Self-Punishment

I looked over last night and found him sulking in self-punishment mode after ferociously amputating one of Diego's Godzilla action figures.  We got home and Diego pointed to the missing foot and said, "Mama, -ix it." 

"Sorry Diego, I can't fix it.  It's broken now."

He looked at the toy, then he looked at me and seemed to want to reassure me.  It was like he said "It's OK. Don't worry"

and then he said very calmly, "Dada -ix it."

I didn't punish Qori for what he did.  It was too late, but I think Diego's reaction got to him.  Or maybe he was just to lazy to move?  Yeah - probably the latter.

-Shirley

The Cord

When Qori was a fresh new puppy, my sister and I used to joke around that he had an invisible umbilical cord attached to me.  We'd go out to the dog park, and there was only a certain number of feet he would venture away before he came bouncing back to me.  It was very handy.

Mateo's invisible umbilical cord was much, much shorter.  In fact he had to have constant skin contact (mano a mano) for the first year.  I noticed that during the latter part of the year, his umbilical cord's length seemed to directly correlate to whether he was walking in a carpeted room or on hardwood flooring (unfortunately, my entire house is hardwood). 

But I gotta tell you guys that last Sunday (at almost 13 months), the umbilical cord reached an ideal elasticity for my taste.  Finally.  Before you know it, I had not only taken down Christmas in our house, but I also ORGANIZED it for storage.  All this while Mateo was wide awake and calmly hanging out not needing my contact at every moment!  A week ago this would've been unheard of.  The closest I would've been able to get to taking down Christmas was grabbing a snowflake ornament out of Mateo's mouth as he tried to eat it. 

I feel strangely free, but not.  After all, I do still have 3 invisible & elastic umbilical cords attached to me. 

Bungee jumping, anyone? - Shirley

Resolutions

I meant to post this earlier.... I guess I'm having a hard time committing.  LOL

I still believe in resolutions or goals, even though the rest of the bandwagon scoffs at them.  I still believe in resolutions even though I failed miserably at my goals for 2012.  I totally underestimated my son's terrible two's stage, I underestimated my new life as a mom of two, and I underestimated just how much the house remodel sucked out of my piggy bank.

So this year I'm trying to be more realistic, and I'm treating my personal goals the same as my work goals.

I'm using a similar format to write them and each time that I have a check-in with my manager this year, I will follow up with a personal check-in.  I'm also keeping it short.  Just the high-priority goals.

Here goes:

• I will be more financially responsible
• I will pay down my debt by at least 30% by the end of 2013. I will use at least 50% of any bonus or tax return money to help pay off the debt.
• I will join the ASPCA (or other) charity by April and use part of my bonus money to provide a significant donation
• I will create my priority wishlist of items (excluding clothes/shoes, because, well - come on... you know I would never be able to get to the other stuff on the list!) for 2013 and buy only things on the list for myself throughout the year (about once a month) if there's financial wiggle room.
• I will get fit (lose the baby fast-food-friday pouch and tighten the glutes)
• I will walk down and then up at least 9 flights of stairs daily at work, when my work schedule permits
• I will run on the treadmill at least once a week.  (If I fail at this because of the kids, then by April I will buy a double-jogger and take them with me)
• I will do sit-ups and lunges at least twice a week.
• I will eat more healthy:  I will drink more water instead of juice and eat healthy snacks like multigrain crackers and cheese, nuts, and fruit. 
• I will be more healthy with my cooking and provide more variety in my menus.
• I will take at least 4 cooking classes throughout 2013
• I will make more side-dishes of veggies, beans, or grains when it supplements the dinner menu.
• I will make things that I've never made before (casseroles, meatloaf, etc) or try to perfect things that just never taste right for me (e.g., beef chow mein - how the heck do cheap restaurants do it???)
• I will institute Meatless Mondays for dinner
• I will incorporate less rice in dinner, and if I do make rice, I will only serve myself 1 cup. period.

Diego and Mateo (aka: I) have a couple goals too:

Diego:  Get potty trained by the end of 2013

Mateo:  Encourage speech (reading, talking, imitating, etc)

I have other goals like blogging, putting more thought into my wardrobe, and starting up one of my hobbies again, but I feel like those will happen without any significant push needed, so for now I will focus on the three main goals above.

Do you have any resolutions this year?

Wish me luck and good luck to you! - Shirley

Wordless Wednesday: Xmas Catch-up

2012 Recap!

I'm saying goodbye to 2012 with a big smile on my face.  Sayonara!  I really did enjoy this past year, but it was also EXHAUSTING learning how to be a mother of two, taking care of a baby ALL OVER AGAIN but this time with a toddler, still dealing with the tail-end of a major house remodel, and dealing with constant sleep deprivation and terrible two's.  We made it though!  And I'm proud that although I was running on empty most days, I still managed to somehow make wonderful memories with my family (or I'd have you believe with these pictures!). 

I wonder what 2013 has in store for us.  I hope a little more sleep at least.  Just a smidgen...

JANUARY

My first full month into being a mom of two, I struggle on how to juggle the kids.

Diego copes well with having a little brother

We celebrate Diego's 2nd birthday with an Angry Bird Birthday party and he gets a shiny, new Kindle Fire

FEBRUARY

I don't adjust well to the sleep deprivation that Mateo is putting me through.

I buy a SwaddleMe and surprise! It helps a lot, but still not enough

We take Diego on his first real train ride

We take a four hour roadtrip to the snow in Lake Tahoe and Mateo practically cries the entire time

Diego starts his speech therapy

MARCH

The Hubs forces me to go on a much needed adult-only weekend to wine country.  Although it tore at my heart to leave my boys behind, I realized how much I needed it after my second glass of wine.

I am elated that there is paint on our walls, finally!

I take both boys on our first solo outing, difficult but successful

APRIL

Our master bedroom is finally complete and we begin sleeping in it!

I try transitioning Mateo to bottled breastmilk with little success until I find Tommee Tippee Bottles

I go back to work... Booo!

MAY

Diego starts stringing two words along

I celebrate my 3rd Mother's Day

Mateo starts eating solids and can't get enough!

JUNE

I get an awesome Father's Day gift idea which starts my obsession with making these.

Sleep troubles arise in our household when Diego starts freaking out at bedtime refusing to leave the couch, and I bite the bullet and move Mateo from the bassinet in my room to the crib in the nursury

Mateo turns 6 months but still isn't sleeping through the night, sigh

JULY

We go on a trip to Cancun, Mexico sans Mateo and airtravel with Diego is much better than the last trip, thanks to the Kindle!

I return from this trip with reduced lactation and fail to stimulate it back to regular volume

Mateo starts walking forwards in his wheeled walker and his sleeping is improving, but not quite there yet

Diego starts counting

AUGUST

Mateo says "Mama" and I feel like I've won the Olympics!

Diego starts letting out more words too, his favorite is "Shark" which sounds more like "Chuck"

SEPTEMBER

Mateo turns 9 months and has crazy separation anxiety for me

He starts crawling

I completely dry up so he is switched to formula

My inlaws come to stay with us for a couple months to help me, yay!

I celebrate my birthday

OCTOBER

We celebrate Fleet Week in San Francisco

Diego says "Bridge" but it totally sounds like another word that rhymes with "Witch"

Mateo turns 10 months and FINALLY sleeps through the night

Diego discovers his love of pumpkin patches and we carve Angry Bird pumpkins

The boys are dinos for Halloween.  Diego is a T-rex, and Mateo is a Triceratops because he gets around on all fours and is a chunky-monkey (and Mama is a cavewoman)

NOVEMBER

My inlaws leave, sniffle, sniffle, but that means Qori comes home, yay!

Diego has an insane speech spurt

Quickly followed up with insane constipation which leads to rectal prolapse.  Sadface

DECEMBER

I keep my head above water by scheduling my personal life and sacrificing my work lunch breaks to clean the house

Tater starts walking a few days before he turns 1

Tater turns Tot! (1 year old) and we throw him a Cookie Monster-themed birthday party

 Then a week later he says his first word, "Bubble"

Santa stops by the house and we celebrate a Merry Christmas

We ring in the New Year at Universal Studios Hollywood (a much better car-ride than in February!)

What an eventful year!-Shirley

Month in Phone Pics: December Recap

It was a wonderful month full of birthday joy, Christmas Spirit, and New Year fun!  Oh- and Tater learned to walk!

Hope you had a great December too! - Shirley

Universal New Year

Happy New Year!  I took a little break from this ol' blog because I had over a week off from work, and believe it or not, blogging is impossible when I'm home (-kids.)!  So what did I do this week?  I could've just relaxed, but with me that's not realistic.  I had planned to fix and organize my walk-in closet (what a mess!), do some crafting, get my brakes checked, a little retail therapy, and I really wanted to soak in the tub for once and just relax (It's probably been a year since I've used my tub).  I did almost everything except for the crafting and tub-soaking (of course!), but that's OK because we ended up taking a 6-hour road trip to Los Angeles where we celebrated the New Year at Universal Studios Hollywood!   

I really expected at least one of my kids to be asleep during New Years, but then again these are MY kids we're talking about, so you know that they were wide awake.  Diego loved it each time a person in the crowd screamed, "Wooooo!" and he would copy them.  Mateo wanted to walk around and flirt with girls and he clapped along with the crowd at the end of the fireworks extravaganza.  By the time we reached the hotel, Mateo was a log.  I have NEVER been able to take him out of his carseat without waking him, until that night.  What a great way to start off the new year!

Here are some pic of our LA trip.  :)

How was your New Year? - Shirley