3 Months

Lauren is 3 months old today!

A little bit about our little lady...

In 3-6 month clothes.
Is more alert and interactive.  She tries so hard to mimic your faces or sounds.
Loves to coo and "talk" to us.
Absolutely loves ceiling fans - watches them with a huge smile on her face.
Gets up once to eat at night and still eats every 2-3 hours during the day.
Cat naps during the day and sleeps two long stretches at night.
Moved into her crib this past weekend (Mommy is sad but adjusting).
Not a huge fan of the car.
Grabs a hold of whatever she can, doing really great at grabbing on the toys on her bouncer.
Still hates tummy time but loves to lay on her back and look around.
Is getting the most adorable chunky rolls on her legs.

Fastest 3 months ever!

If You Give a Toddler a Cookie...

...some icing, and a container of sprinkles, he'll dump the entire container of sprinkles on the cookie and make this awesome birthday cookie for daddy!

The kid loves to work in the kitchen baking, decorating, and of course eating - which is really just licking the icing off everything.

Happy Birthday Zach, we love you!

C25K

This Just In: baby weight doesn't just fall off after the baby is born.  Breastfeeding only does so much.

Okay, so that's not a newsflash at all but I'm struggling lately...both with eating and exercising.  I don't know what happened, I was doing so well for a while.  I need to try something different.  I hate working out, always have and I'm afraid I always will.  If I have more accountability though I might be more motivated to get moving.  So Saturday I started a Couch to 5K program.  Basically in 9 weeks its suppose to get you in shape to run a 5K.

Real Breaking News: I am NOT a runner.  I can walk all day and night but ask me to run and its sad.

So this is challenging to say the least but maybe thats what I need.  It breaks it into 9 weeks, 3 'runs' a week.  Week 1 is a 5 minute warm up walk, then alternating walking for 90 seconds then running for 60 seconds for about 20 minutes, then a 5 minute cool down.  On the screen it didn't seem so bad, in real life it was flippin' difficult.

Saturday I completed Week 1 Day 1.  A total of 1.3 miles in 18 minutes 30 seconds averaging a 14 minutes 11 seconds per mile.  Not too shabby I suppose.  The stats don't include the warm up or cool down.

Tonight I completed Week 1 Day 2.  I went 1.32 miles in the same amount of time averaging 14:02 per mile.  So its about the same.

I have an app on my phone that tracks all my stats, tells me throughout my run when to walk/run/cool down.  They also give you stats for each section of your run as you go which helps motivate me throughout. Another thing I love about my 'run' is a little bit of time to myself.  In a way that makes it almost relaxing...okay my last running section I feel like I'm going to die but there are a lot of relaxing parts too.

If When I finish my 9 weeks maybe I will actually try a 5K....anyone out there want to join me?

Um Wow.

Luke went to camp Tuesday and didn't use the potty once!  The kid was out of the house and seemed to forget everything!  Ugh, so frustrating.  We got home last night, put him back in just his big boy underpants and he used the potty again. What the heck kiddo?

Last night when bedtime rolled around I got Luke all set with the essentials and went to say my nite nite and give kisses when we realized the last pacifier in the house was missing.  I was happy, its about time to get rid of it anyway.  He sleeps perfectly fine at school with no paci so why do we still have to use it at home?  There was lots of whining but he eventually fell asleep.  Only problem, he was up several times last night. Boo.  Today he found it....cold turkey method...fail.

A falcon attacked crashed into our house last night.  The loudest bang came from the roof area, I ran out expecting to see a tree down or something broken at least.  The backyard was normal, I turned around and saw the back end of a bird on the point of the roof and one leg sticking straight up.  Feathers were floating down the roof and onto the ground.  I thought for sure the thing was dead, Zach thought he just knocked himself out.  Zach was right, about 10 minutes later it gathered its sense again and flew into the trees.  I'm impressed that it wasn't dead based on the craziness of the bang.

We are raising the worlds next Ants in the Pants champion here.  Watch out fellow toddlers and adults alike, this kids got game!

And last but not least, my sun shade bathing beauty.

One if by land, two if by pee

Today was day 4 of potty training.  Let's do a little recap.  The entire weekend we stayed in with a half naked 2 year old (except last night we left the naked one with my in laws and had a kid free dinner to celebrate our anniversary. A.mazing).  Saturday - no accidents at all!  He even went out for about half an hour with Zach and no accidents.  We put shorts on him but no diaper/underpants and the kid was an all star!  Sunday we continued with the no diaper/no underpants.  He had one accident but overall, great day.  Today I put underpants on him.  He was super excited but he went through 5 pairs today!! Aaah!  I thought having him naked was the tough part.

He seemed confused by the fact that they are way different than diapers.  By the end of the day he was starting to get the hang of it all.  I would have kept him naked with shorts on again, like the method suggests, however tomorrow he goes to summer camp and must wear something.  If he could run around half naked, which I think he loved, he'd be set and I'd say he was pretty much potty trained.  Unfortunately society frowns upon that.  Bummer.

So we still have a lot of work to do but at least he knows when he has to go.  We just have to keep enforcing the where part.  I also was doing a ton of clean up this weekend even when he went to the potty.  I thought he just needed to work on his aim but tonight we bought a second potty (lugging one all around the house was a pain in my butt) and it is AMAZING!  He sits on it so much easier, does his stuff, and no missing on this one.  Love it!  So it wasn't the kiddos aim after all but how the other potty was set up.  We may be getting another one of these.

Here's his potty chart after day 4.  Lots of successes but only a few from today.  We'll get it though, then we have to work on leaving the house for longer periods of time.  I still see a lot of frustrations, challenges, clean ups, and hopefully potty dances in my future.  Potty training is straight up exhausting though, as if I didn't have enough laundry and cleaning to do already :)

Wish the little guy luck at camp tomorrow!

No Diaper Day

Today was no diaper day in our house.  Luke has sat on the potty a bunch and even went a few times but we hadn't tried seriously yet at the whole potty training thing. This morning I was really concerned, who in their right mind would let their toddler run around half naked and take care of a 2 month old on their own on a Friday of all days.  By 10 AM I was ready to call it quits, but after that the day was pretty much awesome.  Luke had 3 accidents this morning but nothing since about 10 this morning, and the most important part 6, count 'em, SIX successes! 

Each time we did the potty dance, got a jelly bean, and put a sticker on the fridge so we could track how many times he went potty like a big boy!  He was so excited each time and seemed so proud of himself.  I'm a super proud mama but also exhausted.  You literally can't take your eye off of him when he has the possibility of peeing all over your house.  The rest of the weekend we will continue no diaper days and maybe try some underpants on Monday.  We have tons of Thomas ones ready! 

Do the (clap clap) potty dance!  Woohoo Luke!

Bedtime

Of all the things Luke challenges us on luckily bedtime isn't one of them.  However, he has certain things that must be in place in order for him to put himself to sleep.  Nightlight on.  Monitor on.  Fan on....loud! (as he tells me...which means on high).  Sippy cup with milk (even though he rarely ever drinks it after I leave).  And toys.  Most nights he grabs one train, or a car, or a book and is satisfied.  Tonight however, we carried up Finn McMissile (car), his stuffed monkey, a truck from his train table, and two race cars....he HAD to have the green AND purple one.  Already in his bed are two pillows, three blankets, his puppy, his kitty cat, his Thomas pillow, and his Douglas the dog stuffed animal/blankie.  Pretty soon there is going to be no room for him!  But hey, whatever gets him to sleep.

Tomorrow is no diaper day in our house, wish me luck on Day 1 of serious potty training.