Day 256 - September 13

Ah, packing. I hate it. (Thus, my list.)

But I had a good chuckle tonight as I loaded up the rest of Jason's bag with some of the girls' stuff....

Their diapers and pull ups.

Most of this is for Cate, though Michaela is still wearing a pull up at night just so I can avoid having to change sheets. We're close to getting rid of those, too, but we have at least another year and a half with diapers for the little one.

I'm so over diapers.

But this is how you can tell you're taking two small children on vacation.

Day 255 - September 12

How do you know it's almost vacation time for the Dorval family?

The excel spreadsheet packing list makes its appearance!!

Now to actually use it and get ready to go. I'm about 4 days further behind than my normal way of getting ready for a vacation, so the next day and a half could be fun!

Day 254 - September 11

On this date two years ago, I posted about feeling bad about not having a patriotic picture to post. But then, it occurred to me that by posting a slice of life kind of picture, I WAS being patriotic. I was enjoying my real life, the one the terrorists didn't ruin. And this year, I feel the same.

Instead of blanket forts of two years ago with the older sister, today we had carseat fun with the younger sister. Not her carseat, but that didn't stop her.

We're playing a stupid around and around game trying to find carseats that will work in Jason's truck. We had planned to use Michaela's Radian (that she used in my car until a couple months ago) in the truck, and we bought a new one for Cate, which didn't fit. Well, it fit, but then a person couldn't fit in the seat in front of her.

So we're just having fun buying and returning all kinds of seats. I'm hoping we'll have the right combination with this one for Michaela and a new Radian for Cate (long story on why a new one, but at least I got a great deal on it).

In the meantime, though, Cate just loves every single one that makes its way into the house. She likes to put her babies in them, climb in them, and, in the case of the new Nautilus, she was more than happy to test drive the cup holder.

Day 253 - September 10

I pretty much jumped up and down and did a little cheer for myself this morning.

I stepped on the scale and saw my "normal" weight for the first time since about a day before I got pregnant with Cate. Ok, maybe like a month after I got pregnant. But still, it's been a while.

Of course, if I'd tried anything other than using the fact that I'm still nursing as a weight-loss technique, I might have gotten to this point sooner. I've been sitting around 5 lbs more than I want to be for probably about 12 of Cate's almost-14 months.

Then Jason went on a trip for work and I didn't eat out a whole bunch of times (because it's a pain to bring two kids to a restaurant alone), I ate lots of homemade fruit and veggie smoothies (coconut water, water, kale, strawberries, mango, and pineapple), I didn't snack a ton at night because I was too busy snuggling a baby, and the weight started to come off.

I fell off the wagon a little when he first got back, but got back to it and, voila!, back to 120!

Now I should probably get active again, too. Cate won't nurse forever!

Day 252 - September 9

I just have to acknowledge that this is the most behind I've ever gotten, I think. Even with vacations and traveling all over the northeast on trips and stuff, I don't think I've ever gotten over a full week behind. Yikes.

So this was my view when I finally opened the blog tonight to get caught up... September 1.

And now I'm all caught up on the 9th... just in time to be crazy busy the rest of the week. Hopefully I can stay caught up.

How many times have I said that now??

Day 251 - September 8

This looks like an unremarkable picture at face value.

It's just Cate, sitting in a chair, though with two different blankets pulled down on her.

But it's not just Cate sitting in a chair. It's Cate, sitting in a chair that she climbed into from the ottoman that sits in front of it. And she climbed onto the ottoman from the floor. Because that's her new favorite thing.

And I'm scared. Because Michaela was NOT a climber.

Day 250 - September 7

I have a pretty good view in the morning on the days when I get to sleep in until Cate decides to get up. I hear some noise from the pack n play and then look over to see a goofy girl smiling at me.

A goofy girl who almost always has one pacifier in her mouth, and one in each hand. At least she's willing to share.

And check out that bedhead. Sweeeeeeet.