Good day! I say good day because it’s not afternoon and my toddler, Grayson, is napping. Or what I believe to be napping but he’s actually quietly in his room playing and hoping he doesn’t get busted out of bed.
Today is our unofficial first day. I say unofficial because I have actually been home for a couple months. However, I soon found myself into a routine of sleeping in until 9am when Grayson woke up, watching lots of daytime television (who cannot get sucked into watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother and Food Network??) and doing the bare minimum of chores. I’m not going to lie and say I hated it. It was awesome except I was scrambling before everyone got home from work and school to get my stuff done, couldn’t sleep well at night and just felt BLAH. (just as I typed BLAH, I heard the distinct noise of a toy coming from Grayson’s room)
It is also Christmas time and this year instead of putting photos that I have randomly taken of my family throughout the year (yes, they never include me), I decided I’d be a good participant and get our pictures taken as a family. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not that big of a fan of structured picture taking. I tend to look stiff, have a super fake smile on and it stresses me out. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I like everyone to look good and smile right. With a family of 6 in a picture, this never happens. (yes I just heard a MOM cry coming from Grayson’s room) We had my husbands ex in-laws come over to our house to take our pictures. They have taken pictures of the kids before and they looked great. Bonus, they don’t charge (seriously $500.00 for family pictures isn’t happening. We just lost a whole salary in our house and I could spend that money on clothes, toys or my latest addiction, home décor). Back to the story, we just moved into a bigger house with a couple acres of woods surrounding us and a treated pond to swim in. They came over earlier at about nap time. It was a Sunday so my step daughter and step son had to go back to their moms at dinner time so this was the best time, or so we thought, to do it. Grayson was pissy! He refused to smile or even look at the camera. After trying for 30 minutes bribing him with mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, we decided to take a break and try it again with my nieces and nephews here too. Finally, we got some good pictures!! Last night, I sat down with my computer and was excited to order Christmas cards! Except I looked at myself in the picture and was shocked! I did not look like myself. I looked a bit heavy in the face. I know, I just had a baby 2 years ago and I need to give myself ample time to lose the weight. Wait, who am I kidding, its been 2 years! Why don’t I look like a celebrity mom yet? I’m already a pretty tall woman at 5’10 so I don’t expect myself to look super skinny. With all this and feeling tired all the time, I decided (oh wait, a little boy just walked out of his room), I decided it was time to start a new home routine and fitness routine. Before we start on today, I’d like to point out a little disclaimer, I have never exercised in my life before, I hate exercising, dieting and all things like it. In high school, I took Band class just so I didn’t have to take Gym class.
Today, I was up bright and early at 7am (alright, it was 7:15am and after I hit snooze 3 times), jumped on the treadmill for 15 minutes at 2.5mph to warm myself up. Then, I found a 30 minute cardio workout on the internet to try. I thought I was doing great on my jabs and criss- cross punches until I realized that I was sweating like a pig and I was supposed to 3 reps of them for 1 each for each arm. Okay, so I did them. Then, I looked at the next step and found out it was jumping jacks. I LOATHE jumping jacks. I am bigger chested and uncoordinated so jumping jacks just look like I’m a toddler in a toy store throwing a tantrum. Also, with my bigger chest and jumping up and all over the place, its not at all appealing to me. So I skipped the jumping jacks and did some push ups. Then, I jumped back on the treadmill for another 15 minutes at 3.0mph. And to end it, I did 5 minutes of cool down yoga. I felt GREAT! While I was waiting for the shower to heat up, I plugged all of my work out into my fitness app and WTF! I only burned 233 calories! That was a lot of sweating for only 233 calories. Okay, stay positive, I feel good and energized. That’s the biggest thing.
Now, on to our house chores and taking care of Grayson. Kitchen is cleaned, Grayson ate 2 bites of cereal for breakfast and then wanted down. Yes, I have one of those picky eaters. Grayson is currently living off a diet of sliced cheese, cookies, a couple spoons of cereal, milk and occasionally a random meal that I cooked that he didn’t feed to the dogs. With him being our last kid, we have had the picky eaters and the kid who will eat anything (my oldest son, Carter). We’ve been through everything to get the picky eaters to eat something! Let’s put cheese on it! Let’s smother it in ketchup! You can’t have desert until you eat your dinner…or you can’t get up until you are finished. None of them worked. Just finally one day they decided they liked more than chicken nuggets and fries and they were hungry. So, maybe one day, we’ll have a family meal where every one of my kids eats it and likes it!!
Now, I look like one of those moms on television who is super speed cleaning. I clean me and my husbands room, Grayson’s room, the living room and change the laundry. Okay, its only 11am. What the hell do I do with rest of my day to keep motivated and so by Grayson’s nap time I don’t decide to lay down and nap myself? I sit down, check my online orders that I’m still waiting on and eat some lunch. I guess I should have planned this diet thing before I went grocery shopping. There is nothing but junk in my house and family meals. Okay, I make a turkey sandwich on white toast, slice a tomato and make a mental note to buy some wheat bread at the store when I grocery shop next. Hopefully they have like half loaves so if I decide I hate it too much, I don’t feel too guilty for going back to my beloved white bread.
Nap time has been a struggle. When Grayson was born, we spoiled him. Awe baby needs a nap, I’m going to sit here and hold you the whole time. My sister who babysat him during the day was the same way. At about a year old, we put an end to it. But it still has never been great. We get a drink, he picks out a book and we head to his bedroom. After the book is finished and he’s in bed, I walk out. I prop the door with his clothes hamper like he insists on, turn on the hallway light like he insists on and turn on our humidifier on high for some white noise. Yes, its like aligning all the moons and stars in the perfect position just for nap time.
By the time I finished that paragraph, I now have given up on nap time for today. He’s sitting next to me at the table with his play computer and his drink of water like Mommy’s. Oh well, he looks too cute and sometimes, they just won’t nap.
We’ll finish out our day by maybe doing some more laundry (oh crap, how long has the laundry been sitting in the washer and dryer since I last changed it?) and making Chicken Tacos for dinner. By that time, my husband will be home, Carter, will be home and then the battle of homework begins. Also, my brother, Garret and his girlfriend, Arica will be home from work too and I seen a giant pile of dirty laundry in his bedroom today that I get the pleasure of doing for him.
Besides, our nap time struggle, I’ll say today was a success. I probably just jinxed myself, didn’t I?
Becoming a stay at home mom 