SOME UPDATES

Kelsey had her 6 month doctor's appointment yesterday. According to the doctor's office scale, she weighs 16 lbs. 12 oz. Not quite the 17 lbs. 9 oz. I got on our baby scale last week, but I know she didn't lose that much weight.....I think the scales are just off. So, she probably weighs somewhere around 17 lbs. At any rate, she is in the 99th percentile for height (28.5 inces), 57th percentile for weight, and 78th percentile for head circumference. Where my babies get their "height" from, I'll never know! :)

I have made quite a few lofty goals for this new year, and so far, I'm doing well. But we're still in January, though! :) I have cut out snacks and desserts, and I am excersising every day. That's not easy for me to do, find time to fit that in, but I am doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred which is only 20 minutes long....an INTENSE 20 minutes to say the least, but at least I feel like I can fit in 20 minutes somewhere in my day. Morgan loves to "help" me excercise. She'll pretend to be Jillian and get down on the floor and put her hand on me and pretend to give some kind of "commentary" like she sees Jillian doing. It's hilarious! Also, I have made it my goal to be more organized. This entails a daily cleaning chart that I made that I have been sticking to which helps me get the whole house clean (really deep cleaned) every week by doing a few manageable tasks every day instead of trying to do some mad cleaning every once inawhile and getting burnt out and never finishing. The chart keeps me on track, and once I'm done with that task, I can smile and be done until the next day. I also made it a goal to "tidy as I go." I never leave a room or go up or down the stairs empty handed. There is ALWAYS something that can be put away, taken upstairs, or something that needs to go to another room. After only 2 weeks of doing it, it is already very much a habit now for me and I don't even have to think about it. And finally, now that we FINALLY have a deep freeze out in the garage (thanks to my brother and sister-in-law who were looking for a new home for theirs), I am going to be making a lot of my own baby food, and also am planning on doing a freezer cooking day once a month. I've already found lots of great ideas and recipes on Pinterest, so I am eager to get started.

We are back in a good, solid routine now after the holidays, and Morgan does so much better being on a routine. We have very few meltdowns and tears, and she is much more willing to help out and obey the first time she's asked. Our new responsibility chart has helped a lot, as well as our new breakfast "menu." She does so much better when she knows what to expect ahead of time and has something to work towards. She needs routine as much as I do!

Well, that's about it for now. Just wanted to put a few thoughts and updates down in writing....

MY SCHOOLROOM

When I woke up from my nap today, I noticed that a lot of things had changed in our house while I was sleeping! And no, Mommy did NOT have to point them out to me at all.....I noticed right away. I kept going around the house saying, "Wook! Wook!" and pointing to the new things Mommy had brought out.

The first thing I noticed was that Mommy and Daddy's "Office" room looked very different. I used to have a few toys in there to play with when we did "Blanket Time" but Mommy decided I have kinda outgrown this, so she switched it up a bit.

This is Mommy and Daddy's side of the room...

And here is my side!

I was giddy with excitement. I wanted to run right in and play. Mommy said this is going to be my new schoolroom. I am supposed to have my schoolroom down in the basement as soon as Daddy gets it finished, but in the meantime, Mommy decided I needed a space now (instead of being in a corner of the kitchen). Plus, she was getting tired of her kitchen cabinets being filled with all my schooltime stuff.

Mommy has been doing some searching online about "Tot School" that a friend of hers referred her to. (There are many blogs and wesbites about it, but it is basically just learning through purposeful play. She gets a lot of her info from http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/) Since Mommy was noticing that lately my "play" wasn't really purposeful or engaging (I was just flitting from place to place not really "playing" with anything), Mommy thought it seemed like a great idea, but didn't know where to begin. So, after a few weeks of reading many blogs of other moms who do it, she decided we would start doing "Tot Trays." She will set out one activity in each "tray" (6 in all) that she will leave there all week. During our "Tot School" time (different from my beloved "Tooltime"), I get to choose one tray at a time to play with. At this point, Mommy will let me direct the activity and choose exactly how I use the materials, but later on, she will begin to put out activities with a definite purpose involved. She will be in the room to guide and help as needed, though. I can't wait to start Tot School tomorrow!

Here is my Tot Tray shelf. Doesn't it look fun?

After checking out my new schoolroom, we went downstairs, and this is what I discovered! Instead of all my toys being thrown in a big tub that was hard to find things in, Mommy had brought this neat shelf up from the basement for all my toys to go in! She has this when she was teaching, and decided it was time to let me use it!
I just kept saying, "Wook! Wook!" and staring at it for the longest time in amazement. I had a TON of fun playing with my toys tonight! It was like Christmas with all new toys.....except they were all my old toys, just displayed differently in a way that I could access them much easier!


Next was the kitchen. This was where my little table used to be that Mommy took up to the schoolroom. Now my books have a place instead of sitting under the coffee table.

And I of course, didn't waste time pulling down the basket of pom poms and dumping them out and scooping them up.

Boy! Mommy was busy today! Thanks, Mommy! I can't wait to get up and play again tomorrow!