Well folks, it’s pretty much next to impossible for me to get anything done that requires concentration, focus and actual mental abilities these days! Ha.
Hence, the blog is suffering. 😉
My sweet, sweet little baby is such a good natured darling little boy, but he is BUSY!!! He is seriously into everything. For example…
Exhibit A:
This is how I get the dishes done these days! I load up the dishwasher with dirty dishes….and he pulls them out, still dirty, just as fast as I can put them in! Ha ha.
Exhibit B:
Baby recently discovered the “snack cupboard!” He particularly loves the Goldfish and raisins. Oh, and he loves to take all of the kitchen towels out of the drawer! This is a “several times a day” type of thing.
Exhibit C:
This child of mine is a climber!!! I put the ottoman and a wooden chair in front of the stairs to keep him safe, but he loves to take risks and live on the wild side!!! Hee hee.
This same barricade worked just fine for the two babies before him, but THIS baby figured out how to get past the barricade in about a month. I tried everything I could think of to block this staircase! FYI, this is a difficult staircase for a baby gate. It’s very wide and it has a rod iron railing on one side. AND, like I said, this barricade worked just fine for my last two babies!!!
Anyway, I got so sick of chasing this little baby of mine up the stairs, so I finally did THIS…
That fixed his wagon! The couch stayed like this for a couple weeks (and drove me crazy!) before I finally just ordered an extra wide baby gate on Amazon and Kev figured out how to jimmy rig it to the railing. Crazy!
I’ve been trying to write this blog post all evening long and I’ve had to start and stop a zillion times to tend to one of my children. Well, one of these times I stepped away from my computer for two seconds, I came back to this….
HA HA! In 5 seconds flat, he climbed onto my computer and promptly put it into Airplane mode! It took me 10 minutes to figure out how in the heck to get it out of Airplane mode!!! Oy.
Yes, I’m thoroughly getting my trash kicked! Even though he’s my sixth baby, I feel like such a baby newb! I’ll probably get the hang of this whole parenting gig when this last baby is 18 and all my kids are raised.
Seriously.
Since I’m living such a crazy life, I’ve been trying to recognize every accomplishment! I’m happy to say I was able to get my pantry cleaned and organized recently…
Woo hoo! It was a pain in the bee-hind because I decided to take everything out, clean it from top to bottom and then reorganize everything.
And, of course, baby loved “helping!” Wow, I had no idea I even had this much stuff in my pantry!!!
I’m so happy to have it clean and organized now though!
I have to say that even though this baby is all over the place and into everything, he IS just the cutest thing ever and melts my heart about 657,987 times a day. Oh, how I love him!! He’s finally gotten the hang of walking and it’s so cute to watch him toddle all over the house. He’s also been saying a few words and that sweet little voice could not get any cuter. Oh, and he is by far my most snugly baby!!! I am so grateful. I could hold him and snuggle him all day long! LOVE HIM!!!
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I’m happy to say that I’ve been sticking pretty well to my exercise schedule and eating pretty well too! I know that when life gets crazy, it can be hard to stick to a regular exercise schedule. However, I know it really comes down to priorities, commitment and planning. If it’s important to you, you just gotta plan it and make sure it happens! There are definitely days it just doesn’t happen for me, but most days I try to stick with the schedule!
I’ve had to make some adjustments, however.
Let me back up a bit…a few weeks ago I decided I needed to get all gung-ho about going to the gym! Sooo, I decided in order to do that, I needed to start taking my baby to the gym daycare so I could get my workout done in the daytime while the other kids were at school.
Well, that didn’t work according to plan! Basically, my sweet baby is majorly attached to me and just cried and cried and cried the whole time when I left him! Sooo, I had to scratch Plan A and, for now, I’ve been going with Plan B; I’ve been going to the gym 1-2 times a week (leaving baby at home with Kev or his siblings!) and have just been working out from home a lot more.
I’m really not a fan of working out from home (I find so much motivation and energy at the gym and when I’m surrounded by other people!), BUT I know there’s a time and place for everything. Right now, I’m living the life of a crazy nutzo woman, so I’ve had to make some adjustments.
In order to stay motivated I’ve been finding various workouts online or on TV. It’s been kind of fun and has made it not so boring. I’ve actually been getting some GREAT workouts in at home! I’m also so happy to say that I started doing YOGA recently….and strangely enough, I really love it!
I know, it surprised me too!
I’ve just been doing it at home, but it’s been wonderful. Ya know, for YEARS I’ve kinda sorta wanted to try Yoga because I knew it would be so good for my body, but it just didn’t sound FUN to me!
I have very little extra time in my life, so when I workout, I want to workout HARD, leave it all on the floor, sweat buckets, and give it everything I got. I hate to say it, but I’ve always thought of Yoga as a waste of time. It just always seemed so simple, easy and NOT the kind of workout I was looking for.
But, since lately I’ve been beating my body up and recovering from random injuries, I decided to take a big slice of humble pie and try out this whole Yoga thing. I actually think it’s really cool!
Ya, I’m probably not burning too many calories and I’m probably not developing a ton of muscle, BUT I can tell it’s so good for me! It just feels so good to stretch my body in strange ways, improve my balance while supporting my own body weight and just take some time to calm down from all the stresses of life. It also actually feels good to take my workout down a notch and just pamper my body a bit. I can tell it will help me to improve my flexibility, which will help to avoid injuries in the future. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just know my body is happy I’m adding Yoga into my schedule. It just feels good!
Sooo, for now I’m hoping to do Yoga 1-2 times a week. I’ve also been doing resistance training three times a week; one Upper Body day, one Lower Body day and one Total Body day. I haven’t been doing a ton of mega cardio lately because I’m still trying to nurse my injured foot in hopes of being able to start training for a Half Marathon soon. I’m hope hope hoping my foot will hurry up and heal!!!
Yes, I have issues. BUT, I think I’m starting to learn a thing or two from my issues and will hopefully figure out how to keep my body injury free!!
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Well, as far as the healthy eating part of my life goes….it’s going well! A couple weeks ago, I was quite frustrated because I just couldn’t find my normal motivation to stick with healthy eating! I was eating healthy things, but I kept finding reasons to make treats and seemed to have no will power around junk food! Auuugh!
So, I took my frustrations to Facebook and asked if any of my friends wanted to do a “No Treats/Sugar Stuff Until Thanksgiving Challenge” with me! I’m happy to say that almost 40 of my friends took me up on my challenge and BOOM, just like that, my motivation was found!
There is definitely strength in numbers!
Soooo, I’ve been doing this challenge for almost 10 days now and I’m so happy to be doing it! I’m basically staying away from obvious forms of sugar like cake, cookies, candy, chocolate, etc. I also decided to add white flour to my challenge as well. It’s definitely been hard, but I always find so much more joy and satisfaction in life when I’m disciplined and taking care of my body!
I’m not taking all of the happiness out of my diet though. I’ve snagged a few chips here and there; I also enjoyed some 7 layer dip and Spinach Artichoke dip at a party this week. Kev and I went out on a date to Costa Vida with the baby last weekend.
I got my favorite Grilled Chicken Salad and it’s always fabulous! It comes on top of a small tortilla, so I ordered it with a whole wheat one. I really don’t think whole wheat is all that good for our bodies either, so I just had a few bites of it.
Even though I left off some of the not-so-healthy things (sour cream, corn chip strips) off my salad and didn’t use too much of the dressing, it still felt indulgent to me and it was nice to go out to eat!
We also took the kids out for Chinese food for lunch today. It was fun and I’m sure it wasn’t uber healthy, but I’ve been a little bit more lax on the weekends. I’m still steering clear of treats and white flour though!
I love doing challenges with friends! I always have so much more success when I’m accountable to other people. FYI, I’m planning on organizing a “Healthy Challenge” for the New Year and I’ll invite all y’all to do it with me if you want! I’m still figuring out all of the deets, but I’m hoping to get everything organized soon. I’ll set up a Facebook page too so we can all keep each other motivated and accountable.
Yay!!!!
Well, I think I’m going to wrap this up. I will leave you all with an awesome picture of Kev…..
Bwahahaha! We went to a fun church “Talent Show” last night. There were some “real talents” shared and just some other funny things shared. Kev and some of the guys from church did a hilarious 80’s rock band skit/lip sync thing and Kev was the drummer!
Hahahaha!
I was his groupie. Here he is in action…
Too funny! I feel so special to be married to such a multi-talented man!
Well that’s all folks! I hope you all have a fabulous night and enjoy a nice quiet Sunday tomorrow! xoxo
OH MY your baby is indeed a climber!! These photos cracked me up, you sure have your hands full!! That rocker photo of Kev though…the best.
Baby definitely keeps me on my toes! He’s so much fun, but it’s a wonder I get anything done around here ever! I was a fan of rocker Kev too, lol!!!
I would so love to be apart of your Healthy Challenge in January but I don’t Facebook, so please post it on your blog. I am just trying to survive the holidays and then will hit the weight loss program again then. It definitely helps to have some accountability.
I’ll definitely post all about it on my blog too! If I can figure out the technology, I’ll try to have a separate page set up on my blog all about it too! I’m glad you want to do it with me!
Nothing like breeding a baby to do chores like emptying the dish washer and cleaning out the cupboards for you! LOL!!!!
Bwahahaha! I guess it’s good I’m startin’ him young, right?
Welcome to the wonderful world of life on the mat. Keep us updated on how it goes and how you like it.
Thanks Jill! Even though I’m a huge yoga newb, I LOVE it!
Oh man, how funny. My second was a climber, too. I remember late one night I woke up to find him standing next to my side of the bed, staring at me. He had climbed out of his crib, over the baby gate at his door, over the baby gate AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, and then proceeded down to my room. He did it all in complete stealth mode. We had a baby monitor, but didn’t hear a thing.
Eventually we had an alarm installed when he started deciding to leave the house in the middle of the night. Sometimes he woke up and decided to start collecting ladybugs at 2 am.
I can’t remember how I slept those days. But I’m pretty sure the answer was “not well.”
OH. MY. WORD! WOW. Your stories are hilarious, but I’m sure it stressed you out! It’s crazy the way kids can become the best escape artists. Collecting ladybugs at 2 am. Too funny! My daughter once slept walked and we found her outside. Scared me half to death. It’s no wonder wrinkles and gray hairs appear as we age….kids!
Love your “exhibits”. Too cute !! I remember those days !
Ha ha! Even though I’ve gone through this stage with all of my other kids, I forget how unproductive it makes my life! Auuughh!
Your little guy is so stinking adorable, but man those pictures of him getting into everything are hilarious.
LOL, thanks Abby! Most of the time I just have to laugh about all of the cute, yet crazy things he does!!