Single Mom Diva: April 2006

Countries of the world

Brendan's new obsession courtesy of the globe at Grandma's house. Actually two of his obsessions together, a Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals on in the background, purchased at his request at Target.

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A day of anniversaries

Yesterday was 5 months since Brendan was officially completely potty trained. I'm still doing happy dances about this. I'll think he'll be going off to college, and I'll still be doing a happy dance that he's trained.

But yesterday was also 6 years since the end of the big diet. Or rather the BIG diet, the one where I lost 120 lbs. To this day, I still remain pretty amazed that I actually did that. I haven't maintained the weight to that level. I was down to 120 which is a really unsustainable weight for me, but have attempted to stay in the 128-130 range since and while my weight has fluctuated upwards, I've never gone higher than the 150s since then. Right now, I have about 10 lbs to take off, and am doing a diet of my own devising called the ohmigoddess, now I know why DIE is in diet, and I'm hoping to back to my "ideal" weight in a few weeks. I feel so much healthier when I'm at that ideal weight and I just feel good about myself. I know my sense of self shouldn't be tied into appearance, but it just makes me feel good to be able to look at myself and like what I see.

It was also Brendan's first dental visit and he was a trooper. He marched in and announced his name, that he was there to see the dentist and was going to the waiting room and they could call him when they were ready for him. He had everyone laughing. He was very good in the chair. He freaked a little when the dentist and then the hygienist tried to lower the chair, but otherwise did great. And knock wood, his teeth are great.

The Easter Bunny came

As Brendan announced to me at 5:30 this morning. The bunny was extra generous with the candy because Brendan had been gracious enough to sit with him at the mall yesterday. Last week we had been at a different mall and he'd flat out refused to sit with the bunny, he didn't even want to look at him. I didn't get it since he'd happily sat with the bunny last year and had just molested half the characters in Disneyworld a month before. He wouldn't tell me why he wouldn't sit with him, just giving me nonsense reasons like "He's too fingery", although later on he did tell me "I was bashful". We were at a different mall yesterday and this bunny he liked. Well, it was a nicer looking bunny, not quite so freakish looking. It reminded me of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and I kept expecting him to get up and run away saying he was very late for a very important date.

Since he had voluntarily waved at the bunny, I told Brendan that if you sit with the bunny and get a picture taken that the bunny will bring you more candy. Strangely enough, he agreed to sit with the bunny, lol.

And the bunny did come through for Brendan, lots of M&Ms, Kisses, peanut butter cups and a little bunny. The bunny even left a trail of eggs down the steps to the basket. The bunny I believe should be commended for not eating any of the candy despite being on a very strict diet for the previous week (the bunny needed to take off some weight she, um he, put on from the prednisone munchies). Brendan was very generous, offering to share some of his candy with me in between the handfuls he shoved in his mouth, but alas....

It's not even 9:00 and he's already all sugared up and running around. Can't wait to see how much more candy he'll get later at Easter at our uncle's. Maybe he can make it all the way to a sugar delirium.

What makes it all worth it

We had Noggin on yesterday and they were talking about what happiness is and giving examples of things that make you happy. I asked Brendan what happiness is and he said "You, Mommy."

Future MVP

I'm not an athlete. I did play little league as a kid and was an avid swimmer, but mostly my tastes run to the "girly" sports like gymnastics and ice skating. I never doubted my ability to raise a son, but the one area I've always felt a bit out of my element is teaching him sports and generating an interest in them. As it happens Brendan was also graced with my athletic genes, so he got the double whammy. I did get him a basketball hoop, he has a ton of balls, I've thrown a ball around with him, but most of it was half-hearted. For his first birthday, my brother gave Brendan a real baseball bat, ball and glove. (My brother is a complete sports fanatic-he's currently the acting commissioner for one of the NCAA conferences-and my nephew is one of the most athletically gifted kids I've ever known. Seriously, this kid could do jump shots before he was 2 and appointed himself goal tender on his soccer team, a team made up of 3 and 4 year olds where there's not supposed to be any defense. In comparison, it made it even worse Brendan's lack of skill and interest.) But he recently pulled out the glove and the baseball and told me he wanted to play baseball. We took a trip to Target where I got him a nice plastic bat and balls (yeah, I'm letting this kid throw a real basebell and use a wooden bat) and we went out hit the ball around today. And we had a really good time. His throwing has really come along and for a kid who's only ever hit a ball off of T before, he did pretty good. But I have to say that this one of those times it would be nice if he had a dad or even a consistent male role model, well a younger one anyway, my dad being his main one, who could do this kind of stuff with him. I'll hit the ball with him, I'll kick a soccer ball and I'll have fun with it because he has fun, but I'm hoping one day he doesn't feel like he's missed out on something or that he's behind the other boys in this kind of stuff because he didn't have a better athletic role model.