Wednesday Randomness

I have started reading "The Happiest Toddler On The Block" and I have to say it is a pretty darn good book. Some of the techniques are a little strange and make you feel a little foolish, but I get why they can/do work. I will admit that I haven't done all the techniques as he has described, but just taking the theory and having a better understanding of how the toddler mind works naturally makes it easier to understand her behaviors and how to deal with them in a manner that is more constructive. I have already noticed a difference and I am pleased with not only how she is responding, but how the daycare kids are too! I am pleased with my new parenting skills.

We also have been having some success with the potty again!! I am proud to say that we had a full poop on the potty this morning with no prompting at all from me. My baby girl is getting so big ♥

Anywhoo, while I sit here enjoying my Contigo cup of Keurig coffee I am thinking of the many cool new skool contraptions I would like. All of course are tools that would improve my life as a busy WAHM. There are so many fancy shmancy gadgets that are supposed to make life easier, simpler and turn your babies into non pooping, sleeping, smiley, prefect little robots. But I think the following items would truly make my life simpler which in turn gives me more time for my babes and that my friends makes for happy babies. So here is my wish list

**I do not work for nor am I affiliated with any of the below mentioned companies. That said, I am not opposed to accepting items from mentioned companies in exchange for a real honest review ;) **

1. iRobot Roomba - a little cute machine that vacuums by itself. I detest vacuuming. The mere thought of having one of these makes me feel all tingly inside. *the Scooba looks pretty darn sweet too

2. Steam Mop - Not really set on a particular kind though having the hand steamer would be nice too. Quick chemical free cleaning and sanitizing. Something very much needed here with the daycare and a baby that will soon be crawling all over my floors. Try as I may they never seem to be clean enough. (I blame the dog)

3. Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer - It was not a short while ago that I thought it was odd to need an expensive stand mixer when my $15 hand mixer worked just fine thank you. But then I started making bread and buns. While my arms do appreciate the 10 minute work out I receive from kneading the dough, my ever so non-patient children don`t always allow me all the time I knead need.

4. iPad - in reality this really has nothing that will help me manage my time better. In fact it would probably be a time sucking device. But it looks cool

5. Wine - again, absolutely nothing to do with house management but you know what they say ... "A happy mom makes for happy kids"

There it is folks. My giant infomercial. That is just a little taste of my commercialistic (yes, I know that is not a word) self. Next up .... all the baby crap that is nothing but a useless waste of space.

If you have any of the above items please tell me how much you love or hate it and leave me a list of baby items you thought were over priced paper weights.

National Peanut Butter Day

Yep. It's true. A day to celebrate peanut butter in all its sticky nutty goodness. If I didn't think that my children may read this blog someday I would insert a bunch of inappropriate jokes here. I will let you insert your own and keep mine in the funny vault (and trust me I have some good'ers). Check here for lists of other randon FUNday's to celebrate.

We celebrated National Peanut Butter Day while partaking in .....

~ Today's Theme was Big Small. Short Tall ~

Snack - Tall ants on a log, big peanut butter m&m's, big teddy bear peanut butter and mashed banana sandwich. Little teddy bear sandwiches, little m&m's, and short ants on a log

~ Lunch. Tall cheese & turkey pepperoni skewers, short and tall carrots & cucumber in dip, big heart tortilla with cream cheese, little heart tortilla's, little carrots and cucumbers, and yogurt with blueberries.

Miss Lily LOVED her snack. And surprisingly she didn't ask for more m&m's but instead she asked for more bears and ants :) . Lunch was a pretty good hit too, especially the skewers. And yes I have noticed that we eat a lot of tortillas. They are so child (and mommy) friendly.

Saturday was Miss Lily's last swimming lesson. She "passed" Ducks and the next level is Sea Turtle :) . I was super proud of her this week. The past couple of classes she has gotten herself worked up before class about going under water. She will repeatedly tell us that she doesn't want to go under water. She must have known she needed to be on her best behavior (and her need to show off probably helped) because when it came time to toss the rings and go under water to get them she did it with no fuss. She even managed to grab the ring a couple times! After she got it she looked up at me with the biggest proud smile on her sweet face. My heart grew two sizes that day.

We are still struggling with sleep and poop. Though I think my new strategy towards the potty training is helping a little - basically I have backed way off and I am letting her take the lead. No bribing, no asking and make very minimal fuss when an accident happens. We think that she is seeking attention (good or bad) with the potty. It has become routine for her to poop in her panties then have us come and help her clean it up. She even asks to clean her panties now *yuck*. Yesterday and today were much better since taking this new approach.

My parenting style needs some tweaking. I am finding myself using techniques that I am not proud of. eg. "If you poop in your panties we can't go to dinobouncers" :( . I also find that we are battling way too much with her. I think we both need a refresher on how we parent and how it affects our children. I think tonight I am going to download "The Happiest Toddler On The Block" by Harvy Karp. I need some resource tools. I doubt I will get C. to read it as well, but hopefully he will let me give him the close note version so we can be on the same page. Otherwise we will end up battling each other and confusing Miss Lily.

Miss Daisy has again been growing too fast. She is almost sitting on her own now! She had so much fun today sitting (aided by my breastfeeding pillow) and playing with her toys.

Miss Lily had to bring almost every toy out for Daisy to play with. We think it is time to start Miss Daisy on solids soon. She is getting very interested in our food and has been known to grab a handful of something off our plates when we are momentarily distracted. I am leaning towards the Baby Led Weaning method of introducing solids this time around. I have been doing a lot of reading about it and it just seems right. It feels like a good fit for Daisy and our family. I haven't convinced C. yet, but again - if I could get him to read some of the information that I have he would understand better.

I guess that is about all the rambling I have for this Monday. So .... nite nite.

One Day At A Time

God broke our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best!"

There was some sadness in our weekend as we attended a memorial. Cancer reared it's ugly head in our family again. My heart breaks for everyone who has lost a loved one to this awful disease. ♥♥♥ I ask the one or two that read my boring little blog to please give your loved ones an extra kiss & hug today, tell them you love them and call that friend/family member that you have been meaning to touch base with. You never know when some one's expiry date might be up.
As we were leaving the luncheon I heard C say to my sis-in-law "Just take it one day at a time." I thought about that all the way home. How often do we put things off or make excuses as to why we can't do this or that until the next day, month or year? How would our lives change if we lived each moment as if it was our last? We spend so much time and energy rushing through life. Always dreaming, always making "goals", always striving for more. As we drove home I had visions of moving to a small community far away from the busy city. Spend more time gardening, making memories with my children and travelling. Of course as we pulled into the driveway I had already found many reasons why we couldn't do such things yet - maybe when C is done school or when the girls are older or ......

Onto lighter topics ....
It's Muffin Tin Monday!

Snack - Fruit snacks, water, pears, goldfish, cream cheese (with blue food coloring to look like water), more fishies.

Lunch - Star cucumbers, 1000 island "dip", carrot dots, sausage, scrambled eggs (with cauliflower .. shhhh) served in a baked tortilla bowl, tortilla crisps (made from the scrap tortilla).

The rest of our weekend was okay. Nothing exciting. Did some house work, swimming lessons, a little shopping. Tried once again to give Miss Daisy a bottle. Once again we failed. So now I am onto Plan B. Introducing the sippy cup. I picked her up a special trainer cup and put a little boob milk in it. So far she just plays with it but i am hoping eventually she will take to it and realize that she gets the sweet nectar of mommy from it. In return mommy can get away for more that 1.5 hours at a time.
Miss Lily continued to drive me batty and make me giggle (not always in that order) all week. She is such a ummmm .... spirited ... child. Most days it seems like she is 2 going on 13. She has taken to slamming the door to her room when she is mad at us (okay, mostly me). Trying to get ready for swimming lessons she decided that she didn't want to go because she didn't want to go under water. Which she informed in a very loud voice punctuated by a door slamming in my face.

~ looking all (blurry) sweet and innocent~

Today she has decided that naps are so yesterday. No nap for Miss Lily makes mommy a little something something.
I see a tall glass of wine in my future.

Monday Monday

Even though Monday is the first day of the week, I don't get to sleep "in" all way until 8:00pm, we have to get back to the nitty gritty and I need to start making my "To Do" list that never seems to get complete, I am starting to look forward to it.

I have joined the Muffin Tin Meal (MTM) craze. I have used it as a way to spice up my (and the kiddos) Monday. There is a great blog to follow - Muffin Tin Mom that offers a weekly theme and lots of inspiration. I haven't followed the themes yet as I am still building my Muffin Tin skills. But I am pretty proud of this weeks.

Heart cheese quesadilla's on a lettuce bed, sour cream, orange star peppers, guacamole, mini orange segments and I ♥ U cheese on tostitos

I just realized that I kind of had my own theme going on - orange :P

Only 2 more Mondays left now until I will be a part time WAHM! J & JL will no longer be coming which is going to allow me more time with my girls. ♥♥♥

A little late but here is Daisy's 4 month photo ...

Where's The Pause Button

||

Another weekend has come and gone. Another milestone has been reached by one of the children. Another moment has passed. Another memory has been made.

*sigh*

It all goes by so fast.

Daisy started rolling this weekend. She is growing up faster than I can process. It is hard for me to believe that 4 months has gone by. It seems like it just a couple weeks ago that she was still a tiny little bundle with her hands tightly fisted and her head still wobbly. Now she is grabbing toys, jumperoo'ing, and rolling. It really hit me when I put her in

the bassinet Saturday night. When we first brought her home we had a blanket shoved in the bottom so she didn't slide down. Now she is almost to big.

Friday dear Serena came over and helped me bake buns. My first successful bun making experience!! Thanks to Serena's super bun making karma I decided I was a master baker and decided to make bread today. Surprisingly it didn't turn out that bad. It is actually quite tasty! It needs a little tweaking, but I am patting myself on the back - I feel the need for a Kitchenaid mixer in my future.

And now .....

From The Mouth Of Lily

"My tummy's not full. I need a snack"

"The jumperoo's are sleeping? I need to go cover them up!" (After a friends birthday at Dinobouncers. The air was out of the bouncers and I told her they were sleeping)

"I wanna smell your poop"

Randomness

My days are disorganized routined chaos. I know what to expect yet it is always slightly different. I have well developed plans and to do lists laid out. I add more daily compared to what is crossed off. Laundry gets washed but not taken out of the dryer. It gets folded but not put away.


I spend many minutes searching for misplaced suckies.

Hundreds of hours are spent picking up abandoned toys.




I've watched more Dora, Sesame Street and Cat In The Hat than I care to admit. I am completely out of loop with current events, current shows and current music. I wear lulu's and tank tops almost daily and my hair is always in a pony tail. My scent is a cross between spit up and peanut butter.
I am a mom. Somedays I feel like I have lost all other parts of myself. But when I stop and remember who I once was I realize that I am still me. Just a different me. I will never be a "yummy mummy" with a fancy show home, manicured nails and perfectly groomed hair. But I am more content than I have been in years. I am blessed.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Balance

I am doing something a little different this year instead of traditional resolutions. I got the idea from someone on one of the forums I frequent and I instantly fell in love with the idea. Instead of resolutions I am choosing a word. A word to live my year by. You can read more about this idea here "One Little Word" .

My word for 2011 is

{ BALANCE }

• mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
• equality between the totals of the two sides of an account.
• the power or ability to decide an outcome by throwing one'sstrength, influence, support, or the like, to one side or theother.
• the act of balancing; comparison as to weight, amount,importance, etc.; estimate.

Every year there is so much that I strive to do. So many goals, wishes, needs, plans ... I often overwhelm myself. I try to do so much that I start to tire and lose my drive. I eventually qive up and then I beat myself up.

This year I want to find a balance.

Balance my lifestyle - eat better, not "diet". Be more active. Get better rest

Balance my finances - spend within my means. Lower my debt.

Balance my day - be more productive and find more "me" time

Balance my family - More time enjoying our time together. Less time stressing about what we should be doing

Balance my home - less clutter. Better organization.