M.I.A.

Hello!  I know, I know... it has been WAY too long!  Part of the reason why I haven't been updating the blog is that we have so many pictures from our trip to Deer Valley during Spring Break.  I'm a creature of habit and want to upload photos in chronological order from where I stopped.  There are so many cute ones that I can't decide what to post, and it takes forever to upload even a few photos to the blog.   Anyhow, I've come up with a solution that I hope will work.  I created a group room in snapfish with all our photos.  Please email me if you want me to send you a link to it crhodes@optiqueaustin.com.

So, where to start with what has been going on since my last post?  Well, life has stayed busy.  Chase and Elizabeth are doing fabulous.  Chase was very happy to turn 5.5 years old earlier this month.  He has his last t-ball game tomorrow morning, so he is excited to get another trophy to add to his collection.  His last day of school at Athena Montessori is May 30.  He will be returning there in August for his kindergarten year, but all of his friends that he plays with are older and moving on to other schools for 1st grade.  It is going to be an emotional day.  I plan to take the day off and go to the graduation ceremony for all his friends, and then take Chase on a special "mommy and Chase" outing.  He wants to go on a nature walk on the greenbelt.  In fact, he packed his back pack this morning for our adventure.  He included books, a flashlight, trail mix, a hat, and a bag to collect our "treasures" in.  He started reading a few months ago, so he is excited to get me all to himself and read to me on the walk.  I nearly cried when he told me that, so I am too very excited to get to spend a day with just him.     

Elizabeth is 6.5 months and sitting up on her own (well, most of the time... she sometimes falls over when she gets excited).  She reaches and grabs for everything in sight.  We are definitely going to have to start re-baby proofing the house because she will be crawling in no time.  She is such a happy baby, and I love waking up to her smiling face every day.  Speaking of sleep, I think we have finally gotten her on a good sleep schedule.  For the first few months of her life, she was perfect and slept through the night.  However, when she turned 4 months and "woke up," she started waking up every 3-4 hours througout the night to nurse.  Needless to say, I was a walking zombie especially on work days.  It took two tries of "ferberizing" for me to get comfortable with letting her cry, but she is now only waking up once in the middle of the night to feed.  She goes back down to sleep pretty easily and will fuss for no more than 5 minutes.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted!  She seems happier with all the sleep she is getting too.

Mike and I have been crazy busy too.  Mike has so many balls in the air right now that it is hard to even explain, so I'll just keep it at that.  My office has remained steadily busy, so I've been trying to juggle a good balance between work and the kids.  I don't want to give my time up with them, so I've hired another doctor to come and work for me one day a week to keep up with my patients.  I know it is a good thing that I'm staying busy, but it is also very overwhelming.

In February, Mike and I got on a fitness kick, and we have both lost an incredible amount of weight.  We try to work out 5 days a week and eat well.  We aren't on any fancy diet, but we just basically stick to eating meat, fruit, veggies and whole grains.  Have you heard that you should only shop the perimeter of the grocery store?  Well, that is what we do.  Very Austin hippie-ish, but it does work.  It really isn't that hard to do once you stick to it for a few weeks.  We both have so much more energy and feel great.  I don't think I can ever go back to the way I had been eating before... it wasn't like we ate that bad, but it is true that all of the refined foods and preservatives weigh you down in so many ways.   

With the summer fast approaching, we are excited for the heat and to start using our swimming pool again.  I've made plans for Chase to keep him occupied while he is out of school.  He will be attending several sports and artsy day camps.  We have a wonderful nanny, Carolina, who has been watching Elizabeth, but she will also help with Chase this summer.  She has a 7 year old son that Chase loves, so I hope he will be able to come over for playdates as well.  I'm also hoping to find a summer vacation or two for the family to go to, and one for Mike and I to go to just as a couple.  Thanks for all your love and attention to this blog (which may be quite boring)... I'll definitely post more later.  Don't forget to look at snapfish for photos.  Xoxo.