Diaper Swappers

Targeting Trouble Areas

As I have mentioned in various  posts, I am trying to lose weight. Due in part to PCOS, I gained a large amount  of weight fairly quickly, and have a hard time losing the weight, which is part  of the disease. I have shed some pounds since having my second daughter…about  forty of them. And while I know that I could continue to drop the pounds more slowly, I’ve chosen to go a different route.

I am targeting my trouble areas. I like working out this way because it gives me a more focused goal, and also allows me to better gauge  results. For example, at the moment I am working on my thighs and butt, using  Jillian Michael’s Killer Buns and Thighs. After doing her Thirty Day  Shred I really didn’t think she had anything else to offer me…boy, this video is even more intense, if you can believe it! The past is much faster and I am sweating buckets!

Rainy Days

Spring time in Iowa can be beautiful but one thing is for sure. We get a lot of rain. My kids love to spend time outside and when it rains for days on end they start getting a little restless. I am always coming up with new ways to keep them entertained until the weather is nice once again.

Here are just a few of the things we do on rainy days.

1. Indoor play place.
- Our local dairy queen has an indoor play area. We love going there, the kids not only get ice cream but they love running around and playing. We usually stay for at least an hour and they are always much happier children when we leave.

Mommy Strike

I’ve decided that today I am going on strike. I was up until midnight cleaning, up until 4 am with the children, and out of bed at the very late time of 7:30.  It’s only noon and I’ve attempted to workout, my attempts foiled by my infant and toddler who just would not cooperate. I’ve attempted the dishes, that attempt was foiled by a great lack of soap. I’ve tried to clean my bedroom but then the baby threw up all over the floor, I tried to steam clean the floor but the baby had a mental breakdown which caused more vomit due to crying so hard. Defeated I put the baby to sleep and I will steam clean the breastmilk smell out of my carpet this afternoon. The only thing I have accomplished is starting a load of laundry, I’m sure it will start raining any minute.

I sit on my couch my clean house is already a disaster, and I’ve decided to go on strike. This is mommy strike, I refuse to continue to try today. I will just try tomorrow. Someone make me a margarita.

Fearless

I swear my two year old daughter is fearless. I see her do things that make my heart jump into my throat and she does it without a second thought. She loves the park, she climbs all over the equipment, goes down the slides no matter the size and loves to swing. There is a slide at one of  the local park that has to be at least ten feet off the ground at the top, it is the older style with the metal stairs with gaps in between, she loves it. Her older brother is almost six and he just got brave enough to try it this year.

I always climb up behind her to make she she does not fall and I help her start sliding, she does great, laughs the whole time and will go down it over and over again. She also likes climbing onto stuff to jump off, she has no fear of strangers

Wishing and Hoping…for a Boy!

I am currently reading a book entitled How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby. I have already gotten many weird looks when I carry this out in public, so I have come to realize that this is a somewhat controversial topic. This book is based on using the Shettles method and, according to research, has been in practice for over fifty years.

Why is it so hard to fathom that someone would want to choose the sex of their baby if they could? I have two beautiful, wonderful girls that I would not trade for a slew of boys. I love them to death, but as my husband and I get closer to talking about having another child I have to admit that, yes, my heart yearns for a boy.

What more could I possibly get from another girl? The two that I  have, combined, form the most perfect daughter in the world. I truly believe  that. My oldest is funny, and adventurous and imaginative…my youngest is sweet,  caring and shy. I could go on and on.

However, if we are going to try for another, I have to say that I  would prefer to do without pink and princess and sparkly and pretty. You know? I  want to add something different to the mix. I really feel that a son will complete our family.

Being Accountable for Our Actions

Recently, I’ve had some interesting conversations about what people say/do and how it effects a person.

When I was a child, if I said something offensive, even if I didn’t mean it that way, or if it was taken out of context, I had to apologize. My parents told me that even if I did not mean something, and it still hurt someone, that was one me and not them. Basically, even if my actions or words were misinterpreted I was at fault. It has made me choose my words carefully, but it has also made me hold others to that standard.

My husband’s grandma and I talk on a fairly regular basis, she often mentions that she went to counseling because people were hurting her feelings. It appears to be a round about way of saying I should do it too. In our last conversation I said, “I’m not offended by anything Brian’s family has done, at least not to the point of letting it get to me and hurt me. I simply stand that some things aren’t acceptable. I cannot change or control anyone, I can control me, and I say it’s not worth all the negativity in my life.” I don’t think she really understood what I meant, for some reason she keeps saying that I’m misunderstanding, and when I tell her plainly “How do I misunderstand a postcard to my daughter asking Why won’t mommy let daddy call me?”. She always replies with “I don’t know”.  It’s not that I can’t forgive or let go, but I simply hold people to a standard, and excuses for actions are not the same as accountability for actions.

Showing Affection

My oldest daughter, Alison, loves to kiss when she is in an affectionate mood. She will literally grab your face and plant a big smooch right on your lips! She also likes goodbye kisses when she is pretending to go off to work or when she is off to bed. We have our routine kisses for things like that, but she also will surprise me sometimes by just laying one on me! As a highly affectionate person, believe me, I have no complaints!

However, the same could not be said of a mom friend of mine. She is divorced, and has been raising her son by herself for most of his nearly four years. Often she will visit and the kids will play together. One day, after his mom said they had to leave and I told Alison to tell him goodbye, they came together and kissed on the lips. Long enough that I even caught it on camera, even! My friend seemed to be experiencing shock mixed in with horror.

I was joking about it later and she said, in rebuking tones, “Well, it certainly wasn’t initiated by my son. He doesn’t know how to do that.”

With further conversation it came out that she disapproved on my daughter’s ways of showing affection. She had only kissed the little boy in the same manner that she’s seen her father and me do to one another. Heck, I wouldn’t be completely shocked if she slipped him some tongue to boot! After all, she tries to kiss me like that sometimes, because she sees me and J do it.

Evidently I Eat Bon Bons

I am a stay at home mom.

I work as much as I can from home. I am a seamstress, a soap maker, an artist, a photographer, and a PartyGals rep. Sometimes I have lots of work, sometimes I don’t. The money I make isn’t reliable, but it has been a help to my family. There are days full of “work” and then there are days full on “mom work”, the latter is what I want to talk about.

What is this misconception that any mom sits on her butt all day eating bon bons? First I’m not entirely certain what a bon bon is, second just because when the husband watches the kids for an hour he plays video games the whole time doesn’t mean I do that my whole life. Let me clarify, my husband doesn’t think I eat bon bons, he knows what I do all day, but let’s face it when I ask him to watch the kids he understands it as “Make sure no one dies”. So far his track record is awesome, my house is usually chaos and disaster the moment I walk back into the house, but they are still alive and sometimes they are even clean.

I do know, and have those in my life, that think I don’t do much during my day. I have three children ranging in age of 3 months to nearly 4 years, so if I did nothing else but hang out with them I would be busy to begin with. I thought maybe it was time to share my bon bon eating schedule with those who think my job isn’t demanding. Here is what I did on Monday.

Learning to Let Go

My oldest son is soon to be six and recently it has fit me like a ton of bricks just hot big he is. He is starting to want more and more independence, really it is just little things, like wanting to pour the milk over his own cereal, pick out his own clothes, spend the night at friend’s house more often and things of that nature. I do love seeing him grow and get more independent. I am having a little trouble learning to let go of him, not only was he my first born but he is my only boy.
When he first started wanting to pour his own milk I would pour it into a glass first to help him not make a mess, fast forward a few weeks and now he wants me to just put the cereal in bowl and on the table, he goes to the fridge and gets the milk out and does the rest. I think if he was tall enough to reach the cereal he would want to do that also.

He is starting to want to spend more time with his friends and getting into sports. He will be starting his first year of t-ball in June and he is so excited about it. He is telling everyone we know that he wants them to come watch his first game. He has been asking to spend the night at friend’s houses more often and wants to spend more weekends at his Grandparents house.  I can remember not that long ago he would not go over night to a friend’s house  because he would miss me to much. He would spend the night at my parents house willingly but no where else. Now as long as he gets to call me a few times a day he could be gone for days on end before he wants to come home.

Moving

I have lived in the same city my entire life. In fact, before I was married I lived in the same house, from birth until leaving, and my parents still live there eight years later, even though they have been claiming that they want to move. As a kid, my friends and I all talked about getting out of here. Few have. I used to comment that Montgomery is a black hole—once it sucks you in, you’re there for life.

By being “sucked in” I mean getting comfortable. Growing up we all may have complained and dreamed of living in bigger—and, we assumed, better—places but once you live somewhere so long, it grows familiar. It becomes a friend. My husband, who is a military brat and used to being all over the place has never stopped talking about leaving, although as our marriage lengthens year by year without a move, I have stopped listening.

Just yesterday he told me that he has been offered a job opportunity. He will have to interview for it, and it is a long process, but if he gets it we will have to move. Not out of state—thank God for that—but about two hours away. No, it is not forever away, but the farthest away I will have ever lived. We don’t have anything tying us down, really. The kids are young, so it would be a good time to make a move, before they are in school. And yet…