Mama Time

For the last couple months, especially since Chad left and I am trying to keep myself productively occupied, I have been wanting to work out.  Its not that I feel I am overweight or anything like that.  I am just not happy with how my body looks.  And I know working out can give you more energy throughout the day.  And lately I could really use the push of a little motivation.  But I run into the problem that I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything and everyone taken care of.  And have some mama time on top of it.

Yesterday, after my not so pleasant conversation with Chad, I decided I was finally going to do it.  Make time for myself.

After I got Cameron from my mom's last night.  We ran to the store for a few things we needed and went home.  I got him all settled and tucked into bed at about 8:30.

Then I brewed my first pitcher of iced tea with the new iced tea maker my mom got me for my birthday.

I put some chicken in the over for dinner for the following night.

And I put in one of my dusty Pilates DVD's that have just been sucking up space on my DVD rack.

It was about a 50 minute workout.  And I loved every minute of it.

It of course showed me how out of shape I am because of my lack of any physical activity in my life right now.  And some how that my left side is noticeably weaker than my right side (wtf?!).

I am happy to report that today my abs are killing me.  And my thighs are a little sore.  Oh yea and my arms are as well.

Like I said.. Out. Of. Shape.

But I am so happy that I showed myself that I CAN make the time to do something for myself.  And I still got everything done last night that I needed to.

Plus, after my tough workout, I enjoyed a nice hot cup of bedtime tea and an hour and a half conversation with my love away from home.

Looking forward to making this a daily routine.  :)

Big Boy Bike

Cam man got a "big boy" bike for his 3rd birthday.  And last night we took it outside and he rode it until his little legs hurt.

Here he is "cheesin" away!  I have never gotten him to stop and pose AND smile for so many pictures before!

It was gorgeous outside and we both had an awesome time.

Simple nights at home are the best :)

The Kid The Cat The Dog The - Kitty Litter?

Last night at about 11:30, our little man woke up upset.  When I went in to check on him I noticed he had a really stuffy nose.  Which he did not have before he went to bed.  : (

He woke up again 3 times and Chad went in and calmed him down, tried to blow his nose, at Cam's request, and got him all settled back in bed.  

4:00 came and it was my turn.  I did the same.  

Then when Cam came in at 5:30, Chad asked Cam if he wanted him to come lay in his bed with him.  In his sad little munchkin voice he said "yes pwease".  

Chad asked him to hang on one second so he could go to the bathroom and then he would go in with him.  I laid back down with Cam with me, trying to calm him down still.  

This is when all hell broke loose....

I hear our little rebel of a cat in Cameron's room, using his totes as a scratch post (I have had to replace those damn things twice now because the cat keeps ruining them).  So I jump out of bed to go grab the cat and shut him in the bathroom.  I have the cat in one hand (flailing about), opening the bathroom door with the other, and find Remmy (one of our dogs) in the bathroom having a little early morning snack from the kitty box.  Throwing the cat in the bathroom, grabbing the dog out of the box, shutting the door, keeping Cam calm all the while our pipes in one of our walls is sounds like it is going to burst. (This is a whole other story - those dang things will vibrate ridiculously loud in our walls in 10 second intervals for days on end.  And randomly stop and start in between.  One of the many things I love about our condo - insert sarcasm here.) 

Chad comes out of our bathroom, looks at me, and we both just had this look of "what the hell is happening in our house at 5:30 in the morning?!?".  

Its amazing the things that can happen in a matter of seconds.  

Needless to say, we were running a little behind schedule this morning.  And I had a LARGE cup of coffee when I arrived at work today.  

Nightmares?

Monday night my little munchkin came into our room at about 3 am.  And he was crying (not sobbing, but there were tears) and said "I want to sleep with you guys, mommy" as he crawled into our bed.  Luckily, Chad had already left for Safford, because the 3 of us in the bed (especially with how Cameron sleeps) is a tight squeeze. So I didn't argue it.  I actually don't mind having him in bed with me when Chad is gone.  

Then last night at about 2 am he woke up crying.  This time I caught him before he left his bed.  But he was already packing up shop (blanket, Mickey and his water cup) to come into my room.  When he saw me he told me he wanted to come sleep in my bed again.  I tried talking him back into laying down.  And after a few minutes of that not working, I picked him up and rocked him until he fell asleep in my arms.  I put him in bed, covered him up, and didn't hear a peep until I went in this morning to get him up and he said "get out!".  Its funny how they go from 3 to 17 in a few hours.  :)

I don't know what's going on with my little man though?  I don't know if he is having nightmares?  Or sometimes before bed he will ask if we got all the monsters out of his room - maybe its waking up and it being dark and that thought crossing his mind?  

Or there's always the possibility that I totally did this to myself because I let him sleep in our bed a couple times a week when Chad is gone, so now he just wants to sleep in there and will find any excuse to do so...  :(

Whatever it is, I hope its just a phase and it ends quickly.  Because I hate seeing my little guy upset!!

Pre-School

Yesterday was Cameron's first official day of pre-school!!!

He has been talking about the move from preppers to pre-school for some time now.  His teachers told him that as soon as he was potty trained he could go to pre-school.  And I am happy to report he is officially potty trained!!  Woo hoo Cameron!!!

They said he did great yesterday.  He was a little shy at first, as he always is.  But he seemed to warm up a little towards the end of the day.

This morning was a whole different ball game.

Before we left the house, he said he didn't want to go to pre-school.  He wanted to go to preppers.  So when we got to school this morning, we went into his new classroom.  The poor little guy clung to my leg and didn't want me to leave.  After about 10 minutes of staying and trying to show him different cool things about his new class and friends, I had to leave.

He cried.

It absolutely breaks my heart when he does that.  I wave to him through the window (like I do everyday) and he leans for the window and cries "Mommy!".  :(

I am hoping the adjustment to his new "big boy" classroom doesn't take too long.  Its hard enough realizing my little boy is already in pre-school.  Let alone having him cry everyday.

So the good news is he is potty trained and moving along in school just as he should be.  

The bad news... he's growing too fast for me...

The Talk of the Town

In our little house we have quite the "entourage" as I like to call it.  We have our 3 year old son, a 75 pound chocolate lab, a 65 pound German short haired pointer, and a 6 month old cat.  Like I said, our entourage.

I should have also probably mentioned that we live in a town home, not an actual house.  That's right, no backyard for our 4 legged kiddos to play in or "use" at their disposal.

So when its time to take the pups outside, between the toddler running amuck, and handling the 2 large dogs, (and just me) we usually don't spend too much time out there.  So things like picking up after the dogs doesn't get handled as they are doing it.  I usually end up doing it every other day.  When Cameron has gone to bed, and after the dogs have done their business.

Well apparently this is too much for our anal retentive elderly neighbors to handle.  Because this morning, as I was handling our normal morning ritual (you know, calming one dog down because there are other living creatures outside, calling after the other because sometimes her curiosity gets the best of her, and of course there's Cameron, trying to pick up God knows what off the ground).  I was approached by one of my (very friendly, just to note) neighbors. He wanted to let me know that there was an HOA meeting last night, and apparently me and my little entourage are the "talk of the town" (as he put it).  You could tell this man felt bad for even trying to disrupt my already chaotic situation, but just wanted to give me a heads up that the HOA and some of our "older" tenants, have it out for us.  They don't feel that I am keeping my property in proper condition.

Lovely.

As if I didn't despise living in our condo - that has no storage, a dryer sitting on our patio because it broke back in November of last year and was never removed, not one thing fixed that was promised by our landlords to be fixed when we moved in (including a hole in my living room ceiling because there was a leak in the upstairs bathroom that caused a weakness in the ceiling and the previous tenant decided to stick his hand through it), a crazy next door neighbor that calls the cops because we were watching Toy Story too loud at 8pm on a Wednesday night, and a severe red ant problem (yep, the kind that bite).  Just to name a few.

Now I need to be outside (my property only - just another note) with a bag under each dog as they are taking care of business, while watching my child, and then make it to the dumpster with each dog and making sure my child doesn't try to play chicken in the parking lot.  All because I live in a small community of old retired people that have nothing better to do than sit around and find things to bitch about.

And I get it.  I chose to live in a condo, I chose to have the dogs and the child.  However, let's be real here.. a little dog shit on the ground never hurt any body.

Little Man's 3rd Birthday

It seems like just yesterday I was bringing my little bundle of joy home from the hospital.. and here we are 3 years later celebrating his 3rd birthday.  


On Saturday we had a construction themed birthday party at Chad's parents house.  Cameron is OBSESSED with tractors and dump trucks, so he was thrilled with the kid size hard hats, his own orange vest, and a dump truck shaped cake.  

I think the boy got every dump truck and CAT tractor toy ever made.  And at least 20 more Hot Wheels cars to add to his collection.  (And he of course made us open them all that night!)


Then there was the gift that Chad and I got him... a remote control Monster Truck.  (Still not sure who was more excited about it, Chad or Cameron. Haha)  And it will take some time for him to get the hang of driving it, not into buildings, and not in circles.  But Chad is determined to teach him how to drive it.  :)

Yesterday for his actual birthday, they had a party at school for him.  With cupcakes, games, and pizza.  And of course goody bags - his favorite part of all school birthday parties.  Then last night, we took him to Peter Piper for some pizza and GAMES!!  He had a blast.  


This was probably one of the most fun of any of the holidays I have had with him to date.  He had been asking for 2 weeks on a daily basis if we were going to his birthday party that day.  So when it was finally the big day, he was extremely excited to share the day with all his family and friends - including his best friend Kayvan.  :)

Times like these make me look forward even more to the future and how much fun we are going to have on holidays.  It was not only a memorable experience for him, but I actually had a lot of fun getting it all ready for him!


Here is the birthday boy all dressed and ready to party!!