Anna Potty trains herself...hopefully!

We had a very busy weekend, busy but fun! We went to the Mt. Lebanon Easter Egg hunt, which I must say is always a big let down. It is amazing how CRAZY parents can get when it comes to these things! Running ahead of their children, picking up eggs for their kids! Sam luckily got two eggs and Anna got one that one of the girl scouts dropped for her. The highlight of the afternoon was going to see the Easter bunny, maybe not for everyone, but Sydney got her picture taken with him for her first Easter! Anna ran away and tried to leave the building as Greg was trying to the take the picture so a big thank you to Mike O'toole for chasing her for us! I am convinced I am going to be in every single Santa and Easter Bunny picture with the kids for the next 10 years! ha ha! I have decided starting next year we are going to have everyone over for a brunch/Easter egg hunt in out backyard so that our children can actually get eggs and the time won't interfere with nap time!

Since Anna is turning two on Friday, I decided to start making some things for her party yesterday, since time is limited these days and I had Greg home to help manage the kids. I made these mini cupcake lollipops....two of Anna's favorite things! They took me ALL day to make, but they are really cute and Anna LOVES them, which makes it all worth it. Since I was busy making the cupcake lollipops, I sent Sam upstairs to open the door for Anna when she woke up from her nap. Sam found her naked from the waist down with pee in her little potty in her room!!!! Of course we made such a big deal out of this and she was SO adorable jumping up and down with her arms in the air saying "yeah!!!!" She usually will go on the potty if I tell her and catch her at the right time, but this is now the second time for her to just go on her own!!! I really hope this is the start of something good. If I don't have to spend 80 dollars on diapers every month that would be a great thing!!!!

Mommy of the year....

I have to admit, there are days when I feel like I have it all together, and then there are days were I wonder how I am going to get through the day. Friday, I didn't really have much to worry about...Greg was home so I was able to go to the gym and to lunch and shopping with a friend while he took care of the kids. But later in the afternoon I was on my own with the kids and had thought they were playing on the side porch together. I was inside nursing the baby and talking on the phone with a friend when I realized Sam had been in front of me asking questions about my conversation with a friend, "whose house, mommy?" Little comments and questions from the peanut gallery. It was at that point I realized that I had not heard from Anna in awhile, which is never a good thing! I asked Sam where his sister was. He didn't know. I asked him if she was out on the side porch. He looked and came back with, "mommy, we are in really big trouble! The gate is open and Anna is out front by herself!" That is when I told my friend I got to go! As I walk outside my neighbor and friend was holding little Anna's hand walking up the front steps together. Apparently, Anna some how got out of the house, we still have no idea how. And no the gate was not open. She went to our next door neighbors house and was sitting on her retaining wall drinking her sippy cup. Just taking in the sights on a beautiful day I suppose! I guess we are going to be more careful in the future with keeping a head count! Not to mention keeping all the doors and gates closed! Oh Anna!

3 kids in 4 years

The morning started by waking all three kids up to go to school. Let me just say how much it sucks to have to get up when everyone is still cozy and warm in their beds and make them get up! I found Anna with her underwear around her waist, that is with her whole body through a leg hole. Not sure how she managed to do that, but at least she still had her diaper and pajama pants still on! That girl never stops amazing me with the things she manages to do and get herself into. Today during music class she was climbing on my lap (with Sydney in the sling) and hung upside down and continued to flip backwards; meanwhile the class continues to sing the good morning song. Anna does her own thing, always has and something tells me she always will! As I type this she has taken the bowl out of her little potty and is standing in the hole.

I should knock on wood before I say this, but Sam has been excellent! He has been listening so well! A stranger actually came up to me in the store yesterday to tell me how good of a little boy he is and how you don't see that very often anymore. It made me feel good to hear from a stranger that "I am doing a good job!" It is the little things that you need to hear sometimes. We are starting to get into a routine and have a system down when we go places so the older two know the expectation and have been really good! I guess all we needed was to put a little structure back into out lives. Sam has also been asking us how to spell certain words and sounding out letter sounds! My little boy is growing up so fast! Too fast!

Sydney is talking and smiling like crazy! She is repeating "Ahh Goo" and "ohhhh" after me! She is becoming a little baby already, no longer an infant! She loves to watch the other kids now and will "talk" instead of cry to get our attention. She is struggling with taking the bottle a little, but she will take it when she is in the mood to take it, either that or she realizes she is just going to be hungry without it.

I came to several realizations over the past couple weeks, one being that I have had 3 children in 4 years! All of which have been natural drug free births. And I have been pregnant or nursing for all but 6 months over the past 5 years! These things made me stop and think about things and to stop being so hard on myself, give myself some credit, and to be proud of all that I have accomplished in the past 5 years. It doesn't make it any easier, but it does put things into perspective a little more when I thought about it. I watched "Kendra" last night. Now I must say that I had no interest in watching her show until this season when she had her baby and read that she could not lose weight even with working out post baby. Suddenly I have an interest in this woman because we have something in common, and something I could relate to. I sobbed as I watched her show because I felt her frustration and pain. You would think being the third time I could deal with all the emotions and changes from having a baby, but it is something that never gets easy. And I must say something I did not have to deal with after having Sam, my son. It feels good to have something in common with a playboy centerfold! What can I say, it is a journey. All I have to do is think, "3 kids in 4 years" and my attitude automatically changes.....for a little while anyway!

Getting out

Yesterday I decided to chance it and take the kids to the gym with me in the morning so that I could stay home with them in the evening. I hate leaving them at night and with the weather being SO nice I want to be outside to play with them every chance I get! Timing with Sydney's schedule seemed to work out with my spinning class schedule so I thought, why not try it? I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me taking such a small baby to the gym nursery already, but really she is already around her brother and sister and its not like she is out on the floor crawling and touching the germy toys. So I got everyone fed, dressed, and in the car. I was hoping that Sydney would fall asleep in the car for her morning nap...I guess the 5 minute drive to the gym was not enough for her. As soon as the car stopped she started to cry! Maybe I wouldn't be able to go to one of my favorite spin classes after all. Once into the gym nursery I signed everyone in, got their coats off, and rocked Sydney to help her fall asleep....nope still wasn't going to fall asleep! UGH! I went into class anyway with my fingers crossed that she could make it through most of it before they had to come and get me. The whole class I kept looking for someone to come and get me, but I made it through the whole class!!! They told me that she didn't really fall asleep, but she didn't really cry either! Now, Sydney, why do you give your daddy so much trouble sweetheart? Poor Daddy! After the gym we had to go to the grocery store to get snack for Sam's school for today. He just had to have the special scooby doo bones (they are really good!). So, here I am at checkout with a screaming infant (who I pushed too long), a toddler grabbing at every candy bar at the checkout counter, and a preschooler that I asked to help me in putting the food on the carrier. Meanwhile, the cashier decided that she was going to tell Sam to sit down in the cart and decided to repeatedly tell him several times. Sam decided to tell her, "no" and I felt bad because I was telling him to stand up to help me. Poor Sam, he was probably so confused. I really wanted to say, "lady, him standing up is the least of my concerns right now, can you just check me out and make it QUICK!"

The weather was so beautiful yesterday that we were able to take a family walk, just like the old days! We took the kid's dinner on the road and had a strolling picnic, which they love and it keeps them in the stroller for a longer period of time! It was so weird being outside without a coat, but with so much snow still on the ground! It was so great to do something that Greg and I use to do all the time and have an hour to talk about our day and catch up and connect again! I am SO glad that spring is finally here!!!

Who needs sleep?..........I DO!

Everyone always said that babies "turn a corner" around 6 weeks, so why then is my baby progressively getting worse? She is now 6 weeks and babies typically go through a growth spurt at 6 weeks, so I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt. It has only been one night that has been really bad, which was last night. I think she is getting a little cold, so she was unable to eat very much before she cannot breathe, and then she would only sleep for an hour before she would get hungry again. I am SO glad I went to bed at 8:30 last night, which I never do. I am really tired today. Why am I not napping now then? because a little boy by the name of Sam is calling for me from his bedroom as I type. I bet he is trying to trick me into thinking he already took his nap. Unfortunately for him, I know how to tell time and he has only been up there for 20 minutes and I have heard him up there the entire time playing. The girls are sleeping, hopefully for the next 2 hours. Maybe Sam will fall asleep, if not maybe he will watch a movie. I feel guilty about asking him to watch a movie, but hey you have to do what you have to do!

I have been getting more and more smiles from Sydney and even got some "talking" such as "agoo". It just melts your heart! I have been working SO hard to lose weight. With the other two children I just really focused on my exercise, which was easy for me, but this time I am also focusing on what I eat, which is REALLY difficult! But I have lost 3 pounds since Thursday, which has made such a difference in my mood. I have been working out 2 times a day every single day, but up until now I didn't reflect on the scale. After I had Anna, a friend said to me that it takes a long time to reach the same level of "smallness" that you were before. Meaning the smaller you are the longer it takes to get back there. That always stuck with me and has really helped me deal with the baby weight in a positive way. This is absolutely the most difficult part of having a baby for me. Getting pregnant, pregnancy, and even labor is really easy, but dealing with the lack of sleep, the weight, and juggling of needs is really difficult for me. It does get easier as time goes on, but it might just be the reason that makes me eventually stop having children. Something has to, right?

Spa Day for Anna

Yesterday was a very long and frustrating day. Thursdays are my cleaning day, usually because we are home all day so I have some time to try to clean the house....don't be fooled usually I only get either the upstairs or downstairs cleaned, never both! Today, it was the downstairs that needed some serious attention (not that the upstairs doesn't, but I'll get to it eventually). I was feeling pretty good everyone was on a good schedule, the day was relatively uneventful. But then tornado Anna decided to show up. She managed to single handed undo everything that I did all day long! I cleaned up all the toys and put them back into their proper places, get the vacuum out and what does she do, get all the equipment out of the cleaning closet! I decided to let it go for now and continue my vacuuming. I turn the corner to vacuum the kitchen and what do I find but all the sandwich baggies out of their box all over the floor as well as two things of Saran wrap, unrolled all over the floor as well! By the time I get it cleaned up and finish vacuuming the kitchen there are toys all over the place again. That's it I give up, let's eat lunch! Not that lunch is much better since I started my Body After Baby eating program, so no more peanut butter for lunch for me, I get to have a salad and an orange, not fun!

Anna continued to deconstruct the house as when she woke up from nap she had taken off her pants and diaper and peed all over her bed! I guess this is her way of telling me she needed her sheets washed! Point taken. When Greg got home I thought it is a good day to take a family walk since the sun was shining and it would be nice for the kids to get out of the house. Boy was I wrong again! Sam declared that he was walking and not going in the stroller. Anna decided a block into the walk she was going to walk too. Okay, so this was hardly going to be exercise for me with these two out of the stroller, which yet again was frustrating. They proceeded to fight over who got to push the stroller and crying ensued. I decided to walk ahead with Brady and leave Greg with the kids. I had enough for one day and needed a break even if it was only a couple minutes.

My day today started in the best possible way today....5:30am I hear little Sydney (or Sydie as Sam calls her) making her little grunts. So, I peek into her bassinet, our eyes meet and she gives me this big grin as if to say, "there she is, I was trying to get your attention!" Of course my heart just melted! That was the first time she smiled without us trying to get her to do it!
But then I walked into Anna's room to find her pantless and yes diaperless yet again, and you guessed it with pee all over her bed yet again. I guess she is going to have to wear zip up PJ's to bed from now on!

Greg is home today since he has a day off every other week these days with his work schedule. It is always nice to have him home not only to spend time with him, but to have some help in the morning to get Sam to school. Greg decided to take Sam to Chuck E Cheese so I decided to have a spa day with the girls. Which really is Anna's spa day since Sydney is too little and really what am I going to do for Spa day with an almost two year old? So I painted Anna's finger and toenails. She found blue nail polish left over from wedding (something blue), and wanted her toenails painted blue. She loved it! I also gave her some aromatherapy lotion so the whole house smelled like a spa. When we were playing dolls, Anna also lifted up her shirt and put her doggie up her shirt and said, "Doggie milk." It was priceless.

Disconnecting the Doorbell or maybe just take the batteries out?

This seems to be a reoccurring problem that I have. Just think, you have the kids all down for a nap, you just sat down after cleaning up to do something that YOU want to do in the limited time you have.....when i see out of the corner of my eye a man walking up my steps to the front door! I sprint to the door throwing my lunch on the table along the way to stop him from ringing the doorbell, which is a ripple effect of the dog barking and boom every one is up way too early and is melting down by 5pm! Well, i did not make it to the door in time and the dog starts barking! Thank you comcast man! If I wanted comcast, I would call you!!! Luckily, everyone stayed asleep. Thank you God! Back to my lunch in peace. Then, of course yet again, the doorbell rings again! What is this all about? As excited as I was to get a package, two of the three kids were now up! Thank you UPS (aka brown truck) man.

On another note, that UPS man brought me my latest plan in loosing the baby weight! I am so excited about this book that gives me exactly what to eat as a breastfeeding new mom to help lose weight in a healthy way! Exactly what I have been looking for! Can't wait to get started. Maybe Greg will do it with me to keep me on track!!!

Getting through the Winter

I managed to do it again, fell asleep with Sydney on me halfway through a feeding at 3:30am only to wake an hour later to discover I need to finish her feeding! I find myself doing this several times a week, usually when I am exhausted. Needless to say, I was up more than I would have liked last night by my own doing! I did run a mile on the treadmill last night!!! Which I was surprised that it was very easy! I have decided to sign up for Martha's Run on April 10th, it is a 10k, which is probably a bit of a stretch for me at that point, but Greg said he would do it with me so I feel comfortable starting with a 10k. I'm excited to get back into running again, and of course for the weather to get warmer!

We are slowly making it through this crazy winter and all this snow which has caused us all to have cabin fever. I don't know what is worse staying in the house or trying to take everyone out when there is snow everywhere! Today we ventured to Gymsport, a gymnastics place that has preschool playtime several times a week. It is the perfect place to go in the winter to let your kids get their energy out. Anna tried the zip line before Sam, which does not surprise me, she looked so little holding onto that thing! Then, Sam decided that since his little sister is doing it that he would try it to. Of course he loved it just in time for us to go home. I just have to say one small thing about other parents and how rude they truly can be. Another mom let her 5 year old daughter get in line before Sam, which poor Sam didn't understand why he had to wait, but he was excellent! Then, the same mother allowed her daughter to slide down the slide into the foam pit on top of Anna's head! Now, I understand accidents happen, but an apology would have been nice or even an acknowledgement that something happened, but no some people are above that. It was time for us to go at that point. Of course my adventurous daughter tried to leave with another family. I always seem to push Sydney too much as the poor thing was screaming while I was trying to get every one's coat and shoes on. I felt bad, but she would have to wait until we got home and the older two got their lunches before she would get to eat......

I have two of the three down for naps and now it is time for a little "me" time. Unfortunately when I go back to work there will be no more me time, but for now "me" time will consist of trying to get back into my clothes! It is time for Tae Bo, yes the original Billy Blanks VIDEO that I copied from a good friend back in college! I have taped over some of it by accident with Elmo a few years back and it is a bit fuzzy, but it is my go to workout to loose weight every time I have a baby. My other secret weapon is Windsor pilates, I will be doing that following tae bo as long as the bambino sleeps that long! Keep your fingers crossed! Other things on the agenda today include finding cupcake invitations for Anna's birthday party, schedule my first aid and CPR trainings so I can go back to work next month, and schedule my 6 week postpartum appointment. Hopefully I can get all that done during nap time! All I really want to do is take a nap myself!

In the beginning.....

So, I decided to start a blog. Since having my third beautiful child, Sydney, things have been extra CRAZY around here. In fact it has been down right humorous, so I thought I should write a book! Writing a book is a little overzealous for me, so a blog is the next best thing. It is something that I can look back on and document all these crazy times and hopefully someday laugh, because honestly if I don't laugh at these moments, I would be crying! When I told my husband, he thought I was crazy and that I am just bored because I am not working right now. Yes, honey, bored that's it.

Today was a pretty average day around here. Mondays are always busy days because Sam has school, and so does Anna (mommy and me). Which means everyone has to be up, dressed, fed, teeth brushed, coats and shoes on, and in the car by 8:50am. Now, I know it does not sound difficult to do, but throw a newborn into the mix and it complicates things a little more. Don't get me wrong, Sydney is a dream baby, but she does have a schedule all of her own, which often does not go too well with the kids or mine for that matter! It has been a little easier now that we have introduced the bottle to her, which gives us a little more freedom. This morning went smoothly, Sam was only 10 minutes late for school, which I hate, but hey he is there right?
Anna was an angel at her school today, which is very unusual for her. Usually she is climbing on things she is not suppose to, eating playdough, and leaving the classroom. Today she only left the room 3 times! Which brings me to my next subject, why with all this craziness have I not lost weight in 3 weeks since the original baby weight loose? I'm constantly in motion and I started working out 2 weeks ago and nothing! Talk about frustrating!!!! I know, i know give it time, but really can't the scale just move just a little to make myself feel a little better??? Going to the gym again tonight. Thinking about trying to run a little on the treadmill for the first time since giving birth before class tonight, not so sure about this, but might make the scale move and make me feel a little more like myself again! Also looking forward to the finale of the Bachelor tonight! It's going to be a late night for me!!!