Elinor @ 5 Months

I totally missed Elle's 4 month pictures. How sad is that?! I had a good thing going with the monthly pics too. But I got back on board the wagon in December and did manage her 5 month pictures. She's really been working on hand coordination and is getting pretty good with them. She "talks" a lot, but is no better of a sleeper (yes, that's my self-pitying moment of the day).

On the lifestyle front - things are still going good. Going down the stairs is now pure torture, but I know it'll get better. The kids had a blast watching me get some exercise on the Dance Dance Revolution Wii game. They are convinced they are going to bring it to Grandma and Grandpa's house in April. I might pay money to watch them dance. :-)

Only One Program

Technically, of course, that's not true. Allegra, Ian, and Colin all were in the Sunday School Christmas program, and Allegra and Ian were in the Maple Grove Elementary holiday program, but we didn't take pictures of those (bad mom and dad!), so all we've got to share are pictures of Colin's preschool Christmas program. He's such a funny kid - so imperious and fearless at home, but tentative and nervous around others. He likes school and has nothing but good things to say about it, but the thumb definitely visits the mouth when he encounters a new situation. Cecily and Elinor enjoyed their littlest big brother's show.

Our Budding Star

So I have decided to try my very best to add in some exercise daily. Kind of the cherry on top, I guess. I've been doing the Wii Fit (since that was the whole reason we bought it) for two days and it's surprising that something so basic has made my legs feel all trembly and jello-y. But I kind of like that feeling - it let's you know that you actually worked out some muscles that you don't normally work.

To backtrack to December, let's first hit The Nutcracker. As Hero is no longer in ballet (and Hero's mom is still trying to come to terms with this) she got to be in the audience this year for the first time in five years to cheer on her little sister. Allegra is Nutcracker-obsessed. She dreams of being Clara, and we had to watch her dance all of the various roles for the entire months of November and December. Her official roles were Party Scene and Marzipan in the Mini-Variations. She was just all aglow and we had such a good time watching her and the production at large.

So Cliche

I promise this has nothing to do with lame-o New Year's Resolutions, but with the fact that Elle is almost six months old (and will be starting solids instead of breastfeeding exclusively) and Troy's wedding is in three months (and I ordered my dress two sizes down and I MUST fit into it). It's merely coincidental that I'm starting my weight loss program now. But whatever the reason, it has to happen. I'm so unhappy about where I'm at. Having two so close together really did me in - I've been making poor food choices now for the last two years and time for exercise is nearly non-existent. I'm not sure when the exercise thing will start to happen as Elle is still not a good sleeper AT ALL and I'm just too tired to make working out a priority, but I 100% own the bad food choices thing and that I can and WILL change. I've bought a 3 month Weight Watchers Online membership and I want to make that work, although I kept it relatively short term so that, if it's not working and I need the shame aspect of the real live weigh-in I can make the switch. I'm starting off at 206.8lbs (and I hope you can imagine the courage it took me to make that public, yikes!!)

Starting Out Small

I have way more important family stuff to cover since I've been so neglectful of my blog, but I decided to start out small with pictures of our kitchen paintover. For my birthday James gave me a coupon good for the painting of one room of my choice. It was completely his idea to get it done over the post-Christmas break, which was a big surprise to me (he's not a painting/remodeling fan). I decided to chose the kitchen because I thought it would be the easiest downstairs project. Boy was I wrong. It took us three days from start to finish to complete it, mostly due to cleaning, taping, and drying time. But it's done now and I'm so happy with it. We chose a color called Nocturnal Sea (with an accent called Bayou) which is a dark blue with strong shades of green and and grey in it. We're accessorizing with white, sand, and cloudy grey. I'm so happy with it and I can't wait to tackle the dining room and living room next!

Before:


After:

Wow

I really sucked it up last month. November flew by in a raft of activities and sickness in our household. It felt like the shortest month ever. Ah, for the good old days of being a kid when November dragged on in your haste to get to December. November saw both Elle and Cecily checkups at the pediatrician's. Elle weighed in at a whopping 15 pounds 8 ounces, which is crazy big for our kids, and Cecily hit 22 pounds, which is smaller-than-average but respectable. Elinor is still exclusively breastfed and going strong. I think we're going to go to six months before we introduce solids, although the ped gave us the go ahead already. It's just easier, and since she doesn't really need it yet, we'll keep things simple. I wanted to share some Thanksgiving pics - it seems like eons ago, but it was only last week. We came home from Thanksgiving dinner with leftovers (yum) and a run of intestinal illness (yuck). Que sera sera.

Baby Steps

I have a million and one things I should be blogging about that I've missed, but I suppose i just have to jump in somewhere. Here's Elle's 3 month pictures - she really changed a lot this month, I would say. She's much more interactive, newly demanding (like, don't sit down while holding her, ever), and she likes to grab for things with her hands. She finally can hold her head up at a 90 degree angle while on her tummy but still nothing going on in the rolling over department.