The busiest unemployment ever!

Whew! It has been awhile since I have been on here I tell ya. Not sure if I announced that I am no longer at the Hilton, but I am not, and it feels amazing! I am a full time mom to Mr. Benjamin, and Miss Aidan is in school full time, which really is for the best. I haven't mastered watching both kids at the same time every day so in order to ensure that she is stimulated and entertained and I am sane, we decided to keep her in school.

Now mind you, it's been about 3 weeks since my last day there and I have been so busy with kids, NACE, and wedding planning that the time has just flown right by! I promised myself I wouldn't talk about wedding stuff in this post, so pretend I didn't say that... that is its own post later on :) I also promised myself to post some pictures since blogs are way more interesting that way. So... let's start with this one: This handsome little man is my companion these days. He is too cute for words, and doesn't say too many that most people understand (including his dad!) but I speak his language and am so happy that I get plenty of one on one time with him now. I was home with Aidan at this age and got to enjoy her, so it is nice to have a chance with Benji. He is definitely a mama's boy, but he does get super excited when Daddy comes home for the day.

We have also been spending massive amounts of time with his "Nina" (godmother), my auntie Bev. She was watching him full time when I was working, and so we visit her multiple times a week. He calls her "mama" also which I think is an ode to "Grandma" but I am Mommy, she is Mama and he loves with when he can have both of us! Here they are at Panera (he was crazy this trip!) but in general he knows Mama means business (way more than Mommy does :P)

Speaking of Miss Aidan, she is as stubborn as they come and I now feel my mother's pain when I was growing up. From what I understand she is just Alexis #2! AHHHHH! Somebody save me! In all seriousness, she is absolutely brilliant and so creative! She loves to draw, read, write, and pretend. But a few things we have let go far too long and we finally got our butts in gear. Case in point: pacifiers. Aidan had her pacifier at home and at night up until last week. Ridiculous, right? YES! There is absolutely NO REASON for a 3.5yr old to have a pacifier. And the fact that she was calling for us in the night to say 'I can't find my "bobo"!" is even MORE ridiculous! OMG. I finally had enough and she is now bobo free! WOOHOO!

The second case in point is this one... this is a picture of Aidan, kicking back at Tina's house on a Sunday afternoon..... IN HER DIAPER! Yes, my 3.5 yr old still wears diapers. Now, I wouldn't feel so bad about this if I knew that she "wasn't ready yet". But Aidan will ask me "Mommy, do you have the wipes?" meaning: I know you need wipes because I have to take a dump but I will just hold it till we get home if you don't have them with you. Say WHAT?!!! She holds her pee and poop accordingly and can certainly be potty trained. She is just extremely stubborn.

Well Mom and Dad got a wake up call. She has been having some issues at school with regression because she is so much older than all of the new kids in her class (most just turned 2). All of her friends are potty trained and have since been moved up a class but Aidan refuses. I think there are a few issues. 1. She is VERY attached to the 2 lovely teachers in her class. They are her absolute favorites so she doesn't want to move up. 2. she doesn't want to be potty trained because she is stubborn and/or lazy. Both I think. But the director of the school basically told us that she needs to be potty trained by June to stay in the school. At this point Aidan is choosing not to be and we need to make that decision for her. I agree 100%. She NEEDS to be potty trained. This is getting ridiculous!

Now another thing we are dealing with at age 3.5 is the need to pick out her own outfits and shoes, and just be consistently independent. My only issue with this is that if it was up to Aidan, she would be wearing party dresses and princess shoes EVERY DAY. I have to force her to wear play clothes and sneakers to school. She gets up, and if I don't catch her fast enough, she is all dressed by herself (thumbs up!) but in a fancy dress and Lord knows what else (thumbs down!). So we go through the routine every morning of me explaining the weather and what is appropriate to wear. Now, even when we are just home, she insists on about 3-4 wardrobe changes in an evening. I have washed her Easter dress about 10x. It was intended to be worn once or maybe twice, so at least I can't complain about it not getting good use, but geez!

The other day I was upset with the way the day was going and came upstairs to our loft/computer area and was on here looking at the www.shitmykidsruined.com website. Just to cheer myself up, giggle, turn my frown upside down. I had told myself that if she got into something, oh well, I would die if I didn't ignore because all day was a battle about this or that. She comes upstairs and says something to me and I turn and see this: This is Aidan, all decked out in her 2010 easter dress (a size too small) with an ENTIRE pack of tortillas. She was eating them all together like a sandwich! I had to laugh! And oh the irony of what I was reading at the time!!!!

So aside from the woes of the terrible threes, Mr. Almost 2 and I have been keeping busy as best as we can and in line with my desperate need to be a thin and gorgeous bride, have been as active as possible! I have started to FINALLY take advantage of having an amazing trail at the end of our culdesac (about 20 yards from my front door) that is ON THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY. Yeah, I know, lucky right???? Super lucky and I am a fool for not enjoying this more before. So, Benji and I will go for walks and check out the birds, the stream, the airplanes that go by. He loves it!

Ididn't say we get dressed for the occastion! Here was his outfit this morning :P Pajamas with a fleece, some crocs, and his sister's princess sippy! But he is handsome in whatever he wears! Now for some reason lately he has been making me carry him for the majority of the walk which I suppose is ok, but I'd like him to get some exercise in too. So, here we are, him going for a ride, me for a walk:

I also have rekindled my love affair with Zumba! My cousin Angie was staying with my aunt in Oakland and she and I made Zumba dates! It was great to meet someone for the class and hold myself accountable. Needless to say, last week was a flop, but I fully intend to keep up with exercising and the amazing thing is that with the sleeve, my body doesn't require massive amounts of exercise to lose weight!!! Literally 30 moderate minutes a day helps me shed a pound. Freaking AMAZING!!!! I am down approx 10lbs since I lost my job, which again makes me happy to not be at the Hilton!

It also makes me nervous about wedding dress alterations but again... no wedding tidbits quite yet ; )