Ten on Tuesday

1. I will start with a sleeping update. The night I wrote the post about the great sleeping debacle of 2011 the humidifier ended up setting off the smoke detector in Zane's room. Keep in mind this didn't wake up the child who will wake up the moment my feet hit the floor, when I get out of bed at night to go to the bathroom, but the freakishly loud beeping noise above his head didn't phase him. He woke up when we stormed into his room thinking it was on fire though. He did sleep the rest of the night, a minor miracle. Last night, however, he got up at 1:30am and was up until about 4am. We tried every tactic in the book and honestly not sure how Zach finally got him to sleep. So to sum it up, not a lot of progress.

2. Zane has a new fun toy thanks to Aunt Trina and Grammi/Pappa who brought it up to us Friday. It is a big play place, complete with slides and a tunnel, for our back yard. Trina's kids had grown out of it, but it is just right for Zane. After a little but of a scrub down with soap and water Zane's new playhouse was ready to go. As expected Zane headed for the slides and wanted to go down head first, is there any other way? I think Grammi and Pappa were a little surprised at Zane's lack of fear, including him trying to just walk out the holes in the side of the top part. It has been cold and rainy the past few days here so we haven't gotten to enjoy it, but Zach and Zane played it a lot this weekend while I was at work. Here is Zane enjoying his new toy.

3. Yesterday Zane and I ventured away from our usual cookie baking and tried making rice krispy treats instead. Zane loves them and I some how felt like they might have at least a few less calories than chocolate chip cookies. However, turns out rice krispy treats are quite possibly the messiest thing you can possibly make with your child. Well at least if your child feels like he should be able to stick his hands in the bowl and grab out a handful of sticky marshmallow goodness. He did enjoy stirring the marshmallows as they melted but wasn't a fan of not being able to get the sticky krispies off of him.

4. I would like to give a shout out to my fellow earthquake survivors in Oklahoma. That place has been crazy the past couple days with multiple earthquakes/after shocks, tornadoes, and flooding. I'm glad I live in a place named after a Saint so maybe I will be spared from all the random natural disasters. All the family is doing well, though on their toes for what might come next. Good luck guys!

5. Mom is coming up tomorrow to keep me company/watch Zane while Zach goes off to the woods for his annual hunting trip with all the men in his family. I'm excited for mom's visit and even more excited for some help with the crazy one year old. Zane and I have done four days alone before, it doesn't usually end that well. And it just so happens this weekend is my cousins shower so we can go to that too. How fun!

6. My running schedule is coming along, though not loosing any weight, which is ultimately the goal. I have been running during Zane's second nap, if it isn't nice enough to run outdoors. I don't like the treadmill, but it has the added bonus of no hills, which makes the longer runs a little easier. I feel better about myself when I'm done, but would like to see the scale go down as well. It is a difficult time of year to make that happen, but I start a new each day trying to eat better and get my exercise in. Here's hoping I see some change soon.

7. The running takes up the small window of free time I had during my days at home. During Zane's second nap I would usually pull the house together and then take a break by doing some sort of mindless activity i.e. scrapbooking, reading, blogging, or reading other people's blogs. Now I struggle to find time to do these stress relievers which is a bit of a bummer. No I am not one of those people that running acts as a stress reliever, I just do it because I am fat and need to drop some poundage.

8. Zane got his flu shot this evening and it went amazingly well. He loved playing around in the room we were waiting in, got his shot in his little arm without even wincing, took his cookie, and we headed out. That's my tough little man for you, I guess he has built up some tolerance after getting shorts every month all last winter. I am so glad we don't have to do that again.

9. In good news I don't have to go to nights over the upcoming holiday schedule. There was about a week period where I was told I would be going, so I had started to try to shift my thinking about how that was going to fit in with Christmas, New Years, and family visits. But today I got an email saying I could stay on days. Hopefully that works out to my benefit, I just am praying that I either have Christmas Eve or Christmas Day off so we can have Christmas morning with Zane one of those days. It will be our first Christmas all by ourselves and not at one of our families houses. It is going to be strange, but we will make the most of it I'm sure.

10. Last night we watched Lion King with Zane for the first time. It is one of my favorite Disney movie's from my childhood and I have wanted to watch it with him for awhile, but it has been in the volt. Well it is officially out of the volt and it is now Zane's favorite movie. He thoroughly enjoyed watching it last night, though I had forgotten how scary it is in parts (for example the goose stepping hyenas and all the death). Then tonight he found the DVD case and requested to start it over. His favorite part, by far, is the 'I just can't wait to be king' musical sequence. He bee bops around the living room through the whole thing.