Gunner's First Trip to the Library

On Thursday mornings the Rogers Public Library has Tumbling Toddlers, which includes story time, songs, and crafts. I took Gunner this week and he had the best time! He really got into the interactive songs with the other kids and did a very fun painting, coloring and glueing craft. I was hoping to take him each week this summer while he is out of Kids Day Out, and I think it will be an excellent weekly activity for us.
After tumbling toddlers, most of the kids and moms hung out in the very large kids library section and let the kiddos play. It was super fun! Gunner mostly stuck with puzzles, but I'm hoping he will learn to love reading new books. He loves reading at home, but I think all the new toys they had there were more interesting.
Below are a few photos from our trip.
It's been a while since my last post so I will update on what all the little man has been doing lately.
As I mentioned, he is in Kids Day Out at Cross Church in Pinnacle Hills. He is going twice a week. This was a HUGE step for both of us since he has been home with me (or the grandparents) all day every day since birth. It's been noticeable to me that I needed to start him in a school like environment, so we went for it. Aside from a few minutes of tears at the drop off first thing, he has enjoyed it! He only cried the first three days. He really loves it and I am so proud to see him learning and socializing. They had school pictures so I cannot wait to see how those turned out.
On the days we have together at home we spend time doing chores together and trying to have fun learning new things. Gunner has taken a liking to music and loves to sing songs. He has a really good memory. I am actually surprised at the things he can remember. He can sing an entire song to you or read one of his books to you. It's pretty amazing and I love hearing him sing and read. He is incredibly active, as boys tend to be, so I encourage Daddy to play with him in his free time. Mommy just can't keep up sometimes.
We practice learning new words and their meanings, we work on our manners often and we try to enjoy doing things to help out around the house. Sometimes it's easy for me to want to do everything myself since he is still so little, but I am trying to take more time to let him do something and give him praise even if it means more work for me. I know that's very important.
He is still such a happy kid! I am looking forward to warmer weather so he can run off some energy outside. He is a lot of work, but he makes me so happy even with that work.
Here are some photos of the little guy!

Life as a Stay At Home Mom: Toddler Edition

I know I've posted before about a day in the life of a sahm, but it was many moons ago, and it was with a baby. Life with a toddler is a completely different ball game. It's practically a whole other sport.

I was reading past entries, pondering how I could have had enough time to do all the things I talked about. That was then. Life as I know it is essentially a never ending fencing match. Or maybe it's more like constantly chasing a tornado to try and keep it from destroying entire cities. Scratch that, it's like fencing a tornado. Yes.

My child never stops. I'm not sure if this is the nature of my child, or if it has to do with the fact that he's a boy. It's probably just a two year old trait. I've heard that boys are much more insane when it comes to constant energy and being destructive, though. This child is like the energizer bunny on crack. From the moment he gets out of bed, he's running. I can hardly change his clothes. Most of the time he runs off with one arm in his shirt and one out because I didn't do it fast enough. He loves playing with moving objects, so cars and things of that nature are his favorites. He loves to dance, so we watch shows with lots of music and he really lets loose. He really loves being close to us, so he's in our face a lot. I say in our face and not on our laps because he can't sit still. There are days where he's more inclined to sit with me and read or play, but they're more rare. This kid also never stops talking. Ever. He is constantly saying something. He talks to people in Walmart. He asks who we are going to see when we are in the car. He talks to cartoons on tv. He really gets going when Daddy comes home. Poor Daddy thinks Gunner doesn't have an off switch.

He loves taking things apart. From toys to food, to ripping up paper. I'll never understand why he would rather completely obliterate a toy than play with it.

It's hard to get him to do things like sit and eat, or be still long enough to go potty. He is so impatient. He gets very frustrated when he can't figure something out in less than two seconds. He has started throwing fits. This is not acceptable. I'm trying to figure out how to handle it. On one hand, he's only two and I shouldn't expect him to understand why he can't just throw fits. On the other hand, I don't want this to become a habit. It's not an easy thing trying to communicate with a toddler.

The kid is smart. He's sharp. He really catches on quickly to most things. I want him to be in a constant state of learning so I try to keep him doing things that are challenging. He is starting to learn to count, he can say most of the alphabet, and the other day I discovered that he can color match! (Put blue items with blue items, red with red, etc) His speech is ridiculous and I'm amazed at how well he can talk. He will say almost anything I say. He's my little parrot. Not only can he say a ton, he says it quite clearly. He recently started saying snacks instead of nahh. He used to call his favorite show (Bubble Guppies) dah dah duppie, and now says bubble duppies. Yain morphed into rain, she is shoe, da is socks, and dee is feet. Baby talk is fading. Learning every day.

It's kind of insane. I have to be careful about what I say, and wait to do certain chores until he's either in his high chair or asleep. He's so hilarious though, and he's so sweet (most of the time). It's been awesome being able to actually communicate with him. I think he has enjoyed it too.

He has started taking an interest in helping with things lately. He likes to help do the laundry, and at the end of the day loves to take off his clothes and put them in his laundry basket before he streaks into the bathroom for his bath. He's very good at helping pick up his toys too. (I'll be ecstatic when he can help me carry the groceries in.) I've even gotten him to "clean" the windows a few times! We are working on learning to put our clothes on, though I think it will be a while before he masters this.

Potty training has been in progress for two months now. He is doing very well. We had a setback recently since he wore pull ups the entire time we were on vacation, and nearly the whole month of December since we were so busy. He's had several accidents since Christmas, but being only in underwear really gets him back in shape. So I'm hoping that in another week we will be back on track. Pooping is just a disaster. I really have no idea what the heck to do. He has gone on the potty several times, but something has yet to click with him. He seems to be afraid of it, and I don't mean the potty. He's fine with the potty. He's afraid of the actual task of pooping. I won't give details, I will just say I literally am at a loss. We just wing it.

He is learning and growing so fast I can hardly keep up. It is a different world than it was two years ago. I'm very proud of him.

New Year, New Goals

I don't think there's anything wrong with making New Years resolutions. Some people don't like to do it because they feel it's like setting them up for failure. I am not afraid of failure, I'm afraid of being stagnant. I need to make sure I am working towards a goal to keep me going. That said, New Years resolutions aren't meant to make you feel like you're a failure if you don't accomplish them. It should be something that keeps you motivated. The journey is important.
Here are my goals for 2013.
Starting with the obvious, I'd like to be healthier and lose weight. I'd like to get to a healthier weight (not an unrealistic one), drink more water and less sodas, and start cooking healthier meals for my family. Along with that, I would like to take better care of myself in general. More flossing, more exercise, better skin care, stuff like that. Also along the same lines, I'm going to try and look less like a stay at home mom (aka a hot mess). Seriously, I shouldn't have to wear a hat every day I go out in public. That's just me being lazy. Speaking of laziness, I'm going to start trying to keep a better daily routine. I'm going to work to keep the house cleaner by being more organized and I'm going to work towards saving money by really keeping a tight grocery budget.
Going along with a daily routine, I'm going to try to start incorporating a time during the day where Gunner and I focus on something school related. Maybe we will do flash cards, or work on counting or his ABC's. I'm wanting to start him in a Mother's Day out once a week this year, and I would like for him to start at home getting used to a scheduled learning time. I think it's going to be important for him (and myself). Lastly, and this goes in with the first things I listed, I want to run another 5k. I would love to do that by October. I was really very proud of myself doing it once, and it was the first thing I've done in a long time where it was up to me to make it happen and I actually finished it.
There you have it! Nothing too insane, just things that I really need to do to make myself a better human.
What are your goals for the new year?

Catching Up

I honestly can't remember how long it's been since my last post, but thankfully my blog keeps track of that and it looks like it has been two months. My last post was about my 5k race! So what have I been up to since?
Well, not running. I was hurting pretty badly after my race so I decided to take a break. Now it's just too cold and too dark during the times I could go run. Very unfortunate. I'm hoping I can figure out a way to utilize a treadmill in our house somehow, although there is zero free space for one. I think it's time for me to go to a specialty tennis shoe supplier and get them to figure out which shoe I need. I'm getting shin splint pain very bad when I run now. (I was able to go to the gym twice on vacation and ran a mile each time, and that was it. The pain was too much.)
Other than that, I've been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas and vacation! This year was our year with Daniel's family, and we were lucky enough to have it in Northwest Arkansas! That was so nice. We were able to sleep at our house while spending the days that weekend with them all. We also did tons of shopping. I had my first Black Friday experience! (My autocorrect capitalized it...wow) It was so fun! I went with Daniel's family. We started out at 8pm and finished at 2 am. Then the next day Daniel went on their second outing that afternoon. You see, I had to have all my shopping and wrapping done by December 7th, because we left for a two week vacation on the 8th. That brings us to our trip!
Each December we spend a week in our timeshare in Fairfield Bay. It's lovely. There are hardly any tourists and it's quiet and not crowded. We get to spend a lot of time with Daniel's parents. So that was week 1, and the second week Daniel went home and back to work while Gunner and I spent a week at Nanny and Pawpaw's! The last day of our trip was the Babb family Christmas party. Those two weeks were busy! We really enjoyed it, and Nanny got some good quality time with Gunner.
Once we came home, we had my family's Christmas party on Christmas Eve. It's been a very busy December! Gunner really got into Christmas this year. It was so fun shopping for him and watching him open his gifts.
We are getting back into the swing of normal life again and preparing for our birthdays. Daniel's birthday is tomorrow and mine is in January. We will see what 2013 holds for us all!

Run my first 5k race: Check!

I can mark running a 5k race off my bucket list! Saturday October 27th I participated in a 5k with my mom and brother. It was so exciting! I'm thankful they did it with me because it would not have been as fun doing it alone.
I've been training since July so I've worked hard to get this far. It wasn't easy though. From being over weight, taking care of a toddler, not having much time to get runs in, and having the worst nights sleep before the race, I'd say it was a tough road.
I don't have a gym membership. Even if I did (and I have thought about getting one) I would have to wait until Daniel got home from work so he could keep Gunner. I'm not a morning person in the slightest, so running before he leaves for work is out of the question (for now...hopefully some day I will be brave enough to want to make that happen). So, I can either run on the weekends, or in the evenings. Running in the evenings has its challenges. Cooking dinner, feeding the family, getting out before it gets dark, figuring out if I should eat before or after I run, being exhausted from a full day, etc. The main thing I have to do is mentally prepare all day for my run. If I'm in the mindset of going, it seems that I do better.
I can say that as of a few weeks ago I have lost 20 pounds since I started. I still have many more pounds to go! I'm feeling better though and it makes me excited to keep working towards my goal.
Race day was crazy! The race was in Fayetteville so I thought it would be smart to stay with my parents so we would be closer. It would have been great had I not been up all night. Gunner woke up at 1:30, and I couldn't get back to sleep after that. At 2:45 I finally moved to the living room and cat napped in an oversized chair till 5:30. I woke up thinking "I'll never be able to finish...maybe I should just stay home." After sucking it up, I left with Mom at 6:30. We arrived, parked, got our bibs, found my brother, and walked around in the 32 degree frozen morning air for 30 minutes. My sister and sis in law were there to cheer us on. (And hold our coats!)
We took some pictures, got in line, and started getting nervous. (At least I got nervous!) I had read some helpful tips online about your first race, and I knew to get in the back of the group. Mom and David had both run a few races before so they didn't have the pre race jitters like I did. But alas, here we went! And before I could even find my pace they were both dashing out ahead of me. I knew I would be in the back of the group, but at last place? Well, I can't turn back now! There were four of us in the tail of the group, and we were all running the same speed. Two girls were behind me. As long as I stay in front of them I'm fine. Running, running, left turn, right turn, run...motivational thoughts, deep breaths, second song on my playlist, I'm doing it! It's still incredibly cold out but it almost seemed to help numb my sore legs. Half mile down. still see at least half the group ahead of me. Open field, I see Mom! Wow she's wayyyy up there. David is nowhere to be found...he's probably across the finish line being given flowers and hot chocolate, doing an interview for the local news. Focus, keep pushing through. One mile, done. The crowd has thinned out where I'm pretty sure the four of us are the only ones who aren't finished yet. That old lady who I swore I would pass is long gone. The rest of the group is probably having a party and eating fine cheeses and are being fed grapes and the most expensive cuts of meat fresh from a grill. Snap out of it! You're nearly done...*check phone* oh dear...I'm only at mile 1.5. This is hard. Ok, I've got this, focus, positive thoughts. Running, sunshine, dirt, running more, pace is good. Suddenly, I catch something out of the corner of my eye. What is that? Two girls?! WHAT?! They're passing me!!!? Noooo!!! I cannot be last...speed up! Ok no, finishing is the goal, not going into cardiac arrest in the middle of a pasture. Just finish. Who cares if they passed you. Run. Run more. New song. Oh good, this is perfect timing for this song, it always keeps me pushing. Turning corners, watching ahead to make sure there aren't holes in the trail. Sweating has kicked in. I see runners way ahead. Two miles done! Yes, time to speed up slightly. Run. Breathe. Should I take my gloves off? *frozen air slaps face* No, no I should wait a while. Why is it so cold today? Corner. What....what is that? Is that a hill?! Why is it so steep!?!?! UGH........horrible!!!! Ok got it....wait, another one?! Ahhhh!!!!!! Burning legs! Shut up Black Eyed Peas! I am pumping it as hard as I can! Leave me alone! I'm losing it, I need to focus. Think about your fat. You hate it. It's stupid. You want it gone. Yes, feeling better. I can do this. 2.40 miles! I'm nearly done! The faster I run, the sooner it's done. The faster I run, the sooner it's done.....the faster.....who is that? Someone is walking the wrong direction. ... ....? Is that........David?! YES! He's going to give me a piggy back ride to the end!!! How awesome! Oh, no...no he's going to run with me. That's good too! Sharp turn, volunteer and high five, nearly there! What's this?I'm passing those two girls! Yes! I'm not last! Here's Mom! She's here too! We are in this together! I can do it, it's almost over. Run, maintain. Keep it up. There it is! The finish line!!! Ok, give it everything you have! As fast as you can go! PLEASE DO NOT FALL!!! Aaaaaaaaaand FINISHED!!!!!!!!!
I did it! It's over! And I wasn't last place!!!!! Yes. I am so proud. I suddenly realized my legs were jello. I earned jello legs! It's worth it.

A Lunch Recipe

I've started being more careful about what I eat lately. I've got the running thing down so I thought to kick it into weight loss mode I would start eating better. I'm taking it slow. None of this "I will only eat lettuce!" or "Zero carbs forever!" because I get burned out in like a day. So, baby steps.
I bought stuff to make wraps for lunch! I really love the ease and versatility you get with doing wraps. Here is what I had today. It was really great.
Start with a wrap. I have garden spinach herb wraps. You can find them where they have tortillas at the store. They're pretty big so you will be full with one.
Spread a flavored cream cheese on it. I like using the low fat options like garden veggie. Spread a very small amount of dijon mustard on that. A little goes a long way. Cover with lots of lettuce. I prefer romaine. Then put deli turkey slices on top. I use a lot of lettuce and turkey to fill it up. On top of that I added a small amount of grated cheese, then some bacon bits because I thought I had real bacon pieces but did not and I really wanted a bit of bacon, diced tomato and whatever else you like! Roll it up, cut it in half and enjoy. Super yummy.
You can do just about any combo, and it's a great way to use up leftovers.
There you have it! Quite delicious and filling.

Friday Randoms

I get a little sad every time I think I hear thunder only to realize it's a moron with loud bass driving by my house.
Gunner's sleeping schedule is confusing me lately. He wakes up at 8 most days, but he's been sleeping later, napping later, and going to bed later. He's talking to himself for an hour before he goes to sleep. I might need to adjust his schedule a little.
Baily needs to go to the groomer in a bad way.
I haven't been able to go run in over a week. I'm feeling lazier each day I skip out.
I actually tried one of the hair tutorials I saw on Pinterest! Turned out better than I expected.
I cannot stop thinking about eating Nutella. I ran out (already) and Daniel has forbidden me to get more. He knows I will eat every bit of it as fast as I can. My precious...
Now I can't think of anything else except Nutella.