I'm doing it

David has a Weight Watchers "At Work" program available to him, at very little cost. We both need to drop some weight and WW is supposed to be a great way to do it, but our budget is tight. He told me this weekend that he signed up last week and has all of the program materials. He will go to meetings each week and weigh in, and I will track everything at home & just weigh in at home. We waited until today to start since I wanted to do some serious meal planning. When I got on the scale this morning I was STUNNED at the number! I knew I had gained weight between Christmas & now, but I didn't realize JUST HOW MUCH!! I started a new exercise program last week and hopefully between that & WW I will drop that weight & then some. I really want to lose 60 lbs. I used to say 50, until I got on the scale this morning! I've no one to blame but myself.

Today I have used 14 points so far, that leaves me 20 points for a snack & dinner. I also plan to exercise as soon as my lunch settles in. I probably won't "give myself" extra points for the exercise, unless I am just really hungry later. But so far I haven't been hungry at all. I think I'm in good shape for today. I am adding a weight loss ticker so if you want to follow along with my progress you can. I'm sure I'll post about it occasionally too.

We didn't fall off the earth

Wow! It's been a long time, so I thought I'd let whoever checks in know that we didn't fall off the face of the earth, or get smothered in the wave pool, or get eaten up with the Easter candy. No, I just tried to avoid the computer while we were gone, and since we've been home...well there's no excuse. No excuse besides the laundry, house cleaning, and all of that catch up that you have to do when you get home. Plus I've actually been trying to exercise when I can get Scarlett & Matthew to nap at the same time. I've also been busy doing some more freezer cooking!

I promise to get back to blogging regularly. I miss it - I need somewhere to hash out my feelings & frustrations, and I need somewhere to document what fun things the kiddos are up to. We had a great vacation. I'm sure I'll be sharing stories for a while. We've been back home a couple of weeks, I THINK I've caught up on the blogs that I read, and soon I'll catch up on mine!

But yeah, we're alive & well.

Vacation...kind of?

Just a quick note to say I won't be around much, if at all, for a couple of weeks. We are leaving today to go to Kalahari Resort/Waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio. David's boss recommended it - he said they have a very large area that is great for toddlers, with depths from 6-12 inches and a lot of small waterslides. They also have some infant jumpers in the water, so we think Scarlett will enjoy those.

After the waterpark visit, we will be going to visit my family, with a pit stop along the way to visit some of David's family. David will be leaving me & the kids at my parents' house and driving back on his own. My parents bought us a new dining room table & chairs so he is hauling that back. My mom is on spring break next week so we will enjoy a nice visit. We actually won't come home until April 2...any idea how hard it is to pack for 3 people & 3 different climates?!?! I am flying home with the kiddos - I haven't flown alone with them since October, and Scarlett is so much more mobile now, and louder too. I think I worry less about her wanting to get down & squirm than I do her squeals disturbing the plane full of people! Oh, and this time we have a layover too. We will stop in Atlanta for about 2 hours, right at lunchtime. I think this gives us just enough time to change diapers, grab lunch, and get to our flight. Maybe we'll have a little time for Matthew to run around!

I haven't figured out how I'm going to nurse Scarlett on this trip. She has started being quite the acrobat when she nurses. Frequently she squirms around, while attached to the boob, to a point where she is almost opposite of how she started. She also LOVES to STAND in my lap, kind of in a downward dog yoga pose. I wouldn't think it is easy to eat this way, but she seems to do just fine! So the times I have no choice but to nurse in public should be interesting!

Matthew is showing a LOT of interest in the potty! WOOHOO! Note I haven't really been encouraging much potty use, if I see him stop what he's doing & start grunting I will ask if he needs to potty, and we will sit him on it if he asks, and almost always put him on it before his bath. Well, Saturday morning as we ate breakfast he asked to potty. I had Scarlett in the highchair where she was screeching for her next bite, so I grabbed the potty chair & brought it in the dining room. (Yeah, I agree, it's gross to poop where you eat, but our dining room is big enough he wasn't right at the table!) Anyway, he peed and even pooped just a little! It was by no means a regular poop, but I was SO SO SO EXCITED that he did it just a little! It's a huge leap from where he's been!

He has asked to potty while at the dining room table for the past 3 nights, and he has peed in it each night. Of course, each night we have to take the potty chair in the dining room - he seems to like sitting on it in there better than in the bathroom! I think when we get back from our trip it will be time for me to get serious about training!

This morning at breakfast Matthew was telling me something - I thought he was asking for ketchup. I told him it would be silly to eat ketchup with applesauce (he had eaten the rest of his breakfast already), but he kept repeating. I finally heard him hiccup and realized he was trying to tell me he had the hiccups! I wouldn't have thought in my wildest dreams that he knew the word "hiccup!"

Just another quick note - I am loving the cloth diapers! I am not quite loving them enough to take them on our trip, but just because I don't know what we would do about a diaper pail. I'm sure I could get suggestions from some of the cloth diapering groups I've seen, but I haven't really had time to check. Maybe for the next trip! I hope to be completely on cloth soon after we return.

Ok, that got long, just figured I would share the latest. Now I'm off to do another load of laundry, wash the dishes, and finish packing! Hope you all have a Happy Easter and a great couple of weeks!

Recipe Friday - Mom's Meatloaf

This is the best meatloaf I've ever tasted! Of course a lot of people think their mom's (or grandma's) cooking is the best, but in this case, I'm right! :) And it is great for freezing - lots of times when I make it I will make extra for the freezer.

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped (optional)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon accent
1 tube crushed saltines
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Simmer tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and mustard. Mix ground beef, onion, bell pepper, egg, salt, accent, crackers, and pepper. Pour about 3/4 of the sauce over the meat mixture and mix well. Shape into a loaf and put in baking dish. Pour remaining sauce on top. Bake at 400* for 45 minutes.

Oh, and the orthotist

We did actually make it to the orthotist appointment on time, and Matthew got his new shoes. These shoes feel much softer than his old ones, but what I heard about how much lighter they are doesn't seem to be true. No biggie, Matthew was used to the weight of his others and these aren't much heavier. They tried the shoes & bar on him and he wanted to walk in them (usually when we go shoe shopping we want to see him walk in them) but the girl wouldn't let him try. Well, he did walk around a little in the shoes without the bar attached. The snap-on/off bar is the best thing about these shoes since they will make things much easier in the mornings. With his old shoes/bar we had to be particular about putting him in pajamas with snaps in the legs or it was very hard to change his diaper in the morning. We still used "pants" pjs, but if he happened to have a big poop, it was very hard to change him without taking his shoes off. And I like to leave them on until after breakfast, so it was aggravating.

They checked that everything was ok and made some adjustments, then wanted to take them off and he really wanted them on. I was ok with him wearing them home, but the girl there was pretty insistent. Fortunately he didn't have a fit (like he does with me!) when she took them off. Last night getting ready for bed he was excited to wear his new shoes. He told us he wanted to walk in them so we let him try. These are lower to the ground than his others, just the way the bar is, and he was able to walk across the room. He was proud of that accomplishment, and of course we were too!

This morning it just so happened he had wet so much it leaked out of his diaper, so I took his pj's off and decided to put some pants on him. I just snapped the bar off, pulled the pans on, and snapped it back on. He didn't want me to take the shoes off today either...he left them on for a couple of hours after breakfast and fussed when I took them off! Here's a pic I snapped this morning with his new shoes on:

Life With Boys?

The other night we were watching America's Funniest Videos and it seemed most everything with children involved little boys. I asked David "so is this what I have to look forward to with Matthew?" and he reminded me of a parachute incident that was my dad & uncle, when they were adults. That was enough said!

Well, yesterday I think we experienced the first of these "boy moments". We had an appointment with the orthotist to get Matthew's new shoes, so I was excited and looking forward to that. About 30 minutes before we needed to leave, I heard Matthew get up from his nap and start playing. He sounded pretty content to play in his room, and it is normal for him to play for a while before I go up to get him. Usually either I take Scarlett up and we all play, or he will call me and I know he is wanting to come downstairs. But yesterday after about 10 minutes of him playing, he suddenly let out this scream. It was a scream that I can't put into words - definitely not a cry or shout, it was a scream. I don't think I've ever been THAT scared. I also don't think I've ever run that fast in my life! I dashed upstairs, only to find him with his head stuck in the rocking chair. Yes, I said stuck! I thought if a rocking chair was a hazard it was because of the rockers, not because of the chair! But somehow Matthew had his head in the seat and his body behind in the chair. There is a gap between the chair seat & chair back, so I can understand that something could go through there, but I really was shocked that he was stuck.


I got him calmed down and asked him if he had been in the chair or behind it, and he told me he was sitting in it. I figured that meant I needed to pull him out from the front. But no way was he coming through! I pulled and he screamed, but he wasn't coming out. So I went to the back and tried to get his head through. I tugged and he screamed, but he wasn't coming out. I got him settled down and told him I HAD to come downstairs to get the phone so I could call his daddy. He seemed to understand, so I left him in the corner of his room, stuck in his rocking chair. Once I grabbed the phone, Scarlett, and my water bottle (thinking I could distract him or it might help him relax), he started screaming again. I got back upstairs and he had walked across the room with his head stuck in the chair! The chair was right in front of the gate. I stepped over the gate & put Scarlett down, calmed Matthew down a little, and called David. He told me he wasn't coming home before our appointment, but then I told him about our little situation. He was on a conference call but said he would be right home.

After I hung up with David, I decided to call my sister. I knew she would keep me calm while I waited on him. I sat with Matthew kind of half standing/half sitting in my lap and rubbed his back, alternating talking to him and my sister. She told me she knew right away something was wrong when she saw caller ID (I never call in the middle of the day) and she was freaking out because she knew she couldn't get here quickly. (She lives, oh, about 900 miles away!) Once she learned what was going on she just talked and was all around great. She did ask me if I had taken any pictures. Well I didn't because the camera was downstairs and I was way too worried about Matthew to grab the camera. She told me when David got home I needed to put Scarlett in the jumperoo so she would be safe, but out of the way. I told her Scarlett was playing with Matthew's toys, and Matthew asked for his toys. So I handed him some that were within my reach and he played with them in the seat of the chair while we waited. Occasionally he would say "Dada comin', get Matthew out" and I would tell him "yes, dada is on his way." Once David got on the road to home he called me back & I told him to grab the camera before he came upstairs. Yeah, someday Matthew might hate us for it - leaving him in distress so we could capture the moment.



David tried pulling on Matthew, this way & that way, this way & that...then he asked me to pick Matthew up by the feet and hold him level with the seat of the chair. He grabbed Matthew's arms as I grabbed his feet and pulled him out SO EASILY! I told him I had tried that, but he pointed out that with Matthew's feet on the ground, his body was angled in a way that it kept getting stuck. Picking his feet up changed the angle so he was able to slide right through. I sure hope Matthew has learned his lesson and won't try going through that opening again. (We aren't taking the chair out of his room now that we know how to get him out!)

WFMW: Cutting Brownies

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE brownies! Homemade brownies, of course. Ok well, semi-homemade. If you're like me, once you've got the ooey, gooey pan of brownies out of the oven, and you've let them cool just a little, you can hardly wait to dig in. But how do you cut them without tearing them into pieces? My secret...a plastic, yes plastic, knife! A little flimsy plastic knife works wonders for cutting a pan of brownies into nice, neat squares! The brownie doesn't stick to the knife, like it does most knives, and you get clean cuts!

So if you love brownies as much as I do, and you want to make good clean cuts in yours, use a plastic knife. Then, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works for Me Wednesdays tips!