Being Busy, Staying Healthy

So busy, busy, busy. I'm still doing at-home writing assignments to earn some extra money (I think I mentioned that before), so most of my "free" time is spent working on those projects. I'm earning a couple of hundred extra dollars a month, so it's worth the effort. Kids are expensive, yo. Especially four of them. What sucks about the writing assignments is that I have even less down time for myself now.

Also, I've been working out at home most nights lately, which takes me about 30 minutes at this point. It's not much, I know, but it's better than nothing, right? My workouts are also cutting into the time I used to have to relax and zone out. I'd rather be working out than just sitting around, I guess, but I still haven't gotten over that horrible hump that I always face when I first start exercising again and reached the point where it no longer feels like a giant hassle and just feels like a regular part of my routine. I'll get there. Soon, I hope.

I've been on a bit of a health kick lately. I've made lots of changes to our diet at home and I'm still working out ways to improve our food choices. More on that later. I have some kind of weird purple potato roasting in my oven right now that I have to attend to...

New House Update

The bank for the house we put an offer on has accepted our short sale price. This is good, but there are still a lot of steps before closing, so no celebrating yet.

Next up is the inspection. Our inspector will look the house over next week and report back. Depending on what he (she?) finds, everything either continues according to plan, we offer a lower price based on the new findings, or we back out of the sale completely.

I guess this will be an interesting week, no matter what the results of the inspection turn to out to be.

New Shoes... Again

The kids all got new shoes today. Current shoe sizes:

Henry = 13 (He has the biggest feet! He's still only 3 years old!!!)
Elise= 8
Georgia= 10
Clark= 6

Brush Your Kids' Teeth, People

I had a dental cleaning today. The hygienist told me that I had the cleanest teeth she'd seen all day and with the least amount of build up. Then she said, "And I've seen several kids today. So that's saying something."

Look. I bust my ass to take care of my babies but I do a shit job of taking care of myself. If I was the star patient at the dentist's office today, something is seriously wrong with the world.

Now I Understand Why You're a Little Brat

There's this kid who has speech therapy on one of the same days as Henry. In fact, he and Henry are often in a group session together. The kid is a total brat. I hate to say that about a 4 year old, but he is.

Every day that he's there at speech therapy, he comes running into the waiting room and immediately starts destroying things. He grabs toys out of other kids' hands, throws stuff across the room, dumps kids out of the chairs they're sitting in, tries to pick up babies, etc, etc, etc. All the while, his mother busies herself talking to the receptionist and attempting to not notice what her son is doing.

At first I didn't say anything to the kid because his mother is right there and I didn't want to cross any boundaries. But eventually it became apparent that his mother is not interested in disciplining him and so, as there is clearly no boundary to cross, I started to try to keep his behavior somewhat in check whenever he's around my kids. I mean, every once in a while his mom will turn and look at him and snap his name and threaten to "tell his daddy" or whatever, but for the most part she doesn't say anything and he certainly doesn't listen to her.

Recently, we arrived to speech therapy a few minutes late and this kid's mom was standing outside smoking a cigarette. I thought that they must have already taken the kids back to their therapy session and I was feeling disappointed that we were so late. But we walked into the waiting room and there was that bratty kid, literally trying to snatch a cell phone out of one of the other mother's hands while she tensely tried to explain that it is not his phone, it is her phone, and he cannot have it to play with. Bratty kid then ran over to a one year old baby and tried to dump her out of the chair she was sitting in.

I was super pissed. What kind of mother leaves her 4 year old unsupervised (or expecting the other parents in the vicinity to supervise her child for her) while she stands outside and smokes a cigarette? Especially if you know your kid has behavioral problems? She couldn't wait 5 minutes for the therapist to come and get her son for his therapy session? She had to smoke a cigarette RIGHT THEN? I was about to go talk to the receptionist and ask her to talk to the kid's mother and let her know that she needs to better supervise her son before his session begins, but right then all of the therapists came out and started to gather up the kids and there was a moment or two of chaos.

In all of the hubbub, the bratty kid (intentionally) pushed Clark over and Clark started crying. As I bent to pick Clark up, the mom came wandering in. She looked 100% high. She looked at her son with a droopy-eyed half smile and instinctively knew that he had done something to make Clark cry. "Did you hurt that baby?" And then she turns to me, "He's such a bully. A big ol' bully." And then she starts laughing. Her front teeth have always looked normal to me, but I could see some of her side teeth for the first time and they looked black and rotted. Meth mouth? That's my guess.

So now it all makes sense. And now I feel kind of sorry for the kid. Wasn't expecting that. Ugh.

Clark Loves Pikachu

Today Clark saw a short .gif of the cartoon character Pikachu, smiling and looking all happy. Clark went gaga. He started giggling and waving at my computer and saying, "Hi, bear!" Oh, he laughed and cooed at the cartoon forever. Then he started saying, "Cute! Bear's cute! Hi, bear! Cuuuuute!"

It was adorable. Clark's first crush.

Poop SOS

Poor Clarky was constipated today. He was having an especially rough time after his nap. He sat next to me on the couch, pushing and straining, and he was looking right into my eyes, crying, and saying, "Help me. Mommy. Help me."

It was heartbreaking. Seriously sad.

I worked his little legs back and forth and eventually a box of apple juice seemed to do the trick. He was a happy little baby after that was all done.

Movies for Our Toddlers

We've been watching movies with the kids lately. They don't quite have the stamina yet to sit through an entire movie, but if we break the movies into two sessions, they do all right.

The girls super love The Lorax. We've watched it twice recently. Georgia especially enjoys it and talks about it a lot. We've also watched Brave, Wall-E, and some movies featuring Tinkerbell. I can live without the Tinkerbell movies, but Husband and I have liked watching the other movies with the kiddos. It's fun to have "family movie time."

We've had a lot of failed movie attempts, too. Happy Feet didn't quite hold their attention. Older Disney movies like Dumbo and The Aristocats are too mature for them, with lots of talking and long places without enough action. It's pretty hit or miss, and we start every movie with the awareness that the kids might not be into it.

Elise is obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. She loves it as much as Georgia loves The Lorax. Maybe we'll watch Alice in Wonderland as a family for our next movie night. Oooh! Or the live-action one... do you remember that version? I think that Gene Wilder and Whoopi Goldberg are in it. Yes. That might be fun. Or a total bust. No telling with these kids.

BAM! Georgia is Potty Trained!

Like Elise and Henry, lately Georgia as been sleeping in just undies and no diaper. The first night we simply forgot to put a diaper on her, but she woke up dry and used the potty like a big girl. Husband and I figured it was a fluke, but we decided to test that theory and let Georgia sleep in just undies a second night. Still dry. A third night. Still dry.

So there you have it, folks. Three kids fully potty trained.

Do you have any idea how much money that saves us every month? I'm rich!!!

Elise's First Diaper-Free Night, Etc.

Elise went all night last night with just undies and no diaper on and no accidents. Yay! Two kids fully potty trained. I don't think my little heart can handle all of this excitement.

Georgia is still doing great with the potty training. She had an accident this weekend, but in fairness to her, she asked to go potty and we just couldn't get there quite in time. Bound to happen sooner or later.

In non-potty-related news, Clark is becoming a picky breakfast eater. He barely eats breakfast most days. This morning he refused to eat his English muffin by putting it on his head and insisting it was a hat.

"Clark, eat your food."

"Hat?"

"No, eat your English muffin."

"Hat."

"It's not a hat, it's an English muffin. Please eat."

"HAT!"

"Fine. Eat your hat."

"No."

More Potty Training Progress

Excellent news from the potty training front!

#1) Henry has not had a single nighttime accident since we took his pull-ups off full time. Boom. Potty training 100% complete!

#2) Elise has been keeping herself dry at nighttime, too. We've been talking to her about just wearing undies to bed at night. I think we'll try it soon. A few more dry nights in a row, and it'll be go time.

#3) Georgia went all day at school yesterday in undies with no accidents. I don't know what they use to motivate her at school, but at home, she loves getting stickers for going potty. Is it a reward or a bribe? WHO CARES! She's peeing and pooping on the potty!

I now only have ONE baby in diapers during the day! ONE BABY! This is amazing.

Another Update

I've been doing some small writing projects to earn a little bit of extra money, so I haven't had much time to blog lately. Here are a few things, off the top of my head, that have been going on as of late:

* Clark has his bottom left molar now and the right one is still trying to poke through. These bottom molars are giving him trouble. His first big teething problem, requiring middle-of-the-night Tylenol and extreme patience from Mommy and Daddy. Hopefully we'll see that right-side molar soon.

* In typical Georgia-fashion, she was late to perform, but now that she's committed to it, she is killing it at potty-training. She's always been slow to do things-- she was late walking, talking, using her cup with no lid-- but then when she decides to do it, she goes all out and suddenly just DOES it. The other day she said, "Mommy, I don't want to pee in my diaper anymore. Now I wear undies and pee-pee on the potty." And that was it.

She's not quite ready for no diaper in public yet. I'm just not confident in her new-found ability to control her bladder. But we're rapidly moving in that direction. Awesome!

* Still waiting to hear back from the house seller's bank to see if our offer was approved. It's been over 6 weeks. Just waiting. Not so patiently. Hoping we'll get to move soon.

What's Going On Lately

Been busy. Here's a list of a few things that have been going on with the kids lately:

* Clark's bottom molars are coming in. They've been giving him some trouble at night. Poor fussy baby. Poor tired Mommy.

* We're still working on potty training with Georgia. She's slowly, slowly, slowly getting it. Yesterday and today she peed in her underwear three times each day. Three times! The only way we can get her to even make any effort to use the potty is to put undies on her, though. If she has a diaper (or pull-up) on, she doesn't even try, she just uses the diaper.

Georgia did pee on the potty once yesterday, and then today she peed about 3 times and even pooped twice. So we're making progress. It's just annoying to mop pee off of the floor every few hours, when she doesn't make it to the potty.

* Henry hasn't had a single nighttime peeing accident since we took the pull-ups off at night. Woo hoo! (I probably just jinxed myself...)