on Monday and Scot stayed home with her today. Not sure what tomorrow will bring - but I hope the sweet girl feels better soon! Daycare has been a ghost town because of colds - it has been just Ava and Michael (a 2 year old boy) there the last 2 days. Ava really misses her buddy Kayla, but at least today she got to go to preschool in the morning so she wasn't so bored.

Well, it's time for me to sign off. I had to leave work early today so I could relieve Scot at 3:30 - he had to go in and fly yet tonight at 7. So, I think I will fire up the DVR, watch American Idol and do a little work. Joy.