Happy 22 Months Brooke!

Along with Molly turning 2 months, Brooke turned 22 months on Sunday! We like to think their birthdays are going to be easy to remember since they were both born on the 15th.

I can't even begin to describe all the ways that Brooke has changed over the last few months, even over the last few weeks! She is talking in sentences now and will repeat any word you ask her to say. Her new thing is asking "What's that?" to anything she doesn't know. She also has a great memory and will remember things that we did with her a week ago. She loves to drink "melk" and has to have a "waffool" every morning for breakfast. She absolutely LOVES her Daddy and couldn't care less about me once he gets home from work. Brooke can count to 10 [not always well] and knows the names of all the colors. She can also point out certain letters in the alphabet, her favorite being the letter "Q". She is FULL of personality and loves to dance and perform. If you put her in a room with a stage she will try and get up there and sing/dance/do whatever gets her attention.

And of course, she is a WONDERFUL big sister.

Happy 2 Months Molly!

Yesterday Molly turned 2 months old. Wow! In one sense it feels like it has been much longer than 2 months since she was born, and in another I cannot believe how big she is getting already. I remember being 7 months pregnant and thinking that summer would never come. I thought I was going to be stuck in April forever! And here I am, beating the August heat and loving on a 2 month old.

Molly is changing drastically with each and every week that passes. She smiles a ton now and is starting to coo at us when we talk to her. She has more awake time during the day and loves to be place on her play mat or in her bobby bouncer. If the girl can find a moving ceiling fan she is content! Molly is doing much better with her reflux and has made great improvements in the spit up department. She still has her bad days but they are nothing compared to her first few weeks. I wish I had good news to report in the sleep department but it is a work in progress. Her first sleep stretch is from 9pm to 2am [which is good] but after that she is up every one to two hours and will only truly sleep if she is in bed with us. This too shall pass!

Happy 2nd Monthday our sweet Molly Moo!

Balance

Having two under two is all about balance. I find that on any given day I have at least 10 items on my to do list. Some are repeats while others are a daily errand or a weekly bathroom cleaning. I have a few rules when it comes to completing tasks...

1. The girls come first. If either Brooke or Molly need me for something whether it be food, comfort, or just reading a book, that comes first. The dishes and laundry can sit and wait patiently for me, but the girls will not. And trust me, 9 times out of 10 that I try to accomplish something around the house... one of them will call my name/cry endlessly until attended to.

2. Dishes come second. I don't consider myself a very organized/clean person [and by clean I mean constantly polishing the wood and washing windows, not hygiene wise]. One day I should post a picture of what our bedroom, master bathroom, and closet look like on a daily basis. I do however NEED a clean kitchen. I absolutely loathe going to bed with dishes in the sink and clutter on the island. It is the first thing I clean each day, it normally needs at least 3 cleanings per day, and it is the last thing I check before going to bed.

3. Eating comes before working out. Maybe it should be the other way around? I often find that if I want to squeeze a work out video into my day it has to be during lunch. Sometimes I can grab a quick bite afterward but lately it is one or the other. So I have chosen to make sure I get a decent lunch each day, mainly to keep up with my breast milk supply. Also, I tend to get cranky when I'm hungry.

4. I must shower daily. This probably seems like common sense to most of you but I can count plenty of shower-less days during my time as a mother. Now that I am working every day I consider it mandatory. I also find that showering is one of the keys to feeling like a normal human being each day.

That is all I have. The rest of the tasks are wild cards and every now and then I grab one from the deck and complete it as fast as I can. For the most part big cleaning projects are left for the weekends, which puts a damper on our social life, but I envision things staying this way until both girls are capable of playing together while I work.

McFatty Monday - Jillian Michaels

I dislike Jillian Michaels. A LOT. Her vicious stare and her words telling me, "You need to push yourself harder. Don't come here and expect to slack off!" Sometimes instead of her voice I just hear hissing. I did the 30 Day Shred three days in a row and it felt great to exercise. I took Sunday off because, well, Jillian is not invited to my Sunday afternoons. I also took today off because I am feeling under the weather. I did however replace those work outs with 2 miles walk outside, so I still got some exercise.

Another change I have made is my eating habits. I am still not doing as well as I would like to do but I have almost completely curbed my before bed snacking, and I have replaced my hershey's chocolate bars with Weight Watchers ice cream bars!

I am also trying to figure out how to get one of those weight loss graphs to make this post look much more interesting than it is...

Something New

Do you notice something new on my blog?

<----------------------------------------------- How 'bout now? For a limited time I am bring back Chic Bowtique. I went to get something out of my craft cabinet earlier this week and was appalled at the amount of left over clips, ribbon, and hot glue sticks I have. I decided to use up the rest of my materials and fill up our shop once again. Hopefully this week it will be a nice and full with a large variety of bows at AWESOME prices. Also, if you haven't bailed out of this post yet, I plan on doing a bow giveaway this week. I really don't have that many followers/readers, which is good for those of you that DO follow/read. Less people to take away your chance at winning. It is the least I can do for promoting my own product.

So be on the look out!