Alex Is Ready to Go!

The boys are really starting to get their personalities.
Today Alex picked up his camping chair in its bag and walked up to Kris and said, “Bye, bye Daddy.”

Kris: “Where are you going?”

Alex: “Driving”

Kris: “Where are you going to go?”

Alex: “See Ms. Lee” (Ms. Lee is their speech therapist)

Kris: “Okay have fun”

A few minutes later Kris hears his truck horn and his truck start. So he gets up to check on Alex and he had the diaper bag, the camping chair and Kris’s keys. Kris has a remote start so that was how he started the truck. Crazy kid. At least he knew to bring the diaper bag with him.

Alex is Tricky

Alex is blessed with being the only member in our family with no allergies. So recently we have started to give Trevor his Clartin at night to help with his excessive amounts of mucus. The poor kid almost never can breath through his nose. So every night while we are giving Trevor his medicine, Alex starts rubbing his tummy and says, "Alex, medicine, tummy hurts." He's showing his true colors too soon. Now we know he'll fake sick to get out of school! It is so adorable though.

Then this weekend with the AWESOME weather we've been having we were playing outside on Saturday and the boys were wearing sandals for the first time this year and Alex was running up the driveway towards his tricycle and BAM he's sliding on the ground on his knees. This is the first major boo-boo mommy has had to deal with too. But Kris told me I handled it like a champ. It is a pretty good scrape though. And now everytime Alex tries to get into his chair or on the couch he's has to stop and ask mommy for help so he doesn't rub his knee. The poor kids. However, I have also witnessed him crawling up the stairs without any problem... so is he milking the pain too????

Lastly, Alex is my boy who is not entirely potty trained yet. But we went out to dinner in Brighton yesterday. We left after the boys nap and after dinner I took the boys into the bathroom and Alex's pullup was still dry. AND he peed on the potty. It is so awesome. I think he may start training himself. He'll probably need help with the pooping on the potty though because he still does that in the corner in his pull up. I'm sure he'll get it though, and it looks like soon. He has also peed on the potty twice today and his pullup was still dry when they went up for their nap. We did lose his bandaid though while he was going potty, and he confused me because he kept talking about a "bunny". Turns out "bunny" is bandaid and he wanted a new one. Luckily, Mommy took the boys to Target this morning and got some new bandaid, Spongebob (Alex), Scooby Doo (Trevor), and some Cars Tatto bandaids. Not sure what those are yet but they really like Cars. I totally forgot the Hydrogen Peroxide though. All we have is rubbing alcohol. I'm not putting them through THAT yet.

Well that's Alex's recent history in a nutshell.

Easter Morning

The movie is a little iffy I think it was the compressing it looks fine full size. But you should be able to get the jist.

Happy Easter!

The Last 20 Pounts

As some of you may know I have been losing weight. I started Weight Watchers around Halloween of 2008 and have lost 40 pounds in 25 weeks. I have filled out a "Happy Weight" calculator and according to it I should lose another 20 pounds. That will put me in the middle of my health BMI range. Technically, my BMI still says I am "overweight"...however, it also told me I was morbidly obese at my peak weight. Though I do believe I was pretty heavy no one believes how much I weighed when I tell them. So I don't know what to think about this whole BMI thing.

This year on the Biggest Loser they started a campaign for every pound lost they will donate a pound of food to a food bank. I was able to sign up for that, though I can't remember at what stage I signed up and how much I pledged. Though I've been at a stand still for a few weeks. I have become a little lackadasical and have been having fun. I haven't gained any weight but I haven't lost significantly either.

So I thought I would try something new and blog about what I'm doing to lose my last 20 pounds. I already feel great and am amazed at the difference in my stanima from last summer to now. So I think that is why I haven't felt the need to push through this plateau and lose the last 20 pounds. I'm in my pre-pregnancy pants and some of them are even loose. So I am happy. But I know that I'm not leading that healthy life I need to yet and when I finally make the decision to stick to that then I'll be able to get the last 20 pounds off. (Or what ever amount I get to that I can maintain.)

Here are the steps I plan to take:

1. Plan my meals better to include healthy fruits and vegetables for snacks.
2. Workout regularly. I was being good for a while working out 4 mornings a week and work up to 6 days but then Day Light Savings Time came and it wiped me out! I decided I wanted to sleep and not work out. Except my Y class I haven't worked out in 3 weeks! AHHHHHGGGGG!!!!
3. Add more strength training to my workouts. I now know how fatigued my muscles should be after a workout so I know what to work towards. I took a "Women Weight Training" class at the Y and it helped a lot. Unfortunately, it is at a time that won't work while the boys and I are in their swimming classes for the next session.
4. Go grocery shopping more often to keep fresh vegetables and fruits in the house. Also more variety, not just apples and bananas.
5. Start walking the dogs, kids every day.
6. Keep writing down everything I eat and STOP splurging on the weekends. This is another factor that has affected my plateau, I'm sure of it.

I think that is a long enough list. Goal one: wake up Monday morning to workout and NOT reset the alarm to get up for work.

Do you have a weight loss goal? Do you have any more steps that may help me? Or ideas? Do you have any receipes that taste good but are low in calories and fat and high in fiber? Please share.

Until next time.

The Circus

Someone reminded me recently that I haven't written a blog entry in quite a while. Honestly, I didn't think anyone read these. I've also been VERY busy. Someone who shall remain nameless has been working me like a dog. :-) You know who you are.

But seriously. Lacey, found that the Shrine Circus was in town and because she works weekends and I work during the week we decided to go to the 7:30 pm show on Thursday night. Little did we know that apparently they do not quite gear their shows towards the family types. Because INTERMISSION was at 9:15 and we had to go to get the kids in bed. CRAZY! PLUS, where are the animals and the motorcycles. I honestly think I can only remember my experiences with the Ringling Brother Circus and never the Shrine Circus. My mom did tell me however, that for every ticket we buy 2 kids get to go for free. So at least we did good with our purchases. We also got to sit on the ground floor second row. We wanted the one row buffer to corral the kids a little bit. I really don't need my kids running under the horses (I mean unicorn's) legs. REALLY, a unicorn????

Anyway, the boys had a GREAT time. They loved the clowns and got them to give them balloons. And I showed Trevor that he could get the clowns' autographs. So whenever he saw a new clown he would grab the book and say, "clown". So we'd get another autograph. Then the show started with Chinese dancing dogs. All the boys thought that was great. Then came the trapeze artists. One of them fell twice, and Kyle and Trevor both took in a breath. Course so did Lacey, my mom and me. There was a net don't worry. However, the net did seem a little shoddy, which made me nervous. Trevor and Alex definitely liked it though. I just stared and watched them.

Then came the horses, I mean the unicorn and the pegasuses (is that a word?) I don't know if I'm just too old but I really thought it was REALLY cheesy. But the horses were pretty. They had lots of glitter and when they ran their wings actually did flap. The kids liked it too. I think they liked all shows but they all lasted too long so they got distracted and started playing and running back and forth between all our seats.

My favorite part was the contortionist. Okay I know my spelling stinks but you know what I mean. She was amazing. I'm pretty sure she didn't have a spine, and her legs were not connected properly. She spun some things on her feet but started them at different times. It was really weird. The boys also got cotton candy, popcorn, and flashy fiber optic thingys.

When we left Trevor noticed that the elephants were coming back out for people to ride. He thought that meant he was going to get a ride. So he pretty much screamed, "Trevor, ride" and "elephan" the entire way to the car. I was actually surprised he could say that much of elephant. So lessons learned:

1. 4:00pm showing, or earlier, never go to the 7:30pm with kids
2. Let Trevor ride the elephants
3. Show the boys the autograph page in their book earlier so they can get more clown's signatures
4. Sit in the front row
5. Be prepared for the older kids to try to steal the balloons from the little kids (that really annoyed me)

Now that I know what to expect, we should have a much better time next time. Hopefully, I remember to reference this blog next time I go.

Potty Training Boot Camp

I am such an advocate of Potty Training Boot Camp. No pull-ups, straight to underwear. My kids' transformation between 4 days ago and today is tremendous. I can't believe it. AND my kids were constipated. I know our fault but we worked through the pooping and we got through it. We actually did put their diapers back on because we knew they were constipated and we wanted them to poop. But they felt terrible about it and pooped in the potty after that. So there will be maintenance and trying to get through the night entirely and we'll be done. But during they day I think we've got it.

If you want info about I'm here just ask.

Potty Training Day 3

I think we're about done. We still need Trevor to poop on the potty. He hasn't pooped in his pants either though. But we only had a little bit of an accident today. Alex started to pee himself but made it to the potty in time to finish in the potty. This bootcamp potty training is awesome. I'm a huge advocate of it. So anyone out there thinking about potty training consider it. No pullups at all that only confuses the child. They need to get used to the idea that it is only acceptable to pee and poop on the potty never in their pants. Cold turkey. We also did the diaper throw away ritual. That helped. I'll let you know the progress of Trevor pooping on the potty hopefully tomorrow. Or I'll be getting a little concerned that he'll become septic...

Potty Training Day 2

Everything is going better. Alex and Trevor both peed on the potty today and they went through A LOT less clothes than yesterday. The worst part about today was they woke up at 5 AM and didn't go back to sleep so we were up. And they just got crabbier and crabbier and we kept their nap at the same time. But we made it. The best part was that Alex pooped on the potty. I think it was actually stuck and that was why he was having such a hard time with the peeing part yesterday. After that poop he turned a corner and now has peed on the potty every time with very little wetness. He even made it through nap time staying dry. Yea!!!!

That's all the news for today. As long as the kids continue to do well tomorrow we are going to go get some Blizzards (R). We are so proud of the boys.