The Nature Center

Last week I figured out that there is an entire nature center connected to the Central Park that the boys and I frequently visit. It is gated off and only open part of the day but is free for visitors to check out and walk the trails. Luckily the trails are nice enough that I was able to take our stroller on them. This is lucky because the stroller is crucial in getting to and from the actual park. But I bet if I let him, Ted would walk all the way there and back. He is an intense walker. 

The trail is pretty cute. All along the way there are little items to read about that have to do with the history of the area. Here Ted is standing in from of some animal furs.

Ted came across a row of wild squirrels and proceeded to tell me all about them. He told me they are squirrels that live in the forest and here they are. What a great tour guide.

There are a ton of cottonwood trees. The amount of cotton puffy stuff on the ground made it look like a giant spider could come crawling out at any moment.

Tidus hung out in the stroller but he loved seeing everything. Most of the time his little hand was reaching out to try and touch the trees as we passed.

Ted is holding the trail map. We walked the trail twice because there are number signs all along the way and Ted loved finding each number. At this point in our walk an ambulance was driving with its sirens going off somewhere in the distance. The sound riled up some coyotes because we could hear them all howling! That was a bit unnerving.

Ted is checking out some little animal bones that were set out for people to see.

Ted has been asking to go back to the nature center everyday since our trip. We probably will. On Tuesdays they have a little parent and me class that is open for people to come to and learn more about nature.

Thursday nights

On Thursdays we go to swim classes and apparently we get McDonalds afterward. It started one time when we decided it was late and we were just going to grab something on the way home. This forever stuck in Ted's mind and now every time we go swimming Ted assumes we are getting McDonalds when we are done. As soon as we strap him into his car seat he begins to sing, "McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds."

He will  also let us know his order and which way we need to drive in order to get to the drive through.

So here is a video on our typical Thursday night. We are all tired out from swimming and everyone (except mom) is munching on their McDonalds. Tyler and Ted are playing with a collection of the most recent happy meal toys which are angry bird shooters. Everyone is so happy in this video but as I type this everyone is literally screaming... since the move I have to squeeze in time to type up blog posts because the computer is in the bedroom so I can't use it during nap time while Ted sleeps in here.... Enjoy...

Ted found a geode

The title sums it up. While playing at the park Ted found a "sparkly rock" which was pretty cool. He carried it around with him the rest of the park playtime and all the way home. When Tyler got home he helped Ted his the rock with a hammer to see the inside. Ted loves any excuse to use a hammer.

 Today I ended up taking the rock bits away because Ted decided to play with them in his rock quarry play set. Granted this made perfect sense but then he left the rocks on the floor for baby to find. Now the rocks are on display on a shelf.

 I just like this picture of Ruby. She looks like she is smiling. And speaking of Ruby, her paw seems to be doing better. She still does not put weight on it fully but she is getting there. The vet said since she did not see anything on the x-rays then it was probably a soft tissue injury which means it would take a couple weeks to heal.

 And here is Tidus holding a ball. It is a dog toy that we found under the couch during the move.

Getting Knotty at the end of a long tough week

We are in our new apartment! We live in the exact same layout as our old apartment except that now we are on the first floor. It is like living in bizarro world because it is the same but there are all these minor differences. Like light switches are a few inches off from where they were in the old place, the fridge and closet doors open the opposite direction, and there is a sliding glass door in the master bedroom instead of a window. Which is good because you would not want to walk out a door from the second floor... awkward... The big and awesome differences are NO MORE STAIRS! Huzzah! No more trucking large items up and down and up those darn stairs. We can just walk out the door and be on our way. We also have a pretty good size patio too. Our parking spot is right outside our apartment instead of half a block away! And this apartment gets way more light than our old one! It has been so nice so far! We changed up the positioning of some furniture so it does feel like we are in a new place.

Monday we were able to get into the apartment. I spent the entire day (minus nap time) loading up the flat bed cart and walking our possessions to the new location. Tuesday we were supposed to have a moving company come and finish up the rest for us.

Ugh... I have told this story so many times I don't know if I will actually type out all the reasons this company was the biggest waste of money EVER! Basically imagine having sullen, grumpy, weed smoking, lazy teenagers come to your home because their mom made them come help you. That is pretty much who came to move us (they were not teenagers they just acted like it). They also refused to box up any of our stuff. Tyler had to box things up and then when they went to leave they asked for the boxes back. We just wanted them to leave so Tyler had to buy the boxes from them. And they were old, used, and broken boxes! They did not even move all of our stuff! They did move the big items but after they left I then spent the rest of the day moving everything over. They had not even touched the kitchen or the bathroom... Luckily Tyler had taken that day off work to help me out. It was frustrating and exhausting....

Wednesday and Thursday we spent finishing the move in and getting things repaired around the apartment. On Thursday when a maintenance worker came to the door I was holding Tidus and I rushed to picked up Ruby. She would not stop scream barking so I then rushed to put here in the bedroom. Some how her crazy wiggling lead to my dropping her and she then was limping the rest of the evening. Friday Tyler took the day off work to help me with all the maintenance workers coming and I had to take Ruby to the vet. They did an x-ray and could see nothing wrong with her so they gave us pain medicine for her. On the upside, while she was sedated for the x-ray the vet trimmed her nails for free :) She still won't put any weight on that paw but she does not whine when you touch it anywhere. She just looks like she is practicing for the day when she only has 3 legs... crazy dog.

Okay so then came Saturday. The week had been so stinking long and so tiring that we thought it might be fun to take the kids to Knotts Berry Farm since they had been so good about the move and endless days of packing and going up and down stairs.

Ted literally helped me move the entire time. Tidus road on my back. On a side note I have now lost a total of 13 pounds with weight watchers! The leader lady was concerned that I was losing weight fast and she wanted to make sure I was eating all my points in a day. I told her I was... she just does not realize how intense this week was.

On another side note, Tyler surprised me for mother's day and joined weight watchers online. He was planning on joining and not telling me until I started noticing results but he is about as good at keeping surprises a secret as I am :) It has been fun having him do it with me. He is great.

 We went into this old school house and an old timey worker was in there to tell us all about school in the olden days. Ted was absolutely terrified and ran out. Hahaha. Good job Ted.

 Pictures of us waiting for the big train that goes around the entire park. I think I confuse Ted when I call it a park. I would not be surprised if he grew up thinking Knott's Berry Farm is a farm.

 We also road on the horse drawn stage coach. I did not realize until now that I did not even take the time to get a picture of it. But we got the coolest seats! We sat on the top right behind the drivers! It was so high up! These pictures do not do it justice how high you sit.

 At this point we were up on a bridge going over the park, double high! It was so much fun!

 We also watched the Lucy show. We saw this the last time we went and that is what is great about kids. You can do things over and over and they still love it.

 We passed a carnival type game with this pug as one of the prizes so of course we stopped. It was a toddler game where everyone who plays is a winner. You just pick up a rubber duck out of the water. Ted loved playing the game and when it came time to pick up a prize he did his mama proud and he picked the pug (all on his own). Later we asked what his dog's name is and he said "Ruby!"

 It was a fun day at the farm but I think it probably just added to how exhausting our week was. A few hours after this we went to the church silent auction dinner where we went way overboard on bidding on things. A few other families told me they did the same thing so I don't feel quite as bad...

Back in the saddle again

Children know how to capture your best angle

I will just come right out and say it. I rejoined Weight Watchers. Six years ago I was a member and did really well. I got down to my goal weight and was able to maintain it for quite a while. Fast forward through marriage, two kids, and getting complacent and I found myself at the same weight I was when I joined WW those many years ago. Through all the weight gain I have attempted to restart WW but for some reason I kept giving up. Literally one day after rejoining I would just go back to my terrible eating habits. Over time I decided that the reason WW worked for me in the past was because I was single, childless and lived at home. There was nothing to worry about or concern me except... me.

After Google-ing meeting locations here in CA for several months and then chickening out I finally mustered up the courage to ask Tyler if I might try it one more time. He was nice enough to head home from work so I could use the car to get to the meeting. When I did WW the first time it was on the "Points" system. After I left they were transitioning to the "PointPlus" system. And now that I am back they are doing "SmartPoints". The points may have changed but the feel of the meetings is still pretty similar.

I have now been successfully tracking my SmartPoints for one week. Last night was my first weigh in and I lost 9 pounds! What!?!? Yes, this was probably a lot of water weight but I had a theory going in to weight loss. I lead a pretty active lifestyle. I am not out running marathons of Crossfit-ing it up but I do walk to about 80% of the places I go. The theory I had was that if I could just get my eating under control I should have no trouble at least starting to ditch the pounds. And it was true. As soon as I stopped eating an entire plate of cookies in one sitting the number on the scale started to go down.

Of course there are differences this time around with WW for me. There seems to be quite a bit more stress in my life (I wonder why...) so I have to learn to find a new coping mechanism for stress and burnout instead of plopping on the couch and munching. Luckily that is WW whole new approach. They really want people to find something that they like to do that is just for them. It can be as simple as adult coloring books, but the coach said it should be something you enjoy that you take mental care to actually make time for everyday. At first the only thing I could come up with was this blog. The problem with that is it is not very realistic to write a blog post everyday... for me at least.

It took a few days but I finally came up with an idea. I made an Instagram account for Ruby the Pug. Creating an Instagram for your animal is probably the social media equivalent of being a crazy cat lady. It is fun. I myself love looking at other people's pug Instagram accounts and I like taking pictures and it is simple and easy to find time for.

Here is her link

And here is my before picture

I had my personal photographer capture this gem. It is technically not the true before picture because it was taken a week after I started. 

In other news, Tidus had his 9 month check up. 

He is 27 1/2 inches long (25%)

21 lbs 1.6 oz (75%)

Head circumference 48 cm (98%)

The weight and head size did not surprise me one bit, but I was shocked at how short he apparently is. You would never know it looking at him. We think he is going to be a sturdy muscle man like Grandpa Opfar. 

And Ted is almost 3! It is coming up quick! We may have some fun plans for his birthday... or we may not. Tyler and I are terrible about procrastination... but we are awesome at spur of the moment fun!