Countdown to Baby

O.K here I am "active" mom of three, 32 weeks into pregnancy #4- I'm starting to feel like I have weights around my ankles. You know those dreams where you are running away from something, you're killing yourself to run as fast as you can and suddenly you realize- you're not actually moving? I'm living that right now. Where 60 minutes of hard cardio used to do it for me- my new core conditioning workout consists of using my legs to push my lazy boy from reclined to upright position. For a real burn I walk around the house upright without a waddle trying not to use my arms for momentum. It's all part of the circle of life I suppose, today I need to take it easy, but I'm looking so forward to July when once again I will have a skip in my step and a baby in my arms.

Roll Back The Clock:Recess- not a bad idea!

Have you ever seen that commercial for Pepsi- what other youthful thing would you want to experience? The guy in the commercial says- recess. The commercial continues to show a silly vignette of what recess on wall street would actually look like- but I've been thinking about it and for the average WAHM with preschoolers at home I say this isn't a bad idea. What if you could work but schedule in 15- 20 minute recess breaks during the day where you would take your kids outside for a short walk or play in the yard, do yoga in the livingroom, but promptly return to work at the end of the predetermined time. Do you think your kids would appreciate short frequent breaks versus fewer longer breaks? Personally I've been trying to work mornings but play afternoons or vice versa, but I'm rethinking that strategy and I'm thinking that my day would not only be more productive with the recess plan, but my kids would probably appreciate it more too......

Activity Within Limits

So my midwife called me last week and said that I now have some limitations on what I can do to stay active. It seems that I have a condition out of my control that may put myself and/or the baby in jeopardy if I were to "over do it". I'm on my fourth pregnancy and this has never been an issue in the past so you can imagine my surprise that suddenly I'm faced with limitations.

This raises the question- how does one 5 month pregnant, mother of three stay active and healthy with additional physical limitations?? Well, I've done a little digging, and although this means being more careful, this does not mean I have to stop activity all together. I spoke with my pilates instructor and she has assured me that although many of the activities that we would normally do in class are now out of my "safe zone" there are still many excellent activities I can do- particularly on the ball.

Can I tell you how much I love the ball? I loved it before- I love it even more now. It is so inexpensive, yet limitless in it's fitness potential so amazing. Today I will include instructions for one such core strengthening activity that anyone can do- even me.

1. Sitting knee lift: Sit on your exercise ball, feet flat on the floor directly under your knees. Place your hands, palms down, under your buttocks. Contract your abdominals to tilt your pelvis under; holding this position, bring your bent left knee toward your chest. Contract your abs further as you lower your left foot to the floor, using your abs to hold the position. Release the tilt to a neutral position and repeat. Do all reps with left leg, then repeat with the right. Do 2 sets of 8–12 reps in first trimester, 1–2 sets of 8–12 reps in second and third trimesters. Strengthens abdominals and hip flexors.

Now for my personal spin on this- 'cause I like to work out with my kids- I bought them each an oversized ball from the local Walmart last spring- now they can do these exercises along with me.

Pilates and Wrestling: A Match Made in Heaven

I have to say, I feel lucky this February, after what seemed like never-ending snow, suddenly it stopped. That was a nice surprise, and although February is traditionally known as the blah month, I've felt strangely energized this time. I'm comfortably well into my second trimester of pregnancy which might be helping but I think it has been the sunshine reminding me that there will be an end to winter.
Regardless of the cause, I have found myself enjoying more active time with my kids and would like to share my latest ideas with you. As I have eluded to before, my boys are at an age where they enjoy play fighting on the floor and they are still young enough to not actually hurt each other. So I've been joining in a lot lately, and typical me, have been finding ways to incorporate my pilates poses in my signature wrestling moves. One such move is shell stretch, transitioning into cat pose then modified push up all with my 3 year old on my back. If performed correctly, the toddler (your oponent) will fall off the side of your back, of course you catch him before he hits the floor, place him lying on his back directly underneath your and bear hug him as the referee calls the count down. It works everytime, plus its a great way to strengthen your back arms and core. Oh yeah and your child, will enjoy the benefits of core strength conditioning too. Did I mention it's FUN?

Suddenly I'm Under a Microscope

Suddenly I have a "supervisor", is he going to tell my husband what I'm really up to? O.k. so he's not officially a supervisor, he's a contractor that works for the builder of our house. He's here all day doing repairs, but suddenly I feel this pressure to "look busy". I have three kids here, the neighbor's and my two youngest, I'm getting them snacks and re-arranging the living room, then I catch myself laughing with a friend over the phone. Yikes- I know it, he thinks I do nothing- so I start vacuuming the lower level. My kids ask me to sit on the couch to watch a show with them, sure I say, then it hits me, he thinks I'm lazy. Just one show though, then mommy has to put dinner in the crock pot. The kids are hungry and want lunch, it is twelve noon and I am on the phone with the producer of a show that I'm choreographing, but it's a friendly conversation, no one would guess this is actually work. Now he thinks that I'm letting my kids go hungry while chatting with a friend on the phone. So at exactly noon I make a fabulous lunch, of toasted peanut butter and jam. Finally he leaves for lunch, so I can eat something- but I must hurry, if he sees me eating I know he'll think I'm a slob.
He's back I throw a load in the laundry, put my toddler to bed and work in the office while the two older children play. Finally the end of the day comes- he needs to leave- just as I am sitting on the couch with my five year old looking at national geographic flash cards, I feel terrible because I know he's going to go tell his buddies that all I do is sit around eating bon bons all day.

Potty Training: The Naked Truth

Well it's not my favourite part of parenting, as a matter of fact I loath potty training. If I could send my kids away for two weeks and have them come back potty trained I would. However, for most of us it is a must to potty train our own children. After psychologically scarring my first two children, I'm on my third stab at it.

I remember a more experienced friend of mine told me way back when, that the best way to do it was to leave your child running around the house without pants or underpants on and to keep a small potty within their reach. Ummmm....yeah, I'm not raising an orangutang here, there is no way that my little princess will be running around pantless while I'm scooping up behind her.

So, when my daughter turned 2, I bought everything from potty timers, to 3 different types of training pants, to sticker charts, to treat jars to you name it, it was ridiculous. I read potty training encyclopedias, I even resorted to....hold your breath..... punishing my child for having "accidents". Yes this went on and on and on, finally I told my three and a half year old, I'm done, you know what youre supposed to do I don't want to hear about it the next time you have to go on the potty, it's your business.

This whole charade started again with my second born, until one day I woke up and said o.k. you get one pair of underpants today, after those are dirty you don't get another clean pair. This new rule meant that if he soiled himself, he went around with no pants on for the rest of the day. Guess what, a funny thing happened, he would run to the potty, unpromted by me, to pee. This continued for about 3 weeks with little to no accidents or messy clean ups, until one day he kept his pants completely dry.

We'll I'd like to think that I've learned a thing or two over the past six years, I've come to the realization that there is no sophisticated way to potty train a toddler. Third time around I'm skipping the complicated mind games that left me and my tots strung out and I'm opting for a more "natural" training solution. Leave 'em bare and they'll get there.

Active Indoors

I've been a little disappointed with the weather this winter, I've taken the kids out to play in the snow a few times but the snow was too deep and powdery to do anything. So, today instead of letting them watch t.v. I watched my boys (5 and 2.5) chase each other and play wrestle instead. It's a game my 2.5 year old calls "Chasin' tigers". The thing is they never really get rough with each other because they are laughing so hard neither can keep the other one down. I figure it is much less damaging than being inactive all morning- and let's face it that's the way boys bond.

Ah ha..I'm definately on to something

So we did it again 2 more nights, the second night it was math questions again, simple to come up with and the kids actually love them. But the next night I had each of the children (ages 2-7) come up with 3 different questions..things like what shape is a stop sign? what phone number do you call if there is an emergency? what is your favourite t.v. show? Next I wrote the questions on the inside of paper napkins and randomly handed out the napkins when setting the table. Voila- instant conversation that lasted through dinner- and guess what I don't think I've heard the word poopies at dinner in about a week...miracle!

Family Mealtime Conversations

Eating meals together as a family is important to me, but sometimes- okay most times, I find that between our 7,5 and 2 year old children we spend more time refereeing the table manners and "bathroom humour", than we do engaged in conversation. Well the other day my daughter came to me with a bunch of new decorative paper napkins upon which she had written math questions addressed to each of our family members. At first I said, "What have you done? These are not for doodling"(then and idea struck me) "Well I said, I guess we'll all be doing math tonight at dinner". That night we did do math, had a great meal and "intellectual" conversation. Now I'm thinking we could write anything on napkins, tomorrow we will have each of the children write 3 questions each on a napkin, then we will mix them up and take turns answering each question over dinner...could this possibly be the end of bathroom humor at the dinner table?