Day 2

So it's the end of my second day without any tv, and it feels both good and bad. It's good in that I don't miss the tv at all; I know I will really want to veg out one of these evenings, but it hasn't happened yet. The bad is that I thought I would have all this extra time, and I don't seem to have even 15 minutes extra. I know that I spent inordinate amounts of time in front of the tv on any given evening, so if I removed that time, I should get some back, no? It turns out, I do have extra time, it just looks different than I thought. I thought I would be twiddling my thumbs so much that I would be able to start some of those projects that I never seem to have time for - organizing my digital photos, planning some knitting projects, reading fiction, reading the New Yorker. It turns out what my "extra" time is spent doing is eating dinner with my husband, spending an extra few minutes cleaning up after dinner, an extra few minutes at the gym, and going to bed before one am. It does feel better than before, but I'm beginning to realize why parents feel like they never have enough time; it just gets eaten away at by the everyday things. Now am I really complaining that I got to sit down with my husband and eat this -

Chicken breast with garbanzo beans, tomatoes, and yogurt sauce with kale and eggplant.

and have a nice conversation about our days over a glass of wine? Or am I complaining that I was able to get to the gym and get a good run in while C made dinner? No, I am not. I am just surprised. I had an idea of where my time would be going and now it's different. 

The test to see if I'm really committed to this is whether I'm willing to wake up earlier in the mornings to workout. Right now, I am not that committed, but I will need to get there for this to work.  

In Wiggle news - C was giving him his bath tonight and asked him if he wanted to stay in the bath and play with his toys or get out and put on his pajamas. The reply - "More choices!" It turns out he wanted to swim and blow bubbles. This boy is outwitting me at every angle.

He has also begun asking us to read books "again" and "again" and "again." His favorites right now are Where the Wild Things Are and Inch by Inch. I read Inch by Inch over 15 times today, and C read it 5 or 6 times. It's a good thing he has, so far, focussed on good books.

We had playgroup today and he charmed a number of people with his stylish outfit.

I think it's the hat.

I also managed to lose him today in a closed room. You might think I'm a bad parent because of this, or you might need to watch this video.

Turning a New Leaf

Today is the first day of my one-week long television ban. I'm not gonna lie - the urge to turn on the tube after I made dinner was strong, but I managed to resist. Because I like to turn pebbles into avalanches, I am also trying, actively, to lose some weight starting this week. I still don't have it in me to count calories, or even to keep a food diary at this point, but there will be some changes. Basically, I'm cutting out bread and pasta, but not all carbs, as I'm keeping things like beans and lentils, and some whole grains. I'm cutting out all soda and such, which I don't drink all the time, but when I do, I tend to binge. Otherwise, I'm going to try and eat three meals a day with a couple of snacks, and try to load the meals with as many fruits and veggies as I can. Tonight for dinner we had, chicken sausages sauteed up with a bunch of mushrooms, onions, and some cannellini beans. Then I put that on top of some green lentils and kale. On the side - roasted cauliflower and a green salad. How's that for veggie packed?
Breakfast is all set too. I have oatmeal with blueberries, walnuts, and ground flax seeds. I think I would probably still prefer eggs, but the oatmeal is instant, and for this morning-averse mommy, instant is key.
I will have to figure out a way to get more workout time in somehow. On Saturday morning, I took Wiggle for a walk in his stroller, but it's a rare day, anymore, that I can count on him to be content while riding around. Maybe I can try to do some cardio at home? I have no problem violating my tv ban for workout videos. We'll see.
It felt like the motor turned over today; it was a small shift, but perceptible to be sure. Now to make a plan...

I've been in major avoidance mode lately. The house is a mess, I'm tired all the time, I'm watching wayyyyy too much tv; it sucks. I think I've been avoiding my grad school apps. I think I will implement a no TV week to try and set things straight.
I did manage to get one floor clean today, but that means there are still two to go. Ugh. While vacuuming today, Wiggle spent most of the time actually between my legs, or trying to drive his walker on top of the vacuum. It makes things challenging, to say the least.
C has offered me a free weekend next weekend, but I need to figure out what to do with it. I want to keep the cost down as much as possible, but I still want to do something fun. I'll have to look into it more this week.

Happy, happy, happy

A man surveying his vast M&M empire

Climbing in the cold

Seriously, I need to get him to wear some mittens!

My handsome date for Saturday night

Today and Tomorrow

Wiggle has started to talk about today and tomorrow. I told him that we would play with his friend from down the block "tomorrow" and he insisted that we should play with him "today." Then tonight he asked to paint and I said we couldn't today because it was time for bed, so he said "yeah, ok. Paint tomorrow."

Even though I managed to go out and get a haircut this morning, which felt awesome, I didn't get anything else done today. I don't even know what I did do today, all of a sudden it was time for dinner. Hopefully, tomorrow will go a little more smoothly.

Maybe I'll manage to take a picture or two tomorrow as well.

A Few Things

On the Wiggle front - my previously picky toddler has become my little foodie again this week. For weeks now I feel like his diet has consisted of pizza (admittedly homemade, but still), hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly, bananas, and milk. We would get some tastes in of other things and a few vegetables would get in there due to my constant pushing, but mostly he delighted in saying "No." I know this is developmentally appropriate, but, come on, who turns down raspberries? Or sweet potatoes in yogurt with honey and cinnamon? Or anything green, except peas? A 2 1/2-year-old girl's mom's comment that her daughter had not eaten anything new in a year started to haunt me. C and I love food, was my son going to be someone who throws a hamburger out a second story window because it has mayo on it? (True story, btw.) Then this week with the promise of M&M's from Halloween as an incentive to even try something new, we turned a corner. For lunch yesterday, Wiggle had two helpings of ma po dofu, a very earthy, somewhat spicy, Szechuan dish. I couldn't believe it. He also devoured the dry-fried green beans and eggplant that C made to accompany the dofu. Today, he ate pastitsio, a sort of Greek lasagna, for lunch and dinner. I love pastitsio, but it is made with ground lamb which has fairly overpowering smell; he just kept munching it and munching it. I should say though, that neither dish seemed to compete with M&M's current top position in his food hierarchy. He holds them, sings to them, counts them, sorts them by color, picks them up and lets them rain down on the table; they are perhaps the best candy to give to a toddler ever. I'm not a big candy advocate, but at least it's easy to portion control the discrete pieces, and he gets a little learning in during the half hour it takes him to eat his 10-12 pieces. Last night he had peanut M&M's, which he called "biggers MnMs." While eating the last one, he really took his time, he sucked the candy off, and then bit into the peanut, leaving half an M&M on the table. C and I looked at each other, puzzled. Why would he leave half an M&M? Then he asked for "More!" When we said that he had already had one bag and that was it for tonight, he sulked for 5 seconds, and then took the last half and popped it in his mouth with a big grin. Talk about managing his own disappointment!

Also, while trying to brush his teeth tonight, he was refusing to open his mouth, and I was reiterating that we have to brush teeth every night - then, he said "timeout?" I said that I hadn't mentioned timeout, but he kept saying it, so I asked him if he wanted a timeout, and he said "yeah." Now, based on the fact that he did not, in fact, sit for his timeout, I think his mentioning it was a ploy to move out of the bathroom, so he could make a break for it. Does that make me cynical? Does it make him an evil genius? Does it make me a bad parent to think it's kind of awesome if my 21-month-old is an evil genius? The boy definitely has some skills.

In other news, I miss the Co-op grocery store, or Treasure Island. Things I haven't been able to find in our grocery stores? Chipotles, porcini mushrooms, ground lamb, muir glen tomatoes, liquor. And even my costco is letting me down, I was there yesterday for my weekly bulk cheese run (don't worry, it's not the same cheese each week, we just run out of them at different rates/times), and they didn't have emmantaler or gruyere. We had already been disappointed with Trader Joe's version of each - very rubbery. Chicago was a really, really good food city, and while we have a lot of things here, I'm not really going to drive to 15 different ethnic supermarkets each week, or even month, to get my basic supplies. At least we're not in Norman, OK. Or someplace like it. No offense to Norman, per se, but I'm betting I wouldn't find their local supermarkets adequate. We do have one facny-schmancy supermarket, but it's a little far and on the weekends it gets so crowded you cannot find a space in their giganormous parking lot. Admittedly, I can generally go on a weekday, but if it's the place to get that last ingredient, mon Dieu! Maybe I should just keep trying supermarkets and then look at real estate near the best one. 

Feast on This

November!?!

How did it get to be November? I know it was Halloween yesterday, but I really wasn't prepared for it to be November today. C will be going to Montreal this weekend for a "conference," so I will have the boy by myself for a few days. I jest about C, but he does get to gallivant around with a bunch of his friends in an awesome city for 3 days. Do I sound jealous? Because, I just want to be clear -  I am.

Wiggle has been doing some crazy cute things lately. Last night, he had some M&M's from his Halloween candy. He had one in each hand and was singing and talking about their colors when he handed an orange one to C. C was on the phone with a friend and absentmindedly popped it in his mouth. Wiggle was dumbfounded. At first, I thought he was upset that C had eaten his M&M, but when Wiggle quickly popped the other one into his mouth and started to grin, I realized that he hadn't known you could eat them. He thought they were beads! He then enthusiastically ate the rest of the miniature bag, until he got to the last one. He must have held onto the last one for 20 minutes. Tonight after dinner he got another bag, and C said he danced and sang songs to each and every M.

Cute thing #2,670,321 - He would mix "Happy Birthday!" into his "Happy Halloween!" greetings yesterday. He's only ever been to one birthday party, but somehow "Happy Birthday" got in there.