Babies on the Brain

My children are always on my mind. Lately I have been almost hyper aware of the fact that they are growing up. It may be that this happens every new year, as my babies are Summer babies, and they seem to make huge leaps in mental and physical development between October and January. It may be that this year because I am clear, aware, and mindful, that I'm noticing how much they've grown up and how they've changed. Whatever it is, I've been noticing some really cool things.

It seems Baby A has finally found his calling - football. This is the first time in his 7 1/2 years, that he's super excited and into an after school activity. He's in his 2nd YMCA flag football season and loving it! He wants (now now now! he's not a very good waiter) to play tackle football the second we'll allow it. And hubs is the Assistant Coach of his Y team, which really is neat for them both. :) I know it makes them both happy, which makes me very happy. Bubby also seems to have turned around his wild school behavior. For several months he was getting folder mark after folder mark (in our school, they have Cowboy Pride folders, and the folders are marked if they violate any of the school's "Pillars of Character"); for dumb little things like being too loud in the hall, or not sitting down at lunch. He's nto a "bad" kid. Just active! So, after taking him off a medication that I didn't think he really needed after all, and putting him on PharmaGaba, he's turned it around and is at almost 2 weeks folder-mark free. Yay Bubby! I am kicking myself for putting him on any medication; I should have stuck with what I know - natural remedies - instead of going allopathic.

Baby B has hit his mark as well, with Kenpo. He joined Kenpo about 9 months ago, and he loves it! (If you click the link, that's him, first picture!) He's now an Orange Belt, with 3 stripes. He's really learning the discipline, and he's getting to be pretty kick-ass! ;) He does well in school too - in fact he's never had any behavior issues there. He's got good friends, enjoys school and does very well. I think that the confidence he gains in Kenpo helps him socially, at school. He's quiet and shy, yet very well liked by the kids and his teacher. :) He's discovered he's a very good artist as well - cartoon drawing is his thing - and he takes pride in his pictures. (And impresses the heck out of his daddy, his siblings and me!)

 

One of Baby B's more recent drawings. :)

What about Baby Girl, you ask? Oh she's fantastic. Smart, beautiful, confident. Honestly, the girl makes childhood look easy. She was tested in November, for the GT program at her school... she's been in enrichment since she was in Kinder; now they think she's ready for GT. I don't think we'll know the results of her testing until March; no matter what the testing sez, I can tell you, she is gifted and talented. ;) (Biased you say? Psshhaaa!) She's still a lil' baby giraffe in gymnastics - those long legs are hard to keep in line, I guess. Gymnastics is giving her a stronger body, exercise, and it's fun. That's all I ask of it. No, she's not going to be an Olympic gymnast someday - so what? Long as she has fun and works her body, I'm happy. Baby girl is hitting the age/grade where questions are coming up though ... like yesterday she told me "isn't it silly that some girls in my class wear a bra" as she was getting dressed. Thankfully I didn't snort my coffee up my nose! I wanted to laugh and ask "why?! for WHAT?!" but I didn't. Instead I agreed that that IS silly! Especially since they are NOT comfortable. She said "really" to the not comfortable part. I said "yeah, bra's are very uncomfortable, and there's plenty of time in the future, when they have breasts, to wear them then." She nodded and headed on down to eat breakfast. I followed her downstairs, thinking "Bras?! Already?! It's only 3rd grade for God's sake! Holy cow!" I didn't go into the fact that I didn't wear a bra until 7th grade ... I figured she wouldn't want to hear that, especially since she wasn't asking to wear one herself. I imagine the day will come tho, as she's told me before that she "hopes she gets breasts" like mine. LOL! I guess that means she wants to be more than a B cup! Another "ack she's growing up" moment happened when she told me that she danced with a boy in Music class. And then she blushed BIG when she said who she danced with! Lordy ... it was boys' pick on Monday at Music - in a week it'll be GIRL'S pick for dance partners, and she already has picked him to dance with again. She's liked him since 1st grade ... and daddy has wanted to pummel him since 1st grade. ;)

And so it begins I guess!

Exercise Itch

I'll bet you read the title and thought to yourself "this must be a blog about getting the 'itch' to exercise". If you thought that, I'm sorry to say, you're wrong! No, this isn't a blog about me "itching" to exercise ... more so it's a whiny blog, about exercising AND itching. :-D Gee! Aren't you glad you stopped by?!

About the itching ... I've had chronic hives since July '09. (If you decide to stop reading at this point, I TOTALLY understand! No one really wants to hear about someone else being itchy! LOL!)  I have had two short breaks in the last 7 months, and currently, they are not as bad as in months past - yet they are appearing nightly. Very frustrating, as over the last 6 months I have tried numerous things get the hives to go away. For a short while, I stopped my antidepressant on doctor's orders (no, that was not a good thing); I stopped taking Motrin; I quit smoking; I tried both allopathic (steroids and antihistamines) and homeopathic (histaminum) treatment to cure the hives. I had a whole battery of allergy tests - both blood and skin prick - which revealed I am allergic to absolutely nothing, my friends (and for that matter, the Histamine marker skin prick didn't even pop up - that's the one that no matter what, SHOULD pop up in the skin prick test - so what's that about?!). So, for now, it's still a mystery as to what is causing them. What's super fun (can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice?), is that all the doctors are clueless too. :-D I just have no patience for that. Sooooooooooo, if any reader DOES know what could be causing these pesky itchies, please leave me a note. :)

... we interrupt this blogging for a yoga break ... be back in a while ... until I return, amuse yourself with this picture ...

So, now onto what the rest of my post is about - whining about exercise! heh heh! Above is a lovely graphic of the Sun Salutation sequence. I am slowly, however surely, getting this one down. It's very beautiful when done by someone who's highly coordinated and who's practiced yoga for years. :) When I do it, not so much so! I try tho - I try! ;) However, I digress ... What I want to know, to whine about, to blog about, is when, when, WHEN does one's body crave exercise?! Seriously?!? It's not that I don't enjoy yoga - I do. The music is nice, the voice of the instructor calming, and the breathing exercises very calming and relaxing ... however it's hard too! (waaaahhh!) I cannot do any of it without sweating, and, sometimes, falling over (the dang tree pose always does it to me!). I know, poor me. :p For three weeks now, I have exercised every day, using either yoga or pilates DVDs, for a minimum of 45 minutes. Every day I do something different, so as not to repeat yesterday's exercises (usually it's yoga one day, pilates the next), so I'm not getting bored. YET ... lol ... yet I don't really WANT to exercise. (know what I mean?) I'm doing because I want a stronger, tighter body. I want more flexibility and strength. And yes, I want a good 15+ lbs. to melt away! I *want* all those things, without having to exercise. Not possible, I know. So, then I ask again, when does one's body crave, desire, want to exercise, as opposed to one going and doing it cuz one knows one should? And when will my obession with it stop? When does it become part of my life, as opposed to a chore? When will I no longer want to blog about it, and gripe about it? LOL!

So, if you made it through my entire blog, and you have answers, please please leave me a reply! :) Ciao! Happy Tuesday World!

The Untouchable Mean Girls

As a mother of a daughter, and two sons for that matter, I feel this is something that must be shared. "Mean Girls", bullies, mean boys, truly can make a child's life a living hell. Children who are not this way must be educated on how to deal with mean children effectively. And children who may have the inclination to bully; well they too, need a good talking to. Children need to understand it's not cool to be mean, cruel, and hurtful. And it's up to the parent to teach them.

I don't know how many people my blog touches; however, if this information gets out to even a few parents - and they in turn, speak to their children about the issue of bullying  - well then I feel like I may have helped to make a difference.

Please, read this story.

The untouchable Mean Girls - The Boston Globe

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Tale of the PhysioBall

Newscaster announces: "San Antonio woman's death caused by PhysioBall".

Do you all know what a PhysioBall is? It's a large ball, sometimes called an exercise ball, which one uses in their exercise routines. In my case, I added into a Pilates workout.

See picture of offender below, lined up with various other wanted phsyioballs.

... Husband sez "pilates were never a problem for her ... UNTIL that (choke) ... that ball!" ... 

No, I never had too much of a problem with Pilates until that ball routine showed up. Holy Mother of God, was that a change in routine!! 

Ball "claims" woman chose to employ him in her exercise routine; SAPD is looking into that claim.

I'm not going to deny that claim; nor will I admit it. Honestly, I believe the DVD is ultimately to blame - and Jennifer Kries - for that matter. Without it's suggestion and prodding, I would have never picked the ball up.

Eyewitnesses saw the woman, at one point, with only her feet on said ball, while supporting the rest of her weight with her arms. Said witnesses are too distraught by the turn of events to comment further at this time.

My poor kittens! They witnessed the entire ordeal. It started out innocently enough. "Just roll foward on your ball". Okay, I can do that! I got as far as my hips, and was pleased! Then I looked up and saw that Ms. Kries' peeps were all the way down to their TOES! WTF?!?! (I think, I don't say out loud, as there are KITTENS in the room!) So sure - I'm up for a challenge. After all, it's a new year, a new me, I'm exercising daily! :) Ah ... silly me! Little did I realize how hard that would be!

Further investigation by SAPD has revealed that the victim had no idea what the PhysioBall could "actually" do. She was lured in by it's pretty blue color, simplistic shape, and fond memories of childhood play.

Have you ever seen anyone FALL OFF a PhysioBall? Heh heh! No? Too bad ... :p

A spokesperson for the SAPD said "she really didn't know what she wuz gettin' into - addin' that thar ball to her exercise routine - from the looks of it."

And so ends the Tale of the PhysioBall! Stay tuned for further updates in the future. ;)

Disgusted with DISQUS

After a week or so of trying out DISQUS for my comments here on my blog, I decided it sucks, at least on Blogger blogs. Friends who weren't DISQUS members said they couldn't comment, or it wouldn't take ANY comments at all. So I have removed it and gone back to straight up Blogger comments. It had some great options, which I really liked (hence adding it my blog in the first place) - you could reply directly to a comment and it would get emailed to the commentee. I thought that was cool! And it's an OpenID client, so I thought maybe more people could sign in and comment. Too bad it didn't work out! Stay tuned, I'm a "widget" junkie! ;)