Four

My sweet sweet Bear. Your birthday was yesterday and you woke up this morning and asked if today was your birthday too. You had so much fun yesterday milking the birthday special treatment. You have been asking all day when you get to turn five. I asked if we could just get through the age of four first.

You make my job so easy. You are the most helpful child with out me even asking. I used your wheelbarrow one day to put the picked weeds in. I moved on to doing something else and without me saying a thing, you wheeled it all the way to the back yard and dumped it for me. You set the table for every meal, you put all of your clothes away in the drawers. You even like to start loads of wash for me. You can do everything but put the soap in, not tall enough yet. And then you move the load over to the dryer. Your responsibilites also include bringing in the mail and the garbage can. You are also in charge of loading and emptying the dishwasher.

We started really working on your letter recognition and handwriting this year. You can almost recognize every letter and you can write about 75% of them without a problem. You have started sounding out words and the Bob books seem to be your favorites.

You love everything super hero. Superman, Batman, Ironman, Spiderman. I love watching you watch the movies because you get so into them and excited when the good guys win. You also love fighting dragons and can be found throughout the day with your sword and shield searching the house for fire breathing intruders.

You have a wonderful imagination. For quiet time you will sit and play with playdough or color for two hours and get upset when I say it is time to put it away. You love to do artsy things, and your "artwork" is starting to resemble things. Your people usually have heads that are connected to the belly button and then arms and legs protrude from there.

You are sweet, caring and so thoughtful. You still love to curl in my lap and cuddle. You still can't be with out your bear Doe. You love your sister with all of your might and claim that your job in life is to protect her from bad guys. You also tell me that you are going to grow up to be a good man. I have no doubt of that my son.

Your questions are still endless. You want to know how everything works and why things are the way they are. If I don't know, then we get on the computer and look it up. You love to watch documentaries. We watched one on Greece the other night and I was getting bored with it and turned the channel. You asked me to go back so that you could watch it. You then informed me that you wanted to go there someday. You love Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. And right now you are smitten with Little House on the Prairie. Mrs. Oleson is your favorite. But you also like to talk about Charles and how he works really hard to be a good daddy and take care of his kids.

You love Youtube because you can look up an endless supply of movies about bugs and spiders. Your favorite right now is the tarantula wasp. You want a snake. I said no. You love to collect all of the snails from my garden and play with them. And you could sit and dig in the dirt for hours and have the sky fall down around you and you wouldn't even notice.

You are forever keeping me laughing. Whether it is your prayers about broccoli or pulling on your private parts in the bath tub telling me that that is how cows are milked, you keep me on my toes.

I love you baby boy. Here is to a life time of these happy birthdays.

The Non-Diet diet

So on the 8th of April I started a different way of life. I am tired of being fat. I am tired of my clothes not fitting. When some people go through stressful times they lose weight. I am unfortunately not one of them. I find comfort in food and I had the rolls to prove it. After everything that happened last year, I put on a massively embarrassing amount of weight. Last summer I tried weight watchers, and while that may work for some people, I am not one of them. The enormous amount of points they gave me (33) I just used to eat crap. So as long as I wasn't eating over 33 points a day I felt free to eat smores all day long.
So my dad sent me an email and I opened it and watched this little video presentation of "The Diet Solution" I thought I would give it a try, the only thing I had to lose was $45 and some poundage.
So I made a pact with a friend and we decided to have our own "biggest loser" challenge. Actually it has just turned into us encouraging each other and swapping recipes. And that is fine. It has been a big help to have her along side me this whole time. I say that figuratively because she is really half a world away.
The first week I lost 6.5 pounds. Then I went on vacation. And as much as I tried to "be good" I did go to In-n-out four times while I was there. But I got home two weeks later and I had lost another three pounds!!! Yay. I lost another couple pounds and then plateaued. For two weeks I went between the same two or three pounds. Got some advice from my brother, and implemented his ideas and lost another couple pounds. So thus far, a month and a half later I am 12.5 pounds lighter. I am very very happy. I am down a dress size and I feel great.
The diet is not a diet. I get to eat an enormous amount of food every day. It is just the type of food that matters. Nothing processed, which wasn't too hard to cut out since we didn't eat alot of that anyways. Well, my kids didn't, I did. :) Everything has to be natural, no more nasty chemicals and preservatives that I can't pronounce going into our bodies. Everything we eat has one or two ingredients on the side of the container if it even comes from a container. No Jif peanut butter. Since when you roast nuts it takes out all of the nutrients. So we have switched to raw almond butter and eating raw nuts and seeds. Which isn't too bad. The other thing that was a change was the amount of protein. Protein, meat at every meal. So no more throwing some cereal in a bowl, pouring milk on it and calling it breakfast. And no more slapping some peanut butter in a sandwich and cutting up an apple with some string cheese and calling it lunch. Every meal so far has been hot and prepared. Sausage, bacon, eggs, oatmeal for breakfast and big meals for lunch and dinner. I kind of like it. It makes me feel good to know that I am giving them a good start to the day and that I am putting good quality things in their little bodies. A few weeks ago, I got an email encouraging me to cut all wheat and dairy from my diet. That has been hard. I am a carbahollic and could finish off a half a loaf of french bread on my way home from the grocery store. I have cheated a few times and had pitas, but I refrain from getting sauce. I got some raw milk, which I am pretty sure is the same as if I walked up to the cow and squirted that while stuff straight into my mouth. I do drink a small glass of that a day. I still have treats every now and then. Last week I had a small slurpee. I am afraid if I deprive myself that one day I am just going to snap and binge eat everything I want.
I am continuing my daily 1.2 mile walk. And then in the mornings I have started my muscle building again. I just want to feel like my old self. I realize that I will never look the way I used to pre-kid, but I want to feel good and confidant again.
My goal is another twenty-thirty pounds. I am very motivated and feeling great about it.

I am so tired I can't even think of a post for this.

Let's see, last Saturday I put the kids in the car and drove down to San Diego so they could spend some time with their daddy and I could pick up the new trailer. We got down there Sunday night with no problems, man my kids are road trip warriors. I broke down and bought a dvd player for the car. Only needed it once and that was out of my own laziness. I was so tired of making up stories about dragons that I popped a movie in on Sunday just so I could have some quiet time in my head. :)
Bear is in a dragon phase right now. Ever since seeing How to Train your Dragon. So the whole ride down and every time we were in the car or at bed time, he wanted to hear stories about me growing up with dragons. Man I can come up with some good stuff on the fly too. And then after I was done with my story, Bear would tell me a story from when he was a "little boy." It was suspiciously similar to the story I had just told, but it was so fun to hear him imagining things.
I also taught my kids how to get big rigs to honk at you on the road. And we learned how to play I-spy. I love road trips and the time you get to spend in the car with each other that I hate ruining it by playing movies all of the time. My kids have some awesome imaginations and sometimes they just like to sit and quietly look out the window.
So we got down there and went to pick up the new trailer, I was so so so nervous. Holy cow. I picked it up an hour and a half away from SD. It took me two and a half hours to get back I was driving so slow. I was getting passed by big rigs. But we made it back safely and camped out in the trailer until last night.
Saturday we went to Disneyland. I don't think I could ever get tired of that place. We were there for nine hours. Bear really loved it this time. He kept begging to go on more rides. We went on Nemo, Star Wars, Big Thunder Railroad, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Pinochio, and Snow White, and the Carousel. We stood in line for an hour to get the princess' signatures. Bug loved it. She is such a girly girl. She got a little purse and a pair of gloves and wore them around all dainty for the rest of the day. Bear got a shield and sword and has not parted with them since. Today he rode in the car with his shield on and his sword at the ready. Tonight he is in bed in the same position.
We got to go and see my grandparents and cousin Sarah and her two sweet girls. I thought for sure Bug would take to Big M. as they are only three weeks apart. But she went for the baby, Little M. She is such a little momma. I think she would of crawled in the car seat with the baby if I let her. She wanted to stroke the babys head and face and rock the baby while singing to her. Sarah was so patient with her. And then Grandma got to hold Little M and Bug freaked out because she wanted to hold the baby. So she got to go into the couch and hold the "baby" that weighs five pounds less than her. :) She was happy after that though. Then we took the kids to a place called Ferrells for some lunch and milkshakes.
I introduced my kids to milkshakes this trip. They had three of them each while we were there. I thought they were going to lose their minds in excitement. Probably not going to let them have them again, but it made a nice treat. So did In-N-Out. We do not do fast food at all and man was it a treat to be able to get that while we were there. They weren't too crazy about the french fries though.
So we left this morning, I hitched up the trailer without any complications (yay!) and we headed out at four am. Kids were awake for the first hour or so and then Bug nodded off followed soon after by Bear. We stopped at seven for some breakfast in the trailer and changed into some clothes. It is so nice having this thing and not having to get them dressed in some rest stop parking lot and being able to give them a real breakfast. We drove ten hours today and only stopped twice to get out and stretch the legs. Breakfast and lunch. These kids are troopers. So now we are in Stockton CA. Smells like wet cat food here. Really gross. I need to get to bed and get ready for the next leg of our trip. Another ten hours tomorrow.

Potty Training?

I end that with a question mark because I am not sure if we are potty training or not.
I am a firm believer in the child letting you know when they are ready for underwear, I don't believe in forcing it on them. I don't do this for the sake of the child. I do it for my own mental health, the last thing want to do is go through the pain of potty training a child that is not ready. So every time Bug has been put on the toilet it has been because she asked for it. This last week she has pottied at least two times a day on the toilet. I thought this was pretty good but didn't think too much of it. Well last night she got up there and started grunting and sure enough she "dropped a duece" as Bear would say. She was so happy and her chest was puffed out in pride. She even got to make a couple phone calls to tell people she went "poo poo potty." This morning she woke up and asked to go potty right away. So far today she has kept her diaper dry and even went poop one more time, all on her own. She must have a really small bladder though because she goes at least once an hour and has stuff come out every time.
I do not know if I am ready for this. She is only 22 months old. She is my baby, she isn't old enough to be potty trained.

Passing it on

So a couple weeks ago I bought Jamie Olivers Food Revolution. He asks in the beginning of the book to pass on the recipes to friends. So that is what I am doing. The cookbook is awesome and I recommend it, I have tried a few recipes now and I have loved everyone of them. The best part is that the kids have loved them as well.


This recipe says it will feed 4-6, I halved it and still had plenty of leftovers after feeding the three of us.


MACARONI AND CAULIFLOWER CHEESE BAKE
Half a head of cauliflower
Grate 8oz of Cheddar Cheese and 4oz of Parmesan cheese
Melting the cheese while the noodles and cauliflower cook

Getting ready for the cheese sauce

Cheese sauce with parsley mixed in

You can serve it just like this, or you can stick it under the broiler to make it all warm and bubbly. I sprinkled some garlic bread crumbs on the top for a little extra flavor

Yum

1/2 head of cauliflower

8 ounces Cheddar Cheese

4 ounces Parmesan cheese

a small bunch of fresh Italian parsley

sea salt

1 pound dried macaroni elbows

1 cup of sour cream

Remove the outer green leaves from the cauliflower and discard * Slice the end off the cauliflower stalk * Cut the head into small florets * Halve the thick stalk length ways, then slice thinly * Grate the cheddar and Parmesan into a large heatproof bowl * Finely chop the parsley.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil * Add the macaroni and all your cauliflower and cook according to the macaroni package directions * Place the bowl of cheese over the saucepan and add the sour cream * Carefully stir every so often until the cheese is smooth and melted * If the waters boils up beneath the bowl, turn down the heat a bit * Add all of the chopped parsley to the melted cheese and season with a pinch of salt and pepper * Carefully remove the bowl of cheese and set aside * Drain the macaroni in a colander over a bowl, reserving the cooking water * Return the pasta to the pan, pour the cheese on and stir * It should have a lovely, silky consistency, but if it is too thick add a splash of your cooking water to thin it out * At this point you can either serve it or finish it under the broiler to make it crispy and golden * Transfer it to your baking dish and place under the broiler *

Cow Complex

It all started last week when we were watching Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe was on a dairy farm and the show was about cows, how to clean them, milk them, and help them give birth including c-sections. It was pretty interesting and educational and the dirty humor went over their heads.
It showed how they put them all up on a big wheel and hook them up to pumps and milk them. We loved the part while they gave birth, they walk around with hooves and nose sticking out of them for a couple hours and then they lay down, mooo a lot and out comes the calf. I even got a little teary and Bear had lots of good questions. Then came the part where they had to give momma cow a C-section. They showed it all, cutting her skin and three layers of muscle and then the uterus. While they were doing this, I told Bear that this was how he was born. He looked at the screen wide eyed and then at me and then back at the screen, a look of pure horror spreading across his face. I knew then that I had made a mistake in sharing that information. But you can't unring a bell. So I explained to him how it didn't hurt at all and that was the only way he could of been born. It all worked out okay and mommy is fine. He then told me he was sorry. :(

So today we were riding in the car and driving past the cow farm on our way home. He randomly asked me if someday he could milk a cow. Here is how the conversation went from there:
Me: "sure, someday if we ever have the opportunity, you can milk a cow. Do you want to milk one to drink the milk?"
Silence for a good ten seconds.
Him: "No, why would I drink the milk?"
Me: "Because that is what you do when you milk a cow, you use that milk to drink."
Him(totally disgusted): "I do not want to drink cows milk."
Me: "You drink cows milk every day."
Him: "No I do not! I drink milk from the refrigerator!"
Me: "Where do you think that milk comes from?"
Him: "The store."

So now he has sworn off cows milk and he thinks it is so gross we drink milk from another animals "boo boos." Which I have to admit, after watching Dirty Jobs, I couldn't drink milk for a few days, I know that that is where milk comes from, but it still kind of grossed me out.

He did however inform me that he won't drink cows milk but if I could get some dinosaur milk for him he would drink that.

All by myself...

After four and a half years, my body is my own again. Since September of 2005, I have been growing children or breastfeeding, and for a little bit, I was doing both.

Like with Bear I swore I would let her wean herself. She would know when she was done. Bear went until 18 months when I was three months pregnant. She was at twenty months and still breastfeeding. It was just a morning feeding but it was 30 minutes long. For the big weekend away, I started to wean her. We went every other day. I would distract her in the mornings with a cup of milk or breakfast. It went well. She did fine. When I got back she asked for "boo boo" and I let her nurse, I did one side and was done. It hurt! So now we are done. She still asks for it every once in a while, usually when she is tired or gets hurt but is easily distracted with a cookie or something else.

The best part is? I get to wear pretty bras that don't have a clicky sound in them!

Sometimes I wonder if I share too much information on the internet. :)