The Nelson Narrative

Every year I make a New Year's Resolution to lose weight, and most years I start off pretty well, but this year I just can't get anything going at all.  So I'm hoping to turn that all around starting tomorrow.  These are my goals for the month of March: lose 5 pounds record everything that I eat every day for the entire month (either here or just on paper) backtrack to week 5 of C25K and do it 3 days a week, consistently be more consistent with healthy eating (which I'm hoping #2 will help me with) blog about my efforts at least once a week, maybe more, for accountability. As for C25K, I had worked back up to week 7 (running for 25 minutes) after falling off the wagon around the holidays but then I got really inconsistent and for the last few weeks I've just been alternating like 5-10 minutes of running with 5 minutes of walking or so, excpet I did run for 20 minutes once last Monday or Tuesday but then I haven't been to the gym since because of snow....

The girls will turn 3 on Monday, but we had their party today.  Can you guess what the theme was? Princesses Olivia and Kayley The cake in it's natural state... And the cake embellished Three Princesses It was really fun this year, because it's the first time the girls really understood what was going on.  Unfortunately, half of my family was unable to come because of snow, but we have my great-nephew's birthday party next weekend so we'll get to see them then. With all the excitement and activity you'd think they would have crashed early, but it's 9:20 and they're still up.  Sigh...

Two years ago when my friend Kristen came overnight to visit and babysit the girls so Paul and I could go out for Valentine's Day, we went to Ikea and she bought me a belated birthday present:  a cool salad bowl and some curtains.  Yesterday, Paul and I finally got around to hanging them!  Part of the delay was that they needed to be hemmed, because for some strange reason Ikea only sells curtains that are 90-something inches instead of the more standard 84" or whatever, but at least they provide an iron-on hemming strip.  The other thing was that we wanted to paint before we hung curtains, and we finally got around to that last September (ah--the day that will forever be etched in my memory as the last day the girls ever napped.  Sigh...).  Anyway, for the first time in my adult life I have a living room with curtains !  I'm so excited. Before: After: It's hard to see in the picutre, but I love the dark burgandy color wit...

After being holed up all week due to the girls having some stomach bug, we finally made it out today to meet a friend at a doughnut/coffee shop.  I was anticipating a nice, peaceful conversation with my girlfriend, sipping coffee and getting caught up while the girls played in the play area, but Olivia would hardly leave my side. Toys Yum! Wearing mom's sunglasses After lunch, we took advantage of the beautiful (albiet cold) day and went to the park. And after several nights of going to sleep around 9:30 and getting up before 7:30 with no naps, they crashed around 8:45 tonight!  Whoo-hoo!  That NEVER happens!

We had a great Valentine's Weekend.  It started on Saturday when Paul gave me my gifts early, I guess because he just came home from purchasing them and didn't want to bother wrapping, plus there were roses involved and what was he going to do with them for 2 days?  Anyway, I got a dozen roses, the requisite box of chocolates and a Wii fit bundle (he had given me the Wii fit DVD for Christmas per my request but we didn't realize that we needed the balance board thingie, which is NOT sold separately, that I can find anyway, so now we have TWO copies of the DVD, the first one from Christmas already open but we're going to take back the one that came in the bundle).  But my BEST gift was gift cards for a romantic night away at a winery!  On one of our trips to Crescent Bar this summer we will leave the girls with his parents and go to the Inn/winery for a night.  We'll do some wine tasting and have a nice romantic dinner and then sip wine o...

I love that the girls are old enough to do crafts now.  On Monday we went to a mom's group playdate where we made contact paper hearts. Today we made cards for Daddy.  I discovered that, while they are old enough to do simple crafts, perhaps it'd be better to save the glitter glue until they're a bit older.  Oh well, at least it's washable. The one on the far right is mine :)

Kelly's Korner is once again doing Show Us Your Life, and this weeks topic is "what do you feed your kids?"  Like most parents of toddlers/preschoolers, I struggle with this and often find myself in a rut.  I really try to not rely too much on processed crap like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, spaghetti Os, etc.  I've even started making my own chicken nuggets with recipes from http://weelicious.com/ .  Unfortunately, however, the girls won't eat the fish sticks so I'm back to good 'ol Gorton's.  Sigh. Breakfast: Almost every day Olivia wants scrambled eggs and an english muffin, and Kayley wants a blueberry waffle.  Sometimes Olivia will eat oatmeal and Kayley will have Honey Nut Cheerios, and once every week or two I'll make pancakes.  Sometimes I even have a little fun with it: Lunch : Turkey sandwiches (Kayley) Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Olivia) Fish sticks Grilled cheese (which sometimes goes untouched.  Gril...

Potty training is going a little better.  There was a day last week where Kayley stayed dry most of the day, and Olivia has gone poop several times in the last week or so, as well as had long periods of dryness.  They do really well as long as I stay on top of it and take them to the potty every hour or so, but there are days that I just get busy with things and drop the ball, or if I am diligent about taking them I'm just a bit too late each time.  But, it's getting better. Their 3rd birthday is rapidly approaching.  We're doing a princess theme, and I keep debating if I want to attempt to make this (from Parenting magazine): or just get a princess cake from Costco.  I'm leaning toward Costco, because the one above would probably cost me almost as much in ingredients, and I'd still have to supplement it with some cupcakes because I don't think it will be enough for 25 people.  It sure is cute, though!  We'll see. The girls are really, even more...