First off... it's March. When the heck did that happen? That means Boobie's birthday is around the corner and my former baby and first born will be 10 (going on 16) years old. Hard to believe but here it is, staring me in the face. My baby boy is growing up and it's time to face facts. I have been a mom for 10 years, and I don't look a day over 20... LOL.
Second, I am busy busy busy. As if you couldn't tell, what with me hardly blogging anymore and all. But yeah, this stay at home mom deal, hardly is anymore. I am on the go constantly, literally!
The little kids started playgroup (early stimulation classes) at the library last month. Princess goes twice a week, and Fatty goes twice a week (different age groups). I end up going 4 days a week with both kids... and they love it, as do I.
Fatty, first day of playgroup
Princess on her first day
Also I am STILL running. I upped my exercise routine to 5 days a week now (sometimes 6 if I do my yoga on an off day). I mean why would I stop? I see the results; I feel it. I look better, feel better and I am getting healthier. I have not gotten full blown sick since I started exercising, a great side effect. That alone tells me to keep it up. Plus, my clothes fit better. Some are even looser. It's great! It helps that some of the clothes I can fit into now are things I haven't been able to wear in 5+ years. I feel younger and I feel on top of the world.
And to add to that, I am a mom. On top of laundry, housework, staying on top of Boobie's schooling so he has a successful year, running errands and keeping our finances in check, I still have to feed the fam healthy, well balanced meals a few times a day.
To help with that, I make a menu for the week. With a busy schedule, a menu is a great help. I just look at the menu, which I make either after or before my weekly supermarket run and see what I have to make the next day so I can prep myself for it. This way I know when to thaw out certain meats and what ingredients to get so I have them on hand. And since I like flexibility, my menu is pretty easy going. If I feel like making a different meal that day, I just switch out the meals and substitute one day for the next. Or if I have too much leftover from a previous meal, I add a leftover day, which gives me a free day of no cooking. I love making my weekly menu. It makes me creative with ideas for dinner and makes meal planning easy.
And it makes shopping that much more fun (I love food shopping anyway, but if you don't, menu planning can help you get the swing of things and help you to enjoy your grocery store that much more). It just takes the stress out of dinnertime and that last minute shuffle of trying to figure out what to cook, what to eat and what to feed the kids.
My delicious tuna veggie fried rice... YUM!
Breaded cheesy salsa chicken bake or chilli cheese chicken (and it looks an awfully lot like chicken parmesan, huh?)
Bow tie pasta in a butter and olive oil dressing with broccoli and diced tomatoes
My menu
Dinner time
As if I didn't already have a full plate (pun intended), I am also teaching the little ones some new sleep habits by establishing new bedtime routines.
Before, Princess and Fatty slept in the same room and in the SAME bed. They love being next to me, or someone, so that extra body helps them sleep longer, sounder, and feel safer. And even though they loved sleeping next to each other, there were days a foot would be in someones head or a whole body crushed up against the wall or on top of someones' arm or leg. Besides the fact that there are 3 beds in Princess's room and only one bed was being used, they both just needed their own space.
Plus I had to lie with them at night in the same bed to get them to sleep. It hindered on my night time routines, especially if they took too long to fall asleep since I had to forgo doing certain night time rituals... and most nights being so exhausted myself, I would end up falling asleep with them and not finish whatever nightly chores I had to get done.
Now each kid gets a bed. Princess is back in her crib, now turned day bed. And fatty is back in his bassinet, now turned play pen bed. Princess is fine in her bed. All it took was one night and she knows that is where she has to sleep... she still however, prefers me in the room in bed (the now empty twin 'guest' bed).
Fatty has issues with his bed. He prefers to sleep with someone... and since it's not Princess, it's me. Once he's asleep (after lying with him in the guest bed), I try to put him in his bed, and he inevitably wakes up. Tuesday night, instead of lying back down in bed with him, I had had enough. I left him in his bed and let him cry it out. It broke my heart and a few times I started to go and grab him and just put him in my bed next to me, but I stuck it out and an hour later, he was sound asleep. AND he slept late the next day too, waking up at 8 am. Victory is mine (almost).
So it's been about a week of them sleeping in their respective beds, and I think 'me likes it.' Easier bedtimes for me too. Next step is getting them to go to bed, actually go to sleep, without me lying in the room... still working on Fatty sleeping on his own without me to give him that head start though.
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