food wins

As anyone whos’e spent time around small children can testify, food has great potential to become Armageddon, minus the fire (I do not give my children access to fire), x including the meteors. With that in mind, I would like to document some recent food wins. Some may feel this is me gloating, I assure you it is not. This is me documenting the existance of miracles, for my own future unbelief. There will come a day, tomorrow, when one of the three will refuse to eat everything they’re offered and I need to have proof that miracles do happen. Here goes.

We made pasta with beans and tomoatoes on Saturday night, and only one kid complained. Jacob ate two helpings and started a third. This is also a miracle because I cooked it. It required chopping garlic and onions and using canned tomatoes, all things never done in this house before (minus the onions I do love me my onions).

I have finally made a hummus lover out of one of the kids! Jacob and I shared carrots and hummus saturday. I didn’t even care that he kept double dipping his slobbery carrott using it more like a shovel than food itself. He ate hummus, and he liked it! I am finally not the only hummus eater in the house. Those BOGO Publix deals will no longer push the edge of expiration in my fridge, score!

And that is all, for now. However, I just signed up for the gluten free emeals plan last week. So I will either have more wins or a slew of horror stories for you soon. So far we’re one win, one normal (complaints and picking out what they like). But at least something of both was eaten, so that’s two wins in my book. Stay tuned.

my titles suck lately

It’s thursday! Do you know what that means yet? Time for a challenge update. 1.5 LBs down this week! Woo hoo, back on track. I think I finally hit my exercise goals this week. Two workouts with the kinect trainer and two walks, I could majorly feel the difference. I’m also sore, feels good. As for eating out, I don’t think we ate out once this week. We are rocking.

On to more important things. I have been meaning to write my little angel a letter lately and after writing it in my head for the past month, I am finally putting pen to paper…you know…in the figurative sense. Here goes.

Dear 22 months and 2 days,

Even though you are almost two, you are still my little baby. From your scraggly baby hair to your limited vocabulary you still retain babiness, I am enjoying it. A few months ago you exited my favorite stage and entered what had been my least favorite. I say had because once again you’ve changed all I know about parenting. Some day you need to thank your brother and sister for being such difficult strong willed 2 year olds, they really set you up for sainthood. I am still in awe of you, your fits, when you have them, last all of 3 seconds. You express your frustration and move on, and you don’t even get frustrated that often. You are still your happy go lucky, easy going self, you amaze me.

You have decided it is time to start trying this talking thing. It’s probably been about a month since you turned parrot. You don’t always know what to say when you need it, but you can repeat most of what we say if we ask you to, and you’re so easy going you’ll even do it almost every time we ask you! (can you tell that was not our previous experience with new talkers…) I taught you the sign for please a few months ago, it was taught to get you to stop screaming and tugging my legs when you wanted to be picked up. You picked it up right away and about a month ago decided you could use your mouth to say it too. You now walk around the house saying please for everything, which sounds more like peeeaas! I find it absolutely adorable that I have the most polite almost two year old on the planet…even if it has slightly backfired as I no longer know what you are saying please for anymore…you literally use it for everything. You’ve also decided we are mommy and daddy, instead of mama and dada. The cutest part is that you have added y’s to most of your other words too, including wawa. It took me 2 days of serious frustration for you to realize you’d turned wawa into wawey. It still makes me laugh, it’s too cute.

You play nicely for the most part with other babies, another marvel. As long as someone asks you please you willingly give up almost anything you are playing with. Now if they forget the please, well that’s a different story we won’t tell right now. You are even fairly good at asking please for a toy before grabbing it, like I said, please is your favorite word right now. Though it is closely followed by thank you, the next sign you learned. You also say that one with your mouth too, though it is a bit garbled. What took me 2 years (ok maybe not quite that long, but it felt that way!) to teach your brother and sister you picked up in a week. You say thank you whenever you are given something, spontaneously most of the time and always when prompted. I would like to attribute this to my amazing parenting skills. However, once your siblings caught this one they got it down and I believe it is really a result of peer pressure. Which has gotten a really bad rap all these years, it can be used for good! Poor peer pressure, unjustly judged you have been…whoa yoda moment.

I also night weaned you this month. That has been an interesting process. You are still waking up asking to nurse in the second half of the night. You will go back to sleep when I tell you too, but you are up again shortly after. I have felt like I have a new born again this week. Oh I know what happened! You knew you had a little friend born this week! This is sympathy wakings isn’t it? You are so sweet, but you can stop now, really it’s ok. The gesture is appreciated though, I’m sure, by someone, somewhere…I’ll stop now.

I love you so much it feels like it will burst out of my body sometimes. I am enjoying watching you grow into a big boy.

love,

Mommy

sexyback#11 and a few other things

First things first, challenge update. I stayed the same this week. Got sick on saturday and exercised not a bit. Looks like the exercise really was helping! Who knew. I’ll be back on it this week, still happy I didn’t lose any ground.

In other news I learned a bit about myself and my family while my big boys were gone.

1) Turns out I’m a clean person, with the state of my house most of the time I would have never guessed it, but I am!

2) When I don’t cook for days I start to get creative and want to cook. I actually made stuffed mushrooms while they were gone, yummy.

3) It is ridiculously easy to keep up with three people’s laundry, I went 5 days in a row without doing a single bit of laundry, because I could, not because I neglected it.

4) I think I raised my voice, once, maybe twice, and only for a moment to get someone’s attention. I never lost my cool and actually enjoyed my kids, for 10 days. I think that is some kind of record, also wondering what I can do to make it more like that all the time.

5)I don’t have many rules. Play nice, don’t whine. I think that about sums it up. Amazingly they seemed better behaved with less rules.

6) I really am an introvert. Who would have thought all those nights alone would have been so enjoyable, certainly not me.

And a totally random bit of news. We finally have real live toy organizers, the kind my husband has been wanting since Jena was born. We didn’t have them because 1) at that point it would have been me putting all them away, not the kids and 2) they are usually 70 bucks a piece, we all know how che, I mean frugal I am. Now that the kids are older, these make much more sense. Then some one at work posted they had 2 to sell for 20 bucks each, it was made to be. I love a good deal, especially one I’ve been looking for.

Minus the big toys that go in the toy box, all the rest are now neat and organized in their little bins. I even have an empty one. Those of us who appreciate organization and order (and we are the majority in this house) are happy.

Behold, I give you…the toy closet.

happy birthday Grant

Dear Grant,

Today is our birthday. Mine as a mommy and yours as, well, you. You are with your daddy in Michigan, on vacation, having the time of your life. Your brother and sister and I will be picking you guys up tomorrow from the airport, I can’t wait to see you again. I’m sure you have grown a foot and a year in the 10 days you’ve been gone. Every time I turn around you are doing something new, learning something new. You love to learn and it warms my heart. You love geography, though you don’t even know it’s called that. You love animals and have watched every national geographic and discovery channel documentary we have on netflix.

I love watching you grow, and I look forward to this next year as much as the last.

love you bunches,

mommy