busy week tidbits

time to play catch up.

had a fantastic Valentine's day. Surprised daddy with heart shaped blueberry muffins in the morning and chocolate dipped strawberries after work. Then we left the girls with their favorite sitter and went out for a lovely dinner. The food was fantastic! Grilled shrimp with unbelievably good flavor, crab cakes, steak oscar and chocolate torte. So so good. We took our time, enjoying the the food and talking. Life is so busy lately that it was a treat just to get a sit and talk, unrushed by the needs of children or the demands of work and school. Probably one of our best dates ever.

Butterfly had a valentine's party at school. She was adorable as she carefully printed her name on her valentine's card and helped me attach a candy to them. She came home bursting with excitement about the valentines she received and was eager to share the treats with her sister.

We spent an evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house and decorated cookies for valentines. The girls love doing this, smearing on the frosting and dribbling all the colors they can find. Ladybug mostly just plays in it and then samples each candy as she places it haphazardly on the cookies. Butterfly decorated more carefully (still looking haphazard but her concentration was adorable). They especially love the sprinkles (in huge quantities). They made cookies especially for daddy and their aunt and Ladybug insisted that each one was for her cousin.

Ladybug went with me for another check up with the foot doctor. (by the way, finally healing nicely, all sign of infection is gone although still having a little trouble with the nerve damage but that just takes time) She sat on my lap, asking millions of questions and insisting the doc check her feet too. He even humored her request to wrap her feet. We have an ongoing banter over school rivalries so he tried prompting her to pick blue but she insisted on red.

We've been going to the gym regularly, the girls love playing in the day care and AngelBaby goes with me to the pilates studio. Except she rarely sleeps through class anymore and I usually end up holding her, trying to use her as my counterweight or laying her on my mat while I kneel over her (for push ups for example) The best moment was when I was holding her above me and began doing crunches, alternating sides to work my obliques. She swayed from side to side as I twisted and she began to laugh. Her face was so adorably happy that I began to laugh outloud too. Then the ladies on each side of me saw her face and burst into laughter too. What a happy girl!

We spent the weekend at my grandma's house, well stocked with toys and snacks to keep the girls busy while Grammy and I helped my grandma as much as I could. The drive took longer than anticipated since AngelBaby hardly slept and was fussier than usual. We arrived late friday evening with just a little time to play before I tried to get the girls down for bed. We had a rough night, especially Butterfly who coughed throughout the night, keeping herself and most of the rest of us awake (poor girl! I finally got medicine for her the next day and she did much better after that.)

We spent Saturday playing with toys, wandering the thrift store (more accurately, the girls staged their own fancy dinner with plates and plastic fruit that they found), visiting the park, watching movies (Ladybug called them her "dibi dibi movies", mispronouncing DVD) and trying to help grandma with projects at her house. We even got to play with my aunt for part of the week and my girls adore her.

On Sunday we went to church and the girls did exceptionally well and looking exceptionally cute, showing off and twirling in their matching dresses. They loved primary and nursery and I think grandma-great enjoyed having all of us there.

I spent some time over the weekend learning to use grandma-great's new dvd recorder and then teaching her how to use it to convert her home movies from vhs to dvd. The system itself is much fancier than the one I've used before, with more options and capabilities for recording (which means it took longer to learn to use) but was less user friendly for editing videos (good news to me since it confirms my contentment with my own system). Watching the home movies was the highlight of the weekend! The girls frequently pointed our someone, mistaking them for the wrong generation (for example, thought my dad was my brother or my aunt was my cousin). I never realize how similar we look to our parents until I watch home movies. But the best part was watching for my grandpa (and especially seeing my grandma's face light up every time). He passed away a little over a year ago and it was wonderful to see him looking to active and healthy, cracking jokes and working with his animals or helping with projects.

The drive home was long but we tried to keep the girls distracted with movies and snacks. I love being able to spend time with my mom so we chatted throughout the drive and stopped as needed to take care of kids. We were eager to come home and see daddy and the girls immediately glued themselves to him for the rest of the evening.

This morning was my first day back to the gym after nearly a week of skipping workouts and eating junk food. I feel awful. But hopefully I can remember this and use it to full my lacking discipline.