It's not even 10:00....

and I've already taken a 45 minute bike ride, stopping along the way to let the kids play at the park (that was 45 minutes of riding time, I'm not sure how long we played). We took a rather hilly route, so I'm beat. We decided to ride by the State hospital grounds and look for ducks (they have a large pond in the middle of the grounds where the ducks gather). As we rode by, we noticed that most of the ducks were still sleeping.

I told the kids that they should take that as a hint - that it was way to early to be up on a Saturday morning! Both of them were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:00am. This was after Simon not allowing me to sleep most of the night, and Jacob waking at some point crying that he wanted to change his pajamas (still havn't figured out why). After trying desperately to get some more sleep while Brian took both of them to the living room to play, I gave up and just got up. I was already thinking of everything we had to do today.

Next on our list: trip to the butcher shop, then hopefully to Dicks Sporting Goods before lunch. After lunch will be naps for the kids, and laundry for me. Later this afternoon, the kids and I are meeting a bunch of friends for a playdate at the splash park and then McDonalds for dinner. We're going to the big on that has a huge play place so the kids can entertain themselves while we moms catch up with each other.

I'll be willing to bet that we all collapse in to bed by the end of the day!

The Wii Fit is officially kicking my butt

You know, one would think that a PTA (that's physical therapist assistant which has nothing at all to do with the parent teacher association....some get confused by that abbreviation) such as myself would be in fairly decent shape. Yeah, I would have thought so, too.

Not. So.

I've recently started a regimine to whip myself in to shape and just overall feel better. In addition to biking more often with my dearest hubby and kids, I've begun doing the Wii Fit exercises again. I had been doing them pretty well, and well - life got in the way. No more. I need to do this. I'm on day 3 of really taking it seriously.

Oh. My. Goodness. I can feel muscles working that I didn't know existed (which is funny, given said occupation). I'm feeling good, though. Sore, but good.

Oh, and the balance aspect. One could also assume that a PTA such as myself would have pretty darn good balance. Afterall, that is what I work with my patients on day after day after day.

Again - wrong assumption. Let's just say I very gracefully (ha!) fell completely over yesterday as I attempted a yoga pose. I'm also pretty sure that the "tree" pose is not supposed to resemble a palm tree in a hurricaine. Mine did.

Flexibility? Nope, I'm not exactly pretzle making material....which, by watching the "trainer" on this Wii thing, one really needs to be in order to do some of these poses.

So it looks like I've got a LOT of work to do. No matter. I've got time. Actually, I'm not on any time frame at all. And like I said, I really do feel good. I feel good that I'm being proactive with my health. And hey, it always helps if I outscore the hubby. ;)

My only real issue is this daily body test. If I've been so much more active, and watching what I eat more, someone explain to me how I gained 1.2 pounds between last night and tonight! That's just nuts! I'd hate to know what would have happened if I snacked on ice cream and cookies instead of a banana with a dab of peanut butter after our bike ride tonight. (Did I mention that we rode 7.3 miles tonight? No? Well, we did!) Oh well, I'll take that with a grain of salt. It's not the daily weight that I need to worry about anyway. Now, if I gain 1.2 pounds again tomorrow - prehaps I need to reassess what I'm doing.

I win the cruel mommy award today

I mean, really. How mean is it to take a child on a bike ride who is obviously completely exhausted?

No really, he wasn't even acting tired before we left on our little trip. After dinner tonight we got on our bikes, Simon in his seat, and Jacob in a trailer pulled by Brian, and we rode down to the riverfront and back. It's around 6 miles, so it didn't take us that long. Right as we approached the riverfront, Simon's head started bobbing. I hopped off the bike and tightened up his straps, hoping it would help keep him upright. No such luck. It seems he's just a bit too small for the strap system (odd, since the packaging says it can be used for 12 months and up. He's 14 1/2 months, and I thought about average sized, but I digress). Either way, the guard pad in front of him acted nicely as a pillow until we could get him home.

He really does love this thing. Before he was lulled into his peaceful slumber, he was holding on to the pad like a steering wheel making car noises and squealing. He'd wave happily at people as we passed them and say "Hi!" I can see how it was relaxing for him, though. I mean, I'd love if someone would do the work for me while I just let the breeze kiss my face. It was a beautiful evening, too.

At any rate, I hope he can figure out how to stay awake while we ride. I'm planning to ride in the Great Pumpkin Metric with Brian this year (he does it every year, but I never have before). I'm going to need to train, and since we can't just leave the kids that often, they have to come with us. Jacob is more than happy to oblige, and honestly, so is Simon. But I must say that it's a bit difficult to streer the bike and keep Simon's head from lolling off to the side at the same time!

Well, the bouncy seat is no more.

Let us take a moment to review the stages of bouncy seat with Simon. The first pic is of the first bouncy seat we used - the one that he very quickly outgrew in height, and I had to buy a new one, because he loved it so much!

I am happy - no - relieved - to announce that Simon has not fallen asleep in his bouncy seat for the past 4 nights. I decided, after finding him kneeling in the thing and using it as a bucking bronko, that he was way too big for it. So, 4 night ago, we started some modified sleep training. Basically using the "timed response" technique. Which is not nearly as easy for me now as it was with Jacob. As I may have mentioned, the boys share a bedroom. Jacob was NOT happy about my decision to allow Simon to go to bed at the same time as him....much less that I *gasp* walked out of the room and let Simon cry for a few minutes. That first night was aweful. Like, so bad that I was seriously questioning whether this was a good idea. Simon never cried by himself for more than 3 or 4 mintues, but I still felt aweful. That night, it took 1 1/2 hours to get both boys to go to sleep.

The 2nd night was a bit better, but still not stellar. It was 45 minutes of back and forth for me. Last night, much, much better. Only 15-20 minutes and both boys were asleep.

Now, tonight. Oh my goodness. The difference a few days makes! We've stuck to the same bedtime routine since we started this (I had to deviate a little bit tonight, but I'll get to that in a minute). Around 8:10, I put both boys in the bath. After getting washed off, they were allowed to play with the tub toys in the water for about 15 minutes (tonight I did double duty and folded clothes while they played - that worked nicely). Immediately after that, it was straight to the living room, where I had already dimmed all the lights and turned on soft sleepy time music. After getting PJ's on, Jacob sat on a blanket and did puzzles and looked at books quietly (all by himself! I was so proud), while Simon nursed. I did *not* nurse Simon to sleep, and due to our new routine, he was well aware that he would not be nursing that long. When he was finished, he just sat up and said "done!" and grinned. (This was where we deviated tonight. Brian has been reading to Jacob while Simon nurses, but Brian wasn't home tonight). Then both boys went to the bathroom and brushed teeth, or rather, I brushed their teeth, right before they headed to their room and climbed up on Jacob's bed. We read one book, sang one song, and then it was lights out. Hugs and kisses all around, and a short back rub for Simon to settle him down.

Now, I did have to go back in his room once to tell him to lay back down and give another quick back rub to calm him down. But - I left the room with him still awake and babbling to himself. He fell asleep on his own! I was SO happy. And Jacob was relatively quiet during all of that, which is also just great.

I've been enjoying my evening sans kids, which is so amazing for me. Until very recently, Simon was up way too late, giving me virtually no time for myself. With Brian gone tonight, I've been very happily lounging, talking on the phone and spending a bit of time on the computer all while listening to soft jazz music. It's been heavenly.

Of course, after writing this, I have probably jinxed myself. I have a feeling tomorrow night won't be nearly as smooth, as we will have quite a routine upset because of a late birthday party with out of town family. But that's ok. I am well on my way to having a real bedtime for my kids!

Will I never learn?

I've told myself this again and again, and experience confirms my belief over and over:

It is easier to keep a house clean that to clean a house.

In other words, I spend much less time cleaning if I just keep the place clean. You know, pick up as I go along. Do a quick vacuuming job before I pick the kids up. Do the dishes immediately after a meal rather than let them pile up. Keep the clothes off the floor; put the laundry away immediately after I fold it; heck, do a load of laundry a day (not let it pile up).

I know this. I've proven it to myself time and time again. If I keep the place in order, I can do it in as little as 20 minutes a day. This gives me more time to play with my kids, and more "me" time after they go to bed. So why, oh why, am I sitting here looking at the rooms in my house - all in various stages if disarray?

I'll tell you why. I'm tired. It took exactly one day of me just being tired. Too tired to do that 20 minutes of work. Oh and lazy. One day of just feeling like doing nothing when I got off work.

One would think that a girl could take just one day and let things slide. Nope, not when you're a mom. No breaks for moms. And what happens when a mom takes a break? Well, this:

This is by far the worst room, but trust me, all the other rooms are in upheaval also. It drives me batty to have my house looking like this. It's all disorganized and it makes me feel disorganized - which I guess I am. But I don't need to feel like I am, you know?

Ugh. This is going to take me hours to fix. (Not just this room - the house in general). That's not to mention the approximately 5 loads of laundry that I have allowed to pile up this week.

I swear, I need a maid.

On the menu for this week....

The butcher shop I normally use for all of my meat is closed this week, so I was a bit worried about what I was going to do for dinners this week. I took a tip from another blogger ( "Cheapskate Mom" at http://proudtobecheap.blogspot.com/). Before I did my shopping this weekend, I did an inventory of my cabinets, fridge and freezer and tried fo find things to make with what I had - the goal being to avoid a trip to the butcher shop, and save some money on our grocery budget this time. On hand, I noticed I had lots of lentils (I must've gone crazy buying those at some point) and quite a bit of rice. After some searching online, and a tip from one of my message board buddies, I came up with something called Koshari, which will use up a lot of the lentils and rice. All I had to buy was a couple cans of diced tomatos. :)



I spent maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 of what I would normally spend at the grocery store, and when combined with what I found in my house already, I've got enough for 8 dinners, breakfasts and lunches for at least a week, and snacks and goodies to last that long as well. Take in to account that we'll have at least 1 leftover night, and one night where we're hosting a potluck then we're good to go for a while. Not bad!



So on my menu for this week:

Meal 1

Koshari

roasted sweet potatos



Meal 2

Panko crusted pork chops

Oriental salad

peas & carrots



Meal 3

Hash brown quiche



Meal 4

Sweet & Sour pork

egg rolls

jasmine rice



Meal 5

Pasta with broccoli/cheddar sauce with chicken

Dinner rolls



Meal 6

tomato/basil marinated steaks

mashed potatos

green beans



Meal 7

Linguini with homemade alfredo sauce

Garlic peppered chicken



Meal 8

crock pot lasagna

garlic bread

salad



Our potluck contribution (since we are hosting)

honey baked chicken breasts



We're having the lasagna tonight. It's starting to smell really good in this house! :)







So on my dinner menu for this week

Still photos aren't as good

I decided to try for some live action shots of Jacob riding his bike, as I'm just so stinkin' proud of my kiddo. This was just him tonight in the driveway. He really can ride all over the campus across the street, though!

I have a confession.

My 14 month old still naps in this thing. Yes, I'm rather embarrassed to admit it, but he does. Why? Well, for one, he likes it. We jokingly call it his "chill chair." He can be overtired and upset, and if I put him in it, he hust puts his little hands behind his head and kicks back to relax. If I can't get him to calm down by any other means, I just manually bounce the seat and within minutes he's quiet and almost asleep.

Another reason is it's convenient. You see, my boys share a room. If I put them in there at the same time, they keep each other awake. I've tried getting one down then puttingg the other in there. No matter how I do, this always results in the 2nd one waking the first one, and then I have 2 screaming kids. No fun. So at least for naps, Jacob sleeps in his room, and Simon sleeps in the bouncy seat.

Night time is a different story. Again, I am embarrassed to admit that I do not put Simon in his crib at night until he is completely asleep. This is accomplished in one of two ways. I either nurse him completely to sleep (which is not my favorite way to do it, as it can take for.ev.er.) or I put him in the seat and bounce him to sleep. Then I simply move him to his crib.

I know this is setting up terrible habits for him. I know he should be able to put himself to sleep at night. I just can't figure out how to do it without making poor Jacob completely crazy with sleep deprivation.

Another issue, of course, is night waking. Granted, Jacob didn't start soothing himself back to sleep until he was nearly 2 year old, so I guess I can't complain yet. But Simon....oh dear, Simon. He will only go to back to sleep one of two ways. I either nurse him back to sleep (again, not my favorite) or I have to stand and rub his back until he's nearly there (hmmm....also not my favorite). I generally go with the path of least resistance at night. But really. I'm tired! The other night, I tried the method where you let the baby cry for a few minutes at a time and you keep going in and repeating the same phrase (In my case it was "shhh. Night night. Lay down." followed by a short back rub and me leaving). Each time I left his room, he screamed louder than the time before. This of course woke Jacob up, who was none too happy about the situation. After an hour of that, I broke down and put Simon in my bed until he fell back asleep. The next day, not only was I exhausted, but so was Brian and so was Jacob. It seems the only one who was semi-well rested was Simon. So Jacob, being 3 and overly tired, was being a complete pill, and Brian and I (also being overly tired) were -er- less than stellar parents that day. Not good.

I know I need to get this child to sleep on his own. I just don't know how to do it. And until I figure it out, well, I guess we'll keep doing it this way. At leaest like this, I'm the only one that remains too tired. The sacrifices a mother makes. *sigh*

Look what Jacob can do!

Grammie bought Jacob a new bike at the beginning of this summer. While he claimed to love it, he absolutely refused to ride the thing. He'd get on it, put his feet on the pedals, go approximately 3 feet, and declare it "too hard." He would get off and push it around the driveway. That was the extent to which he "rode" his bike......

Until this past week. Brian said he was mowing the lawn and he turned around to see Jacob happily pedaling his bike around the driveway. Just like that. He just got on and started going. Crazy kid has been holding out on us!

Brian took him across the street to let him practice in the parking lot. After he did a complete loop around the lot, he wanted to do a tour of campus. We visited his favorite location....the water fountain in the memorial plaza. He went around and around that fountain. When all was said and done, he must've ridden around a mile. He did it almost all by himself....just needed a boost here and there to get up ramps. I'm so proud of my little cyclist!

My new bedding set

Here's my new bedding set, all done up. I love it! And I did end up going to walmart this morning and finding matching curtains (for a bargain price). I couldn't stand having such a pretty bed, with completely unmatching curtains. This is much better!

Oh, and I still havn't managed to snatch this thing away from Simon long enough to put it away. And really...he's not hurting anything. I guess I'll just let him play with it until he gets tired of it - or at least until he goes to bed tonight!