School and tears

Erik is working very hard to get acclimated to life at Mommy's school. It's really hard since he only goes two days a week ( child care is expensive y'all, even with a 50% off discount!), so just when he begins to handle it he then has a bunch of days home. It's like starting over each week.
Today we had progress, he didn't crawl away during circle time or scream through lunch......he did however spend all of his time outside looking like this



yelling for "Teacher Mommy!"

He has turned a new corner, the corner of independence and NO! He's testing ALL the limits lately........oh, and he still doesn't walk!!!!! But, he's still the greatest thing we've ever done!


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String Walking

Isn't it crazy that he can't walk alone, but he can WITH A STRING! His therapist has long thought that he just isn't confident enough to let go.......she may be onto something since he will walk holding a string!!!
See for yourself........why won't he just let go??

First Day of Preschool!

Today was Erik's first day of preschool. He did well, if you don't count that he refused food all day, screamed through lunch, talked so much through circle time that other children were sssshhhhing him and woke up all the other children 1/2 hour early from nap by yelling....Hi! You my friends? Over and over.
Other than that..... Perfect first day of school.
Then we came home and I cut his hair, and now he can't go out in public.



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Walk Already!!

Erik starts preschool on Tuesday (seriously?  How the hell did that go by so quick?), yesterday he was just a baby and I was dropping him on his head! Time moves so quickly. This is a picture of him sitting at snack time on one of the days he visited, and actually ate snack since it consisted of foods he will allow to cross his lips. Perhaps someday he will eat a carb, until then he exists on sausage, chicken and cantaloupe.

He's still struggling with the walking thing.  He's more of a cruiser these days, we have said goodbye to the highchair and now he has a little table and chair, but honestly I fear the amount of food that will now be easily placed onto the floor.

He has physical therapy with Amy each Sunday, some days he makes progress.....once he took 12 steps without any help!  But then he has some kind of mental block and as soon as he realizes he's doing it by himself he sits down.  There is a lot of frustrated crying and whining over this in our house.  His first choice is always an activity he doesn't have to move around like books, building, cars etc.  He would never choose to climb on anything.  I know I know, people with climbing kids are all "count your blessings lady!" but seriously, I have a 2.5 year old who can't walk and there is no medical reason not too.
His therapist in convinced that because he is so smart it's harder for us to convince him that he will be OK if he will just let go!  He won't walk....but he'll happily go on a roller coaster!!  Can you believe he went on a roller coaster (albeit a teeny tiny one), with no problem.....he stood long enough for them to measure his height and then Daddy carried him on, perhaps we should have made him crawl on.
Crawling takes FOREVER!!
So, that's the latest update on the walking.
What's new with Mike and I?  Not much, Mike is still working at Kitchen Collections and he really enjoys this large company that has a Mom and Pop feel to it.  They give him a lot of autonomy to just manage his staff.
I'm of course still at PACCC, but I've begun to sing again and it feels SO good! I'd forgotten how much I love it.  I'm joining my old chorus (Bay Area Showcase Chorus) for their trip to the World Choir Games this year in July in Cincinnati.....kind of like the Olympics of chorus singing....should be tons of fun!  If you're anywhere near Cincinnati the first 2 weeks of July you should check it out!
I'm addicted to Pinterest....have you checked it out?  I think it's been called Fantasy Football for Girls, and it is totally addicting....if you need an invite let me know, I'm happy to introduce you to my obsession.

29 months

29 months.....unbelievable, how did he get to be 29 months, and how the hell is he STILL not walking!!

He starts school in 3 weeks. I guess he'll have to crawl his way through it.

He's been having PT every week for a month now.  His therapist is named Amy and she's a very tiny Japanese lady, so now every small Asian woman we see he yells "There's my Amy!"  She makes him bend and push and stoop, and try to walk.
Today she worked with him for almost 2 hours. He walks fine when he's distracted and not thinking about what he's doing.  The hard part is distracting him enough that he forgets he "can't" walk. As soon as he realizes he's walking (or standing without leaning on something) he falls down.  It's so frustrating to watch, knowing he can do it, if he'd try.
Amy thinks that because he's so smart that he knows he's not good at walking and doesn't have the confidence in it, so he chooses not to do it.  Who chooses not to walk when they physically can?  What two year old BOY chooses not to walk? We are all baffled.  All we can do is keep pushing him and making him do it.  We no longer carry him anywhere, we hold his hands and walk and stop every other second so he can find his balance, we move very very slowly. 
In all other aspects he pretty dang smart, and pretty adorable.  Tonight we had this conversation
Me: What kind of music do you like?
Erik: Punk, I'm easy Dude!
Me: Anything else?
Erik: Rock and Roll! I TOTALLY ROCK!
Me: What about barbershop?
Erik: Oh, No thank you.

He keeps me in stitches. 
He freaks Mike out with his interesting requests, lately he wants a purse and a doll house.  Luckily a little friend of his gave him a doll house that I was saving in the garage, I brought it in and he puts all his animals in it and the zoo keeper on the toilet.  He also has a purse, a little leather pouch that he looks for when it's time to leave the house.  There is nothing in it, but he's copying Mommy.
I bought him a doll about a year ago.  I don't care what any Dad says, all little boys need a doll.  It teaches them a thousand things, but the one I like best is they learn how to be daddies.  Mike has always doubted that, until I captured this tonight. 
The other day at the zoo I saw a father with two young boys (maybe 3-5) and one little boy had a doll, in a front carrier and was giving it a bottle....and his father and brother were so very OK with it that I wanted to thank them for allowing this boy to have a doll!
Boys need a doll.................and girls need some cars!
Blogger's not letting me embed video's anymore, so here's a link to my YouTube channel.
http://youtu.be/8UkkghqJ-bE

Latest Obsession

     My latest obsession (beyond Pinterest and Pioneer Woman) is Couponing.  A little on the verge of extreme.  When we were in Oklahoma in October we watched an Extreme Coupon marathon and the more I watched it the more I realized I could do that!!
    I found the Krazy Coupon website which I use EVERY DAY to tell me where the deals are and I've been doing it for about 9 weeks now and at the beginning I didn't see any difference in my groceries at all...but just this month I realized that I have cut our grocery bill..IN HALF!!  This is huge for us.  I'm not getting $500.00 worth of groceries for $20.00 like on the show, because California does not double coupons (dang).   
     It takes some work....no it takes a lot of work, it's like a part time job and I won't lie and say it only takes a few minutes...it takes me a total of about 8 hours a week to do it.  That includes shopping, clipping and organizing time.  It saves us about 3-400 dollars a month (which I can use to pay other things) and my stockpile is beginning to grow.  I now have enough (and all name brand thank you, there are no coupons for store brands) food each week to cover what we eat, as well as add to our overage.  In 9 weeks I have added all this (the freezer was almost empty when I started)....I know it needs to be defrosted...how do I defrost it when there's stuff in it?  I think it may never get defrosted!

Here's our 13 boxes of cereal (Mike's the only one who eats it, that should last a while!) I think we have enough toothpaste for a couple years, as well as laundry detergent and dish soap. I don't need 400 hand soaps, but 20 (they are in the back) should hold us for a while.

 And here's all my soups and canned goods, and toilet paper.  See that toilet paper?  I got it today, I paid $6.45 for 6 12 packs of toilet paper......that my friends, was the deal of the day and should last us a good long time! I hope to get my grocery bill down from 600.00 a month to about 200.00 a month (I include diapers in that - that's a big chuck of our bill). I'm getting closer, soon I should just have to buy perishables and we can live off our stockpile.  The downside, you can't plan your menu by what you want, you have to plan it by what you have.

Once I got things organized into a binder it didn't take me long to figure out how to plan my purchases.  I buy 10 newspapers each Sunday, from an old guy named Johnnie who always gives me 15.  The hardest part is separating the inserts and cutting all the coupons, sometimes I can get Mom to help me and that makes it really nice.  We cut all the coupons and then put them into this binder.  It weighs about 13 pounds.  When people see me with it in the store they either tell me they wish they had the time to do it, or they ask me where stuff is because they think I work in the store and am taking inventory.
                                         Here's my binder

Here's the table of contents, all title pages are downloaded from Krazy Coupon Lady....they seriously do all the work for you!

Here's a page with coupons, it's the pages you collect baseball cards in, so most coupons will fit in the little pockets.

So here's to couponing! I'm calling it my part time job!

    

Happy Holidays!

ERIK UPDATE
      Erik has started his physical therapy and is making some progress.   The PT suggested that we walk with him with a Hula Hoop so we tried, and it's making him able to balance on his own without leaning into you. Here's a video of him doing it. Just in case the video doesn't show up....as seems to be happening with blogger lately.

  It's hard to have a 2 year who can't walk, everyone treats him like a fragile little baby.  I took him to school today for a couple hours since he will start in February and the children kept calling him "Teacher Becky's Baby"  and they would say things like "Wow Teacher Becky your baby talks so good!" to which he would answer "I not a baby!"...and crawl away.....which only reinforced to the preschoolers that he IS a baby.  Going to be school is likely going to be a bit tough for him.  He did work VERY hard on standing at school today, I could tell he was trying so hard to hide his non-walking.  He knows he should be walking, and perhaps the peer pressure at school is exactly what he needs to motivate him.
     Here's a picture of him before the other children arrived so happy to be "at Mommas cool"

           
    Taking him to school this morning was tough for me, it's my school, and I have to say it's the best damn preschool I've ever seen.  Not to brag, but we are awesome and we work very hard to make sure children are gaining the experiences they need to learn and grow at the pace they are ready for, but I still felt like I was throwing my child to the wolves this morning (and I was with him!). To all you parents who have ever walked away from a crying child as your dropped them off at school.....more power to you.  Erik was thrilled to go, and I didn't have to say goodbye, and I still wanted to scoop him up in my arms and beg him to stay little and cuddly forever. 
     That craving for another child has begun.....but really how realistic is that?  I'm FORTY-TWO! I doubt that will happen, but there is certainly a piece of me that would love another baby....and another piece of me that smacks me in the head every time I consider it. 
     
SURGERY UPDATE
      I still have 6 pounds to lose....damn Halloween, damn Thanksgiving, damn every single day.  I find it such a struggle to walk by anything without popping it in my mouth.  SO, I still have 6 pounds to lose, next check up is Jan. 26....SURELY by then I can be down! 
     I work for a wonderful company who has just started a wellness program and I am on the committee so I must set a good example. I've been walking everyday and using the "imapmywalk" app which tells me exactly how far I've gone, how many calories I've burned and then sends me an e-mail each week with my progress.  I walked 7.35 miles this week.....WOO HOO!! Thank you PACCC for allowing me to walk during the day and encouraging me to do so!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
I can't believe Christmas is almost here. It feels like just yesterday Erik was an infant. I thought time went by fast before I had a child, but now it seems to be moving at light speed and I want it to stop!!  Here is our family portrait for the year.  Doesn't Erik look so happy?  It's better than the scrunched up "CHEESE" face he makes for the pictures I take of him, too bad he couldn't have looked a little happier.  The only reason he looks happy in the second one of him is because the photographer let him have a book.  In all the other photos he was yelling...ALL DONE!!
See how he's leaving back a little (he was sitting on a stool) as soon as she snapped the picture he fell over backwards and smacked his head on the floor.  Happy Day.