Tyrant Tyler

I think the terrible twos has struck our house yet again.  It really wasn't that bad with Kaitlyn, but it's getting to be unbearable with Tyler.  He's always been a little more sensitive and will cry at the drop of a hat.  I'll be the first to admit that I get really exasperated with every time he cries because he doesn't get his way, but I usually ignore it and he's fine until you tell him no again.  Lately though, he has been a train wreck.  His tantrums are turning into fits of rage.  He doesn't just cry anymore.  He's moved on to bigger things like kicking, hitting and screaming.  He also will run and throw himself on the floor if he's really peeved about something. 

The thing that really sets him off these days is eating at the dinner table.  He absolutely refuses to sit at the table.  At first I thought it was because he didn't want to sit in his highchair anymore, so I put it in the garage and put Kaitlyn's old booster seat on a chair for him.  No go.  He doesn't want to sit in it either.  We do have a little kiddie table in our dining room and I wouldn't mind him eating there, but he will not sit still.  He usually gets up, bothers Kaitlyn, pushes her out of her chair, etc.  He tries to steal his plate away from the table and take it to the living room and it's such a battle taking it away from him, him throwing a fit, and then trying to get him to come to the table, repeat ad nauseum.  I'm just so exhausted I usually don't fight with him and remove his plate from the table and put it on the counter where he can't reach it and wait til daddy comes home to try and feed him.  Usually this works, because I leave for my run, but I'm so over the tantrum.

He's also big into fighting bedtime.  Sometimes he fights the bath, even though he loves to play in the tub.  Sometimes he gets upset when I take the toothbrush away from him, even though I ask for it right before he gets in his crib.  The other night he wouldn't let me read to him so he ran screaming to his crib and then screamed because I put him in it.  I try really hard to keep his bedtime routine consistent, but it's just not working. 

I'm hoping that this phase will pass as quickly as it came, but I fear that my strong willed boy, who unfortunately inherited my temper, will break me before I break him.

Yummy Honey Chicken

I am always looking for yummy, quick, easy chicken recipes.  I found this one and am absolutely in LOVE.  The first time I tried it, I was having a luncheon with some of my teacher friends and I wanted something that I didn't have to slave over all day, but looked like I did.  I tried it in the crockpot because I love my crockpot.  Problem was, I didn't have enough honey to double the batch of chicken like I wanted to do.  I had enough honey to do one batch and then was super happy that I could also turn it into a 30 minute meal.  I did the first batch in the crockpot and went to the store and got more honey to do a second batch in the oven.  To be honest, I will probably never do this recipe in the crockpot again.  It turned out much better in the oven; it was just more tender from the oven for whatever reason.  All of my friends loved it too and were impressed with how easy it was to make.

I do make a few changes though.  I use onion salt instead of chopped onion or onion flakes, only because I'm too lazy to chop an onion and I don't have onion flakes.  I also omit the red pepper because I think it would be too hot for my children even in such a small amount.  I use low sodium soy sauce too  and it doesn't seem to affect the taste...probably because I add in onion salt.

Anyway if you need a yummy chicken recipe, use this one!

Lucky

This is probably one of my favorite projects that I've done so far.  I'm also super proud of the fact that I got it done before St. Patrick's day, instead of after.  (I still haven't finished my Valentine's day framed artwork.)  I got the idea off of Pinterest from this Valentine's day canvas.  I liked the idea of putting the MDF letters on a canvas, but I wanted to jazz up the letters with scrapbook paper and some embellishments.  My only complaint is that there are not enough cute little embellishments for St. Patty's day at Michael's.  More reason to open a Hobby Lobby where I live :)

Please excuse the quality of these photos.  I'm working with a point-and-shoot and not some fancy camera that most people are using these days.  I couldn't figure out how to take a direct shot of the letters without getting the glaring flash, but oh well.  I love it!



I Hate Traveling

I don't dislike traveling myself, just when Jerry has to travel for work.  Before we had children, Jerry traveled a lot for work.  It didn't bother me then as I was a first year teacher and was crazy busy with work stuff.  It also gave me a chance to hang with my family without feeling guilty that I wasn't at home with my husband. 

Now, it's just a royal pain in the ass when he has to travel.  I have to be at work no later than 6:50.  (I usually get to work around 6:40 to beat the busses and the drop off traffic.)  Daycare does not open until 6:30 and is roughly 25 minutes away from the school.  This means that I need help getting the kids to daycare because it's a scramble to get myself and two kids ready and out the door before 6AM, not to mention it is a major change to what they are used to.  They normally don't get to daycare until almost 9:00 when daddy drops them off.  When Jerry is on a trip, I take the kids to my parent's house and let them sleep over there.  It's just easier for everyone this way.  My mother doesn't mind because she loves to spoil those kids rotten, but I feel really bad that she has to take on such a huge responsibility.  She has my sister's help now that she's home from college and taking a full year off before she goes to grad school, so I'm sure that's a huge relief to her.  (My mom works full-time as a hair stylist, so she's on her feet all day long.) 

I know my kids have a really great time at my parent's house, but I still feel really guilty about leaving them there.  They are my children and my responsibility to take care of.  I definitely could not do it alone and am grateful that my parents are so close to us, 5 houses away to be exact, and they are so willing to help us out when we need it.  That's just how my family is though; we are expected to be such a huge part of each other's lives.  This is our normal.  If we were in Indiana we would not get the help we get here with my family.  Jerry's family just doesn't work that way.  I don't know why, but it is what it is.

Shopaholic

Hello, my name is Christy and I am a........SHOPAHOLIC.  Phew!  That feels so much better.  To get that off of my chest is just so liberating!  (Just being a little dramatic.)  But I do like to shop; not for myself really, but for my kids, my home, my family.  I especially love to shop for my kids.  They are easily the best dressed kids on the block.  I'm pretty good at only buying sale items, and with kids clothes, they come cheap.  But I still spend a lot of money on their clothes. 

I think the biggest reason I buy them so much clothes is I want them to look cute!  We live in a very judgmental society and I don't want my kids to look like I don't take care of them.  I get a little embarrassed if I have to take them to the store after daycare and they have food stains on their clothes.  I know that is really superficial, but whatever, it is what it is. 

The second biggest reason I buy tons of clothes is I hate to do laundry!  I buy enough clothes for the kids so that I don't have to do laundry for two weeks.  I always buy a few staple items, for each kid and coordinating outfits that I can mix and match so they're not wearing the same thing over and over.  This really cuts down on my chore time too because I have to set out a weeks worth of clothes since the hubby gets them ready in the morning.

The third biggest reason I buy tons of clothes for them is because it's fun.  I have two life size dolls that I get to play dress up with.  I hate shopping for clothes for myself because I am really unhappy with how I look right now (working on that one) so it's fun to dress my kids up in cute little outfits and stick bows in their hair, or on his neck in Tyler's case.  Plus, it's really not fair that they make kids clothes so dang cute!  I am drawn to the kid's clothing section like a moth to a flame. 

Gymboree if by far the biggest part of my addiction.  It's so easy to buy a few pieces there to mix and match and have a gazillion outfits for the kids.  I wasn't super impressed with their winter outfits this (last) year, and I'm not totally taken with their spring stuff so far.  They are constantly coming out with new lines, so it's only a matter of time before I go buck wild in there and drop a Benjamin.  I blame my grandfather who got me addicted to Gymboree buy gifting the kids with gift cards of $100 each every Christmas.

Target is my second biggest addiction.  How can you pass up clothes at $5 and under?  The circo line also has a line of mix and match clothes that I can stock up on as well, not to mention that is my go to present for my little cousins because all they care about is ripping open the gift and playing with the box.  No need to clutter their houses with toys that are just going to get lost or broken.

I do a little shopping at H&M, which usually has pretty good deals and Children's Place.  I used to go to Old Navy all the time, but their clothes usually run too small and because they're cheaply made, don't last as long.  I've never found ANYTHING at Baby Gap, but the kids own a few items from their because my cousin Lindsey is also a shopping addict and tends to spend WAY more money that I do on the kid's clothes.  (She only buys them stuff for Christmas and birthdays so it's ok for her to go overboard.)

My husband never says anything to me about my spending habits because I usually don't go overboard often and tend to only buy stuff if it's on sale.  I never use a credit card so it's not like I'm going in to debt because of my little addiction, so I guess it's ok.  I'm just dreading having to buy them new clothes when all they will wear is Hollister, American Eagle, Aeropostale or some other teenage crappy brand.

Valentine's Day

Here is a tutu that I made for Kaitlyn for Valentine's Day.  You can google tutu tutorial, (ha ha, I love alliteration), and there are tons of easy tutorials to make your own.

 Here are the Valentines Kaitlyn and Tyler will be taking to school.  I downloaded the free printables from Shindig Parties TO GO.  I love all the cute freebies she posts on her site not to mention she has an Etsy shop and she customizes printables for all kinds of parties.

 Each of little kisses and hugs has a cute little sticker on the bottom!  I die!

Fat Flush Finish

So I am done with the two week Fat Flush and I must say that I am a little disappointed.  I was really excited when I wrote this post, but I must have jinxed myself when I hit publish because I did not lose anymore weight after that day.  I'm really not sure what happened because I followed that detox pretty much to the letter.  If I did anything wrong, it was that I wasn't getting enough calories during the day.  I always ended the day with about four to five hundred calories left to eat so my only thought is that my body went into starvation mode therefore the weight was not going to go anywhere.  I did lose an inch, but I was pretty hopeful that I would lose much more than that. 

I did do some before and after photos and I can definitely see a difference, so that's a major plus in my book.  I can also feel it in how my pants fit.  I'm not quite down another size like I had hoped, but I'm definitely closer than I was when I started. 

Right now I am eating normally, as in I'm not doing phase 2.  There is no way that I can continue on with eating bland food anymore.  I need flavor!  I'm just hoping that eating the right foods, in the right amount and exercising will help me continue to lose weight.  I'm also using My Fitness Pal religiously to track my calories and my exercise and I make sure I'm under my allotment for the day.  (Just an FYI, My Fitness Pal is projecting me to lose 10lbs in 5 weeks if I continue eating and exercising like I have been so I'm pretty excited about that.)

My husband, who also did the flush, lost a total of 16lbs.  Now, I don't monitor him at work, but the first day off the flush he says he gained back 4lbs.  I do have to say that while on the flush we were both limited to 1200.  Now that he's off, he can have 2000 which will lead to him losing 2lbs a week.  I am limited to 1300 which is close to the calorie limit for the flush and is why I believe I have maintained my weight loss.  (I don't get 1300 a day, I usually have a few hundred leftover after I run.)

I'm glad we did the flush, although at about day 4 & 5 we were snapping so badly at each other, because it shows that we can do this IF we put our minds to it.  It also gives me the jump start I needed to continue with my weight loss.  I'm also going to keep doing some of the things from the flush like drinking at least 64oz of water, eating at least 2 fruits a day and loading up on the veggies.  I also like having smoothies for breakfast because they are so yummy and keep me full for a long time, especially with the added protein powder. 

I'm going to keep up with my couch to 5K program for now and may add in a morning run if I hit a plateau again and need another jump start.  Hopefully this will be enough to keep me eating healthy and exercising regularly.

Tyler is Two!

Well, he turned two a month ago and I forgot to do a post about it because I was in the throws of planning a birthday party and getting back into the swing of work after winter break.  (For those of you who are jealous of teachers because we get "so much time off" don't be, it's so damn hard to go back to work.)  Anyway, Tyler is two and I really can't believe it because time is just flying by!

I have to admit, I was a little worried about his development.  Of course you can't help but compare your child's development to other children and naturally I compared his to Kaitlyn's.  She said her first word at 9 months and has never stopped talking.  (Seriously, the girl is never quiet.)  She knew how to count, say her ABC's, speak in full sentences and knew all her shapes and colors by 16 months and has always been advanced when it comes to language.  Tyler was not so sophisticated when it came to any of that stuff.  He would say words and he knew how to sign the important stuff, thank-you, please, more and milk, but he definitely was "on-par" with Kaitlyn.  I am not worried about him at all anymore.  Last summer, when I took the kids out of daycare, his verbal skills just exploded!  He was speaking in short sentences, repeating everything we were and just became an overall chatterbox.  I was very pleased with this sudden burst.  I guess when kids are ready to talk, they will.  He currently speaks in full sentences, can count to ten, and can sing quite a few songs.

I am just amazed at his motor skills.  This kid is going to be something special on some type of field or court!  He can already kick a soccer ball while running!  How many two year olds can do that?  I was flabbergasted a couple of weeks ago when he put his soccer ball down and just started to run and kick it down the field.  I couldn't believe my eyes!  He also is trying really hard to master the scooter at daycare and I'm pretty sure he's going to do it soon.  I may just have to see if I can find a wee scooter for him to have at home so he can have more practice.  He also has a great throwing arm and can dribble a basketball better than Kaitlyn.  I'm not sure what sport he's going to play as he gets older, we'll just have to put him in everything and see what he excels at. 

He has started to call us all by our full names and it's so stinking adorable.  He calls me "Mommy Wolfe", Jerry is "Daddy Wolfe", and of course he calls his sister Kaitlyn Wolfe.  He doesn't refer to himself as Tyler Wolfe too often, but every once in awhile you'll catch him say it.  My favorite is when he asks for my help with something, "Can help me opy (open) it Mommy Wolfe?"  Cutest thing ever!

We always call the weekends, or other days that I have off "mommy and daddy" days so the kids know that they don't have daycare and we don't have work so we spend those days together as a family.  (The weekdays are called daycare days.)  Tyler knows that when I'm home in the morning that it is a "mommy and daddy" day because I leave well before the sun comes up in the morning for work.  He gets really excited and jumps up and down when he sees me in the morning and will yell "mommy and Tyly day!"  (Sometimes we call him Tyly...it came from my cousin Ashley because she used to end names with y.)  Also if I mention that it is a "mommy and daddy day" he will yell "mommy and Tyly day, mommy and Tyly day".  He is definitely a mamma's boy and I love it!

Speaking of mamma's boy, he has his days where he will refuse to do anything I ask and will only do it for daddy.  It's usually only when I want him to clean or go to bed or he's mad at me.  He'll tell me "No daddy do it!  Go away mommy Wolfe!"  I am only happy to oblige him when he's acting like that and hand off the tiny terror to his dad.  Sometimes he gets mad that I walk away and then he's sweet as sugar giving me hugs and kisses, but other times he stands his ground.  It's really funny and I try not to laugh at him because it just encourages him to do it again, but it really is cute that he's trying to assert his authority.

He is such an amazing little boy and I look forward to seeing his shining, handsome face everyday.  I love him with my whole heart and couldn't ask for a better son.

Fat Flush

About 6 days ago, Jerry and I started the Fat Flush diet.  Basically it's a detox diet and the first phase lasts two weeks and you are supposed to get dramatic results.  Of course we wanted to do this because two weeks is a drop in the bucket and we were going to get big results.  The diet is pretty strict.  You have to cut out all carbs, including veggie friendly ones like peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, etc.  You also have to cut out all sugar, salt, fat, caffeine and dairy.  Also not allowed, beans of any kind.  So what can you eat?  Plenty.  The first, and most important thing, is to increase your intake of water.  Not just any kind of water though; cran-water.  What is cran-water?  It's 4 ounces of UNSWEETENED cranberry juice and 28 ounces of purified/filtered water.  You have to get 64 ounces a day.  I supplement with regular filtered water throughout the day because even though I'm getting more than normal, I still feel thirsty all the time.  You also have to increase your protein.  You can have 2 eggs, 2 scoops of whey protein (sugar and lactose free), and at least 8 ounces of lean protein; chicken, turkey, lean beef, seafood, lamb and tofu or tempeh.  (You can only have two servings of tofu a week.)  Then you can have two servings of fruit a day limited to 1 small apple, 1 small orange, 1 pear, 1 peach, 1/2 grapefruit, or 1 cup of any berry.  Veggies are unlimited and include broccoli, peppers (green, yellow, red), yellow squash, onions, mushrooms, artichokes, spinach, cabbage, water chestnut, sprouts, romaine lettuce, kale, chard, leeks, and one carrot a day.  (I'm sure I'm leaving off some veggies you can have but those are the ones I've eaten so far.)  Then there are other things you can have like limited types of spices, cayenne, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, and you have to take two servings of flax oil and some supplements and don't forget the lemon water you have to drink hot before you eat breakfast.  It's a very time consuming diet and it does become ritualistic eventually.  There are parts that are hard, like I am constantly preparing food or water so I have no time to myself.  I also got really dizzy the 5th day (yesterday) and had to have an extra protein shake to feel better.  I am tired all the time and running is taking a lot more out of me than it usually does because I can't fuel my body with carbs.  I've also been tracking my calories and am getting nowhere near the 1200 daily allotment that you get with this diet, which may attribute to the fact that I was tired and really woozy yesterday.  I'm going to add an extra protein shake mid afternoon so that should remedy that problem.  You get plenty to eat if you like veggies, which I do, so there is no problem of feeling hungry for me.  So far, in 6 days, I have lost a total of 9lbs.  The first few days I was losing a pound a day, but right now I'm averaging about a pound and a half to two a day.  I think I'm losing it mostly in my butt and thighs because that's where my pants are getting loose.  My goal for the end of this diet is to drop one pant size, which is totally doable because I was almost there on my own, I just had a muffin top with the next size down.  I'm pretty excited to be losing all this weight, but I'm also ready to be done and get back to some normal, HEALTHY, eating habits.  (Also normal cooking habits, because cooking two meals a night is not fun!)