toddler tip of the day....

sorry daddy, no pics today! we had a super busy day of running all over the place, and the camera sat on the kitchen counter untouched!

so today i will share a quick and easy toddler tip that has transformed our mornings. The girls are EARLY risers. The usually make their way over to our room around 6 a.m. For several weeks when we first got to colorado it started to get earlier and earlier, and we were seeing 2 smiling faces standing at our bedroom door at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 a.m. Finally, enough was enough, and we had to do something to maintain our sanity.
Cris (aka super hero daddy), connected their lava lamp to a simple outlet timer from home depot. The lamp comes on at 7 p.m. every night, and turns off at 6:15 every morning. if they wake up and the lava lamp is on, they have to stay in bed. if the lava lamp is off, they know they can come over to our room. it is a genius master plan, and we we are really on our game we change the timer to 7 a.m. on the weekends!!! ahhhh...sleep is a beautiful thing. and they actually seem to like the system because it helps them grasp what time it actually is.

well, today was busy. this mama is tired. Had a nice day at work. saw some very cute and sweet little pregnant ladies, then came home to 2 excited little girls who were VERY happy to see their mom. We headed over to our tuesday night run club at Jack Quinn's Irish Pub. I have been very diligent about running with the run club on Tuesdays. Not only do i appreciate the motivation to run 3.5 miles every week, but i also get a FREE Jack Quinn's t-shirt after 10 runs. And as Grandma Kavanagh alway said "whatever is free, take lots of it" (that is a little inside joke for my youngstown college buddies!). but cris can attest that i live by this motto of Grandma Kavanagh (who i am not even remotely related to, for the record). I particularly annoy my handsome husband by enjoying every single free sample at Costco during our shopping trips. ahhhh i am laughing to myself just thinking about cris grumbling as we fight through the crowds of carts to get that tiny bite sized microwaved philly cheessteak sandwhich. haha.

anyway, back to the events of the day. 2 weeks ago Laura and I braved the afternoon colorado rainstorm to complete our run. then last week it was 97 degrees, then this week, we were back to rain. but i bundled the girls up, and ran anyway, and it was great. Pushing 70 pounds of toddlers for 3.5 miles is not fun, BUT, i do enjoy the weekly run. I especially enjoy the running motivational narrative from Nova. "Are we going to win it today mom? Are we? I think we can win it. You are doing some SERIOUS running today, mom. great job.". However, as we started coming up the big hill about 2 miles into the run, she started into "mom, you have to run SUPER FAST or we are not going to win. i'll show you". So out of the stroller she comes, she sprints for all of about 20 seconds, just to demonstrate how i am SUPPOSED to be running, and then hops back in the stroller and cuddles up in her beloved "brown blankie" and gets back to the motvational speeches. ahhh....sooooo much fun!!! :)

anyway, i am off to bed, then wake up and do it again!