I feel like its been awhile - Vanessa - 8 weeks and other life stuff

So maybe I should make a blog entry...seems like this summer is just flying by, one long day at a time. One change for me this week is I started exercising again. I have gotten up with enough time to get the kids all fed and in the van by 8:50 am so I can get to exercise class at 9 am at OHC a few blocks away. During the warm up I felt like I was going to muscles were screaming and I wanted to pass out....my oh my...I felt out of shape. But once that initial "break in" was over, I just felt like the whole time was a bit more effort than I would have liked. But I did it. I went Monday and Wednesday this week, and I'm not nearly as sore as I thought...so that is a good thing. Dave and I are making better eating choices and I just feel overall feel better when I'm exercising...maybe I'll lose enough weight to get out of my maternity pants. :P The child care workers at the church during fitness class are still the same. They immediately recognized me and Violet. They couldn't believe how much Calvin grew up and didn't recognize him at first. They were surprised to see me with a new baby. The kids had a ton of fun in the child care room - Violet's friends were there since Kim and Trisha were also exercising, their kids were there. Vanessa does great there too, I make a point to have nursed her immediately before I drop her off and wearing a clean diaper so they don't really have to do anything but rock her and let her take a short morning snooze. They love holding her so it works out great. Violet is having a great summer, I think. She doesn't talk about preschool much and seems to enjoy the weather. Her favorite things to do are (let's see how many I can come up with): - put on socks and slip across the tile floor - put puzzles together - create houses with Lincoln Logs - make "crowns" with the connecting beads...Calvin and her each take 8 and turn them into little circles they put on their heads - play "bedtime" with Calvin. Both of them get their little sleeping bags all ready and pretend to go to bed in the dark. They take turns playing mommy and baby. - make "cards" for people. She decorates a piece of paper with flowers, hearts, words she knows how to write (mostly her own name, mom, dad, and Calvin), and pictures of animals she knows how to draw. She cuts the pictures out with scissors, folds up the paper, and puts them in envelopes to give to people. She drew a flower for Landry the morning she knew they were coming over for a short time, and today she asked me what to draw for me so I asked her for a purple flower, a pink flower, and lots of hearts. She mentally took note carefully of what I said, and came back to me after 15 minutes with exactly what I asked for. She was very proud of herself. She colored in a butterfly last week and was so proud of how pretty it looked that she ran to get it to show our neighbor when we were standing in the yard talking. The picture ended up taped to the wall in Dave's office. - help me in the kitchen with anything and everything related to food prep. She insists on pouring her own cereal and her own milk (if the gallon is light enough for her satisfaction, if its too heavy she asks for help). - using the blocks to make steps up to the fireplace steps - watching Word World and Curious George - going outside by the pool in the gazebo with plastic cups, scooping up water and watering everything in sight. Calvin is really into...well...pretty much everything Violet is. He is an excellent play mate for her about 75% of the time. He also enjoys almost everything she does and copies everything she says. He likes to play with his dump trucks, his wooden train set, play make-believe games with Violet. He can sing many words to the Star Spangled Banner (thanks to Violet) and sings the entire Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song. He is into "doing everything by MYSELF" stage...and throws royal screaming fits if something is done for him that he wanted to do himself. Its hard to know how to deal with his behavior some times. He also has an extremely soft heart and a sweet side to him. He will randomly say "Mom? I really, really want you." and I can scoop him up and get a huge hug and kiss from him. He also likes it when anybody acts like a lion and roars loudly for him so he can pretend to be scared and go hide under a blanket. That game can never be long enough for him. Vanessa is still a sweet little baby. She is 8 weeks old and has grown two inches in length since birth. I measured her out of my own curiousity the other day...no wonder her little newborn outfits are too small already! I don't know how much she weighs, probably almost 12 pounds. She takes about three naps a day, falls asleep for the night around 9:30 pm and gets up one or two times a night still. She spends most of her time in my arms, in her swing, or propped up in the sitting position on the couch. She has gotten the least "tummy time" of any of the kids...I'm so afraid of her getting trampled and stepped on. That's about all I got for now...gotta get to bed!