Kids are Just Like Dogs

It’s funny how much kids are like dogs. They can’t feed themselves, they want constant attention and they both tend to have big smelly poops. Dogs need lots of exercise, especially when they’re young. If a dog misbehaves, trainers almost always start by recommending more activity. Kids are no different. Thirty minutes of TV can buy some much-need peace (and sanity), but as soon as the show is over, the kids are bouncing off the walls again because they need to get up and get moving. That’s why I treat my kids just like my dogs!

• Fetch: What better game for a rowdy 18 month old boy than fetch? You sit in one room, get him all excited about playing with the ball, and then throw it in the other room and have him go find it. I find this provides lots of fun and lots of exercise.
• Wrestling: There is no better way to bond with your kids than to get on the floor and wrestle with them. They love to be picked up, thrown around, and most of all they love to climb all over you. It’s a wonderful way to burn some energy after dinner. • Sit: I find that my kids absolutely love Simon Says. I tell them to
• Sit. They do. I tell them to touch their noses. They do. I tell them to jump and down. They do! What a great way to help them with their attention span and get them off the couch.

 I love my kids and I love my dogs and I love them even more when they’ve both had plenty of time to burn up all that excess energy!!

Heckled by My Daughter Again While Running With Stroller

It really is no wonder that it's hard for Moms to do any serious training.  This weekend Hubby took Little Buddy to get a haircut so I decided to go for a nice run with the Single Bob Stroller.  Now this is quite a treat for me because the Double Bob Stroller is so huge that it's hard to get the motivation to even take it out of the garage.  Still, even just getting prepared for a run is a lot of work.  Since it was a little chilly, I had to get blankets, snacks, water, and music.  And that's just for Munchkin Girl.

Once I was finally prepared, we set off on the crisp Fall day.  A few minutes into the run, I was feeling the pressure.  I've been sick so my chest is still a little tight.  Within three minutes I encountered a huge hill and had to slow to a walk.  Munchkin Girl started saying something.  I couldn't hear her because it was windy and the canopy was fully extended.  I tried to just agree with everything and keep going.  "Yes, definitely."  "Uh, huh, that sounds good honey." 

She got more and more insistent and eventually I had to stop running, pull open the canopy and ask her what she wanted.  She said,

"Mommy, it doesn't feel like you're running.  Why aren't you running?"

Really??!?!!  She made me stop running just to tell me that I wasn't running???

We kept going and came to a stoplight.  I turned right and again, she started saying something and being very insistent.  Finally I stopped again and pulled the canopy since I still couldn't hear her.

"Mommy, that was a red light.  You forgot to stop and wait for it to turn green."

I didn't realize that I brought a Heckler with me on my run.  Maybe it's time to join a gym.

I will say that at the end of the run, as I pulled her out of the stroller, she said, "Mommy, thanks for letting me wear my slippers." 

Point for Munchkin Girl...It's nice when someone appreciates the little things in life.

The Merits of Letting Daddy Interfere

Sometimes Hubby just isn't practical.  And sometimes he wants the kids to grow up immediately.  A perfect example was our first Christmas with Munchkin Girl.  She was seven months old and he insisted that we needed to go buy a real Christmas Tree and his reasoning was that Munchkin Girl would think it was really fun.  The seven month old baby. 

I grew up with a fake tree and always thought it was fine.  I don't deny his heart was in the right place.  He wanted to bond with our little daughter.  However, he just didn't realize that a seven month old wouldn't care about a tree at all, let alone whether it was fake or real.  I gave in like I always do and spent the entire Christmas Holiday cleaning up pine needles and fighting with the dogs to get them to quit drinking the water from the tree.

This brings me to this Halloween.  With Munchkin Girl at 3 and Little Buddy at 18 months, we were both excited about pumpkin carving.  Then Hubby decided to take it to a new level.  He decided we needed dry ice.  I don't know much about dry ice, but I do know that it's not something you want your 18 month old to be sticking his hands into.  At first, I protested.  I said they weren't old enough to appreciate it and it would be a total hassle and could even be dangerous.

Then I had an epiphany...why not?  I'm lucky to have a Hubby who wants to put in the extra effort to have fun with the kids.  If I end up having to clean up a little extra, so what?  So I let go...and look what my Hubby did...


The kids thought it was super cool and we had it bubbling while they cleaned out the pumpkins.


Then, it evolved a step further.  Since the kids can't really hold knives and carve a pumpkin, they got to paint the pumpkins while Daddy did the actual carving.  They really enjoyed this and I was so glad that I didn't stress over the mess they were making.  Admittedly it took a lifetime to clean up this spectacular mess, but it was totally worth it.


I guess the moral of this story is that I need to chill out and have fun.  It's an ongoing process, but I'm happy to report that I'm making progress in the right direction.

Austin Ironman: It was the Best of Trips, it was the WORST of trips.

Saturday was the long-awaited Ironman race for my darling Hubby.  I was thrilled to go because we were finally going to visit my very best friend and we were so excited to let our kids play together.  (She has a daughter just a little younger than Munchkin Girl).  However, things did not quite go as planned and to an outsider, this trip would probably be considered a monumental disaster...Consider the evidence:

• The day before we left, Munchkin Girl and I came down with terrible colds.  We were both hacking away all night and literally didn't fall asleep until 3:30am the first night.  She woke up every 15 minutes with painful couging that made her cry and sob in agony.  I had no medicine for her cough and was helpless all night.
• Hubby flew down two days later for the Ironman and Frontier LOST his bag.  This bag contained dozens of items to do the Ironman, such as shoes, clothes, etc.  He briefly considered running naked but decided that was a poor option.  On the other hand, we'd already spent thousands of dollars to come to, and he'd spent hundreds of hours training for the grueling 6 hour race.  In the end, he bought all new stuff and did it anyway, which was a huge expense for us and quite a fiasco to drive all around Austin in search of the correct gear.
• After the race, we drove almost 2 hours to San Antonio to take the three kids to Sea World.  They were so excited to go.  To our dismay Sea World is closed during the week.  Who knew?  It was like a Vacation moment...I swear I almost pulled a Chevy Chase and demanded they get Wally World/Sea World open for us.  We ended up going to the San Antonio zoo, which I don't recommend.  If you've ever been there, you know why.  I won't go into detail.  On the way home, we got stuck in traffic and it took us another three hours to get home.  The kids weren't thrilled at all to be stuck in dead-stopped traffic for three hours.
• Lastly, my parents were taking care of the dogs and they got into a teensy fight with a skunk.  All I can say is Yuck.

Amazingly, I still consider it to be a FANASTIC trip.  People always say that during adversity that you find your true friends.  I always knew my friend was a true friend, but this trip brought that out in new and incredible ways.  Consider the evidence:

• We show up sick.  If I'm being honest, I wouldn't have been that thrilled to have sick house-guests.  We had medicine everywhere and we were both coughing constantly.  Not my friend.  She opened her house happily to her germ-challenged friends.  I quote, "I don't care if I get sick.  I'm just happy you're here."  She wasn't just saying it.  She meant it.  It's pretty nice to have someone care that much about you.
• In trying to figure out where everyone would sleep, she literally offerd to sleep on her screened porch if needed.  Again, she meant it.  She would have literally slept outside.  Luckily, we didn't need to take her up on this offer, but she still gave Little Buddy the nursery and put her own daughter to sleep in the Pack and Play in the Master closet.  Her poor little girl didn't even get to nap most days because my Little Buddy was sleeping in her bed, but she did it happily. 
• Before I came, she loaded up on my favorite cereal.  I was so happy.  I love my Quaker Oat Squares.
• After the bag came up missing, she and her husband changed all our plans, dropped everything, and tried to help us find it and her husband spent the entire day helping Hubby at the airport, checking in at the race, and eventually at the bike stores buying all new stuff. 

There are dozens of other ways she was awesome and the best hostess ever, but I can't type forever.  Research shows that women who have supportive best friends have better marriages, are happier, and live more fulfilling lives.  If that's true, then I'm set for life.  I hope all women have a best friend like mine.

The other good news is that our little girls got a jumpstart on being BFFs.  They took every opportunity over the 5 day trip to hold hands.  This went well of course until Little Buddy decided to tackle them and ruin the moment.  Oh well, probably won't be the last time that'll happen.

Yoga + Toddlers = Bad Idea