a new job and a war with food.

To start this off on a side note; I got a job today!!!! I am going to be teaching fitness classes up at my gym 3 days a week at 5am & 6am. Woooowee that is crazy early but on a positive note I will get paid & get to finish work all before the kids wake up in the mornings! Perfect! =) Oh and on another unrelated note I sprinkled this post with super cute pictures of Paxton napping! What's a blog post without a few pics of my kids? =)

^^Okay seriously this NEVER happens that I can get a picture of him napping. He was out cold after a long bad night of diaper rash^^

Food and I have a love hate relationship going on.  I love food and I hate to give anything up that tastes delicious (pretty much anything unhealthy and bad.) Yet when I really focus on eating healthy I genuinely do feel so much better. I have more energy, I feel like I look better, I can even tell a difference in my demeanor and moods. Yet why oh why do I want to eat one million calories in mexican food and ooooooh anything with sugar is my downfall. I told Josh the other day that I am positive I have a legit addiction to sugar. I crave it. I want it daily. If I have it in my house I cannot deny it. I am also not the person that does well with portion control. If there are Oreo's in my house you better believe the entire package will be gone in at least a day and a half. I am not going to eat and savor one. I want to eat and savor like twenty before I am finished. Yet then I feel gross and groggy and bloated after!

The thing I struggle with as well is that as I have learned more and gathered information about healthy foods and eating, it seems like someone somewhere has done some research that practically all foods are bad in one way or another. Even freaking Kale, the super food has it's bad qualities to it. I know you are not supposed to over consume any food. If you do eat green smoothies you are supposed to switch up your greens and fruits and veggies that you add. (i.e. don't use kale every day of the week). We have watched a few documentaries focusing on growth hormones that are added to our foods that we consume on a daily basis and all the GMO's that we are mostly unaware of in the  things we eat. It's really quite scary if you really learn about what you are eating. The most shocking thing I have learned lately has been with dairy. The thing that most doctors tell you to give your kids once they are off breast milk/formula is Vitamin D/Whole Milk, yet it is not really that great for most people! It has all sorts of growth hormones in it and really dairy in general should be cut out of people's diets.

I went to my gym this morning and was talking with Mary, the general manager, who is also a nutritionist and works with children. I told her about how Paxton has been really constipated lately and would cry when trying to go to the bathroom. Without being too detailed it was not an easy process for him. Then the other night in the middle of the night he basically rid his body of all that was built up and woke up with the most awful diaper rash I had ever seen. The first thing Josh said was that we needed to look in to his diet. First off, I love that he said that. Instead of just assuming it was his diaper or a weird bug or that we needed to give him apple juice he thought of a long term cure for him over a band aid of medicines or sugary juices to help. Anyway, when I had mentioned this to Mary and she suggested that he probably has an intolerance to dairy. She asked if his stomach would look distended and hard and a few other signs of dairy issues. I told her that I have switched him over to Almond milk and she said that even better than that is Goat's milk. Apparently you can purchase it at most grocery stores and that it is naturally sweeter than cow's or even Almond milk so many kids really like it, plus it has more protein than Almond milk.

^^don't judge that he still uses a paci at 18 months to sleep. it's his one comfort item that i cannot seem to eliminate^^

Anyway, this is kind of a random babble about a little information that I have learned lately. It has peaked my interest in learning more and working on evolving the foods I eat and what I put in my body. Am I ever going to give up eating mexican food or sweets? Hell no! I will always love me some bean burritos and ice cream. Maybe if I balance it out a bit better we can prolong our lives to staying healthy and feeling better!

Goats need hugs too.

I completely forgot to post these from quite a while back! When my mom and Mike came up to visit we took them and the kids to check out Deanna Rose for the first time this year (our favorite!!!) It's so much better than the zoo for the age my kids are. Much less anxiety for this mama and lots of less ground to cover. We had so much fun though aaaaaaaand there may or may not have been a gigantic meltdown over a dropped ice cream cone by Mr. Paxton Pluid. You don't mess with his food. Ever.

^^baby goats need hugs too you know!^^

^^pre meltdown. obviously. ^^

^^a little apple before ice cream^^

^^this might be one of my favorite pics of my mom and mike^^

^^mike was hardcore giving the goats some pets as if it was a dog. the goat freaking loved it^^

Happy Thursday everyone! Eeeeek we're sooo close to the weekend!!

Discipline Debacle

Raising a boy. Oh I am not sure where to begin. Let's start on the good points.

A mama and a son relationship is different than mama and daughter. There is a different spot in your heart with the love for your son. I think my love bond came on quicker with Paxton than with Harper due to the fact that I can literally see myself in him. I see my eyes and my nose and my round face. I could physically see that he was a piece of me. When your son starts to show affection towards you it again pulls at your heart in a different way. It is expected for girls to be sweet and kind and to become bonded with their mama's over fun girly stuff. Makeup, painting our toes matching colors, picking our fun outfits, our love for Oreo's and ice cream. When Paxton comes up to me and lays his head down on me so I scratch his back or when he runs up to me post time out to give me a big kiss, it really is the best. At bedtime when we have the lights off and I am singing Twinkle Twinkle he grabs his blanket to cuddle and lays his head on my shoulder and is just still. I sometimes sing the song 3-4 times just to take in the moment of quite closeness with my son. Listening to his breaths slow down and soak up the sweetness. It's indescribable and beautiful and might be my favorite part of the day.

But man oh man I have spawned the boy that is 100% BOY! If you know me at all you know that I have high expectations of my kids when it comes to listening and obeying what I say, especially in public. Harper has always been a rule follower. Yes she gets mad and tries to hit or throws a toy or whatever else that typical toddlers do. However, she knows when she has done wrong and once we put her in time out, she apologizes and tries to not make the mistake again. The difference between the two is that Harper actually listens and Paxton, oh Paxton, it's as if the child is deaf. I can tell him no 1,987,345,789,865,746 times and it's as if I said nothing at all. The issue I am battling is to find the right means of discipline for him. I am not big on the idea of spanking. Now there is nothing wrong with it, I just personally don't like it. Swatting him for hitting does not really make sense to me. A hit for a hit? What I am facing though is that time out is not showing to be very effective. He goes to time out, he stands still in his spot for a minute, and then runs to me with the BIGGEST smile on his face (no remourse) and runs to give me a kiss and a hug and moves right on not realizing why he was in the time out spot. No big deal. I just have to find something that is effective for him because if he is not restrained in public in a shopping cart or a stroller, he's off and running.

I had accidentally over aired up the stroller tires at the gas station a few weeks ago and completely blew out one wheel and popped the tube in the other. I found a bike repair shop to see if they could fix my wheels, had both of the kids with me. Obviously I could not place Pax in the stroller so I carried him in on one arm, had the stroller base looped around my other arm, and was holding Harper's had. Once we got in the store I set the stroller base and Paxton down so I could chat with the bike guy and literally two seconds later Paxton is bolting towards the propped open door to the shop. I stop mid sentence and start running full speed hollering NOOOOOOOOO as one of the cashiers saw Paxton coming, runs to the door to block/close it. At this point I have gigantic pit stains from anxiety and all the clerks laughing at how crazy he is while I am mortified. I am the one with the kid who I cannot control in public, great.

Even yesterday when I took the kids to the kid pool in our neighborhood by myself the lifeguard says to me "he's quite the curious one isn't he?" AKA your 18 month old is insane. If I could only count how many times I have received that comment from strangers. Sheesh! He even chipped his front tooth last week playing in the back yard. I am afraid of the other damages he will experience as he grows up. My heart and stomach cannot take this crazy boy roughness!!! 

He is more of an independent child than Harper and I just need to figure out the best means of discipline for him. Do I break down and swat him if it's effective? Do I buy him a monkey leash backpack and be THAT MOM? I am not going to let him run amok that's for sure. I blame this on karma for the craziness Josh gave his mom when he was a kid. =)

Two Homes

Last week the kids and I drove down to Oklahoma and stayed there for a whopping 6 days!! I did everything from getting my hair done, a day of shopping with my best friend, a zoo trip with my mom and the kids, dinner with my other bestie who is the cutest pregnant gal around, a photo shoot with possibly the cutest family ever, picked up the hubs from the airport, planned and co-hosted a babyshower for the cute preggo bestie, a birthday party for my mom, and ended the weekend with a fun night of watching the Killing and enjoying pizza, wine, and sherbert Oreo's with my parents, Josh, brother and sister in law, and their friend Blake. Hoooly smokes I crammed a ton into those 6 days but man oh man was it amazing. I had such a fun time and it was definitely non stop all week.

My mom is what you would call NOT a morning person. This gal loves to sleep or lay in bed until 9ish. She is basically baffled at the fact I volunteer to wake up at 5:30 to go to the gym. It is just not something she can comprehend. Needless to say that when we are in town her morning begins much earlier. My kids wake up around 7-7:30 and we head right on down for bananas. Basically Paxton will practically die if he doesn't get his banana in his belly right away! She also has 4 dogs so between them barking and my kids being kids she's up around 7:30. Six days in a row of that seemed to pay a toll on her but we appreciate the hospitality and the fun and the yuuuuummmy food we had while we were there! How I lost 2 pounds while not working out and eating my heart out will baffle me forever but hey, I'll take it!! It was probably water weight from all the freaking humidity there.

Although I just hate being away from Josh I kind of love missing him and him missing me. There is just something endearing about the feeling of truly being sad to be apart from someone and the excitement you get when you are reunited. Anxiously awaiting him to come through the doors at the airport and to be wrapped up in his arms was just oh so wonderful and ever since then I feel like I love him more than ever. We were texting each other yesterday as he was on his way home and grabbing some dinner that it is crazy but when we go to Oklahoma it feels a little different than it did before. We have such a fun time when we are there but we are always ready to come home to Kansas. Kansas has really become our home and our comfort place and we really do love it here. I love our house more than anything, I love the community and all of the great festivals and festivities that go on during the weekend. I love the farmers market and all the fabulous restaurants we have around us and that it is not that far for us to have some seriously good food on the Missouri side (plus you can buy wine at Trader Joe's on the MO side! Woot Woot!!) I love the thought that when the kids start Kindergarden I can just walk up two blocks to drop them off and pick them up from school. I love our babysitter so much and am going to be heartbroken when she goes off to college. And I love the growing friendship we are having with our next door neighbors. It's the best!! Mostly I just love that I actually stepped out of my comfort zone with Josh to come here grow our family for now. I mean honestly as long as I am with Josh and the kids anywhere can be called home. But for now, this is the perfect place for us to be. You're kind of wonderful Kansas Ctiy =).