More 7 Quick Takes Cause I'm Sweet Like That

1. Did you have a good Valentine's Day? We did. We played. We put together puzzles. We ate gummy bears. We played Chutes & Ladders. We went to church. We went out for ice cream.

Brian and I didn't do anything together without the kids but Valentine's Day has always been more of a family day for us anyhow.

I received two Hallmark greeting cards (one from Brian and one from the kids) with some of the words crossed out and replaced with funny phrases that only our family of four would understand. Brian does this for me on all holidays and it's probably my number one favorite gift from him. I have stacks of them stashed away in my nightstand drawer.

Oh! I almost forgot. I also got this lovely drawing on the blackboard in our kitchen thanks to William and hubby.

2. Are you watching the Olympics? If I could I'd watch every second. Thanks to our DVR I can watch most of it and fast forward through the boring parts.

This Olympics I've got the added bonus of having a three-year-old who is very interested. It's also made me realize how scared I am to be raising an adventure-seeking, risk-taking little boy.

He watches things like ski jumping and exclaims, "WOW! I can do that when I get bigger!"

Of course, in the next breath he also tells me he's going to marry me when he gets bigger. And then I'm reminded that yes, I do so love being the mommy of a little boy.

3. Brian and I have been going on weekly date nights and it has been WON-DER-FUL! We've made it easy on ourselves which makes it easy to make it a weekly event.

Here's our strategy:

First, we use my younger brother as our sitter. Our kids ADORE him and he's over at our house enough that he knows the ropes. Plus he's going to school right now so I feel good about paying him money instead of some stranger.

Second, we still go about our normal bedtime routine. I always bathe, nurse and put Lucy to sleep before we leave. William is bathed and in his jammies and gets to play with Uncle JoJo for a bit before he, too, goes to bed.

Third, we keep it cheap and simple. Typically we're only gone for a couple of hours. We catch a movie. We grab a burger and beer. Stuff like that. Just enough time to have an uninterrupted conversation or snuggle up in a theater.

4. Have you realized how much sunshine makes a difference? Well maybe not for all my sunshine state readers but if you're anywhere in the North do you hear what I'm sayin'?

Every Tuesday morning I have to be out of the house by 9 a.m. For the past two Tuesdays it's been snowing. And I've been majorly grumpy. But this morning the sunshine was brilliant. And I was a much more pleasant mom to be around.

Thank you, Sun.

5. For the past four months or so yoga has become a big part of my life. I don't think I've yet written about this but I should. It really has been a big deal for me. The breathing. The relaxing. The bending, stretching and reaching. I've done no other exercise that has given me such total body wellness.

I don't do it for the physical outcomes but the physical outcomes have truly been amazing. Who knew downward-facing dog could do so much?

6. Lucy is so. much. fun. She's at such a great age. Part of me wants to cry that she'll already be ten months next week. But the other part is so joyful to have a 9-to-10-month-old in the house. The "so bigs", the "pattie-cakes", the wet kisses. It's pure bliss.

And now I've realized I've taken about half the amount of pictures and a quarter the amount of videos that I ever did when William was her age. After naps this afternoon I'm going to get on that.

7. You may (or may not) have missed Brian's post on The Bachelor this week. It's coming. He had a last-minute business trip to attend yesterday that ended up being a nine-hour roundtrip car drive.

He thought about inviting himself over to his client's house for dinner and subsequent Bachelor-watching, but somehow that didn't seem entirely appropriate. Although with the increased popularity in my blog due to his weekly writing it might have just sealed that sales deal he was trying to close.