Things...and also, Stuff

Those of you who have met Ben know that he is very, um, energetic. He is always going...unless he is sleeping, which is becoming a rarity these days. Well, within 15 minutes of waking up this morning, he apparently was ready to go shopping. Personally, I think he should do something with that hair first :-)

When I try to get ready in the mornings, he loves to get in the closet and play dress up. His favorite accessories are mommy's boots and the occasional headband.

Today, one of my tote bags caught his eye....it does compliment the boots nicely.

After "shopping" it was onto Ben's latest addiction. And I'm very,very sorry to say that addiction is Barney. Barney is threatening to take over our television and our lives. Ben doesn't want to watch anything else. If I let him, he would watch the same Barney video over and over, all day, every day. As a result of his addiction, Ben is also becoming agoraphobic....he doesn't even want to leave the house. And when we do leave the house, he just talks about "T.T." non-stop ("T.T."is Ben's version of "T.V."). We will be staging an intervention in the very near future.

Below is a picture of the offender. Sure, he looks innocent enough, but he has big plans, people, BIG PLANS! And those plans are evil.

Below is a picture of Ben eating a snack while watching Barney. In case you are wondering, we do NOT allow him to eat his main meals while watching T.V. But he eats most of his snacks at his picnic table and, yes, Barney is usually on during this time.

Ok, on to more shocking news....I have been cooking lately!! I know....I told you it was shocking. It's no secret that Greg and I are not the best cooks in the world. Now, to be fair to myself, I do "make" all of Ben 's meals. He rarely eats take-out, unless it's pizza....he LOVES pizza. However making meals for a toddler doesn't exactly count as "cooking" in my book. It basically consists of a lot of fruit, vegetables, mac-n-cheese, bologna, yogurt, eggs, etc. I also make my own meals during the day...again, simple stuff...grilled cheese, grilled peanut butter, tuna, chips, salad, fruit, etc. When it comes to dinner, however, Greg frequently brings home take-out for he and I.

Lately though, I have been cooking. Greg adores chicken and noodles, so I found a recipe that seemed easy enough and sounded pretty decent and guess what.....he (cue the singing angels) LOVED it!!!! AND I made garlic mashed potatoes (a Wheeler family favorite) and those were delish as well. The only draw-back is that the whole process took about 2 hours and that isn't counting the clean-up time. This reminded me why I rarely cook. It is not easy to keep a toddler occupied (code for "out of trouble") for a lengthly period of time. I guess I just need to find more recipes that don't take so long. I'm thinking more crockpot dishes would be good. I think I'll be making turkey chili tonight. That one isn't new though...I've made it quite a few times. Very simple, pretty tasty and very healthy to boot!

If you are still reading this post, bless your heart. I know this isn't very interesting stuff but tis the life of a stay-at-home mom.

Just one more topic to cover. And it's one you'll likely be hearing a lot about in the coming months. Running. I'm officially "in training" for the spring racing season. And oh my sweet goodness do I hurt!!! I ran a few times last week and felt better and better with each run. And then I decided it was time to add weights back into the equation. Like a moron, I decided to do 2 of my P90X videos in one day. Actually, it was one and a half, but if you ask my body it will tell you I did 7. I am not even exaggerating when I say I feel like I was hit by a truck. And not one of those dinky pick-ups. I'm talking a semi. Every single muscle in my body hurts. Note to self: No more two month hiatuses from working out. It only results in PAIN!!!!!

Alright, I'm pretty certain no one is still reading this post at this point (and I don't blame you), so I'm calling it a day. Make it a great one, folks!!!

Later,

Brooke