The end of 2012

I was much better at blogging before there was a demanding 3 year old taking over my life with his whiny, poopy cuteness.  I apologize for the lack of activity, but I'll catch you up!

Weight Loss - Still losing, but it's slowed down a bit, which is to be expected. My hair has finally stopped falling out.  Hopefully it will now begin to grow back.  The pieces that have grown back are grey.....they are not welcome here.  I'm down almost 100 pounds, I'm about 2 pounds away now.  I'm scared to death I will gain the weight back.  It's a battle every day to remind myself to make good choices and to exercise.  I hate exercising, that feeling hasn't changed at even 100 pounds thinner.  Are there people who enjoy exercising?  In all honesty I'd prefer to sit in my pajamas and look at Pinterest.  I love the way I feel after exercising - but I really struggle to motivate myself to do it.  The other day I walked with my co-workers over 5 miles....5 miles!!  My toenails have now revolted and one is threatening to fall off if I ever do it again.

This picture was taken on Friday night - I think it shows how much weight I've lost.  Mike's shrinking as well because he's stuck not eating all the things I used to cook so it's a win win!

 

 

 

Now let me go back to October and the last blog post.  We dressed up for Halloween as Jesse, Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.  I have to say that Mike was a great spot wearing his Woody costume, and wearing it in public at the school Halloween Carnival!

 

 

Erik's been working really hard on potty training.  Well....not really.  Mommy's been working really hard on potty training and Erik sits and makes noises and occasionally if we are lucky he will (in his own words) "pop out a yittle nugget!"

We started a potty chart last week hoping to help the situation.  He gets a gold star if he sits down, and a fancy sticker of his choice for actually producing something.  There are LOTS of gold stars, not so many of the other stickers.  We just went and bought lots of cool underwear that he is now wearing over his diapers.....hopefully he'll be inspired.  He's in the last size of diapers, and even those are hard to find.  There are no more choices - must be potty trained!

 Erik has also started school at the elementary next to our house.  He goes a couple times a week and receives PT, OT and Social skills. He loves it!  He cried the first few days because it was hard to say goodbye - but he's really enjoying it now.  He especially loves the PT named Coach Tom who takes him to the cafeteria to play Basketball.  There are only 5 children in the class and 2 teachers. I had to fight for this placement for a year, and I finally won.  The school district really shouldn't go up against Mommas who know what their children are entitled to.  They denied him services the first time but I kept fighting and voila he now has services for a year!  He still goes to my school as well, I wanted him to keep that routine as well as the exposure to typically developing children.  He's doing great at both places!  Well, except for the eating.  He won't eat or drink at either place.  Funny, he eats and drinks with no problem at home, and I've never seen a child who enjoys a restaurant more than Erik, but for some reason he won't eat at school.
   Back in the fall we took a trip to the beach house to visit my family.  Erik loves his Papa and Mimi so much!  It's so nice that they were able to come here and we were able to go and spend time with them.  Erik loved just letting it all hang out!

We had great fun on a boat ride with a friend and Erik really loved being on the boat.

My three boys - My Daddy, My Son and My Hubby.  Love this picture (if only they weren't all squinting)

Christmas blew in and this year was the first year that Erik's really "gotton" the whole concept and he didn't want to miss any part of it!  He learned about Hanukkah from Sesame Street and insisted that we have a Menorah!  Thanks to my good friend BC who gave him one they'd had in their family for years.  We lit the candles and Erik said his own little prayers after skyping with friends who celebrate and watching them light their candles.  Technology is amazing!

We of course had our own tree which Erik would not leave alone.  I told him a hundred times a day to "look with your eyes not your hands" until anytime he was close to the tree he would yell "YOOK WIF MY EYES!"  He sure got as close as he could with just those eyes!

I finally had to give him his own Christmas tree.  No laughing at it - I'm not a seamstress, nor can I draw and cut Christmas trees.  This just had Velcro and little material ornaments.  I imagined him decorating and redecorating and leaving my tree alone.  It was a great idea I got from Pinterest.  He would walk by it - tear all the ornaments off and then use them as "winter airplanes" and I spent the whole month putting the ornaments on. Pinterest fail.

In December we were lucky enough to go back to the beach and spend some time with my college roommates.  There is nothing like friends you've known for twenty years. I love these girls so much and I so rarely get to see them - but when I do it feels like no time at all has passed between us.  Love that two of them have children almost the same age as Erik.  We had a blast - and I think the kids did too!  While we were there we took Erik to his first movie.  Monsters Inc.  He loved the popcorn, and the previews, and about 10 minutes of the movie.  Sigh - wasted 25 bucks!

We should have just stayed where the weather was gorgeous on the beach!

Happiness!

Thank you Jaci for loving Erik - He loves you too....in an aloof boy kind of way.

Good girlfriends are there no matter how many miles and years come between you!

 

 Now we are into the real year and all the fun and vacationing of the holidays has to end.  I still try to plan one fun little thing for Erik to do each weekend.  Last weekend we went to see some friends goats since they had lots of babies.  Erik loved it and has talked nonstop about it since.  He asks when we can get goats, and chickens.

 Sigh - I don't do animals, especially the outside kind.  I told him when he's 13 he can have an animal because you have to have "teen" in your age or it's against the law.  I also told him Disneyland was closed for Christmas because he really wanted to go - but I couldn't deal with the Christmas crowd.  I know, I'm going to hell for lying to my child.  Don't judge - I think many of you will be there with me.  I've heard you tell your children lies too.  Maybe the lies of parenting don't count.

Mike's goal for 2013 is a garden.  My goal for 2013 is not to kill him when I end up doing all the work on "his" garden.  We'll see who wins.  Erik has his seeds all picked out.  It's going to be a LONG wait for the warm weather!

  My goal is also to enjoy every second of the crazy kid.  Even when he insists on dressing like Peter Pan to go to the store, or visit Grandpa.  Please note that my child does not have the usual Peter Pan pocket knife in his carrier - but he does have the crocodile that wants to eat Captain Hook.

Happy 2013!

Oh...and I hope to do better about blogging!