Dillierama

Holy crap! He can add!

We've been trying a new reward system for potty training.  Actually resurrecting an old one we used before with no luck, but we're out of new ideas, so we thought we'd try recycling.  The sticker chart.  He gets one sticker for a pee pee and two stickers for a poo poo.  We've just started doing this yesterday and it's been surprisingly successful! 

But that's not what this post is about.

Just now, I took Alex to the potty.  He peed and said "I get one sticker for a pee pee!".  We waited a while and he pooped and said "I get TWO stickers for a poo poo!"  Then I said "Hey! That's awesome Buddy!  How many stickers do you get to put on your chart?" And without missing a beat he shouted "THREE!"

He can add?  HE CAN ADD!?!?!

When did this happen?  We've been working on counting for a long time, but never really mathematics at all.  This was really the first time I'd even suggested the idea of adding them together to get another number, and here he already knew!  Of course, it could have been a fluke. Three happens to be his very favorite number at the moment owing to the fact that he just turned three and loves to tell people that, but I like to think my son is simply a genius, figuring out the basics of addition all by his little self.

Rested

I woke up this morning to Max's hungry "eh eh EH EEEEHH!" feeling oddly refreshed.  He wasn't throwing too much of a fit yet so I got up to go to the bathroom first before I fed him. On the way back I checked the clock and found it was 6:15 in the morning. And this was the first time he'd gotten up since 10!

A couple of months ago he had begun sleeping until 4:30, but that only lasted about two weeks before he settled into his routine of going to sleep at 8, then waking at 1:30, 3:30, 5:30 and 7:30 (or in yesterday's case 6:30 when John's alarm went off).  I'd pretty much lost hope of him really sleeping through the night until he started eating solids at six months.  If I was lucky. 

I was so taken by surprise, and so TIRED, that my body just went ahead and slept all night right along with him (A few months ago, when he was sleeping longer, my boobs were still waking me up at 1 or 2 in the morning and I'd just sit and wait with achey boobs until he woke up.  WASTE!).  Of course, I woke up with a soaking wet shirt, but I was so thrilled about him having slept, I didn't even notice my wet shirt until I got up to have breakfast. 

Even the dog slept through the night, providing further proof that she was only waking up because the baby was. 

Now, I know better than to hope this becomes anything more than a fluke, but I do suspect that it could have something to do with the fact that I didn't drink any diet Pepsi yesterday.  I had one cup of coffee in the morning, then nothing but water, milk and two cans of diet CAFFINE FREE Coke the rest of the day.  I'd known that the Diet Pepsi's weren't HELPING, but to be honest, I really NEEDED the extra boost to get me through the days, I didn't really believe that a few Diet Pepsi's during the day would keep my baby up ALL NIGHT.  Hmm, maybe I was wrong. 

In any case, I feel FANTASTIC this morning, and ready to conquer the world (or maybe just a mountain of laundry and a few poopy diapers)

Being a SAHM isn't boring

Today I:

• Breastfed Max while being stared down by a large potbelly pig
• Wrestled a baby toy away from a goat
• Read the voter info booklet cover to cover (getting lost in the section on constitutional amendments, CONFUSING!) then cast my vote in what I consider to be the most important election in my lifetime so far (THANK YOU mail in ballot!)
• Answered the door to find two very serious looking police officers and having to assure them that no, I am not being held hostage, everything is fine, REALLY! (the alarm system repair guy who came today failed to tell the security place that he would be running tests)

• Apologized profusely to a police officer after Fancy ran at them barking like an attack dog when I opened the door

 

STOP THE CAR!

On our vacation I think John finally understood what I mean when I say I can't stand hearing the boys cry.  Max would be wailing in the backseat while we're between podunk towns in the middle of nowhere and I'd have my eyes squeezed shut grinding my teeth and balling my hands into fists in an effort to try not to claw my ears off.  One time he said to me "yea, it bugs me too"  to which I responded in a high pitched panicky voice "IT HURTS ME!"  And I meant it.  when my child cries, I feel real physical pain.  Whenever Max would start crying in the car I'd yell "STOP THE CAR! YOU HAVE TO STOP THE CAR!" and wherever we were he'd pull over and I'd go rescue the baby, only when he was calmed down would we be able to continue our trip.  This explains why it took us 14+ hours to get to San Diego when childless it only took us 10 hours.  He gets it so well that now, home in Salt Lake, when Max starts crying he immediately pulls into the nearest parking lot without my having to say anything. 

I wonder if it's a biological thing.  Do adoptive mom's feel this way?  When an adopted child cries, aside from the need to make them happy, does an adoptive parent FEEL it? I wonder because it doesn't seem to be the same for even a biological father.  For John it's just an annoying bleating from the backseat. Is it hormonal?  Is it just some phantom physical connection that remains after the umbilical cord is cut?  It's definately a physical response and it is so strange to me that I should be PHYSICALLY affected by the sound of my child crying.

PHM October Challenge - midway status update

Well, October's half over and how am I doing on my October challenge?  Four pounds lost so far (going for 10), so, I'd say I'm pretty well on schedule.  Wish I was down five pounds, but hey, I'll take four.

My birthday is this weekend, which John and I are celebrating tomorrow because he will be spending my actual birthday at various sporting events with his brother.  I've given him the ok to abandon me on my birthday with the caveat that he treat me like a queen tomorrow, a condition he's accepted gladly for the promise of guiltfree sports.  But my birthday means eating out, which means I'm not likely to stick to my diet, very likely for the whole weekend.  I'll try though. 

A different kid

I'd been getting discouraged about Alex's sugar free diet, thinking it wasn't really helping his hyperactivity at all, then, we let our diet rules slide for the weekend and Alex went ape shit crazy!  He ran around the house like Speedy Gonzales, he talked nonstop in a fast high pitched squeal.  He basically turned back into Wild Alex.  I hadn't realized how calm he had become recently.  He still had the "four o'clock freak out" where at 4PM every evening, he goes a little bit nuts, and I guess I just forgot how easy he was to deal with the rest of the day.

Two days in a row we've taken him out to eat with us and he just sat there, you know, like a regular human being.  He'd play with his food a little, colored, but mostly just stayed put in his seat without any kind of restraining devices or straight jacket required.  This morning I took him to my monthly mom's club breakfast and he just played nicely with his friends and ate his chips.  When my friend came in, she said to me "Hey! you've only got one kid today!" and I told her that no, Alex was here. And she looked at me in shock.  "WHERE IS HE?!"  He's right here! And I pointed right next to me at the child playing quietly with a toy.  "Is he Ok?" She asked me.  She thought he must be sick.  Alex is usually zooming around the bakery tearing down displays of freshly baked breads. 

I think it's prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyyy (watching too much Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sorry) clear that sugar was the problem.  We haven't done anything different, other than cut out as much sugar as we could, and he's a whole new child.  Part of me wants to do a happy end zone dance because YAY! We've figured out the problem!  And the other part of me wants to cry, because it wasn't Alex's fault.  It was MY fault.  I suppose I can be glad that we figured it out when he was three, not thirteen and having trouble in school or something.  He's still an excitable child, but no longer unmanageable. 

It's such a dramatic change, and all it took was taking a little closer look at what he was eating.  Alex likes candy, but never really ate a lot of it. He'd have a couple of gummies or a twizzler a couple of times a week.  He'd be allowed more on special occasions and even chocolate donuts or cake and ice cream at a party, but no more than once a week would he really over do it.  What I've cut out are the things he ate every day or several times a week; chewy fruit snacks, pancake syrup, white bread, enriched pasta, jelly with his PB, I've REALLY limited his juice consumption and have been replacing it with flavored water (he won't drink milk).  These were things I didn't think twice about.  I had even started giving him whole grain Poptarts thinking they were really a healthier breakfast option, not even thinking of the sugar laden innards of the whole grain crust. 

There are still things I'm letting him keep because I think he benefits from them more than it hurts.  His Nutripals granola bars are high in protein and fiber and he loves them.  I still let him eat Gogurt because he won't drink milk and won't eat yogurt that doesn't come in a tube.  His Spider man vitamins are the sugar coated gummy kind, but he won't take regular chewables.  And juice.  Oh the juice.  Kid was a miniature Jay "The Juiceman" Kordich.  I let him have diluted apple juice a couple of times a day and he is allowed to have one glass of VFusion with dinner, the rest of the day he's allowed to have flavored water or crystal light (he's also offered plain water and milk, which he always declines, and I think it's important that he stay hydrated).  Of course, all of these things are foods I'm working to find healthier, lower sugar alternatives for, and with Alex, you really have to let him ease into things on his own terms.  He's just like his daddy (and Grandma Babs!), the harder you push something, the harder he resists.  Kid wouldn't think anything of going Gandhi on me.  He may be able to stand being hungry, but his not eating DRIVES ME CRAY!

I think Alex must be more sensitive to sugar than other kids. When compared to what his buddies eat, he had a very similar diet, yet he was so much more out of control than they were.  I have to be honest and say that since Alex is so skinny, I never really watched what I gave him all that closely, I just wanted him to eat SOMETHING.  Strangely, now that he's on a lower sugar diet, he's actually eating MORE.  Go figure.

Dirty Old Woman

I feel like I'm the only person in the world who isn't loving the Twilight series.  I'm only reading them because we're discussing all four books in November for my book club.  Otherwise, I'd have read the first book and left it at that.  Twilight was fine.  It wasn't great, but it was better than I expected. Though, I have to admit, my expectations were historically low.  When you hand me a book and say "Hey! This was written by a Mormon housewife! It's about teenage vampires in love!" it doesn't encourage me to dive right in. Plus, I'm a little old for these books. I got them from the library, and you should have seen me trying to sneak out of the young adult section unnoticed with a stack of five 500 plus page books in my arms.

I finished New Moon last night, and it was, I am not kidding, 500 pages of Bella whining about Edward.  Boo HOO! Edward left me!  BOO HOO! I want to die!  BOO HOO my new boyfriend is a werewolf!  My werewolf boyfriend and my vampire boyfriend are blood enemies! WAH! SOB! WHINE!  By the end of the book I turned to John (who'd been waiting up for me to finish the book with the hopes that "hot teenage vampire lovin'" was going to turn into him getting some last night) and said "Wow, I'm glad that's over.  Gotta psych myself up for the next two.  Ugh"

Maybe it's because I'm not a romantic.  Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager.  Maybe it's because I just don't like book series' in general.  Hell, it took me FIVE books before I really got into Harry Potter.  And I forced my way through the Golden Compass trilogy and ended up wishing I could get that month of my life back.

I'm starting Eclipse today, and I just hope that it'll get better.  All these people who love the books (who aren't horny teenagers) can't all be wrong.  But I'm not sure I'll ever feel like nothing more than a dirty old woman reading about 17 (or, I guess 108 in vampire years) year old Edward's chiseled marble chest and his smoldering amber eyes and his velvety bedroom voice.  GAH! *shudder*  

Quickies

Post partum shed:

My hair is falling out in clumps. I'd be worried, except this happened three months after I had Alex and even, to a lesser degree, after my miscarriage.  I need a haircut, but I'm embarrassed about it. My hair is everywhere, and just running my fingers through it yields a handful of strands that have decided to jump ship.  There's nothing I can really do about it other than wait it out.  It'll either stop falling out or it will all fall out. Either way, there is an end in sight.

:::

Poop your way to weight loss:

I've been on the Sugar Busters! eating plan for almost a week now and it's going great!  I've re-lost the two I gained and even lost an extra pound.  So the grand total is: 17 total pounds lost, three pounds of that for the PHM October challenge.

I'm not feeling deprived at all.  It's not really a "low carb" diet like I used to do because I am allowed whole grain breads, pastas, tortillas, etc.  The downside to it though is that whole grain products are very high in fiber, which is good, but I'm spending a lot of time in the bathroom.  WAY more time than I'm used to.  I've always been regular, but this is ridiculous!  I'm pretty sure that those three pounds aren't actual fat or even water weight if you know what I mean.  But on the up side, I'm feeling...cleansed :)

:::

Chomper:

The baby's teeth have become a problem. Just when I was thinking that breastfeeding couldn't be going any better, that sure, I could do this for a whole year, the kid grows two teeth and starts acting like a little piranha every time he nurses.  Ow. OW!

:::

Fluffy:

Alex went up to John yesterday and said "Daddy!  You're fluffy!".  John has been off work a couple of weeks and hasn't shaved for at least two.  I LOVE IT!  John looks mighty sexy with a full beard.  I've got at least two more weeks of fluffy John before he shaves it to go back to work.  During that time I plan on lobbying hard for a goatee.

:::

Fancy and the cat:

Fancy is readjusting to living with us, and she has proven to be a wonderful addition to our family.  Well, unless you ask The Damn Cat, who is not happy one little bit about having her around.  Alex and Fancy spend a lot of time trying to fish the cat out from under our bed, Alex on one side, Fancy on the other and the cat hissing and spitting at the both of them (don't worry, she doesn't have claws).  There are times though, usually when the kids are asleep and John, Fancy and I are watching TV in bed, where The Damn Cat comes up on the bed to cuddle with us.  There will be a brief "Stare down" between her and the dog, but Fancy always looses, gets bored and falls asleep.  The cat will lay down, mere inches from Fancy, and snooze peacefully.  It gives me hope that this dog, and this cat, can eventually learn how to live together.

PHM - September Challenge - Update

Well, up until September 13th, I was doing fabulously on my September challenge. I'd lost six pounds (for a total loss of 16 pounds) and was well on my way to my 10 pound goal for the end of the month.  Then my mother in law died and have I mentioned I'm an emotional eater? Well, let's just say many, MANY Oreos were consumed that week, and I didn't set so much as my pinky toe inside the gym for the rest of the month. 

Then, we went on vacation and enjoyed the hell out of it.  Including all of the yummy, fattening foods at all the yummy fattening restaurants we went to.  And did I mention the Monte Cristo?  Oh GOD the Monte Cristo!  I practically licked my plate clean after slathering it with jelly and stuffing it into my face.

So, September challenge = fail.  But, there is good news!  I managed to only gain back two of the six pounds I'd lost at the beginning of the month, so I still lost four pounds in the month of September, which, I gotta say, shocked the hell out of me when I got on the scale this morning.  I'd fully expected to have gained not only the six pounds back, but a few extra for good measure.

While on vacation I read Sugar Busters! and Sugar Busters! FOR KIDS! (they are a little liberal with their exclamation points) and have decided to put my entire family on the diet.  I'd already been following a low glycemic diet, but I really liked the simplicity of the Sugar Busters plan.  Essentially, if it's white, don't eat it.  This includes potatoes, white bread, white rice, and enriched pasta.  If it's full of sugar, don't eat (or drink) it.  If it's overly processed and packaged, don't eat a lot of it. And make sure you get plenty of good foods like whole grain breads, vegetables and fruits. 

I really think that this way of eating will benefit all four of us (Max will benefit via breast milk for the time being).  John and I will loose weight, improve our blood chemistry, lower our cholesterol and maybe it could even do some good for John's bad kidneys.  Alex doesn't need to loose weight, in fact, he could stand to gain quite a bit of weight, but I suspect it will help his hyperactivity and perhaps most importantly, help him get into the habit of healthy eating, that will benefit him for the rest of his life.

So, thus begins PHM - October Challenge!  I will again set my sights on a 10 pound weight loss goal.  I will return to the gym, at least four days a week, and stick to my low glycemic / Sugar Busters! diet.

And...GO!