We have a permanent baby gate placed in the doorway of Logan's bedroom to keep him contained...cruel, maybe, safe, I think so! The purpose of the gate is to keep Logan and/or Lily in the room that is as child proofed as a room can realistically be. There are no dressers or bookshelves (major tipping hazards that I am seriously paranoid of), the outlets are covered...you get the idea! This was all put together so that we can sleep good at night, possibly be able to shower in the morning, and because it just seemed like a good thing to do at the time!
We never had any issues until just recently. Logan and Lily shared a room for a brief time, but we quickly learned that they wake each other up VERY early, and also keep each other up VERY late. Lily is temporarily in a pack'n'play in the other bedroom until we make a decision about what to do permanently. I think that Logan misses Lily, because he learned that he can move his toy box over to the doorway and climb over the gate. Once he's free, he goes to Lily's pack'n'play and climbs right in with her. They like to also add some of my scrapbooking supplies to their fun...grrr... Obviously it's not a good thing to have two large children in a pack'n'play with mommy's scrapbooking supplies, specifically when the older child woke up the younger child to play.
The first action I took was to remove the toy box from Logan's room. I left a few of his favorite toys so that he would not be bored. That worked for about 1 nap and 1 night... Logan soon learned that he can stand on his "digger" (as seen in a previous post) and still make it over the gate. I took action again by removing EVERYTHING from his room. He was left with his bed, Lily's toddler bed, sheets, blankets, his pillow, and a sippy cup of water. I took pity on the poor boy last night at bedtime and gave him his digger to sleep with...
At 2:30 AM this morning I was woken by some strange sounds. I thought that the noises were coming from outside since I had opened the window before falling asleep. Just then our bedroom door opened slightly, then shut quickly. I was super freaked out and half asleep, so being the silly person I am I went to see what was going on. Oh and did I see... Logan was in the bathroom with both the hot and cold water running, and by running I mean splashing EVERYWHERE! He had the bathroom light on, as well as his room AND Lily's. The funny part is what was on the floor in the bathroom. Logan had his sippy cup and his sisters cup with him...apparently he woke up in the night and was thirsty, so he went on a mission to get himself some more water. He climbed over the gate using his digger, turned on all the lights, thought he should be nice and get his sister some water too, turned on the water, and then he must have figured out that he doesn't know how to open the sippy cup to fill it with water. That must have been when he started to come get me or Kenny, but maybe thought we would be upset when we saw what he'd been up to...
Soooo, now I have to find a way to keep him in his room! I am too scared of what else he could do in the night without either of us knowing. He has already escaped from a friend's house in the early morning on a cold winter day...long story, but one that will forever have me scared of my kids running away before they even know what running away is!!! I am thinking that maybe I need to move Lily back into Logan's room so that he doesn't miss her so much that he feels he has to climb over gates to see her.... :)
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Grocery Shopping
I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to make new routines. When I did daycare we would spend Sunday afternoon doing errands like grocery shopping and going to the BX to keep the diaper/wipe supply up. Now that I am a full time stay at home mom I feel that we shouldn't waste our weekend doing errands, which I can do during the week while Kenny is at work. Choosing a day to do grocery shopping has been a challenge for me. I have tried going on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. So far I think Tuesday is my day of choice. Tuesday is close enough to the weekend that we might actually know what we have planned, but it's not so late in the week that I don't have the energy to go shopping with the kids.
Our old commissary routine consisted of me running into the store with a detailed list while Kenny sat in the car with the kids. This allowed me to shop very quickly and gave me the concentration to compare prices without being distracted. Our commissary has recently invested in shopping carts with 2 seats, in addition to the normal child seat. This has been a lifesaver to me! One problem I've found is that the kids can kick the cart, which pushes the back into the food...very irritating! The other main problem is that the kids find it necessary to fight with each other since they're within arms length. Once I am able to ignore those things, it will be perfect!
I have also learned that I am more likely to impulse buy when the kids are with me. I don't know if it's that I can't seem to focus on the list, or that I am in the store for about twice the amount of time...? The other reason I seem to impulse buy more when I shop during the week is that I tend to go in the morning before lunch, when I am HUNGRY! I've got to make a point to eat something before making that trip!
These are just some notes in my attempt to make this weekly chore easier, cheaper, and less stressful for everyone involved. What helps you when it comes to your grocery shopping? :)
Our old commissary routine consisted of me running into the store with a detailed list while Kenny sat in the car with the kids. This allowed me to shop very quickly and gave me the concentration to compare prices without being distracted. Our commissary has recently invested in shopping carts with 2 seats, in addition to the normal child seat. This has been a lifesaver to me! One problem I've found is that the kids can kick the cart, which pushes the back into the food...very irritating! The other main problem is that the kids find it necessary to fight with each other since they're within arms length. Once I am able to ignore those things, it will be perfect!
I have also learned that I am more likely to impulse buy when the kids are with me. I don't know if it's that I can't seem to focus on the list, or that I am in the store for about twice the amount of time...? The other reason I seem to impulse buy more when I shop during the week is that I tend to go in the morning before lunch, when I am HUNGRY! I've got to make a point to eat something before making that trip!
These are just some notes in my attempt to make this weekly chore easier, cheaper, and less stressful for everyone involved. What helps you when it comes to your grocery shopping? :)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Menus...again...
Yesterday I managed to get off topic fairly quickly when I was supposed to be talking about menus...oops! The more you get to know me (as well as my husband and kids), the more you learn that I'm one of those "A man walked into a bar, what did he--oh look a kitty!!!" kind of people. Easily side tracked!
Seriously. Today is my last day of daycare, but I have already made my new menu for our first "non-daycare" week. I made some changes to help make the menu work for us, as a family, rather than for the satisfaction of the UDSA. I do not feel that my children need two items at each snack, and sometimes they just don't need meat, vegetable, fruit, grain, and milk at lunch. Some days need to be PB&J with apple slices kind of days. I also took out some of the variety. Anyone who knows my children knows that they could eat PB&J 3 days a week and wouldn't ever notice that you didn't feed them 5 different meals instead. Part of that variety is also knowing what my children like to eat and what they WILL eat. I see no point in serving them items that I know will just be put into the garbage disposal. My menu has a lot of bananas, apples and tangerines, because these are fruits my kids love (and I can count on being able to purchase them from the commissary!).
When making my menu I had to also account for the fact that I shop at an overseas commissary. Produce is...ummm...well...not appealing. One of the major concerns for me is that nothing ever seems to be in season...what I would give to have a good watermelon or cantaloupe in summer! I have considered doing once a month shopping, but then I know that we are lucky if our produce lasts 3 days, so I would still be at the commissary at least once a week anyway unless we cut produce out of our diets...UH, NO!
Meat is another concern. Most of the time the "use by" date on chicken is the same day you purchase it. The other options are to buy Tyson's 100% Natural, which is previously frozen and defrosted, meaning you cannot re-freeze it, so it must be eaten quickly, or the option of buying bags of frozen chicken pieces...icky, not my favorite. I choose to purchase the Tyson chicken, but I put it on the menu for a day right after we shop so that it is still fresh. All other meat I purchase goes straight into the freezer and I thaw it the day before or the day I need to use it.
One of the biggest reasons I have been able to give into a menu is the money it saves us. I am in disbelief of how much we save by making a menu, planning a grocery list accordingly, and sticking to that list at the store. I never realized how much food we were purchasing and then later throwing out because it went bad or expired. I now only buy what is needed for that week. Yes, sometimes stocking up can be good, but when it's never consumed it is just a waste. Next week our menu is full of dinners that will use up items in the cupboards and/or freezer that aren't being eaten. No, it's not going to be fun to eat Spaghetti-O's for dinner on Monday, but maybe that will remind me not to buy them because I think Kenny or the kids will want it.
Seriously. Today is my last day of daycare, but I have already made my new menu for our first "non-daycare" week. I made some changes to help make the menu work for us, as a family, rather than for the satisfaction of the UDSA. I do not feel that my children need two items at each snack, and sometimes they just don't need meat, vegetable, fruit, grain, and milk at lunch. Some days need to be PB&J with apple slices kind of days. I also took out some of the variety. Anyone who knows my children knows that they could eat PB&J 3 days a week and wouldn't ever notice that you didn't feed them 5 different meals instead. Part of that variety is also knowing what my children like to eat and what they WILL eat. I see no point in serving them items that I know will just be put into the garbage disposal. My menu has a lot of bananas, apples and tangerines, because these are fruits my kids love (and I can count on being able to purchase them from the commissary!).
When making my menu I had to also account for the fact that I shop at an overseas commissary. Produce is...ummm...well...not appealing. One of the major concerns for me is that nothing ever seems to be in season...what I would give to have a good watermelon or cantaloupe in summer! I have considered doing once a month shopping, but then I know that we are lucky if our produce lasts 3 days, so I would still be at the commissary at least once a week anyway unless we cut produce out of our diets...UH, NO!
Meat is another concern. Most of the time the "use by" date on chicken is the same day you purchase it. The other options are to buy Tyson's 100% Natural, which is previously frozen and defrosted, meaning you cannot re-freeze it, so it must be eaten quickly, or the option of buying bags of frozen chicken pieces...icky, not my favorite. I choose to purchase the Tyson chicken, but I put it on the menu for a day right after we shop so that it is still fresh. All other meat I purchase goes straight into the freezer and I thaw it the day before or the day I need to use it.
One of the biggest reasons I have been able to give into a menu is the money it saves us. I am in disbelief of how much we save by making a menu, planning a grocery list accordingly, and sticking to that list at the store. I never realized how much food we were purchasing and then later throwing out because it went bad or expired. I now only buy what is needed for that week. Yes, sometimes stocking up can be good, but when it's never consumed it is just a waste. Next week our menu is full of dinners that will use up items in the cupboards and/or freezer that aren't being eaten. No, it's not going to be fun to eat Spaghetti-O's for dinner on Monday, but maybe that will remind me not to buy them because I think Kenny or the kids will want it.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Menus...but I got side tracked to Snacks!
I think it is very funny how many of us grow up thinking "I'm not going to turn into my mom/dad", but in the end we are more like our parent(s) than we would ever think possible. In my case I very much like my mom, and if anything I wish I could be more like her in some ways. I have been running a daycare out of my home for 3 1/2 months, and tomorrow will be my last day. It was not for me, and I am excited to get back to being a "normal" stay at home mom. I have established a few new (good) habits due to some of the rules and regulations the daycare required. These may take a few posts to discuss, but I want to start with the MENU.
When I was a kid, my mom always had a weekly/monthly menu. For her this was a way of knowing what she needed to put on the grocery list each week, as well as a way for us to all know what to prepare and eat for dinner each night. Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and side dishes were not on the menu because a routine was already in place for those, ie: eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, vegetable with dinner, etc. I spent much of my childhood hating these menus because I never seemed to "feel" like eating any of the items on the menu; not because I didn't like that food, but because I "felt" like eating that item on a different day...you get the idea.
As a licensed daycare provider through the US Air Force I am required to serve the children breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack, all of which need to meet USDA guidelines. Milk must be served with breakfast and lunch, 2 "real"(I will explain later) items must be served at EACH snack, and lunch must consist of a meat or meat alternative, 2 fruits/vegetables (or one of each), and a grain. So a proper lunch could be peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread, peas, and apple slices with a glass of milk. Of course it gets more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
As a mom I never noticed that the kids really do seem to need breakfast, lunch, dinner AND 1-3 snacks a day. I don't know why this never hit me on the head, but it didn't. My kids would act up and misbehave during the day because they were hungry. Now I am not saying that I didn't feed them, I am just stating that sometimes kids need those crackers at 9:30am rather than just making them wait for lunch at 11:30am. Snack time was a new thing to me. By "new thing" I mean that my mom always had snack time in our daily schedule and I somehow forgot all about it when I gave birth to my own children.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand... When I say "real", I mean crackers, cheese, fruit, vegetables, etc...NOT fruit snacks, Ho-Ho's, sugar filled WhAtEvEr, etc. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We as moms have talked ourselves into the fact that sometimes it's just easier to give the children junk than to cut an apple... but is it REALLY? By not being able to feed my kids junk during the day I have learned that it is not that much more work to cut an apple, open a banana, or toss some crackers onto plates for the kids. If fact, I find that we are helping ourselves by not feeding them junk because they behave better when their sugar levels aren't acting like a roller coaster! Have you ever looked at the nutrition label for some of the "healthy" snack foods that we all buy? If you want to feed your kids junk food that's FINE, I happen to love eating junk food, but do them and yourself a favor and try giving them more nutritious snacks.
I have more to say about menus, but I will save that for my next post since you are probably falling asleep reading this...
When I was a kid, my mom always had a weekly/monthly menu. For her this was a way of knowing what she needed to put on the grocery list each week, as well as a way for us to all know what to prepare and eat for dinner each night. Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and side dishes were not on the menu because a routine was already in place for those, ie: eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, vegetable with dinner, etc. I spent much of my childhood hating these menus because I never seemed to "feel" like eating any of the items on the menu; not because I didn't like that food, but because I "felt" like eating that item on a different day...you get the idea.
As a licensed daycare provider through the US Air Force I am required to serve the children breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack, all of which need to meet USDA guidelines. Milk must be served with breakfast and lunch, 2 "real"(I will explain later) items must be served at EACH snack, and lunch must consist of a meat or meat alternative, 2 fruits/vegetables (or one of each), and a grain. So a proper lunch could be peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread, peas, and apple slices with a glass of milk. Of course it gets more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
As a mom I never noticed that the kids really do seem to need breakfast, lunch, dinner AND 1-3 snacks a day. I don't know why this never hit me on the head, but it didn't. My kids would act up and misbehave during the day because they were hungry. Now I am not saying that I didn't feed them, I am just stating that sometimes kids need those crackers at 9:30am rather than just making them wait for lunch at 11:30am. Snack time was a new thing to me. By "new thing" I mean that my mom always had snack time in our daily schedule and I somehow forgot all about it when I gave birth to my own children.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand... When I say "real", I mean crackers, cheese, fruit, vegetables, etc...NOT fruit snacks, Ho-Ho's, sugar filled WhAtEvEr, etc. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We as moms have talked ourselves into the fact that sometimes it's just easier to give the children junk than to cut an apple... but is it REALLY? By not being able to feed my kids junk during the day I have learned that it is not that much more work to cut an apple, open a banana, or toss some crackers onto plates for the kids. If fact, I find that we are helping ourselves by not feeding them junk because they behave better when their sugar levels aren't acting like a roller coaster! Have you ever looked at the nutrition label for some of the "healthy" snack foods that we all buy? If you want to feed your kids junk food that's FINE, I happen to love eating junk food, but do them and yourself a favor and try giving them more nutritious snacks.
I have more to say about menus, but I will save that for my next post since you are probably falling asleep reading this...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
My New Found Love...
I have a dear friend, Ness, who invited me to go antique shopping with her this past weekend. Now you must know that I have never purchased an antique before, but I really really love looking at them. Now maybe I got ripped off, maybe I got a great deal, but regardless of any of that I LOVE my new corner cabinet!!! I spent this morning rearranging furniture that was probably too heavy for me to move, but it was worth it once I found a home for my new love in this corner of the dining room. I even filled the top of the cabinet with some of my favorite "breakables", and topped it with a serving tray that I bought in London. I must admit that I think I am hooked...when can we go antique shopping again? :)
Cute Picture of Logan
I just thought this was a cute picture of Logan wiggling his way around under the dining room table and chairs with his bulldozer... :)Kenny's New Toy
Kenny has decided that he would like to learn how to play the electric guitar. He consulted with many of his friends and/or co-workers who play guitar to figure out what kind to purchase. After waiting patiently for the go-ahead from his accountant (haha me), and also the USPS, here is Kenny with his prized guitar...
Doesn't he look happy? :)
Doesn't he look happy? :)
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