1st personal trainer session here (where she measured my fat) and 2nd one here.
I had my 3rd personal trainer session last Thursday. It was (per my request!) a running clinic! I know! Who have I become?
I made fun of people who exercise. Now I am one of [...]
You guys are all so sensible. I love it. I love hearing what other people would do in my situation. We all have different hot button issues and we're all coming from different places, so it's interesting to see what is your "No Way, No How" line and what [...]
Asked C where her socks were. She looked ashamed & said,"Took them off." Then she grinned & held out her arms for a hug. Yeah, I hugged her.
E couldn't find me - I caught her RUNNING TO TELL THE NEIGHBOR that I was lost. (I was downstairs doing laundry.) OMG.
Can you [...]
Okay! This post is not nearly as depressing as the last one. Thanks for listening and all your lovely support. I need to get it out sometimes.
I took C to get her first official haircut (i.e. I paid money for it rather than ask a friend with talent and [...]
I've had a few particularly difficult work shifts lately. If you follow my twitter, you have some vague details, but, as usual, getting everything written down makes me less likely to think over it again and again. It's like if the thoughts are committed to paper (or computer), I [...]
C is in that annoying/amusing stage of being scared of the most random things. I remember L being terrified of the shower head during baths - she wouldn't come into the bathroom until it was covered with a towel - so I know it's a passing phase. Yesterday, we went [...]
Has anyone out there found a Wii activity that is a good workout AND enjoyable AND you've stuck with it? There is such a wide range of opinions on what is a good/fun/enduring workout on the Amazon reviews. Apparently there are too many opinions and so I'm seeking MORE opinions? [...]
Here is where I am on school lunches:
I still hate them.
I also hate all you who have kids who eat things like "sandwiches." However, I am in a better place since I mandated hot lunch twice a week (and encourage three times a week) and stopped caring so much. I [...]
This morning, C's first words to me were, "I pick my dress!" and after I showed her the one I left out last night, she gathered it to her chest and approved happily, "Pretty dress!" Monday, A dressed her in jeans and a striped turtleneck. She was so desolate over [...]
Last Tuesday, the school called us around 2 pm and told us E was sick. Her teacher thought she felt hot and she wasn't eating her snack. She had a temp of 99.2 when she got home (a wussy temp, I think), but I felt like I HAD to keep [...]
(We went apple picking this week. Pictures here.)
Moxie posed the following question last week:
The first thought [...]
C has this delightful speech pattern that reminds me of my years spent learning French and Spanish. She adds the object at the end of the sentence. For example:
"I like it, Mormor." [Mormor is A's grandma. They're Swedish.)
"I don't like it, monster." (Someone in our neighborhood has a big inflatable [...]
(Normally the Twitter transcribing will only be a monthly-ish thing. I did the last one in early September but posted it last week, so I had to do another immediately in order to catch up. It's not like this is my new format or anything.)
At lunch, C told me [...]
(There is an underwear question at the bottom of this post, so if you are uninterested in my organizing efforts, please skip to there and leave your opinion.)
I hit a wall in my organizing frenzy and admit to slacking off in the last couple weeks. I found myself aimlessly [...]
For my first personal trainer session, we spent more time than I thought was necessary pinching my fat and recording the numbers. In hindsight, that was much less painful than my second session. I'm writing this 24 hours later and I can barely walk. I'm thinking I need one [...]
(Transcribing temporary tweets into my more permanent blog.)
E: "L, I was about to poot on you, but then I moved my butt!" BURST INTO GIGGLES. REPEAT AD INFINITUM.
L just explained the rules of poker (one card stud) to me, including betting. A was busy, busy, busy this weekend, wasn't he?
The start [...]
Question from a friend: Can anyone recommend a girly/princess computer game that focuses on phonics and math? The girl in question is 5 and in kindergarten. And no, it's not L.
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L was doing a bit of [...]
Oh my goodness. I totally didn't mean to leave such a bittersweet post up top for so long, but I wrote it the week before we left for Las Vegas and I didn't have time to write anything else. Our family drove to my brother's last Saturday morning and then [...]
Several weeks ago, at work, I helped a daughter say goodbye to her mom. There was a bit of sibling drama, but all in all, it was a joy to be there. My patient's grandson, probably in his 20s, asked me a question I have been asked a lot,
"How [...]
Thank you for all the commiseration on school lunches. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates packing them. I'm going to make my kids sound pickier than they are, I think, but they will not eat:
granola bars (even the ones that are like candy), dips of [...]
Oh, you guys. Can we talk about school lunches? I hate packing school lunches with a red hot fiery passion of hate. I don't think my kids are the pickiest kids in the world, but they are moderately picky and our choices of Food Able To Be Packed In a [...]
On the way to the beach Monday, E kept arguing with me about when they were going back to school. She insisted that A told her they would return Tuesday and A slid me a glance and a shoulder shrug that told me he had no idea what she was [...]
As an obsessive planner, I think about the future. A lot. I like to figure out where we want to go in life and then backtrack to see what we need to do now to get there then. I am not a go-with-the-flow type of person and that's one reason [...]
I sorted all the basement toys and moved almost everything downstairs. We moved our dinner table away from the wall - we had it off to the side so we could use our large dining room for a play area - and now we have a regular dining room with [...]
Wouldn't it be nice if there actually was an organizing ninja? One day your bathroom cupboards would contain haphazardly thrown half full lotion bottles and 12 pairs of tweezers and then the next day you'd find neatly stacked rows and all your cotton balls in a cute little dish.
Anyway, I [...]
We are considering buying a Wii with another family for Christmas. We need to iron out the details, but the idea is that we would share the cost and trade it every month. I think it usually comes with a sports package and then each family would be responsible for [...]
It occurred to me yesterday that our original family planning decision - post E and L - was to just wait and see if a full-term pregnancy had cured my ovaries of their attitude. We thought we would wait and if nothing happened by the time E and L were [...]
On the way into school this morning, E told A that she didn't like kindergarten and she wanted to go back to preschool. After a few probing questions, he thinks that there are two problems.
1. Kindergarten is more work. She said, "I just want to play and they don't let [...]
On the second day of school, A drove them without me. I was out at the car, though, taking pictures and slightly tearful. On the third day of school, I walked them out and waved goodbye as they all drove away. Now, I am drop-kicking them out the door and [...]
We were playing outside when a neighbor girl walked by with her Chihuahua. C pointed and declared, "Mouse!" Hee, hee. I said, "No, it's a dog, but a little dog." She paused, processed that, dismissed it, and asked, "Cat?"
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A [...]
HEY! Where are these EXHAUSTED children you all promised me? Everyone was all "Oh, they'll be so tired after full day, 5 day a week kindergarten, glazed eyes, limp bodies, blah, blah, blah." THEY ARE NOT EXHAUSTED. They are full of piss and vinegar and happily ride their bikes and [...]
Yesterday E and L came home from a great first day of school (as far as I could tell - I received limited information*) and put their backpacks by the front door and their lunch boxes on the counter. I stared at them, confused. They did not disappear. They remained [...]
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. That deserves to be capitalized, right? E and L did awesome. I felt bad for the parents of wailing spider-monkey children. It would be awful to peel your kid off of you and leave her. Anyway, I got a little choked [...]
Last week, when we were on vacation with my siblings, we let our kids stay up very late (for us): 9:30. That is 1.5 hours past their usual bedtime, but it was vacation, their older cousins were up and around, and there were fireflies to catch. Now, this week, I [...]
Right now, this is what I'm thinking about:
KindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergarten
KindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergarten
KindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergartenKindergarten
Here is what I think 99.9% of the time:
"I am SO EXCITED! This is going to be SO MUCH FUN! My work schedule is such that I can volunteer! I am going to be A HELPFUL PARENT and the teachers seem [...]
I washed E and L's school uniforms last week and now their closet has a little section of polo shirts and pleated skirts. L's are almost all pink - her choice - while E picked a variety of colors, mostly orange. L was concerned about the lack of fanciness of [...]
Oh my. We were on vacation last week, but I didn't tell you ahead of time, did I? We went to my friend's parent's cottage and had a blast! Well, there was a bit of an issue because my friend spent most of her time looking fabulous in freaking bikini [...]
Dear Mom,
It's been three years since you died and you've missed so much. I feel kind of stupid writing you a letter - a letter on my public blog that you'll never see - but I find myself wanting to talk to you and I don't have any other [...]
Our new school's year round schedule is already proving to be a winner. We have a week off at the end of September and A and I are planning our first post-babies/no babies vacation: Las Vegas! We'll leave on a Saturday morning, drive to my brother's, and fly out from [...]
I had planned on stepping up my workouts this summer when E and L were out of school and our schedule was a bit more open. Unfortunately, it seems like vacations and doctor's appointments and various other commitments are going to interfere. Now my goal is to maintain and finally [...]
So, we are still on the waiting list for our 1st choice school and have started the admission process of choice #2. Here's the thing: choice #2 is rapidly becoming choice #1, so now my worry is this:
If we get into choice #1 over the summer, do we switch? I [...]
I spent last week doing last minute birthday party planning! We had our first official friends party (as opposed to just family). E and L each invited a friend from school plus a few family friends - about 10 kids total (including my 3) and 7 adults.
We started with tattoos. [...]
Every year my kids get older and I think to myself, "But I loved [insert previous age here]!" And then I tell you that. Here we go: I LOVED four. Four has been quite an adventure as they are learning who they are and becoming more susceptible to outside influences [...]
I love to compare photos and marvel at how my kids have grown (which is kind of silly, isn't it? OF COURSE they grow. What else do I expect?), so I added pictures of their first and last days of preschool over on my picture blog.
I called our first [...]
We are still waiting to see if we got into our first choice charter school and it is causing a constant, low level feeling of stress in my life. I'll be going about my daily business and idly wonder, "Why do I have this feeling in the pit of my [...]
The future haircut became the present haircut on Mother's Day. We had done the flower girl thing on Saturday (more below), so I took advantage of A being home and spent some one-on-one time with E. We went to get her hair chopped off and then got ice cream - [...]
I don't believe that my mom is watching us, peeking down from heaven to check out the happenings here on earth. I don't think she's aware of C's birth or of how our lives have changed since her death. I know some people believe differently and find it comforting - [...]
We have completed step #1 in Operation: Return To Our Bed. Bunk beds have been installed in our old room (E and L's new room) and everything is switched around. Bedroom #1 now contains bunk beds and a crib while Bedroom #2 contains our queen bed and a back-up crib. [...]
I got my (Mother's Day present) heart rate monitor in March and have been using it regularly since then. I watched a lot of Ebay auctions and most new/GUC monitors were going for around $100. I spent slightly more than that and got a new one from Amazon in the [...]
I'm cutting E's hair off. I just can't take it anymore. She has always been a malingerer, but I am GENTLE (mostly) when it comes to brushing her hair. Honestly, I am a million times more gentle than I am with my own hair. We use a leave-in conditioning spray [...]
Thanks for all the positive comments. I know that there are so many people out there who live paycheck-to-paycheck and I don't want to be insensitive. I know that this $40/month that we're spending to teach our kids about money could be a large part of your budget and I [...]
A and I both grew up in upper middle class homes. No one had a fancy house or servants, but we both had food and clothes and extras. We grew up in a Midwestern city, went to public schools, and had our college paid for through sad circumstances - him [...]
I want to talk about allowances and how we're teaching E and L to be responsible with money, but I don't know how to talk about it without someone taking offense. Money is such a sensitive topic. I'm working on phrasing things very carefully and making sure my ideas are [...]
Okay, I'll tell you about the vitamins I give my kids. I never thought that would be an interesting topic, but sure! Why not? I aim to please.
First, we live such a life that extra vitamins are probably unnecessary. We have access to a wide variety of foods and, most [...]
C doesn't like milk. Dozens of half gallons of Vit D milk have spoiled in our fridge because she won't drink it and then I get lazy and stop pushing it on her. She takes supplements (multivitamin, calcium, and fish oil) that give her about 300 mg of calcium every [...]
A and I got ready to give Roland his medicine on Sunday night before I left for work. The problem was: he was nowhere to be found. I left the meds drawn up and told A, "FIND HIM before you go to sleep."
I worried about [...]
Oh, I know it's not really summer yet since I sent my kids to school in their winter coats, but it's supposed to be 60 degrees today, I ate chicken salad and strawberries for lunch, and I'm planning summer stuff, so it's on my mind. I am torn about summer [...]
Monday night I opened the door to the Y kids area and E and L ran in. C stood behind me and I gestured to her and said, "Come on! Let's go play!" and she just stood there, shaking her head, until I walked back, picked her up, and carried [...]
One of our patients at work this weekend has had a life full of tragedy after tragedy. I can't give details because they're too . . . detailed, I guess, and would possibly identify her, but suffice it to say: if you are hoping to stay alive long enough to [...]
When I first joined the Y, I made a deal with myself that if I went twice a week for 3 months, I would splurge on an iPod. Then I discovered the classes and, even though I easily made my goal, I didn't really need one anymore. I went crazy [...]
I expect my Best Mom Ever award shortly. Look what I found at the consignment store for $5!
For what it's worth, I tried to talk her out of black tights, but failed. This morning I picked out a pink dress - usually the best way [...]
Most of the classes at the Y are set up so that we are all looking in the mirror. It helps to watch your form and while it is occasionally painful to compare what I look like in real life versus what I look like in my head, it has [...]
We've tried to introduce E and L to chapter books for about 6 months now. Each time, L was quite vocal in her displeasure regarding the lack of pictures. This weekend, A was smart and got E alone. He read her a bit of Pippi Longstocking and she was hooked. [...]
C was officially 18 months yesterday and we saw our ped for some lovely shots and a check-up. She is just over 24 lbs (50th percentile) and 33 inches tall (90th percentile). If you do the trick of doubling an accurate 18 month height to get their adult height, she [...]
Today we slept in until after 8. E and L appeared when their alarm clock started playing music and we snuggled for a bit. We made muffins, ate breakfast, and played with playdoh. They watched Sesame Street while I worked on uploading the last 6 months of pictures to the [...]
For the last two weekends, I've worked day shifts on Saturday and Sunday. I did it as an experiment and it went well. I missed my kids - I was gone before they were awake and got home just in time to put everyone to bed - but I felt [...]
So I had my first boxing class last night and here is my verdict: blech. The class itself is a great workout, but oh! the instructor. She offers up a constant stream of clichéd inspirational thoughts:
"Whoever has told you that you're not good enough, that you can't do it, that [...]
It is no joking matter when it is 5:45 am and you are scheduled to work a 12.5 hour shift where people's lives are at stake and your coffee maker BREAKS. I was quite pathetic, pressing the start button again and again, hoping that THIS time it would work. Then, [...]
Wednesday night I escaped to kickboxing, yesterday I did the 30 Day Shred (Level 1) plus a sculpting video, and today I went to 0600 ZUMBA! class. Between sickness, A's business trip, and a couple times he had to go to work early, I hadn't been to that class for [...]
Well, hello. We've been sick. We had a nice run of health in December and through the holidays, but January and February have been rife with snotty noses and coughs. This past week has been particularly bad because I'M sick, too. And my in-laws have been here for one of [...]
OMG, I have given birth to three children - two within 13 minutes of each other - but shin splints HURT. Apparently, I have a puny shin muscle. It's a good thing you don't give birth through your shins. I got them from a class that involves a step and [...]
I was surprised that everyone had such strong opinions about shoes, but then I thought about it more and we all have to put shoes on our kids, so it stands to reason that we all have to get shoes somehow and we'd all have opinions about how best [...]
I do not spend a lot of money on my shoes. My most expensive shoes are my Birkenstocks for work - I've had 2 pairs since graduating from college and they run about $125 + shipping. My second most expensive shoes are my athletic shoes bought when A and I [...]
E has a supergood friend at school who looks like Archie from the comic books. They were both Batman for Halloween and she's adored him ever since. I am subjected to comments like, "I wish I could marry Archie so he could live here and be part of our family," [...]
This has been a crazy winter for us. December broke records with the inches of snow that fell. January is doing the same with freezing temperatures. This is normally the time that I am snappish and sluggish and sad. But I'm not! I don't mind winter this year!
I am exercising [...]
A lot of you asked me for the checklist I was sent from the local school that included 48 things your kid should do before starting kindergarten. I love you all, but I didn't feel like transcribing it onto my computer. That would have taken 10 minutes. Instead, I spent [...]
I find it amusing that so many of you admit to housing your child in a closet for various periods of time. Bedrooms do seem to be a class/society "problem." Many people in the world share rooms and beds, so what's the big? I mentioned to E and L that [...]
I am not even joking when I tell you that right now, A and I are sleeping on the futon in our main floor office and C - all 20-whatever pounds of her - has the entire master bedroom to herself. I'm also not joking when I tell you that A is going [...]
Last week, A and I looked at 2 charter schools in our vicinity. They were extremely different and I have been STRESSING about which one we should send our kids to ever since we walked out of the second one. A tactfully pointed out that maybe we should wait to [...]
Last week, L mentioned, "Mrs. T [her teacher] is a bad whore."
I stopped and said, "What?"
She repeated very clearly, "Mrs. T. Is. A. Bad. WHORE."
I replied, "Hmmm."
She clarified, "She was pouring popcorn and she spilled it and we all had to clean it up."
"OH!" I exclaimed. [...]
After I was annoyed yesterday, I went to ZUMBA! and learned that they have started limiting the class to 50 (!) participants because it was getting too crowded. It was fine, though, because I've started making C's childcare appt a bit earlier so I was participant #39 and got [...]
The woman at Supercuts could not have cut hair more slowly. COULD NOT HAVE. It took her an hour to cut uncomplicated hairstyles for two cooperative little girls. (Grace and peace to her.)
All the salon products at Supercuts are placed at toddler level. An hour is a LONG TIME [...]
Thanks for all your suggestions about touring schools. There were some things you suggested that had not crossed my mind yet and while a lot of them were not deal breakers, I do like to have all the information available to me before making a decision. Now I have [...]
I love the preschool age. LOVE IT. I've talked here about how I'm not a huge baby person, but suddenly the kid becomes a toddler and slightly more independent, fun, and able to give as well as receive and I'm happier. THEN, the toddler becomes a preschooler and kicks it [...]
E and L are talkers. They spoke early, strung words together early, and haven't stopped since. They have great vocabularies and are able to express their thoughts clearly. C is . . . not like that. When she turned one, I noted that she didn't officially say mama or [...]
Next month A is taking a personal day and we are touring 3 charter schools near our house in preparation for E and L's foray into kindergarten next fall. I will get to the emotional part of this - I must because I feel the joy and sorrow overflowing [...]
I love the holiday season. I do. I love that I can smell the soup in the crockpot and am sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and bathed in the glow of the Christmas tree lights, shopping on Amazon. It's just that I can barely keep up with [...]
more music charts
Oh, I loved math in high school, but I didn't know at the time that Venn diagrams could be funny. Thanks, Graph Jam!
Today I was setting up my station for powerflex and chatting with my friend about our [...]
Saturday morning I came home from work and collapsed in bed with an "Ugh."
A woke up with an "Uh oh."
He made it through the morning (later L told me, "We saw Daddy throw up!") and then kicked me out of bed when he put C down for a nap. Two hours [...]
Yesterday L fell asleep on the couch for quiet time. I left her there, nestled with a blanket and a puke bowl next to her, and helped E set up a game on the computer. I ran back when I heard panicked crying and found that she had puked on [...]
I woke up this morning to E standing in the doorway yelling, "IT'S AN EMERGENCY! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" Since we have had long, involved talks on what constitutes an emergency, I leaped out of bed and followed her to her room. There I found L puking all over her bed [...]
I forgot to mention a conversation I had with E while we were knee deep in nightmares. (We have been nightmare-free with E for a few days now, not so much with L. Dammit.) I told her that dreams are what your brain is thinking about while you're sleeping. [...]
One month after I solicited your opinions on my PMS rage, I was COMPLETELY SURPRISED by the arrival of my period. No anger, no irritability, no bloating, no warning signs whatsoever. Huh? Is my diet so awful that adding a few basic vitamins makes me less likely to fly [...]
Last night was horrible. I love E like a mother loves her child, but I wanted to toss her out the window last night. We have got to do something about these nightmares. I don't see how we can prevent her from having them, but I'm open to suggestions of [...]
We talk about superheros a lot in our house lately. A has been showing our kids old Batman cartoons, a few Wonder Twins, stuff like that. We talk about Batman fighting the Joker and the Penguin and how Spiderman can shoot webs out of his wrists. They ask me if [...]
