How do you DO it?!

Since having a baby, our house has become increasingly neglected.  Increasingly more disorganized.  Increasingly more, well, just plain dirty. *hangs head in shame*  Seriously though, I can not find the motivation to keep our house 'company ready'.  And I have a sixth sense things are only going to get worse! I have talked about starting FLYLady on here before, and I did start it.  I never made it past the first week. 

I've been like that with a few things in my life. The diving team, my college major... but mostly when I decide to do something I jump in with both feet.  I guess that's why I'm struggling with this so much. I just can't seem to commit myself to a daily routine. 

Which brings me to the title of this post--how do you do it?  How do you keep the house clean while wrangling a toddler who instantly unfolds what you just folded, pulls out what you just put away, dumps things all over the floor, and then wants to read a story?  I am at a loss!

15 Months Old

Dear Staci,

You are 15 months old!  Not a day goes by that you don't make your Dad and I laugh and leave us in a state of amazement.  You are so much fun at this age!  You are walking everywhere but still falling quite a bit.  You love to dance, and when we ask you to, you sway back and forth complete with your own song.  It goes kind of like this "eh eh eh eh mm mm mm".  You love to give hugs and say, "ahhhh" as you dole them out.  You give these hugs to Lovey, Shania, Rascal, your friends Bella and Veronica, and of course Mommy and Daddy. 

We went to the Zoo yesterday and had so much fun! You absolutely loved the dolphin show and practically jumped up and down the entire time.  You clapped and laughed and squealed as they performed for you.  You were your normal fearless self and made friends with everyone around us, making sure to tell everyone 'hi'.  It was very hot, but you didn't complain at all.  It was hard to get you to stay in the stroller and we had a few battles when Mommy got too tired to carry you any farther, but we made it through.  Eventually, you fell asleep and Mommy loved watching you sleep for a little while.

--You are still nursing 3-4 times a day and once or twice at night
--You are finally falling asleep on your own.  On occasion you fuss a bit, and tonight you started crying :(  I got up to check on you, but you quieted down before I got to your door.  So, you must have been OK.

--You are wearing 12-18mo and 18mo sized clothing

--Your communications skills are excellent for your age.  You are speaking single words and combining signs left and right like 'milk, please' and saying 'up' but then signing 'please'. 

--Your signs include milk, please, thank you, mama, eat, and bath.  You have made up your own signs for 'fancy' and 'closed'.  I love that my 15 month old says 'fancy'!!

--You know where your belly button, mouth, nose, eyes, and hair are. 

--You have six teeth.

--It is difficult for Mommy to keep the house clean because you pull things out of cabinets, open them, and dump the contents out on the floor.  Or just take random things and leave them in random places!  I can't wait for you to talk so you can tell me where you put my mascara.

--You figured out how to undo the childproof cap ages ago. 

Mommy and Daddy love you, Anastasia.  Thank you for being a constant source of joy in our home.

...and we're back

Gosh it's been a long time since I've updated on here.  First of all, sleeping is going SO much better, and consistantly so.  This is the first time, ever, that sleep has been consistantly better.  I feel like she was finally ready, and because she was ready there was very little crying when we finally got to the point of laying her down awake and off to sleep.  Thank goodness! The past 2 weeks she has only woken up once or twice (mostly twice) but I will take it!
 
Secondly, we have a little walker on our hands!  She has just taken off in the walking department, going from just a few steps at a time to full on walking through the house--all in just a few weeks.  It's amazing how fast she learns!  She also can sign the words 'milk', 'please', 'eat', 'drink', 'all done', and 'more'.  She says 'up', 'mama', 'dada', 'hi', 'ki' (kitty), 'gee' (doggie) and has said lots of other words one time but those are her go-to words that I hear constantly.  She knows where her nose, eyes, hair, and belly button are and I'm hopeful to teach her some more body parts soon. 

Staci is going to be 15 months old tomorrow. She is officially a toddler.  I'm the mommy of a toddler.  WOAH.  MAMA.  but my gosh, I am loving every minute.  Being a mommy is so cool! ;)

oh so frustrated

To say my daughter is a bad sleeper is like saying 9/11/01 was a bad day.  I mean really, it is awful.  Last night was the first night in almost a week where she DIDN'T wake up for 2+ hours in the middle of the night.  I'd consider it a victory if it hadn't taken 2 hours to get her to go to sleep, resulting in her finally going down at 10pm.  It's currently 8:59pm and we have been trying to get her to go to sleep for over an hour. In that hour I nursed her 2 times, she got crazy upset in her crib while Max stood outside just trying to get her to calm down.  After just a few minutes she vomited everywhere, so I went in to help clean her and the room up at which point she asks for milk again. so, that's 3 times nursing now in a little over an hour.  Did I mention she is 14 months old? She can be completely calm and near sleep and the second I even get near her crib she erupts into a fit of screams.  Like, she's not just a little upset.  It's all out WAR to her, and she's not losing.  Strong willed doesn't even BEGIN to describe it. 

GAH.  I just had to get that out!

First Steps

Anastasia took her very first steps today!!!  I was making dinner while Daddy played with her, and I missed them.  Max SCREAMED, "MEEEGAAANN!!!" and I dropped everything and took the stairs 2 and 3 at a time. My heart was in my throat--I thought for sure she fell and hurt herself BAD or was choking or something terrible with the way he yelled my name. I got up there and he calmly stated, "Staci just took her first steps."  At which point I screamed, hugged her, and cried.

I cried for a few reasons.  1) I missed them.  I immediately felt like a horrible mother.  HOW on EARTH could I miss my daugher's VERY FIRST steps?! 2) Tears of joy.  I don't think I ever truly understood happy tears until giving birth.  What an amazing feeling. MY BABY IS WALKING!  and 3) a small part of my brain said, "HOLY SHIT! I REALLY HAVE TO BABYPROOF NOW!!"  and if you have ever tried to babyproof anything, you totally get that one.

Never fear, Staci did a repeat performance after dinner.  She can take 2-3 steps before she needs someone to catch her, but gosh--you gotta start somewhere, right? I am so happy I got to see it.  My baby girl is walking!  What a momentous occasion!

Dearest Staci,
  Congratulations sweetheart.  May those first steps be the start of some very happy feet for you.  Wherever they lead--be it to dance, to run, to jump, to spin in circles until you fall down, to far off places, may you always find yourself surrounded by love and laughter. My heart is so full right now. 

Love,

Mommy

Officially a grown-up

On Mother's Day, 2010, I officially became a grown-up.  That is, according to my mother.  The fact that I actually planted flowers and mulched all by myself were the actions that officially crossed me over from child to adult in her mind. 

I love my mother.  She is awesome.  And she knows it.  So awesome in fact, that she knows the only way to get something done well is to do it yourself.  So, as you may have guessed, there were many school projects growing up that got turned in that were much more her work than mine. The same goes for household chores and things like yard work.  I never had much of an interest, perhaps because I never had the opportunity to do anything other than pull weeds out of the rocks lining either side of our driveway.  I mean really, who wouldn't get excited about that?

In addition to planting flowers, I am also growing a few herbs in my window sill and have managed to keep two aloe plants alive.  I have never been able to keep plants alive! I just always forgot they were there.  What has changed?  Perhaps my mom is right.  Perhaps I truly am, finally at 27, the married mother of one--perhaps I truly have become a grown-up.  *shivers*

Kitchen Adventures

I recently had the opportunity to try Dream Dinners at a fraction of the price thanks to Groupon.  I had such a fun time going in and assembling our meals--I made 6 meals in just over an hour.  Usually, it takes me about an hour to make dinner once you include all the vegetable chopping, so to make SIX dinners in that time frame was awesome.  All of the chopping was done for me.  All I had to do was measure out ingredients and assemble them in freezer bags.  It was SO easy--and fun! They set out soft drinks, coffee and leftover goodies like chocolate chip cookies nad cupcakes.  so, I was in heaven.   

Over the next couple of weeks, we enjoyed our meals.  A typical meal needs to be defrosted in the refrigerator first.  Then, you cook the meat, add the pre-assembled sauce/glaze/vegetable medley and serve.  It took so much stress out of my evening.  I love to cook, but it's difficult with a toddler crawl-running everywhere and a husband who just came home from work and is tired.  I was falling into the spaghetti/chili/frozen pizza (eek!) rut and really needed some new ideas to spice things up. 

Going there and seeing how the whole make-ahead-meal world operates was eye opening and inspired me to do a little freezer cooking on my own.  Over the past few days, I doubled the recipe of a few of our favorites and froze the leftovers.  I have recently been cooking out of Deceptively Deliscious, and from there made and froze taco filling, bolognese sauce, and sloppy joe filling.  I also pre-assembled a new to us recipe I found through allrecipes.com for Chicken Teriyaki in orange ginger garlic sauce.  I can't wait to try it!

So, in case you are wondering what I mean by 'pre-assemble', I will break it down for you.  I did all of the prepwork for this recipe and froze it in a ready-to-cook state.  I bought some chicken breast tenderloins and threw a little over a pound in a freezer bag.  Then I took another gallon size bag and stuffed it down in a bread crumb container, folding the edges over the top.  This way, the bag doesn't fall over spilling my ingredients everywhere. I dumped all of the ingredients for the orange ginger garlic sauce in and then sealed the bag.  I even included a small freezer bag of brown rice (uncooked) just so that everything is together when I need it.  I can't wait to try it--it sounds so good, doesn't it?

Freezer cooking on my own definitely takes more time that going to Dream Dinners, but is also less expensive.  That said, Dream Dinners is still a great option for the busy family--most of their meals come in at under $4 a serving.  I just prefer to eat for much less!