Blogging

I really need to start collecting my thoughts on my little recorder. I carry one around with me all the time – but at this point it just takes up space in my purse (or diaper bag, these days) since I never pull it out to use it. Although I have pulled it out to replace the batteries a few times. The point is: today we were driving in the car on the way to “Mommy and me” class and I thought of a few things I’d like to blog about, but of course now I cannot think of what they were. At the time I thought “I should really pull out the recorder and get this down” and then laziness got the better of me and the subject of my blog is now lost. It was pretty funny too – so you’re really missing out. 

So Auntie Tina enjoys the pic of Jaden in his hat-shorts, shorts-hat. I have to admit it makes me giggle every time I see it too. We have so many great pictures of Jaden, but a lot are either on Grandma and Grandpas camera, or on Auntie Tina’s camera, so a lot of them don’t get posted. The other complication is that it takes me FOREVER (am I the only one?) to upload pics to snapfish and slide.com, so I have to either wait until Jaden is napping or until he is asleep— and as anyone with a 1-year old knows, once they’re asleep, it’s party time, not snapfish time.

We had a relatively rough day today – following a relatively good night. Last night we had the usual 2-3 awakenings between bedtime (8:30 these days) and midnight – generally we deal with night terrors or nightmares in these hours. Last night it was only nightmares. Then we had a partial awakening around 1:30 which was easily remedied by a few pats on the back and “shh-shh-shh’s”. Usually around 3:00 we’ll then have a wakening where we have to do a diaper change and a bottle (believe me, you do not want to try to change Jaden’s diaper at 3:00 a.m. without giving him a bottle to focus on). Some days that lasts 20 minutes, other days it can go as long as 2.5 hours — OH yes, those are the fun nights.  However, last night was not a usual night.

After the “shh-shh-shh’s” I went to sleep again, fully expecting to be awake again in 2 hours, only to wake up to Neville holding Jaden over me at 6:50 a.m. saying “Mommy, wake up.” I was a little disoriented momentarily, thinking that I must just not remember the diaper change, the bottle, the 5:30 a.m. waking where Neville tries to get Jaden back to sleep and fails and then takes him downstairs while I go back into the sleep zone until he wakes me up so he can get ready for work. So it took me some time to realize the reason I didn’t remember the diaper change and bottle was because there wasn’t any. It took me another moment to realize that Jaden just woke up – Neville hadn’t yet dressed him. Halleluia!! Sleep, sweet sleep!!!!!!

And then….

Once the day began, I started to wonder whether a (relatively) full night’s sleep was worth it. Jaden was super-super clingy today. He didn’t want to let go of my pant leg. Very unlike him, usually. He was super-super cranky at “mommy and me” and now I wonder whether I should have taken him. I did try a different time since I’ve been trying to push him to only one nap. Some days he makes it, some days he doesn’t. Yesterday he didn’t (hmmmm….). Today I pushed him to it, but he was over-exhausted by bedtime, and driving me absolutely crazy long before bedtime.  

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I think Jaden was cranky because now he sports a new bruise on his forehead from a spill he took at the aquarium on the concrete-covered-in-thin-carpet floors (hey Dad- it’s on the same side as the scratch, so it the scratch isn’t as visible anymore!) and a bloody lip from some lady that purposely tripped him. 

Okay so that’s a little severe. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose. She was sprawled out on the floor and saw Jaden coming, and seriously if you see a 1-year old coming straight for you don’t you do your best to move your legs out of the way? Well, she didn’t. He fell over her legs (c’mon – her body was a loooong way away from her legs, if you’re looking from the vantage point of someone who is only 32 inches tall). He took a bad face-plant and started crying (another unusual reaction from Jaden) and she said “Oh I guess he’s still learning to walk?”

B!&$%. 

So I’m going to keep writing because it’s Friday night and it seems these days I’m either all or nothing with the blog…

This week I hooked up with a babysitting gig at a local workout studio in return for my membership there. YAY! Remember how when we brought Jaden home I had lost about 10 lbs? Well I gained it all back and then 50% more. Yes, 15 lbs since October. Hard to believe, since I don’t think I ever gained 15 lbs in my entire life. If only the market were gaining that quickly.

So this is the most I’ve ever weighed in my life and it is really driving me insane. The problem is that I’ve become super lazy too. I have a million excuses for why I cannot work out at home – asthma being the first (it’s too dusty in the basement where all the workout gear is!) – TV demand being the second (how can I pop in a workout video and appease the Elmo-monster all at the same time?!) — and procrastination being the third (no comment). Working out outside of the house becomes just as problematic – the weather during 80% of the year in northeastern U.S. is not conducive to outside workouts (with a toddler in tow), and any gyms would have to have hours that are flexible enough to fit with the “who has the baby?” schedule. Yes, I am the 2009 QUEEN of excuses.

SO – While I was watching Elmo last week I did some research and found this local place that provides free babysitting AND they were looking for a babysitter. I looked into it and the bargain is that if I babysit for one class per week, my membership is gratis. Well, DEAL, I’m IN.  I go tomorrow to fill out some papers and I’ll take a class while I’m there, and then I start my baby-sitting on Monday. I’m really, really excited about this. It’ll get both me and Jaden out of the house  a few times a week. My goal is to workout 3x per week (Jaden will be there with the sitter for 2x) and then I’ll have my one baby-sitting session which Jaden will join me for. So Jaden will get to go someplace different 3x per week, and Mommy will get out of the house 4x per week. And no concrete-covered-in-thin-carpet floors. Ahhhh!

I really should write more often so I don’t write 1202 words at a time, eh? 

Cheers~!