Jasper LOVES his water

Or vatten as he calls it (water in Swedish)

Twice in One Day?!?!

More Pictures of my handsome man since the others worked so well.

Oh and our afternoon was Much better than the morning. We played and even cleaned the whole playroom! That was quite the accomplishment because it had been destroyed over the past few days.

So I think I mentioned (or maybe not) this diet my friends and I and Drew are on. It's been three weeks and we have all lost between 4.5- 10 lbs! Here's an example of what I eat now in a day since it's So fascinating.

Meal 1. Either a fruit smoothie or toast with laughing cow cheese and some fruit.

Meal 2. Usually a salad and a baked potato or a salad and a wrap/sandwhich. Lately I have been cheating with a Mountain Dew as well...this whole no pop thing wasn't working for me.

Meal 3. Crackers, cheese, some cashews and a banana

Meal 4. (Dinner) chicken and brown rice and veggies, or whole wheat pasta with a homemade sauce- delicious!

Meal 5. Crackers and cheese again.

ANd LOTS of water in between! And No excersize- besides chasing a toddler around and the occasional pilates class or DVD. So far seems do be doing a little- at least according to the scale but I can't tell at all. Also we are allowed one full day of cheating- mine was today and I had 4 Mountain Dews, Pizza, Mac and Cheese, Chocolate..and a whole bunch of other non- diet approved snacks, but it was oh so worth it.

Rough morning with J-man

It was one of those mornings. The type of morning that makes me want it to be nap time ASAP. He was just crabbier than usual, lots of whining, saying NOOO to everything, and just generally unhappy. It helped when we went to the store- it usually helps to get him out of the house. When he was able to steer through the isles of Safeway in the police car shopping cart he was completely happy- and even buckled himself in! That's a first- usually he hates being buckled into Anything, and says "No bun" meaning- no buttoning, anything that keeps him strapped in he calls a bun- button. Dont ask why, because I have No clue. And he hates being restricted- ofcourse, what 2 year old doesn't.

What else is new with Jasper...he is starting to talk quite a bit more! He knows most of his colors, calls them

pite (white)

peete (pink)

blap (black)

veene (green)

blue he says perfectly

wed (red)

He can also count to about 6-7, but not always perfectly but he does try!

We are working with him on saying No thank you, or No Tack Tack (swedish for thank you) instead of just saying No to everything. No is his new favorite word- and he will say it to everything, even when I know he really means yes. I decided to work with him on saying No thank you instead of just telling him he can't say no. I thin it is wrong to teach kids they are never allowed to say no to adults, especially in the world we are living. Adults can take advantage of children so easy and I'm always hearing sick stories on the news about it- and maybe if those children weren't afraid to say no to adults they wouldn't have been as easy to take advantage. My son won't grow up thinking that adults are Always right and no matter what they can't be told no. I'm trying to teach him he can say no (thank you) if he wishes to say no, but also that just because he says no thank you doesn't mean things will go way.

Example (happened today) Me: Jasper, it's time to put your toys away because you need to go take a nap.

Jasper :No Tack tack, no night night (what he calls sleep)

Me: I understand that you don't want to sleep, but we are going to pick up and you are going to go lay down with a baba (milk) and blue puppy (stuffed animal he always sleeps with) anyway, you need to lay down and rest but you don't have to go to sleep.

Jasper: starts picking up his toys.

He seems to respect the fact that he has options- he doesnt HAVE to sleep, but he does need to go lay down and rest with his milk and puppy. And of course he is sleeping right now :)

I'm going to try to upload some pictures on here now- so we will see how that works!

Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice/Vampire Diaries and LAUNDRY

That is my exciting Thursday night--but when I say I'm excited I'm not being sarcastic At all. My three favorite shows in One night- and some relaxing laundry to fold. And the best part of it all- I get to do it all by myself! That might sound harsh to some, but I get super excited for evening alone time. Jasper is sleeping, Drew is sleeping, Whitney (temporary room mate) is out so I get the downstairs alllll to myself :) I don't get very much alone time with a very active two year old running around all day. I love it, but I do need some time to myself from time to time. So an evening of my favorite shows and about 12 ( no joke) loads of laundry sounds pretty great to me.

Speaking of laundry- I was doing laundry today and while I was putting the clothes from the dryer onto our bed Jasper was still in the bathroom/laundry room. When I came back into the bathroom Jasper wasn't in there- I walked through the bathroom calling out his name. He start giggling, which is when I saw where he was. Sitting in the middle of our dryer. I had to coax him out of there. So now I need to make sure I always keep the dryer closed! Crazy two year old.

Sunday Morning Pilates

Okay so a few friends of mine and myself started this 'diet' called The Game On! Diet a few weeks ago. It involves eating 5, yes 5!, meals a day consisting of a fruit, veggie, protein, carb and healthy fat, drinking lots of water, sleeping 7 hrs a night and 20 minutes of exercise a day. You get one 'cheat' day where you can eat/drink whatever you want- basically throw all the rules out the window.

I have never stuck with a diet for more than 1 day- but so far this one isn't to unbearable. The hardest part for me was cutting out pop 6 days a week. First few days I was Miserable- but now I've totally gotten used to it and it isn't so bad. I have Drew on the diet as well and in two weeks he has lost almost 15 lbs!!! Me on the other hand...I think I have lost 3, Maybe 4. But still, I'll take 4 lbs since my goal is 10 lbs total. Anyway, a friend of mine and I have been trying to do some pilates when we get the chance, just a 20 min. video but still- its tough! Today we decided to go to the gym and try out a 75 minute pilates class. It was ridiculous! The way these women (and two men) could bend, twist and stretch their bodies was nuts- but so inspiring! It was physically the hardest thing I have ever done (besides pushing out a 9 lb baby) but afterwards I felt Amazing. Energized. Refreshed. ALIVE! Even though Im sure I made a complete fool out of myself attempting to do pilates next to people who have been doing it forever, I will definitely be doing that again. If I can become even half as flexible as them it will be a success.

After pilates I came back and made fudge brownies...I know right? And this 'diet' wont allow me to eat one, but I made them for a friends birthday and let's face it, I will be eating one, if not 3 of those later. But after 75 minutes of pilates I think I deserve a warm, fudge brownie.

Here we go!

I have decided to start a blog- for several reasons. 1. One of my favorite things to do is read other blogs, blogs from around the world. I find it fascinating! It's true- I don't have anything super fascinating to write about at this point in my life, but I'm giving it a shot anyway. and 2. I just like to write. For years (jr. high and highschool) and used to keep a journal that I would write in whenever I felt like it, but then a close friend passed away and I couldn't write anymore. I couldn't write about what happened or how I felt, because I was devastated and putting it on paper just seemed to make it even more real and painful. I tried several times and never got farther than a few words before the tears would come. I decided that if I couldn't write about it/him, than I wasn't going to continue to write because there was now way I could continue to write about my life/feelings and leave such a huge, life changing event out of it. So I quit. I recently found those journals when going through boxes from stuff my mom packed up in my old room and it was just an experience reading through those journals again. Oh the memories they brought back. So that is why I'm going to give this a shot again- so I can come back here possibly years from now and the words I write here will bring back tons of memories.

I'm sure the number one thing I will be writing about is my amazing, wild and crazy, super sweet and extremely active two year old son Jasper (who is currently napping or this would never happen)

I will also try to post pics of the little man regularly in case I decide to send this blog to family members far away (all live 700 miles away or farther from us) so they can see how much he changes on a regular basis.

Well since the little man is napping its time to tackle, laundry,dishes, etc. Or maybe I will just relax with an ice cold Mt. Dew and catch up on some of my favorite blogs :)