Hey, back off my kid!

Oh, it's started already....my child is one, and already she has a frenemy.  Dear Lord...

 

 

Apparently she and another baby in the room do not click well together.  I'm not supposed to know which baby it is, but I do.  And it is so sad, too, because the other little girl is too cute for words.  Seriously, such a cute baby and deceivingly sweet apparently.  And she's a biter.  And she's biting my kid. 

 

 

Now granted, children bite.  But this little chomper has bit my kid four times now.  Leaving two black and blues the last two times.  And the last time was unprovoked.  Just went right up to Aubrey, couldn't get past her so she bit her.  The first time...yeah, Aubrey pulled her hair.  So...yeah, I get that.  But come on.  It just breaks my heart when I see two little bite marks and a bruise on my girl's arm.  And the instinctive "whose ass do I need to kick" mode kicks in. 

 

The teachers have taken to trying to separate them the best they can.  And I know the policy at the daycare for dealing with these incidents.  And this little girl is transitioning into toddler rooms next, while Aubrey will still be in the infant room for a little longer.  And the two will not be placed in the same room together when Aubrey transitions, too. 

 

 

But still...Aubrey has a frenemy.  I picture it going a little something like this...

 

 

Picture courtesy of Google Images

 

 

But kid, stop biting my little girl.  Biting isn't cool, it's just not cool. 

 

 

Many motivations

Happy Motivation Monday, everyone!  It was a nice Easter weekend, but I could still use a few days.  I think even if I got everything possible that I needed to get done over the course of a weekend, I'd still want more time.  We had Friday off, so that was nice, and Miss Aubrey and I got to go on a play date with friends of ours.  I love watching Aubrey make new friends and explore.  It gets me all excited for this summer when we get to go to the zoo, the children's museum, etc.  But anyway....


I need motivation.  In lots of things.  So rather than just focus on one thing, I'm doing the random thing but motivation random.  Here goes...


I need motivation to keep up my training because I have another training run this weekend.  This one is 15k (9.3 miles).  It's the last really long run for me before the mini-marathon on May 4th.  We did an Easter Bunny Rock run this last weekend, and I finished the 5k in 34:28 (11:07 per mile).  That's my fastest pace yet.  The last race I did, I think I was somewhere around 11:22 per mile.  But of course, the 15k will be a lot slower, and all I'm focused on is running as much of it as I can and finishing.  Then I'll be happy.  So keeping up the running this week and training, that's one motivation.


Getting things done.  Home girl needs to get a list of things to do at work and actually focus.  I've definitely got a lot to do, but for the life of me, I can't just sit down and do it all at once.  I can't stop the things running around in my head.  So Nain needs to focus.  Stat.


Patience.  It's been trying lately, but with a toddler, being patient isn't something that's my strong suit.  So I need to remind myself of that every now and then, and I hope the patience fairy comes and blesses me with maybe just a teensy bit of patience this week with the lil' one. 


Focusing on what's important.  Despite all of the above, everything I need to do at home and at work, I need to focus on what's important.  Prayer, T and our Aubrey.  Last week, all of the prayer and positive focus that I made helped more than I ever thought it would.  It's hard to describe, but I did start to look around and see the things in my life that are blessings that much more.  And asking for help with the things I can't control.  So it doesn't matter how stressed I am at work, whether I miss a run or have a bad workout, whether I grit my teeth and try my best not to lose my patience with T or Aubrey, all of it is a blessing.  And no matter what, I will strive this week to focus on what is important. 


So those are my motivations for this week.  What are yours?  Here's to a great week and a quick one at that! 
         

Hello, Easter Bunny!

It's Aubrey's 2nd Easter.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  So that got me thinking about how much things have changed since last year.  Because last year...this is life was with Miss Aubrey:

 

I love that dress, but I remember how much she hated those tights.  But she couldn't even sit up for a picture, so I propped the poor kid up next to her Easter basket for a photo opportunity.  I somehow don't think it'll be so easy to get her to sit still this year.  And I don't think I'll be using the Easter grass for her basket.  That would quickly become something for her to eat.  Last year's Easter basket was more so for me, though, than anything.  This year's?  I got her a thing of "Puffs" snack, Sesame Street toys, and some books.  So I think this year she may appreciate the little gifts brought by the Easter bunny more so than last year. 

This is us after mass on Easter Sunday last year.  Aubrey was such a good girl and slept through the entire mass.  We got to sit in the church itself and attend mass.  This year?  We'll be fighting a one year old who wants to crawl all over the place while sitting in the narthex just outside our church.  It's simply not worth the fight.  Oh changes....

 

Look how tiny she was!  And the jeggings!  Oh, I loved the jeggings!  This outfit was put on after she decided to pee all over her tights and dress.  So I guess she won in the end, but look at those little feet.  I miss those snugly days.  But I also like sleeping.  So I'm not sure I'd want to go back to that.  Oh and look, Mommy got to wear jewelry!  That is something I no longer do, as little Miss Perceptive will spot it in a heartbeat and it will quickly be pulled and broken.  This year we got her a more comfortable dress, one that can be worn as a play dress this summer.  So hopefully there will be non incidents of peeing.  And the dress will be coming off at meal time. 

 

 

So this Easter weekend, we will be hanging out at home today as T and I both have the day off, running an Easter Bunny Rock 5k Saturday morning, and then going to early mass and heading up to spend the day with my folks on Easter.  Aubrey loves playing with her cousins now that she is more aware.  So maybe Mommy can get a bit of a break :-)  It should be a fun weekend.  I hope everyone has the same.  Have a blessed and very Happy Easter!

 

Ironic

I promise to stop being too serious in future posts, but I have to get this one out today...just one more :-)

 

Each morning I get inspirational Bible verses emailed to me through a program I'm on.  And today's it was this:

 

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.

~ 1 Peter 5:7

 

Ironic, especially considering what I wrote yesterday. 

 

 

Right now T and I have a lot of personal and work stuff going on, and it's weighing both of us down a great deal.  And despite my post yesterday, I continue to fret and let everything weigh me down even more.  It was almost as if God was reminding me - "Hey, stop it!  Practice what you preach, lady!" 

 

 

SO...okay, okay, I get the point.  I need to stop worrying.  One way or another it will work out just the way it is meant to be.  I just wish 1) things would happen on my schedule (ha, I know, not gonna happen) and 2) it didn't suck so much in the process of waiting for something to happen.  I wrote in my journal yesterday that I just needed something, just some kind of sign yesterday that things were going to get better.  I'm looking for that sign, but who knows, I may have already gotten it?  Maybe it was in the form of the Applebee's cooks screwing up our lunch yesterday and getting our lunch completely free.  Maybe it was that?  Not sure if God works through Applebee's, though. 

 

 

So for those of you are spiritual and pray, please say a little one.  Because it's not really for me, but for T.  I want things to get better for him more than anything in the world.  Because he's the one person who I think deserves something great to happen to him.  Aside from me and Aubrey, of course.  Because, let's face it, we're the best damn thing that has happened to him.  But in addition to that.  He deserves a break, just this once.  I'd be willing to deal with my stressors just a little longer if it meant he could have some relief.  In fact, I'm totally cool with that.  I can handle it.  I'm strong, like a mule.  And stubborn like one, too.  In my Love Dare the other day it talked about spirituality in marriage and how sometimes one spouse carries the other and prays for the other, albeit not easy.  And I feel like last year, T did that for me in spades.  So this time it is my turn.  So bring it on. 

 

 

Anyway, that's enough deep stuff for today...

 

 

The Hoosier are in the Sweet 16, people!  Why, oh why, do they have to play the game at 9:45 p.m., though?  This narcoleptic Nancy has a hard enough time staying awake past 10:00 p.m.  I need to cheer on my Hoosiers.

 

 

Speaking of Hoosiers, Aubrey and I did have a battle of the wills last Friday.  I came home early with her to watch the Hoosiers play at 4:00-ish.  I turned on the TV, and she assumed I would be turning on Sesame Street.  So a tantrum soon followed.  But I didn't back down.  (Stubborn, the both of us are).  She cried, and I continued to watch my Hoosiers.  Sorry, kid, but March Madness trumps Cookie Monster.  And cry all you want, I prefer to watch the game without the sound anyway.  So I kept the game on until the end, and yes, I did turn on a Sesame after the two hour game was over.  But I like to think I won. 

 

 

Okay, time to end the serious, rambling post.  But go Hoosiers!  Kick some Syracuse butt!

     

The Things I Keep Doing

  

 

So this week's Spin Cycle brought to you by Gretchen at Second Blooming is on"Things I Keep Doing," basically things that I have no idea why I keep doing them, haven't really brought fruitful results before but yet I keep doing them.  I thought and thought about this one.  I could go for the random and cute, or I could talk about something that I've recently realized and have made a big change in my life because of it. 

 

 

Things I keep doing - or rather thing that I keep doing.  Trying to handle everything on my own. 


I've been known to do that.  I don't always speak up when I need help, but this whole handling everything on my own goes deeper than just saying "Hey, Mom, can you help?"  It's bigger than that. 


Before T and I got married, we both attended retreats at our church called Christ Renews His Parish.  Feeling renewed and energized from the weekend, T and I did quite well with going to church, praying and practicing our faith.  And it's not to say we still aren't doing that, but...going to church with a fussy one year old, I seldom walk out as inspired as I did pre-child.  (Nope, the church does not have a daycare, unfortunately).  And praying?  Saying a prayer before a meal while Play with me Sesame plays in the background isn't always conducive for good reflection. 



But all of these statements are excuses.  I've never been really good at this giving it to God thing.  I like to control it.  I will fix it, I will make it better, I will make it happen.  Until then, I will worry and stress and basically make myself sick with anxiety over it.  But it's my problem, so I'll keep it inside.  



Well, a few weeks ago I was at a dinner celebrating my completion of the MOMS ministry, and one of the ladies who had gone through before gave a talk about her faith.  And her story was just so powerful, and it just hit me.  Listening to her, I had this realization, an epiphany, if you will.  I'm doing this all on my own.  T and I are carrying these burdens, these stressors, these weights on our lives and on our marriage, not including God.  He's watching us probably thinking "oh, you of little faith, why don't you let me carry some of that weight?"  We don't pray.  We don't include faith in our daily lives. 


So I walked away that night inspired.  T and I needed to bring ourselves back to where we were.  After all, when we took those vows two and a half years ago, we joined our lives with God in front of our family and friends.  So since then, I have made a point of praying daily, writing my reflections for the day in a journal and asking for God's guidance and assistance with all of the burdens I have in my life.  And thanking Him for my blessings each night. 


I wasn't walking away looking for a miracle.  I wasn't thinking "sure, if I start praying, good things will happen."  But what I can say is it has made a difference.  My heart is a little lighter.  And I don't feel so alone with the things that weigh me down. 


I just wonder why it took me so long to realize it, huh?  So that's it.  That's the thing I keep doing.  And here's hoping that I stop it.

 

 

Stop by Gretchen's and check out what other Spinners have to share!

             

Oh dear...

I've had a suspicion all along, but I've been in denial.  But I think I need to just own up to it and admit it.  I am raising an engineer. 

 

 

My daughter doesn't just throw things around.  She examines, she's particular, she pays attention to all details around her.  She is, in effect, her father.  I watched her this weekend as she took each diaper out of her diaper bag in our living room, one by one, examining each and every one carefully as if she was some sort of quality testing engineer. 


I watch her in the bath tub as she takes each and every bath toy and delicately examines them and places them into the cup we use to rinse her hair.  She puts all the toys in there, takes them out one by one and then puts them back in, one by one. 


She examines the pages of each book when reading.  She flips through pages separately, as if she were reading and absorbing every picture. 


When at the doctor's office, she discovered that if she took the paper sheet that covers the table and pulled it, she could get things to come to her.  Like the doctor's stethoscope. 


She is her Dad.  She must figure out how things work.  She must examine things carefully.  I am raising an engineer.  Just like her Dad, just like two of her Great-Grandpas, her great-uncles...she has the engineering mind.  I think this will bring me trouble later in life. 


But, she's too cute.  I couldn't help but laugh as she took out each and every diaper, babbling to herself as she did it.  God, I love that girl.

 

   

Motivation Monday!

Happy Motivation Monday! So I find myself torn this week.  I did really well with the exercise this week, but the eating?  Not so much.  So I need to give myself a swift kiss in the ass. 


Perhaps I'm being entirely too hard.  I did get up at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and ran 10 miles.  Ran/walked 10 miles.  So there was that.  T has a course through town that he does which is about a 3.5 mile loop.  Let me tell you, running alone and not in a race setting, meaning I had no adrenaline keeping me going and running the same loop three times in a row?  Not easy.  I'm not sure how much I ran or walked.  I think I ran quite a bit, but I'm not too proud to say I walked, as well.  But I didn't really care about that.  I just wanted to finish.  If I can do 10 miles, then I am not too far away from 13.1, right?   I did 10.1, and I didn't get the time exact but roughly ran a 12 minute mile give or take.  The last big ran for me is a 15k on April 6th.  Once I do that, it's just small runs until the big 13.1 on May 4th.  As I write this (Sunday), I'm pretty damn sore, but I really need to keep it up this week and make those small runs count because they do help with the whole strength-building thing. 


So yeah, anyway, I ran 10 miles...and then the family came into town Saturday.  And I ate like crap.  And then I went to a birthday party on Sunday and had more sweets.  And then weighed myself at possibly the worst time ever and noticed I gained 4 pounds.  And yeah, sure, I know weight fluctuates and weighing onself after dinner is a bad idea.  What...oh well. 


I ran 10 miles, though, so yay! 


So that's my motivation this week...what's yours?  If you're in the Midwest in this ridiculous winter wonderland that no one asked for...be careful out there!