Eating habits…

Hello Hello!

Its B – I know it’s been a while since I last shared my thoughts and adventures with you guys. I was on what some may call a writing hiatus or simply hibernating.

The truth is I was thinking of what it was that I would like to write about next. So, while I was looking for my muse of inspiration, it didn’t take too long for things to ‘happen’ and new stories to evolve.

When I need to get inspired, I like to turn to ‘Una’ the unicorn. There is just something intriguing about her.

As you can see by the title of this post, it had the intention of being about G’s eating habits. I can see that I started this blog post on Februrary 27th and I do remember what those ‘eating habits’ were back then. I was going to write all about my worries I had at the time and how things were not going exactly the way I had thought they would causing me quite some angst.

And now we are here. About a month later and things have changed oh so much. Well let us start back in February..

I really was pretty worried. I know that the sense of a mother is very different (and superior) then that of a father but even though N would keep telling me not to worry, I couldn’t just shrug off that feeling.

I had noticed evening after evening for almost 2 straight weeks  how G refused to eat anything for dinner. She was simply not interested.

Chicken?  NO!
Soup? YIKKY!
Rice? -picks it up and starts throwing it around-

She was simply not having it; ANY of it.

And N and I spoke about it for a while. She was clearly less concerned then I was. But not in a non-caring way. She just..hmm..knew. And I didn’t.

‘Maybe she is eating some dinner before we come home or is still full from lunch. Or she might just be eating too many of her snacks during the day’  –  were some of the many reasons N would offer as an explanation. I of course was googling around to see what the world of frantic parents had to say about this on the web. It were things that didn’t really help ala ‘Don’t worry, a child will never starve itself’ DUH! Thanks for your help Mr. and Mrs. Smarty Pants. So just let G not EVER eat dinner. I’m sure she’ll just get up at night to make herself a sandwich when she feels like it.

What started happening at around the same time as her dinner fast was that she started waking up at ridiculous hours again. 4:30,4:45,5:15. It was crazy. After a few days of that N said that she had enough. It would not continue like this. “We are putting G in the basement.”

 

I guess this room was a waste of time! Anyone want to move in?

And this is where the whole story suddenly started turning for the better.

We abandoned her nice fancy room, with a cool rug, a beautiful and expensive crib and state of the art paintings, for the basement. A dark room where the windows are covered with cardboard to keep out the light and a tablecloth is covering the entrance to keep out MORE light. We put up a pack & play and Voilà, G had a new room.

Left: The famous entrance (STOP! We know. A door is coming!) Middle: The beautiful window curtains from Kohl’s. Right: G’s new room (This was supposed to be my man cave. argh.)

At least she has a very comfy pack&play. Always filled with at least 1 dog, 2 bunnies, a cat and 5 blankets! #livingthehighlife

Whether this change in ‘scenery’ has triggered something in her brain is beyond my scope of knowledge but I suddenly have a kid that sleeps until close to 7 am and eats like there is no tomorrow.

CHA CHING! JACKPOT! WOOHOO! #greatparenting

I mean she cant get enough of  ‘Chikeeee’, ‘tree’ – which is how N introduced cauliflower to her- and cee-yee-al (really mainly fruit loops). Sometimes she has no patience at all and cant wait for us to get her dinner ready and will just march off  to the fridge and open it. It can be really frustrating sometimes when she opens the freezer side instead, realize its the wrong side and just move on to the fridge side and not properly close it! C’MON G! At least close it! Cant have all these frozen steaks, hot dogs, burgers and wings all go bad because you didn’t close the freezer door!

Back to her hungry self. No matter the place, a snack is always there to accompany her =)

She now likes to take food and hold it up to the light [ I think she prays to it #weird =/ ]

Well, I guess my main message to all of you is, if things aren’t going as planned or you have any concerns about your child’s behavior either place your kid in the basement or into some dark corner of the house and see it magically resolve itself or don’t consult me because I might just be crazy!

See you at the next crossroads!

#papiselfie

Renovation Realities

1. Your contractor will not show up on time
2. The work will take longer than expected
3. The cost will go up from the quoted amount
4. You will never want to use this contractor again

 

Anyone who has done work in their house knows that numbers 1-4 are to be expected. Perhaps you might leave off 4 because although nothing went as planned, this guy may be more reliable than the last ones. Hey, at least he showed up, right? And the cost went up, but only by a couple hundred dollars… not by thousands. As a newbie in this area, numbers 1, 2, and 3 make me conclude with number 4.

 

After months of waiting for a contractor to show up, I took the plunge and started getting quotes again. We found someone, he told me it’d be 3 weeks til he could start. I said fine. He showed up 10 minutes late. I’ll excuse it. The work took longer than planned. It costed more than we thought. It isn’t completed. But hey, our house is more open. Contractor is paid. And we survived- dust and all. While it isn’t perfect, it’s definitely a start.

 

When we came to this house, I knew it needed the kitchen to be opened up. Obviously a full kitchen reno would be nice, but since money doesn’t grow on trees, we started off with the biggest bang for our buck. Taking down part of the wall between the kitchen and dining room increased the light of the whole main floor. The flow is better, the house is brighter, and B and I are thrilled with how it came out! It makes such a difference!

The before-

Notice the fancy 80’s cabinets… I know you’re loving it!

 

This wasn’t the biggest job ever, but it did entail opening up a million year old wall, cutting it out, moving outlets and light switches, and of course making a big mess!

I don’t think it’s ready for it’s close up!

 

I’ll leave you off with a semi- after, since I don’t want to keep you on your toes til we get around to actually completing the project!

The “after”

 

More to come—

• painting
• new light fixture
• new bar height counter top and bar stools
• OUR FIRST GIVEAWAY ON THE BLOG! Get excited!!! (maybe I’m just excited enough for all of us!)

Things are changing

And it ain’t just the weather!

The Jewish saying would be ‘shehechiyanu’- you say that when you see/eat/enjoy something new. So, shehechiyanu on this post (it’s been a while) as well as our yard finally getting a much needed makeover.

This is how it started off… looks easy to maintain, right?

Originally we thought we’d be able to pull off gardening ourselves. That idea was short lived once we realized how much work it entails as well as our lack of a green thumb. G seemed to think she could carry the burden but all she did was stomp in the leaves.

Our saviors!

Realizing the situation was grim, we once again shelled out millions (thank you home ownership for stealing all of our money), bit the bullet, and hired gardeners. I will say that they have been a pleasure to work with and even called me to ask whether I liked what they had done and it there was anything I was concerned about. (If you’re looking for gardeners in the Five Towns- Bella’s Flores.)

Hard at work trying to tame our beast of a yard

Once we had hired gardeners I realized we should probably go all out and buy pretty lights for the yard. After returning a bunch of stuff to Bed Bath and Beyond, I had a lot of credit there. I went on an expedition to Bed Bath with some friends and found the perfect garden lights. Once the gardeners had done their magic, I carefully installed my fancy lights ($19.99 for 6 fancy lights… Can’t beat that!). The lights are beautiful, our garden is less awful, and spring is at our doorstep…. What more can I ask for?

Check out the beauty— (taking pictures at night isn’t the best plan)

Our yard still needs some love- as in water, sunshine, and possibly reseeding ($$$$$). But G doesn’t care- she wakes up each morning and runs to the back door and yells ‘park park park’. I know this will only get worse once she sees the new swings I ordered.

So, this is exciting! There’s finally construction happening in our house so more updates to come. It’s our biggest transformation yet!!!

Sneak Peek-

Still to come in our yard-
-sunshine
-watering
-new plants?
-swings!
-patio furniture (at some point)
-SUMMER!!!! 🙂

– An ACTUAL after picture… let’s wait for some sunshine and water so that the grass looks green.

A list for a dreary Monday

It’s a Monday again, a start to a new week. And yet, we haven’t done much around the house except for make a mess (not my fault- blame it on G- she’s the queen of messes).

Despite soo many projects and things around the house that B and I want to do, not too much has been happening. I figured I would organize my ideas and put together a list of what needs to be done.

1. Assemble the exercise bike that was delivered 9 days ago. All the pieces are out of the box. We just got to put her together. Easy, right?

2. Choose a paint color for the kitchen and PAINT!

3. Get our tv mounted

4. Get the dining room light fixture put in

5. Make the contractors show up. This is clearly the hardest thing on our list.

6. Hang up pictures. They’re all sitting in the coat closet waiting for their new home.

7. Find something pretty for under our newly mounted tv (whenever that happens).

8. Get G to sleep past 4:30 am. Oh wait, that’s totally not a project. Or maybe it is. Why do kids do this to us?? Don’t they want to sleep?

9. Clean up the basement and get everything organized and put into plastic bins. Buy plastic bins.

As you can see, we’re definitely not at a loss for what to do… But somehow time escapes us. Tune in for how these projects unfold

Dreary Monday…
…

Pros and cons of snow

New York had a pretty big snowstorm yesterday afternoon/evening. On one hand, snow storms are awesome because it’s fun and white and you get snow days. However, once you have a house and a child a snow day changes completely.

1. Childcare/school can be cancelled. Aka- no relaxing in bed watching movies and sipping hot cocoa

2. You have to shovel. And then shovel again. And salt.
3. This really goes for any adult- you need to figure out food and water should you be snowed in for an extended amount of time so grocery shopping can’t be pushed off another day.
4. You have to crank up the heat- hello $$$$! So forget that vacation because your heat bill just went up by a couple hundred dollars.

So while a snow storm ain’t what it used to be as a kid, there are definitely some added bonuses-
-getting some quality time with your baby is priceless. We played games and play do and looked at the snow and cuddled and had fun.

Here’s G playing with her baby.

And G playing with her new play do type thing.

-shoveling is really rewarding. Especially when it’s light and fluffy. I always thought my mother was crazy for liking to shovel but there is something fun about it!

-getting your Shabbas shopping done early is so fun! I’m all set and it’s only Wednesday! Yayyy

-there’s nothing fun about the heat situation but hey, it makes you thank god a little more that thank god you’re lucky enough to have a house and heat and can afford to put the heat on during a freezing winter. Right? Count your blessings.

In other news, of course my contractor pushed off the work to next week. It’s clearly too difficult to get work done during the aftermath of a snowstorm.

But wait, why don’t I have a snow day?

 Kind of wishing this was the weather today…

Wood Paneling FREE!

Sorry about our brief hiatus. Busy work + busy life = no time for blog.

Back to the work that has begun. We were supposed to have some semi- major stuff happening in the kitchen (not done by us, obviously, but our contractor keeps rescheduling). Itching for some change, we pondered what to do… then we both had a day off. Boom. Time for a project, but what can we do? We don’t want to mess with anything too difficult. Then I suggested painting the wood paneling in the kitchen. Since we looked at the house the first time, I’ve been itching to change that. I HATE WOOD PANELING- me and most of the world I’m sure. B didn’t quite get it. He pointed to the floors and said “but you like wood floors?”. Not the same thing! But then the next obstacle came- we don’t have a car. That makes getting to Lowes or Home Depot quite difficult. Thank god there’s a hardware store down the block from us- quite convenient, though it is definitely overpriced. So off I went to the store in search of a treasure, and by treasure I mean paint and supplies. I skipped home (not really, but I was definitely in a happy skipping mood) along with a gallon of primer (really heavy, I must add), a roller, a brush, painters tape, and a paint tray. I got to work after a quick tutorial from my favorite blog, Young House Love.

Prepping the kitchen

I have painted before. It was when I lived in Chicago and I convinced my parents that I should paint the basement (a gross outdated space that we never used). My father and I found paint in the garage, got to work, got tired, and never completed the basement.  It was a sad sad story. I’ve been nervous about painting since then. I know how tiring it can be. B convinced me that we can get it done. After all, it wasn’t a whole basement we were trying to paint! So, we taped off the area, cleaned the wood with vinegar and started painting.

Here’s B taking the plunge!

Our first coat took about 2.5 hours. It was tedious work and by the time we were done we were exhausted. After a short break, we went back to it and 1.5 hours later we were done! 

Progress

This is just the primer though. Being that we were painting wood, it’s definitely advised that you prime the walls first since a dark wood can seep through paint. We have two layers of white primer done. Now’s the hard part. What color paint do you suggest? We might want to wait til our kitchen work is done (hopefully this week if the contractor comes!). Once that’s done, we do need to decide on a color.

TA DAAA!

This was so exhausting. I’m dreading the painting that’s going to have to happen. It makes me realize that painting a bigger room is probably too big of a job for us to do. I’m pretty impressed though. I did not think we’d do such a good job. We’re officially DIYers!

So now we need help… what color do we paint the walls?

Comment and help us out!

Reorganizing

Ever since I was a kid, I always loved redoing my room. I’d move my furniture around on Sundays… my mother always thought I was a little crazy. Here I was a 10 year old kid pushing my heavy wood huge dresser across my room. I had my methods- lay on the floor and push with your feet, push with your back, take breaks, push more, don’t give up til it’s in the spot you want it. In the 8 years we lived in Chicago, my room was painted twice. First I decided I needed light blue walls with light pink trim. My father and I spray painted my furniture light blue and pink to match (we also painted a bit of the brick of our house.. good thing the next owners knocked down the house or they’d be enjoying a light blue outline of a mirror when you stood on the balcony. Good times.  A few years later I wanted a clean, minimalist look and NEEDED white walls with clean light wood and stainless furniture. My parents never gave me a problem with any of my designer urges. (The only rule is the following: I am not allowed to touch their pantry because apparently in my organization of their food products, I hide everything. Every time I go home my mother reminds me that I am by no means allowed to organize the pantry. I usually break that rule).

Even in college I’d reorganize our room. My roommate, D, obliged. I texted her one day mid chaos and said “hope you like how I changed our room. It’ll be so much better, trust me!” And it was so much better.

So, on a random day when G was taking a nap ( her nap must end after 60 minutes, so I had an internal timer ticking…), I once again got the urge to change some things. Being that I don’t have the energy I used to, I didn’t want to take on too much. But what’s a little toy area reorganization, right? Um, wrong.

So I start looking at G’s toy area and it just wasn’t working. I’ve been looking for nice toy storage but haven’t found anything that doesn’t scream CHILD HERE. They have some stuff for millions, but I want a cheap nice storage solution. Meanwhile, I look at our bookcases. BINGO. Bookcases are perfect for toy storage- we have the 3 shelf bookcases from Target that we got a few years ago for $15/bookcase. Problem: our bookcases are full of books. So, I empty all the books out and start moving things around.

At the midway point hit. 30 minutes ticking on the clock… will I make it?

So while the books sat on the floor, I got to organizing the toys and books. I put away some baby toys G no longer plays with and tried to make the toys all easily accessible.

TA DA!!!!

Unfortunately, the original bookcase wall was  left like this. Sad sad wall.

Have no fear, bookcase wall, well former bookcase wall, is having it’s own redecoration! We’re waiting to have our TV mounted on the wall. That TV console is moving to the basement. The chairs are looking for a new resting place. Hopefully soon this wall will come together. As always, I will keep you posted.

Oh, and you’re wondering where all the books went? Good question. They’re sitting on the kitchen table. I know, I know… it’s bad.

If G likes it, we’re all happy.

Controlled Nature… the way we roll!

Well I’m back and B is finally able to relax a few minutes… I’m sure he kept you all entertained during my hiatus! Back to house news->

When we moved in, we figured the landscaping can wait until next Spring. I mean, hello, it’s winter now.  Don’t gardeners only need to come when it’s nice out? Shouldn’t my lawn be covered in snow from October til June? Oh wait, I don’t live in Chicago anymore and despite the cold we’ve had in NY, I have seen my grass and it isn’t smiling at me. So apparently, gardening is a full year thing.. who knew?

Oh how pretty the front lawn looked prior to us killing it.

At first we figured we’d save some money and survive the couple of weeks before winter by mowing the lawn ourselves. HA. Laugh at us please. Ya right… Me? B? Mowing the lawn? Doubtful… When my mother came into town, she took over. She opened our shed, found a (what’s that device that gathers leaves? Shoot.. I’m going to google that)..> RAKE! (Thank you google). So anyway, my mother takes out the rake and gathers the leaves, bags it up, pulls out some weeds, and makes our yard look less like a forest and more like an unwatered, needing to be re-seeded yard. Thank you, Ima!

So while my mother was here, I got the courage to break out the lawnmower the previous owners had left. Failure. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. That was the end of the gardening adventure.

Low and behold, a one time yard cleaning doesn’t last a lifetime. I’m not a gardening person. I hate the outdoors. I actually don’t like dirt or grass or sand or leaves. I prefer a potted plant, flowers in a vase- what I call “controlled nature”. My colleagues/friends from when I taught at a hebrew school downtown NYC (shout-out to Alana and Josh! Yes Alana, I mentioned you!) used to make fun of my controlled nature theory. I think it makes sense. I used that logic when searching for a wedding venue in Israel. Israel has the most gorgeous places to get married. But no, I was not walking on grass or dirt and I don’t want trees around- I just wanted it to be pretty. We did get married in a beautiful place 5 minutes outside of Jerusalem called “Ganei Ora”.

Controlled nature… does that make sense now? Is the term catching on?

I believe I just went off on a tangent.. not sure why there are so many pictures from our wedding, but it’s too pretty not to share.

I can’t wait until Spring… I will gladly hand over our hard earned cash to make our front lawn and backyard look beautiful. I’m dying for a fruit and vegetable garden (minus the bees and the planting and the watering, etc.).

Even without a fruit n veggie garden, I just want some green grass without dirt patches and with some pretty colors from flowers.. I’m excited just thinking about it. 🙂

Sad story is that last week we had a huge snow storm.. so flowers will have to wait.

G aint too thrilled. She prefers flowers and sunshine.

Survival Mini Series – Part IV (highlights and conclusions)

Time for the finale!

First off sorry for the delay. Things have been hectic..well, the truth is that since N knows that I can change diapers I have been doing significantly more of those..

How I feel about those diapers..

I decided to make this post more into “random highlights we had” + my final conclusion of my days with G as opposed to a timeline like I did prior.

Random highlight #1

Which yoghurts work and which don’t:

As you guys know  G is very into her breakfast. Sometimes cereal, sometimes yoghurt. So I was able to experiment a bit in regards to what yoghurts she likes and which she doesn’t like. I was quite surprised when I found which yoghurt was on top and which wasn’t.

Winner:

Chobani coconut flavor!

Chobani Coconut flavor

Oh Boy was this yoghurt a hit! She couldn’t stop eating it. She couldn’t wait a minute to walk into the dining room and sit in her seat. Once I took it out of the fridge we had to sit on the floor in the kitchen and eat it right there and then. And when she was full and couldn’t take another bite anymore, she would make sure to take it  with her EVERYWHERE.

[BTW I really have to give a shout out to N’s close friend S who was the first to recommend this flavor to me. She called me up one afternoon to tell me about it and somehow knew that I would like it. Well as you guys know I am not allowed to touch it but G certainly enjoys it. So, thanks S]

Left: Her journey into the bathroom (with the yoghurt of course). Center: Eating yummy yoghurt in the bathroom. Right: You know it has reached the highest status if she decides to hide and guard it on the steps #sacredyoghurt

What didn’t work:

Oh Chobani! In one moment you give her such a sweet taste of heaven and in the next you bring her back down to earth and leave her (us) with this disgusting aftertaste in our mouths.

Chobani Blueberry Power Flip A.K.A Chobani Blueberry ‘Flip of Death’

I mean I have never really experienced a bad flip yoghurt. So when I saw this in the store it was a no brainer. 1) She likes Chobani 2) Flip = Yoghurt + awesome stuff to put in the yoghurt (supposedly). But this was just #Thumbsdown . When I first fed it to her and she started making weird faces at me I tried explaining to her that the stuff it comes with (Chia seeds, Hemp seeds, etc) is yummy. Well, after several weird looks and a sudden refusal to continue eating I was like “Fine, let’s see what you got. Ill try the yoghurt myself.”

As I would say back in Austria “Pfui Teiwel” (Ew – disgusting)

I get shivers just thinking about this yoghurt

I mean ‘Shame on you’ Chobani! What the heck! Am I a cow? (A cow is literally the only being I could think of that might enjoy those seeds. Actually, chickens maybe too.) This is one of the worst yoghurts I have ever had. Well, enough said. I obviously have not and don’t intend to ever buy this yoghurt again (unless for some sort of food prank).

Random Highlight #2

Grocery shopping:

Now in general going ‘bye bye’ -as G would put it- is lots of fun. She just loves being outside. However, she can sometimes get a bit pissed off when the occasional ‘bye bye’ trip ends up in the super market. I don’t really blame her. I mean to her ‘going bye bye’ means going outside, running around and having fun NOT being locked up in the stroller having to wait for me to pick up random items. More so when I always end up having to give her a dirty look and say “NO” every few minutes when she decides to grab something off the shelves that we are not actually buying (i.e. 7 pomegranates,every dip in the ‘dips’ isle, etc.). But sometimes I need to give in. Why? Because she will otherwise make sure that I get banned from my local super market forever.

So usually whenever we walk through the fruit section there is this big shopping cart filled with watermelons. As you can imagine she goes completely crazy and demands watermelon (Why I keep making the mistake of walking through that isle is a great question. Maybe I deserve that as my punishment for not thinking!).  This time something very different happened. At first I was confused, then upset and at the end super happy! What happened?

She stopped and started yelling (kvetshing) but this time we weren’t even close to the watermelons. I was like HUH!? Then she started  pointing towards the refrigerated section and I was even more confused. So we played the ‘hot or cold’ game. I just started moving towards the refrigerated section and let her point me in the right direction until the yelling stopped. And I was like “NO WAY, JOSE”. Chicken? Really? Not just regular chicken but a jumbo pack of 2 whole chickens in it!? Come on?! You must be kidding me. I am not just buying 2 whole chickens for you because you (for whatever reason) find them funny.

……..

…………….

…………………………..

*10 minutes later at the cash register with groceries AND 2 whole chickens *

I was so upset. This stuff a) weighs a million pounds and b) will cost me money for no reason andd c) is not even needed.

[It was the very next day that I was actually invited out for Shabbos (Saturday) lunch and I was seriously debating if instead of a nice candy platter or a bottle of wine I just bring them one of the whole chickens that day and give them that as a gift. I mean c’mon, you’d get so much more value out of that as a gift! 🙂 ]

Until it rang up at the register. Then my angry face turned into a smiley face! It was on sale! An awesome sale! $1.99 a pound. Who knew!? JACKPOT! I still thank G to this day for awesome cheap chicken! When I called N afterwords and told her how much I paid for chicken she was like “AWESOME! What a great price. I am happy you bought it” and I was all cool like “Yes, you know I scouted what was on sale and when I saw this I obviously had to jump on this great deal” 😉

So I guess giving in in the supermarket can sometimes turn out quite profitable..

The famous ‘double whole chicken’ Jackpot! And G is the one that made it all happen!

Highlight #3

The lost fork:

Just so typical. Does she ever want to eat when its actually dinner time? Not really. But if someone has a snack or a yummy dinner prepared for themselves you can be sure to find G on the hunt. Now she wont be as obvious as to simply come up to you and request food. She knows at this point that when we are hungry and she had her chance, we wont just be so friendly as to fulfill her every wish and feed her our dinner. But that has only made her more dangerous. She has become a true predator and me and N are not safe anymore..

Left: G on the lookout. Right: Cheetah on the lookout. Conclusion: G is so much more dangerous

It might not look like the same but it is the same concept. G basically prepares in disguise the same way the cheetah disguises him/herself to get closer. She will pretend to just play or sit around close to your food and then when the window of opportunity arrises  -BOOM-  she will attack.

I had gotten a phone call and stood up to talk in the kitchen. A few minutes later I come back. It started when I saw a noodle in the entrance to the dining room lying on the floor. I then noticed that there was a trail of noodles and knew immediately what happened. I was officially ‘dinnerless’. When I got to the bowl, there was a toddler hovering above it, pretty much done with my pasta; only thing missing was the fork. And so I acknowledged defeat but at least wanted to find the fork. “G, where did you put the fork? Can I please have it back.” And as they say,  a picture says more then 1000 words..

The answer I got to asking for the fork. This face with her hands in the air saying “I dunno”

What a sneaky kid! But I love it! And yes, the fork is still missing  🙂

That is it for my highlights while I was gone. While there are more stories to be told I don’t want this to get too long (it’s too long already :P).

As to my conclusion, I was looking for a good phrase to sum up how my week was and I actually came across one on twitter the other day that I thought summed it up perfectly.

And that is EXACTLY how I feel. Even though at first I was scared of how I would survive and how I would handle being alone with G, it turned into the most amazing experience I have ever had as a parent. I am blessed to have a daughter as funny, loving and cheerful as my G is. The bonding experience I had with her in those few days is something that I have never experienced before and that I now know will shape my way of being a father going forward. I can only advise you women (oh boy how the guys will hate me for this) to leave your men home for a few days with your kid. It might be hard but it will change their connection they have with their kids in a very special way.

And one more thing it did to me was change my perspective of N in a very big way.

N, as much as I do respect everything you do every single day, it wasn’t until you left and I had to (try) to feel your footsteps that I realized how much more respect you deserve. It is unimaginable how so many things that you do from early in the morning until late at night you not only just do but do so with a smile in your face and with a love for your daughter that I cannot even start to grasp. I am lucky to have two so amazing women in my life and am now finally ready  to let you two bond again and while I  GO ON VACATION! 🙂

Just as proof that G and I also had a good time here some pics:

Running around / away while trying to get dressed..

Fun times after the library

Early AM fun. Trying to feed my phone some milk.

Selfies! She LOVES taking selfies! (she must get that from her mom :P)

Bath time is ALWAYS fun time for G! (with the occasional drink of bath water..ew)

I want to end of my series with a little poll. Just to see if I need to improve my dressing skills or if I am awesome already.

Left: Me Right: Housekeeper

Survival Mini Series – Part III

Hey Guys and Gals!

Several thrours have passed and I am still on the ground ready to report on my findings..

[In case you are wondering, I don’t think in days anymore. That is much too far ahead. If you think in days how are you ever going to feel accomplished and positive at the end of the day? TWENTY FOUR HOURS with a toddler? No way  you come out ahead when the time comes for you to hit the sack. So, I think in hourly blocks, like every 3 hour block that G and I have crossed is another great finish line I can cross off a.k.a throur (Three Hour Block). I should patent that.]

So I left off with having prepared her room for bed time. Ill explain what that means. What usually happens is the following:

At around 7:10 pm N will say “Do you want to fill up the humidifier or change her diaper?” It’s one of those things that really doesn’t need to be asked over and over, night after night but it does. It reminds me of  one of N’s friends that once told me how growing up whenever her father would come home (day after day) , his wife would jump up and ask the father if we wanted something to drink or to eat. And the father would simply respond (day after day) “Please, I just want to sit down and relax for a few minutes.” Similar idea here; you don’t have to keep asking. I am more then happy to fill up the humidifier every night 🙂

Boy do I  keep going off on tangents today. Sorry everybody!

So I went to fill up the humidifier (something to help with dry skin or so. What do I know what this machine is for.) and brought it up. I then turned on the fan in her room. You ask ‘Why would he do that in the winter?’  Well, we live in a beautiful house with a nice backyard with one tiny problem. JFK is literally NEXT DOOR.

These planes just don’t stop. It’s like counting the stars. IMPOSSIBLE

What that means is that every morning, somewhere between 5-5:30 AM when the planes start becoming more frequent it can cause G to wake up. She might fall back asleep but with the amount of planes coming into JFK by the fourth plane she is up! That is obviously less then ideal for us and we have thought about different options to avoid that. Ordering speakers and playing some rain forrest music for example (I really want that in my room but N thinks I am crazy. Can someone convince her please!? Just post a comment “pro rain forest music in your bedroom” and the most compelling reason will win a special mention in my next post =)). So we decided to go with the fan. The only problem is that she really doesn’t like the noise that the fan makes. Same goes with the noise the vacuum makes (All very dog-like fears from what I recall..hmm..). But I decided to still turn it on and stick with it as I think that having a constant noise is better then having the planes at 5:30 AM wake her. Hopefully she will get used to it.

So where was I? Right! Humidifier is in place ✓ Fan is turned on ✓ Next…

So once she is up (at like 5:30 AM), N and I would really enjoy  and appreciate it if instead of standing up and screaming for us (let’s be real here, for ‘MAMA’) she would maybe just take a chill pill, relax and play with a toy. This is where I decided to use this opportunity to try out something new.

I decided to put a nightlight in place. Up until now we hadn’t used any lights and made sure to have black out shades on all the windows. We wanted to make sure that whenever it starts getting light outside she is under no circumstances influenced by that and keeps on sleeping. But, as mentioned above, what started happening was that she started waking up early again. It’s just TOO EARLY!  I mean if I could sign off on having her wake up at 6 AM sharp everyday I totally would.

So I figured, if she will most likely wake up early anyways why not try to get some more sleep by putting a light in place and prepare some of her favorite toys and maybe she will decide to play a bit!?

Little Pim Cards. For some reason her FAVORITE cards to play with. Stacking them up and talking to the Panda.

So I tied them up to a string which I then tied to the crib. I made sure that it is in eyesight should she wake up in the morning and felt very good about my amazing plan!

So finally it was all set.   Humidifier ✓, Fan ✓, night light ✓, cards ✓

Fan on the left, Humidifier to the right of it, night light turned ON and string in crib after cards have been ‘misplaced’

So, what happened?

It BACKFIRED! Miserably!

At one point during the night (well really it was about 4:40 AM) something woke her. [If I knew what, I would KILL it] The night light in the room then ensured that she wasn’t falling back asleep anymore and off she went “AHHHH AAAHHH AAAAHHHH ‘cry cry cry’ AAAHHHH” I obviously woke up and looked, half asleep,  at the clock and said “Perfect – 5:40 AM. Terrbile, but nothing unusual. Now lets hope she finds the cards and plays a bit.” And then I looked again…

4:40 AM NOT 5:40 AM – WHAT! WHAT IS GOING ON!? Is this some sort of punishment for being alone with her? She NEVER wakes up this early. So? What did I do? Put the earplugs back in and beg that something happens. Well, it didn’t and by 5:10 AM I was out of bed and in her room getting her out of her crib.

What happened to the cards you ask? They weren’t attached to the string anymore but I guess that just wasn’t good enough of a toy for her at 4:40 AM. #Thumbsdown

Fine – what can you do? It happened and it was time to move on to better things. So we are downstairs and after a while I remembered N mentioning something about always having G’s hair in some type of a pony tail. Why? I don’t know, ask her yourself if you’re interested. But I obviously have to try to oblige by the rules. So I am looking for a ..hmmm.. what are those things called?! [2 minutes later after googling it] Rubber bands I guess. I obviously cannot find one for the life of me. Then I suddenly remember! #lightbulbgoingoff  She needs a ponytail because her hair constantly lands in her face and G doesn’t isn’t really a fan of that!

I have a better solution for that! Who needs a rubber band when Gel can do the same job!

Left: Before Center: In the process Right: After [Disclaimer: I did not use a ton of gel as I wanted to make sure I don’t do something completely crazy that I might get killed for after]

Come on! It isn’t that bad, is it!?

Off we were to breakfast.

I asked her if she wanted a yoghurt that I had especially bought for her. Of course she was interested and had to open the fridge herself and get it out. How dare I be the one to touch the yoghurt. That right is only reserved for her. So I wanted to put her in her high chair so she can eat the yoghurt while I accompany her. No no no..not exactly the way she likes to roll. SHE is the one that has to sit in the actual chair at the head of the table and no other way works for her.. Fine..you win!..Big chair it is..

Now we get to the funny part. I open the yoghurt for her and she starts eating. So far so good. Suddenly I notice her stopping to eat and start starring. I mean SERIOUS staring. She couldn’t get her eyes off that yoghurt. And suddenly she opened her mouth “MAMA! MAMA MAMA MAMA!”

And I’m like HUH!? What in the world would make her think of N while eating the yoghurt?!

Analyzing the yoghurt before shouting ‘MAMA’

So after another moment [I was having a minor heart attack at the time] she decided to let it go and continue with the actual plan, EAT the yoghurt. It took a while until I figured it out though. It was when the yoghurt was turned and I was able to see the other side of it that it all became clear to me. A mother with a child on the yoghurt was what had set off the alarm bells.  ROOKIE MISTAKE! I plan every family portrait removal into detail and then buy yoghurts that have mothers on them!? Come on B, I expected more from you!

[BTW – that picture above, with her analyzing the yoghurt; that is the moment I realized that my ‘Gel instead of ponytail’ idea was (sadly) not going to work. It was just ALL OVER her face..]

Left: Finally discovered the reason >> a MAMA on the yoguhrt (not that N looks anything like this). Right: G eating her yummy yoghurt

On a side note, I am very happy that she likes her yoghurt. She used to love it and then suddenly got out of it for a while (several months in which she didn’t want to touch it). But now she is back on it and loves it (sometimes). It is a great way to get your dairy in and hey, you know what they say about eating yoghurt..

Hmm..nothing too amazing I guess..

Well time flew by and before I knew it the clock struck 8:15 AM. Ding Dong – the housekeeper is here! 🙂 For the days that N was out of town I was working/am working from home. So what that meant is that it was time to go into hiding.

When N or I are around G needs to spend time with us. Even if the housekeeper is around she (obviously) prefers having us play with her. Are we happy about that? OF COURSE we are! What’s wrong with you guys? Do you really think we are that terrible and want to hide from her just because we can?

It is more about the fact that when I am working, I am working. Sorry G but I can’t just come and play with horses and read books to you during work. Also, if she sees me, she tends to get very insulted when I don’t play with her and simply leave a few minutes later to go back to work. So to make that easier and avoid a sad little toddler I barricade myself in my room and try not to leave until she is either napping or is out of the house (or my day is over).

It is great! I mean that is why I bought a house right?! To have more space and not have to live out of a bedroom (being sarcastic ✓).

Me working from my bedroom a.k.a prisoner in my own room

The rest of the day went by smoothly. She behaved, I worked and by the end of the day I decided to reward myself and her for no particular reason and wanted to have a fun and enjoyable dinner with her.

I went out and got us burgers (more like 1 burger for ME), and made some homemade french fries and got her some chicken which she likes and we had a blast! I know you’ll think  “but didn’t he say he tries to keep it healthy?! French fries are as bad as candy!..”  you know what, you are probably right but once in a while I treat my funny baby G to some french fries! Sue me! Plus, you know what A.A. Milne always said: “What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a decent sort of fellow.”

[In case you wonder about my extensive knowledge of food quotes – I love food. And great quotes like these  justify my love of food even more :)]

Left: her munching on her french fries. Right: Her being super excited about discovering the french fries.

After dinner I creamed her with some Aquaphor and Vicks (this weird cough she has just isn’t going away) and bedtime it was.

This time around there was no messing around or playing games. No nightlight, no fan and no cards! Just a good old pitch black room with no noise at all.

How that went and other highlights from the weekend and my last few days in the next (and maybe last) part of the Survival Series.

Cya later..