Microblog Mondays: Coffee

At 38.5 years old, I think that it is finally time that I start to drink coffee. I have always hated the taste and smell (even of coffee ice cream!) which is clearly an issue when you want to start drinking coffee. But chai tea lattes are expensive and don't pack much of a caffeine punch. I do like a few teas (my current favorite is Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice), but again, it has about half the caffeine content of coffee and so only moderately helpful.

Starburcks Refreshers are a little better caffeine-wise, but I do know that they aren't super healthy with all kinds of weird stuff in them. And I don't even have to go into the specifics of how bad soda is for one's body....that's a habit that I would really like to kick.

So, coffee. It's time. I have started to read up on how to get my body to like coffee and it boils down to a few suggestions:

1. Start by drinking iced coffee. The bitterness won't be as prevalent in a cold drink, plus there is milk and sugar already in the drink.

2. Start by drinking espressos with some sugar poured in. I would only have to drink a small amount of coffee at once.

3. Start by drinking things like frapaccinos because all of the extra stuff will mask the coffee taste.

#3 is my least favorite option because I am partially trying to learn to drink coffee so that I can get away from caloric/chemical-laden drinks. I am leaning towards #1 simply because CP already likes iced coffee and maybe I can steal some tastes of his coffee and slowly learn to like it? Plus it is finally hot out....

Has anyone gone through this and have any suggestions? 

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YouTube workout suggestions

This morning I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so I scrolled through Facebook before getting up at 4:50 to workout. It was pouring rain and I had planned on a workout inside so it worked out well.....until I started doing the actual workout.

Since we are in the rental house, I didn't bring any of my workout DVDs with because we didn't bring our DVD player with us. I also didn't bring any hand weights or anything else so I have to rely on body-weight programs only. I was looking for a Turbo Jam/kickboxing program because I used to think that was a lot of fun, so I ended up finding a Denise Austin cardio kickboxing workout. 

It was pretty terrible. She doesn't call out the moves ahead of time and willy-nilly decides to change things up so it was frustrating to try to stay with her (even the people in the video with her got confused). Never again. I finished the workout, but it was super unsatisfying and if I'm getting up before 5am to workout, I better enjoy what I am doing (at least a little bit).

After the workout was over, I took a few minutes to try to find something else. Fitness Blender has a kickboxing workout, but it is a weird video with one person doing the moves and no background music and it just seemed awkward. AthlenaXX (or something like it) had a kickboxing workout but it was so odd- one woman with a punching bag halfheartedly hitting the bag. Also a no. At least pretend like you are getting into the workout.

For the days that I am not running, I need a reliable workout. Something either kickboxing or strength training....that does not require accessories.....that is a 20-30 minute workout...with some pumping music in the background. I know about Beachbody but I'm just trying to find something on YouTube for the next two months while we are in our rental house. Any suggestions?

Tuesday bullets

*This morning my alarm went off at 4:50 and I groaned, but I made myself get out of bed to go on a slow 2.31 mile run. While on the run I saw two deer, 1 bunny, 1 skunk, 2 cars driving by, countless birds chirping, and at the very end, 2 people rode by on bikes. But hey it is 9am and I already have 7000 steps for the day and I don't have to worry about doing a workout later (I might stretch though)!

Hi deer!

*Our landlord contacted us partway through the month and asked if we would be staying on though July. We went back and forth about it, but after looking at our updated construction schedule where every room that is being worked on except for one will not be complete AND having no kitchen appliances for over three weeks if we moved in at the end of June, we decided to stay put through July. It sucks because it is another month of rent that we didn't want to pay, but I also don't want to live in a construction zone with two kids- especially one that is putting tons of stuff in his mouth!

*CP and I have been sad that we have no access to the backyard/our garden boxes due to the construction fence on our property. We talked about trying to get back there to plant cherry tomato plants and just hoping that it rains enough before we get back into the house....but last week made the decision to join a local CSA instead! We did a wonderful CSA back in CO and an okay one in MA, but this one gets great reviews so we are crossing our fingers that it's a good one! Our boxes start the first week of June.

*CP's interview for the job that would require less travel is tomorrow. It's a five hour interview with a few panels and he spent a lot of the weekend preparing. Cross your fingers it goes well! The good news is that there is no pressure because he already has a job that he likes....but of course I hope that he likes it because the other perks like a shorter commute and less travel would certainly be nice!

*Twice a year the kids get assessed at daycare. I think that some of it is to make sure that kids get in for early intervention if needed, but I assume that it is also to make sure that they are progressing in general. Wes' evaluation was short and he is right on target for his age group (good job Wes!). According to her preschool teacher, Izzy is doing tremendously well and has progressed past most of the kids older than her in class. To be able to recognize 10 letters out of order in the alphabet is really good at her age (according to her teacher)...the fact that Izzy can recognize all of them out of order is amazing. It was nice to hear that Izzy is also one of the sweetest kids in the class. The one thing that Izzy needs to work on (which is typical of this age) is her emotional development. She can be hard to calm down when she gets upset because she is a bit sensitive (which we obviously already know). But great to hear such a glowing report from her teacher!

*The kids recently had their daycare pictures as well and they are so funny. I don't expect too much from Wes, but Izzy looks like she is quite constipated in her picture. LOL. We decided not to buy any...

*This past weekend we bought a family tent and are planning on going camping with friends (who also have two kids) this summer. I'm curious to see how this goes with kids....

New intentions

About a month ago, I lamented that I wasn't happy with the way that my body was looking 9 months after giving birth for a second time. Sadly enough, I had gained 7 pounds since stopping breastfeeding and I wasn't working out. I was doing okay doing the Betty Rocker workouts, but I don't think that 15 minutes a day really cuts it and I wasn't doing the workouts every day anyway. I was lazy in trying to get back into shape.

Yesterday I decided that there was no more half-assing it. Despite loving my sleep, if I wanted to get my body in shape I would have to wake up early to workout before work if I really truly meant it. I want to set a good example for Izzy. I want to be able to run around with her and not feel totally out of shape. I didn't feel that way yesterday as I tried to help Izzy balance on her new-to-her big kid bike. I was jogging alongside her, partly bent over as I held onto the front bar of the bike to make sure she didn't fall...and I was quickly tired. Sure it was an awkward position but 9 months after having Izzy I was actually in pretty good shape because I had been running a bunch.

So...my plan is to get up 30-40 minutes early every morning to work out. Since I went for a run yesterday afternoon (it was slow....I didn't want to go.....it felt terrible...but I still did it) and Buster is home by himself today, I woke up at 5am to take Buster for a walk. We were the only ones up and walking around at that point which was nice. I even got a nice view of the moon.

Tomorrow? Waking up early to go for a morning run. Even if I can get two miles in before work it is something. Hopefully waking up a little earlier and working out can get my body energized for the day. 

Ten Months

Ten months

More interested in pulling off the sticker than taking a good photo

Height- ?

Weight- 23 pounds with clothes on

Diapers- Size 4 diapers during the day, Size 4 nighttime diaper

Milestones- Wes still likes to army crawl instead of knee crawl, but this month he got faster at it. He started to do a downward dog and then on Mother's Day, pulled up for the first time! CP and I missed seeing exactly HOW he did it, but two days later when I was home with him (he has been sick), he practiced his new-found skill quite a bit! Unlike Izzy who used to stand up on the sides on her ankles in the beginning (which looked pretty painful), Wes went straight to a flat foot stand and can pretty easily pop up.

Wes now likes to give me kisses- open mouth, but I still love them! He looks like he is going in for a bite but is actually going in for some love.

Language- Wesley responds to the milk, more, and all done signs. He will do the milk symbol when he is sitting at his high chair, but I don't really notice it otherwise.

Last frozen breastmilk bottle at the beginning of the month

Sleep- My second rockstar sleeper is generally in bed by 7:30-7:40pm and can sleep until 7am, but has been waking up earlier- more like 5:30 or 6. Later in the month he was taking some monster naps, but he was also sick.

Clothes- 12 month clothes

Swings!

Eating- Wes drinks two 4oz bottles (in the morning and night) and then 3 6oz bottles during the day. Otherwise, he eats a lot of what we eat. He seems to be a big meat eater and will let us know if he is jealous and wants something that we are eating. The other night we were eating bok choy, meatballs, broccoli, and rice. Wes had apple and rice on his high chair tray, but complained until I gave him a meatball!

The face that Wes makes when he likes what he is eating....

...he makes it a lot. He also makes yum yum yum sounds. It's adorable.

Teeth- No new teeth this month so he still is rocking 6 total. He has a healthy gap between the two front ones which is pretty funny looking.

His favorite toy

Illness- Wes had a six day stomach virus towards the end of the month which was super fun. CP and I both got it.....at least you can take Immodium as an adult.

Misc- This past month Wes has done this funny, but also sort of creepy, distracted caress of my breast when I am holding/carrying him. I hope this is a short phase.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day started early this year. I stayed home with Wes on Friday because he threw up/had diarrhea at daycare on Thursday. That afternoon I was still able to head over to daycare early to see Izzy for a Mother's Day Tea because CP flew in from a work trip that morning and took over staying with Wes.

Our "craft" was to help our child glue puzzle pieces that they had colored onto a picture frame. There was also some lemonade and cinnamon corn bread for the kids and parents. Izzy gave me her "quiz" which made me laugh and tear up. 

My two new favorite picture frames

(BTW, we asked later on and home clothes are what you wear at home. I wear train clothes when going to work because I take the train every day, Daddy wears car clothes and often wears plane clothes because he travels a lot. LOL.)

Saturday we picked out the fireplace insert for our house and then headed over to a friend's house for a few hours. We then headed up to MI to hang out with my parents. Wes seemed to be fine until only 30 minutes into the drive when we could suddenly smell an issue. Another change of clothes for Wes and two diapers later we were back on the road. It ended up taking us double the time it was supposed to because we had to stop a second time because CP started to have issues as well.

Yesterday I got to sleep in a little, call the doctor to see if there was anything we should be doing for Wes, and change some more poopy diapers before we headed out for a Mother's Day brunch with my parents. Poor CP had to deal with more diarrhea mid-brunch. We ended up leaving MI soon afterwards because the doctor suggested taking Wes to an urgent care clinic (waste of money), CP had to pick up a shirt to wear for his upcoming interview (yay!), and CP had to go to the store and make dinner (scallion meatballs with a soy-ginger glaze over rice with bok choy and broccoli). 

It ended up being a pretty normal day, but I don't have too high of expectations these days. CP got me a Stitch Fix gift card which is sort of an interesting present because he asked me about it a few weeks ago and I mentioned that I had heard that it wasn't the greatest service for curvy women in bigger sizes. So we'll see. I do really need an update to my wardrobe so maybe this is the answer? For those of you that do SF, I know that I have to make a Pinterest board, but do you have any other suggestions?

The two best parts of yesterday was what I would consider some cool milestones for my kids:

-Wes pulled himself up to a stand all by himself. I walked into the kitchen to quickly do something and when I came out, he had pulled himself up using a chair! I then tried to get him to do it for me so that I could actually see it, but he refused. But that's an exciting step and I'll see it soon enough.

-When I was putting Izzy to bed last night she spelled out every letter in the title of the book "Elephants on Ice." She has been able to point out letters for a while, but this was the first time she quickly went through the letters. 

How was your weekend?

Microblog Mondays: Smaller size!

This weekend it rained all weekend long. Once both kids went down for naps, I left the kids with CP and headed to the mall. I needed some summery shirts that were not specifically for work. I found a few that I liked and realized that I had a gift card from Christmas to Macy's so I headed over there to look for a few new bras now that I am not nursing anymore. I had to wait to be measured, but was shocked and excited to hear that my cup size drastically went down. 

The bras that I have been wearing (the same ones that I wore after having Izzy)? 38H. My new size after Wes was done nursing? 40DDD.* I know that the triple D is still a rather large cup size but really, this is so exciting!!! I was always astounded that I got up to an H- isn't that size for people that have breast implants or weigh a lot more than I do? I guess not.

My mom always joked that after nursing me and my sister she lost her boobs and as someone who has always had huge boobs, I would joke that I couldn't wait to nurse so that my kids could make my boobs smaller.** When friends complained that they wanted some of my boobs, I would reply that I would happily give them some of mine as I clearly have more than enough. I was so sad when my boobs were still huge after nursing Izzy so I was convinced that a second kid was exactly what I needed. LOL. 

I came home and excitedly told CP about my smaller size and as expected, he didn't really care. But it was a nice boost to my self-esteem on Saturday to have well-fitting bras again (clearly I didn't need the H cup anymore!) and for my boobs to look a little perkier. It's amazing how little things can make someone so happy!

*I'm not super happy that my band size is a 40 but I know that I can get that down as I continue to work out/eat better. 

**This joking was before I knew that I was infertile of course....

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