Dr. Mom

AGGGH! Between work responsibilities and time off to take care of sick kids, I've been swamped with little time for personal writing!

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things (slowly) in the next few weeks.
Here are abbreviated blog entries; things I've been thinking about but haven't had time to fully write about.
1. It would have been a better idea to start this blog AFTER we got our finances straightened out. We recently have been going through a budget crunch and my grocery budget is SMALL! However, I will say, I have been so proud of myself for the last few weeks and how I have cut back and made do with less. BUT, I haven't fully embraced the "all natural" and/or organic rules, I had hoped to be going by at this point. For instance, last week, with my crazy schedule and lack of funds, I went with Little Debbie cakes for snacks/desserts, rather than my homemade cookies I have been making the last few weeks.
2. I. Am.Gaining.Weight. I weigh 10 pounds more than I did before I got pregnant with my daughter, now 2 years-old. I am out of breath after lugging her across a parking lot and I am just feeling LAZY. Got to get moving! And hopefully our new and improved healthy eating will help too.
3. I have some great cookie recipes to share soon!
4. We have slid back into old habits at breakfast, especially since my morning routine has been shot to hell with sick kids. IF they've even wanted to eat anything, I have been giving them whatever they want, just to get some food into them.
5. I have found some really cool blogs by other women offering lots of information and recipes that I think will be really useful in my quest to get my family healthy. I will share those soon, too.
6. Here's our menu for the week - it's just supper, since I don't want to share what we're eating for breakfast these days (poptarts, sugary cereal and bacon!)
2/7 - Pork chop stir fry with rice and fresh broccoli
2/8 - Homemade frozen pot-pie made a few weeks ago
2/9 - Leftovers
2/10 - Homemade pizza
2/11 - Pancakes/Breakfast supper
2/12 - Beef stew
2/13 - ?

A Jedi bites the dust

The other night I was sitting with Emmy in the bathroom as she took her bath. She had some toy she'd stolen from her big brother's Lego stash and was shooshing and babbling as she lived out some action-packed idea in her head.

I started out having all kinds of melancholy, sweet thoughts about how I remembered watching Thomas in the bathtub, years ago, just like this.

As Emmy played with her Lego whatever in the bubbles, I sighed and thought to myself, "Oh....I remember when Thomas was this little and how we could play with a little Lego ship in the bathtub, just like this...."

And he would - Thomas was famous for entertaining himself for long periods of time with a block or a train car or a Hot Wheel, laying on his back, with the toy up in the air, living out some extraordinary story in his head. 

But, suddenly, my reverie was busted with:

"NO, NO, NO!"

It was my Emmy, in the bathtub.

And the Lego ship had evidently done something really horrible and was facing the consequences via Emmy.

"NONONONO," she said with great gusto, standing up and banging the ship on the faucet and then on the wall. "Nonononononono!"

"Hey," I said, "You can't bang on the tiles like that, you're going to smash your fingers......"

"Nononononononono," she said firmly, completely ignoring me, pointing her finger at the poor mangled piece of Lego ship before throwing it into the water/bubbles with the other hand.

But evidently, deep under the bubbles, it must have made some kind of last twitch, because she started up again.

"No. Noooooooo," she said, trying to squash it into oblivion it with her bare foot.

How did we get from happily shooshing and babbling - to this -  in ten seconds?

"Whaaat are you doing?" I asked as I jumped up from my comfy spot, seeing exactly where this was going.

And KERPLOP, right on her tush.

"Waaaaaaaaah," she yelled, as I scooped her up.

I wasn't sure if she was crying or laughing, but then she yelled out, "BUBBY!"

That's what she calls her brother - "BUUUUUUUUBBBBBBY!" she yells, with a purpose not usually seen in an almost-two-year-old.

And it works. Thomas rushed in and said, "What?"

"It bit me," she said, pointing to the depths of her Bath of Death, "It bit me," she repeated with a look of pure pride on her face.

And she ambled off, naked, babbling to herself, "It bit me. OhNonononono....."

Thomas looked in the bathtub full of bubbles and asked, "Is there something in there?"

"Not anymore," I said.And I added, trailing behind Ms. SuperSquasher, "Oh - and you might want to put those Lego ships up a little higher, like I asked you to earlier...." 

Emmy 1 - Jedi fighter 0

The juicy part

Conversation between me and my 11-year-old, T:

Me: Hey, we're going to be having different stuff for breakfast this week. We're going HEALTHY!

T: Are we going to have more of that good orange juice?

M: Well, we were, until you drank the whole bottle this weekend. That stuff is expensive and you have to save some for school mornings.

T: But isn't it good for me?

M: Well, yes....but you can't drink so MUCH of it, at one time. And it's for breakfast.......

T: So you got something different, that's good for me, but you don't want me to drink TOO much.....?

M: That's right.

T: That's wack. Why don't you just go back to the yucky OJ - then I won't want to drink it so much.

Sometimes, this whole new diet-healthy-eating-thing seems like a wacky (wack) idea.