Cute girl at the "pian-yo"

The kids are both doing well in their new settings. Birdy still screams for a couple of minutes when I leave her at her new daycare, but settles in and takes really good naps! I think the smaller groups of kids is beneficial in a number of ways -- we haven't had a runny nose or a cough since we switched. Toad still misses his friends, but this was the right decision and he's happy.

Biggest Loser Update: My Weight Loss partner Mags and I were the #1 team last week! I was in 6th place overall (we have 16 participants). Crazy! We'll see how well I do this week.... weigh in is Thursday.

Today Birdy and I had a lovely day off -- except for the extreme cold temperatures and wind! Yesterday we were in the 40s and were experiencing a lovely spring-like thaw.... we're frozen over again. After dropping Toad off we headed off to my work for an hour or so, then to our chiropractic adjustments, and then to our favorite place, Target. She got pretty antsy after an hour or so and then we headed over to Grandma B's. We had a nice visit complete with Cheerios, saltine crackers, and Grandma's homemade applesauce. Mmmmm mmmmm, as Birdy would say. We then looped back around for the Toad. All in all, a wonderful if bitterly cold day -- and now, at 9:48 pm, I must start the dishes, make bottles and lunches for tomorrow, fold laundry, etc. etc. Story of my life. Have I mentioned that I watch a lot of late night television?

We're looking forward to our 9th annual Super Bowl party -- it's a taco bar this year. I hate the Patriots.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Toad at the library

We're near the end of a memorable week in the Hammer Family. There's so much to tell, I'm not sure how far to go back. Somehow, I missed all of October, November, and December.

January 11th was Toad's and Birdy's last day at their Montessori. They both started at new places on Monday -- Toad with his former teacher, Ms. K, who started her own wonderful, peaceful true Montessori in her home in September, and Birdy at the "Perfect Place" (a home daycare) just down the block from Ms. K. Toad has transitioned beautifully; Bird has gone three days and is having separation issues -- not surprising considering she is almost 10 months old and is in new surroundings. There are only 3 children there besides her, however, and this is the first week in many months that she hasn't had a runny nose. And I didn't think I'd ever say this, but dropping off at two places is actually easier than dropping off in one. And I'm taking the freeway to work! What is the world coming to?

More firsts: Today Ms. K. sponsored a field trip to Sesame Street Live. We've avoided these live shows for 4.5 years, but I was actually kind of excited about this one -- Elmo Grows Up. Birdy was able to go with us. There were a total of 6 children including Birdy, one teenager (K's daughter -- I see some babysitting in her future as she easily became my helper), and four adults. It was one of the coldest days of the year and we had to park on the tippy top roof of the parking ramp at Target Center, and there were a few tense moments when Birdy lost a sock and spilled Cheerios, but overall it was a terrific experience. I had my camera but it was impossible to get pictures with that squirmy baby in such a tight space.

After the show, we drove back to the outer ring of the suburbs and had lunch at Subway with Ms. K and her daughter while we waited for the library to open. And then Toad applied for his very own library card! He checked out nine items, including Muppet Treasure Island, which we watched this afternoon.

Basement update: not much to report. It's been very hard for HG to get down there and get anything done.

Work update: I'm hanging on until at least April when I hit my four-year anniversary and get three weeks of vacation. I'm now the Merchandising Manager -- finally! We started a Biggest Loser Couples competition at work, too. Ugh. It's so much harder to lose the extra pounds after Baby #2. To all my friends who find time to workout -- how do you do it? What do you sacrifice? I'm already only getting five hours of sleep at night!

I'm still dabbling in Pampered Chef, but after a crazy November, I didn't do any shows in December and am just doing one in January. As much as I love it and have fun with it, it's so time consuming and takes away time from my family.... it's a double edged sword, because eventually I'd like it to help me have more time for my family. And writing? This is as good as it gets right now, and you can see I'm not too timely here either.

Things I should be doing right now: switching out the laundry, dishes, cleaning the kitchen, balancing the checkbook and paying bills, folding laundry, making lunches for tomorrow and packing backpacks, etc. etc. Time to go.

A New Year

Christmas Morning

It's a new year once again. 2007 slipped past us so quickly, much of which I neglected to record here, unfortunately. The last few months were filled with pre-school activities, Pampered Chef, and teething. The mornings I used to blog, I've now been making baby food, a very satisfying activity. Birdy's quite mobile now, crawling, creeping, and starting to pull herself up, and her favorite games are "uh-oh" and peek-a-boo. Toad is still loving his role as a big brother, even though Bird is more likely to get to his toys -- time to move all those choking hazards!

We're at home in Wisconsin for a long holiday weekend. It's been quite relaxing with lots of family time. It's been nice to get away from work.

January will be busy for us as we switch childcare on January 14th. Toad will be going to Ms. Komal's new Montessori and Birdy will start at a home daycare just down the street from Toad. It will be sad to leave our current Montessori, but we're happy for the change. There's just something wrong with having thirty wild 3, 4, and 5 year olds in one classroom.

With the new year, of course we have plenty of resolutions. Look for photos of a de-cluttered office sometime in the next month.