Today's Jog with Naughty Benjamin Bunny

I always love it when I post a cute picture of Benjamin being awesome on Instagram and then he turns into a psychopath within minutes of that post.

The toddler tantrum/psychosis doesn't come out daily and we've had many more good days than bad days lately, but MAN. He can be a real freak of nature.

I've been trying to get my butt in gear lately and get out for some exercise during the warm months weeks we have left of this year. We usually leave a bit after nap and I get the kids in the jogger with snacks and we're on our way. Sometimes I jog around our neighborhood, or to the playhouse about 1.5 miles down the road. If not to the playhouse, I often end the jog with a park visit (which is often my argument to get Benjamin into the stroller for any length of time).

Just after nap today, we were headed downstairs and planned to grab a snack and get on our way. We drive by this park with green slides on our way to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Benjamin is always requesting a visit to this park. I checked the weather report and thought today would be a perfect day to stroll on over.

It's actually only .6 miles from our house, but across a busy road. I mapped out a route around the neighborhood on the other side of that busy street and would end my jog at the park-with-the-green-slide. He was on board. Claire was strapped in and we were ready to scoot.

Then I got out my new shoes. He wanted to put them on and proceeded to take off his own shoes. I told him he could not. Cue the meltdown. Crisis averted with Wheat Thins. I stuck them in a container and tried to lure him into the stroller with those and a pack of fruit snacks. It worked.

Then I broke out the sunscreen. "No sunscreen." Too bad Mama will win this argument. But joke's on me if I think I'm winning, because it spurred the rest of the meltdown.

That lasted the entire 2.2 miles of my jog around the neighborhood. I rarely strap him in because he's two-and-a-half and likes to get out every once in awhile to hit the street-crossing buttons and such. And really, he's two-and-a-half. Can't he just stay in his flipping chair? Yes, yes he can.

I decided to carry on with my jog regardless of his psychosis, because honestly. Mama needed the detox. And also, he's not allowed to win by staying home like he was screaming during his tirade. He briefly braked from his insanity to hit the button to cross the street, but wanted nothing to do with me putting him back in the stroller when the walk signal appeared. Instead, he sprawled across the front of the double BOB, hanging his legs over the end and screaming random things about the park and home and strollers and being overall angry baby toddler.

One family was in their driveway as I yelled, "He's two!" She replied, "We heard you coming." Another woman was getting soccer gear out of the car in her driveway and said, "It looks like he's falling off the stroller." I replied back that he was not, but thanked her for her input on my parenting choices. I was watching him the entire time and he did not fall off or even come close. Two-year-olds can be a special breed of mankind. He was eventually strapped in against his will, but that seemed to fuel the fire even more. When we got home, this mama had another detox by giving this naughty boy some alone time in his room (to which he played happily) so I could have a few minutes of sanity.

I'm pretty sure I won't be taking a jog through that neighborhood anytime soon. They'd probably remember me and send a note into authorities for investigation because omg, that mom jogs with her son while he's throwing a tantrum and being unreasonable.

The good news about a toddler throwing a tantrum and strangers giving you the stink eye while you're jogging? You jog faster.

Baby Food and Boob Talk

We're in it. Just like that. I was pregnant and then had a baby. Yeah, it was totally that easy. All of a sudden, she turned 6 months old. And then 7 months. Sound the trumpets, people. It's been amazing and then some. I could cry just thinking about how grateful I am that we barely made it to alive and now we're here thriving (and growing some delicious thunder thighs).

Claire is still breastfeeding these days, but it's sort of like trying to feed a wild monkey who is juggling bananas. If a single flash of light is seen, a word spoken, or a movement heard, she's pulling away to check out what is happening. My milk has been sprayed in more public places than I'd like to admit. With Benjamin, I was much more discreet about my nursing. I even used a cover. Now, I'm lucky to get her fed and manage the toddler at the same time at all, cover or Boppy pillow or {insert fancy breastfeeding item here}. I'm lucky to get 5 minutes total of feeding her, so I still try to manage every 2 hours during the day just to curb dehydration. Her diapers tell me all is fine and the scale does not disappoint either. Hello almost 17lbs. She's nearly to Benjamin's 12-month weight! She's a stellar and chill breastfeeder at one time only: in the middle of the night. Thankfully, that only happens about once a night these days, about 8hrs after she goes down to bed, happily and smiley. And last night, I got a real treat of sleeping until 7:15 this morning without ever waking to feed.

Benjamin continues to be the most annoying person ever when I politely ask him to be quiet and whisper when Claire is feeding. Because honestly kid! For. The. Love. Claire would rather see what you're doing and watch you rather than drink milk these days. Which totally makes for fun times and me locking myself into the bathroom just to quietly breastfeed (of which always fails because NEW SCENERY! MUST LOOK AROUND!). He absolutely knows he's being bothersome because he speaks nonsense or says things repeatedly like "Hi Mama. MAMA HI!!"

In addition to the milk, she's having real food. I'm so much more lazy this time around. I'm just busy and not inspired. She's had a variety of things {insert list of foods you could care less reading about} and hasn't been overall impressed. She still eats, but really doesn't seem to go one way or the other on things. I steamed and pureed and put in ice cube trays. I feed her three "meals" each day, along with us. Now that she's 7 months old, she's getting tiny bits of foods as well, which she is handling okay.

Boy bibs. whatareyougonnado?

The fear of her choking hasn't gone away, but eventually she will have to be on solids, right? And in just a few short months, she'll somehow be eating just about everything we are and there will be no turning back. Boggles. My. Mind. If only the food intake would help her grow some hair (said in jest, as I honestly don't care).

At a local playhouse last month...

Random little girl: Where is her hair?
Me: She doesn't have any yet.
Random little girl {confused look}: But she's a girl.

Exciting Month of Firsts

First haircut and first day of school for the almost 2.5 (Saturday!) year old this week.

We took a jog down to the local haircut joint in a local shopping center this past weekend and got Benjamin a haircut. Nevermind that it was super slow and there were two stylists and they were quite possibly the slowest people on the planet.

Benjamin could not have been better behaved and seemed rather proud that he was getting his hair cut.

Bye bye cute surfer hair...

This morning was another first. The first day of two-year-old preschool! From here on, he will always be attending school (except for summer breaks). He was really excited and a little nervous. The first day is an orientation to meet the teacher, other students, their parents, and learn about the school policies, etc. Dad took him today because I'll be taking him every other day and wanted us both to have experience with his classroom and meeting his teacher.

So many. Just couldn't decide. I am totally THAT mom.

First Day Top 10 List:
1. Two classes of 2yo kiddos.
2. Each class has 6 kids, but capacity is 8 kids.
3. His class has 3 boys, 3 girls.
4. Attends 2x/week for 2.5 hrs each of those days. Just 5 hours a week, but he truly needs this time with other students and other adults.
5. Apparently one of the girls is super aggressive, so that actually makes me feel better when Benjamin bites her. (Did I just type that?) What I really mean is that I am glad he's not the only "terrible" two at times.
6. Lots of "helicopter parents" according to my husband.
7. One of Benjamin's friends is starting as well (2 months younger) but is in the other class, as they are broken up by age. Benjamin's class is the "older" twos. But don't be fooled. His friend is potty-trained in the "younger" class. Le sigh.
8. The teacher was briefing the parents on the policies in the handbook and the kids were playing in the classroom. Benjamin brought over some alphabet toy and then interrupted the teacher to sing the full ABC song along with the "next time won't you sing with me" ending. I'd be impressed, but see #7 above about potty-training and you won't be so impressed. He's no closer to doing his business in a toilet than the day he was born.
9. I totally already offered to handle the Scholastic book orders (insert surprised emoticon because it's only preschool!). Just call me room mom already. Hah. But something tells me I am handling the book orders for the whole preschool for the twos, threes and fours. What can I say, I have experience. Hahaha. Such expertise.
10. At the end of his first day, he yelled, "SO FUN!" really loudly.

I'll leave you with a short interview of the toddler before he left for school this morning.

Grant Writing... and Winning!

As summer comes to a close and school starts up soon (Benjamin tomorrow! Eeek!), I am once again reminded of how much I miss the classroom. I miss the freshness of new kids coming in, organizing, planning for instruction, and what I miss the very most, teaching. I just love watching my own kids grow everyday, but I do excitedly dream of heading back to the classroom in the future.

During my teaching years, I wrote a lot of grants. In fact, I was one of the main writers on our team to win our school the California Distinguished Schools Award for the first time. Many veteran teachers had been on the committee before and the school never won after years of trying. They said it couldn't be done. Everyone was discouraged. If you know me, you know I'm fairly determined and not willing to take no for an answer if what I want is something I'm passionate about. Well, we did it. In addition, I won a series of grants through Mobil to be the only classroom on our campus with a SmartBoard, EXPO document camera, students response systems and a variety of other teaching tools, many related to technology. I love writing grants. Maybe it's my journalism background that just gets fired up. Or maybe it's the competition of it all.

Well, it's been a few years. A month or two ago, I randomly saw a program online by JOLLY TIME Pop Corn called the Kernals of Kindess awards program. They were selecting individuals or organizations that "pop up" and make a difference in other peoples' lives. They were giving away 100 grants of $1,000 to keep doing great work in honor of JOLLY TIME's 100th anniversary (of being a 5th generation family-run company... how cool is that?). When I saw this, I immediately thought of Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and the impact they made on us as a family, giving us the precious gift of Andrew's only photos. Those photos mean more to us than any other gift because that is all we have of our son. We're just so grateful. And we didn't pay a dime for those photos or the 1 a.m. session of that photographer coming into our hospital room and facing us at our worst time. I wanted to support this amazing non-profit and give it a go! I had nothing to lose and only about 15 minutes of my time to sacrifice-- a lot less time than that photographer spent with us that night.

I put my fingers to work and filled out the application, nominating NILMDTS. I don't remember what I wrote, but wish I remembered! I randomly checked my junk mail box last night to find an email announcing I won one of the 100 grants.

Out of 6,620 entries!

The story of NILMDTS will be featured in October and I can't wait to link you all to that when it comes around. Aside from the monetary gift, they are receiving so much publicity that is much-needed for the fantastic non-profit that they run. Conveniently, as my friend Caroline pointed out, they will be featuring the story during the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness week in October. I don't know if that's just coincidental, but it's fantastic.

While it's just a snippet, just look up at the header of my blog to see some of the art of a fantastic NILMDTS volunteer photographer to know why I am indebted to their kindness and work on behalf of grieving families.

Bye Bye Brass

We've lived in our house for about 4.5 years now. As we toured the house, we had these grandiose dreams of what we planned to change. Being young, spry and without children (though newly pregnant!), we got to work on tons of these things.

But then there were those projects that were not a priority because they didn't really bother us much. Things like, the dining room lamp. Our big dreams were to replace it with an elk antler chandelier. But as the years moved forward and we've given up on that dream. Logically so, as the room isn't quite big enough for that dream we first considered when visiting Jackson Hole, WY back in 2009. We're 5 years older and the room still had the same brass fixture we disliked when we first moved in.

Well, we didn't dislike it, just the color. It took us this long because it required I get E's involvement to manage the wires and electricity and he's always busy with more important projects. After a friend of mine posted her lamp project on Instagram, I figured it was time we do the same... so the to-do list got a little shorter that day.

I knew I wanted to spray paint it because...
1. I have an obsession with spray paint.
2. It's a relatively cheap and easy.
3. We thought it had good bones to begin with.

So for a $7 can of Rustoleum's Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze, we had a new fixture. We only bought one can (brave!), but it was just enough.

During nap, the husband took it down and hung it from a tree in our backyard. We took turns spraying it with two sets of eyes (so many little areas are tough!) and had it hung that evening.

The left (grainy) picture was in the real estate ad for our home. We stripped the wallpaper (and used the matching drapes as drop cloths!) the first month in the house. More on that here.