Gearing up

Two little girls are coming to my house today, to stay and play through the weekend.

I'm getting the last loose ends tied up in preparation for their arrival. I fully expect to be tired after the weekend is over, but in a good way. Blainey is Olivia's real good friend and they play together so well and have so many adventures together. Isla bounces back and forth between trying to catch up with the big girls and entertaining Konks. There will be kids sleeping in every nook and craney, but I truly think it will be a magical extravaganza weekend for these little ones.

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I love them like they are my own. Olivia has been talking about Blaine coming to stay all week. I am probably the most organized (mentally and physically) that I have ever been... meals planned out, activites to keep 'em entertained. Is it crazy that I am starting to get excited about my house being a kid zoo?!?! First meal with a full house will be chocolate chip pancakes!

Mommy's Room

After nap time I changed Bianca's diaper and then asked Olivia if she was excited to play with her sister. She exclaimed yes and then said she wanted to play in Mommy's Room. She wasn't pointing to my bedroom, she was pointing to the living room all the while exclaiming "yea!! play in Mommy's room!!". Apparently someone in this house watches a little too much television. I corrected her on the right name of the room.
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Of course this happens on a day that has already been a bit challenging, so the fact that my child thinks I spend so much time in the living room to dub it as MY room was a teensy bit depressing. The fabulous news is that tomorrow will always be a new day, a new start, a clean slate. Even if today didn't go how I would like it to, I can always try harder tomorrow. I have actually almost completely stopped watching TV in the daytime, but apparently my TV fall/winter coma made a lasting impression on my child. Spaghetti night is also a good cure all, that and an enormous batch of chocolate chip cookies. Maybe if I start to really get my bake on she will call the kitchen Mommy's room. I could handle that ;)

Holding Court

Olivia was holding court in her room the other day and she thought it was picture worthy. Her throne of choice was her toddler bed, with dolly (aka barbie) tucked in beside her.

There was only one in attendance, and this fair maiden was enjoying chomping on a sandal and a bracelet. I was probably off trying to wash dishes, or fold laundry.

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Who am I kidding, more likely I was on the computer either checking blogs/writing blogs/checking email.

Then the fair maiden decided the camera looked like fun and wanted to be a part of the action. This was the last picture. I found my camera also tucked into her blankets, which I am assuming was a defensive move to protect it from the fair maiden.

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I keep telling myself I am going to stop letting her play with my camera, but the pictures she takes are so much and so different then the things I normally take pictures of.

Mullet... Go Big or Go Home.

The following pictures are real and have not been altered or staged in any way. The following pictures may not be suitable for all audiences... especially if you have an aversion to mullets and/or bedhead. Here is Olivia. It is early in the morning and she is eating her breakfast. The front of her hair is all magical, smooth and shiny (besides the longish bangs swooping down in her eyes). Nary an Afro or tangle to be seen... at least not from the front.

Then she turns sideways and you are almost knocked over by the sheer force of power that is her mullet/bed head. Right at the back of her head is the most rats nest, Afro, jumble of hair the world has ever seen. Sticking straight out the entire length of her hair. I'm pretty sure that sucker has its own gravitational forces. I about cried when I saw it because A) It looked pretty ridiculous and was funny and B) I knew I would have to detangle that sucker and it wasn't going to be pretty.

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I opted for letting her soak it out in the shower with about half a bottle of leave in conditioner. I would touch it, pat it down or try to smooth it out thinking there is no way that thing could be as huge as it looked, and just like a tempur pedic mattress memory foam it would warp back into its original shape. My only consolation is the fact that I know, someday many years from now when it is 70's day during her high school spirit week she is going to blow everyone away with her Afro abilities.

Like Dis?

Olivia is doing good with her big girl bed transition. She is having a little bit of a hard time with falling out of it at night. Usually at least once or twice she rolls out, gets dazed and confused and then either 1) falls asleep crazily on the floor or 2) cries til we come help her back in.
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Marcus had crazy good hearing tonight and heard her fall out of bed. We put her back in and laid her all the way to the back so she would have room to roll over and not roll off. She was being so cute! She would say "Like dis?" as in is this how you want me to lie down? But as she was saying that she would reposition herself right to the very outside edge. Then we would move her back and she would go "oh like dis?" while again wiggling to the outside. This happened like 7 times in a row. We wouldn't have kept trying to move her in more except EVERY time that she repositioned she put herself right to the very edge of the mattress. I felt like I was in a comedy movie. It was really hard to keep quiet and not laugh. Especially because she was being so polite, all half asleep and all, but unintentionally undoing everything we tried to do.
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Eventually she didn't roll over and stayed on the inside, all the while still remarking "like dis?". The other night I nearly bonked her head with the door because she had fallen back asleep right in front of her bedroom door (after falling out and stumbling around for a minute). I think it will take a little while for her to get used to the fact that there is no front to keep her fenced in.

Bed Head

I'm not sure how Olivia does it EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, but she always wakes up with the craziest, afro, rats nest hair in the morning. It is all crazy and poufy in the front and the back looks like I back combed and teased it for hours until it was just a big fur ball. The only way to tame the beast is to cover her head for like 30 seconds with a warm towel to let the steam loosen it up, that or giving her a bath first thing (bath times are normally after dinner at our house).
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It just totally cracks me up every morning to see how crazy looking her hair has gotten!

Growing Up

Someone is getting big, so big in fact that she is no longer caged at night time.

She is now sleeping in a "big girl" bed. Which basically means we took the front off her convertible crib and it is now a toddler daybed. She could not be more excited! She has been proudly telling everyone that she is a big girl now.

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Also included on list of big girl activities? Big girl chair at meal time, no more high chair! She had been eating half the time in a high chair and half the time in a regular chair, but I am downsizing baby stuff so I am getting rid of her high chair (yes my kids each have their own, we got crazy on baby gear in this house... hence the downsizing). She mostly eats at the bar stool by the counter. She pushes her little chair to the bar stool and then climbs up.

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I had been dragging my feet about it not for the night time aspect, but for the nap time aspect. Plus I was kinda getting sick of hefting her out of her bed every morning (she aint no light weight). Plus she has been happier when she wakes up, no whining. She just strolls out of her room with a big smile on her face. We shall see how nap time goes down, I am fully expecting her not to sleep and just putz around in there, what with all her new found freedom. It will be a work in progress.

Fairy Baby

Bianca has started the "try-to-get-out-of-bedtime-at-night-as-much-as-possible" routine this past week. She just has not been happy about going to bed for the night and will cry. In her incoherent cry state she will get on all fours to crawl around, lose her balance and then take a header into the side of the crib after which I lay her back down with her blankets and the whole cycle starts over.

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The other night Marcus was in charge for night time routine with her and after a few lay her back down shenanigans he gave her fairy baby. She quited right down, cuddled her baby and went to sleep. Determined that fairy baby had magical qualities I tried giving it to her at the next nap time. She was all zoned out and closing her eyes and I give her fairy baby, eyes pop open and she decides it's time to party with fairy baby rather than go to sleep. I have now determined fairy baby to be a rebel rouser and she (fairy baby, not Konks) is banned from the crib.

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Well I guess I use the word "banned" loosely because once she (Konks, not fairy baby.... come on guys keep up!) is lights out, fairy baby magically gets back in the crib (using her fairy magic of course) so when Konks wakes up there is a buddy to play with and buy Mommy fifteen more minutes of sleep time.

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Moral of the story? Never trust a fairy baby to put your child to sleep for you, but do trust a fairy baby to babysit for you so you can sleep in. They are so tricksy.... tricksy little fairy babies.

On the mend

Is there nothing more precious than bathing beauties? Best medicine EVER!

My Mother's Day went better than I thought, although I wasn't really conscious for much of it which I consider a blessing. Thank goodness for antibiotic and leftover pain meds from birthing the babe I was able to sleep (read comatose) through the yuckiest parts. Although I have to say when I was awake I was not a happy person to be around. I am embarrassed to say that there was much murmuring and gnashing of teeth (read worse than a baby) coming from me for the hours I was awake.

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Thankfully I have husband who takes it all, kids who miraculously napped often and long, and grandparents to whisk away kids when not napping. Plus it is hard to be in a bad mood when your toddler keeps telling you "Happy Moders Day". Or when you tell her you love her she replies "sanks".

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I took great comfort this morning in getting back into my usual routine with some deep cleaning projects and soup making. I'm not 100% better but I am sure getting there!

This has got to be some kind of cruel, cosmic joke.

So everyone has different things that they look forward to on Mother's Day. I especially love going to church because our ward finds subs to fill my class and there is usually some kind of special get together the last hour for the women that usually involves a chocolate fountain.
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I had a fun activity planned for Olivia and I tomorrow, with a yummy Mexican dinner on the menu. None of that is going to happen now.
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I have been hit, and hit hard with mastitis. They only reason why I am even blogging this late at night is because I am waiting for my prescription to get filled. The pain is so all consuming and the only thing that is not pushing me over the edge is typing. Otherwise I might be crawling the walls right now. I have never felt this horrible in my whole life, no exaggeration.
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And of all the days for me to get it, I get it on Mother's Day (well Eve, but I do not for see myself feeling good enough for church tomorrow). Seriously?!?! ON MOTHER'S DAY?!?!?
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And what really gets me (well let's face it I am not in a positive frame of mind right now) is this whole illness is here simply for the fact of taking care of my child, nourishing my child. All for the sake of wanting to do what I feel is best for my babe by breastfeeding exclusively, this is the day that I am initiated into mastitis-hood. I would not be crawling out of my skin with pain if it were not for the fact of MOTHERING MY CHILD. I might be a little bitter about my crazy cosmic joke, but couldn't it have just waited until Monday? So I could actually enjoy myself tomorrow?
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My washcloth has cooled off now, and I need to go get a new hot pack. I sincerely hope everyone else's Mother's Day will be better than my own!

You must read this

Kaitlyn told me that I should check out this blog and read THIS
I have since gone back to read it multiple times.
You should read it.
Make sure that you have indisturbed time to do so, you need to read it in one sitting.
It is one of the most amazing things.
Just wanted to share.

Creature's of habit

So while I do not strictly adhere to a schedule with my kids, I like to go with the flow and get out of the house if the mood strikes (and if I have a car that day), I really enjoy our daily routines. Especially our morning one.

I make the girls' breakfast while Olivia entertains Bianca and gets herself into her green chair (as she calls it). Olivia gets started on her breakfast (today cinnamon toast, blueberries and turkey bacon) while I feed Konks her jarred fruit and rice cereal. Bianca then has a dessert of cheerios while I scramble me up some feta cheese eggs and canadian/turkey bacon.

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Today Olivia made a slide with her sippy cup and slid all of her toast slices into her empty blueberry bowl before she would eat them. I eat my breakfast with my enormous glass of crystal light (citrus splash flavor) to the beat of Bianca's legs kicking against her highchair, that girl does not slow down for 5 seconds.

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It doesn't take me long to eat my breakfast and while the girls are finishing up their food I load all the dishes in the dishwasher and clean the egg pan. We clean faces and brush teeth, or in the case of the babe we brush gums. Olivia's clean up job is to pick up the cheerios that fall to the wayside and put them in the trash while I get Bianca cleaned up.

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Sometimes Olivia and I will share a piece of fruit, sometimes songs are sung to Bianca to keep her happy while her food is heating up. Sometimes a toddler is especially hungry and asks for more courses. Every time it is relaxed, easy.... total perfection.

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There are a lot of things that normally go to pot throughout the course of the day, but it is really comforting to me to know that we always start the day in an easy, casual manner. Smiling at each other, eating together either quietly or loudly. I love rotating whatever Olivia's breakfast menu is... eggs, oatmeal, cold cereal, slices of apple... But for me it is always eggs. I love my morning eggs!
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It's mornings like these that I want to remember.

Love this stuff

Since embarking on my new healthy lifestyle I have been enjoying finding new and delicious and LOW calorie foods to add to my menu. Kaitlyn turned me on to almond milk and I absolutely LOVE it! I had tried soy and it always seemed to have a weird after taste to me and rice milk was always too watered down tasting. This almond milk is divine. It is creamy and thick (not watery tasting), the original has a slight sweetness to it. I love it with my all bran because I normally add a little sugar to it, but with the almond milk it is perfect. I also love how it is only 60 calories for a cup. I love that I can make my usual breakfast taste even better all while cutting out a lot of calories! Yea to healthy living!

Just in case you doubted

Here is the pictorial proof:


As you can tell this is pre-race. We weren't quite as enthusiastic at the end of the race. It is so much fun to do this kind of stuff with your friends. Kaitlyn and I were running buddies, and so were Beth and Katie. Katie got a really bad cramp near the end of the race and had to walk the last few miles. She is such a stud that it took me right up to the last 200 meters of the race to catch up to her, when she was running she got that far ahead of me (and I was running continuously). Even though it was so frustrating for her to get injured like that she was still so encouraging to me as I caught up to her. Such a testament to me of what good sportsmanship is all about.
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It was such an awesome day!

I ran to the base of Mt Doom

Well okay, I didn't really go to Mordor because, let's face it, it's not like Mordor really exists. But this mountain sure did look like it.

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I ran my first half marathon today. It was in Snoqualmie and the course took us out to the base of Mt. Si. It has to be one of the most majestic mountains I have ever seen, I didn't even get to see all the way to the top because it was raining and misty. Kaitlyn and I were running partners and we kept joking about how we needed to run faster because the Orc's were after us.

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The theme of the race was Cinco de Mayo, it was so fun! They had mariachi bands playing in the beginning and part way through the race. Besides walking when we drank at the water stations, Kaitlyn and I ran the WHOLE WAY! I was really tempted to walk the last mile or so but I kept seeing Kaitlyn a little bit ahead of me, and I kept thinking that if she can keep going so can I.

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I ran the 13 or so miles in 2 hours and 28 minutes, which doesn't seem very fast at all by race standards, but it was a lot faster than what I was expecting to finish at. It was such a wonderful sense of accomplishment just to finish and I am so happy about what Kaitlyn and I were able to do together. We had a lot of fun keeping each other entertained so we wouldn't stress out about it, until we hit mile 9 when I had to stop talking because I was really starting to feel it.

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It was also my first time trying GU, which is like an energy gel in a little packet to help you along the race. They were real tasty (vanilla bean and tri berry flavors)! Of course trust Vashti to find one of the highlights of the race involving food!

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I am excited to do another one and try for a better time. There is a half marathon in Bellingham in October (I think) that would be fun to run in. This race was also cool because there were friends of mine running in it too, so when we would pass each other we would cheer each other on. Suzanne was a freakin' stud and raced in in like 1 hour and 47 minutes or something crazy like that. It was so cool to experience something like this with dear friends.

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My legs feel like they are going to fall off, but I am so happy to have competed in something like this!