In the land of sippies and creepy crawlies...

I wish this was my grass, it's not.


Surprisingly, he liked the grass.

Doesn't he look like a little dog here?

Munch, munch, munch...

I'm a little late in posting, but Seth started crawling last Friday (5/15)! It's the one-armed army belly crawl but he still manages to slither his way around fast and get into everything and anything. I need to do a small parts sweep to get all the little stuff off the ground! Just this week he's also started babbling more (ma mas and da das!) and protests when everyone leaves him in a room alone.

I realize I'm on the edge of neglect since my 8-month-old cannot drink out of any sippy cup. It's my mission to somehow get him to wrap his brain around this task in the next couple weeks so that I can begin the steps towards independence from mommy! Not that we're weaning any time soon (5 more months to go!) but it would give me some peace of mind to know that if I HAD to be away for him for any sort of emergency that he wouldn't starve!

Weighing In...

Happy little monkeys

Today's blog title carries a lot of weight...literally and figuratively. It's been a hell of a year already and quite frankly I'm ready to be through 2009 just to say I survived it. Not that anything major has happened - it's just been the year of decisions - to start or to finish? That is the question.

I'm mostly hating this year because combined with turning 30 and a few other miscellaneous factors I've had somewhat of a mini-identity crisis. Shocker, right? Did I PLAN for this? Well, no, not really. I attained my goal of having 3 children by age 30 (Yes that really was planned) and you'd think I'd be psyched. I am, don't get me wrong, but after almost 4 years of just being a mommy I decided it wasn't enough. So with February and the big 30 approaching (not that that's old, I know), the stress of a newborn and hammering down new routines, being housebound for the winter and illness upon illness, I was feeling tired, sad, overwhelmed, and bored.

So spring came, my most dreaded season, and with it a lot of buzz from other women about similar feelings and doing something about them! How oddly convenient. Through blogs, chats/emails with friends, and even a night listening to an author speak about her book "On Not Becoming My Mother" things started clicking in my mind. The author talked about generations of women and how the housewife has evolved. How we now have the choice to work or not to work and what we do with that choice and how it's perceived. I know it's not my time to work outside the home. My kids are little and I understand they need me. What they don't need is a braindead mommy who feels useless because any skills sets I may have had are wasting away in a pile of unfolded laundry and a house full of endless clutter. I don't want to wait 10 years from now to start thinking about what I'm finally going to do with my life because I fear it will be too late. I'm a good procrastinator so it's not unlikely that I'll go from "my kids are little they need me to oh but who else will take them to x, y, and z???" when chauffer was never really my intended profession. I feel like a constant theme in my life is to think about things but never start them or start them but never finish them. I decided to start exploring some possibilities with the intent on seeing them through.

Decision #1 - Get in shape, seriously. There comes a time when Billy Blanks (god love ya!) and tae bo just aren't going to do it for me anymore. Not to say I've popped in a tape since Seth was born but still...it gets old. I'm a good 7lbs heavier than my normal nursing mommy weight which is a bit alarming but not shocking since we ate out a record 7 times in April (Eric 10 times not including a weekend away!) Our eating, not to mention drinking habits, have been a little out of whack lately. We used to lift weights semi-seriously when we lived in Okinawa mostly out of boredom and lots of time on our hands. It wasn't uncommon to spend 2 hours at the gym every day. I'd kill for 2 whole hours to do ANYTHING nowadays. Anyway, I kind of got into it and wanted to start up again now that all the kiddos have been birthed and I don't need to worry about losing hard-earned muscle due to pregnancy. Enter personal trainer - big decision #1. I'm a tad bit embarrassed to admit that I have one but I really don't think I can get into the kind of shape that I want to be in without some initial help. It's a 36 session deal and after that I have already mentally made the commitment to make this a lifelong thing.

**Interesting note about this post - I actually started writing it a month ago and never published it...kind of funny actually given the "start but never finish" and procrastinating theme...I've decided to just leave it as is and move on :) **

Going Green - FINALLY!!

Wednesday was the day this week where all the planting and hydroseed got done by Jim and crew! Hooray! It looks fantastic and officially takes away the title of "most ghetto house on TJ Gamester". I don't know who wins that now but definitely not us!

It was a little bittersweet for Ben and Cal. Grampa Jim did have to demolish the cherished dirt pile. Cal was at school and didn't get to have the last ceremonial rites with it. Ben did though and I think it might just have been the happiest day of his entire life. I let him roll down the dirt pile, slide down it, throw the dirt, put it in his hair, smear it on his face, it was literally everywhere. He screeched with joy as I cringed at the mess he was making. Oh well, I got through it knowing it'd be the last time.

Next house project: Demolish front stairs and walkway. Add new ones. Add portico (is that what it's called - the little inverted V enclosed structure over a front doorway?). Remove rot from garage trim and paint house! haha...maybe over the next few years?!

Clapping, clapping, clap with me!

Seth was SO excited he could join in - watch and see!