Okay the main thing I LOVE about the Wii Fit is that it allows me to workout at home. I can choose from a variety of exercises ranging from Yoga to Aerobics, plus there's aerobic games so it doesn't get boring. It keeps a record of how I'm doing and I can even track my weight (if I want to depress myself).

The two main things I hate about it is the friggin' sarcastic Wii board (or it's bad attempt to be funny) and almost no help at all trainers. It's irritating that the friggin' board wants to 'talk' to me for what seems like an eternity before I can get anywhere NEAR the training part of the program. Then the trainers are both beyond annoying. The girl always sounds condescending whenever she offers help so I usually go with the guy who is really only mildly less patronizing than his counterpart.

I'm not a personal trainer but anyone out there who is do you really repeat the same damn thing over and over and over again while your trainee works out? If so does what you say have NO pertinence with what is actually going on??? For example during the deep breathing in the Yoga module at the end I'm ALWAYS being told that I can breathe through my mouth for now but should learn to breathe through my nose. Are you freaking kidding me Wii trainer dude?!?!?! I AM BREATHING THROUGH MY NOSE! The whole damn time I'm doing it people...no mouth breathing...NOSE BREATHING! Now I may be off balance or shaky that's fine but don't assume how I'm breathing, sorry Wii your technology isn't that good. So maybe have the guy shut the frick up so I can concentrate on the breathing!!

Speaking of I'm going to inhale and exhale to calm down now. Through. My. NOSE!

Honestly it gets me that angry...lol Speaking of repetition when I'm doing a couple exercises it seems to me that whoever created the program ran out of things for the trainer to say so they just have him a loop of two things to repeat the whole time I'm doing the exercise. It's like they think you can't just exercise without jabbering, on and freaking on, if I didn't need SOME of what they say to help me do the exercise I'd stick them on mute. The two exceptions that I enjoy are the step and running choices there is no helpful chatter there, just blissful silence.

I'm seriously considering a punching bag with the trainers images on one side and the Wii board on the other! I think it would be really great emotional therapy as well as physical exercise. I say win  win...now I gotta go dig my Wii remote out of the TV.

In other Wii news DD loves to play with it and now that she's over 3 she qualifies to do the exercises. Here's my question: if that thing is able to recognize that a 3 year-old is using it maybe it could back off on some of it's 'helpful' hints. She's not trying to lose weight...SHE'S THREE!! So when she gets on to weigh herself (she wants to be like mommy) don't say 'that's overweight'. First off she's not overweight, so let's not set her to the standard an adult should be mmmkay?? Second have I mentioned SHE'S THREE plus she's a girl, she is already going to have a skewed version of how she looks by the time she's a teenager. I'm going to do what I can to instill a healthy outlook but teenage hormones don't listen to reason. So maybe don't mess with her head at freaking THREE so I don't have to answer 'what's overweight mommy' questions.

If this thing hadn't been free (which I do appreciate I swear) I would purchase another version or something else to do my exercise. In the mean time I mute the TV when DD weighs herself and try to tune out the rather dim trainer. I also rarely if ever weigh myself because the stupid board keeps telling me that a 'normal' weight for me is something that I know would make me look sick.

I need to go do some deep breathing to relax. ;)

Hey Wii Fit, maybe you should just shut up and do what you're good at, not try to be something you're not.

I'm interested to know because mine has been colouring almost since she woke up this morning. She's taken a break to help me with laundry (she loads the washer and dryer plus starts the dryer and closes the lid of the washer, also it's HER job to turn the light off), and to exercise with me. Other than that she has coloured. She started off with regular 8.5x11 paper but has moved up to a large sheet she got from her dad. While the colouring is seems abstract she looks like she has an intent with each colour. She does not draw figures but just colours, very intently. As I write this there is a larger portion of the paper already coloured in, she's so cute when she's focused.

Since last nice I've decorated my fridge with four new pictures. Now I'm interested to see what this large masterpiece will look like. Her dad's an artist so it wouldn't surprise me if it turns into something, One day, with the right protection for my floor I'll introduce her to painting...that'll be a fun day. :)

Jonathan already bought her a smock, so really all I need to do is find the right kind of finger paints and cover my kitchen floor with a drop cloth...then let her go to town. I can imagine that once that is introduced I'll have to let her paint a lot throughout the week but frankly I don't care, I'm intrigued by her focus on colouring.

Last night she coloured the whole time she was on skype with my parents. My mom was in heaven just watching DD with her face so close to the paper focused on what she was doing. I honestly believe she does have a plan, however convoluted it is...lol

Well I can't hang out watching her colour all day, I gotta switch over our summer clothes with the fall/winter ones, it's getting to be that time of year again.

Well it's new for us. I'm so excited to update our living room furniture thanks to a very generous donation from my mom's cousin! (Someone tell me what that make her to me first cousin once removed...second cousin? I'm always confused by this) So anyway on to the new couch, chair, end tables and coffee table. She completely redecorated her living room, so we got to as well! I'm very please.

Here's the set up before: Note the cute little girl on the love seat...she is rather adorable is not? Now that furniture is perfectly useful however the cushions on the couch kept coming off which was annoying and I was never a fan of the coffee table.

I would like to put out there publicly that DD helped me clean the living room for this photo, she moved ALL of her toys from there to her room. She was quite pumped to help actually, I'll have to remember that next time she wants to help me clean. I need to take advantage of her interest before it becomes a chore to her! :)

Anyway here is the set up after the new furniture: cute child is still a fixture. It's like she thinks every time a camera comes out she needs to be in front of it, I have no idea where she gets that idea. ;)

It took forever to move that couch let me tell you! My poor husband was sick with a cold and then had to move furniture on top of that he had to move it with me and I can talk a big game but my upper body strength isn't nearly as good as my hubby!

Here are a couple of close up shots of the couch and the chair:

The cat wasn't included we brought that one with us. As well as the cup holder thing either end is also a recliner. I'm very pumped about that, seriously they are so comfortable.

The chair is a recliner too. The end table by the chair has a partner but we have to fix the leg of that one first. No biggie :)





Isn't it awesome how the furniture matches the paint? It's like they were made for the space! I'm a lot happier in this space now.

While I'm praying for miracles (ie. free furniture) I think I'm gonna ask for some dinning room chairs, I need enough so that we can have people over for dinner and actually have a place for them to sit. At this rate I have more space for kids than adults...lol

My next big job is switching out fall/winter clothes for the spring/summer ones. It's always a sad switch over but it must be done, I gave the walk in closet to my daughter. :)

...surprisingly goes on.

I still think of things in status updates which is weird but other than that I gotta say I don't miss it. Sure I don't know if someone missed the bus or is stuck in traffic, oddly enough my life is pretty complete despite that :)

I've had more time to organize my house and play with my kid. I still go online but it doesn't seem like I need to spend so much time here. In fact I actually took a book out of the library to read, a real live book. I know it's crazy isn't it?

Some things I miss...putting cute pictures up of my girl: oh wait I can do that here. Isn't this just precious? She was taking bunny for a walk but she had to have her sunglasses and 'Auntie Julia' purse. I know I'm probably biased but she's pretty gosh darn cute isn't she? Speaking of my girl (which I love to do!) potty training is going quite well. She's improved in leaps and bounds! She goes to the potty about 95% of the time which makes this mom VERY happy. She hasn't graduated to underwear yet but that's mostly because she doesn't think she's ready. I trust her because if she's anxious she's more likely to have accidents so I'm letting her decide when she's ready for underwear. It gives her a bit of control which, at 3, she doesn't get a lot of these days so I figure it's an ok sacrifice.

Another milestone, which isn't huge but it's a big deal for me, is she is finally allowing me to blow her nose. Up until recently if she had a runny nose I still had to use the 'bulb' to extract the extra phlegm. Now she'll actually blow into the kleenex, my little girl is growing up very fast right in front of my eyes! I'm so proud of her and so sad at the same time. I can distinctly remember that tiny little baby sleeping on my chest, is it really 3 whole years since she was that small? Oh Lord if you can hear me I'd like another little baby please, just putting that out there. :)

I'm LOVING our new house. It's just so gorgeous here, we got a nice sunshine/rainstorm combo here the other day that gave us a beautiful rainbow! Can you say hopeful for promises being fulfilled? I can! If you look closely at the picture you can see a second rainbow, does that mean double promises? I hope so! Yay for faith! :)

If I had any complaint it's that the wind is RIDICULOUS here, I'm telling you if DD got out there and caught an updraft she just might float away! But my nicely insulated house stays toasty warm so I'm definitely looking forward to a winter were there isn't a constant breeze coming through the house or multiple walls that are freezing when you touch them. It's gonna be good times. Is it wrong that I can hardly wait to decorate for Christmas?

Life is going pretty well here even though I'm not on facebook. It's amazing that it continues even without social networking! Who knew? If any of you would like to see me online I'm still on MSN so you can find me there, if not then keep checking here, it turns out I can update my blog more if I'm not checking a friend of a friend's friend's facebook page...lol

Okay I know that I'm spoiled. My DH works from home so I get to see him a lot more than I would if he worked outside of the home. There are times when I wish he wasn't always underfoot but for the most part I love that he's home. Our DD gets to see him a lot more and I really enjoy having the 'travel time' between work being eliminated. So when he was gone for the last three weeks I think I felt his absence more than I would have if he didn't work at home.

So this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend I'm extra thankful for my husband. I honestly don't know how single parents do it. If you are are single parent reading this than you have my kudos. I spent three weeks living like a single parent and I gotta say as much as I love my daughter I also love that her father is around to balance us out. DD and I are very similar, we need a referee...lol

Three weeks is a long time.  I realized the other day that DH actually spent more time in Texas than he did in our new house. DD and I developed different routines and started doing things, like potty training, while he was away. So now we're trying to get him back in the loop. He's slowly entering back into the loop but it can be difficult.

Either way I'm beyond thrilled to have my husband back. There can be little things that are frustrating with him working from home, but they are easy to deal with compared to him not being here at all. DD missed him, I missed him in short he is loved...a lot!

I've thought of writing an update on our potty training experience for some time now. There wasn't much to say since my last 'report'. We sort of stalled on the whole 'going' part so there wasn't much to do. I will admit it was getting very frustrating for me. I had no intention of changing a three year old 's diapers, in fact I was dead set against it. That won't be me! I don't understand why anyone would 'let' their child be in diapers for that long. Yeah I said all the condescending things you can think of because I didn't know. I didn't know my child.

Ever since the beginning my girl has been intent on doing it right. She won't attempt it until she's confident she can do it right. Starting from rolling over right to potty training she had to be certain and every time I'd get frustrated. Why wasn't she sitting up by herself yet? Why wasn't she crawling? How come it took her so long to walk? Why wasn't she talking yet? You'd think by this point I'd realize my kid has her own time table and that I can't impose mine on her. I can encourage her and teach her but I need to be patient that she'll get it when she gets it. She's such a perfectionist she beats herself up if she does it 'wrong'.

So potty training consisted of us talking about it every day. She'd follow me into the bathroom when I'd go (I'm a mom I can't even find privacy in the bathroom lol) we'd talk about it every time I'd change her and she seemed to mostly understand the concept but couldn't quite believe that she was capable of such a thing. I tried everything to get her to stay on the potty until she actually went. One morning I decided that getting her to sit on the potty in the morning, while she watched her morning cartoon, with her chocolate milk might be the most relaxed setting I could get her in so that she might actually go. Finally after a few mornings of trying she actually did go, very little, but she went and she was so proud of herself she wanted to try again later that day when she went some more. Then her next goal was keeping her pull-up dry for the afternoon and now she's trying to keep it dry all day. We still haven't reached that goal but at least she's trying. :)

I don't know how it happened honestly. Last week if you would have told me she'd be telling me she has to pee right now I'd have laughed at you. I was pretty convinced we'd be only having headway when she was ready for kindergarten. I'm slightly dramatic when it comes to these things and patience may be a virtue but I find it mostly a pain. So right now we have made great strides in our training. I find that every time I think I'm going to be teaching her something she ends up teaching me.

We are by no means done with training but I'm feeling a little bit more optimistic about not having to purchase diapers for a teenager ;)

...first my short answer for why I deactivated my facebook account.

It was time.

If you have a nice drink to sip and want to get into the details as to why my account is no more then feel free to keep reading. I got my facebook account right after I got married so it's been almost five years now. It started off as an extension of my blogging. Then when I got pregnant it was a way for my parents and my sister to see how I was progressing while pregnant then the day to day of DD's first year. Everyone else I was friends with were welcome to follow along in our journey but what initially propelled me to share photos and the like was due to my nearest and dearest being so far away. I could call that a pure reason, but really there is nothing pure about facebook. LOL

Now it's a distraction. It's a place I HAVE to check more times a day then I want to admit. I end up checking out the pages of friends of friends, people I don't even know let alone care about. Frankly it's become a crutch and the only way for me to walk without the crutch is to get rid of it. If you are one of my nearest and dearest (or someone I know who might just be curious :) who want to know how our lives are going feel free to check on my blog every now and again. I hope to add pictures for people to see how cute my daughter still is and provide some stories of our day to day.

I'll still be checking my emails and if you really REALLY want to try and find me online I'm on Skype and MSN, but you gotta ask nicely ;)

I don't think this will be forever. I'm told that I can activate any time and my settings will be restored. (My sister has deactivated a number of times already lol) So who knows in a month or two or more I might come back. But right now I need to take this break. For my own sanity and that of my family. I'm hoping to use the time I save to play with my daughter, hang out with my husband and maybe even write. Something I've missed doing because I'm always checking for that little red box on facebook that let's me know someone sent me a message, 'liked' my status or a comment I made, or made a comment...I shouldn't be a slave to that stupid red box. So I won't be.

If Arielle says anything really cute I'll try to blog about it. I'll post ultra adorable pics of her on here and randomly ramble about the inane, whatever comes to me. I'm not leaving the internet...just facebook. Sorry facebook our time in the sun is over, enjoy the millions of others who need you to survive. :) And those of you don't but still use it occasionally, your restraint is better than mine.