Mommy Needs Her Rest

I have been battling a cold (and losing) all week. I have been grossing out my entire office as well creating fear that I will be getting them all sick before a holiday weekend. Rob has been working the past few nights so I have had to get both girls fed, bathed, put to bed & lunches made for next day (all after I get home at 6:15). Lila is pretty easy since after dinner, she gets a bath & goes right to bed. Eve, on the other hand, is my companion until I feel asleep (NOTE: until I fall asleep...she usually stays up later than me).

Last night, Eve was actually playing nicely in her room while I chatted on the phone. Eve hit the "espanol" button on her DVD player & proceeded to watch Barbie Mermaidia in Spanish (which she said she wanted to do since she wanted to learn more Spanish). Eve kept coming in my room saying "Como estas, mama." Super cute.

Then she came in while I was coughing & asked me if I was OK then told me I need to lay down, rest and take my medicine. So i listened & took some cold medicine which knocked me out. This morning, I was bragging to Rob on how well behaved & good Eve was the night before even though I was sick. Whenwe went into her room, we saw "EVE" written in marker all over her dresser in her room. HHMMM...

Atlanta Botancial Gardens

I am so behind in my blogging. About two weeks ago, we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (along with the Wolf fam again). The Botanical Garden was really pretty. They have this new thing called the Canopy Walk which has a walkway built into the trains. Then they have a Children's Garden which had tunnels to climb through, slides, and sprinklers (which was Eve's fav). They also had an Edible Garden which was really neat then have an outdoor kitchen in which they talk about dishes to prepare with fresh ingredients from your garden. Surprisingly, we lasted about 3 hours there even though Eve kept wanting to go back to the sprinklers. No gift shop this time around either--we hightailed it out of there since we knew Eve would convince us to buy her something for her invisible "garden."


This weekend we have Aunt Vicky & Uncle Matt visiting. We have a fun-filled weekend planned--shopping, BBQ, comedy club, TN Aquarium and Kids Museum. More to come on our trip to Chattanooga (it looks really fun there!).

It Runs in the Family

Everyone knows that I am a picky eater (i like to say "discriminating"). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree since Eve is also a picky eater. However from what I am told from my Mom, she is far worse then i was at her age. There are 3 options for dinner: mac & cheese, grilled cheese & plain pasta noodles. That's it. It makes it easy for me since I don't cook but I always squirm in my seat when the pediatician asks me what she eats.

Because I totally understand where Eve is coming from, I don't force the issue with her with eating new things. In time, hopefully she will try new things as she sees her friends (and Lila) eating other things. My only worry is that Lila will pick up on Eve's bad habits. Lila eats just about anything we put in front of her--she loves fruit, tater tots, chicken, peas, grilled cheese, etc--you name it, she tries it. We need to enjoy this while we can!

Going Wild on Mother's Day

No, it's not what you think. For Mother's day this year, the Parlaman clan headed to Zoo Atlanta. We went to the zoo with my friend Melissa & her family so Eve had a friend to run around with & Lila had a fellow stroller pal. For the most part, everyone had their "listening ears" on (even Daddy).

Eve's favorite part of the day was seeing the giraffes (both her & Lila had their giraffe dresses on). Eve also saw chimpanzes, elephants, meerkats, gorillas, kangaroos, and cotton candy (i asked her to list what she saw today & that was her response as she eats cotton candy at 7:30 pm). The pandas were also really cute (take a look at the pic of Eve standing next to one--it almost looks like she is in the cage with him). We went on the train ride & then the carousel. And to finish off the day, we headed to the gift shop where each girl picked out a toy--both picked a giraffe.

What would Mother's Day be without a trip to Olive Garden (thanks to Mom & Dad for the gift certificate!). Looks like everyone & their mother (literally) was at Olive Garden but luckily we got there early. Eve claimed she didn't want to eat & Lila whined since she wanted to nap & couldn't in the loud restaurant. So we quickly housed our food as the kids melted down then headed out to buy a new dishwasher since ours smells like puke (appetizing, huh?).

Mother's Day wasn't too relaxing but it was nice to spend some QT with the lil ladies & Rob. A very special Mother's Day shout out to my MOM & to all the other moms out there!

You're Not Listening!

This was an adamant quote that Eve said to me last night. Apparently one of her blonde BFFs, Amelia, had her hair in some braid configuration yesterday. So, after Eve's bath last night, she asked me to "do her hair like Amelia's." She now has named her hairstyles based on her friends at school. Putting her hair in a ponytail is called the "Annalise." Pulling her hair half up & leaving the rest down is dubbed the "Alyssa." And now (i just found out) that putting your hair in one braid at the nape of your neck is called the "Amelia" (side note, most of her friends are blonde & their names start with "A" in her school).

When Eve asked me to do her hair like Amelia she said you put it in braids "like this" then mentioned to the sides of her head. So, i figured she wanted me to braid each side then meet in the middle into a ponytail since she mentioned that the braid goes into a ponytail. After I painstakingly did this (and thought it looked awesome by the way), she looked in the mirror, made an angry faced turned to me & yelled, "you're not listening! i said put my hair in a braid & ponytail!"
So, i took the ponytail holder out then proceeded to do a single braid at the nape of her neck. Feeling accomplished, I said "go look now..you totally look like Amelia." She went to the mirror turned around again & yelled "you're not listening again! I said a ponytail & a braid!". She angrily pulled the ponytail holder out & went into her room.

The wrath of eve...

Funny thing happened today. Rob sent me a picture with the title, "ms. rebecca fixed my hair." I opened the image & knew exactly what it was. Ms. Rebecca was able to unravel Eve's hairstyling directions & create a braid at the nape of her neck! I laughed out loud because I knew exactly what the picture meant..the even funnier thing was it looked just like what i did last night (except this one started a little higher on her head). i guess mother doesn't know best..ms.rebecca does!

The Kinda Healthier Me

About a month ago, I joined LA Fitness. When i went out to get a massage from Massage Envy & came back & told Rob that I think I am going to join LA Fitness, he gave me this look & said, "then why did we move all of that exercise equipment from PA to here?" Well i was going to start working out at home since I had a dedicated room with a TV, elliptical & treadmill. However, I found it tough to get motivated to go to my basement & workout at 5:00 am even though we got new carpet & freshly painted green walls.

After talking to some people at work (Cross Fit is a big craze at work), I found that many other moms/dads were getting to the gym at 5:00 to work out (so my excuse that I have two kids & work all day was not a valide excuse any more). i was almost convinced but once i saw LA Fitness, I fell back in love. Back in high school & college, I used to work out all of the time. I loved gyms! I liked having a destination & being surrounded by other sweaty people that also dragged their butt out of bed to work out at 5:00 am. LA Fitness also had Kids Klub where they have a big indoor playground, kitchen, tv, etc. I knew eve would fall in love too.

After the tour of the gym, the instructor told me that I could come back the following day for a trial & bring the kids. The next day, I brought both kids. Lila made it 45 minutes then they came to find me to say that she is crying & they think she is hungry. So, i went & fed her then tried to come back to finish my workout but she kept crying. I threw in the towel at that point & figured I would try again with her next weekend. Well, she was even worse the following weekend & I couldn't work out at all. Thus, my more frequent 5:00 am workouts & going to the gym with Eve in tow sans Lila (Eve asked if she could go to the gym with me & leave Lila home since Lila cries too much).

Now, i go about 3x a week at 5:00 am & try to go when possible at night with Eve when Rob is home so he can get Lila ready for bed. Eve gets so excited to go the gym & usually asks me if we are going to go to the gym. She is quite the motivator.

This week I am going to try yoga. It seems like everyone has tried yoga so I guess I am in the minority. I did two sessions of prenatal yoga when I was pregnant with Eve but never really got into it. I figured I would give it a go since it seems relaxing & doesn't require sneakers (they even turn out the lights too--which is good so people don't see that i don't know what i am doing). I invested in a cute pink yoga mat too. I figured I would jump on the bandwagon since yoga has been a staple of most celebrities. Do you think Bret Michaels does it too?

Anywho, what are your tips to stay in shape?