Friday, February 21, 2014

What's Going On With Us

I don't have any recipes ready to share right now, but here's an update on our week.

I wanted to go to my cardio dance fitness class two times this week but we were busy on Tuesday and then Thursday's class was cancelled due to the weather (which ended up only being rain).  I ended up motivating myself to do two elliptical workouts in the basement as replacements.  It's not as good of exercise since the class really gets you moving, but it's my only time I can watch TV!  I use my iPad to watch shows on Netflix.  The first night I watched some training videos for new software I'm going to use at work and then rewarded myself with an episode of the TV show Scrubs.  The second time I went straight for Scrubs.  I enjoy the show but I don't love it, but it's fun, mindless entertainment that's sometimes easier to get lost in rather than some heavier things. 

I had a 'win' at work, I was setting up a new project and it actually turned out like I planned.  Yay! 

Sonny D

He's transitioning from daycare to a Montessori preschool this week.  We switched because I didn't love the old daycare.  It was fine enough but a bit "institutional" for my preferences.  Plus he was old enough and complete potty-trained, which are the requirements for the Montessori school.   Husband Jeff made an awesome countdown calendar to keep track of the days.  Each morning we cross off the previous day and look forward to the new school.  Today was his first day at preschool.  Husband Jeff took him in this morning and apparently things went great!  I'm both excited and scared for the fact that I need to pack his lunch every day.  I think it'll be a great opportunity to have him try new things, but also a lot of work to remember to do it every day!

He's eaten some weird foods this week, things I wouldn't expect him to eat at all or hasn't liked in the past.  He ate most of my bowl of 15-bean soup, somewhat-willingly ate roasted cauliflower, had canned mandarin oranges at grandma & grandpa's (won't eat them at home, only fresh) and chowed down a bowl of salad with ranch dressing.  Totally crazy. When was the last time you saw a preschooler eating salad? 

We were having some struggles with bedtime stalling, you parents know what I mean, the "I want a drink of water", "one more book", "don't go! more kisses!" issues that happen every single night.  I did some research and found a solution called the Bedtime Pass.  You give them a card (ours was a Culver's restaurant coupon printed on cardstock paper that I had been using as a bookmark) and explain that they can use it ONE time per night for ONE extra thing, maybe a few more minutes of talking about the day and holding hands, or that extra book, or whatever is reasonable.  So the kid hands you the card and tells you what they want, and you honor it.  It's important that you build in extra time into the bedtime routine for that one extra thing, but it's a lot better than the huge conflicts  that were going on 40 minutes past "lights out".  We only started it last night, but he seemed to generally understand the concept and used it for a drink of water.  The point of it is to give the kid power to make their own choices.  I hope it continues to go well for us.  "They" say that sometimes the kids end up not using the card at all because they want to save it for later but then end up falling asleep.  Maybe he'll do that.  

Husband Jeff and I watched an awesome parenting webinar over lunch on Thursday.  It was all about how to get kids to listen without nagging, reminding or yelling.  We both completely loved it. The presenter was great, she's Amy McCready, from Positive Parenting Solutions. She described the 5 Rs of consequences -- Respectful, Related to the misbehavior, Reasonable, Revealed beforehand, and have the kid Repeat it back to you to show they understand.  Here's an article about it from the Today Show.  I loved that she gave you a script of exactly how to say things, that's where I would get tripped up.  We need to practice so we know what we're doing, but I have faith in the whole thing. 

Currently Loving

  • My hairstylist Daisy at Union Hair Parlor, she gave me highlights this week and they look excellent!  I explained that I felt my hair looked too long, but that I thought it might also be the dark roots showing since the last few times we've kept things more subtle.  She knew exactly what to do and gave me just the right touch of hand-painted blonde streaks to lighten things up.  She always does a great job on my highlights. 
  • The Flavor Bible book.  I have had this book since August and I still completely love it.  I rarely buy cookbooks since there's so much information online but this is one I'm totally glad I sprung for (full price even!).  It sits on my nightstand and I pull it out all the time.  Husband Jeff likes to joke that I'm religious and read "The Bible" every day and I add in that it guides me in my actions (cooking and food prep). 
  • These awesome Canadian ShoeZoo/CaroZoo leather slippers for Sonny D.  I originally bought these since they're like a knockoff version of the highly expensive Robeez.  He needed new ones since his toes are pushing to the ends of his current ones, so I bought him three pairs -- two for at home and one for his new school since they don't wear shoes indoors.  They arrived on Wednesday night, in time to go to school with him today.  They also sell their slippers on eBay, but they're a tiny bit cheaper from their website.  
  • Cara Cara oranges.  We ran out of clementines and so we moved on to the Cara Cara oranges that I bought last time at the grocery store.  I cut them into wedges rather than peeling and sectioning.  The skin doesn't come off easily so this is a better way to do it.  Sonny D loves them, he gnaws all the way to the rind.  The flavor is sweet but not too sweet and not as acidic as navel oranges. 
I'm really looking forward to going shopping on Sunday with my friend Jessica.  I've been given the go-ahead to buy more glass food storage containers, so I can't wait to see what they've got at the Pyrex/Corelle outlet store.  Jessica wants to look for work clothes, which I don't need but will totally love checking out the spring stuff and seeing if there's anything I just HAVE to have.  :)   And we're going out for Mexican for lunch, yum! 

Wanna Chat?

I turned off the 'leave a comment' feature, so if you want to share what you're thinking about this or anything else, drop me an email at jhk1013 (at) gmail.com. It's so much more cozy than a comment, plus we can have a real conversation!