Week 6: Controlled Chaos

So things are “…getting better all the ti-i-ime…” – Beatles, if you didn’t recognize the reference.

Sorry for the lag in posts. Our internet has been on and off for about a week. It was down in the whole area yesterday so maybe they finally fixed it. .

Ketcher is cuddly and lovable!  He still smiles at the ceiling the for the most part, but there have a few social smiles here and there. 

"What? The ceiling is pretty sweet. Don't knock it till you try it!"

 His favorite activities are the swing and bath time… oh and eating of course. 

"Yes we just love bath time can't you tell by the looks on our faces?"

He is also finally falling into a manageable routine. He wakes and eats, 90 minutes or less later, I put him down to sleep. The only time of day he may not fall asleep, or stay asleep long, is early evening.  He is consistently asleep around 9pm and will sleep for 6 hours, until about 3am. If I am luckily he will sleep another 3 hours (until 6:30) but that is not very consistent yet.

Now that he is sort of predictable it makes life so much easier!!

Kenzie is in a language explosion right now. We hear at least 2 new words per day. Today (so far) is “ear” and “happy.”  She has mastered “up” and if I say “one” she says “two” and “three” (which sounds more like “fee”.)

"Did someone say explosion?"

 As for taming the ongoing toddler tantrums, I am half way through the book “Positive Discipline: The first three years” and the methods are working awesome! Here’s an example from yesterday:

                I made a PB&J for lunch but she wouldn’t eat it, because I cut it into tiny squares instead of feeding it to her. 

                I realized that even though I know what I want her to do, she may not know. So I said. “Kenzie it would make Mommy happy if you ate your sandwich.” 

                Kenzie said. “Happy.” 

                I repeated. “Yes, it would make mommy happy if you ate your sandwich.”

                She sat down and ate the whole thing.

That’s not the only example. She has also been hitting and kicking lately. Not in a malicious way but it is still irritating. So here is what happened yesterday:

                

               Kenzie walks over swinging her arms at my face.

                I grabbed her hand out of the air and touched my face with it. I said. “Gentle.”

                She smiled and walked away.

                A few minutes later she came back over, arm raised… then she put her hand on my face gently.

                Today she hasn’t swung her arms once but she has put her hands on our faces and patted lightly.  

How could this cheesy face be malicious?

She just needs some guidance I guess. I am trying to reroute the kicking today. She just loves to put her feet on everything… snack trays, me, Ketcher, expensive ipads, computers, phones, etc. So we are working on using our feet for dancing instead. We will see…

"I really don't mean to step on your expensive electronics... tee hee!"

I started working out again yesterday. I figured I would start light by doing the 30 day fitness challenges.  I started the ab and squat one yesterday and today I am adding planks and arms. This is probably my favorite activity of the day, because Kenzie tries to do the workouts with me. I will attempt to take some pictures of video this week.

In another two weeks we will begin our eating plan. Until then the only goal is cut out sugar, which is hard because I seriously NEED my 11am cherry coke. Maybe I will start cutting that out tomorrow... or next week.

"Low sugar, low carb, diet sounds awesome... said no one, ever."