independence and nudity

This is my attempt to redeem myself from a)my lack of posts and b)my last post being completely lame. I'm thinking my title alone makes this posts much more interesting than bullets.  Ian is growing, changing, learning on daily basis. He is also growing independent and wanting to attempt things/activities on his own.  While I embrace this time and learn to let go and get over the fact that it may take him 20min to put on his undies that the truth is he is in fact becoming a self functioning human in which the world will thank me for later in allowing him to learn to put his undies on by himself.  This new independence comes with several warnings.

Warning #1: when child has a "I do it myself" moment be prepared for your laundry pile to grow by at least 3 clothing items. Ian needed to go potty so he heads to the potty and insists on doing his business solo, so as a good parent I obliged and sit on the edge of my seat and peek into the bathroom patiently wait until I hear "all done".  Ian proudly walks out of bathroom and his shirt has a small wet spot and he is carrying his undies and jeans.  Since I wasn't present to witness how this all occurred of what I did witness he decided to go stand up on his stool to potty.  So my guess as to how his shirt, undies and jeans all got some wetness is that upon pushing down undies and jeans he started to go, it's the only logically thing I can figure out as his shirt wasn't long enough to be in the way of his aim. You've been warned, when child has a full bladder and upon pushing undies pants down solo you're laundry will grow.

Warning #2: when child has accomplished the unzipping of footed PJ's he/she will blame it falling out of bed.  Ian was fighting bedtime one night, so I did what any good parent would do and let him cry it out for 10-20min (**can be risky when child is no longer in a toddler bed and therefore can get up and open door and abandon bedtime altogether).  After the approx 20min mark, I went and checked on him and there I found him sprawled out on his floor completely naked his footed PJ's on one side of him and his pull up on the other side.  When I asked what happened he said "I fell out of bed" (*note to prevent him falling out of bed when sleeping we inserted a pool noodle under his sheet to create a barrier between him and the floor).  When asked what happened to his PJ's he repeated "I fell out of bed".  So I said you fell out of bed and your jammies and pull up fell off too and he said YAY!! (In his excited "you finally figured out what I was telling you dummy" voice). You've been warned footed full zip jammies can be unzipped by a willed child fighting bedtime.

Warning #3: random nudity.  One evening while Marcus was at the fire station I decided to start working on the pool.  Ian was happily playing in his sandbox, digging, dumping, piling, etc.  I'm working away looking over to him every couple of min and saying a random "Hi" and "don't throw the sand out of box, play with the sand in the box". Well, apparently he is fast as I look up to do a check in his naked from the waist down about to step into his sandbox and sit down to play.  Needless to say playtime and pool work ended immediately. You've been warned toddlers can strip at an insane speed.

Warning #4: you will develop the ability to put a pull up on and PJ pants in the middle of the night without a light.  One night Ian woke up crying (I think if memory serves me correctly it was Thursday night), but it doesn't really matter. Anyways I think it was around 2:15a and his crying so I go to see what the issue is and as I go to pick him up I realize he is naked from yet again the waist down.  In a half asleep attempt I get his pull up back on him and turn his pants outside in and redress the lovely little boy who then takes up half my sleeping area in the big bed. You've been warned, now go train to put a pull up on the correct direction and turn jammies in the right direction in the middle of the night without a light.

There you have it 4 warnings when it comes to a little person learning their independence and the reaction that nudity will get them. Ooo...and I'll leave ya with one warning for public restroom usage.

My little family went out to dinner one night which it is completely pointless to take Picky Pete out to dinner unless it's for pizza or breakfast for dinner but that is a post for an entirely different day.  In usual toddler form just as your meal is served they annouce "POTTY" and of course follow that up with "MOMMY".  Meaning no matter how convincing daddy (or any willing helpful adult) can be in his/their attempt to take toddler potty it's not going to work, mommy only.  I apparently somehow made going potty way to much fun the 1st time as we had to go another 4 times with the last time as I'm ready-ing him to do his business he starts laughing and says no. You've been warned, make going potty the least exciting activity ever when out in public.

bullets

• Today wrapped up week #8 of the 12 week 1/2 marathon training and it was both physically and eye poking mentally draining. Today was an 8 mile run but due to the wind breeze I decided to run it on the treadmill and yeah that's where it became mentally draining.  I literally had to talk myself into each and every mile, every mile felt like it would never end.  Nonetheless I finished it and can cross the week off.  There are some weeks that I think I'll just go out and run the 13.1 (since I'm not running an official 13.1 but just my own) and then talk myself out of that idea.
• summer is around the corner which means we will start to tackle the task of opening the pool.  I have a feeling our leaf sweeper upper thingy is going to get quite the workout. 
• this list is lame...sorry I'm tried the 1st bullet has me wanting to take a nap but the book sitting next to me  The Fault In Our Stars (this month's book club read) also wants my attention and nap time will soon be over for lil man.  So after all that I'm leaving you with this lame very lame list.

March review

I was a little lazy and never wrote a to-do list for March.  We did do stuff I promise it's just a matter of remembering what all was done.

-Potty trained Ian well at least 98% trained when home and out in public with us (zero accidents while out in public) and about 95% trained at the sitters.  Some nights he's completely dry while others not so much.

- Thanks to my dad going to pick up and deliver a load of mulch to our house, we gave our landscaping a little face lift.  We also rearranged plants now that spring has sprung we were able to take full inventory of what all was in the ground. 

-guest bedroom got painted, trim is still needing to be finished.

-Marcus' Christmas present from my parents got installed.  He got a flag and flag pole and I'm here to tell you that a 4ft hole is very deep.

-we colored eggs for Easter, Ian enjoyed bossing us around and telling us which colors to color them after he colored on them with the magic crayon.

Well now that we are over halfway through the month of April I better get a jump on what happened in April around the Z house.

Z House Funnies Edition #4

*Nothing like having to give your child a bath and change bed linens at 10p. Because he decided to unzip his pj's, remove his diaper, zip his pj's up and then pee on himself and the bed.

*I told Ian that I loved him and he said hair pointing to my hair so I said you love my hair and he said "yeah mommy!!!"

*Walking out of Home Depot one of the employee's says bye to Ian and he responds with "poopy"!

*this is more of a sweet one than a funny one.
   I had a booboo on my forehead and Ian asked if I needed ice and I said no thanks.  So he leaned in and kissed my booboo all better.

*Often times when Ian gets in his cozy coupe he says he's going to Target, blows me a kiss and says bye. (I'm so glad he sees the same amazing-ness that I see in Target)

I made it

To help get us out a dinner runt.  I've been searching magazines and of course pinterest.  I know I have yet to share the fabulousness that is pinterest so you'll have to trust me when I say it's wonderful and fabulous. I'll give you a quick description.  You know when your going through a magazine and see something you like you either tear the page out and try to file it away into a recipe box or turn the corner down and then keep the magazine in the archive of magazines with pages turned down because you will get to it at some point?  Well, tear no more and turn down no more corners Pinterest is a digital pin board. You pin based on appearance and title and click on it to get full details (basically how to instrcutions).  Pinterest makes you feel like a fabulous cook, awesome DIY-er, funny as can be comic, and the best dressed person wherever you go. Ok so now that my wow that took forever quick description is complete I will proceed.

I came across the following the recipe from Woman's Day magazine:

Creamy Double-Cheese Sauce with Pasta:

Creamy Double-Cheese Sauce with Pasta (active 10min, total 25 min, serves 6)

1 lb pasta

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped (*I used onion powder)

salt, pepper

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

3/4 cup whole milk (I used 1%)

4 oz lowfat cream cheese, cut into pieces

1/4 cup parmesan  (1 oz)

Pinch ground nutmeg

1) cook pasta according to package directions.  Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid, drain the pasta and return it to the pot.

2) meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over med-low heat.  And the onion and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until very tender, 6-8min.  Stir in the garlic and cook for 1min. *If using onion powder then start with the garlic

3) Whisk in the milk and bring to a simmer.  Whisk in the cream cheese, parmesan and nutmeg *add onion powder and simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 2-3min.  Toss with the pasta, adding some of the reserved cooking liquid if the pasta seems dry.

The good the bad and the ugly:

per serving: 1 cup 383 calories, 8g fat (3g sat fat), 16mg chol, 239mg sod, 14g pro, 62g carbs, 3g fiber

I served ours with chicken marinated in zesty italian dressing and parmesan cheese baked in the oven at 350 for 20-30min.  Now,  I don't reccommend making this during nap time (ie approx 4-5hrs before you will be par taking in it's yumminess) by the time we ate the pasta was pretty dry despite my efforts to cream it up a bit.  I ate it "as is", hubby on the other hand asked if he could put alfredo sauce on his. I obliged and thought too about adding it but decided against it. If I make it again I will without a doubt half the recipe.  We have enough leftovers for 2 nights worth of dinners or 2 lunches and 1 dinner.  We aren't that fond of leftovers...

running

It's that time of year again in which it's time to uncover the jogging stroller in the garage and it get some more miles on the tires.  Have I mentioned this is one of the best purchases we made.

I'm back to following Hal Higdon's 1/2 marathon training program, I'm in week 3 at the moment.  This is the same program I followed in 2010 and it worked well with my schedule.  I think I should probably change to the Novice 2, but it doesn't work as nicely with my work schedule as the Novice 1.  And Sunday was our 1st longer run (5 miles), it was kinda misting rain on us. Each offer I made to have the rain guard on over the stroller was declined he was content in his rain coat and long pants, in fact he fell asleep.  My plan is to my own 1/2 marathon around June 2nd, my training is currently right on track for that to happen. Are you training for anything???

yap yaps

Have you broken out your yap yaps from the closet yet??