accomplishments

I'm going to keep this brief, as I've actually got all three boys having an afternoon nap and I would like to, well, accomplish a few things.

- Marty is doing VERY WELL in this department.


I'm glad we took a break after our first forray into potty training. October just wasn't the right time. This time, he quickly figured out how to follow the cues his body gives and takes his little self to the potty without our prompting. We still ask him frequently if he needs to go, but that seems to annoy him. We have to train ourselves to trust him, I suppose. I think the turning point was figuring out a way for him to verbalize the process. I taught him to, when he feels it coming, to say "No, poo! (or Pee) Wait for me! Run to the potty!" And guess what? It works! This morning I noticed that the boys were playing in their room with the door closed. Just as I was going to go open the door so he could get out in a hurry if he needed to, Max opened the door and Marty streaked out of there and into the loo for his morning poo and pee. I was thrilled! He peed again later this morning and is now down for his nap in a diaper. He's waking up from night and nap quite wet but I'm not going to tackle that just yet. I'm thrilled with the daytime progress. In the day I just let him run around naked. Until we run out of diapers, we'll use those for bedtime and going out. (Don't worry Kelly, he won't soil your carpets tomorrow.)*After nap update: He woke up dry, and no more than 5 minutes after I confiscated his diaper (he's reluctant to give it up when he wakes up), he went on his own to the potty for a pee. Wheeee!

Is this face telling us to trust him, or what?!

- Last night's dinner turned out really well. I used pre-cooked and diced frozen chicken (white/dark mix) from a local poultry farm. I wasn't sure how it would turn out with the whole frozen bit, but it was great. I wanted to add (and will add to the previous post with the recipe) that this recipe made 7 Large Old El Paso tortillas, which filled my 9x13 pan perfectly. I had quite a bit of the filling left over so I could have done about 5 more in a smaller pan. If you try this recipe, you can play with the proportions to figure out what works best for your family. The leftover filling I have isn't quite enough for another whole recipe.

Here's what mine looked like:
- And then there's boot camp. Ah, boot camp. I've had several people ask me what it actually is. Here's the description from the community website:

Are you ready to get active, feel better and look great? Our new Boot Camp program gives you the perfect opportunity! Taking place three mornings per week, Boot Camp includes a great mix of cardio, strength training, flexibility exercises through activities such as walking, jogging, obstacle courses and drills, resistance bands, stability balls, medicine balls, yoga, pilates and much more.

Most of the "activities" take place outside. That could be a bit of a drag, considering the weather in our area, but it was actually quite refreshing. When we got back into the gym for mat and weight exercises and stretching, it was so hot! The outside was nice.

Here's what I know for sure:
- I'm not athletic. Never have been. I don't even know how to spit properly. (Apart from teeth brushing, of course.) Outside, sporty type spitting? I look like a dork. I'll work on that over this next month and let you know how I'm coming along.

- This will be work. Hard work. I've got a few tight muscles today and it took a few hours last night to stop feeling like I was about to barf.

- I will not quit.

- It will get easier.

See? Max makes it look soooo easy.
The little man wanted to know about every exercise I did last night. I couldn't even remember them all, let alone perform them!

This picture reminds me of one more thing I know for sure ... Those $10.00 camping mats are not a good substitute for a yoga mat. My runners chewed it up pretty quick from doing crunches and side-lying exercises. And they don't look very cool either, apparently. My friend found a generic mat at a furniture discount store that will work much better for only a few dollars more. She said I should return my blue mat to Wal-Mart. Considering I didn't use it for its intended purpose, and considering I don't know where my receipt is, I'll keep it. We may find it useful around here. Looks like Max will.