Panties

On the potty at Disney's Magic Kingdom

I don't mean to gloat here folks, but I have to let it out somewhere, no? I am so proud. You have no idea what a proud mama I am. Stella turned 2 on December 4th, making her about 25.5 months right now. I had it in my mind that I wanted to work on the potty training thing no later than 24 months. Harris, after all, much to our surprise, had decided that he wanted to be potty trained when 23 months rolled around, and he became a big brother. I hadn't seen that coming, that was for sure. With Harris, we worked on daytime training for about 2-3 months, and then nighttime training for about 3 months after that. When it came time for the night training, we would encourage him to pee before he went to bed, and then we would get him up at 11pm and 3am as well to pee. If we didn't he would wet the bed. We continued that path and eventually switched it to just 1 wake up, and then none, and so on. I figured Stella's experience would potentially be similar, if not a smidge easier since I always hear of girls being easier to potty train. We whipped out the potty and encouraged her to use it. It took a few weeks for us to convince her that this whole potty training thing was her idea (that seems to be the best route for her) but once she decided that she was into it, she took off. Visualising the timeline in my head now... We introduced the potty as a serious option to her right around her birthday, Dec. 4. 2 weeks later, on the 18th, she switched to panties during the day. 5 days later, we hopped on a long flight to Orlando to go to Disney. The whole week she only wore underwear (or nothing but a skirt) during the day and a diaper at night. As soon as we got home, right before new years, she started refusing her night time diaper. She wouldn't even honor a Pull-Up. So, we took the chance, being only 2-3 weeks into serious potty training to let her go bottomless in the bed. maybe 3 accidents and 2 weeks later, she is sleeping through the night without wake ups, and keeping her bed dry. Well I'll be dag nabbed! Go ahead folks, tell me how proud you are of me her! heheheee...

Unexpected home Improvement

Mindi has a home office on the lower level of our split level house. She spends gobs and gobs of hours in said room, yet after living here for over 2 years, we had done ZERO work on it to make it our own. Ok, maybe zero is an exageration- we did mount a tv on the wall, as well as declare war on a spontaneous ant colony, but still... other than that, we were living with nasty stained up carpeting, pukey walls that needed some tlc, and a total lack of character. We decided that it was time to make Mindi's office dreams come true, and so we started formulating a plan. We have a teeny tiny budget to work with, despite the fact that the room needs so much work. We decided that we would remove the gross carpet and paint the concrete floor a shiny white. I have been seeing this trend all over houzz.com, and I thought it would be cool in the room. Mindi liked the idea and we agreed that we would add some throw rugs for warmth- badabing. I went to Home Depot this morning to pick up the floor paint and some scrapers to remove the adhesive that was on the padding. I am going to fast forward just a bit here, and say that about an hour later, after much deliberation, I was driving home with 20 feet of carpet partially sticking out of my trunk...

Install carpet on our own???

You BETCHA!

What happened to our budget???

Total for Super on sale carpet (20 feet worth?) $170 including tax!

Damn- we were going to spend more money than that on 2 big rugs! So, we plopped the kids down in front of a movie (or 3) and got to work removing the old and installing the new! This was completely not in the original plan, and typically, it takes me 10 years to decide on something as simple as a wall color- and here we were, pulling all the furniture out of the room and installing carpet (which we have never done before)- and you know what? We couldn't be happier! Despite the sheer size of our room (12ft x 19ft) it was a very straight-forward process, and the results are spectacular! We are taking a trip to IKEA on Sunday to pick up some furniture for the office, so I will check back with some pics after that is all put together!!

For you, my readers

Thanks to you guys that commented on whether or not you enjoy watching vlogs. I have to agree with what most of you said- every now and again is ok, but I also really enjoy the act of reading written words. For this post, I will do both, but I am not writing what is in the video, so the video is like a bonus :).

Honestly, I wasn;t even sure if I was going to tell my blog readership about my latest venture. I suppose it is because I am slightly embarresed. It is about weight loss. Big time weight loss. As in... Holy crap, I can't believe I let myself get so fat, and I have no choice but to do somethign about it type of weight loss. I have done a lot of diets in my life. Atkins, South Beach (a few times), Medifast, Nutrisystem (a few times). Most of them worked, but they worked for about 10 pounds, and then, like a slingshot, I went back up and then some (sound familiar to anyone?) I was getting desperate. It is so frustrating to try sooooo hard for sooooo long, only to have the weight come off sloooooowly. After 7 pounds or so, I typically get frustrated and start cheating on my diet. After that happens, boy, look out! I am always sure I "make up for lost time..." if you know what I am saying.

I downloaded the app for www.myfitnesspal.com to my phone. (it is awesome on so many levels, bit the app and the website). It helps you track your foods, calories, and exercise, along with allowing you to (accurately) scan the bar code of almost every food imaginable to make it easier on you. I was on the tail end of a round of Nutrisystem in October, and had lost about 5 pounds. It was nice, but Nutrisystem is not cheap, and the weight, while coming off, was moving slooooowly. I needed a new plan. I needed a bunch of this weight gone to help me feel motivated enough to keep going on my own. I found the HCG Diet. Now, you may have heard of the HCG Diet, you may not have. I did a lot of research on it and decided to give it a try. It is not really a system that you go out and buy from 1 place, but if you actually want to know about it, feel free to comment, and I will tell you about my experience. All in all, however, I am thrilled with it. I started the diet on Halloween (yup- you read that right- no candy!) and I am down 12 pounds and 23" on this, my 18th day. WOW. Like WOWOWOWOW. I am impressed! Looking forward, I have a plan for my continued weight loss, and man am I jazzed about it!

So, here comes my vlog. It is regarding the HCG diet, and I think it accurately depicts my personality, for those of you that are curious! It was recorded yesterday :)

To Vlog or not to Vlog

...That is the question!!! What say you oh wise readers? Do you like it when people vlog? Does it annoy you? Would you rather read their text or see their face? I suppose it may also depend on the content of the vlog...

Any opinons? Do you think that vlogging is for people that like to look at themselves on camera? Heh heh!

As of Late

We took a little trip to an Autumn Festival at Remlinger Farms. We had a fabulous time and enjoyed a lot of "firsts" while we were there!

 First Canoe ride for Stella

 First nose-picking session on a train captured on camera... 

First serious interaction with a giant squash the same color as her hair...

 Harris' first mountain climbing expedition...

In other news, I finally took a few pictures of the room that I painted as a reaction to the miscarriage, and I think it looks fantastic! I am thrilled with the result of this accent wall. I am also thrilled with the little carrot bundle that I plucked from the garden today. Sadly enough, these tiny, yet plump carrots were planted this last February... I was expecting some monster carrots after having them in the ground for that long! Ahh well!

 So... here is a great shot that shows some awesomeness in my life... A. My awesome green wall, B. My neat-o curtains hanging over my newly painted white wall, C. My sweet IKEA light hanging in my entryway, and D. My cute almost 2 year old crawling up the stairs!

 I also picked up a new plant for the corner table. I love plants!

Preschool Politics

Sooooo, Harris and Stella's birthdays are both coming up in December. I would like to have 1 party for the 2 of them together. I am inviting long-time friends, but I would also like to invite some of Harris' preschool friends. The thing with that, however, is that if you invite some, you have to invite all, but my house is only so big, and I am not sure that I can handle 19 children AND their parents in my house at one time. I would offer it as  a "drop off" party, where parents could literally drop their kids off at the party, but then I am looking at a situation of babysitting 10 kids, while trying to be a good hostess, and paying special attention to my 2 most important guests. So what is a mom to do? I could deliver invites by hand or email to certain families, but I know that the kids at school- mine or otherwise will start talking about the party as it gets closer, which may lead to hurt feelings of kids and other moms alike. So, what is a preschool mom to do? I am really not interested in having the party outside of my home. How would you handle this??

Long Time No Write

Thanks to all the folks that have been inquiring about me! I feel as though this ectopic pregnancy, while in numbers is over, and emotionally, I am ok with it, it will physically be sticking with me for a while longer. After that initial stabbing pain episode last month, I experienced 2 more incredibly painful episodes- the last one occurring in the middle of the night, reducing me to such a puddle of delirium on the floor, I could not even muster enough sense to whisper to Mindi that I needed help. She awoke to the sound of small, chattering sobs, and found me on my knees at the side of the bed, shaking. I have given birth now to two children without any pain medication, and I have to say that the pain of this ectopic pregnancy proved to be far worse than the pain of labor. Following midnight emergency phone calls, more blood draws and a few more ultrasounds, my last ultrasound and blood draw were completed this last Thursday. Finally, my HcG level was down to 0.5 (negative-finally!). The ultrasound, however, showed a mass. The mass was of decent size- picture a jumbo marble. That mass, was, or, is, rather- the ectopic pregnancy. I saw it clear as day on the monitor. There was nothing distinct about it really- no detail of any sort, just a solid blob. My RE says that it should simply reabsorb over time. It still hurts. Every day it hurts. Physically, I mean. Like, well, TMI ALERT whenever I have to poop or if I have to pee. It hurts. Bad. But, the numbers show that the HcG levels are down, so it will not get any bigger... that is a relief I guess... sortof. I asked the sonographer for a picture of what I was seeing because, believe it or not, I really wanted to post it here on my blog. It was quite an interesting view, what with a weird blob, pictured right next to my polycystic ovary. They looked so cozy together... Sigh. I left without the picture- she said she would have to clear it with the doctor, and that she would mail it to me if it was approved.

So where does this leave me now? Well, I asked the doc how long he thought it might take for the blob to be reabsorbed, and he said maybe 4 to 6 more weeks. I really hope the pain doesn't stick around for that long- that would, essentially make this whole process last for... 3 whole months.... jeeeezus!