Mobility

I don't know why I was so excited for Max to start rolling.  Now, kid won't sit still!  I put him on the floor in the family room  while I poured Alex a glass of juice this morning, when I came back he'd worked himself almost under the couch.  Just his head and one arm sticking out from beneath the sofa.  Good thing I hadn't poured Alex a bowl of cereal because with that time, Max probably could have gotten all the way under the couch requiring me to fish him out with a broom stick. 

And, I'm spent

I did it! YAY!  I made it through NaBloPoMo! WOO HOO!

Look, indulge me ok? These days the only deadlines I have to meet are the ones involving getting someone to the potty before he soaks another set of clothes, or get that onesie off before the slime-poo seeps through the diaper.  It feels good to meet a different kind of goal.

NaBloPoMo this year made me think about why I blog in the first place.  I started my first blog three and a half years ago when I was pregnant with Alex.  I did it because I wanted a way for our family and friends who lived far away to experience my son's life.  I grew up away from my family, only seeing my relatives once a year, sometimes not even that often.  Whenever we went to California for a visit, I felt like I had to introduce myself to everyone.  Nobody knew me.  I was a stranger to my own family. 

I still live far away from my family, and probably always will, but I didn't want Alex to feel like a stranger, an outsider.  I figured if there was an easy way to share his life with them, a way for them to watch him grow up, even from afar, he would somehow feel more connected.  THEY would feel more connected to him.

Blogging has also given me some unexpected benefits.  We've connected with old friends and distant relatives who've used the Internet to look us up.  Many of John's family have started their own blogs and I've had a chance to get to know some of them better than I would have without their blogs.  John's sister has moved out of state, yet I can still go to her blog and see pictures of my beautiful little neice whenever I need a Lily fix.

Also, blogging gives me something to do.  Not that I'm not busy, but I love to write and my blog gives me an outlet for that. 

Just as important, I've created a record of my children's early years.  Written down silly little things I'm sure I'd have long forgotten otherwise.  I plan to have my posts printed out in a book, maybe I'll do one every year.  I think it will be fun to have a record of our family's exploits to pull out and read when the kids are grown, and share embarrassing stories of their early years with their future partners.  I know I could do this privately, keep baby books like a regular person, but for me, sharing these stories make it funner and I write things down more often knowing other people will read it and maybe get a chuckle or two from my sons' silly antics.

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Papa Joe's condo we go!

Thanksgiving in St George with John's family was wonderful.  We opted to leave early, coming home today instead of tomorrow, something everyone still at the condo will be thankful for when they're not woken up by my kids and dog again at 5:30 in the morning.

We're home now, safe and sound, and surprisingly, I'm able to stick with NaBloPoMo! Yay!

I'm out of town

...I wrote this yesterday.  Does this count for NaBloPoMo?

Thanksgiving

Well, right this minute (5:28 AM) I'm thankful for the coffee bean.  I'm thankful that someone thought to roast and grind that little bad boy to make the wonderful elixir of life: Coffee.

The most obvious thing I am thankful for are my children.  The fact that I have them, the fact that they are healthy and happy.  I try to never take them for granted.  They are miracles. I didn't think I'd ever even have Alex, what with infertility and miscarraige before he came along.  And the fates didn't want to let me just HAVE Max, that would be too easy.  We had to almost loose him, but not only did he live through it, he doesn't seem to have any long term affects.  Not a single day, not a single HOUR goes by that I don't look at him and feel absolute JOY that he is in my life.  My children are as important to me as sunlight, water and oxygen. I simply can not live without them.

Of course I wouldn't even have my beautiful sons if I didn't have John.  Our marraige isn't perfect, but it's good.  Great even.  We are crazy in love.  John loves me as I am, no changes necessary.  And he has this amazing ability to make me feel BETTER than I am.  After a long day with the kids, I can be exahusted, wearing sweats and a ratty t-shirt covered in various kid related yuck, and feeling downright disgusting, but with one look, one smile, one kiss, one touch...John is able to make me FEEL like a supermodel.  When I look at myself through John's eyes, I'm beautiful.  This is no small thing, I've never been beautiful, but John doesn't just tell me I'm pretty or sexy, he makes me believe it somehow.  I don't think I need to write much about the more obvious things that are great about John, he's smart, he's sexy, he works hard to provide for our family.  And while he may not be particularly helpful with the messy parts of parenthood, he is a good father who loves his boys. 

I'm thankful for people outside my little family as well:

My mom, who has become an amazing grandmother to my boys, Alex in particular.  Our relationship is complicated, but good.  After thirty years, we've finally begun to really understand each other I think.  Our relationship has never been better.

Mark, who treats me as if I were his own daughter. My boys will never know he's not their biological grandfather.  He has to walk a fine line between loving us completely but acknowledging he isn't Dad.  He makes my mom happy and that is the most important thing of all.

My grandma Margie, who loves me unconditionally, even though we are different.  I am one of many grandchildren, yet she makes me feel special.  Important.  Loved.  She has always been a constant source of love in my life.

My dad, even though he's no longer with me, I am who I am because he was my dad.  I'm glad I had him while I did. I'm glad he was healthy as long as he was, and I'm glad when it got really bad, it didn't last too long.  I'm glad I knew him well enough, and had so many good times with him that I can miss him as much as I do.  No regrets there.  I had a great Dad.

My in laws, who are awesome.  Part of what makes my marraige to John so easy is that I love his family. 

I really could go on and on, but suffice it to say, I have an amazing life and I am thankful for everyone and everything in it.

 

Filler

Wasted the day away working on our holiday card.  Because it totally made sense to me to do THAT instead of, you know, getting ready to go out of town.  Who needs laundry done, desserts baked,  bags packed, carseat put back in the car...  Bah. 

Stop! Right there!

My kids are at the perfect ages: Three years and five months

Alex is fun to talk to, fun to play with and everything that comes out of his mouth is adorable  He plays pretend and talks about his day and sometimes, looks over at me and says "Mommy, you're awesome!  Awesome and cute!"

Max is so sweet you could get a cavity just by being in the same room with him.  He's smiley and does this cute thing with his tounge that I have to get a picture of.  He plays with toys, loves peek a boo and thinks his big brother is the funniest thing since the Three Stooges (admittedly, Alex acts like one of the Stooges).

I never wished for my kids to stop growing and to stay frozen in time at some perfect age because I always knew that an even better age was just around the corner, but now, I'm just not sure anything can beat having a three year old and a five month old.  Together.  Something about these ages in combo fills me with so much joy and happiness.  They're both cuddly and sweet, they still love their mother above all others and they're both small enough to fall asleep together on my lap at the end of the day when I'm sitting in John's old recliner watching TV.  Yea, I'm not sure it gets any better than this.

It probably will though, it always does :)

One on one

Yesterday I took Alex swimming at the local indoor pool, and it was just what we needed, Alex and I, some one on one time together.  Ever since Max (aka "My name is Max and I'm a boobaholic") came along I literally have had zero time for Alex without a baby in my arms.  I didn't realize how much I'd missed "me and my boy time" until it was just us playing in the pool together.

I know I'm much harder on him than I used to be. I don't let him get away with everything like I used to.  I probably yell more and we don't do as many fun things.  I hate to admit it, but I'd almost forgotten what a cool kid he is.  It seems like every day is spent trying to contain him.  Trying to keep him busy so I can take care of the baby or chores or whatever.  Sadly, it's not as often that I'm down on the floor playing WITH him.  The two hours we spent together at the pool was awesome.  Joking and splashing each other.  Playing games and floating around talking about rocket ships and dinosaurs and cars.  Man, I didn't even know I missed him, but I did.  I won't wait five months to have another Mommy and Alex day again that's for sure!

Updates

If you don't happen to live in Utah, or just don't watch college footbal. 

UTAH WON! 

SUCK IT BYU!

:::

PHM weekly challenge:

Last week's challenge was to drink 64 oz of water every day, which I did. YAY ME!  The second part of the challenge was to exercise every day, which I didn't.  Boo. 

I don't have a good excuse other than the kids were running me ragged all week long.  Which, they do every week, but most weeks I still manage to find time to exercise, so, yea, I'll admit it, I sucked this week. 

I won't do an official weekly challenge next week since it's Thanksgiving and we're going out of town, but unofficially, I'm going to try to re-do last week's challenge.  Drink water and exercise every day.

:::

Potty training is...well, I'm not sure.  Alex is going through about three pairs of underwear every day, almost always before noon.  After noon, no accidents.  So, I don't get it.  I guess it doesn't matter, he's doing SO MUCH BETTER than he's ever done and I think it's because I absolutely refuse to put him back into Pull Ups.  He's even sleeping in underpants at night, and only once last week did I have to change his sheets.

I'm nervous about Thanksgiving because we're spending next weekend with John's family at his dad's condo in St George and I'm pretty much, 100% sure no one wants Alex peeing all over the condo.  I don't want to put him in PullUps because I'm worried we'll have a setback, but on the other hand, my in-laws SEEM to like me right now, if I let my son pee and poop all over their vacation home, they might be none to happy with me.  I'm going to work extra hard with Alex until we leave to get him to get over his morning weirdness.  I'll probably pack PullUps just in case.

:::

Also, in Alex news, he's HUNGRY.

Yep, my eldest son is hungry.

Child hasn't been hungry, pretty much ever, in his life.  But the last couple of weeks he's following me around saying "I'm HUUUUUUUNGRY!  I need FOOOOOOD!"  And he's eating it!  All!  Three squares a day plus at least two to three snacks and still, he's hungry! 

Yesterday he was getting dressed and I noticed his belly is nice and round and sticking out a bit.  I can hardly see his ribs and spine like I used to.  Wow. 

:::

Cloth diapering is going great!  I recieved three BumGenius diapers this week, and I love them! They are the Caddy of cloth diapers for sure!  They put my Kushies to shame.  I also ordered some used/repairable BumGenius pocket diapers and got them yesterday.  One of them I can use without any immediate repairs, but the other two need the leg elastic changed out (Help Mom!?!).  My first feelings are, don't like.  I don't get pocket diapers.  Why would you use a pocket diaper if you have an AIO alternative? 

I have eight diapers (nine if you count the pocket diaper) and that gets me through a whole day if I use a disposable at night.  I want to double my stash so I only have to wash diapers every other day.  I found a place in Utah that I can buy cloth diapers (instead of ordering online like I have been), so I'm going to try to go tomorrow and see what other kinds I can try out. 

I'm a little confused as to how green I'm being by cloth diapering.  On one hand, I've only thrown away six disposable diapers all week, so that's good, but I've done 14 extra loads of laundry (have to wash diapers separate than regular clothes of course, and I have to wash twice, once cold, once hot, plus extra rinses to get them cleaned and sanitized.) So, not so green.  Once I have more diapers, I will be doing less laundry, so maybe that will take care of itself.

Right now I'm not really saving money by cloth diapering either because I'm trying to build up my diaper stash.  However, I'm hoping I'll have all the diapers I'll need in a couple of weeks and then we should start saving money.

The best, yet unexpected, thing I've noticed is that cloth diapers, at least the ones I'm using, don't leak and don't blow out.  The few times I've used disposables this week, each one had a blow out.  I only had one blow out with cloth diapers and it's because it was my first day using the Kushies and I didn't have it on tight enough. I haven't had a cloth diaper blow out since.

Overall, I'm liking cloth diapering and fully intend to keep it up.  Ask me again once Max is pooping "human poo" if I still like it.  I'm guessing not.  But you never know.

GO UTES!

Subtle huh?

When John bought season tickets to U of U football this year I told him to give my ticket to his brother because I didn't want to take the kids to the games, BUT, I wanted the ticket to tonight's game against BYU. 

The U of U has special significance for us.  Not only is it Johns alma mater, it also has a special place in our family.  In 2004, we watched Alex Smith lead the Utes toan undefeated season culminating in crushing the Cougars resulting in an invite to the Fiesta Bowl (BCS bullshit).  John and I went to the Fiesta bowl in Tempe and watched Alex Smith play and win his last college game (Also, if you remember, Alex Smith went on to be the #1 NFL draft pick of 2005).  We came home from Arizona pregnant with our first son.  Not coincidentally to be named Alex.

So I held my claim on that ticket until last week when I decided that John would have so much more fun at the game with his brother because they'd gone to all of the games this season together.  I'd rather spend a nice Saturday with my boys anyway, likely with the game on TV in the background.

GO UTES!!!!

Rollo

So, you've all seen my baby do the belly to back roll. Well, this morning I put him in his crib, on his back, then took Alex to the potty, when I returned he was on his belly.  This was not a fluke.  All morning long he's basically been rolling all over the living room. 

He's mobile.

It's all over for me now.

NaBloPoMo day 21 brought to you by my grandma!

Thankfully my grandma has a sense of humor, so I think I can post this and she'll laugh, knowing I'm not making fun of her, I just couldn't resist.

My grandma and I email every single day.  It's gotten to the point where I can hardly start my day until I get my "Good Morning" email from her.  She had cataract surgery this week, but that hasn't stopped her from trying to email me.  This morning I got this:

Gum dear Hanue ,,, tiyr nin sebt ne a ciot if wgat /akex gad ib gus tggabjs keaf,,, reakkt tucjked ne Linda  probably sgoing home this am.
enjoy day hugs grandma

I think maybe her eyes just took longer to adjust to the screen because as you can see, it's readable toward the end.

I love you Grandma! Thanks for helping me laugh this morning!

NaBloPoMo Day 20 - PICTURES!

 

Hand me ups?  Alex isn't wearing shorts, he's wearing a pair of 0-3 month long pants. They are pants Alex himself wore at two months old.  When I tried to put them on Max the other day and found they were too short for him, I tossed them in the corner of his room, as I do with all of the clothes he outgrows, Alex found them, declared "These are GREEN!  Green is my favoite color!"  And ran off with them.  The next thing I know he's walking around the house wearing them.  He still is in fact, he wore them to bed.

 

I took this picture of Max, and when I looked at it after downloading it from my camera, it reminded me of someone:

 

Alex - 4 months

 

And, just, Awwwwwww :)

 

Caught on tape

PROOF!!!

Body Worlds

I finally got a chance to go see Body Worlds yesterday.  I went with my fellow "Dillier wives" Jen and Steph.  It's always fun to do stuff with them because we're pretty much married to the same man.  Jen is married to "Dillier - the original".  I am married to "Dillier 2.0 - the geek version" and Stephani is married to "Dillier 2.5 - New! With long flowing hair!"  It's nice to be able to complain about some weird quirk my husband has and have them know EXACTLY what I'm talking about because their husbands have the exact same quirk.

Anyhow, despite their merciless teasing about my bad driving and lack of a sense of direction, we got to The Leonardo safe and sound (thanks to Ms. Garmin), scrounged up change for a two hour parking meter and went to see the exhibit.

Which was awesome.

I don't really have words to describe it. "Fascinating" would probably be a good one.  Also, "Rawhide dog bone" would be another descriptive phrase I could use.  I was moved by the thought that some of these people were probably elderly, sick or even disabled, yet, in death, they were immortalized into these beautiful acrobatic poses, smiling and proud of their bodies.  I very nearly signed up then and there to have my body donated to the exhibit, but I thought I'd better check with John first.  Then I realized, I wouldn't neccesarily become one of the full body artistic displays.  I could become just a slice. A cross section, which doesn't sound nearly as sexy to me. 

The area with the fetuses was interesting as well.  I looked for a long time at the 9 week fetus, as that is when the doctors estimated John and my first pregnancy stopped developing, though I didn't miscarry until I was three months along.  I'd seen photos of a 9 week fetus in books, but to see it, to see how HUMAN it really looked, I was actually a little shocked.  The older fetuses were harder for me to look at.  I did though, I held Max tight to my chest and looked at the tiny little babies, most of them boys, remembering what it felt like when my own boys were healthy inside of me at that age, kicking and wiggling.  I think I played it cool while I was there, but it was the most emotional part of the exhibit for me.

At the end of the exhibit, there was a place where you could pick up and hold some plasticised organs.  Both Jen and I jumped a little at our first touch of a kidney, it wasn't really gross, you just don't expect it to feel like that.  Kind of waxy, like soap.  There was also a place where you write down a secret about your body and they tape it to a wall.  I left my secret.  And there was a little bakery with overly inflated prices.  As Jen said, if I pay that much for a cupcake, it had better give me an orgasm. 

While I was off seeing dead people, Alex was spending the afternoon with Grandma Babs.  They had all kinds of fun going to the farm and to the Build a Bear shop at the mall where he made a dog dressed in a U of U t-shirt, red hat, blue jeans, black sketchers and a silver sequined purse. 

Cloth diapering - day 3

So, it's not that bad really.  The only problem I'm having is the fact that I don't have nearly enough diapers.  The g-diaper covers are way too big and either fall off or leak, so I'm depending on my five Kushie's, which are great, but I go through five diapers by noon.

I thought I had a problem with stains on the diapers because the second time I washed the soiled diapers, I decided to wash them on the delicate setting (worried that all the laundering will wear them out faster), they all came out looking pretty much the way they went in.  Yuck.  But I washed them again, this time on the normal setting and they're bright white and perfect again. So, no problems there.

John doesn't want me to buy more diapers until I prove to him that I'll stick with cloth diapering, which makes sense, except that I'm more likely to keep it up if I have enough diapers to at least last me a whole day without having to deal with the ill fitting diaper covers I have now.  So I talked him into letting me order three Bumgenius AIO's. They should arrive next week.  If I like them, I'll probably buy a bunch more.  I'm also considering getting some diaper covers in a smaller size because really, using prefolds at home isn't that big a deal, if I have AIO's for when I go out, I'll be in business. 

What I've learned so far is that cloth diapering? Not that big a deal.  If you have AIO's that is.  AIO's are as easy to use as disposables.  I have a trash can with a locking lid that I'm tossing the soiled diapers into, so the smell isn't bad (at least now while he's still breastfed), and I do laundry every day anyway, so what's an extra load or two? (when I get more diapers, I'll be doing less loads)  I do have to make sure I change him often or else he gets diaper rash, and the Kushies actually work so well (so far anyway) that they don't leak and I have to make sure to check them to see if they're wet (with disposables, they swell up so you can feel from the outside that they're wet, this isn't as obvious in the already bulky cloth diapers.) Also, for this reason I've decided to put Max in a disposable with Desitin at night, because the first night I let him sleep in a cloth diaper, and though it didn't leak, he woke up with Monkey Butt, this morning, after sleeping in the disposable w/ Desitin, he was Monkey Butt Free.

All is also well on the Alex front, who acts like he's pretty much potty trained suddenly.  We went through three pairs of underwear Sunday, two pairs yesterday and are on our second pair today, which is actually really, REALLY good for him. 

Peace and love

 I don't have a job. I recycle. I have a large dog. I buy organic food products. My favorie song of all time is Imagine by John Lennon.  I am politically left leaning.  I breastfeed. I wear my  baby in a sling. Alex usually runs around without pants.  Now I'm using cloth diapers.

OH MY GOD! I'm a just a pair of Birkinstocks and a bong away from being a hippie!

 

Groovy.

Cloth diapering lingo

My mother brought to my attention that she didn't have a clue what I was staying when I described the "dipering systems" I was using.

g diapers are a hybrid disposable/cloth.  You have a cloth cover with a snap in plastic liner that you stuff a disposable pad into.  The disposable pad is, in theory, flushable, but I just toss them because they are biodegradable, and I feel much less guilty tossing the pad in the trash than a regular diaper.  I'm not really crazy about the velcro closing in the back though, and the disposable pad can't really hold in the breastmilk poo very well.  I've had better luck today stuffing the liner with prefold which is more absorbant, not to mention softer on Max's bits. 

I'm using the g diapers I used when Alex was about a year old or so, so they're WAY too big for Max.  If I decide to keep using cloth on Max, I'm going to have to buy some diaper covers that fit him better.

Prefolds are just regular cloth diapers.  The kind my mom used to put me into and pin shut and put plastic pants over.

AIO's are "All in one" diapers.  Where it's all in one piece, but all cloth, you don't have to stuff a pocket, or pin a cloth diaper on...  I have Kushie's brand which have velcro closing.  THe jury is still out on whether or not I like these yet.  This is the first time I've used them, and my first impression is they don't look very comfortable, the outer layer is plastic and isn't very soft, but may get softer as I wash it.

We are a couple of hours in on this experiment and it's going great, mostly because Alex is using the potty like a champ.  Will report tomorrow on whether or not I plan to do it again tomorrow.

Going green to save green

I woke up this morning, looked at the mountain of dirty diapers and pullups in the bathroom trash and decided that I'm sick and tired of buying disposables.  I do this every few months or so, decide that I want to save the environment or save some money and put the kids in cloth diapers or cloth training pants, then, oh, about 45 minutes later, I'm covered in pee and poop and now have a mountain of cloth diapers and training pants to wash, and I put them back in disposables.

So, here we go again.  Alex is wearing his cloth training pants and Max is currently wearing g diaper with a disposable liner while I wash a load of prefolds and the five Kushies AIO's I'd bought last time I went through this phase. 

I have 18 pairs of little boy underpants, 5 AIO's, 2 g diaper covers, 4 g-diaper plastic liners, 6 disposable g diaper pads and about 10 cloth prefolds (which I plan to use with the g-diapers rather than the disposable liners).  I'm hoping I can get through one whole day using these without using my stash of disposables.  If I do, both boys will still go to bed wearing disposables.

I know exactly how this will, go, but I'm willing to try. Again.

PHM update and new challenege

Sun:  I did 20 min of Turbo Jam and then both kids needed me so I had to turn it off.

Mon:  Walked at the mall for 30 min

Tues:  Did 30 min of Turbo Jam and then was interrupted by children BUT later in the afternoon I turned it on again and did the last 15 minutes.

Wed:  Did the entire 45 min Turbo Jam DVD uninterupted!

Thurs:  Walked at the mall for 40 min!

Fri:  It was nice outside so I walked for 30 min around the neighborhood

Sat:  Walked outside again for 30 minutes.

So, I'd call it a successful week.  Challenge met! 

I did not weigh myself this week though, because even though I made a point to get some kind of exercise every day, I also ate like a pig, so I'm sure I didn't lose anything, in fact, I fear that I actually gained. 

The new challenge for next week will be water.  I had John bring home a pack of caffine free diet Pepsi on Wed night and by Friday afternoon they were all gone and I was the only one drinking them!  I think it's clear that I need to focus this week on drinking water instead of soda.  So I will allow myself to have my cup of coffee in the morning and my glass of milk with dinner, but any other drinks I have will be water.  My goal will be to drink 64 oz of water each day.

I will also continue my exercise goal from last week, three days I want to do 45 min of Turbo Jam  and four days I will go walking for a minimum of 30 minutes.

*interestingly I found myself acutally going out to walk or putting in the Turbo Jam DVD just because I didn't want to have to report that I was a lazy bum and didn't exercise one day.  So YAY for accountability!

Max's new trick

Max has officially mastered rolling from his belly to his back.  He still can't roll from back to belly, but we've got at least 180 degrees down pat, we'll just keep working on the other 180.  Basically, this just means that tummy time is officially over because he just flips over. Or so I thought.

He actually started doing this on Wednesday, so at Thursday morning's playgroup I was so excited to show everyone his new trick.  Everyone gathered around Max's blanket and I put him on his belly and he just flopped around like a trout.  At one point he pulled his knees up under him and scooched around on his face.  "Seriously!"  I told everyone "He was flipping over like a champ yesterday!".  Sadly, he continued to refuse to perform for my friends.  Little bum.

I tried again in the evening, I told John all about his rolling abilities and put him on a blanket on the floor, where again, he just flopped around and did the face scooching thing.  John got bored of watching the baby give his face a rug burn, so he went back to watching Jeopardy.  No sooner had he looked away, than Max got with the program and flipped over onto his back.  I started clapping and telling Max how awesome he did. I think John thought I cheated and flipped him myself.

So, I still have no witnesses to this new trick.  Maybe I'll hide the camcorder somewhere to try to get it on video.  THEN people will believe me.  I suppose unless they think I'd used some kind of special effects.  Nah, they'll never see the wires :)

Eight Things

Thanks to Sara for tagging me and providing today's NaBloPoMo blog fodder!

Eight TV shows I like to watch:

1. Nova Science Now
   
2. Eyes of Nye
   
3. Dirty Jobs
   
4. The Office
   
5. 30 Rock
   
6. Battlestar Gallactica
   
7. Family Guy
   
8. 
   

   Scrubs

Eight resturaunts I like to eat at:

1. Wingers
   
2. Cafe Rio
   
3. Mad Greek
   
4. The Garden (in Fallbrook)
   
5. Famous Daves
   
6. In N Out Burger
   
7. Oyster Bar / Market Street
   
8. 
   

   Hard Rock Cafe - but only once in any given city, I don't really like the food, we just like collecting the glasses

Eight things that happened today (well, I'm writing this at 7 in the morning so nothing's happened, I'll list what happened yesterday):

1. Made artwork out of bowtie pasta, stale mini marshmellows, q-tips, old holiday ribbon and sliced almonds with Alex
   
2. Changed sixty billion dirty diapers
   
3. Nursed the baby, I don't know, maybe 15 times?  I don't keep track
   
4. Watched my son fully dress himself, from pull ups to shoes and top his ensemble with a fuzzy green pimp hat
   
5. Packed a suitcase with Alex and sent him off with Grandma Babs for a sleepover
   
6. Was able to do the entire 45 minute Turbo Jam DVD uninterupted
   
7. Watched a show about comedy on the History Channel hotsted by Lewis Black
   
8. Cooked (breakfast for John, Alex and me.  Lunch for me and rice cereal for the baby. Dinner - Jambalya - for John and me)

Eight things I'm looking forward to:

1. Battlestar Gallactica's final few episodes
   
2. Going to see Body Worlds
   
3. Alex being fully potty trained 
   
4. The day I wake up, hop on the scale and see a number that I'm not embarassed to say aloud
   
5. Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men (and women)
   
6. John finally selling all that crap he bought a year and half ago at Comic Con
   
7. Picking Alex up at my mom's this morning. I MISSED HIM!
   
8. 
   

   The first time Max says "I love you Mommy"

I tag Grandma Jen! (Sara already tagged Steph, Lauri and Jen, but consider yourselves double tagged ladies!)

Six unspectacular quirks

So Steph was tagged for this meme and posted it on her blog. I was not tagged, but I'm desperately seeking NaBloPoMo material and I'm valiently trying to not write about potty training, so I'm going to go ahead and do this one.  I have many quirks, none of which are spectacular, so this should be easy for me:

1. 
   

   I can't sleep naked.  And this has nothing to do with having small children. The real reason is because I am terrified that the one time I fall asleep in the nude will be the very night we have a housefire and I'll get up and be so busy getting my kids and pets out of the house I'll forget to get dressed or even wrap a blanket around myself and I'll be standing in the street watching my house burn to the ground in the buff.

   
   
2. 
   

   I am terrified of aliens.  To my knowledge, I have never been abducted nor have I been anally probed by an extraterrestrial visitor, but that doesn't change the fact that I always watch alien movies with my hands covering my eyes, only peeking at the screen through my fingers.  John keeps asking why I didn't like the new Indiana Jones movie, I had been SO excited for it and I'm a HUGE fan of the first three, but I wouldn't even sit through the enitre movie when he recently bought it on BluRay.  It's because THEY'RE ALIENS (ok, dimentional shifters...whatever)!  Signs?  That leg in the cornfield?  FREAKY!

   
   
3. 
   

   I love Canada.  Though I've never been there.  I've never met a Canadian I didn't like, and back before we had Alex I lobbyed pretty hard to get John to transfer to his company's Vancouver office.  It's not that I hate the US, not at all, I just, for reasons unknown, feel that I am deep down in my soul, a Canadian.  John thinks it's funny but supports my love of Candadians by making a point to introduce me to his Canadian co-workers when they're in town.  I love them all. 

   
   
4. 
   

   I still have a weird crush on Micheal Flatley. Lord of the Dance, C'mon!  It was cool in the 90's!  Wasn't it?

   
   
5. 
   

   I LOVE motorcycles. It is hard for me to drive in the summer because I have a hard time keeping my eyes on the road when a Harley passes me on the freeway.  I don't know how to ride a motorcycle, though my ex tried to teach me once on a Honda Magna. I couldn't keep the thing upright.  John "won't allow" me to get a bike, saying that they're too dangerous, so I'm likely not going to ever learn to ride (though I tell John that if I'm ever widowed, the first thing I'm doing is going out and getting myself a hog and joining the Hell's Angels chapter for the elderly).

   
   
6. 
   

   You know that question "If you could meet any celebrity who would it be?"  I would have a hard time making the choice between Tina Fey and Queen Latifah.  A few weeks ago when they were in the same SNL skit (where Fey played Palin and The Queen played Gwen Ifill) was one of my favorite TV moments of all time.

Learning not to assume

At my mom's club breakfast this morning there were several new prospective members.  I was having a conversation with one woman who had an amazingly beautiful little boy.  I mean, this kid was bordering on angelic he was so damned cute, but that's not really the point.  So I was trying to make small talk and I ask her if he is her only child, she tells me that he is.  "Any plans for another?" I ask her.  She tells me they're not sure. "Well accidents can happen"  I joke. And then she tells me that since she and her partner (who was sitting right beside her) are lesbians, an accident isn't liable to happen any time soon.  "Probably not" I agree. 

I hope I didn't make too much of an ass out of myself, because these women were really cool and I hope they join the group.

Did Hell freeze over? Pigs flying?

Alex and Max are both, right at this very moment, napping. NAPPING! AT THE SAME TIME!  OH MY GOD!  This has never happened, ever. I don't really know what to do with myself.  Maybe I'll take a shower and go to the bathroom, like alone and stuff.

Alex has basically given up his nap, but today, he spent the afternoon rubbing his face all over the dog resulting in a full body rash, so I gave him a squirt of Benedryl and waited awhile to see if it would make him sleepy.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.  We waited an hour and he wasn't showing any signs of being drowsy, so I packed the kids up and headed off to the dinosaur museum. 

About five minutes into our drive I unwrapped a granola bar and handed it to him.  He was still awake. I switched on NPR, looked in the rear view mirror and he was zonked with the granola bar hanging out of his mouth.  Max was also asleep (not surprising).  So, I turned around and came home, put the kids in bed and now I've got the whole house to myself for an undetermined amount of time. YAY!

The case of the missing bangs - SOLVED!

So, I was so confused about having "lost" my bangs, but I figured out what happened to them.  When the stylist cut my bangs, she really just took a lock of hair and cut it about an inch shorter than the shortest layer of the rest of my hair, which is really just about long enough for me to tuck behind my ear, which is what I've been doing with it.  Apparently, I am supposed to blow dry this lock of hair and I guess spackle it to my forhead in a swoopy manner to make it look like bangs.

What I wanted were bangs like Sara's, which, upon closer inspection last night, I found hers are actually cut in a swoopy manner.  She actually has cute swoopy bangs, not just a shorter lock of hair that is supposed to pretend to be bangs like I've got. 

So, I guess I'm still bang-less until I go and get my bangs actually cut. Swoopily. 

PHM - Weekly goal

I had an epiphany the other day.  Maybe I was unsuccessful on my monthly PHM challenges because a month is a LOOOONG time.  Maybe I could be more successful if I had a shorter challenge, like a week long.  AND, maybe, if I focused on meeting a goal I could really control, rather than a weight loss goal, putting myself at the mercy of my metabolism, I would be more successful.

So, here's my new idea:  The WEEKLY PHM CHALLENGE!  Every week I will focus on making a change.  I will not focus on loosing pounds, rather, I will focus on lifestyle changes that I hope to become new healthier habits.  I'll try this for the next few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

Week 1 challenge: Exercise

Goals
   - Do the entire 45 min. Turbo Jam DVD three days this week
   - Walk at the mall for 30 min four days this week

New do

Well, actually, it appears to be the same 'do as I always have, only maybe a teensy bit shorter. You might conclude from this photo that I wimped out on getting bangs, well, you'd be wrong.  I walzed into the local walk-in salon, and, feeling that anything would be an improvement over what I was currently sporting, I grabbed the first magazine I could reach off the table and without really looking, handed it to the woman with the cobalt blue hair and said "Give me that" vaguely pointing at the cover model.

It turns out I was to recieve the closest approximation the blue haired woman could give me of Reese Witherspoon's current hairdo.  When she was almost done cutting my hair I added "oh, and I'd like some 'swoopy bangs'"  I saw her cut them.  I saw her blow dry them, but when I got out of the shower this morning and started doing my hair, I couldn't for the life of me find them!

Oh well, it is better than before anyway.

To bang or not to bang

Only seven days into NaBloPoMo and I'm already talking about my hair.  At least it's not potty training right?

Anyhow, I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow.  Does anybody out there have strong feelings about bangs?  I'm thinking of getting my normal cut (chin length w/ layers) but adding some swoopy bangs.  When I asked John what he thought of swoopy bangs, he didn't seem to even know what bangs were...so, no help.

Here's the thing, whenever I get bangs, I immediately regret it and go through that awful "growing out bangs" trauma.  I think it's because I always wimp out and get thin whispy bangs which just makes me look stupid. I'm thinking if I get chunkier, heavier bangs, I mean, REALLY commit to the bangs, I might like them more.

Thoughts?

Forcing you to watch my home movies

First up is Alex making Max laugh.  Kid likes it rough!

Next up is Alex talking about puss filled eyeballs.  A treat I made for a Halloween party he went to. 

Here we have Max attempting to roll over. He never quite makes it, but I think it's so cute how VOCAL he is about it.

And lastly, here is Max laughing hysterically at his brother

A good day to be a Democrat

Suffice it to say, I was one very happy voter last night.  I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of last night's historic election.  It also helps that my guy won :) 

McCain is a hero, a great American, and probably, in another time, would have made a great president.  But it's a new time in America now.  We put aside our fears and our biases and elected a man named Barack Hussein Obama to be our leader because he gave us hope that we can be better.  Yes we can.

If you live under a rock and didn't see President-elect Obama (!!!!) make his speech last night.  Watch it.  WATCH. IT.  http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/video.transcript/index.html

Gender confusion

Alex was playing with one of my magazines.  He turned the page and said "That's Barack Obama!"  When I asked to see the picture of Barack Obama, he showed it to me.  It was not in fact Barack Obama.  It wasn't even a man.  I'll give him one thing though, she was black.  So much for raising kids who are color blind.  Though I seem to be doing a great job raising a child who is gender blind...

Vote, vote, vote!

If you haven't already, please, please, PLEASE go out and vote today. 

If you're sick of hearing about my potty training woes, just go ahead and skip this post

So, from Friday to Saturday Alex went 24 hours with no accidents.  Saturday morning I went out and bought him a reward, a playdough kit, and five minutes later he pooped his pants.  BUT, he then went the whole rest of the day with no accidents.  Sunday he was with his Daddy watching football most of the day, and there were a few accidents, but I think we only went through three or four PullUps the entire day.  He woke up dry this morning, but then pooped in his pants before we left to take John to work.  We've had one pee pee accident since then, but otherwise, everything else seems to be going into the potty.  Is this progress?  I'm not sure.  I think he's screwing with me.

PHM - October challenge update (*sarcastic HAHA snort*)

Well, October is over and so is my October Challenge, and also over is my attempt at doing a monthly weight loss challenge because the last two months, while I did loose weight, I didn't come anywhere near my 10 pound weight loss goal, and instead of just being happy about the weight I did loose, I felt frustrated that I didn't loose more.  So, I'll give you the results (like you care), and tell you what I am going to do moving forward with PHM (I realize the PHM posts are for my own accountability, and aren't particularly interesting to other readers, I suppose unless I start giving you the ACTUAL NUMBERS on the scale - yea, dream on, or post bikini pics - Really I am protecting your eyes people.  Maybe some day, when Hell freezes over).

In October I lost four pounds, then I gained one back and couldn't loose the damn thing again.  So my total weight loss for October is three pounds. My total weight loss for PHM as a whole is 17 pounds.  I have three stubborn little pounds to loose to get to my pre-Max weight, I have 33 pounds to loose to get to my pre-Alex weight and I want to loose 53 pounds to get to my goal weight. 

So, moving forward?  I still need to set a goal for myself.  Even though I haven't met my monthly PHM goals, I had something to strive towards and I felt a sense of accountability in having to report either my failings or successes at this website.  I'm going to set a more reasonable goal for myself for the rest of the year:  Loose the three pounds of Max pregnancy weight and don't gain it back over the holidays. 

I want to stick with my low GI diet, because it feels like a real healthy way of eating in general.  I bought Turbo Jam last week and am planning to do that a few times a week instead of going to the gym, because trying to get a spare hour out of my day to go to the gym is so frustrating, I end up not going at all.  This week I've been able to fenagle 45 minutes in my living room to do the Turbo Jam DVD while Max takes nap and Alex jumps around with me thinking we're dancing.  I'm also planning to continue mall walking in the mornings after we drop John at work.

I think that's a good solid plan, and I do hope to be much, MUCH more successful than just loosing three pounds over the course of two months, but I'm not going to set an aggressive goal for this holiday season.  I'm not that optimistic.

Good vs evil

Max, dude, your nursing days are numbered buddy.

This morning at 4:30, Max woke up in what John referred to as a "playful mood".  I would refer to it as a "sadistic mood", but you know, whatever.  Anyhow, he woke up and I put him in bed with us to nurse.  Sadly, nurse he did not.  Instead he continually put my nipple in his mouth, bit down hard and shook his head like a dog playing with a chew toy.  When I screamed out in pain, he let go and laughed.  Again, John may say that he giggled like the angelic cherub he is, but I remember it as a maniacal cackling, reveling in the delight of causing unnecessary pain to his mother.

Two exciting things

Two exciting and wonderful, yet completely unrelated things happened today:

#1:  John ordered brand new custom windows for our house this morning, INCLUDING a new sliding door to replace our crappy French door to the back yard.  We're waiting on replacing the basement windows, but I don't care about those.  You know you're officialy an adult when you are over the moon excited about new windows.  They should be done and installed by the end of the month! YAY!

#2:  Alex has been dry and using the potty for 24 hours.  ! ! ! ! ! !  I'm almost afraid to type that in case I jinx it.   Even so, I think it might be safe to say that it has been the best 24 hours of my life as a parent!