Stay-At-Home-Nerd

I knew I'd find a way for Excel spreadsheets to remain an integral part of my life. In an effort to reduce the number of grocery store trips and to increase the quality of our food consumption, I've launched a new regime. I've copied the list of ingredients for a bunch of our favourite recipes (11 so far and counting), plus a list of staples into Excel. At the beginning of the week, Kate and I pick the 6 or 7 dinners we want to eat that week. I copy and paste the ingredients, sort them alphabetically and then do the whole week's shopping at once. It's brilliant and so far this week we've had a pot roast, Thai chicken soup, fajitas, and Green curry beef. And tonight it's Chicken with 40 Cloves of garlic. As a result, I'm using the slow cooker more often and there is less scouring of the fridge for ingredients to throw into a same-old-same-old stir-fry.

Turns

My sister says that kids can grasp the concept of "taking turns" much more easily than "sharing". So here's a video of an early lesson in turns. No babies were harmed in the making of this video.

Four-Hour Babies

The kids seem to have successfully transitioned to a 4-hour schedule. They have big feeds every four hours, activity for 1-2 hours and then nap for 1-2 hours depending on the time of day. They're sleeping through the night about 2/3 of the time. So, life is good and we're feeling very unchaotic. For now. Until things change again.

We had a great visit this weekend from Priya, David and 8-month old Rowan. Here are a couple of photos.

Still More Photos (Or, More Still Photos)

Here's a funny series of photos that almost plays like a video clip. Guess which one has the heavier head:

More photos

- Smiling Jacob

- Very striped boy focusing on the ring

- Molly looking quite proud of herself

- Grammy and Molly

Hot Date

Kate and I don't get out on our own much these days. So, it was with much excitement that we headed out for coffee the other night, leaving the kids in the care of my parents. We tried four different coffee places, all of which were closed. We ended up at Tim Horton's! How lame is that? There are going to be 5000 Lakehead students living here in a few years - hopefully that brings a decent coffee place that has products ending in "chino" and is open in the evenings. Oh, we miss JJ Bean and even (don't strike me down, ye gods of anti-capitalism), Starbucks.

Here are some photos of the kids (all courtesy of my mom):

- My Dad with Molly. He got in some trouble from Grammy for reading Goodnight Moon during the daytime. It's hard out there sometimes.

- Jacob about to eat his toes. When mom's at work we gotta eat something.

- Jacob with his Pentopus. Five-legged, so the Montessori police won't let it be called an octopus.

- Molly and the buzzing bumblebee

First Recorded Conversation

Here are the kids chatting with each other - covering the weather, politics, religion, hockey, and how rude it is for parents to leave babies on their tummies.



Lots more photos to follow tonight or tomorrow, as my parents are in town with camera in tow.