We're starting to eat real food again

I've been on a little bit of a kick lately. After Kster was born I was in survival mode and dinner was whatever I had that I could make in just a few minutes at the last minute. But now things are starting to go back to normal and we are actually cooking again.

Last week we ate a meal everyday of the week.

Sunday - Short Rib burritos
Monday - Almond crusted Tilapia, mashed potatos and pineapple
Tuesday - Green eggs and Ham
Wednesday - Chicken Penne
Thursday - Chicken, potatos and salad
Friday - Sloppy Joes
Saturday - date night
Sunday - Homemade spaghetti and meatballs (incl. homemade spaghetti)
Monday - nacho mountains
Tuesday - oven baked fish and salad

I oftentimes had dinner all ready prepped and Cster came home and just finshed it off or made the whole thing. Is been great. Its workng.

I'm also posting this because we are having visitors this weekend and already we are planning pizza and going out so I just wanted to remind myself that we are doing good.

Its not always trying

I just wanted to write that my life is not always trying. So, this is me acknowledging that I have good days. I just don't want my mark in the world to be me griping about how life is hard, because there are moments in life which make life really great. Its those moments that often get lost in the day to day of motherhood.

One Pound

Some weeks are more trying then others. I decided to write down a couple of memories of this past week. There are some good times and bad times. Its been a bit of a long week.

1. My children played a game where their bedroom was full of hot lava and they were on fire and had to get out. (I swear they haven't been watching the news)

2. We spent the weekend drawing with markers. I originally had let the kids use the markers whenever they wanted but got very tired of giving timeouts for inappropriate marker use. I brought them out this weekend after a long hiatus to a supervised marker time. Lster drew a picture of his family and then proclaimed "This s me when I was daddy and you were in my tummy."

3. Kster moved from a tummy position to a sitting position after attempting to crawl.

4. Kster decided he didnt like egg yolk so I mashed it into a banana and he ate it fine.

5. In the car, Lster asked me to let him know when we were going to get to a red light so he could eat his booger. Then immediately told me to "nevermind".

6. I asked Mster if she could pick out every food that was in her dinner...and she did it. We had a baked ziti (with penne noodles). She picked out celery, spinach, meat, noodles, sauce (made with tomatos). She did miss the 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree that I added to the sauce.

7. Lster got croup

8. Lster swallowed a penny.

9. Cster went to St Louis for 6 days.

10. Mster decided to wash the table with a green cloth. She picked a green cloth because it was Lsters favorite color and he would be really upset if she got something green dirty. (that was pretty indicative of how the 2 got a long all week.)

11. Mster got her finger stuck in a hole in her car seat. It required a very nice neighbor who coaxed her fr 10 minutes to wiggle it out whilst she screamed bloody murder.

12. I finally figure out that when Lster asks if I want him to try to go to the bathroom the answer is no, I want him to go to the bathroom.

13. Bedtime got pushed back an hour...permanently.

14. The kids divised a game where Lsters clothes had to go to jail. These would be the clothes he was wearing.

15. I got put on antibiotics that make me have a constant headache, no desire to eat and big desire to vomit.

16. I deep cleaned the entire upstairs of the house and 1/2 the main floor.

And after this entire week of craziness, I stepped on the scale this morning and had lost 1 pound. Sometimes its the little things that we have to give thanks for. I could have gained a pound this week.

Lster writes

Here is some of Lster's chalk writing.

He wrote "walk", "hop" and "jump"

pajama fun

Lster why are your pants inside out? - Me

Because I couldn't get them inside in. - Lster

I love Lster's randomness

Mster and Lster are playing school.

He just wrote out the alphabet. Here's how it goes.

Me: ABCDEFGHI "Hey Lster, what's this you wrote next?"

Lster: Its a funny boot. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I Can't Do it All

My house is rarely ever clean. And by rarely I mean there has never been a time except when we did a walk thru when we first move in that every room in the house was spotless.

The problem is that I always get distracted by motherhood. Like as I type this Mster is lying on the couch battling death and asking me to read her stories and Lster is climbing off the couch head first begging me to "pull (him) up". FTR I've read lots of stories today and already pulled him up numerous times. Kster's finally asleep with his second nap. For his first nap I spent the entire time playing games and then doing science experiments with both of them.

So I just don't know how to do it all.

I wake up in the morning with great ideas of what I will accomplish housewise but the list is never done.

One morning this week I sat down for my 5 minute breakfast and was just about to get up and fold laundry for Kster's nap when Lster asked me to play flash cards with him. Lately he has been obsessed with learning. Its a good thing. Its a great thing. I have never been one to force learning on my kids. They just beg for it. I don't buy flash cards. Stuff like that just falls into our hands. These flash cards were a part of Mster's Valentine's Day cards from kids in her class and Lster loves them. (sidenote they are princess cards which makes me kind of laugh). So we sat down with our beans and practised adding and subtracting. He's been trying to figure it out for a few weeks now but it hasn't sunk in. This week it sunk in. He figured out how to add/subtract 0 and 1 and he learned how to add doubles (3+3, 5+5). FTR...he's 3. He's not even 3 1/2. And I just don't know what to do with him but hang out with him and keep teaching him stuff. But that means that my laundry area is perpetually covered in clothes. The bathrooms are not cleaned as much as they need to be and I often forget to think about dinner till 5pm.

I know that a perfect house is not important but I just haven't figured out the balance. Like how dirty is it okay to leave my house? or how many days in a row can I forget to cook dinner? or how often do I need to change my clothes when I get spit up on at least 6 times a day and so walk around the world with perpetual puke on my shoulder and leg.

And so my house will never be perfectly clean. It will not only never be perfectly clean, there wil always be a room that is in desperate need of cleaning. But my family is happy. My kids are polite, intelligent, funny, well rounded (but not perfect by any means and I can guarantee I'm ready to explode between 4-5pm everyday - that's another post) and that's what being a mom's about.

The Valentine Weekend Read-a-Thon

Its Scholastic Book Fair time at Msters school. Normally, I'm generally frustrated with all the fundraising that goes on throughout the school year. For the most part fundraising through the school envolves one of these principles:

1. Get the kids super hyped to sell a bunch of junk to their friends/family in the hopes up winning prizes.

2. Get the kids to buy crap at a ridiculous price to give to other people as "presents".

3. Sell crap at a ridiculous price.

But this post isn't about fundraising...its about the Book Fair (another attempt at fundraising which I've decided to support. Books are not crap.) As part of the hoorah of the event the students are invited to participate in a Read-a-Thon. Students from each grade are competing with each other to see how many books they can read in a certain amount of time. The winner of each grade gets to have ice cream with the principal. Mster thought this was a pretty cool idea so I decided to go all out and help her win.

Over the past 2 weeks we've gone to the library twice (we used to go weekly but we've been slacking) and took out loads of books. After we read them all and there was just the weekend left I started to think of ways to encourage reading and not have to check out the entire library. That's when I came up with the idea of reading all of our kids books in one weekend. I wasn't sure we could do it but I figured it was worth a try. Mster was excited. It seemed like a great idea.

And we had a super fun weekend reading. There was fort building, hot chocolate drinking, popcorn popping, Olympic breaks, pizza dinners, and all in all we read 147 books over the 2 week period (probably 110 of them this weekend). We didn't read all of our books. We probably still have 30 more to go but I'm pretty proud of us. Nobody said "I don't want to read anymore". They just kept listening to the stories and Mster even read a dozen or so books herself. I told her if she wanted to count board/easy books she had to read them herself.

And so the weekend o' reading fun is done but what I think is awesome is that winning the competition will just be icing on the cake because we truly had a great time. The house is trashed beyond belief but we had a great time.

9 Days

Its been 9 days and I'm still sick. I'm done. Seriously. I feel like I haven't gotten a break.

Csters been super busy coaching a mock trial for high school students. He's been gone the last 2 saturdays and was gone 3 nights this week too. Thats leaving work to go straight to the events. 3 kids when you are sick, sucks. And then when the trial was finally all done yesterday and I was going to have my support back a stupid restaurant gave Cster food poisoning.

So I should probably stop whining now.

The good news is that Lster is well on his way to saying goodbye to diapers. This is VERY exciting news. Being home all week has been good for something. :)

Sick Little Baby

It seems that I have a head cold. It sucks. At the same time I was getting my head/chest cold Mster and Lster decided to get the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down. They are done and healthy but I, sadly, am still living in a big daze.

What is super sad is that I seem to have infected my sweet Kster. Everytime he coughs (and its a yucky cough we have) he gives off this little pouty face and cry and looks at me in a way that says..."why, mama, why." I feel the same way when I cough. But with him it makes me sad.

Today I am finally feeling like I can get vertical after an almost full day of horizontal yesterday. Part of this is because poor Kster is sleeping. Yesterday he took a 3+ hr nap and last night he slept for 12 1/2 hrs without a feeding. I woke up at 4am and had trouble getting back to sleep but that was still 6 hrs straight sleep. I finally did get back to sleep for another hour and was ready to get my baby when he woke up at 5:30AM. It may seem early to you but 6hr of uninterrupted sleep was heaven.

He has already woken up from his morning nap and it was only just over an hr so I'm not sure we'll get a repeat tonight.

But until then...6hr!!!!

(he has slept for more than 6 hr before I just was poor at timing it with my sleeping. I put him to bed at 5pm, because that's when he wanted to go, and then I went to bed between 10-11 and he woke up at 1AM for a feeding. My issues of late with his getting up was that they were even more frequent than the 1AM feeding. A 12 hr stretch is exactly what I need :) )

Sleep, Precious Sleep!

After much training, my 2 older kids are great sleepers. They sleep 12 hrs a night, well probably closer to 11-11.5hr and are happy and smart and yeah for them...

But they had a heck of a time getting to that stage. And Kster seems to be heading in the same direction.

I think I jinxed myself when I kept telling everybody he was my best sleeper. But he was. He once slept for 11 hrs. Unheard of in my other two at the same age. But mostly he would sleep for 8-10 hrs, eat and then go back to sleep for 4-2 hrs to make it 12 hrs.

And then Christmas happened and we went to family and he was up all the time eating and eating and eating and I finally gave him cereal (far earlier than my other ones because I figured he must be hungry). He eats it and loves it and we were doing better for awhile but now we're back to very frequent wake ups. My problem is...Kster sleeps on his tummy and has since he was born. He recently figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back and likes to wake up, roll over, realize he doesn't like being on his back, get stuck and scream till I go in there. He hasn't developped the roll from front to back skill which is much harder (musclewise) and usually happens at 7/8 months.

So I'm left trying to figure out what to do. I can just let him try and figure out how to sleep on his back (but I did try one night to let him cry and he bellowed for 90 minutes straight. When I went in he was on his back. It was the first time it happened). or I can wait it out till he can roll himself back.

In the long run it doesn't seem like a few months is a big deal but I need sleep. I like sleep. I don't like to get up repeatedly to soothe a baby back to sleep only to have him wake up again 2-3 hrs later.

I like sleep. I look at some of the older ladies that go to my church who have older kids (and no babies) and I think to myself that that will be me one day. Sleeping whenever I want....

And on a side sleeping note - I do find the fact that I am even debating what to do with Kster funny because anybody that knows me knows that I am a strict mom when it comes to sleeping. Let them cry. Make them go to bed and stop coddling in the middle of the night. I've helped numerous moms in the past, which I say this not to brag but to reiterate that I have very strong feelings about this, which is why my debate is so odd. I guess I just feel that its not right to make him be on his back, crying when he is physically incapable of fixing himself. It doesn't seem fair. Make a child learn to sleep but make sure he has the tools to actually accomplish the task.

And now I'm rambling.

Maybe this will be funny at a later date

So today Lster has interrupted the napping process for Kster, on both occasions. I'm not really happy about it. I now have a tired, cranky baby who wants to be held and I need to figure out what to do with him. Do I just throw him in his crib and hope he cries himself to sleep or have a ridiculously early bedtime which means he won't sleep in which means I won't sleep in tomorrow morning and probably will get up extra early.

In the midst of all this Lster had 2 moments which will probably be funny when I'm old and gray.

Me: Lster it smells. Did you poop?
Lster: Nope
Me: Don't lie to me. You did. Did you poop in the car or while doing a puzzle? (I'm trying to get him to recognize when he is doing it in hopes of getting him to recognize that he needs to and will not go in a diaper)
Lster: I didn't poop.
Me: Well then what smells really bad? (by this time I've checked and he's clear)
Lster: Maybe its you. Maybe you should check your bum.
Me: Really? You think its me?
Lster: Yep...its you.
Me: I don't know. I'll take a shower in a bit, I guess.
Lster: Okay...you should take a shower.

5 minutes past.

Me: Lster it really smells. Are you sure you don't have to poop?
Lster: I didn't go poop
Me: Get over here again. I'm going to check again. (This time he was not in the clear)

What is slightly humorous about this is that he actually had me believing that I was the one that smelled.

And second moment...

After being really upset about the meltdown that caused Kster not to sleep, I decided to have a serious talk to Lster about the importance of Kster's naps and the importance of letting me put him down and not interrupting the process. He took that moment to interrupt me with a burst out laughter and the exclamation that he farted.

Lunch

Today I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch. One picked peanut butter sandwiches and one picked Mac N Cheese. I told them I was not making their own lunch each and that they had to go away and decide amoungst themselves what we were having.

They came back with this idea:

They would each have a peanut butter sandwich while they waited for the Mac N Cheese to cook.

Whats going on in my life?

Organizing House - I am determined to get my house in order. I am exhorting all of my family members to hold on tightly to all that they hold dear because there is a lot of purging going on.

Exercise - After enjoying p90x, Cster bought me Insanity for Christmas. I am really, really enjoying the workouts. They do not kidd...it is INSANE!!

Mster - She's reading!!! Her teacher has given her a real book to try out and a spelling list. I always just thought Mster was just a smart little kid (which she is) but this week I realized that Msters a hard worker and really wants to do well. I love watching her work.

Lster - I'm just trying to control him and the Wii. I could not have done better at describing my interactions with Lster regarding the Wii any better than my friend. I'm excited for Lster to start at the Little Gym this week. He loves his friends and he'll have so much fun.

Kster - Kster is the one that is truly keeping me on my toes. He's such a good sleeper at night (knock on wood) but he does not want to nap. This leaves me with a bit of juggling to do during the day. But he has the best smile ever and he loves me (even if it is because I feed him). I think he's the best.

I've got other goals and activities that I'm working on that I may share in the future but I'm just really excited for this year. Its starting off a little chaotic as I try and get things in order but I just feel this is going to be a great year for our family.

Its not too late to get excited for 2010. In fact now that you've been in it for awhile it might be a good time to actually sit down and think about what you want for the year.

Why I love Mster!

Today on the way home from dance...

Mster: Did you notice that I was spending a bit of time with the a girl at the beginning of dance class today?
Me: I didn't. Why this girl?
Mster: Because this was her first time at dance and I really wanted to make her feel like she had a friend.

Leaving aside the fact that she shared her good deed of the day probably with the hopes of getting a pat on the back, I just think she's really great.

Oh my...

Overheard...

Lster: Mster. I want some almonds. Can you open some for me?
Mster: Well...I want you to practise.

Would you rather go to a birthday party or to the dentist?

Lster has a birthday party today. Mster has dentist appointment. They are both very excited.

Lster ran into the room at 6AM this morning shouting "Its a 6 on my clock. Lets go to the party."

Mster came in shortly later, dressed. When I asked why she exclaimed she was worried she would be late for the dentist. She is currently coloring a picture for her dentist and proclaiming that her teeth hurt...alot...so its really good that I got her an appointment. (FTR its a checkup and we've had no real mention of teeth hurting previously).

Its going to be a FUN day!!!

PS - I did eventually find the Christmas Spirit.

PPS - I've had a sore throat for over a week now. Its now travelling to the right side of my head towards my ear. That's bad, right?

Christmas Spirit, Where Art Thou?

I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. I'm not a grinch by any means. I'm super excited about the presents we are giving this year. I'm super excited for all the festivities but I just can't seem to actually get into the swing of the spirit.

At first I thought maybe when its December. But December came and I still wasn't feeling festive. Then I thought if we decorated but we decorated and I still wasn't feeling festive. We made Christmas baking. We got all the presents. I even started wrapping last night. I just can't find it.

And then this morning I started to clean. Really really clean. I cleaned out the fridge. I cleaned a bathroom. I cleaned the kids rooms. And magically I started to feel better. I'm eager to attack the rest of the house to see if I can be in full blown Christmas cheer by the end of the day.

Puj Tub

I'm not good at trying new things. I'm one of those people that likes what she likes so why bother fixing whats not broken. But my static ways have slowly been changing this year with my introduction to couponing. I've tried a couple of new products because they were free and I now don't know how I lived without them. So I'm growing and I actually am starting to like to try out new products (or at least new to me). And it is with this newfound love of trying out new things that I agreed to product test some products so that others could hear about great new products that they might not normally think of buying.

A month of so ago I offered to try out the new Puj Tub. All I knew was that it was a baby bath tub. Last thursday I recieved my Puj Tub in the mail.

I think the concept is pretty AWESOME!! It stores flat and easily assembles into a bath tub that fits in your sink. Its so easy my 5 year old figured it out without any help.

I liked how the tub fit snugly and didn't move around. Part of it was the size of the bath tub and part of it is what the puj tub is made out of.

As a new parent bathing your child can be very daunting. I'm a parent of 3 and I have to admit that I still wanted Csters help with bathing Kster when he was first born. I'm always worried that the baby's going to slip right out of my hands. I'm worried about their head. I'm worried about their belly button, or their circumcision. I'm just worried. This bathtub, would, I feel, eleviate a lot of that fear. There is so little water actually in the tub that you could bathe a newborn in their without worrying about getting the stump wet. And I think its so snug you wouldn't have to fear supporting the head the entire time you were bathing your baby. (Kster's past the floppy head stage so its hard for me to judge)

So onto the practicality of the product. As AWESOME as I think it is, the bath tub did not work for us. The product says its for babies aged 0-6 months but as you can see my 3 month old Kster is way to big for the tub. He's holding onto the faucet and to get him in and out I had to maneuver around the faucet. There really wasn't enough water in there once Kian got in to do any bathing.

I later tried the Puj in my kitchen sink. It worked better. I could move the faucet away from the Puj and it fit a little nicer but Kster was still too big to actually get water onto him. Again, little water is something you want with a really young baby. You can see the holes just beside him that let all the water out if you try to fill it too high. (And I didn't want to get him naked again to try it out. Its freezing here in Colorado.)

So my final verdict. I would definately use this bathtub with a newborn but the age range is really not that realistic.

And here's a picture of us product testers to prove we're real. :)

Check out the Puj Tub for yourself at the new web site exclusively for baby bath tubs!

A day at the store

The other day I had to go to a certain store to pick up a prescription. Kster had spent the entire night either crying, throwing up, or wanting to be in the perfect position on me to sleep. Usually he is an awesome sleeper so this was highly unusual and meant that when he wanted to take a 3 hour morning nap, I let him.

But a 3 hour morning nap means shopping in the afternoon with all 3 kids.

We arrived, and I picked up my prescription. Mster said she had to go to the bathroom and Lster then yelled "I HAVE TO GO PEEPEE TOO!!" (FTR he's not potty trained, by his own stubberness). So off we went. I couldn't even get the troops organized because once we opened the bathroom door they both ran to separate stalls, locked the door and proceeded to go. Both of them. I'm deciding maybe I need to try a different technique with Lster in potty training. Instead of staying home for a few days we are going to just hang out at the store for a few days because he will only go to the bathroom in a public restroom.

After the bathoom adventure we went to the womens' delicates to get me some nylons. While trying to find them Lster decided to kick his boot as high as he could off his foot. It came down on a display of lingerie underwear which showered upon him producing peels of 3 year old laughter. I finally found the nylons and while I was trying to find the perfect pair as fast as I could, Mster turned around and found the thong display. "Hey mom...look...swimming underwear. I need some swimming underwear. pleeeaaaaase."