Blocker Boys On the Go!

     So if the previous update on kid happenings was not enough here comes the rest of the update.  Keep in mind that some of the things here happened simultaneously with the boys having their run through the illness list. I think I dealt pretty well with everything that went on while we were out and about.  The hubby did manage to get a lot of his qualifications completed while we were gone.  He is still waiting on one board, but that is not in his control.

     So at one point after the ear infections and respiratory  infections, but before the chicken pox and strep throat! The check engine light and TCS light came on in my van.  OH JOY! Not really I mean I knew it needed a tune up, but was not pleased with the warning lights.  So I took it in to get it fixed up.  All fixed up, and lots of money later the van is ready to go.  So as I am packing the van to leave for the second time I get called into the house.  K1 now has developed the chicken pox visibly.  We concluded that his chicken pox fever must have been masked by the strep throat fever so we thought he got out of them.  Glad I got the kids vaccinated for that! Oh well moving on.

     I decided to pack up my now itchy kid anyway and start my drive back home.  By this time we were already delayed by several days, and I just wanted to get home before anything else could spring up.  We hit the road later than I wanted to, but we were still on the road.  After driving until about midnight with multiple stops for K1 to pee, get gas, and walk the dogs we were not as far as I had hoped.  All in all the drive was uneventful and we made it home safe and sound.  Only down side was we arrived while hubby was on duty so we had to wait until morning to see him.

     I guess about two days after getting home we decided to go out for breakfast.  At first the gas pedal on the van was sticky.  After checking it out we blamed the extreme change in climate and temperature over a short time, and we continued on to breakfast.  On the way home the idle was not quite right, and the van kept revving up then dropping down it was odd.  After the boys took naps we decided to run over to the Navy Exchange to pick something up.  The van then proceeded to get worse as we arrived at the parking lot.  I spent the rest of the day googling the vans symptoms.  That weekend we drove it over to my brother-in-laws house he looked at it, and blamed the timing so we would have to take it in as we don't know anyone with the tools to fix that.  So another chunk of money later, and the van is running smoothly again.  Now we just have to get a slow oil leak from the oil pan drain plug fixed.  That however is waiting until I find some money after one of these pay days.

     To check out how I did on my weight loss and fitness journey visit Healthy Family Fitness .  I think that gets everyone up to date.  Now hopefully back to regular posting on both blogs.  I really think we have to be over that first of the year hill we were climbing up.  Thanks for reading, and leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by.

     I know I have been totally slacking over here.  So this post will be a run down of what is happening in our world.  We have been totally busy doing an array of different things.

     Since my last post on my birthday we have been of course tackling the normal everyday life.  We are contemplating what to do if hubby is on the ship for Christmas.  This is a huge discussion that we both sat down and talked about.  I was actually amazed by a few responses we got when people were informed of the upcoming decision.  I got several questions related to the stability of our marriage.  Really we are fine I love hubby to death, and this is just one more thing that military families have to cope with.

     With the looming holidays and no daddy/hubby we are moving all of the holidays up this year.  So this coming weekend will be busy at our house.  We will be having K2's first birthday party and Christmas all on the same day.  We will wake up as a family pretending it is Christmas morning.  Then we will roll into the first birthday festivities.  There will be tons of food and fun to be had by all.  Of course no one has RSVP'd to little man's birthday so it may just be a family event.  I think the sister-in-law and her family will be coming, but they just decided not to RSVP based on the you know we are coming rule.

     I have been following my work out schedule everyday, and I am stoked to see the results in the mirror.  Next weekend is also a measurement weekend for my fitness goals.  It will be exciting to see how much progress I have made.  I did step on the scale for my 30th birthday, and was happy with that result.  Just since I have started my Insanity program I am down 5.5 pounds.  Since I have started eating healthy, and increasing my fitness I am down a whopping 16 pounds.  The measurements will just be icing on the cake since I can already see results in the mirror.

     I think hubby is getting on board with health and fitness improvement since the Navy is evaluating him for high blood pressure.  In his defense he does work in a high stress environment, but he also has some bad habits that are not good for his blood pressure.  Hopefully he will stick with it, and reach a goal while feeling better for doing it. 

     As for the kids K1 is in love with talking on the phone, and playing all the game apps that are on my cell phone.  K2 is coming into his own little world, and trying his best to walk.  Both of the boys are into anything they can reach.  Being a good big brother also includes giving the little man anything he can not reach on his own. 

     Let me know how your family is preparing for the holidays.  What will you be doing that is special this year?  Do you have a tradition that you share with your children each year?

     You can check out my health and fitness journey at Healthy Family Fitness.

     Today I had a very productive day!  It all started when the pesky alarm went off.  Some days I just hate the alarm.  The alarm will never be my friend! Anyway hubby got up and off to work on time so it all worked out.  I smashed snooze a few times, and then I got up to workout!

     Work out complete, I fed the boys a good breakfast, and sent out some text.  A time was confirmed for our rendezvous with sister-in-law, and the niece. Quick shower, and I got the boys dressed in their special clothes for the meet up.  <---- Loving the suspense right there I know.  I have to make sure you read to the bottom.  Load every one into the van with the needed accessories, and we hit the road.

     After driving about an hour to our secret location we had to wake up K2 since the little guy napped all the way there.  There was also a little clothing tweaking to do.  I did not fully dress K2 because I did not want to have drool all over his outfit.  So we arrived , and waited on sister-in-law and niece to join us.

     Our super secret destination?  Visiting Santa at the Yankee Candle flagship store.  To my surprise K1 walked right up, and asked to sit in his lap.  Although he does not know you ask Santa for presents he had a good time.  K2 is right in the middle of that mommy attachment phase.  He was not in love with the idea of talking to a stranger, but he got over it and we have some good pictures.  Little miss princess my niece was another story.  She decided she would have nothing to so with Santa.  So we gave up, and were picking up the boy when she decided it was her turn.  So she jumped up in Santa's lap with K1 and we got a few more pictures.  We had planned to get the 3 of them, but at least we got some good pictures.

So we rounded up the kiddos, and headed to the door to go get something to eat.  On the way out there is a large snowman with a bench.  Trying for one more photo op with out the stranger Santa we piled the kids on the bench.  K2 was not letting go of his bottle so it is in all the pictures with the snowman.  Still there were a few good shots taken.

     We had a fun lunch at Olive Garden which was full of old people.  All the grandmas in the restaurant had a good time watching the kids.  I managed to eat pretty well, and only had the salad with vegetable soup, and half of sister-in-law's grilled chicken sandwhich.

     Then we split ways, and the boys and I headed to a friend's house so she could sample Shakeology! We tried the Chocolate Shakeology with mint extract.  I love that one and think it taste like Girl Scout Thin Mints.  If you are new to my health and fitness journey check out these post.

My Coach Application is Approved and Jumping in With Both Feet

Still looking for more information?  Check out my fitness blog Healthy Family Fitness  Be sure to leave a comment with what made your day productive.  Maybe it was nothing, but think hard.  There was something important that got done today.  Even if it was just regular old house work.  It needed to get done, and you were productive. Pictures from our visit with Santa will be here soon. 

     We had a great weekend! Overall it was simple, but I really enjoyed it.  I hope everyone out there also had an excellent time with their families this weekend.

     Saturday we seriously spent all day hanging out at home.  We all had a great time enjoying each others company, and playing around.  Our day started with a late breakfast, and some TV watching.  Then during K2's first nap session I started a workout, and K1 and the hubby did their thing.  In the middle of my workout, all of my new workout stuff came from beachbody!! I am thrilled, and ready to start my new challenge group on 11-11-11.  Later we made dinner together. It was a greek shrimp scampi served over a bed of spaghetti squash!

     Sunday was a super slow start at our house.  Since the boys have been totally weird with their sleep schedules lately, nothing seems to fall just right.  K1 now gets out of bed, and crawls on the couch ottoman to sleep.  I can not figure out why, but that is off topic.  We got up late, and went to Waffle House for breakfast.  Hubby loves to eat there, but it is a little to greasy for me, and typically leaves me in a funk all day.  Then we  stopped and got K1's hair cut.  This is a big deal at our house since hubby does not like to get the boy's hair cut.  He mentioned it while we were out, and I made sure to stop on the way home before he changed his mind. 

     To top off our Sunday we had friend stop by  and chat for a bit.  She cam over to look at some of our baby stuff to buy since she is expecting early next year.  It was bitter sweet letting go of little baby stuff.  Then to top off my day of terrible eating we ordered pizza.  There is this awesome little family owned place down the street.  In all the times we have ordered from there, this was the first time our order was ever wrong.  In the long run it was corrected, and we now have pizza for hubby to eat for breakfast. 

     What did you and your family do over the weekend?  Did you all have nice weather?  Leave me a comment letting me know.

K2 hanging out during the week

His third haircut ever!

     So what is everyone doing for the Halloween weekend?  Both of my kids are young enough to not really care about the holiday which leaves me not really into it.  K1 will dress up as a monkey any day of the week and have a good time.  K2 is most definitely not into wearing a costume for any length of time.

     I guess what I am really wanting to know from everyone today is! When your kids were 2 and under did you take them trick-or-treating?  Maybe a fall festival is in order for more family events.  The boys really do not need to collect tons of candy to eat.  I do not need to have tons of candy in my house to tempt me into eating it.

     My big plans for Halloween are to put the boys on costumes for some pictures.  I think I will take the two small pumpkins we have here at the house, and use them in our photo shoot.  Does anyone have any cute ideas for poses the boys could do?

     Currently we do not even have any Halloween candy to give out.  I suppose I should get some so the neighbor kids do not hate us.  I also thought that maybe the boys would like to hand out the candy.  We might sit on our steps for a bit and let the kiddos give away the candy.  I am rally not sure how K1 will feel about sharing his candy with everyone.  He got a little candy when we went to the fall festival last weekend.  He ask for it all the time so it was moved to the top of the refrigerator.

   

     I am fairly certain that duty days come around to corrupt my schedule.  For all my non military readers a duty day is when the hubby stays at the ship for 24 hours straight, and then stays there for a regular work day the next day.

     Some how my 2 young children have figured out how know it is a duty day and just go haywire.  Thank goodness we typically have left overs to eat on duty days because I am not sure we would have made it to cooking mode today.

     My day started while hubby was still home, but I knew he needed sleep so tried to be quiet.  K1 came into our room at around 2am.  I am not sure of the precise time as it was way to early.  I guess he thought it was time to get up because he requested that I get him a blow of cereal. After convincing him he should go back to bed he took a cup of water and laid down.  I shuffled off to bed to try to catch a few more winks.

     At approximately 3:30am K2 wakes up screaming.  Being the good wife I turn off the monitor so that hubby will not wake up.  I go and get the little man as fast as I can stumble there so that he does not wake up his brother.  After all the typical checks diaper, fever, teeth it is verified that he is in fact just fine.  I opted to give him a bottled and lay him back in bed hoping he will return to slumber.  It worked!! I made it back to bed hooray.

     Ta da! It is now 4:30 am and the alarm to wake hubby up for work is going off.  My dear hubby never jumps out of bed.  I think he loves to hear the alarm go off multiple times.  I do mean hear because if the alarm is near him he just turns it off and goes back to sleep.  I now control the main alarm because I will hit snooze so that it will keep alarming.  Eventually he is up and on his way to work.

     Typically I have been working out from around 5:30 am until my dvd is over.  Today however I decided that I needed more than the few hours of interrupted sleep that I had so I rolled over after hubby left and got a little more sleep.  The kids promptly woke me up at 7am.  Then we had things that were already scheduled to do today.

     As we started getting ready K1 was washing his hands in the bathroom.  I have no clue what happened, but he slipped off of the step stool.  The poor little guy landed right on his forehead, and now has a lovely goose egg.  I am sure the forth coming bruise will look lovely.  Needless to say we were late getting across the bridge and tunnel to our scheduled meet up with friends. 

     I know I have previously mentioned the bridges and tunnels in our area.  Since we were late there was no reason to head back home after we met up because the tunnel would be jammed.  So we got back home around 8pm and both boys were asleep in the car.  K2 immediately went back to sleep once he was in bed.  K1 decided however that he felt the need to run around and play with his dog.  So after catching the now rested sprinting toddler I laid down with him for some soft music, and reading on the couch.

     Now I am exhausted, and have no intention of attempting my work out.  I really hope all of you have a great day today.  I am sure once you are reading this our Friday will be going much better than our Thursday.

     At our house today was one of those days. Nothing seemed to fall into place, and I my head was in a funk all day.  In fact it is still funky now.  If this post makes no sense I blame the entire frumpy day.

     First off the boys got up a little late.  This would not have been a problem if we did not need to go to the commissary as soon as it opened. I hate going to the commissary when there is a huge line.  So after we got everyone up, dressed, and fed we were out the door.

     We seriously made it down two aisles when K2 starts flipping out and crying and screaming.  First attempt to solve his problem was handing him the next item on the list to play with.  That bought me two more aisles of peace.  Thankfully K1 was being really good while we were at the store.  Every two aisles or so K2 needed a new distraction.  I know it was his nap time, but he got up late so I was hoping we could make it through the store.  We made it to dairy and frozen food section and K2 loses it.  Poor little guy so we got him a bottle, and he was happy until we reached the check out. 

     While we were still in the dairy section we get some unsolicited advice from a not so helpful bystander.  At this point my cart is brimming with all the things we got.  I was a major trip that I had been putting off for awhile.  As I turned into the milk section the entire top layer of my cart falls to the floor.  Our helpful bystander says "I think you need another cart."  I need a lot of things, but you standing there telling me what I need is not one of them.  No help was offered except their unsolicited advice.  I mean really loaded cart 2 kids, and no one can help me pick it up.  Anyway we got it picked up, paid and made a mad dash for home.

     When we get home K2 goes straight to bed for a nap.  The dogs had gotten into the trash can so that had to be cleaned up.  Then I made the million trips back and forth to the car to bring in the groceries.  K1 attempts to help me put them away.  He tries really hard, but was more of a hindrance than anything.  I got all of the cold things put away, and headed to the couch to sit down.  I sat down for all of five minutes it felt like, and then K1 is asking for a snack.

     Nap time was a total disaster. K2 slept late which means K1 went down late.  Then when K2 would normally go down for his second nap he was still wide awake.  This is not good because when K2 goes down for second nap it is mommy time.  It is that priceless few hours during the day when both kids area sleep. 

     Hubby got home a little early which was a plus.  It was totally awesome since cooking dinner in a haze is never a good idea.  Some how I muddle through the prep work for dinner.  It was served a little early since hubs skipped lunch at work.  It even tasted goo which was amazing since at this moment I had the forcefully make my mind think to remember what we ate 4 hours ago.

     I am trying to hold on to some excitement for tomorrows visit to the military family fall festival.  We are meeting up with the sister-in-law there, and it should be a blast.  Off to bed with my crazy self so I can be more fun tomorrow.

     I know this is scary news, but the winter season is coming with all of its holidays. Holidays bring gifts.  If you have kids they will inevitably receive toys.  Now I have been informed that no self respecting grandparent would not send a toy as a gift.  Believe me we have received plenty of toys from grandparents.  We even get toys for random visits through out the year silly grandparents.  In general my kids have so many toys they will never be able to play with them all!

     So beginning this week we will start the massive toy culling at our house.  The toy collection must face a major reduction before the gifts start arriving.  Also in the realms of gift giving we will be getting ready for K2's first birthday next month.  Just one more opportunity for more toys to come in to our house.the amount of toys we keep will be based on what can fit in the allotted space in the boys room.  Currently we have toys in the living room, and the boys bedroom which is driving my crazy.

     I will admit I do have a weakness for books.  My boys love to go through their books and look at the pictures.  I hope this carries on as they grow up.  We are one of those crazy families with no cable or satellite television.  We do get Netflix, but are cutting way back on our TV watching.  My weakness here would be the Disney movies. So with those two weaknesses I think bookshelves should solve the problem.  I will just have to limit us to the number of books and movies that will fit on the shelves.

     The dreaded Happy meal toys.  I have to say we do get fast food kids meals on occasion, and they come with the pesky toys.  I do keep a few of the small noise free toys in my purse for out and about play time.  I can't even count the number of times these little toys have gotten us through the check out line and into the car quietly.So our happy meal toys will be reduced down to the few toys that live in my purse.

     Stuffed animals.  We receive a few a year.  thankfully we only have one box right now.  However due to downsizing, and up coming holidays we are looking to get to half of a box.  The plan is to go to the box and remove the bottom layer.  Most of the time my boys will only play with a stuffed animal for a few second, and then it goes flying across the room.  Both boys have two or three stuffed animals that you will see them play with on a regular basis.  So we will be keeping the toys that are visibly used every few days.

     Moving on to the bigger toys.  We have two toys that basically do the same thing.  you drop balls in one spot and watch them go down a track.  At the end this triggers music to play.  My theory is to get rid of the bigger one.  This should make room for the totally awesome train set that I found on sale earlier this year for my toddler.  My fear with the train set is all the pieces of track.  I have devised a plan already.  Upon emptying one of our cubes that currently gets occupied by happy meal toys and other miscellaneous small toys the track will be stored in there.  I plan to find a smaller box to keep all of the engines and car in separately.

     After all the culling is complete my plan will enter step two.  All toys will be cleaned and move to the garage.  Then a by appointment sale will be listed on craigslist.  I really do not want to clear and entire Saturday for a yard sales that is my solution. I will schedule a few appointments from Friday evening until Sunday evening.  I can schedule the appointments around things I know we nee to get done as a family.  On Monday what ever is not sold will be taking a trip down to the local charity donation box.

     On another note I am happy to report that our clothes clean out is going well.  All of the kids clothes have been separated and stored accordingly.  All of K1's clothes that were to small are in space bags awaiting K2 to grow in to them.  All the the things that K2 out grew are in the laundry basket awaiting their division into boxes for Thred UP listing. For more about Thred UP please see our post Clearing Out the Kids Clothes.

     Ok it might seem a little overboard, but I am totally pumped.  The Zoo where we live is having a military appreciation day!!! That means we get to go to the zoo for FREE!

     Now while I am sure I will not have near as much fun as my two year old I am stoked.  He is going to LOVE it.  Currently he runs around our house pretending to be different animals.  I can only imagine his excitement with getting to see all the animals in person.  Then there is the obligatory petting zoo inside the zoo.  He is going to completely flip at the idea of petting all the animals.  I just hope the goats behave.

     I am not quite sure my husband shares the same enthusiasm about the impending zoo trip that I do.  He has duty the day before, and will need a nap before we go.  However I am certain that once he gets there, and sees the boys having a good time he will also have fun.  Little baby Ken, I have to use baby as long as possible because his first birthday is coming up.  Anyway little baby Ken will most like not think it is the best trip of his life, but he will enjoy riding in the stroller. Now I just hope the nice weather will hold out.

     Do you remember your first trip to the zoo? Maybe you have fond memories of your little ones first trip to the zoo.  Please leave a comment sharing your favorite moment at the zoo.

     The first thing I ever remember about the zoo was as family trip we took when I was little.  Being the oldest I was out prancing around, and being reminded to keep up with our group.  We had to stop for awhile at the hippo building.  Not that I don't like hippos, but it felt like we were there forever.  All because my little brother got covered in bird poop.  That is right he was the target of a fly by pooping.  I still remember this as being totally hilarious.  The good news is he was most likely to small to remember.  The bad news he hates being the center of attention.  Sorry man I had to share!  Maybe something awesome will happen on our first family trip to the zoo, and then I can use a new story.  Stay tuned for update next week all about the zoo.

     So lets hear it what is your best memory of the zoo.

     Now don't get me wrong I love the cable guys.  Obviously I have an addiction to cable internet.  I however do not like seeing them at my neighbors house.  They were there all day fixing something.  No matter how bad I felt for my neighbor having some kind of technical difficulty in their home. I was totally irked when fixing it involved turning off the internet to my house.

     Yesterday I spent numerous hours resetting my router, and unplugging the cable modem.  I even took the time to ask the toddler if he had touched anything in the area of the modem and router.  Lets just say I thought I was loosing my mind, and would need to call the cable company.  Yet another thing I dislike sitting on hold for people to answer my question. Calling when the kids are awake is pointless so I waited.

     There is one point in the day where I get both kids napping at the same time for a few hours. In this short window I prefer to take a little me time I shoot for 30-45 minutes of what I want to do.  My time is usually used to play on the internet or read a book.  Yesterday I spent the entire time working on the internet.

     Then nap time was over, and I realized I did nothing else.  Now I have to begin dinner preps while the kids are both awake.  I was working at the sink when I hear "Mommy look a big truck."  So I meander on over to the window which my toddler is now occupying.  Sure enough there sits the cable truck.  Why did I not look outside all day?  I was certain we were having an equipment malfunction, and I was determined to fix it.  I watched for a while, and they made several trips up and down the poles.  Every time they went up I check my cable modem sure enough it went dead.  Now why did I not notice a dead modem all day?  They only flick it off for about a minute and then they turn it back on.  So all day by the time I would reach the modem after noticing a loss of connection to the computer, and it would be back on.

     To ensure my sanity I wandered down to ask the cable guy how long they had been working here.  The guy told me they had been there most of the day. Conclusion I am not crazy, and the modem and router work just fine.

     Here is to hoping for a cable guy free day.  So in those brief times where both kids are sleeping or occupied I can sneak on the internet.  I know all my mom readers out there appreciate their mom time during nap time.  So here is to nap time!!! The only quiet part of my day.

     I hope everyone's quiet down time goes smoothly today!

     I know everyone is entitled to there own point of view on everything. I just wanted to share my point of view on family and housekeeping.  I have two little boys that are ages 2 1/2 and 11 months.  A little background on myself.  I was in the Navy for 6 years, and my husband still is.  Serving in the military teaches you a lot of different things, but flexibility is a major point. Who knows when you will get the call that you have to report to leave in 24 hours.  I think that has carried over to my take on being a MOM. 

     Being the mom of a toddler means anything predictable in your life just got tossed out the window. Throw in a baby for added excitement, and the roller coaster you just got on is off at full speed.  I for one LOVE roller coasters.  Around our house you never know when a ball might fly by your head, or some crazy toy will start blaring music all on its own.  Now my house is by no means perfect. I would never suggest that my way of parenting is the way it should be done.   This is a reminder to take a step back, and look at the important things in your life.

     However my kids know they are loved!! When is the last time you took a look around your house, and said you know what all these things are here because of someone I love.  My kids have way to many toys I will be the first person to tell you this.  For some reason they have grandparents that love to send them more toys.  When I come from the kitchen after retrieving a sippy cup of milk to see that the living room toy box got turned up side down.  I just take a deep breath sit back and watch, usually there is moment of sheer joy about to happen.  You see when my 2 year old finds a toy at the bottom of the box he has not seen in a few days he gets terribly excited.  Most of the time he will rush over to me, and show me his great find.  Now days he typically has a little shadow that comes right behind him full of excitement, but not quiet sure why. 

     So my house has piles of toys, dishes that need to go in the dish washer, and laundry that needs to move from the washer to the dryer.  If I spend all my time worrying about keeping the house spotless who knows what I would miss. Morale of the story take time to enjoy your family.  Families are an every changing dynamic so if you miss it now you will not get it back.

     Here is a post from I'm A Silly Mami as she views a change in her family dynamic.  Take time to enjoy your family as it is now.  I also enjoyed this post from 24/7 MOMS. In her post she steps back to reflect on some of here families favorite memories. She reminds us that it is important to take time, and make new memories to cherish with your family.

     Take time for family.  As a military family we are always trying to squeeze in extra good memories to keep us going when we are separated by deployment.  So even if the sink is full of dishes take your family to do something fun.  Memories last a life time so go make more.

     On October 6th I had the pleasure to sit in on a tele-conference with Mama Fusion.  Below you will find my overview of the call,and my interpretation of Emily's plan.

     Do you feel lost in motherhood? Does it feel like society is pushing you to be June Cleaver?  Come see how one mom over came the pressure, and wants to help you break out.

     After the birth of her second daughter Emily felt lost.  She was unhappy, and generally felt that she was being a bad parent.  Her brain was telling her to do better at things like cooking gourmet meals, and having a pristine house.  Her heart's desire was buried under it all.

     She found she had been crushed under society's perfect picture of being a mother.  When she found the courage to step out, and be the mom she wanted to be life was better for the entire family. The relationship with her husband, and her kids improved.

     Before she found her focus she just stumbled through her everyday motions to try and fit society's picture.  Now she is spending more quality time with her kids and husband.  She had spent a large "quantity" of time with her family before, but the quality of that time was poor.  She spent it trying to decide what was the next step to fill the mold she thought she needed to fill.

     God made Emily to be a spunky free spirit.  What was God's design for you?  Sit back for a minute and think about all the things you like to do.  Does the world's perfect mold of parenting keep you from being the person inside that you miss and love?

     Is your inner self caked with the dirt of society's ideals?  Join Emily at Mama Fusion for Finding the Focus.  She will show you how to break free of the dirt and grime that society has thrown at you over the years.  Don't be what people have told you that you should or can be! Be the unique person that God designed you to be.

If you would like to hear a recording of the entire call.  Visit Mama Fusion's Monthly Call tab.

If you would like a chance to attend Finding the Focus for free the entry for is here.  The winner will be drawn on October 14th.

Ahhhhhhh the holidays are approaching.  Does stress around the holidays put you in a bahumbug mood? If so then swing on by www.mamafusion.com . She is starting a new program to help you deal with the stress, and gain clarity and direction in your life.

 WARNING: Do not read any further if you do not want to hear about potty training type information.  This post includes poop, pee, and frustration.   



     My dear 2 year old is going to drive me off the deep end with this venture.  We started with the typical 3 day training plan.  I stared at his crotch for hours, and we ran to the potty all day for 3 days.  That worked for a bit he would run screaming to the potty after awhile, and there was no mess to clean for a few days.  He began to falter so we added M&M rewards for pee, and little toys like a new matchbox car for a poop success.  Our poop success ratio was very low.  I mean this kid must love pooping in his pants.  We finally got to about 2 weeks with an excellent potty record.  I for one am overjoyed.

     This triumph was however short lived.  I have tried everything I can think of to get him back to where he was.  Now days he just sits where ever he is  and tells us after he pees that he "Pee bed" or whatever may be the case.  Friday and today have me climbing the walls with frustration.  For the first time in 2 1/2 years he has decided to play in his poop, and put it on the wall.  So as to not encourage the behavior by getting upset I remained calm, and placed him in the shower to contain the poop.  Now add to the factor that my nearly 11 month old is every where and into every thing.  Now I have to catch and contain the little man before I can even begin cleaning the poop.

     So now I am asking for advice.  What do I do?  I am terribly tempted to just put him back in diapers, and throw my hands in the air.  This has been over a 2 month battle already.  Am I just rushing the process?  I knew when we started that even when he was doing really well we would still have occasional accidents.  Should I just take a few weeks off, and start all over?  Help I am grasping to the last threads of my sanity here.

     I have received some suggestions from mom friends, but they do not really fit our military life style.  My husband is gone at least twice a week for around 40 hours at a time.  I do not have the ability to just hand him the baby and devote multiple days to potty training.  Our first attempt at the 3 day method was over a holiday weekend when my husband had a rare 3 days off.  Now I know there are plenty of families that have similar situations that are not in the military.  So please give me all of your tips!! I will try anything once in this case. Thank you for reading this much of my insanity.