Friday Photo Dump v.1

Friday Photo Dump:

Momma & Landon after our very first 5k training sesh (9/6/12)!

Little boo in the fort his super stellar momma made him

1 part boy + 1 part indoor fort = this precious face!

Watching Cars in the Car... maybe he thought it was 3D? Maybe he is just THAT cool?

Don't let that golden color fool you, that's an apple in that ketchup, and he ate them all that way. 

This wall will exist in my dining room as of next weekend

& one for nostalgia... fresh new baby-ness

Weekly Wants:

If you've been keeping up with my life, you'll know I'm trying something new & this list will make more sense.

(1)

Running Shoes

If I'm going to get serious about this, my sophomore year (high school, yes.) kicks aren't going to cut it anymore.

(2)

Hair STUFF

I'm getting ready for my walk/run yesterday and I realize I have no hair ties or head bands... WHAT?! What kind of woman am I? I've bought bazillions of hair ties in my life and I seriously can't find one hidden in an old purse or the bottom back corner of my vanity, really?

(3)

This outfit.

For the Superhero 5k. Sweet. Yes. Happening.

(4)

Water

This is more of a goal than a want, I NEED to start drinking more water. Goodbye Dr. Pepper ):

With Love,

Just silly Leia

P.S. Runners... what do you eat? Before/After training? Before/After a race?

Perhaps, I've lost my mind...

Please sit down. On the edge of your seat though... you know, with anticipation and all....

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I have decided to become.... a runner.

There will now be a brief intermission to allow those of you who know me personally time to pick yourselves up off the floor and stop laughing so hard you can't read this...

Oh, you can breathe again? Great!

This has been something I've been secretly wanting to try for a long time. People who run LOVE it. So, I'm going to go for it! Thankfully I have a friend who is as psychotic as I am & who was super stoaked about this idea. So now I have a running buddy. We already have a training schedule calendar printed out & in SIX WEEKS we are planning on running the Superhero 5k in Waco! The training plan we found online is 5 weeks, so we are just adding an extra week for good measure.

The goal at this point is just to finish the run, as I have no idea what a fast time/slow time is for one of these things. I do however know one thing... even if I am dead last, if (WHEN) I finish... Im going to be so proud of myself!

So really now, lets get down to the dirt. Im terrified. But in like a good way? Makes sense, totally makes sense.

I can't wait to start running regularly and going to all kinds of neat races, and making all kinds of new running friends, and running for all kinds of great causes. Don't runners just seem so cool? They do, they totally do.

Not to mention getting my fitness onnnnn, hayyyyyyy girllllll!

So here is to the longggggggg road ahead!

With love,

Just silly Leia

The Potty Chronicles. Part III of IV

Nothing Eventful.

Today was DAY 2 of potty training weekend and I am here to report... nothing eventful.

He still happily sits on the potty every time the music plays and I didn't have to clean up near as much pee off the floor. However, there has been no pee-in-toilet action as of yet. I am not discouraged! I feel like people are waiting around for me to pull my hair out or cry, that will not be happening. This is merely an experiment... if it works, righteous. 

I think if nothing else it will have served as a great opening to further potty training and it has shown me that he is comfortable with the potty, which is a little relieving after some of the my-toddler-has-toiletphobia stories I've been told!

Tomorrow is the last day, while I am hoping for at least a little pee-in-toilet action I will not be disappointed if it still doesn't happen.

With Love,

Leia & Landon

The Potty Chronicles. Part II of IV

(Did anyone even notice my toilet has a stash?!)

Today was DAY 1 of the potty training weekend, and as typical with a 2 year old and all kinds of life happening outside our house, it didn't go quite as planned.

Last night I downloaded Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO and set that as the alarm on my phone. I set up the snooze to go off every 20 min, and we adopted the song as our POTTY rock anthem! Landon loved it! Every time it started playing we would dance to the bathroom and then sit on the potty. Not ONCE did he ever fuss about sitting on the potty, I was a proud momma.

I always made sure his sippy cup was FULL and that it was near him at all times, I wanted him to pee ALOT today. I kinda figure the way this whole thing works is that your putting them on the toilet so much that eventually they are going to pee in the potty if they mean to or not. So I figured loading him full of fluids increased our odds. He ended up not going in the toilet at all this morning (but I fully expected that) and he peed on the floor   6 times (and I fully expected that). I had already rolled up all the rugs in the house and bought a JUMBO thing of Clorox wipes for just that purpose. I'm letting the kid walk around without a diaper for 3 days, I fully plan on cleaning up LOTS of pee.

I would like to take a moment to pay respects to the first two casualties of potty training weekend. They gave up their clean, dry stuffing for the greater good. Thank you for your service.

After a tiny nap we had a baby shower to go to, I took our potty seat just in case he asked to go and I even took him twice, but I didn't push him to go on a schedule and I had him in a diaper. That ended up being a good decision as over-stimulation and sweets had him on the verge of a meltdown all afternoon. After the shower my parents wanted to go to dinner and then we went shopping. ::Surprise, Surprise:: Landon got all kinds of new clothes. Every time my parents celebrate anything, Landon gets new stuff. Papaw's birthday, Landon gets toys. Nonna & Papaw's anniversary, Landon gets clothes.

Based on the fact that we had fun this morning and Landon is obviously comfortable with sitting on the toilet, I would count DAY 1 as a SUCCESS.

I'm actually really super stoaked to wake up tomorrow and clean up more pee, no really. I am! Hopefully we will have at least one amazing potty story to tell!

With Love,

Leia & Landon.

The Potty Chronicles: Part I of IV

dun, dun, dun....

Anyone ever heard of the 72 hour potty training boot-camp method. (what? boot-camp? no way... only a crazy person would put a toddler through boot-camp. sheesh.)

If you haven't, Google it. Seriously, its real and has worked for a lot of people. Hopefully in part IV I will be telling you that we are now proudly one of that lot-of-people. 

So basically what will happen is mommy might go crazy starting tomorrow morning when Landon wakes up the diaper comes off, hopefully (if it works) never to return again! For the next 3 days I will have an alarm set on my phone. Every 15 min the first day, 20 the second, 30 the third. When it goes off Landon will sit on the potty and eventually he will (hopefully) start to use it. They (who the heck is they?!) say if you stick with it, your baby will be completely potty trained in 3 days. I figure even if it doesn't work it'll be a good start. 

Plus how cool would it be if it did work?!

We are taking the 3 day potty challenge! Wish us (mommy) luck (patience)!

With Love,

Leia & Landon

That whole motherhood thing....

::This blog post is dedicated to my dear friend Rachel Anderson, who raises her 3 precious boys in a very different way then I raise my sweet little... and I still think she's super mom.::


This has been writing itself in my head, and heart, for quite a while. So here goes...

Women are SO mean to each other... ridiculously mean to each other. ALL women. But this particular post isn't about all women, its specifically about women-with-children.

Motherhood is HARD! Don't for a second let anyone tell you differently, it may be easier for some then others but it's still HARD. How can it not be? When you're a mother your responsible for another persons life (kinda a big deal, just sayin'). You're responsible for the person that they ultimately become! The decisions and choices and chances to totally SCREW UP are huge!

So let's take it back a little. Mommy's, please take a look at several of your closest friends. People you love, adore, trust, get stupid face wasted with (or not, i won't judge)... those people. Think about how they were raised. Was it exactly the same as you? No. It wasn't, even if it was similar it wasn't exactly the same... so why are we so shocked that we all raise our kids differently?

More importantly, who are we to say "I'm crunchy & you're silky and therefore you're not raising your children the right way". If you're like me the first time you read that you said "say whaaaa?!" Crunchy moms? Silky moms? When did we start becoming parfait choices?! Why can't we each just raise our kids the way we see fit. As long as women are loving and taking care of their children, who are we to judge if a mother ::gasp:: doesn't vaccinate, or ::faint:: had her son circumcised... don't even get me started on breastfeeding, that is an entire post in itself.

If you're a mother that makes EDUCATED decisions for your child's life, you will not feel judged by me! I have a friend who has made some decisions in her children's lives that differ from my own. She doesn't vaccinate, and she chose to have her 3rd son not circumcised. She posts articles and comments on her facebook page explaining why she made these decisions and I personally respect her more for it. I vaccinate, and Landon was circ and I still read EVERY article my friend posts. She loves her boys, she takes fantastic care of them, and she educates herself fully before she makes any decision regarding their lives. To me, that's an incredible mom! Why should i feel the need to judge her, or "hate on her". It's her duty as a mother to make the important decisions and she is doing just that.

I'm not saying we all have to sit around and sing kumbaya together but sheesh ladies... being a mommy is hard enough without other mommy's telling you you're not doing it right. So lets stop "hatin'" on each other and start patting each other on the back.

Spread the love!

 I double dog dare you to pick at least one other mother and tell her what a fantastic job she's doing, do it.

With Love,
Just Leia

ekkkkkkkkkkk.

spiders.
s.p.i.d.e.r.s
tiny teeny little 8 legged creepy crawly spin down from your ceiling and stare at you spiders.
ehk.

I love our little house. I do! I love the high ceilings and the big windows on every wall. I love the hardwood floors and the big rooms. Love it. But it has all of those features specifically because it is an older house. You know what else older houses have? Spiders... not big scary bite you and then your arm falls off spiders, but teeny, in every corner gives you the heebie jeebies spiders.

Now lets be clear. I hate (read: am terrified of) spiders and my hatred (read: fear) does not discriminate between different types. I hate (read: run from) them all.

This little gem was vacant for quite awhile before I stumbled upon it, and so when i moved in there were these little teeniney spiders everywhere! Now I've swept them all out but they are still seen lurking in certain corners or crevices. Enough so to make me nearly jump out of bed every time my sheet moves. For I am so certain that one of these teensy little... meanies is crawling up my leg or something. ^&#(*@yuck@$^^*#.

All that aside, I LOVE the house. I have so many projects and ideas for it. We are having Landon's birthday here in 2 weeks and I wish I could get EVERYTHING done and painted and built and landscaped and crafted and designed and hung (gasp) before then. Hahaha, yeah right. For now I have to be content with the finished version of this house that lives in my imagination!

Landon LOVES the house... the layout allows him to run laps through every room and he has so much fun listening to his feet stomp on the hard floors. Occasionally he can be found in the middle of his room just jumping and stomping. Ahh, the little things.

Yesterday I started school... that's right, a few years from now when I'm standing in front of a class of elementary students I can remember yesterday as the start of my future. No more excuses and no more waiting for someone to come into my life and rescue me. I'm not a damsel in distress. I'm a strong woman who is taking her life into her own hands (finally).

That being said... It's time for me to get to some classwork!

With Love,
Leia & Landon

p.s. i think I'm not totally back in the blogging zone. I feel like my posts are not as witty and informative as they used to be. Hopefully Ill get my groove back soon!