Goooodbyyyyyye Diapers....... I hope!

Last week when Munchkie's Daddy and Munchkie came to pick me up from work Munchkie's Daddy was telling me about how Munchkie had pooped in her diaper that morning.  So I said to her "Munchkie why did you poop in your pants?"  to which she responded while shrugging her shoulders "diapy on."  At that moment I knew that there was no need for diapers anymore.  Munchkie was perfectly capable of using the potty, but knew that she could be lazy and go in her diaper, so she did.  At home we had been trying to use undies, but at daycare we were sending her in diapers because I was afraid she would have too many accidents.   They finally told me that I needed to stop confusing her, that they are called accidents for a reason.  So, we sent her in underwear on Thursday.  I have at least 5 pairs of underwear, 6-7 outfits and 7+ pairs of socks in her bin at daycare, just in case, as required.  But I was still quite nervous.  And GUESS WHAT!  She came home in the exact same pair of underwear and pants that we sent her in!  I was so excited and so proud of her.

Today, I had several errands to run, but knew that I couldn't confuse her with diapers again.  I decided to be prepared and go with the understanding that my plans might change very quickly.  We first had to go to Target after dropping Munchkie's Daddy off at work.  Two stops to the potty there, with no results, but we left dry, so that was ok.  At Target I purchased a "piddle pad" for her car seat.  I've learned several times what a pain taking apart that carseat is! A waterproof pad couldn't hurt right?

During our parent-teacher conferences (yes, for our 2 year old), Munchkie's teacher said that it's a good idea to keep a potty in your car for times that there isn't a bathroom available or the public bathroom option is scaaaaary.  We obviously followed the experienced teacher's suggestion and put a small potty in the back of our car.

Today I got it all ready for our day of activities.  I have a small bucket of extra undies and a bucket of extra pants.  A waterproof mat and the toilet all set up.  I also have a package of wipes specifically for the car.  The best part is, we didn't even have to use it!  Yay!  We went through our entire day without any accidents!

Munchkie even said one time when we were just approaching the frozen food aisle "potty time Mama."  So I of course raced to the customer service to leave my cart, raced to the bathroom and came out of the experience with dry pants.

Now, I am completely expecting accidents to happen.  But I think that we have an underwear wearing toddler on our hands now.  I am so proud of her and so glad to be close to ditching the diapers.  I know we haven't been as dedicated to the potty training as we should have been probably, but it seems that now Munchkie is really ready.  She can tell when she has to go, and almost every time we put her on the potty she does go.  Sometimes we hear "too working!"  which translates, "it's not working," and so we give her something to drink and try again in a little while.

We also started using the sticker chart because I have found stickers all over our house in all kinds of inappropriate places.  On walls, washed onto shirts, on pieces of furniture and in coffee cups.  I hope that soon we will have this whole chart filled.

Anyone have any additional tips for potty training?  Since we are just winging this and trying to figure it out for ourselves, any advice is MUCH appreciated!

Change is Everywhere

You might have noticed a few changes to my blog recently.  I haven't decided if I'm finished making changes or if I will make a few more.  It's that time of year, things are changing outside, things are changing in our fam, cleaning out and changing wardrobes.  So why not my blog?

One change that I did want to point out was that you can now receive my blog posts in your email inbox.  This is one thing that I actually won't change again.  I do post on Facebook most of the time, but now you can read my posts without having to search Facebook.  There are a few other changes you might have noticed, I am trying a few things out to see how they do.

We'll see how I like the changes, just wait, there might be more soon.

Eat, Knit, Grow: Stuffed French Toast

I think breakfast is my favorite meal. I love stuffed french toast, so I will have to try this out. I don't know that I would necessarily consider this to be healthy however.

Calories 404
Fat 11.4g
Cholesterol 5mg
Sodium 425mg
Carbohydrates 61.1g
Dietary Fiber 6.5g
Sugars 28.8g
Protein 17.6g

Eat, Knit, Grow: Stuffed French Toast: "A few weeks ago I was in DC having a girls weekend, when the topic of breakfast came up. After about 30 minutes later, an idea was born for ..."

Aquarium Day....... Again....

I have been reading a book that my good friend sent me "I Don't Know How She Does it" by Allison Pearson and while I can relate to a lot of what is happening in the book, it also makes me feel so much better that maybe I do hold my life together.  I have laughed quite a bit in understanding of the situations and feel like there is finally a book I can relate to while being a working mom.  The pure exhaustion, intense guilt of going to work and desire to "make up" for the time spent away from family.  The book makes me feel legitimized in my feelings and helps me know that I am not the only mother who both loves and hates her job at the same time.  I hate to go because it's so hard to leave but when I'm there I love what I do.  Still, I think of the sacrifices that could be made to stay at home,  not leaving my daughter in the care and control of someone else.

In the book the main character, Kate Reddy, talks about what an awesome responsibility parenthood is.  She says that YOU decide what to teach your kids.  It's up to YOU to help them form their beliefs, morals and ways of life.  What you say, your children believe and your life is an example to them.  She talks about how hard it is to not want your kids to drink juice, but then you aren't there every day to enforce these rules, someone else, that you are paying to grow close to your child, is the one who decides how the rules are followed through.

Now all this to say that I have been overly sensitive lately about having to go to work and leave my daughter in the care of people whom I barely know.  I am giving them my daughter and my hard earned money.  Something seems slightly wrong about this.  So in my guilt, I have been trying to do fun things with Munchkie on my days off.  We have gone to the aquarium weekly for a couple of months now because she loves it so much.  We went to get our car washed several times in the last couple months just for fun, and I let her walk along beside me in Target because I want the time we spend together to be happy memories for both of us.

This week when we were at the aquarium I noticed (and obviously was bothered by it, or I wouldn't be blogging) that the other moms were giving me this look.  We go first thing in the morning, just minutes after the aquarium opens, on a weekday when there aren't many people there.  The moms look at me and give me this look.  The only way I know how to describe it is "Aren't you just so glad that we get to stay home and do things with our kids?  We are providing so much more to them by staying home and enriching their lives with outings such as the aquarium."  I really am not imagining these looks.  At first I thought I was just crazy, but then I realized that every single mom gave me that look.  And the two dads that were there with their children had almost guilty looks on their faces.  Probably similar to what I was feeling, the "I work so much and spend so little time with my children that I take them to places like the aquarium so we can have a good time together and talk about it for several days afterword while I continue to work and not be home."  I wanted to punch these moms in the face and tell them that they have no idea.

While Munchkie and I were at the children's touch and explore tank, feeling sea stars and crabs, there were three moms, with their kids running around uncontrolled, talking.  I overheard their conversation and had to roll my eyes.  They were discussing the academies they were applying to get their kids into.  The one mom asked if they had been to visit a certain academy and the responding mom waved a hand in the direction of a crazy young boy running around saying "well I don't know if we would be able to get in because we have to work on such and such."  The boy couldn't even talk yet.  Seriously?  You spend your days discussing what you have to work on with your preverbal toddler to get them into an academy so they can be ivy league material?

This reminded me that there are many positives about the life we live.  Munchkie goes to a daycare where she is surrounded by kids of many different backgrounds and ethnicities.  She is learning to work well with others, use manners, share, respect those around her and look up to children older than her. She is well loved and knows that Mommy and Daddy can relax and have fun with her. We both work and she sees that working is a necessary part of life.  Munchkie understands that household chores are shared by both Mommy and Daddy.  She knows that she does not get everything she asks for and that she needs to work to achieve her goals.

While it still kills me to go to work, I also know that we have our priorities straight.

Hair Clip Review

Recently a blog that I follow had a giveaway of a hair clip by Lilla Rose and so I of course entered the contest.  I went to the website to check them out and part of the contest entry was to "like" it on Facebook, which I did.  These clips sparked my interest and I decided that although I didn't win the giveaway, I wanted to try it out.  I get bored very quickly with my hair and then tend to do something that I regret later that usually involves dye or scissors.  I thought that these clips might be a way to change things up for less money and not be quite as permanent.

After pouring through all of the option,s I selected two different kinds in two different sizes and bought them on Monday.  They arrived in the mail yesterday (Thursday)!  And I choose the cheapest mailing option.  They are speedy!  I tried out several styles last night, making Munchkie's Daddy take pictures, and also tried the small sized one on Munchkie.  She was able to wear it well until she wanted to exercise with Munchkie's Daddy and I, then it just slid out of her smooth baby hair with the jumping around.

Then I put the clip to the test.  I put it in my hair when we got to the aquarium today, chased Munchkie around the aquarium all day, came home, took a nap and then took pictures in my bathroom mirror to see what it looked like.  I have to say that I am impressed with how well it held my hair, it did take a couple attempts to get it to feel tight.  And it was much more comfortable than wearing a ponytail.  The only thing is that I'm not sure if it makes my hair look fun or if I look like a Duggar. 

I decided the best way to show these clips was just to post a lot of pictures.  So here I go.

I didn't quite understand how these clips work.  The two parts are attached and then the pin part has grooves in it that keeps it in place.

See how it's attached to the figure eight part?  Then you push the pin under your hair, as close to your scalp as you can, and push it through the loop of the figure eight part on the other side.

The figure eight part is very flexible and so can bend around different styles of hair.

I tried out the small one on Munchkie.  It's small, but just a little too big/heavy to stay in her hair like this.  I think it will work out well on my hair if I'm just going to do it halfway or maybe even just a ponytail if I can get all my hair to fit.

I did a twist with Munchkie's hair and stuck it in.  This was the hairstyle that held up until Jillian's 30 Day Shred started, and the jumping jacks were just too much for it.

These are my hair in just a simple twist.  My hair stood up a little too much for my liking. 

And then the basic ponytail.  Nothing too exciting.

Here's a random twist.

And then of course the classic french twist.

And then this is my hair after today's activities.  I didn't look in the mirror and had no idea what it looked like until I got home and took pictures.

So.  Tell me your thoughts.  What do you think about this clip?  How does it look?  Do I look like I should be wearing a long skirt?

Spring Cleaning

This weekend we took advantage of the Gap Get & Give discount and did some shopping to update our wardrobes (it's amazing the freedom you feel to have a monthly car payment off your shoulders!).  Since most of my clothes were bought off a clearance rack, therefore awkwardly fitting or just plain didn't fit at all, I needed to add some pieces to my limited clothing selection.  Munchkie's Daddy and I are looking forward to a trip we are taking in May for our anniversary (five years already!) so we also had to make sure we had appropriate clothing for the dress requirements and extreme heat of a Riveria Maya resort.

We first headed to the aquarium to let Munchkie have some fun and tire out.  Then we headed to the outlets for some serious shopping.  After several hours pouring over racks and revisiting dressing rooms we finally arrived home with our purchases.  I, of course always have to analyze the things I spend my money on and so laid out all of my clothes to make sure that they all had my approval for a second time.

Then I explained to Munchkie's Daddy the importance of cleaning out our closets, that we have clothes we haven't worn in a long time. One of my favorite blogs, and the one that introduced me into the world of blogging, SimpleMom.net, is having a several week serious of cleaning out your home.  This past week's was the closet and I realized that our closets do need some attention.  Although I have taken several garbage bags of clothes to various clothing drop boxes over the past several months, I still have clothes that I go to put on and realize that they are no where near fitting me anymore.  Time to free up the oh-so-precious-and-quite-limited closet space.  So after standing in our closets throwing clothes behind us, my pile looked something like this.

How does one even have space to hold all of these misfitted articles of clothing?  We have had our bed raised so we could fit storage containers underneath our bed and that is where most of my clothes have been stored.  This is an especially bad place to keep them because it's out of sight, out of mind.  Thankfully I had brought it down to two tubs previous to this extreme clean so there wasn't nearly as much to go through.  I had to tell myself as I pulled each article out to examine.

When did you last wear this?  How do you feel while wearing it?  Does it flatter you?  Is it even in the right size? 

If it didn't pass these questions.  Behind me it went.  It took several minutes to muster up the courage to throw some of them behind me.  It's a little piece of history that's being discarded and thrown out of your life.  There were several times when I knew something needed to go, but couldn't do it, so I would hold it up for Munchkie's Daddy and say "What do you think of this?"  Each time hoping that he would say, "Oh I love that, don't throw it away."  Those words never came out of his mouth.  I think once he did say "Well that is a nice dress" and it wasn't even something I wanted to keep.  Haha!  By the time I was finished with this closet massacre my closet looked quite bare and I wished that I would have looked a little harder while I had that coupon available.  It is actually kind of fun to shop for clothes now that I can get normal sizes.  I don't have to be embarrassed by how I look in something or what size I have to find.  I've been dreading it for so many years now that I go in, get down to business, and get out before many tears were shed.

This is now every article of clothing that I own.  Other than socks, underwear, etc.  I have the above tub of Tshirts, pj pants and hoodies that will go back under my bed.  The pair of capris will hang right there on my closet door.  Those are my next motivator.  I bought them because I can button them, but they definitely aren't comfortable or well fitting yet.  I need something to look at and to motivate me to not late night binge or unnecessarily carb load due to stress induced cravings and moments of lost self control.  I hope that these capris are just the motivation that I need.  Although, it would be better to hang them from the pantry or refrigerator, I will have to settle with my closet door.    

After our cleaning time we filled three trash bags full of clothes.  I will need to finish up all of our laundry so I can pull out the items I have been wearing that I shouldn't be.  Such as the burnt orange XXXL top that looks hideous.  Needless to say, it makes me feel very good to have a closet with some nice looking items in it.  It is cleaned out and organized just the way I like it.  I can go up into our room and sigh, because it's not an overwhelming mess or a job too big for me to tackle.  It's already taken care of.  And I can pull any item out of my closet and feel confident wearing it.  No more hours spent trying on and then discarding clothes in front of the mirror attempting to find something in my closet that is wearable.

Sometimes Kitchen Disaster Strikes

I have not had very good luck in the kitchen lately.  Everything I make turns out very poorly from yogurt to birthday cake and I am getting pretty discouraged.  When practicing for Munchkie's bday cake the initial trial run was horrible.  The outside was crispy and close to burnt while the inside was a formed uncooked dough.  Then when it came time to make the actual cakes for her party they all got burnt and I had to cut them all up to get the burnt pieces off.

Last night my inlaws were here and when everyone had gone to bed I realized that we had literally nothing for breakfast.  I had two overly ripe bananas and so decided to make banana bread for breakfast.  First I took it out once the toothpick came clean and when I went to get it out of the pan liquid batter came out.  Neat.  So I put it back in the pan and cooked it for another half an hour.  By this point in time everyone had been asleep for hours before me.  When we woke up, I put Munchkie in her high chair.  Got her all psyched up for bo-non-a bread.  Cut into the bread.  Solidified dough.  Literally dough.  

So then I cut off a couple pieces and put them in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes in the hopes that it would cook.  Nope.  Basically just firmer dough with burnt edges.  Still not edible.  So then I had to go wake Chris up and send him to go get bagels for breakfast, which is what I was trying to avoid by staying up making banana bread.

So my lesson learned.  When baking, don't mess with the chemistry because I almost failed chemistry in both high school and college.  I was so tired that I made some mistakes and tried to mess with the chemistry of baking.  I only had two bananas and the recipe called for 3 1/2 so I added two chopped pears.  I then added an extra 1/3 cup flour because it was easier to put 2 cups in instead of 1 2/3 cups.  Then I dumped in baking powder when it was supposed to be baking soda.  Bad decisions.  It was supposed to be amazing banana bread.  If someone wants to make Flour's Famous Banana Bread and let me know how it goes when the recipe is followed I would appreciate it.

I finally was able to make something successfully tonight and it gave me hope that maybe I am not a kitchen failure.  We had bought a pound of ground buffalo a while back and defrosted it yesterday so I tried to think of something to make with it.  Much to Munchkie's Daddy's chagrin I decided to make meatloaf.  I don't know that I've ever had meatloaf and I've definitely not had buffalo so I did a quick search to find a recipe.  I looked at it, then decided to do my own thing.  I hate ketchup and that was definitely not going in or on anything I was going to be eating.  This is my recipe and it turned out delicious.  We both really liked it.

Hidden Veggie Buffalo Meatloaf

1 pound ground buffalo
1 bell pepper (not green, too strong of a flavor)
1 cup chopped carrots
1/4 onion
2 egg whites
1/3 cup bread crumbs (I crunched up 8 crackers)
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 cup shredded chedder cheese
1/3 cup marinara sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put bell pepper, carrots, and onion in a food processor.  Puree if you're like us and don't like chunks of veggies or just chop up if you don't care.
3. Once chopped add basil, garlic, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce and food process until mixed.
4. In a large bowl mix together puree mix, ground buffalo, egg whites, bread crumbs and cheese.
5. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray/oil.
6. Press mixture into loaf pan and then pour marinara sauce over the top.
7. Cook for 1 hour or until center of meat is 160 degrees.
8. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

And here comes my favorite part of recipes.  The nutrition information if there are 6 servings.
Calories- 178
Fat 4.9g
Cholesterol- 56mg
Sodium- 188mg
Carbohydrates 7.4g
Fiber 1.2g
Protein 24.9g