Savvy Toddler Mom

ChasingToddlerMom’s blog today takes the cake… poor girl, her little guy has given her a rough week!

It’s been a busy week!  As my friend and fellow blogger Heather put it, “It’s a lot of work being the mommy!”

How was your Easter weekend?  Ours was fun and freakin’ crazy.  I’ve just been running and running since.  We had a great time with my brother and his family in town — enjoyed an afternoon at Hogle Zoo on Saturday, as well as an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my parents’.  You can’t beat a trip to the zoo for some toddler fun!  They loved the animals, of course, but I think the train took the cake.  SavvyDad got this great shot of us coming down the track:

The toot’s favorite item from the Easter Bunny was a new set of toy golf clubs.  Man, that kid loves to golf!  Funnily enough, the in-laws brought him a toy sword home from England that makes a “ching” sound when you hit it against stuff.  WOW.  In one day, he more than doubled his number of long skinny things designed to hit other things.  Just what we needed! :)  Actually, he’s pretty good about not hitting or breaking anything.  (Famous last words…)

SavvyDad and I celebrated our ninth anniversary on Tuesday.  Nine years.  That’s just crazy.  Couldn’t imagine a better way to spend nine years, though!  I love you, sweetie.

I frantically planted my lily bulbs yesterday after a grueling week of weeding my miserable garden.  It’s done!  Alas, I ran out of time to get the weed preventer stuff (Preen) on, and then, OF COURSE, it snowed this morning.  SNOWED?!?!  So, that will have to wait until another day.  But the bulbs are in the ground!!  The toot was an awesome helper — nothing like dirt and everything that comes with it to bring a smile to a toddler.

I have been working a ton this week and so am going to enjoy today as a day of relaxation and recovery.  Since there is almost three inches of snow outside, I can’t work in the garden — no guilt there!  I don’t have any appointments, so I can stay in my pjs all day if I want.  Probably won’t, but I CAN.  The toot slept great last night and is just a little sweetheart this morning.  It’s looking to be a great day.

Hope you are having a good one too!

Speaking of hoodies… they are part of my mom uniform.  Jeans, Shade t-shirt, hoodie, white socks, and Skechers.  Almost every day.  Seriously.

A quick aside… Looking for a great gift for the nerdy blogger in your life?  Consider the WordPress Hoodie.  I’d love one in XL, thank you very much.

This week I’ve been busy in my garden!  I was worried about trying to weed and clean out debris from the winter with the toot in tow (front yard - no fence), but have managed to find the secret… BUGS!!!  If I can find a ladybug, worm, or other small, harmless creature for the toot to watch and move around the garden, he is so happy to stay right there and do it!  What a cutie.  Thank goodness for bugs.  (Did I actually just say that?) I might actually have a nice garden this year!

In other news… Easter is Sunday!  I am so not ready.  I need to run to the store without the toot for some bunny-related items (jellybeans, certain items by Cadbury, etc.) and a trip to Toys R Us for a new set of golf clubs for the toot.  He is SUCH a golfer!  He only has one club left from the last set we got — he has broken the other two through his sheer force of strength.  He can hit SO hard.  He is making his daddy so proud.

What are your Easter plans? Basket fillers? Decorating eggs? Egg hunt? Traditions?  I’d love to hear them.

I really am trying to be more focused on the TODDLER aspect of this blog… I know I get distracted a lot, and I must apologize!

In that regard, I have to share what the toot did yesterday while he was supposed to be taking a nap.  This was a nice copy of Elmo’s Big Lift-and-Look Book before naptime yesterday.  Look at it now:

ARGH!  I asked him why he felt the need to rip all of the “lift” pieces off… he said, “I couldn’t see the pictures!”  Oh, my sweet three-year-old…

I sat down to blog last night around 11:30pm and discovered that our cable was out — internet, phones, tv.  Ack!  I was cut-off from the world! 

Luckily, I managed to find something else to do: go to bed.

I’m still trying to recover from the Daylight Savings Time change.  Ugh.  I consider moving to Arizona constantly for the weather… and this week, because they don’t do DST.  I do enjoy it being lighter longer in the evening, though.  Really, I just can’t wait for spring and summer!  I miss being WARM.

Since I’m a little behind (as usual), let’s have update time! 

SavvyTodderMomFitness
CTM and I are back at the gym this week after taking a week off due to CTM’s cold.  Yeah, I could go by myself… but I didn’t.  I thought I would… but I didn’t.  Wow.  I really need to work on that self discipline.  Anyway, the good news is that we are back on schedule and going three days a week again.  Also, I did some gardening on Monday and MAN, I am sore.  I think I need to add squats to the “to do” list.

SavvyToddlerMomQuitsCaffeine
It’s done, folks.  I quit!  I’m through.  I did have a little slip last week — I’ll be honest with you — I had a horrible migraine and I pounded down a Relpax and a Diet Coke in no time flat.  Felt SO much better!  However, I got to thinking about how hard it was and how long it took to quit in the first place and gave my permission for SavvyDad to take the remaining Diet Cokes to work.  Big step for me — no crutches.

SavvyToddlerMomBabySaga
I went to see the “new” perinatalogist on Tuesday.  He was great — took his time reading through our history and lab work, etc.  He went through all of the things they usually look for — and complimented my OBGYN on his thoroughness.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have an ALAKAZAM moment.  There really isn’t much else we can do.  He said the baby aspirin/heparin treatment is pretty experimental (which we didn’t know) and that if we did absolutely nothing, we would have a 65% chance of having a healthy baby.
 
Interestingly enough, he and a fellow of his are doing a study on 10-20 week miscarriages and they asked if we would participate.  We agreed and they drew our blood (both of us) and got our consent to get samples from Elizabeth’s and James’ placentas that were used for the pathology work we had done earlier.  They will do a genetic comparison — our genes vs. the babies’ — and see if there are any anomalies that can offer an explanation.  He said that second trimester demises are usually due to genetic problems, but there is so much genetic data that they haven’t been able to pin it all down yet.  Really interesting!  They said it’ll probably be a year or more before we hear anything back, but it’s nice to know that we can possibly help someone else down the road by assisting in solving the puzzle.

If you or someone you know has had a 10-20 week miscarriage and would like to participate in this study, please email me at savvytoddlermom @ gmail.com and I will send you the contact information for the doctor heading it up.  It’s actually a female doctor and she is great.

I also want to tell you all THANK YOU for reading SavvyToddlerMom.com… my readership has grown considerably in 2008 and it’s so fun to know you are all out there reading.  I hope you are having fun reading — hopefully taking something away — and laughing.

This one is for Jasmine… it was so great to see you last night!  Thanks for telling me my pants were too big.

I was thinking that you needed this quote — it was on a sympathy card I received and loved so much, it is still on my fridge. 

“Every flower has to go through a lot of dirt.”  - Lauren Bond

Hang in there.

I’ve been meaning for a while now to mention the very cool and oh-so-personal gift my brother and sister-in-law (of Women & Money and VA fame) sent to my parents and grandparents for Christmas.  The gifts were t-shirts with a printed drawing by my little niece, made possible by the magic of CustomInk.com.

I saved the tag from one, I thought it was so awesome!  You have got to check it out.  The “drawing-printed-on-a-t-shirt” is one of many, many custom products they offer.  They have a variety of clothing and other items you can put your stamp on.  Absolutely perfect for the parents and grandparents in your life.

If that made you laugh outright, you are awesome.  If you don’t get it, say it aloud a couple of times.  If you want to know why it’s hilarious, rent Arrested Development.  MAN, that show is funny.

Great article as an example of Wondertime fare: 3 Skills a Preschooler Really Needs

The concluding paragraph made me snort my Crystal Light.