CATCHING UP

Once again I have been slacking, I guess life tends to get a bit hectic around these parts- busy mornings with Jack, going to gym and Ethan’s homework and baseball games and practices. By the end of the day I am beat! To my defense though- I have 3 blogs that have been started, but never got finished, so I think I will just go ahead and delete them and hope that this one will get finished.

PART 1: processed foods

A while ago I made a commitment to never make instant mashed potatoes again. We have always been instant mashed potatoes kind of people. Then a while ago I made them from scratch 3 times in the row(!!!)- record for me. And then again I went back to instant, this time for the last time! The sodium just killed me, the taste was unbearable and the feeling of fakeness just overwhelmed me. So from now on we are only making mashed potatoes from REAL potatoes with good ol’ milk and my favorite- cream cheese. And it only takes extra couple of minutes.

What made me think of writing about this, was my experience from store bought meatballs just today. I had some frozen meatballs in the freezer that I decided to thaw real quick …yeah, that didn’t end up all that well- by the end of thawing process they were slimy and smelled bad, one fell on the floor and I am still going over that spot to trying and getting all of that mushy mess cleaned up. GROSS!!! So from now on we are living as processed food free as possible. What gives great opportunities to sneak in all the extra veggies as I possibly can. The other day I bailed on my meatloaf plan and made something quite yucky looking what I would like to call “meat bake”, but it had about 1/3 meat and the rest of it was fresh herbs and veggies. And kids asked for seconds!!! - what is not a common occurrence in this house.  So out with the old yucky and in with the new unappealing good for you stuff :) .

PART 2: Jack

Jack had the tubes put in his ears and adenoids removed 2 months ago, and that is when we found out that the poor kiddo could barely hear. So needless to say that up to that point I had lots of very hard days when I would be a nervous wreck trying to figure out why my 2 year old was not talking. Ethan had been a wonder child when it came to speaking. On his first birthday he was pointing at everything asking “What’s that?” clear as day and had quite a word count. By the time he was 2 he would talk to you as clear as adult without using any “baby” words in full sentences.  I am not a parent who compares kids- I think it just drives parents mad and they push their kids to be someone they are not, but having two sons who are SOOOO different from each other can be quite tormenting.

However, Jack is finally starting to catch up. he is passed the stage where he had to relearn everything he had known about sounds and is crossing over from learning to make basic sounds to forming words and even putting some together in 2-3- word combos. It is not an overnight process but we are slowly getting somewhere. About 2 days ago he figured out how to say “OK” and so far that is the cutest word he has said so far- the way he pronounces it, is just ADORABLE! And as much I never expected to have a child with speech delay, it has been quite the adventure for these last 2 months to see his hearing and speech develop, since with Ethan it was a natural process.

PART 3: baseball

In Latvia we DO NOT have baseball, so I still have no clue about 95% of the rules this game has. But it sure is a great American past time. This is only the  second season of Ethan playing it, so he is not the best player on the team but he has learned to have fun with it. And this year he is not T-ball anymore, what makes me wonder if maybe we should’ve kept him in T-ball for an other year, but he is liking the challenge of more advanced rules and playing. And he is having quite the advantage of being as short as he is, because most of the kids pitching are way taller than he is, so he can easily just walk to first base after having some good judgment. But that took a little while of practice. In his first two games my little son was jumping up, with the bat swinging in the air above his head trying to hit the ball!!! What a sight , let me tell ya! I think me and Aaron had some serious stomach cramps for laughing so hard. But after some one on one practice time with his dad he is getting awesome at judging which balls to hit and which ones to pass up. Last game he walked to the first base once thanks to all the hard work.  Now we need to work on NOT hitting the ball straight to the base.

PART 4:gym

I have been going to gym for little under 2 months now, since I took a break from doing anything working out related for about 3 years,and loving it! I am not doing any dieting just working out and it really does feel good and works out great for me, since I am one of those people who live to eat, not eat to live. So far I have gone down at least one pant size and lost about 12 pounds, so it’s working just fine :) and I have a LOT more energy what is quite essential these days since Jack has decided to be a future runner- that boy does not walk, he runs! Our walks should be called Jack’s jogs. What I should start counting those in my workouts because we probably walk close to a mile every day.

And I think that this will be it for now. Check in later to see what nice things you can read about :)