The Update

Well here it is, the end of February and I thought I should update you on the whole weightloss thing. Let me just say that the fact that I had to clean cupcake frosting off my handweights before I could use them should give you a clue on how I did. I have lost a total of 0 pounds. But, in my defense I was sick for almost three weeks this month and the only thing I want to do when I am sick is eat comfort food and lay around on the couch. Sadly that is not much different than when I am not sick.

I did get back on the wagon last week though and worked out 6 times. That is a big accomplishment for me and I have two workout buddies to thank for helping me.

Debbe,
Thank you for being such a great 2 night a week workout buddy. So what if you think you should have picked a different life coach than me. You might think I don't push you hard enough, but I say I am nothing if not encouraging. Even if it is encouraging you to not work out and just be lazy. We will kill the fat!

And to my husband-

Dear Honey,
Thank you for helping me get out of bed in the mornings so we can exercise together. You definitely make the workouts comical, I mean more fun. And I am sorry for calling you "The exercise Natzi" in my head all those mornings you were trying to help me get out of bed.

I will update you again at the end of March and hopefully I will have something new to report.

Snow Day

The kids and I headed over to grandma L's house today to play in the snow. Yes, it snowed! Nevermind the fact that it was almost completely gone by the afternoon. Connor was so excited about the snow, so excited that he stood looking out the window saying, "You did a good job clouds, thanks for the snow!" Olivia however, wanted nothing to do with the snow. I would even venture to say she hated it.

Connor loving the snow.......

Connor still loving the snow........

Olivia hating it

We stayed at grandma's house all day long and drank hot chocolate, ate yummy food, and watched cable tv. It was a great day! We came home and I baked fresh rolls and made DELICIOUS corn chowder for dinner. It was delicious. I ate way to much. Did I mention it was delicious? And now I really need to go work out, if I can move that is.

I never thought I would have to say that

There are some things in life that I never imaginged myself saying, but now that I am a parent I find I have said them more than once. Here are a few examples:



"Get your feet out of your mouth."



"No, it would not be fun to crash the car into a house."



"No, you may not bash your sister."



"No, I am not going to re-name you Shaun the tornado interceptor."



"No, you may not be cross, you need to choose to be happy." Yes, he said "cross." I have an old english man trapped in a tiny body for a son.



"Yes, that is a suspension bridge. And where did you learn the word suspension anyway?"



"Stop licking my arms."



"Did you just say phidipus jumping spider? Where did you learn the word phidipus and what does that even mean?"



"Do we really have to watch another National Georgraphic movie? Can't we watch a cartoon instead?" - He does like cartoons, but lately he has been on a natural disaster and spider kick. Those are what he wants to watch movies about. He will probably grow up to be some kind of scientist or storm chaser.



"No, that lady did not eat a baby." - We were watching the tornado interceptor movie and Shaun's wife was pregnant, so they showed her belly on camera. Connor asked what was going on with her tummy and I said there was a baby in there. Which led to the question, "What! Did she eat a baby?!" The whole conversation made me laugh until I realized that his next question would probably be how did that baby get in there. Luckily for me he got distracted so Ididn't have to answer that uncomfortable question.



And the thing I find myself saying almost everyday, "No, you may not run around naked."



These kids, especially my son, make my life interesting. I just love them to pieces and am so glad I get to be their mom.

Oh the joys.....

Please excuse any typos you might find in this post. Scott and I just did Jillian Michaels thirty day shred work out video and I can barely lift my arms. This should prove interesting when I try to get Liv out of her crib.

I have learned a few things since having a little boy, most of them pertaining to bathroom issues. Just getting him to use the bathroom was interesting in itself. He got the going "wet" in the toilet without too much trouble, but the "other" part took a litte more work. I knew he was ready for using the toilet when he would suddenly run down the hall waving at me saying, "bye mom, I am going to go poop in my room!" Good thing he was still in a diaper. It took some bribery to get him to actually do that in the toilet. The m&ms lost their allure quickly, that and I kept eating them all. We had to bring out the big guns......Annie and Clarabel. They are the passenger trains for Thomas the tank engine, and a much wanted addition to the Island of Sodor. Thomas is nothing with out Annie and Clarabel. Once he realized he would finally have Thomas' reason for living, pooping in the toilet was no problem.

Since then I have learned that:

1. Poop is apparently funny to 4 year old boy. Just the word makes him giggle. He even makes up songs about poop. I just don't get it.

2. You never, ever, want to hear the words, "ahhh, I need help!" coming from the bathroom. It means that his aim was off and you now have a mess to clean off the toilet, floor, and walls. I blame his father for that one....he just had to teach his son to "stand and pee like a man." He is obviously not the one that cleans the bathroom.

3. It is common to find the roll of toilet paper completley unrolled and then rolled back up, with part of it stuffed inside the toilet paper roll, and put back on the holder.

4. This may be the most important one....always check the roll of toilet paper BEFORE you sit on the toilet and make sure it is not SOAKING WET. This makes for an interesting predicament. Good thing I had an extra roll on the back of the toilet. When I asked Connor why the toilet paper roll on the holder was soaking wet he said, "I didn't do nuffing mom." Which when translated means he dropped the toilet paper roll in the toilet and then stuck it on the roll hoping I wouldn't notice. As I am holding the wet toilet paper roll I wonder if it fell in before of after he went to the bathroom. It gross either way.

And now I will leave you with those 4 bits of wisdom. Have a great Wednesday!

His First Love

Connor has gone through many different interests in his young life. There was the race car phase ( I had to pass by the NASCAR channel real quick to avoid having to watch hours of pointless driving), the spider man phase, the spider phase, the sewer phase, the garbage disposal phase (thank God that one was short lived), the sea creature phase ( I had to veto Shark Week, it was too scary for me) and his most recent the tornado phase. But the thing that is ever present during these phases is his love for trains. He has been in love with trains for almost two years now. He has four big totes in his room filled with train tracks and trains of all different sizes. We have watched every single Thomas the train movie there is in the world over and over and over. He has watched them so much that it is normal for him to say things like, "I'm cross" and "Bust my buffers." Before his sissy was born, our living room used to be the Island of Sodor, but now he can only have the tracks in his room or his sister will destroy everything. I was having him tear down his tracks every night but I got tired of having to build a new track every day, so I decided vacuuming is over rated and he pretty much always has a track on his bedroom floor.

My living room aka The Island of Sodor and that is only about half of the stuff he has.

So, today Connor got to spend a couple hours in train heaven. My parents took us to a toy train exhibit. It was in a huge building full of all different train displays. There were tiny rail roads, big rail roads, railroads made completley of legos, and a train that even made real steam. While we were looking at his particular display a boy came up to Connor and said to look for the train with the pistons pumping because it makes real steam. When Connor heard the phrase "pistons pumping" his eyes lit up and I know he was thinking in his head, "finally, someone who speaks my language!" He got so excited he grabbed the kids arms and started jumping up and down. The kid just looked at him weird and said "I don't know you," and walked away. He gets caught up in the moment sometimes.

Actually showing excitement about something. I told you he loved trains.

Connor and Daddy dreaming about building their own rail road.

Connor in his way cool new Thomas hat.

Connor and Percy

Just because I thought it was so cute......Grandpa and Livie

He had an absolute blast. If you ask Connor he would tell you only the only draw back was that he couldn't buy any of the big trains. They were over a hundred dollars a piece. I told him they were only for grown up and not kids. He didn't want the kid train because it didn't have a hitch on the back and wouldn't be able to pull any freight cars. What good is an engine that can't pull freight cars? He is a very practical 4 year old. So now he can't wait to grow up so he can buy those big trains. Well, that and so he can say hello to the talking box in the McDonald's drive thru. He's got big dreams, that son of mine.

I guess I would say there is a draw back too, he came home with a train whistle. Thanks for that one grandma.

One of my greatest fears

I have never been good at art....ever. One of the things I dreaded most when I was in grade school and high school was having to draw pictures. No matter what grade I was in my drawings always looked like they were made by a kindergartner, a blind kindergartner. It truly was embarrassing.

Now that I am out of school I thought I would never have to draw another thing in my life. And then I had children. I remember the first time Connor asked me to draw something for him. I can't tell you the panic that had set in. I just knew that he would look at my drawing and see that his mother was in fact, not super woman and can't do everything. Sure she is good for getting the cars from behind the dresser and the stuffed animals from under the bed, but she can't draw worth beans. Its my cryptonite. I knew I would be judged. But because I love my son I put my pride aside and drew him the whale he was asking me to draw. Side note-Whenever my son sings the Old McDonald had a farm song, there is always a whale on the farm. And that whale is the only thing on the farm. I think he has been living in the suburbs too long. Anyways. So I draw him his whale and show it to him. He looks at it and then looks at me and says, "no, mom this is a flounder, I wanted a whale." Fail. Well at least it looked like a fish. It actually looked like a gold fish cracker to me. Who doesn't like a gold fish cracker?!

I think things wouldn't be so bad if I didn't marry Mr. I Can Draw Anything Free Hand And It Will Look Awesome And Make My Wife Look Unawesome. For example Connor asked me do draw him some trains yesterday.

No, Connor didn't draw these....it was me.

And then Scott gets home and Connor asks him to draw some trains.

But mister over achiever can't just draw a train, he has to draw a water tower and cows, and make them 3D. You see what I have to live with. I am surprised Connor still asks me to draw things for him. I just know, one of these days he will be telling Olivia to not ask mom to draw, but to wait until dad gets home.

The trains I made for Connor have been cast aside. And where is the "art" as Connor keeps calling it, that Scott made? Well it's in his room. He is playing with it right now for room time. And it was the first thing he mentioned when he woke up this morning. Now I must go cuddle Olivia. She loves me just the way I am. I can still draw better than her.

Not to be left out

I realize that I have been blogging quite a bit about my little tornado interceptor. The interceptor's sister has noticed this as well and has informed me that she would like some blog time or she will cry all night long, not letting her mommy get any sleep and making her look so haggard that no one will believe she is only 25, okay okay, 27. She also threatened to hide all my shoes. So on that threatening note- here is the little angel.

She loves wearing her daddy's hats.

Playing in the measuring cup drawer. She wears the cookie cutters as bracelets. She is all about accessorizing.

She chose to wear her fancy shoes for room time.

Still working on keeping the eyes OPEN for pictures. Its a trait she inherited from me.

Well, she has informed me that this post will work for now, but to make sure she gets more face time in the future.

And now I'm off to make dinner. I actually planned ahead this time so sadly we will not be having pizza.

The Infamous Zoo Trip

So this past summer my mom took Connor, Olivia, and I to the zoo. I was so excited for Connor to see all the animals in real life for the first time, well, the first time that he would remember it. And boy, would he remember it. I made sure I brought not only the camera, but batteries for the camera as well. ( for those of you who know me, you know this is a really big step for me). I should have reined in some of that excitement. You see, my son is just like his father. They are both a bit lacking in the showing of excitement department.

T
This is Scott happy

This is Scott surprised

This is Scott excited. I think you get the idea.

This is Connor so excited to be at the zoo for the first time:

I had to force him to sit on that tractor.

The most exciting thing that happened on that trip I did not get on film. We had just walked through the gates. My mom said she was going to go to the restroom so I told her that the kids and I would wait for her by the Rocky Mountain Goat exhibit. Seems simple enough right?

Olivia is in the stroller and Connor is just standing next to me. I realize that Olivia is about to drop her pacifier on the ground so I stuck my hand out to catch it. Only rather that catching the pacifier I some how knocked it away from Livie and right into the water of the Rocky Mountain Goat exhibit. My son was horrified. I tried to reach it but it was down to low and the current of the stream it landed it just carried it away. The first thing I did was look around to make sure no one from zoo security saw what I did. I didn't want to get fined or jail time for endangering the life of a goat. And Connor is panicking, "Mom, sissy's passie is in the water! Mom, you have to get it! It's going to the zewer!" (sewer-yet another obsession).

All day long that is all he talked about. He didn't care about the bear sitting on the rock like it was a person. He didn't care about the cool dinosaur exhibit. He didn't care about the train ride we went on and he loves trains. All he could talk about was the passie that mom threw into the goats water. Livie didn't even care, I brought an extra one and she didn't even want it. He mentioned it about every thirty seconds. The first thing he told Scott when he got home from work was how I lost his sissy's passie. He talked to his grandpa George later that night and that was the first thing he said to him. He even tells random strangers that," Mommy dropped sissy's passie and now its in the ocean." He was terrified to think the fish would be using his sisters pacifier. Even now, all these months later he still talks about it. If we go anywhere he asks me where sissy's passie is and has to see it for himself. I will never be trusted with the sacred pacifier again.

Oh, and the word "zoo" has forever been banned from our house.

Be mindful of the dangers that can happen at the zoo ( also know as the place we don't speak of).

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong......

- to love the fact that when you tickle your children they can't do anything but fall to the ground in a laughing ball of submission.

- to ask your husband if there if anything special he wants from the grocery store, not because you really care if he wants something, but because you want something special ( ice cream) and can justify it if he wants something too.

- to hide behind the corner when you hear your children coming down the hall so you might "surprise" them when they walk past you.

- that when I ask Connor what he wants for breakfast and he tells me 'chocolate' there is a big part of me that wants to give in and say, "sure, why don't we all have some! I won't tell daddy if you won't!" We are so not good for each other.

- that I have screened workout videos to make sure they aren't too hard

-to tell your 4 year old that the Netflix is suddenly broken because you simply can not stand to watch "Shaun the tornado interceptor" again

-to "forget" to take something out of the freezer for dinner because you are lazy, and you know if you sound really upset about forgetting, your husband will say to just order a pizza

- that every time the doorbell rings my children think I ordered a pizza

- to have french fries and a milk shake after a workout

- to like cartoons more than your children do

If you have answered yes to any of these, then please don't tell me. Ignorance is bliss!

Living in Tornado Alley

Okay, so we don't really live in tornado alley but it sure seems like it. My sons latest fascination is with tornadoes. I think we have watched every tornado and storm chaser documentary on Netflix and from the library. He just can't seem to get enough of them, I however am getting sick of them. His favorite movie is called Tornado Intercept. It's about and IMAX film maker named Shaun that wants to film the inside of a tornado. Shaun builds this tank looking vehicle out of a ford pick up, steel, and bullet proof glass and drives to tornado alley to film his tornadoes. Connor has informed me that he would now like to be called Shaun the tornado interceptor. I said that I named him Connor and that is what I am going to call him but he just wasn't excited about that. After much debate, he said that I could call him Shaun Connor and my name is now "beautiful mom Shaun." Oh my.

So when he is not watching his tornado movies he is talking about them. Heaven forbid it gets the least bit windy outside. We took a walk the other day and it was a little windy and he was convinced a tornado was coming. He talked about them the WHOLE time we were walking, it was at least a half an hour. I know more about those things than I ever wanted to.

His favorite thing to play now is tornado. I went into his room yesterday and his cars and tractors were scattered all over his floor and there was a small house laying on its side with a truck sticking out the door. I asked him what happened and he told me that there was twister and the people didn't listen to the warning. He said they had 3 hours to get out but they stayed, that is why the truck was inside the house. Sometimes, he gets his sister and I to play with him. I sit at the end of the hallway and pretend to drive the interceptor truck while he sits in his sisters vanity table pretending to be on the computer telling me where the tornadoes are. He yells things out like, " we're stuck in Oklahoma mud, we have to hurry the tornado is only five miles away!" Meanwhile his sister just sits and sings the theme song for blues clues while trying on all of her shoes. (which is what I would rather be doing too)


At his high tech computer Showing the sign of the tornado

I thought we were going to get a break from tornadoes when his dad brought home the new garbage disposal. He was fascinated with that too. But after seeing how it all worked and letting me know all the things I was and wasn't allowed to put in it, he has gone back to tornadoes, which I am okay with since I think tornadoes are a lot more exciting than garbage disposals. I think I may be living with a miniature scientist.

If you ever want to know about tornadoes, you know where to go.

Have a great day,
Beautiful mom Shaun