Kids Say... (September 2018)

I am posting this in a timely fashion since I'm so behind for September blog posts to hit my goal.  I barely documented any quotes.

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Miles tells me “put your hoodie on” and Dave says “Miles you don’t tell women what to wear “

9/8
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Miles:It’s my birthday
Me: how old are you
Miles:4 and a half.

9/8
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Ella walks into the kitchen after school
Ella: whoa it’s so clean. Mommy did the cleaning lady come or did you clean?
Me: I cleaned
Ella: but then you didn’t do a good job because it’s not really clean
Me: I know Ella I cleaned the table then we ate at it then I didn’t wipe it again.

Man she got nit picky once she learned it was me. (or maybe once she got close)

9/10/18
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I was changing Miles's diaper.
Miles: I want a new diaper. I want butt cream.
Me: Why did the butt cream help make you feel better?
Miles: yea!!!!

9/18
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Me: We are going to go home and eat. Oh yeah you already ate
Miles: I can eat

9/20
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Dave Asked Miles if he had fun at school
Miles: Yes
Dave: What did you do?
Miles: Sit in chair

Although he did sit in a chair he also did other stuff.

9/20
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Saying goodnight to Dave and Ella. And he’s so tired. He says "goodnight Daddy. Goodnight Ella" then "goodnight poopy" then "goodnight poopheads."  That was his first time being silly like that.

9/22
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Just reading to Miles Daniel Tiger. It was the one on friendships. I asked him if he has friends. I was naming a few friends and then he said "you" then I mentioned more and he'd nod and said "and you" i put the book down said it was time to go in his crib. He said "1 more minute" so I cuddled him. Then i asked him if I was his best friend. Then he said "I want to go in my crib now"

9/30/18

Ella's Triathlon (9.30.18)

Ella has been registered for a kids triathlon for months. She's been so excited about it. I know she gets overwhelmed in groups but thought it'd go better since she's been talking about it so much and excited about it.  

They start with swimming, then biking, then running.  For the young kids it's all very short and over within 15 minutes.   Ella's friend was also doing it but he wouldn't be in her heat because of his age. (3-4 were in a heat and 5-6 boys were in heat even if she was with 5-6 year old girls she wouldn't be with the boys.)  Not having a friend at the same time as her really was her downfall. 

So pre-race everything is going fine. She's so excited. 

Then it's time to line up and pick a lane. She picked a lane and sat with her feet in as the other kids were. They kept making announcements about how many more minutes. She was happy and ready to go. Then it was time to go and she backed out of the pool and started crying. That was the end of her race.  I felt so sad for her. I read all the pre-race info provided but didn't do any extra googling for other people's blogs or anything. I guess I should have. Apparently when I read that if kids needed it, someone could be in the pool with them that meant that every person but Ella would have a parent in the pool with them swimming with them. Almost all the kids had on puddle jumpers but then even the kids with puddle jumpers were also using paddle boards to help them get to the other side. They try to make it easy for the kids.  Since she didn't swim, she didn't bike or run. She was crying so bad. She also wanted to watch Gio run but he was 15 min - 30 min later than this time and Dave was not staying. He said we had to go. He even said he was leaving us all there if we didn't go. So that was fun too.

Since the race, I keep getting super sad about it. I should have known to go into the pool. I only learned while we were there that parents can run along side their kids when they run too. I thought parents were only allowed to help with transitions and the info made a big deal about how the younger kids got that luxury.

Ella is fine now playing and not sad like I am. But she keeps asking if I'm going to have another birthday so we can have another swim, bike, race.  On the drive home, we didn't have the radio on so Miles was telling stories/talking up a storm.  He was talking about the race and how Ella got sad and then "cried like this" and then he'd fake cry.  When he got home I asked him if he had fun and he exclaimed "yea" and I asked what was fun and he said he liked watching the pool.

I gave her a board. She got in almost ready to go but then didn't.

Ella's Half Birthday Party (7.1.18)

Ella woke up bright and early excited for her party even though her party didn't start until 5 PM.  I think she was so excited about the party that she didn't sleep well. She was cranky most of the day.

I set up decorations at the party. Then I went back home to get the family and the food.

We were later than I wanted to be. We got there at 4:55 for a 5 PM start time. It stressed me out.  Two of Ella's friends were there. One she called by the wrong name. She got so overwhelmed she cried and Dave had to take her away and talk to her and calm her down.  As more people showed up and gave her her presents she would get overwhelmed and hide behind me or cry.  She didn't want to eat. She sat on my lap.

She talked to some friends and played.  A bunch of kids played in the grass running back and forth and she was having fun. I did notice she played more with her preschool friends that she sees everyday than with her friends from the mom groups that she hasn't seen as much or even at all since we've been back.

Ella wanted to open presents before cake. She started doing that. but then all the kids were just standing around so I suggested cake at the same time. We tried to do that but that meant I didn't get to see who each gift was from. It was very stressful for me. Dave cut the cake and I handed it out. Ella played with her presents.

We had Ella stop opening the presents to sing to her and cut the cake and she ran away crying.

Once that was done and she was back to presents she had fun. Then we also got out the balls and the rockets we had for everyone. The kids had fun playing. They were filthy by the end.  We didn't give out the little necklaces and hair clips that we got. We totally forgot.

I made a quick trip home at 7:30 to get the food in the refrigerator. Then we got home for real at 8:30.

It was windy when I set up so I only used the helium tank for 4 balloons. I also taped a few other balloons up but not many. Ella had fun giving away the balloons but she also gave away my balloon weights :(

Happy Birthday Miles

I did another numbers collage for Miles. I printed it out for his birthday party 2 days before his birthday so I had to extrapolate some data. Then I updated some before posting it here. I actually didn't update diapers or sleep because I can't find my sheet where I had the data to be able to update the last few days but I'm sure it's close.

I didn't make a chalkboard graphic. Second kid already getting less.

ETA: Oops I used the wrong files originally. Updated now.

9.27.18 Video

I kept Ella out of school so we could have a day of fun. We didn't do as much as we wanted and were busy all day.  I had more videos to include and pictures but google limits you to 50 so I didn't even include all the fun.

9.26.18 Video

Marie visited. We hung out a lot and barely took pictures or videos. Then I took more at night.   We haven't seen them in so long. Miles and Ben weren't even born last time!

(I just added back in the video. I swear it was there and then it deleted it upon posting. Grr. So if it disappears again this is the link.)

Carnival Planning

I organized a carnival for the 2 mom groups I'm in. I thought a joint carnival was better to do all the work once for everyone all at once. And maybe new people would talk to each other.  It was a lot of work. I spent a good bit of time reminding people to pay or checking in with the people who said yes on meetup and facebook but did not fill out the actual form. Oh it was miserable just doing that part but I really needed a count to be accurate with my money.

I planned games and food.

 I was able to reuse the table cloths, big signs and banners, and photo booths from last year.

I made signs labeling all the games with directions for each game.  I made signs for the food. I also printed name tags. I had a sign in sheet printed on nice cardstock so we could check off who came and also confirm number of people. 

I made an agenda. Most things were out all day but I altered the rest to be able to handle it all.

Dave grilled hotdogs at the event.  We also planned for other food but it had to be inexpensive because of budget.

Prior to the carnival, I held a meetup for making cookies. It kind of failed but we still made peanut butter cup cookies and chocolate chip cookies. I just had to make the cupcakes and icing later.

I had a map in advance so that volunteers could know where things would be set up.

I feel like typing all of this makes it seem like not a lot of work. I had to borrow games from people and borrow various other things. So I had to actually get those.    I had a list of what to do in the morning but it didn't have everything on it. It helped though with a list so when volunteers came, they didn't always have to ask what to do.

The carnival was Saturday. Cooking baking was Wednesday.  Food purchasing was Thursday.  Friday was cupcake baking. 

The carnival was 10-1. I was there at 8 am setting up. I had my car totally full and then I unloaded that with 4 trips.  Then I came back after a bit to get the coolers, food, and grilling stuff which totally filled the trunk. To leave the event it took until 2 PM to clean up and lots of people were helped a little bit and a few people helped a lot. One person filled the back of her SUV and half her backseat and delivered it to my front door. Someone else had just a few things in her car. Dave walked home but I had to get the kids in the carseats so couldn't utilize that space in the car. My car was jam packed coming home too.

I'll have a separate post of the actual event.

There is probably more I'm missing here.

2018 Goals Progress (August)

I made a post with 2018 goals and I have updated about my monthly progress a few times.

For 2018, here are my exercise goals:

1. run 72 miles (that's 6 miles a month) with a reach goal of 100 miles * --- I didn't tally my miles yet but I was already at 60 mile sand I ran 17 times so probably 17 more miles. 
2. complete 4 Beachbody programs - I completed 3 phases of 80 day obsession but still only count that as 1 program.  I'm starting Liift4 so I'll have 1 more 8 week program for sure. 
3. Exercise in some form 208 times (that's 4x/week) - In June I typed: I exercised 150 times the first half the year. (In my head my goal is way higher than this so I thought I was behind. I haven't counted push-ups for push-up challenge to the 150 number either.   (30, 36, 47, 17, 19, 16 = 165 so apparently I didn't document everything in my app)  In July I had done 44 more exercises.  My app says I've had 175 workouts out of 213 day for July and I forgot to check at end of August.  In August I had 42 more times. 

Random other goals related to exercise -- I haven't done anything there!

1. Have a photo shoot while running
2. Have a photo shoot while doing various forms of exercise
3. Combine random exercise files/videos to one spot on my computer

For inspiring others, I plan to

1. Run 6 free challenges - I ran 2 in February and another in 2 March. I ran 2 more in June!  I ran 2 more in August. (So that's 8 total) 
2. Run 3 month long challenge groups - I started one August 20 and instead of ending after 4 weeks, it's going until Sept 30.  I'm also starting another October 1. 

I need to work on a Beachbody program!  I need an exercise photo shoot!

Miles 24 Month Update

Stats:

• Weight: 31 lb 10 oz  - 93rd percentile  
• Height:  38.25"  - >99.9th percentile
• Head Circumference: 50.7 cm - 96th percentile
• Weight/Length Percentile: 48%
• Diapers: Size 5 (and size 4)
• Clothing: 2T pants or shorts. 3T T-shirts (for length).  4T-5T socks 
• Shoe Size: 8 I guess. He will only wear his size 8 9 crocs
• Teeth: 18 (I'm assuming. I haven't counted)

I took his measurements 1 day late.  (stats using WHO)

Sleep

Oh sleep is so annoying. If I start nap a little late, then at least he will fall asleep.  He doesn't nap long.  Then at night he only sleeps about 8.5 hours every night. He's had a few extremely exhausted no nap days earlier in the month when he slept 11 and one magic one he slept 13 but it is not the norm. He likes to wake up before 6 am and demand food. 

Eating
Miles will wake up and immediately demand food. He will try to demand food when nap time or bedtime is taking while. He will be picky about what he wants and flip out. He likes his food.  He still will not drink milk. He mostly eats in a right height chair.  He gets upset if another kid sits in his chair.

Sample Schedule:
8:00 PM - start bedtime routine, diaper, benedryl, books, sit in chair until he falls asleep.
Asleep by 10
6:00 - wakes up
snacks and TV
Take Ella to school
plays
lunch
plays
nap (usually start routine near 2 and falls asleep near 3 but sometimes even later)
sleeps 1-2 hours for nap
(cries a lot and is clingy after nap!)
get Ella, eat, play
Bedtime

Special Moments
On August 13 to 14, Miles had a horrible nights sleep. He was wheezing or maybe coughing a lot. He had a scratchy voice in the morning.
On August 16, Miles worked on buckling top buckle in car seat himself. He needed minor help to get his shirt out of the way.
On August 24, at 7:20 PM, Miles told me it was time for bed. We went upstairs, read and stuff and songs. Then he said he wanted to go in his crib at 7:55.
On August 25, Miles negotiated 3 min not 2 for bike riding. I was impressed.
On August 26, Miles had his first, second, and third attempt at egg cracking. It was not so good but he got better.
On September 1, Miles counted to 8 but missed 6.
On September 3, Miles pulled a kitchen chair over on himself and broke the chair with his face.
On September 4, Miles put lipstick on for the first time. He put in on his cheeks. Miles's first day at LACP.
On September 7, Miles has a little runny nose. Miles's first day at MVPNS.

Development:
Miles started preschool. I've noticed Miles started hitting back after Ella hits him. He can count to 8. He knows his shapes. He says his favorite color is purple.

Communication:
He uses many word sentences. Like 6 word sentences are pretty short for him. Multiple adults are impressed with how much he says and how well he speaks. 

Other Tidbits:
Likes
He is recently addicted to Daniel Tiger books and then Daniel Tiger on TV.
He loves to go in the stroller (versus the car)
He likes to be independent.
He likes to eat!
He likes Ella!
He likes the park.
He loves friends.
He likes to play outside.
He likes to take a shower.
He likes to eat the icing out of oreos and give Dave the cookie part.

Dislikes
I spoiled him so now he hates going into the crib awake and he wants to fall asleep on me. He also hates being transferred to the crib.
He still doesn't really like a bath.
He hates being left with anyone but me.

Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 13 hours 7 minutes  (increase)
Days with sleep greater than 8 hours: all
Diapers used (from September 1-14): 3 per day   
Time spent sleeping (from September 1-14): 11:03 per day (increase)  
Doctor Visits: 0
Illnesses: 2

Favorite Toys
Books
Markers
iPad
Balls
Playdough

Favorite Songs
I don't know. He tells me not to sing now.

Favorite Books
Daniel Tiger Books

Favorite Foods
any sort of meat
yogurt smoothie
yogurt
ketchup
fruit by the foot
cheetos

Random Tidbits
Miles likes his crocs so much that he sleeps in them.

I never took official pictures of Miles so I included some from the 10th and 11th.

Kids Say ... (August 2018)

More quotes.  They seem to mostly be Miles quotes but Ella has good and smart ones too yet I guess I forget to document them.

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So cute. Said he’s "resting with daddy" and “watching tv with daddy”

8/5
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Talking about a tea party Lily is having

I asked Ella,  "Do you know what a tea party is?"

Ella said, "It has cups, and a tea pot, and even food"

8/7/18
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Omg. Ella is asking me to run. I said I’m tired and sore so going to drive. Then she adds “running makes you pee though” and “running makes you pee your pants “ 😂😂

8/8/18
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Miles see Abree today and he’s obsessed
Beth says to Miles. “Do you want a little brother or sister?”
Miles: just baby Abree.

8/8
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Me: Ella why are you naked?
Ella: I like being naked

8/8
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Miles says "it doesn't fit mommy."  I put on his bike helmet.

8/12/18
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Me: Miles what happened to your socks?
Miles: Ella took them off.

He’s giggling up a storm.

8/12/18
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“Put your phone back” so I better put it away. At park with Miles.

8/13/18
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Ijust saw miles's goldfish from earlier and I looked and it was not empty. I said "Miles you didn't finish your goldfish" he looked at me and touched the bag and said "I'm sorry mommy. I will finish my goldfish"

8/17/18
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I just asked Ella if she showed her gymnastics leotard at show and tell at school. (She was going to take it and Aurelia was going to take the same one)
Ella: No I just shared my hard drive.
Me: Ella did everyone know what a hard drive was?
Ella: No, but they do now.

8/17
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Miles just came running to me. I asked what was wrong.

Miles: I scared
Me: Why are you scared?
Miles: Kitty saw me

8/25
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Me: Ella can you believe everyone says you are so tall?
Ella: No. I'm only 4 and a half so I can't be tall.

8/25
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So we are at outback for dinner. The waiter comes over to greet us and Miles tells him “I like food.” The waiter loved it.

8/31