Mommy Musings

A few weeks ago, my mom was up here visiting us and mentioned that in a picture we sent her of Charlie, one of her eyes looked a little off center.  I immediately stared at her tiny little face and tried to see anything different with her eyes.  I didn't notice anything that day, and to be honest, kept forgetting to look for it in the few days following. That is until Charlie needed an early morning bath one day.  While she was sitting there splashing, her left eye suddenly went totally inward towards her nose, while the right eye stayed straight.  It was definitely not normal {and a little scary the first time I saw it!}  She didn't cry out in pain or anything when it happened, but she did start shaking her head a bit and rubbing her eyes. We decided to keep a close eye on her that weekend to try and see how frequently it happened, and if there was any consistency to it.  From what we noticed, it happened more frequently {and more severe} when she was tire...

Well, it's official.  My sweet littlest, my Charlie bear, is potty trained!!  Other than some pull-ups at naps and bedtime, we are a totally diaper-free house.  And I'll be honest, man that feels good . Potty training is probably one of my least favorite parenting experiences, but once it's done, it's such an accomplishment for both  of you.  It's definitely a lot of hard work and diligence, but I really believe it can be done in a matter of a few days when done right.  Now, I'm definitely  no expert, but as I've been through this twice now and we all came out of it relatively unscathed, I figured it was worth a shot to share my tips and tricks with you! {one} Wait until your kid is ready.  This is definitely the most important step.  Just after Emmy turned 2, I attempted to potty train her.   I  wanted her to be out of diapers, more than she did.  After a full day of both of us crying, I tabled the whole thing for a few months...

I decided to join in on the fun on Five on Friday today!! {one} We headed down to visit my parents at the shore on Wednesday.  It's about two hours down, and another two back....and Charlie didn't have a potty training accident all day !  Not too bad for what was day five of no diapers.  I am so so proud of my little girl.  Full potty training tips and tricks post coming up next week! {two} It has been a tough few weeks for cops in my area.  Shootings, being put in a come due to a drunk driver, etc.  Please say a prayer that they're all able to recover, and for their brothers in blue as they continue to protect us. {three} I tried a sample of the new Biore charcoal face cleanser and I'm in love!  Seriously, my face feels so fresh and clean after using it.  I already ordered a full size version and am anxious for it to get here.  I have been wanting to try a charcoal cleanser for a while, and was happy to have finally found one in ...

Thursday April 17 - 2.5 elliptical / 5 mile bike Friday - Shred level 1 Saturday - Tabitha Inferno  Sunday - None Monday - 3.6 mile run Tuesday -  Tabitha Inferno Total Body Wednesday - none Weekly Total - 11.1 miles April Total Miles - 25.8 April workout total - 13 I am really glad that I keep track of all my workouts {I have for years before this link up even}  It's a really great way to keep track of exactly  what you've been doing.  I was feeling pretty good about my workouts over all this month when I woke up this morning.  But looking back, I really haven't been working as hard as I want to be.  Hopefully this motivates me to step it up a lot  this week and I'll have some good numbers to share with you next week!! How have your workouts been in April?  Also, if you're looking for a great 100 calorie yogurt to help with weight loss, check out my taste-test!

Thanks to Yoplait for sponsoring today's discussion... Bikini season is just around the corner, and add in our upcoming vacation to Florida, I am really stepping up my healthy eating habits.  I already work out a ton, but as they say abs are made in the kitchen.  So these days I'm back to eating a yogurt every day with my lunch.  It's something I used to do back in high school in college, and as I would love to have this abs back, I'm trying to replicate my eating habits of those days as best I can! One thing that has changed since high school is that I've learned how much better greek yogurt is than regular yogurt.  It is also really helps all the stomach problems I've been having recently.  But if I'm going to commit myself to eating the same thing every day, I want to make sure I'm eating The Best Greek Yogurt there is.  So I jumped at the chance to try the Yoplait Greek 100 Strawberry and Chobani Simply 100 Strawberry Taste-Off. I was excit...

In parenting there are good moments and bad.  There are amazing wonderful moments and ones you wish you could erase from your memory completely.  As I mentioned to my cousin {who is only weeks away from becoming a father for the first time} the other night, being a parent can best be described as a roller coaster. Friday afternoon I experienced one of the low moments.  The girls and I had a birthday party to attend for the daughter of one of my friends.  It was going to be at a local children's museum we'd been to several times before. I'm going to be honest with you though, I had been dreading the party for a few days prior.  I knew the place was super fun for kids, and the girls and I were both excited to see our friends, but as Skip was working that afternoon, it would be a solo mission. Now before the eye rolling starts, I know how ridiculous it sounds that I was dreading taking the girls by myself.  They're older and there is only two of them . ...

What would the day after a holiday look like without a million blog recaps!?!?  I don't want to know.  In all honesty, I really love seeing how everyone spent their holiday, so keep the recaps coming! It has been a loooong  few days around here {which I will blog about it more detail over the week} so I was looking forward to a relaxing Easter.  We had been invited to spend it with each of our families, but as Skip was working 1- 11pm, we felt it best and easiest just to stay home as a little family of four.  I knew it would be a tough afternoon being without Skip, and it being the first Easter without my Grandma, but we would make it work the best we could. We had colored our eggs Saturday morning, and so everything was good to go by the time Skip got home from work late Saturday night.  He and I put out the Easter baskets and hid all the eggs around the house. The girls were up bright and early Sunday morning, and very excited to head downstairs.  Th...

Thursday April 10 - 3.6 mile run Friday - 3.3 mile run Saturday - 3 mile run Sunday - Supreme 90 Total Body Monday - 2.3 mile run Tuesday - none Wednesday - none Weekly Total - 12.2 miles April Total Miles - 14.7 April workout total - 9 I'm not quite where I want to be for the month, but I was pretty proud of my workouts this past week.  With Florida less that two months away I really want to focus more on toning up the next few weeks.  Hopefully it gets back to being warm so I can keep up my outside running! How was this week for you?  I'm hoping for a nice long workout this morning so I can eat as much Easter candy as I want this weekend!!

As I mentioned the other day, Charlie has been waking up in the middle of the night for about the past week.  I'm not exactly sure what's causing it, but she's always been my trouble sleeper, so I'm pretty used to it. As much as I love and need my sleep, I am finding joy in these middle of the night hours spent with her.  The first night it happened, she started crying around midnight.  I went in her room to see if I could comfort her a bit.  After getting her some milk and a fresh diaper, Charlie requested I read a story to her.  I had her get up out of bed, and chose her own book for me to read.  This is what she came back with.    Obviously Charlie doesn't remember what this book is about, but I do.  Tears pricked in the corner of my eyes as I gathered her in my lap to read it.  As I read the soothing words over and over, the tears slipped down, just as they did when my grandma would read this story to me as a little girl. Once the st...

It may be Monday, and I may have been up for two hours in the middle of the night, but I still know this is going to be a good day.  I think the slight sunburn I'm rocking from yesterday and the fact that it's going to flirt with 80* again today have something to do with it! We're just going to ignore the fact that it will be in the 30's again by Wednesday. Emmy was fine all morning as we were getting ready for school, but then got very upset when we were in the car.  She kept saying that she missed Braddock and was nervous about going to school.  I gave her teacher a head's up to keep an eye on her.  I hope she has a good day!!  It's going to be a long one for me as I'm already counting down the minutes until I can get her. I finally took out my 'big girl camera' after months of collecting dusts and snapped a few pictures of the girls!  I'll share some more of these later in the week. Emmy's dance recital information was handed out during cl...