Terrible 2's...continued!

My son turned 2 on January 28, 2013 and everyone who asks me how old he is always has this response after I tell them, "Ohh, terrible 2's!" Henley had a head start on his terrible 2's when he turned 1! Parents, do you look at your child when they are throwing themselves down on the floor for no reason, or screaming to the very top of their lungs in anguish as if their life is so hard, and wonder, "Where's the sweet smelling, sweet face, quiet angel I gave birth to?"

I consider myself a patient person when it comes to children and the elderly; I have little patience for anyone in between. With my son, I felt like I should have been knighted for my patience with him. But the day my daughter was born, it's like patience packed its' bags and said deuces. If I forget to pray for my patience, I'm doomed. But I am thankful that Henley is a loving big brother. Even when he's having a bad moment, all I have to do is hold his sister up to his face and his mood lightens. This makes it a little easier to remember to be pray for patience. I'm gonna keep praying and working on it because the last thing I want to do is lose my cool with my first born baby. Here are some pictures from his Yo Gabba Gabba themed 2nd birthday party at his daycare:

My big guy posing for the camera whole the kids eat their snacks

I made this boombox because I couldn't get the one from walmart.com due to lack of online availability. So, I just taped the printed paper onto a Kellogg's Cereal box and used construction paper for the color (color printer wasn't working at the moment, so I did like Tim Gunn says and I made it work.

 Guess what I did with these...?

The favor bags. Yes, you see tape. Admittedly, I was ill-prepared so again, I had to make it work

These are my pride and joy! Too bad I couldn't find yellow hats. Of course, I had a solution, but I was crunched for time and decided to make these characters do

These are the cereal boxes from above. I put these in the favor bags as a treat. I don't believe in filling up favor bags with too much candy. Aside from this, there were 3 different musical instruments(because music is AWESOME!!), a Reese's peanut butter cup, and a small bottle of bubbles.

The kids enjoying themselves and so was Henley....briefly. This is about when he started to sporadically act out. BTW, thats my princess in the corner with her daddy on his iPhone

I'm putting the boombox in front of the radio so they would think the sounds was from the boombox. My bro made a cool nickjr party mix for the kids. The cupcakes were for them to take home, but at the party they had strawberries, cantaloupe, and kiwi fruit salad, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and honey ginger Cinnamon carrots. But the true hit of the party was my good old fashioned nana pudding. I enjoyed making everything and cant wait to do it again for Heavon's (that's my daughter) 1st and Henley's 3rd birthdays!

The favor bags.

Transformation plan for 2013...

So, if you know me, you know that I'm in the category affectionately known as "Big Girl". Since my last post, I've given birth a second time to my littlest angel, Heavon. She was born November 19, 2012 and I couldn't be happier. So now I have DEUX children that I have to keep up with, and being a big girl is no longer the category I want to be in. Don't get me wrong, I've always had high self esteem and I never allowed my weight to hold me back, BUT running after a toddler who just entered his terrible 2's PETRIFIES ME! Henley has just turned 2 on  January 28, but I feel like he's been in his terrible 2's since he turned 1! Thankfully, I'm not totally out of shape where I can't catch his little behind, but if I stay on this path, there will be a time where I won't be able to catch him before he runs into the open road, or God forbid, he runs away and a stranger snatches him before I get to him. So, I'm making a change February 2, 2013 marked my transformation start date and I gotta tell ya, it's not as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, it's still early and the urge to tackle my boyfriend for a drumstick hasn't hit me as yet, but I'm hoping it doesn't. The fact is, I'm 30 years old with 2 kids and I would hate for my health to be the reason why my children have to bury me, especially before my time. I want to live long enough to see my grandchildren born at least and the direction I'm heading, not sure it'll happen.

I set a goal to lose 100lbs by September, and with prayer and commitment (and exercise), I will do it darn it! Here's my plan and you're welcome to give it a try: Exercise, eat less, eat right, and drink kale smoothies. That's it! I researched foods that were acceptable to eat that I liked so this process wouldn't be too hard and the urge to cheat would be minimal. On my list are things like: ground turkey and lean ground beef with kidney beans burgers in a pita pocket with oven baked homemade fries; grilled salmon with no oil stir fried veggies over brown rice; turkey wrap with homemade kale chips; whole wheat french toast with bananas and lean sausage; black bean chili with lean ground meat; oatmeal pancakes, banana nut oatmeal; boneless skinless ginger chicken breast with garlic butter baked potato.... is your mouth watering yet?

Trust me, once you can control your portion, it'll be a breeze. OK, I AM only human as well and I have had thoughts of going to KFC drive-thru for those ever so tasty hot wings, but I'm surprisingly stronger than I thought. I'm gonna go ahead and change the subject now so I can hurry and get that flavor out my mind because as strong as I am, it's still early in the process. Here are some of the meals that I've prepared since I started. Each one was delicious and left me satisfied until it was time for my next meal. I didn't even need to snack in between meals, but I did so I could get my 5 meals in. I snacked on fruits, nuts, yogurt or just had a small glass of kale smoothie.

 

 

In addition to eating better and less, I've began walking for 45 minutes a day. In 5 days, I've lost about 6lbs! Wish me luck, and I will keep you posted.