LadyAlissiya's Blog
22
Impossible to clean
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: | January 22nd, 2011
Yesterday I was pretty productive…. initially.
I even got my living room tidy while Tristan was napping. That was a shocker! Actually, the major shocker was having time to clean in between cooking and other things like that. Either way I was feeling pretty good. I thought “I’m on a roll! Once Tristan wakes up, I will tidy up his room too!”
So he woke up and we trudged up stairs, shutting baby gate after baby gate behind us. Things went well for…oh… the first 5 minutes. At which point Tristan became interested in what I was doing and began to follow after me. It took no time at all for him to decide it was his duty to “un-tidy” after me. So despite being on a roll yesterday… his room still looks like a disaster area (which happens to be leaking out onto the landing, and sometimes into other rooms.)
This morning he decided the living room looked too clean too. Ah! Children! LOL So needless to say, today we are going to do yard work. Tristan will have a hard time undoing that one!
20
Yeast-free day 3
Filed under: Gardening, Health, Home Birth/Baby related, Home Life | Tags: | January 20th, 2011
I was bad and didn’t post yesterday…but I was tired. The diet thing is going pretty well. Tristan even likes some of the food (although he’d rather have fruit than vegetables.) Oh well. I will admit that yesterday evening I was also grumpy (I am going to chalk that up to not having sugar…thus having withdrawals.) During the phase one part of the diet, you are allowed small amounts of rice ice cream. It was good, but actually too sweet for me (which NEVER happens.) I was also super tired yesterday. I am doing much better today though, which is encouraging. I could see how people loose weight on this diet too in addition to feeling better. I am eating regularly, but much healthier meals, plus without sugar I will break the cravings for the junk food. Don’t get me wrong, junk is delicious, but I need to really do better for myself and for the family. If I want my boy to grow up eating well and have a healthy lifestyle… I have to model it for him.
I am also happy to report that I lost 3 lbs so far. I know that the initial weight-loss might happen faster because it is “water weight”, but you know what – it still make me feel better. So there!
Anyhow, most of my time has been taken up with cooking (hours upon hours a day.) I did however carve out time to go through and re-organize our pantry a little bit. I found stuff that expired in ’07… like right after we moved into our house. Yikes! So I have been discarding the things that are expired. What a waste, but most of everything expired a long while ago – at least a year ago.
I think later today I might finally get around to planting my seeds to start them germinating. I really need to do that before the end of the month. Oh, and I am super excited about aerating the yard this weekend!!!
Update: I DID plant my seeds in my little starter kit 
Now to see if I can actually grow anything. Here goes!
I also got around to packing up all of the clothes and toys Tristan has outgrown. My, oh my, the memories from this past year. I forgot just how small he once was!
18
Yeast-free day 1
Filed under: Health | Tags: | January 18th, 2011
Today Chris and I are starting the yeast-free diet. He didn’t really need to do it I don’t think, but decided it would just be easier that way.
So first thing, I woke up EARLY this morning (ok like around 7 or so) so that I could make breakfast and make sure Chris would take the snack I had for him to work. I made herb scrambled eggs this morning. I am not really an eggs fan, but these came out pretty good actually. It even had veggies too! Since I got up so early and Tristan was asleep, I even got lunch made for later! Wild rice and celery soup. Smells good, but verdict is out.
I think the main thing a lot of people hate is diets where they can’t stand/love the foods they are eating. This diet is not that at all for me. I love veggies, and it includes lots of them. It’s like a crash course on healthier eating to me. I usually just have something lame like cereal for breakfast, but today I had something way better for me. I’m pretty excited. I think the next week or two will be the hardest. For one, breaking our addiction to sugars, and for two, my having to cook so much. Wish us luck!
Update: The soup was super yummy, and so was our dinner (planter’s pie) – pretty happy with most of the food…just craving the sweets. So. Bad.
16
The sugar-free dilemma
Filed under: Health, Home Life, Rant | Tags: | January 16th, 2011
Tristan just turned one on the 9th. For his birthday I made him his very own sugar free carrot cake with sugar free cream cheese frosting.
Ok, wait… some back story:
After my recital in December, I had a nice reception. I won’t say who, but I will say that people were feeding Tristan cake. There was fruit available (and he LOVES fruit), but cake was the drug of choice that night. I was busy chatting with people, and couldn’t be the diligent guardian I should have been. Needless to say, Tristan at least waited until I had changed out of the most expensive dress I have ever owned – to puke on me. Yup, so not only was he hyper, but it also didn’t settle well in his tummy.
I should also mention that I did not handle sugar well as a child. I would have an extreme sugar high, then a sugar tantrum, and then I HAD to fall asleep. It was always how sugar ran in my system… hyper, tantrum, and major crash. I admit, I don’t know how other children usually handle sugar, but I really didn’t handle it well. Strangers would try to be nice and would give me candy (oh I know…don’t take candy from strangers!.. boy I was bad) and my mom would then have to deal with the ensuing terror that I would be for many hours to come. She did have me on a sugar free diet most of my childhood though, which helped control my moods and things.
Ok back to the main line of this post…
When Tristan’s birthday rolled around, I made it clear that at his party I did for him, he would have specially sugar free treats made for him. He also seemed to really like the cake I made, so I don’t feel like I was being mean or anything. I just think that sugar can wait. He is, after all, only one.
Well some people ended up missing his birthday and wanted to do a little birthday for him when they could. That wasn’t an issue really, so long as it was sugar free. Well that wasn’t ok apparently. I found out that I had upset someone by saying “no sugar.” I guess it is seen that I am being unfair, or not letting him have a full birthday experience. I don’t really know why it was such a big deal…it just was.
Sigh
I did finally win out…minus one bite of sugary cake (I guess I can’t totally win,) but really I mean the best for my boy. I think most parents mean the best for their kids when they make choices like these. I am hoping to help Tristan develop good eating habits, which in turn will help him maintain a good weight (unlike mommy and daddy here….we are working on it though) and grow up a healthy little boy with few – if any – health concerns. Oh and non-rotted teeth.
For one thing, high fructose corn syrup is used in most sweet and/or processed things. The companies that make that stuff try and tell the public that it is OK to eat, but I have come to find out that it is broken down by the body in a different way than table sugar. (Here is one of the articles) – This can greatly impact risks for diabetes.
So pardon me for my evidence based parenting. I didn’t realize I was such a downer for trying to be a good mom.
Something I should mention… Tristan did have a nice second 1st birthday party. He got some neat things like a ride in car for me to push him around in (he likes it). I know people try and make him happy, I am just wanting things to go my way since he’s my kid. That’s all.
15
Talking down the jumper
Filed under: Home Life | Tags: | January 15th, 2011
This is how I feel every time Tristan gets on the couch (specifically he likes to get on the arm or back of the couch near the edge) and dangles his little body parts over. I swear he is just taunting me! It’s like he’s going “Look ma! I just might do it! BAWHAHAHAHA!”
I find myself talking to him in the same voice I might use with a building jumper. “Ok, Tristan… just come down and everything will be ok. It’s not worth it! Don’t do it!”
He always gives me the same devilish grin too. He knows he isn’t supposed to do it, but yet it is so appealing to see mommy’s reaction. Oh, and play with the light switches. Did I mention how quick he is too? Turn my head for a second and BAM! He’s up there and trying to see how close he can get to the edge without actually falling.
Well at least right now he is torturing petting the cat, so at least he isn’t threatening to jump…for now.
14
The post man doesn’t hate me! Yay!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: | January 14th, 2011
I got in 2 of the 3 heavy packages for the yard/garden today. They came USPS instead of UPS as I was thinking they would. I even helped him carry the packages to the door since I felt bad that they were each 40 lbs. He was reluctant to let me, but I insisted that as an “ex-farm girl” I still could carry that just fine. He was then very surprised…and I was amused. 
So needless to say, I am going to aerate the yard next weekend and then amend the soil with the nutrients it needs. I am pretty darn excited I must say! So maybe… just maybe by spring.. I will have a nice backyard for Tristan to run around in. My next project is seeing about getting the dogs to go potty in one location and/or going out there to poop scoop. Yuck. LOL
Oh and yesterday Tristan had his one year check up. I am happy to say that he has gone from the 0-5% to around the 25% now. I am so happy he is so healthy. So the next thing to do for him is find a play group. *sigh* This means I have to be social. Ug.
13
I think the UPS man will hate me…
Filed under: Gardening | Tags: | January 13th, 2011
Because I had to order some supplies for our yard and garden that are hard to get from stores around me. I ordered greensand, lava sand (both in 40 lbs. quantities) to amend our soil with, as well as garrett juice (a liquid organic fertilizer), and earthworms. Now, I don’t think he is going to hate the delivery of the worms, or the garrett juice… but definitely the three 40 lbs. bags of soil stuff!
The thing I really need to rent soon is a soil aerator from either home depot or lowe’s. I need to aerator before I add all the good stuff to the soil. I also still need to get a truck load of compost to spread on the yard. Oh, and cedar wood mulch. I contemplated going with just general hard wood mulch, but I like cedar better since it will repel the bugs from those areas. Once it isn’t so freezing, I am also going to order some ladybugs to help my garden along.
The other things I need to do is study up on plant diseases so I have a better handle on how to organically treat them when they start getting sickly looking.
I am excited though! I think tomorrow I am going to start my seeds in my little starter kit Chris gave me! Yay!
12
And the tantrums begin…
Filed under: Home Life | Tags: | January 12th, 2011
Oh. My. God.
Today was a very rough day with Tristan. I decided to go down to the Houston area to hang out with my lovely friend Lori, and her little daughter Lillie (who is just a little younger than Tristan). I very much enjoyed hanging out with another mommy friend. I don’t have many of those… so it is very nice to have someone to hang out with and commiserate. I took her to this really neat baby store called Nurtured Family. It is nice because they actually sell cloth diapers in person, along with a whole lot of other really neat things (but the diaper selection is the best part!) So that went find and Lori even invested in a few cloth diapers (yay!) Tristan behaved for the most part for this part.
After that we decided we wanted to find a baby’sRus. Well, I ended up not finding it, so instead we stopped at Target. Mind you after leaving the other store BOTH kiddos decided it was time to fuss to the enth degree.
Really though, I could deal with the fussing. I knew Tristan just wanted to nurse, so when we stopped I let him get his fill before we went inside. That’s when all hell started to break loose with him. Lillie was a perfect angel though. Lucky.
We get into the store and not 5 min. later Tristan wants demands out of the stroller. Ok, fine. Not terribly unusual for him. So I take him out and try and carry him around while I look at the clearance clothing. That wasn’t good enough though… he wanted DOWN. So I set him down and let him push the stroller around with me. The was great fun so long as I didn’t stop and so long as I didn’t redirect him. If I did that, then he would start shreeking and flailing. Oh, and god forbid if I should pick him up. If I did that, then he would try and throw himself backwards our of my arms. He then decided that pushing the stroller wasn’t much fun. Getting the stuff on the shelves in the store was WAY more fun. I would then go and pick him up so he would stop trying to pull things off the shelves. Yea, more tantrum ensued. I cut everything short, checked out, and left.
Have I mentioned he just turned one? Oy.
Oh well, I knew it was coming lol.
Besides his ugly attitude today, it was fun getting to spend time with friends from far away.
11
No doc for now
Filed under: Health, Home Life | Tags: | January 11th, 2011
You know what I hate about posting to this blog… having to come up with titles!
Ok, that isn’t what this is about today though.
So first off, Tristan is really starting in with the tantrums. Joy. Someday he won’t do it anymore…or at least as much…but man, you’d think he was hitting the terrible 2′s already.
In other news, the holistic doctor visit will have to wait. I finally heard back from the place I was interested in going to…and it was just a little too expensive. Maybe another time. Health can wait, right?
I am, however, going to try and do the yeast-free diet and see how I feel afterwards. I don’t know when I will start it yet, but I think soon. It would be nice to get it started and see how I feel after a couple weeks. I will post what I think throughout the process.
Well tonight is a short entry, but I have things to do. Fun.
9
1st Birthday
Filed under: Home Life | Tags: | January 9th, 2011
Today is Tristan’s first birthday. I cannot believe it has been a full year since he was born. This time last year he was just a tiny newborn in my arms after being born at home. Now he is a walking talking little toddler. Today we had a nice small party for him. There were some of our family friends (one of which actually shares the birthday…but a very different year.. oh and we included her on the cake too), grandparents (Chris’s mom couldn’t be there because she was skiing with two of his siblings), and then there was even another baby right around Tristan’s age. I really feel that having a friend for him to share in his day was extra special.
I should also mention that I made a sugar free carrot cake with sugar free cream cheese frosting for him to eat. I really don’t like him getting much sugar. It isn’t really nutricious and it is bad for his teeth (and not to mention the sugar high…and crash that always follows). At my recital Chris’s parents let Tristan have some of my cake, and unfortunately it also made him a little puke-y afterwards. So I was determined to make a healthy cake that he would love for his birthday. Mission accomplished!
Anyhow, in a way I am glad it is all over. I still feel odd when he gets presents. I can’t say why that is the case, but regardless I do. I also think that my in-laws feel awkward around my parents. They are very different people, and I think sometimes that is a bit much (which always makes me feel a bit odd too because I can’t please everyone). I was glad to have them all there though.
Well off to entertain my boy.