The kid is three today. 3. Whoa. Where does the time go?
We came up to celebrate with nana & papa today. Andy had to work up here so we tagged along.
Busy morning & afternoon already.
Stephan got wild at lunch, but after he chilled out he went right to sleep when we got home. He’s exhausted like his mommie! No nap for me though, I’ll never get to sleep tonight if I do. Though I’m sorely tempted.
I’ll try and get a few pictures up tonight or tomorrow of today’s festivities.
PS. Finished The Princess Bride. Great read. Glad I finally discovered the book after having enjoyed the movie so much.
We’ve had a busy long weekend that is nearing the end. Andy took off a couple extra days last week and we have been enjoying our own little “staycation” right here in Denver.
We kicked if off on Wednesday with dinner out.
Thursday we saw Up in our favorite theater with the real butter on the popcorn and everything. I really enjoyed the movie. Creative story and likeable characters.
Friday we went out for breakfast and bought Stephan his birthday present. We got him a trike. He was very excited to ride but we had to go home for nap and I had a massage. We did get it all put together before he woke up, but it started raining after only 5 minutes at the park so he didn’t get too much practice time in.
Saturday we started out the 4th at Elitch’s. Stephan enjoyed going on several rides and we all did the ferris wheel together. He and I also did the carousel, twice. After heading home for nap and picking up a friend, we had an earlier dinner and went to Mile High for the lacrosse game and fireworks. While I don’t know much of anything about lacrosse, violent sports are always entertaining, and the fireworks were really great. We got home late, and I almost hit a fawn on the way home, but God is good and kept both me, my car and the baby deer safe.
This morning we were late to church, but we did get there and managed the 2yos and had a nice lunch before heading home for nap. Another friend is coming over shortly and we’ll be grilling out again. We have really been making good use of Andy’s new Weber Q.
It’s been fun this weekend to break in our table with real guests and spend some time with friends too.
On a potty note, Stephan’s been doing GREAT! He’s accomplished his first goal and his big reward is on the way. Now we are working hard at staying dry during naptime for some more little rewards. Overall, he’s doing great and I’m super proud … and no longer stressing about preschool next month!
Hope you all had a great weekend!
No clue how long it’s been since I posted, probably sometime shortly after getting the Wii Fit, which is almost 6 months ago! Really, until recently, there’s not been much exciting to write about. My weight hadn’t changed much and I was still exercising several times a week and trying to eat well.
Mid May Andy surprised me with an awesome present. A personal trainer for my Wii! While I still pulled out the Fit once in a while it wasn’t near as exciting as it used to be and there were a few things about it that bugged me (several of which might be changed with the new Fit Plus, we’ll see).
EA Active was like a breath of fresh air! Right off the bat I started the 30-Day Challenge and though I certainly did not finish in the 30 days (more like 40, but who’s counting) it’s been great. My pants are fitting looser and I’ve lost a few pounds along the way as well. Maybe not many, but at least SOMETHING!
After playing for a month and a half, and starting the 30DC again today with the other trainer (maybe I’ll do it in 30 days this time??), here’s my brief review of the game.
PROS
- While I’ve never had a real, live personal trainer, this game is the next best thing (and significantly cheaper too!). You don’t just have to do the 30DC to get that effect either.
- There are many workouts designed within the game to target just about everything. For someone like me who doesn’t really know what to work and when to work it and how much of this to do with that, having pre-set workouts in the 30DC that vary activities and keep things fresh has been great.
- You can work out with a buddy. I haven’t been able to do this much, and it doesn’t work with the 30DC or register in both people’s profiles that you did the workout, but it’s always more fun to have a workout buddy!
- There isn’t as much lag time between exercises (unless you have to watch the how-tos).
- You can pick your intensity, low-medium-high, and no matter which one I’ve always ended tired and sweaty.
- The trainer encourages you along the way to hang in there and do your best.
- On days when I go to the gym and do cardio I can easliy uncheck all the activities where “running” is involved.
- I really want to do this most days and like that with the 30DC there are rest days built in so you don’t push too hard.
- Once you have a feel for the game and the activities you can design your own workouts and vary the intensity of different activities within the workouts.
- When I decided to try the 30DC again, I chose the female trainer and she says different things to encourage/motivate you and it seems like a whole different experience.
- You can get other resistance bands to up the intensity of the resistance for the upper body workouts if you need to.
- As part of your journal you have to keep track of things like how many small meals you’ve eaten, how much water you drink, how many servings of veggies you’ve eaten and how many sugary beverages. It’s been pretty effective at getting me thinking about what I’m eating and making positive changes … since I have to document everything.
- There’s no shaming aspect. If you miss a day they don’t make you feel bad. You don’t have to weigh yourself each time and be told you are obese every day (regardless of certain physical characteristics). While I still weigh myself once a week or so with the Fit, it’s much less intense.
- I just discovered a whole website for the game designed to help encourage and motivate you. It also has tips on living healthier.
CONS
- There’s no way to do the 30DC with a friend.
- I HATE RUNNING IN PLACE. While you can do jumping jacks or jump rope or something else, there’s a lot of “running” involved in the 30DC.
- Hard at first to get into a rhythm when you have to mess with the equipment and watch all the how-to videos.
- There aren’t many exercises that incorporate the balance board (which can also be a good thing because it’s one more thing to manage during workouts).
- Sometimes the exercises are tricky to get right and it gets frustrating when you have to hold things really long because it doesn’t realize you are doing it.
- There’s no way to change from right to left handed so even as a lefty I’m stuck doing all the exercises with the Wiimote in my right hand.
- There’s no way to say that you are pregnant or have some other health condition where you might need the 30DC modified in some way (you can go in and uncheck certain exercises though).
Andy went to pick up our new table and chairs today, and our friend and his son came and got grandpa’s table (when they do move into their larger home they might get the buffet and arm chairs that are up in storage too!).
Things couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Andy pulled in with our table and chairs (they all fit in our Vue!) and our friends pulled in just behind him. With how heavy the table is, I’m super glad Andy had help lugging it inside too.
I know I’m biased, but it’s gorgeous.
(Being a glossy black it also magnifies finger prints too, but oh well.)
Here’s Stephan drinking some water:
Lately, I feel so busy I don’t even know what to write about. Who wants a list of everything we do. It might make you tired just reading it! I’m amazed at how fast the business just creeped up on us. I’d thought about taking Stephan bowling on Thursday and when it came to Thursday I was so pooped we did nothing. Absolutely nothing … and it was GREAT!
On Friday we met a good friend of mine and her two girls at the zoo for the morning. We found an awesome “just because” gift for daddie … a stuffed crocodile with Steve Irwin’s name and signature embroidered on it’s belly. I just knew Andy would find it cool and worked hard at convincing Stephan that it was for daddie, not him. He likes to think all stuffed animals are his.
After an attempt at nap we took the bus up to Boulder to hang with daddie and go to the Celestial Seasonings factory. Stephan had a B-L-A-S-T on the bus and was so excited! While we were waiting at the PnR for Andy to pick us up he kept wanting to get on another bus. He was also confused thinking “Boulder” meant “daddie’s office” and was quite disappointed we never went to the office. He kept asking when we were going to Boulder and disagreed with us when we told him we were in Boulder. I got several new flavors of tea, all of which are of course delicious, and a bottle of vanilla flavored agave syrup. Pricey stuff. I want to go to the Madhava factory store in Lyons next and see if I can get a better deal on the stuff. After a delicious dinner at CPK we headed back home, and yes, Stephan was still upset we hadn’t gone to “Boulder!”
My favorite part of yesterday was getting a new table and chairs. I’ve been searching craigslist now and then looking for something that would fit our home, be in decent condition, and of course, be cheap. So many things out there that were just not right, and looking through 4+ pages in listings is not really much fun. We had gotten a coupon in the mail for Furniture Row and being that we LOVE both our couches and our mattress, we decided to go check out what they had on Saturday morning. After dragging Stephan to the store and sitting at many, many tables, we found a winner. The salesman even took off more money since we bought the warranty and still let us use the coupon we had. I’m excited for Andy to bring it home tomorrow. We also found someone who is going to take grandpa’s old table and chairs as well. A couple in our Sunday school class who will be getting a house soon wanted a bigger table, good thing Andy thought to say something this morning!
I’m not feeling the greatest and hope to feel better here soon. Tomorrow morning I’m going to help out with VBS in the kitchen putting together snacks for the kids. Last night I went to bed early with a cup of tea and Emma and didn’t make it to the end of the movie.
In case you were curious, Stephan is rocking the potty! He’s had five accidents in the past two weeks and more often than not is staying dry. He’s even getting very good at noticing that he needs to go and getting to the potty all by himself! I’m so proud of him. (And thankful we are only wearing diapers at night now!)
[As always, if you want to see the pics a little larger, check out my Flickr page.]
Some days, I’m super duper thankful for nap time … even when I don’t take one myself!
We’ve had a good weekend. Stephan has been 100% dry since Friday and we’ve all been enjoying the perks. We went bowling Friday evening and all had a blast. Andy and I got to try out our shoes for the first time.
Saturday we went to the museum to pick up a birthday and Father’s Day gift for my FIL and then drove up to Loveland to celebrate.
Andy and I attempted to put Stephan down for nap and then go on a mini-shopping date. While Stephan didn’t get any rest, we still got some shopping done. First stop, the Coach outlet. I wanted to find a wallet to coordinate with the purse I got for my birthday and we ended up finding one for Andy too. Everybody has a water buffalo … though Andy’s is not exactly a pet
Sunday of course brings church. Andy taught our class and then I taught the 2yos. Service went LONG. About 30 minutes long. Thankfully, we didn’t have too many kids and it wasn’t chaos. Several parents picked up their kids early too. Still sucks that we didn’t get home till almost 1pm, and Stephan got down for nap late … and is now a mess attempting to go to bed. Next year we are going to help during 1st service! He did accomplish staying dry during his Sunday school class so we once again went bowling this evening. We decided to get some pizza this time and make an evening of it. Stephan even enjoyed the pizza and ate a few bites like mommie and daddie.
After our second bowling extravaganza of the weekend we did a little grocery shopping at Target before heading home. In the past when we’ve given Stephan a choice between two things he’s chosen one and gotten upset he didn’t also get the other. This time he wanted both popcorn and a Matchbox car. I don’t mind rewarding him for being a good boy at the store, but wasn’t going to do both. He chose the car after some deliberation and didn’t fuss at all about not also getting popcorn. Amazing what a few weeks can mean in his understanding of things. Target had a few buy X amount of X and get a $5 gift card so we stocked up on diapers (Stephan’s still wearing them at night for the time being) and frozen treats. I discovered mini slow-melt popsicles. They are awesome little toddlersicles. Stephan wanted one when we got home and we pulled one out. It was about 3-4″ long and 1′ wide. Perfect size for him. We stripped him down to his shorts and I made him eat in the kitchen, but he didn’t lose a drop and was mess free!
On to Monday!
While you aren’t supposed to count your chickens before they’ve hatched and all, here goes nothing.
For a few months now I’ve been wanting to be able to be more consistent with the potty training thing, but while working and sending Stephan all over the place it just wasn’t feasible. Last week we went to Gunnison, which entails a 4+ hour drive, and once again getting more serious with potty training was put on hold. (I did take underwear, and he did keep them dry, but we only wore them around the hotel.)
Over the weekend, we determined that we were finally just going to take the leap and nix pull-ups for everything but sleeping. I took one of our waterproof mats for use with the car seat … not perfect, but it does the job …. and so far he’s been making significantly more progress!
Monday evening he stayed dry and we were out for a couple hours. He had one oops-I-crapped-my-pants incident at the gym that morning and that was his first time at the gym in undies, so not bad.
Tuesday he stayed dry all day and after dinner we were out driving looking at a dining table we found on craigslist. On the way home he wanted to go to the park. We decided sure, we can do a few minutes at the park. When we got him out of the car he was wet. Stephan was not happy we put him back in the car and went home, really not happy. We reiterated that he needs to stay dry or we have to go home.
Wednesday there were a couple errands I needed to run and he again mentioned the park. We didn’t get out of the house till late, but I told him that if he stays dry, we could indeed go to the park for a few minutes before going home for lunch and nap. He. Stayed. DRY! The only time he was wet was after nap and since I put a pull-up over his underwear to minimize my clean-up it wasn’t too big a deal.
This morning, he stayed dry the whole way up to nana & papa’s house, for an hour in the car!
I’m so stinking proud of my big boy!
He’s finally getting there. I’m no longer as stressed about him being able to start preschool in the fall, especially since I know he can stay dry at naptime, it’s just not quite 100% yet. I think the external motivation of not being able to do fun things (like bowling, going to the park, spending time at Elitch’s and free movies at the theater) unless he stays dry, are working much better than potty candy. He does still ask for potty candy on occasion, but it certainly doesn’t hold the same power as not being able to do something he finds REALLY fun.
We just might have to take him to mini-golf sometime soon … and get that refurbished iPod too. (Which I’m secretly super happy about as it should make our flight to Chicago much easier if he can watch movies and shows on his own iPod and not mine.)
I know, I know. It’s supposed to be spring cleaning. I don’t think I ever really got around to doing anything during spring though.
We are looking at getting a new dining room table and chairs since ours is pretty much toast and need to make sure we have space.
We’ve also been wanting to lose the desk in the living room now that we have a laptop and don’t really need the whole desk, though I am actually sitting at said desk right now. It’s not the most comfortable, with our old monitor and computer stashed underneath but it’s working for now. I’ve got a multi-purpose table in my room that I think we will use instead when we want to sit at a “desk” with the computer. So now we need to determine what to do with the desk, and possibly our old-falling-apart-table if we do find a “new” one.
I searched through the listings on craigslist and found two that were cheap enough and looked nice. We hoped to look at them both last night but the number I had for the second one was disconnected. So we saw one. A nice table, comfortable chairs, all wood. The table top is a bit of a mess which isn’t an awful thing as I typically cover it with a table cloth. The one thing that will make me offer lower than their asking price is that when pulling out the leaf, which stores in the middle of the table, it was all sticky and didn’t seem to slide very nicely. Apparently, there was a “juice incident” with a toddler, that I get, but if I’m the one who has to completely clean and resurface the table that’s at least $50. Some of the chairs, while sturdy and not broken, had some nicks in the wood. We’ll see.
The other table is still avaliable, and 1/3 the cost of the other one. Wood and wrought iron. Pretty, but again the table top would need to be sanded and stained again if we ever wanted to use it without a table cloth. Andy and Stephan might try and go see that one tonight.
So after working at getting the “office” area cleaned up I still need to go through the filing cabinet we have and determine what we need to toss or keep. That should be interesting. I don’t actually use it much. Neither does Andy. Who knows what lurks inside. We probably should make more use of it. Maybe once we clean it all out we can.
Next on the agenda is tackling the “craft table” area in our bedroom. There are things piled under it that I probably can get rid of or pare down. I also hope to buy a book case, maybe once they start pushing the dorm sales this summer at Target. We need some more storage in our bedroom, and I don’t have a nightstand, just an old end table for a couch. I’d like to get a new end table, or shorter book case, for the couch and donate both of the ones we currently have. The book case for my night table will give me more storage for books and magazines and such. Which, hopefully, will help the “craft table” that no matter what ends up a disaster. We’ll see.
On to getting some stuff done whilst the toddler sleepeth.
We have never bought Stephan any “boy” bedding for his big full size bed. We’ve got a couple sheet sets, and eventually we bought a plain tan colored fleece blanket, but no fun kid comforter and sheets. (In case you were curious, our previous guest room comforter was purple and not very “boy”).
I’ve looked every now and then for something but nothing has really jumped out at me since it’s usually sports themed or ridiculously expensive.
While at WalMart on Saturday, I found the perfect bed-in-a-bag and it was on clearance no less! And not Target clearance, but really and truly clearance: half-price. As you can see in the pic below, the bedding is a bunch of woodland creatures. The set is also made of 100% organic cotton and not in China, but rather Pakistan … my dad would be proud. It’s also nice and soft and cuddly.
Stephan was very excited and he wanted it on his bed right away when we got home. I was thankful he understood that we needed to get it all washed up and went to bed without a big fuss.
I ran it all through the wash and had the comforter folded up on my bed when he woke up from nap. When he saw it he got so excited and ran into my room, jumped on the bed, laid down on his comforter and said several things:
“Thank you mom.”
“I love this.”
“Aaww, thanks for washing it for me.”
Thanks for making my heart melt!
He was so sweet. Dragged the comforter all the way to his room so I could put it on his bed. I had to put on a video for him while I made his bed to keep him out of the way, and then he immediately jumped into bed and covered up asking us to snuggle him, something he usually does when we put fresh sheets on.
Tonight he insisted on stories and prayers while tucked into his covers.
I’m working on uploading several videos to Flickr, one of which is Stephan “reading” That’s not my dinosaur. He’s got the book memorized pretty well (doesn’t take more than a few readings and he’s got his favorites mostly down) though I think he reads one page twice.
our trip is done.
we had a lovely time down in the southwestern part of CO. i enjoy crested butte (we spent one morning there and it wasn’t really enough) so much more than breck but it does take a while to get to. we should go there more often. so relaxing and beautiful.
now on to the work of summer. stephan needs to be potty trained and i need to stop worrying about everything.
i need to focus on my husband and my son and being a good wife and mommie.
i want this to be a great summer and i need to change my attitude and stop stressing about things that really don’t matter.
so cheers to summer … and another friday.
UPDATE:
I just have to add a picture of the gorgeous roses that Andy brought me. Made me cry. I’d had such a rough day and he came home bringing roses to me “just because.” Such a wonderful hubby! Made my week.
