Charlotte Time Out

Baby J was born last summer and after surviving the initial bouts of sleepless nights and triage mode with everyone else in the house, I decided that this spring and summer would be a fantastic time to focus on me and getting myself back into fighting shape. My childbearing days are over — knocking on every wooden surface I can think of — and now it’s time to get healthy and set a good example for my three kids. So, I did what any normal person would do and joined a gym. Thankfully it’s a month-to-month membership because after a solid first month of vigorous workouts including a Zumba and a spin class, Big sisters A and E bring home colds, which sends Baby J into ear infection mode and therefore me into isolation mode. Since I use my childcare sparingly and as work necessitates, workouts just aren’t fitting the schedule.

So, as I was hoisting my nearly 20-pound baby through Costco today while trying to lift a case of bottled water into my cart I thought, “You know? This is a workout.” Then I thought of all the other things I do on a daily basis and got exhausted thinking about it. So here I present my Real-life Workout or a normal day:

Ab Work Warmup

To begin the day, listen for baby whimpers on baby monitor. Sit up in bed. As baby gets quiet, lay back down slowly working the core. Baby whimpers again. Sit up again. Nope, quiet. Lay back down. Repeat five more times until the whimpering becomes crying. There. Core exercises.

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Okay. I admit it. My family eats out more than we probably should. On average we eat out about 3 times a week. My husband and I both work and while I try to plan quick prep meals in advance, sometimes I just can’t face the mad rush. I get home at 5. The kids are ready to eat (seriously near death with hunger pangs) at 5:11.  They moan and groan and roll around on the kitchen floor. Not pretty.

So let’s talk about family friendly restaurants. Given the choice my kids will choose Chick-Fil-A. Everytime. What addictive element in those chicken nuggets anyway? I mean, they are good. But three times a month is about my limit. How do we get around this extreme preference? We stopped asking the children for opinions and just buckle them in the car.

Our criteria for a family night out. 

• Must be within 5 miles of the house. Too long in the car during the witching hour tempts my husband and I to do shots at the dinner table.
• Must have a children’s menu or at least offer one of these five items: cheese pizza, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, cheese quesadilla or chicken nuggets. (note the cheese obsession)
• Must not frown upon audible whines, straw paper rockets or children who stand in the booth.
• Must be reasonably priced.
• Must not take more than 15 minutes to deliver the food once the order is placed. (We have homework, baths and bed by 7:45 people!).

Here’s our short list of places we like to go. 

1. Brooklyn Pizza
2. Charlotte Cafe (at the Arboretum)
3. Formosa Chinese - odd but true that my kids love Chinese.
4. The Lodge – a new restaurant at Colony Place. Worth checking out for certain.
5. Salsas
6. Moes
7. Jason’s Deli
8. Carmella’s Pizza – this is a new one for our list but climbing in popularity!

I’d love to hear about places that you enjoy. Clearly we could benefit from a little expansion.

I love my house. We have more than enough space for the five of us that live here and therein lies the problem. Somehow, in the three and a half years we’ve lived in our house we’ve managed to fill it up with stuff. We’re not as bad as to end up on Style Network’s Clean House, but give me two years and we could be there. It’s amazing how three children accumulate so much. It’s a blessing that my husband and I are able to provide them with toys and it doesn’t hurt that I can rarely pass up a good bargain. So, the end result is too much stuff and a serious lack of organization.

And now that I’ve identified the problem, my husband and I are working toward a solution. To date we’ve provided each child with his/her own bedroom. So all four of our bedrooms have been occupied — at least the first part of the night — by sleeping bodies. After 2 a.m. we frequently end up with a slumber party in my bedroom, but I digress. Right now a great solution seems to bunk up my daughters who beg to sleep in the same room almost nightly and surrender the vacant room to toys. Theoretically this would free up our downstairs and bonus room for the soon-to-be Master of Disaster who is now crawling and standing and will be walking before I know it. Better judgement dictates that Polly Pockets and toddlers aren’t friends, so this way the girls would have a “big-girl” play area and the baby would have a choking-free play zone. Right?

And so it begins. Progress updates will be provided. Or more tequila will be consumed. Or both.