It's on

The competition is on here at the Hyser house. It's Tony vs. Rachel.

Tony has a machine in his office that measures body fat percentage and some other things. We each had ours taken on Monday and we're starting a 2 month competition to see who can improve their numbers the most. I'm sure I'll be posting periodic updates... My starting numbers are: 33.8% (body fat percentage), 14 pounds to pre-baby weight, and 2 pant sizes.

I'm excited -- and plan on winning. :) Post-Natal Bootcamp Baby!

I called Graco this morning. And I just couldn't be as mean as I had planned. A sweet little grandma answered the phone and she was so perplexed about my situation. I caved in and let her send me another motor. Only this time it will be shipped 2nd day air and she put a note in to have them test it before sending to be sure it works. I know, I know... I'm crazy! But I figured we'd give it one more try. And this -- I PROMISE -- will be my last attempt.

Here are some pictures...

I braved it with them both in the bath at the same time. I survived... and more importantly, Kaleb survived. Kaiya was very hyper and excited about having him in there with her.

Helping to wash Kaleb

So... the Fed Ex truck came today with motor #3 from Graco. You won't even believe it. It does not work. Put the batteries in before attaching the swing to it and nothing powers up. Just like motor #2. At least motor #1 had music come on and worked on one speed. These other two I can't get to do anything.

Even better, I try to call before 5 today (which is their customer service hours) and they have the phones with a message telling me to call between normal hours. Hello!!! That's what I was doing!!!

So... just wait until 8 a.m. tomorrow. The poor representative that has to talk to me. This was my last attempt, so they'll be refunding my money -- including the shipping!! This time they actually packaged the motor halfway decently. It was wrapped up in Chinese newspaper. Strange, huh? Everything was in Chinese characters, except for the addresses listed at the bottom of the ads. Those were California addresses. Anyway... I'll keep you posted on the swing issue. Currently I'm pretty irritated. :) Hey -- maybe I'll get a brand new swing out of the deal -- how awesome would that be?

Meanwhile, my daughter is gated in her bedroom. She was out of control. The nerve of mommy... who wouldn't let her watch any more TV for the day. She's pretending and reading books right now, so it worked.

And my sweet son is screaming his head off in his crib because.... well, actually... I have no idea why. Couldn't be hungry since I spent the past 3 hours off and on nursing him. Couldn't have a burp because I burped him for the past 30 minutes... No dirty diaper... Is 2 months old too early to let him cry it out so I can make dinner?

Better go check on him. :) I'm going to repeat: "I will not let GRACO ruin my night. I will not let Graco ruin my night." Over and over until both Kaleb and I are asleep. :)

Here's our picture on the birth place website! :)

http://www.thebirthplace.org/births/kaleb_riley_hyser

These are pictures from the park today. Kaiya LOVES the park. The other day she came home with a "rug-burn" on her belly from going down the slide belly first. Which in her mind is the only way to do it. We convinced her today to try her bottom so her "belly burn" can heal. :)

Future Chiropractor

Lately Kaiya has been pretending to adjust her babies and her bear. We just cracked up the first time we saw her do this. Tony was able to capture it with the camera today!

You know you don't get out much when attending a seminar with your husband feels like a date.

Yep -- I just was kid-free for about 7 hours today. It was awesome. Tony has a conference for work and I was able to attend this time. So for part of today and all tomorrow, Ruthie is substitute mama. Sweet.

Crisis in the Shower

Lately Kaiya has been into taking showers all by herself. It is the most wonderful thing. She hasn't mastered washing her own hair yet, but the shower does occupy her for 20 minutes or so. Last week she was in the shower and she started freaking out and yelling, "Stinky! Stinky!" So Tony and I go into the bathroom to find that she has pooped in the shower. She is completely disgusted by it. Tony gets his stern Daddy voice out and tells her that we only go stinky in a diaper or on the potty. She immediately gets her feelings hurt and begins sobbing. Tony quickly changes to the sweet Daddy voice and says, "It's okay, we know it was an accident, but next time you just need to call us and we can set you on the potty to go stinky." Crisis over.

Fast forward to tonight. Kaiya is in our shower and I'm in our bedroom putting clothes away. I hear her break into sobs as if she is hurt. I didn't hear any "thunks" so I wonder what's going on. I get in there and open the door and she is hovering in the corner and pointing to poop on the drain. I get her out and have her stand on the bathmat while I get toilet paper to get the poo out of the shower. I can tell she is bummed because she is really not done playing in the shower yet. So I give her a gentle lecture about going stinky on the potty and not in the shower and then let her get back in. About 2 minutes later she starts fussing again and I'm thinking -- no way -- not again. I go in, open the shower door and scan the shower floor for poo. Don't see any. But she is saying "Stinky. Stinky. Stinky." Over and over and pointing at the drain. I tell her no, there is no stinky in the shower. She insists and crouches down over the drain and points to a discolored ring around the drain.

I sigh and say... "No, that's called mildew."

She looks at me only half-believing what I've said. And honestly... like the child knows what mildew is anyway. So I find another spot of mildew away from the drain and point it out to her. "See -- it's not stinky. Its just means mama needs to clean the shower."

That seemed to satisfy her.

Letter to Graco

Dear Graco,

I love that you sent my order in a reasonable amount of time. However, I hate that you sent me a motor unit that does not work. Normally when you put batteries in something, it should power on. The motor you sent me did not. What a let down. I told Kaleb all day about how the motor would be arriving and he would get to swing all night long. You can't imagine his disappointment when I had to tell him you sent me a broken motor. He cried and spit up several times the rest of the day -- I'm sure it was because he was so upset about the swing.

The customer service rep was very helpful and will be sending me another motor free of charge. She said I don't even have to worry about sending the broken motor back. Thank goodness... because Lord knows I don't have time for that. I'm lucky to get a shower and 3 squares a day.

May I make a suggestion for this time around? Pack the motor a bit better. Put it in a box that is smaller or if you are going to pack it in a box 3 times its size, put some cushioning in it. Maybe then, it would work upon arrival.

You know what they say -- third times a charm! We can only hope...

Sincerely,
This Tired Mama

Here are the pictures I tried to upload yesterday. :) Kaiya could not be left out of the photo shoot I was having with Kaleb. She saw me taking pictures of him and kept saying, "Mama. Mama. Cheese. Mama. Cheese. MAMA!!!!" So here she is in all her glory. :)

I was watching Thursday's episode of Oprah that I recorded on our cable box and enjoyed an interview given by Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm not familiar at all with this actor because he rarely gives interviews and is very shielded from the public's eye (lucky for him). But he said something that really caught my attention. Maybe because I am in the "thick" of it with these kiddos. Oprah asked him about his role as a father and what has surprised him the most about fatherhood. Here was his response:

"I suppose the delight in bondage, because I daresay for a good part of my life I'd enjoyed traveling light," he says. "And there's nothing more wonderful to me [than] to realize that I was now shackled for the rest of my life…and what a wonderful shackle to have."

I couldn't agree more. There are times that I think of my carefree pre-kid life and how easy life seemed then. But really -- these two kids are the most wonderful things to be "shackled" with. :)

Pictures coming later... for some reason Blogger isn't uploading them right now.

Boot Camp

Well, it's that time again. I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting to work off my baby weight from Kaiya. Actually... that's right... it was just last year! For some strange reason with her I thought the weight would just drop off without me having to do anything. So I waited until I had to fit into a tight dress at my sister's wedding before I started working out. I'm smarter this time around -- I'm not waiting around for the pounds to fall off.

Boot Camp here I come! I'm 2 for 2 this week so far -- my goal is getting in 3 a week. Starting with low expectations -- c'mon -- I'm lucky if I get a shower every other day! :)

Memo to Graco

TO: Graco
FROM: Me
CC: Craigslist
RE: Swing

Please, please please send the replacement motor unit quickly. While I love purchasing things second hand, I hate when they don't work. (Especially when the seller swears that it is practically brand new and that her daughter just didn't like it.) See, my precious son really liked the swing when I put him in it. His eyes got really big and he loved being pushed. I, however, do not like running into the room every 2 minutes to give the swing another push. And since he is not currently coordinating his nap times with Kaiya's naps, I desperately need something to occupy him with.

One more thing -- when the motor does arrive -- please let it work!





Note to my concerned readers: She's supposed to be sending me $20 back in the mail... And if it doesn't show I'd like to go put the smack down on her but she does live in the ghetto (according to Ruthie who picked up the swing) so I probably won't be doing that. No need getting shot over a baby swing.

Evolution of a SMILE

Two cuties cuddling!

Saturday Surprise

Tony got home from work on Saturday and asked me what my agenda was for the afternoon. Me -- congested, sleep deprived, coughing -- with an agenda? Nothing at all... Then again at lunch he says: "So you don't have anything planned for the day?" Um... nope. Nothing planned! Well, he says, I've got a surprise. Now, this is really exciting for me because one of my favorite things is when he secretly plans an activity that I don't know about and we go do it. Granted, it rarely happens, but every time it does I act VERY excited so that he knows just how much it means to me. He packed the diaper bag while I finished feeding Kaleb and then we were off. Tony was so cute with his mapquested directions taking us off to the surprise destination. The drive out was beautiful. The orange groves are gorgeous -- but they tempt me so bad. I want to pull over and pick a few -- they look so yummy hanging on the trees. I'll have to get a picture sometime. Anyway... 30 minutes later we were at Forever Florida, a ranch with animals and hiking trails, etc.

Kaiya had a great time and was much braver than I expected while feeding the critters. She let them eat right out of her hand. Here are the pictures!

Just a quick post. When I thought I was feeling better... I now have a cold! Many of you are wondering -- is it even possible to get a cold in Florida? I'm here to confirm. Yep... despite our lovely warm weather -- I have ended up with a cold. Which I have kindly passed along to Kaiya and possibly Kaleb. He sounded a little stuffy to me earlier this morning... hopefully it doesn't develop into anything. I'm trying to get naps in when I can. Just say a quick prayer for us -- I really would like to get back to feeling 100%.

And I'd like to think this cold doesn't have anything to do with the 1/2 pan of brownies I ate when I thought my boil was gone. Oh... but they tasted SO good. (When we get sick we eliminate all the sugar from our diets -- sickness feeds off of sugar, so we only help our colds and infections get worse when we eat sugary stuff.) I did not eat one drop of sugar while I had that boil -- and lacked a little in the area of self-control once I thought I was in the clear. Paying for it now...

Bad Week

This post has two purposes --

1)To summarize last week
2)To hopefully make you giggle a little when you hear the Chipmunk's version of Daniel Powter's song Bad Day. We played it for Kaiya and she thinks it is hilarious.

Without going into too much detail (because you really don't want me to...) :) my week was bad because I got a boil. Hopefully the first and last I ever get. One of the reasons a person can get them is from a weakened immune system. Which, based on the fact that I haven't had a full night's sleep in the past month, makes a lot of sense. So... after several homeopathic treatments, I am finally on the tail end of it (no pun intended). Ha ha... Anyway... This unfortunate infection was only compounded by the fact that Tony was out of town Thurs-Sunday. Thankfully he is back and we're doing better.

Enjoy the video...

A moment to breathe. I have two sleeping children -- I live for their naptimes now. The times when they are awake are great too -- don't get me wrong! It's just the only thing I can hear right now are the fan running and the sound of my fingers on the keyboard. Whoever coined the phrase silence is golden, must have been a mom of at least 2 children. :)

Here are some pictures from our week:

Sweet Kaiya. She is obsessed with shoes and particularly Aunt Ruthie's high heels. Here she is, just bee-bopping around the house with her baby (whom she has named (on her own) Ella -- possibly a shortened Cinderella because she is currently also obsessed with Cinderella). I constantly hear "click, clunk, click, clunk" all around the house as she goes about her pretending. It really is music to my ears -- want to gobble her up with kisses when I catching her looking so cute.

This picture was taken while I was making dinner. Kaiya is munching on frozen broccoli. Yep -- she likes to eat broccoli before it is cooked and still in its frozen state. We are so proud of her. Most kids would be asking for cookies or chips, etc. Our sweet, sugar deprived child asks for frozen broccoli. Most kids dip their food in ketchup... Kaiya asks for hummus or guacamole. We are so proud of her.

Our baby boy! Here's a picture taken of Kaleb last night. He's getting big much quicker than Kaiya did! Gotta love this slightly unattractive picture of Kaleb. :) Total deer in the headlights expression. This was after I had taken several pictures -- clearly the flash was getting to him. But once you get past the goofy look, notice the head of hair that he will eventually have. It's getting longer and staying beach blond.

After watching several debates the Hyser household has decided to give our backing to Mike Huckabee for the Republican nomination. Yes, I know... this is huge -- the weight of our support gives Chuck Norris a run for his money. While we know, like Oprah, our influence is enough for many people to vote for Huckabee no questions asked, we want you to be educated voters. So, over the next few posts we'll give you our favorite reasons to vote for Huckabee. That's assuming that most of our readers are Republicans. Our mistake. For any Democrat readers... just vote for whoever Huckabee can more easily beat. And right now... that's looking like Gov. Richardson. :)

Reason #1 to vote Huckabee: HEALTH CARE



We love this reason. Doesn't it just make sense. Tony's glad that people are catching onto this. Let's encourage people in our country to keep themselves healthy and well in the first place!

Baby Wipes

A friend of mine had this recipe posted on her blog for homemade baby wipes. With the rate that we are going through baby wipes these days, I thought I would check it out and see if this was the route we wanted to go. We've been using them for a week now and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to give it a try:

1 roll paper towels
2 cups water
1-2 T baby soap
1 T baby oil

Cut roll of paper towels in half (resulting in two toilet paper sized rolls). Mix water, soap and oil. Soak one roll of paper towels in mixture for 10 minutes. (Dip "O" side down, rather than on the side. I dipped one side in the mixture for a few seconds and then turned it over and let it set the rest of the time on the other side.) Remove cardboard roll. The wipes will start from the center. Store wipes in plastic container of your choice. I am using a gallon sized ziploc bag.

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I bought Bounty Pick-a-Size paper towels. They are the perfect wipe size. My friend said that she uses one full roll of paper towels per month for her little boy. He's 4 months old... So there is definitely cost savings here. Other observations about the wipes: I like that I know what they are made of. We are using our Baby Arbonne Wash and Oil, so they are all-natural wipes. I had previously been using the Target Brand Sensitive Skin wipes, and I find that these homemade ones aren't quite as soft. Still, though, the savings are worth it and it took me like 10 minutes to make the wipes.