Fishing

Once upon a time, back before my husband and I had little ones, we used to go fishing together a lot. My husband is quite the fisherman, and in the early years of our relationship it was a fun way for us to spend time together. A lot of time. We would go out on the boat at the crack of dawn and stay out all day. Sometimes talking, sometimes not. Sometimes freezing our butts off. Sometimes sweating half to death. Sometimes catching fish. Sometimes not.

I started out as a complete klutz with a fishing rod. I frequently got my lure hung up on something under the water. Once in a while even in a tree. Above the water. Sometimes I managed to swing the rod wildly and nearly take my husband's head off. Frequently my line got hopelessly tangled. I didn't have the right technique for reeling in a fish on the rare occasion that I caught one. I couldn't operate a trolling motor. I didn't know how to take a fish off a hook. Basically, I was a disaster with a fishing rod when he started taking me fishing. I won't even go into my early attempts to assist with getting the boat in and out of the water.

Now, I could spin this into a lovely romantic tale where I tell you all about how patient and kind my husband was with me when teaching me the art of fishing. How gentle and tolerant he was when I made my very frequent mistakes. When he had to back the boat up because I had cast behind us and my lure was caught on a rock. When I broke one of his fishing rods. When I nearly ran the boat into a bunch of rocks because he was in the back struggling to get my lure unstuck from some unknown underwater vise and I was totally clueless about running the trolling motor. I could tell a beautiful fishing love story. Except that wasn't how it went. Not. Even. Close. My wonderful hubby is a hard core fisherman. He yelled. He swore. A lot. At first.

He caught this walleye last night

He yelled and swore a lot at first. See, those early days of fishing together were a great way for us to strengthen our relationship. Fortunately we had quite a strong relationship to begin with. So, when he yelled, I (essentially) told him to cut it out. And to his credit, he did. Most of the time. If I did something stupid, I apologized. If he lost his temper, he apologized. And miraculously, he kept asking me to go with him. And I kept going. I learned a ton and eventually became quite a competent fisherwoman. Some of my best memories are of the times we spent fishing together. And I think I softened him up a little bit for our daughters. Okay, who am I kidding? They don't need any help from me to melt their Dad. It's a good thing too, because I think they're going to spend a lot of time fishing with him.

Today Miss saw her cousins fishing and was very into it.

She quite enjoyed checking out the bait, both the bucket of minnows and the box of worms.

She requested her own fishing rod so she could give it a try. Her Baba rigged up a rod for her and got her going.

Within a few seconds they got a bite.

Miss was so excited to "catch" her first fish. It was a bluegill.

But then she wasn't so sure that she wanted to get very close to it. This is her, "I'm-not-sure-what-to-do-that-thing-is-kind-of-freaking-me-out" face.

She wouldn't touch the fish, but we did manage to get her to stand close enough for it to get a few photos.

To top off our day of fishing, Miss's cousins caught 13 huge crappies that my brother-in-law and father-in-law cleaned and my mother-in-law fried up for dinner. It was delicious, and Miss gobbled it up. I think we're going to be doing a lot of fishing this week.

My Favorite Time of Day

After dinner and before bedtime. That's when we have the best times as a family. My hubby is home. The girls are content. I can leave the dinner dishes and spend some quality time with the loves of my life.

Sometimes we get a little crazy. Tonight we had another dance party. You might remember the last time I posted about a Family Dance Party. We have them fairly regularly. My girls love to dance.

Miss has some moves, and my big girl can be graceful too.


Naturally I spent some time jumping and swaying and flipping with Miss too.

I just love the joy on their faces when we get the music playing and our bodies bopping and spinning and dipping to the beat.

My girls' laughter is contagious.

A Visit with my Auntie

Last week we took the girls for a quick visit with my Auntie and Unka. Lass had never met them and Miss hadn't seen them since she was about Lass's age. My Auntie is my mom's sister, and is very dear to me. We also got to see my cousin and her husband. It was a wonderful day. The morning started with Miss calling my Auntie "Grandma?" since Auntie is so similar to my mom. This tickled me, and I think it helped her get over her initial shyness pretty quickly. Naturally, my outdoor girl wanted to get outside and play right away.

The day was laid back and hot. The cool concrete felt great so we just camped out, visiting and playing.

The girls had lots of fun exploring a new place and playing in the yard.

The dog's water dish was like a magnet for Miss. She made "soup" again.

Unka captured a snake that Miss got to take a look at. Ew.

Auntie and Unka have a great tree for hanging "from the bar" as Miss said.

Auntie tried to spoil Miss a little with some yummy snacks Miss doesn't usually get, like colorful goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, and frosted animal cookies. I told her that Miss would say the same thing about her that I once did when I was about 10 and visited her, "You're just like my mom, except you have dessert!"

I was thrilled that Lass seems to be getting past her stranger anxiety and got to bond with Auntie a bit.

It was like magic for me to watch my girls with my Auntie. It was a short visit, but I loved every minute.

Exerise!

We try to emphasize being healthy and exercising our bodies in our household. My husband is great at getting in regular workouts, even if he sometimes has to do them at 9 at night. Miss goes to gymnastics and we do lots of dancing and running ("chase me!" is her new favorite) and jumping and good physical playing that makes for great exercise for a two-year-old. The other day she and her Daddy were "exercising" in the family room.

Even Lass is working on her squats...
Now I need to get my rear in gear. I used to be good about exercising regularly, often quite vigorously. I have been lazy. I've been losing my "baby weight" without exercising, and have been usually watching what I eat. But I've been terribly lazy about exercising (if you don't count lugging around two little girls and literally chasing a 2 year old, which I don't). I have about 5 more pounds to lose from my pregnancy with Lass, and it probably isn't going to come off without adding some exercise into the mix. Plus, exercising isn't just about losing weight. It's about being strong and healthy. It helps me to have more energy and probably even an improved mood. So, I'm putting it out there. This month, I will exercise more. I just need to get started and the momentum will build. I'll say I'm going to exercise at least 15 out of the 30 days this month. That's not a lot, but it's a start. As my brother (who is in fantastic shape and trains others, you can check his blog here) would say, "3,2,1 - Go!"

Weekend Fun

We had a wonderful long weekend here. We had a visit from a long-time friend of mine (a former college roommate!). She met my girls for the first time and became fast friends with Miss.

Lass is experiencing some stranger/separation anxiety right now, so she wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy with our guest, but she did lots of smiling from a distance.

It seems that the weather has finally cooperated with the calendar (though not until yesterday, which was 90 degrees!) and summer has arrived. We spent the morning yesterday at the pool. My husband had to work all weekend, so I took the girls by myself and therefore have no pictures of our first pool outing of the year. I was doing good to keep track of Miss while holding Lass constantly, so photo time wasn't really going to happen. I tried to set Lass down in a tiny bit of water in the zero entry area of the pool, but she didn't want anything to do with that. Then I tried to put her in our portable exersaucer thing. I should have known better. She didn't like it the first time I put her in it at home.

But on that first day she eventually got a bit used to being in the thing, so I thought maybe she would do better at the pool. When I put her in it she immediately started screaming and trying to climb out. So she spent the entire pool time in the Ergo, which was okay too.

During nap time I finally got out our water and sand table, which has been in the box for a few weeks since it has been too cold to play with it. We didn't have any sand but the girls didn't know the difference when I filled up both sides with water.

Lass felt like such a big deal being able to stand and play with her sister.

There was tons of splashing.

Miss was just scooping the water onto herself!

And she was very diligent about watering the landscaping.

Including the rocks.

Then she realized how wet she was and begged me to get a towel and dry her off.

I wiped the front of her clothes with the towel and dried her feet. I thought she might be upset about her wet clothes and ask to get dry clothes on. But she just went right back to splashing herself and pouring water everywhere. It's going to be a fun summer.