Excercising With Kids

It was a calm Saturday afternoon, the laundry finished, the boys were playing in their room, football was on the television. I had the idea to grab 30 min on the treadmill before dinner. Quietly I informed Jay of my plans and slipped into the bedroom to retrieve my workout wear. I made sure no one was watching and quietly went into the office to change and get started. FIVE minutes in the tweedle brothers burst through the door. They stand there and stare at me wanting to know what I am doing. I explain that I am exercising. CJ makes his way towards the treadmill. I warn him not to touch it. With all the moving parts, I didn't want him to get hurt. OR myself get hurt trying to keep him from injury. So there they are but Jay still had not made an appearance. CJ stays back but both children keep staring at me. Finally Jay shows up and apologizes for not realizing where they were (great). He attempts to make them leave but that is met with screaming. I didn't mind them in there as long as they didn't get near the treadmill. I tell him to start a slide show of photos on the computer. They would sit and watch. And this worked. Except WC would keep looking over at me. Eventually he asked me why I was jiggling. I typically workout in a sports bra & yoga pants. He's seen me in this before doing the workout dvd. But I guess he didn't notice then. But now he's pointing to my midsection asking me why it jiggles. And he keeps asking. He wants to why my stomach jiggles? He is exhibit A and sitting next to him there is Exhibit B. It just does, I tell him. Meanwhile, thinking that if he doesn't quit I'm going to get off the treadmill and throw his ass out the back door. After a couple more times, I tell him if he doesn't turn around and watch the pictures he will have to leave the room. End of that. This is why I get up at the crack of dawn to do this alone. After I finish, I leave the room to get water and on my way back to hit the shower I look in on them. There's CJ, standing in the middle of the treadmill, shirtless and holding one of my 3lb hand weights. WC is also shirtless but he's in front of the treadmill with the other weight. "What on earth are you guys doing?" I take the weight from CJ and make him get off the treadmill. WC explains that they were exercising too. "Why are you shirtless?"

"To be like you," WC replied.

Wow. As a parent, we really have to be careful what we do because our kids are watching, listening and learning. We are who they have to model adulthood after. We model what people are to them. It's huge. It makes me want to strive to be the best person I can.

Sigh...

1 drip pan from under the old washing machine

+ 1 old cell phone charger

-any accumulated snow

= Hillbilly* Sled

*If we were real Rednecks there would have been a four-wheeler and some duct tape involved.

Southern Blizzard

It's 14 outside right now. Only supposed to get to 21 today. 25
degrees below normal. Ice covers the road outside. I'm sitting curled
up on the couch drinking coffee. My lap is being stalked by Rhi.
Several days ago weather forcasters began to say we would get up to 7
inches of snow. I had to laugh. What happens here is that we don't get
that nice powdery snow that piles up in yards and looks quaint. We get
ice. If it doesn't fall as sleet then what little snow that does come
down melts on the road, then temps dip well below freezing after dark
and produces skating rinks where roads once stood.
Wednesday night they closed the schools before a single flake had
fallen. Thursday morning arrived & still nada. Friends of mine were
dissapointed. Not me. I wasn't ready to use a vacation day that I just
accumulated Jan 1. Luckily Thursday I could leave the boys with my
sister. The snow finally started falling around ten that morning. We
had a decent falling of tiny flakes. I received a pic message from Cat
w/ pics of WC playing out in the "snow". Including one of the most
pathetic little snow angels I've ever seen.

Cat chose to brave the icy roads & leave back to her boyfriends house late last night. Since she is now referring to his house as "home" I
guess she moved in w/ him without telling me. I hate to tell her that
just like the last one his place is not her home. When he's tired of
her she'll be back here full time. I hate that she's falling into this
pattern again. She's setting herself up to bounce from my house to the
place of whatever dude she's doing the mattress mambo with at the time
& never getting anything for herself. But I can't tell her any
different.
The boys are already fighting. This is going to be a long day.

Sent from my iPod

Streakers

Since the temperature here has plummeted to below freezing, CJ has developed a penchant for nudity. While I don't find the recent climate advantageous for this activity, it doesn't seem to phase him.  It started slowly a few weeks back when he discovered he could remove his own shirt. And WC, of course, thought it looked like a good idea too. At random times, I'd find them running around the house, shirtless. Monday night we arrived home and they watched some Sesame Street on TV then ran off back to the bedrooms. I noticed the light on in their room so I didn't go check on what they were doing. When I called them for dinner, they both arrived at the table, shirtless. With CJ this simply means I'll be cleaning dinner off his bare chest & not using stain remover on a shirt. But then again, it was 20 degrees outside & I was still cold inside. They had their dinner, Jay came home and he & I sat down to our dinner. yes, I would prefer a family dinner, but with Jay getting home from work at 7pm or later. It is not practical to make the boys wait that late. There we are eating dinner when WC comes in holding CJ's diaper cupped in his hands. "He pulled off his diaper & it has poop in it," WC announces. Jay & I look at each other & sigh, loudly. As if the carpet hasn't taken enough abuse. I ask WC if it got on the floor anywhere. He told me, it didn't. He'd grabbed the diaper as CJ was pulling it off. I dispose of it. Then chase CJ down, because we all know what he's running around with on his bare bottom. He's screaming because he thinks I'm going to force him back into the confines of plastic & cotton. But I just wanted to clean him off and finish my dinner before I worried about wrangling him into pj's. I tell him very strongly, not to pee on the carpet. As if it would do any good. I go back to dinner and Jay says to me, "Ya know he needs..."  I interrupt him, "to be potty trained." I know...I know...I know. Over the weekend I tried to change his diaper at a changing station in a women's bathroom & the poor kid hung off the end at his knees. I am aware that he'll be three in May. WC was a little over three when I potty trained him. I figure when the weather gets a warmer in the spring I'll start really working with him. Right now he does go sit on the toilet, occasionally. On this night, we heard WC take him into the bathroom and shut the door. CJ was running around holding himself & WC thought he might have to pee. But he didn't he was probably just holding himself because he could. Maybe WC will potty train him for me, think?

Last night I walked past the bathroom & they were in there. WC feet on the step stool, hands on the side of the tub (think plank position), naked from the waist down. CJ standing on the same step stool, naked from the waist up. WC was telling him to get on the potty. CJ was trying to step up on the toilet rim of the open (used) toilet. Why?

These two are going to turn my hair gray.

 

Shaken Baby Update

Some time ago I posted a blog about a baby girl who was in critical condition fighting for her life after being shaken by her "caregiver." Over the past few weeks I've been wondering how this had turned out. Today, I went in search of an answer. The good news is that Emma is home from the hospital and alive. Though she has a long way to go for rehab and more surgeries to have a shot at "normal." You can follow any updates on:

http://hopeandloveforthecrewfamily.blogspot.com/

Early Failure and Moving Forward

Yep, on my date Saturday night, I blew my caloric intake for the day square out of the water. The prime rib, baked sweet potato (w/ butter & Cinnamon sugar) and a fantastic pear margarita rocketed me over my 1300 calorie a day goal. I did some research afterward & discovered the chicken dish that was my initial choice would have been the better option. Two lessons from this It is not only the "fast food" that is high in calories. fat & sodium, it's sit down restaurants as well. In my subsequent research you really can't eat out and sustain a lower calorie diet. There are options that aren't as bad but none of it good for you. And two, next time I'll be better prepared to make smarter choice. Yes, I knew the prime rib was higher in calories and I didn't eat all of it (I couldn't). However, I never anticipated the number that I found on the restraints website. If I could go back, I would have gotten the chicken. My calorie intake probably would have still been over, just not as much, because I was getting that pear margarita. The worst part was that after I had finished, I felt really ill. I'd stuffed myself and wanted to throw up. Jay ordered desert without even asking me. I couldn't take a bite of it. I could have killed him. I didn't want it and knew he shouldn't be eating it either. In my later research that desert was over 900 calories alone- he only ate half and brought home the rest for me (which I have no intention of eating, I can't see spending 450+ calories of my 1300 on that). He has a greater need, health wise to lose weight than I do. He says he wants to lose weight & made a goal of 5 pounds in January- yet he has made no effort to change his eating or begin to exercise. Not sure how he thinks it's going to happen. Osmosis, maybe? But I digress, I could write whole entries on this subject.

However, one night of  not the best eating isn't the worst thing in the world. Sunday morning, I woke up and had my whole wheat English muffin and decided that I would eat well for that day. This morning, I did the same thing. I got up and back on the treadmill and for today, I will eat the best that I can.

On a side note, I am sore all over from that workout video on Saturday. Oh, I hurt...my abs, my arms, my thighs. I sneezed and inadvertently yelped. Wow, maybe I shouldn't have pushed through it quite as hard...

So last night I tried dish #2 of the new healthier recipes-gnocchi w/ zucchini & brown butter.

Jay turned up his nose initially reading the recipe but with the smell of it through the house he then commented on how good it smelled. And he ate it! And it contained no meat at all! The man ate a dinner w/o meat and liked it. I'd never thought I'd see the day. I thought Hell would have to freeze over... Come to think of it, it is 14 degrees & snowing outside right now....Hmmmm could I have caused a disturbance? This southern girl isn't fond of the whole 14 degree thing.

Tomorrow, WC goes back to school from winter break (why a tues?). I'm glad to get everyone back to normal, I just hope he hasn't forgotten how to act in class. We had a rocky start in the fall. I'm hoping we didn't get him straightened out only to start all over again.

 

Here's to another day.

2010

Hope everyone had a safe & happy New Years Eve. And the first coupl days of 2010 have been relaxing.
The new year has brought me two boys running through the house stark naked playing nerf guns.
We rang in the new year curled up on the couch watching When Harry Met Sally on dvd. For dinner I made a poached salmon recipe that I found on that website. Jay was skeptical but he ended up loving it. I've picked out a couple more recipes to try this upcoming week.
Right now I'm experiencing a rare moment of silence here in the house. Jay's taken WC to a Vandy basketball game & CJ fell asleep in our bed watching Elmo DVD. I've managed to pull off a 40 min workout video by that woman trainer on biggest loser show & shower. I put in one load of laundry & that's about it. My lack of accomplishment here on the domestic front will catch up to me.
Tonight Jay & I are going on a "date". Don't know the last time we went out w/o the offspring. And I don't know what to do.

Sent from my iPod