Two views

Last night, Ian was awake a lot! He had a lot of trouble pushing out some poo so he stayed up late, then woke up his usual three times to eat. 

1. I am tired

2. I am thankful we cosleep!  Can you imagine how much more tired I'd be!?

Yesterday my mom wanted to call and talk to the kids. This morning I found a Facebook post she tagged me on about a tiny homeschool toy that grows in water. 

1. She interrupted family time. And I don't want more crap, especially chokable crap, in my house. 

2. My mom wants to be involved in my kids' lives and they will grow up knowing Grandma loves them. And what a great time to model "people before things" last night. 

I went to church yesterday but missed the sermon because Ian wanted to constantly nurse and Adam wouldn't let me be one of the many women who break the rules and nurse in the family room. 

1. I really needed a regular church day. I'm annoyed and disappointed and I feel like there's no point in going if I can't listen and nurse.... Which means I'd miss Easter services before Ian is old enough for the nursery. 

2. I got to sing four songs to God. And see people. And Ian will not be this little and need me for long. 

Change in attitude

I was thinking during rest time today that I should start thinking about things I'm looking forward to (aside from rest time and bedtime!). Some days I wonder if I have or am heading towards adrenal fatigue like Lori has because I don't find as much joy in time with the kids as I used to. Now "good days" are days that run on schedule... And that's sad. 

So, rest time is ending (or else Abigail will not sleep tonight). I need to get out a veggie snack (bleh), heat up some dinner, and do some desk work. 

What am I looking forward to?

Obviously not the veggies. I want to have something I'm doing with the kids that I'm looking forward to. Maybe we can start making some decorations for Adam's birthday tonight since he's going out with an out of town friend who is visiting. 

Things I'm grateful for:

1. This tiny little face 

2. Mom taking the kids out this morning

3. Doing Bible study first thing today

Freak out Number 3

I am freaking out right now for no good reason. I'm a freaking mess. But neither of those things are what the title pertains to. 

A little over a week ago, we found out we're pregnant with baby three. 

I'm actually very excited. We were praying about trusting God with our family size, and this was the result. It means having to move eventually. It means finding a bunch of baby gear again because all I have left is the Ergo. And mostly it means a new family member arrives in March. 

To celebrate we went out for lunch and discussed why we were freaking out. For me it was the onset of morning sickness (I didn't handle it well with Abigail's pregnancy). For Adam it was the apartment size, the car size and freak out number 3: how fat will my wife get now. 

Not that he said it in so many words. But let's face it. I weigh twenty pounds more now than before I had my two kids. That's ten pounds a pregnancy. That means I'll be THIRTY POUNDS overweight after this one if I don't make some changes! 

But still, I really wish my husband would stop making left handed comments about my weight. Afterall, I blame him and his not wanting to eat what I made on our backtracking in our last diet...

Ok. Enough blame-placing. Time to get to business. And that means instead of just trying to SURVIVE morning sickness, I'm attempting to change the way we eat to a healthier lifestyle. I'm loosely modeling it on Primal, which helped me lose ten pounds and feel great in January and February. I'm following wellnessmama.com who is an inspiration. 

But here's the thing. I'm doing it SLOWLY!  Everyone's first step is to toss all the bad stuff and start cooking in a way that's foreign to me (spices? What are those??). No one helps me deal with reluctant HUSBANDS, although Wellness Mama has tips for reluctant kids. No one helps deal with all that food you just bought YESTERDAY that's not diet approved. No one teaches you how to like cooking or spices when you're a bland sandwich and pizza type of gal. 

And I'm gonna blog about my slow journey. Hopefully it will stick! (Both the blogging AND the healthy food!)

And I'm gonna start tomorrow... Tonight it's pbjs because I'm so tired...

Happy New Year!

It's new year's eve.  (New Year's Eve?  Is that supposed to be capitalized?)  The day to make resolutions.  And I have a few, of course.  Most of them have to do with bringing who I feel like as MOM in line with who I felt like PREMOM (or as "Angie," only not quite so bratty and inept.  More like how I felt as "College Angela," who was, if not cool, at least more fit, energetic, and daring).  We are done expanding our family (unless God decides to surprise us) and it feels like there's a completeness to the baby craziness and a sense that it's time to discover who we will be as a family with kids.  Not babies.  Not toddlers.  Not preschoolers.  But KIDS.  Kids who think and reason and get dressed all by themselves and know how to use the potty and play board games and go to school and all that jazz.  We still have a few years, but I think it's good to start figuring this stuff out now.  Kind of a "Steven-Covey-Begin-With-The-End-In-Mind" sort of thing.

Resolution 1: Lose the baby weight

I know, I know.  EVERYONE has lose weight as a resolution (except my friend Lori, who has gain weight as a resolution, but that's its own struggle).  But if I'm done having babies, then I no longer have an excuse for the extra poundage.  And I want my kids to see that exercise is important, and Mom has the energy to be fun and active.  Plus this belly fat is not healthy or attractive and although my husband doesn't mind, if I don't feel sexy, I don't want to be sexy.  So the belly weight has got to go.

The Plan:
I want to detox myself of sugar by eating as many unprocessed foods as possible.  I also want to try going a year without sugar.  My friend Pam says that it affects her mood and energy level when she eats sugar.  I want to see. 
It's going to be hard, especially since I love to bake.  I'm thinking I'll have to bake things like muffins and breads.  But we'll make January a NO BAKE month to see if that helps. 
I'm going to focus on eating more protien and vegetables and fruit, try to watch portion sizes, and continue to eat every two hours, but make the snack times more healthy.
I also want to start getting up with the alarm at six am (which means going to bed earlier) to get some time alone with me and the tv and an exercise video.  I used to do this before kids, and I find it's very helpful for me to have a set in stone workout time.

Resolution 2: Become more interesting again.

I've always been a big reader but I used to have other interests as well.  Now when date night comes along I don't have much to talk about aside from kids and books I've read.  Plus the kids don't see me doing anything that I find enjoyable, aside from taking a break with a book.

The Plan:

Here are some idea for hobbies I'd like to cultivate:
-Working on this blog!  (Woo hoo!  I'm on my way!)
-volunteering someplace like a zoo or museum on Saturdays (this one is hard because it takes away from family time, but I think it would be worthwhile)
-starting an Etsy shop for some of my cool inventions (first I have to make sure I can MAKE my cool inventions!)
-playing with Sculpi again to make beads and miniatures (I LOVED this in junior high.  It's probably the only time I can remember that I LOVED doing detail work)
-reading up on important things (like evolution and why it sucks as a theory.  Darn it, I'm gonna actually READ Origin of the Species and find out what it says!)
-writing (yes, Mom, I'm going to start writing again... Maybe I'll start with some ethnography observation exercises.  I LOVED doing those in high school and college.)
-photography (I'm thinking of saving my money and getting a more interesting camera.  I used to have a Minolta with interchangable lenses.  It took FANTASTIC pictures and was fun to use.  But I traded it in for something smaller that I was more willing to carry around.  Now I want the cool one back...)
-hiking (I loved following trails when I was a kid, and when my husband and I went to Maine we both said we should do more hiking when we came home.  We didn't.)

Resolution 3: I can't remember...

I feel like there were more resolutions when I was talking about them in the car... oh well.  I think this is enough for now. 

Happy New Year, Everyone!  And may God bless you and keep you in the new year!

New Year's Project

Start a scrapbook for each of your kids to celebrate who they were this past year.  It doesn't have to be anything big.  We do a three page layout in our scrapbooks.  Two facing pages have pictures, quotes, mementos, etc layed out in a nice way.  The other page becomes a pocket for letters and other mementos that didn't make it into the "artsy" layout. 

Superboy, now that he's old enough to have an opinion, helps me pick the three sheets of paper for the backgrounds.  I pick five or so pictures from the year to print.  The whole thing costs maybe three dollars once you've bought the scrapbook.  And Superboy LOVES to flip back through the past years.

I also put a pocket at the back of the scrapbook where I put sealed letters from me to be opened when Superboy or Little Miss are 20.  Kind of a time capsule of how much their mom loved them.

I do the letters around the kids' birthdays because they don't take very long, but the scrapbook I do in January for a couple reasons.  1) birthday time is too crazy with making plans for the parties and 2) it gives me a nice project to do when I'm feeling bored that the Christmas stuff is done.

Tie me to the mast! Quick!

The problem with Christmas, if there can be a problem with Christmas, is Christmas cookies.  Or maybe the problem is that I'm 30 now and need to lose this baby weight since we're done having babies and I have neither the time nor metabalism that I had in college to lose fifteen pounds.  But cookies are the best thing on the planet...

Cookie monster's got nothing on me.  I mean, I've heard that he now sometimes eats carrots.  Carrots?  What kind of substitute for cookies is THAT?!?

A few years ago I decided I wouldn't stress about cookies. I decided that any cookie I met in December would be my friend.  (And apparently that means I eat my friends...?)  I ate vast quantities of cookies without guilt (almost as many as I sneak in with guilt).  And January 1st I hopped on the scale to find... I had LITERALLY gained 5 lbs since the end of November. 

Last year I couldn't eat the cookies.  I found the best diet ever.  It was called being pregnant with Little Miss, and the first few months it worked great because I couldn't even keep AIR down. Of course, that all backfired as the months went on.

So I woke up this morning, and my first thought was "COOKIES!!"  Obviously Angie wakes up faster than me.  I said a mental "No." 

"Cookies, please?"

"No."

"May I have a cookie? "

"No."

"Just one?"

"...No."

"But breakfast is the best time for cookies because we have ALL DAY to burn off the calories!"

"..."

By this time I was forcing myself to make eggs (again, not a good cookie substitute), and Superboy padded into the kitchen looking adorable in mismatched dinosaur/rocket ship pajamas. 

"Mom, can I have a cookie for breakfast?"

Tag teamed.  Angie and Superboy.  They're practically the same kid.

If only there was a substitute for cookies.  Something that had the same consistency as a cookie but was totally healthy.  But until that day comes...

"Yes... BUT YOU HAVE TO EAT A YOGURT TOO!"

Yeah.  That's good parenting right there.  Sigh.

Reasons why you should let your child cook with you:

1. measuring things for the recipe is good math skills

2. Stirring builds arm muscles

3. mixing stuff together is one of the great delights of childhood and he won't get yelled at for doing it

4. watching things change from liquid to solid in the oven is science.  And it's way cool.

5. He'll be more likely to eat something that he helped make.

Bon appetite!

Why I should ALWAYS get dressed when my feet hit the floor...

"Superboy's hair is looking a little shaggy..."

Ah the little comments that change our days...  A Thursday, in fact.  A Thursday when I didn't have to babysit the princesses.  A beautiful Thursday with no agenda (besides Little Miss's six month pediatrician visit, but that wasn't until 10:30!), where we could sit around in our pajamas and play games on the iphone and Nook without feeling bad...

Normally I'm very strict about sticking to my morning routine.  It keeps both Angie and Superboy in line...

But not this Thursday.

Which is why, of course, when Superboy woke up, cow-licked hair going everywhere, that I remembered what his Dad said the night before and decided to get the clippers out.  Before breakfast.  Before we were dressed.  Before Little Miss woke up and wanted a diaper change.

Now, let me explain something.  I've been waiting MONTHS for Superboy's hair to get long.  We have a great picture from summer before last of Superboy with shaggy hair, playing on the slide in the yard, and it's fantastic.  Then I put him in preschool for half a year and I freaked out about the possibility of headlice and buzzed his head.  (I worked at the same preschool, and I NEVER wore my hair down!  I'm just not willing to risk it...)

So of course, first slide of the clippers and I FREAKED OUT that I cut it too short.  This is what happens when I let Angie choose the order of our day. 

So now I've got a poor kid who's getting a complex about his hair because his mother is screaming that she messed it up, hair all over the living room floor, and thankfully, a still sleeping baby.

(I swear, Superboy will never let his wife cut his hair.  I guarentee that he will always budget for professional haircuts just because his mom was a wack job.)

I did manage to fix the hair cut.  And although it was shorter than I wanted, it doesn't look too bad.  Then I got two kids bathed, started the laundry, and jumped in the shower (that was the wrong order... that shower DEFINITELY woke me up!).  We vacuumed up the hair (Superboy has recently discovered the wonder of using the vacuum hose!  The area under my dining table is clean for the first time in four years!), and I made breakfast.  Then realized we'd have to eat it on the run, because did I mention we had a pediatrician appointment at 10:30?  Yeah, that kind of snuck up on us...

The whole incident reminded me of when I actually WAS little Angie and I took a pair of scissors and cut the hair on my aunt's favorite doll.  At four I didn't realize doll hair doesn't grow back...  My aunt was NOT pleased.

Good to know I've learned something in 26 years...

A good idea for scissors:

CUTTING SNOWFLAKES

Now I just recently learned how to cut paper snowflakes so they actually have 6 points!  I will do my best to explain it below, but you could also have the kids just fold the paper any old way.  Just watch them carefully so they don't:

1) cut anything other than paper (like each other, their clothes, their hair.  Although they might do a better job than mom!)

2) cut the paper into confetti-sized bits that will blanket your floor under the table

3) wave the scissors around like swords and result in something from number 1

How to fold the paper:

1. fold one corner down to touch the opposite straight edge.  Crease and cut off the bottom strip so if you unfolded it you'd have a square.

2. Keep it folded like a right triangle.  Fold the triangle in half equally.

3. Now it gets complicated.  Hold the triangle so it looks like the roof of a house.  Now you're gonna fold it into thirds.  Pinch that top point and fold each side over towards the middle.  They should overlap.  It will look a bit like an arrow when you're done.

4. Flip it over and cut off the bottom points of the arrow.  Now you're ready to cut out little snippets to make a snowflake!

Or if you aren't because you can't follow my directions, Google "How to cut a snowflake" and find someone who has pictures.  That's what I did.

When you're done, tell the kids to pretend they're vacuum cleaners and see how much they can pick up off the floor.  And make the noise.  That part is VERY important to get them thinking this is a game and not clean up.  :)

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas... (But only for that one day...)