Well that sucks

Yep, that puts me up .2 lbs from last week.  Crap.

By the way, sorry about the smudgy scale.  We keep the scale in the kitchen since it only works on hard floors and the only hard floors in the house are in the kitchen or the kids bedrooms.  (Stupid carpeted bathrooms.)  Anyway, keeping it in the kitchen means the kids play with it and get their smudgy little fingers all over the display.

But being up has got to make the weight loss easier this week, right?

Yes, sleeping in is that rare around here

Yesterday morning when I went to get Will out of his crib, Kalena wasn't awake.  At first I thought she might be sitting quietly, since she does that sometimes before her sun comes on and it was still a few minutes early.  But then 6:30 came and went and still nothing from her room.  I was surprised, but went ahead and made breakfast thinking she'd be up any minute.  Then Brian came in, getting ready to leave and asked where she was and I told him she was still sleeping.  And then I told him I was a little worried she might be sick, because she NEVER sleeps that late.  This was at 6:50 am.  And then she woke up.

She's fine, by the way.  The extra sleep was just a fluke I guess.

Baby monitors for how long?

Brian and I have an ongoing discussion about using the baby monitor.  And by "discussion" I mean we have this conversation over and over:

Me: Ugh.  Will woke me up crying in the middle of the night.  He went back to sleep after a few minutes and didn't need anything, but it throws off my sleep when he does that.

Brian:  Why don't you just turn off the baby monitor?

Me:  Because then I couldn't hear the kids.

I see his point.  I complain that I wake up if I hear the kids, but won't turn off the monitor because then I wouldn't hear the kids.  Here's the thing though-- what if they need something?  Our house is laid out such that you can only hear the kids from our bedroom if they're really WAILING.  Like screaming.  And while I would *probably* wake up if one of them got that worked up, monitor or no, I worry that I wouldn't.  And because I worry that I wouldn't wake up, if I left the monitor off I would spend all night half awake, listening for them.

Also, they're both still in cribs!  If, for instance, Kalena throws up, we have to GO GET HER.  She can't come in and tell us.  I would feel UNBELIEVABLY bad if she threw up in the middle of the night and didn't get cleaned up for hours because we didn't have a monitor on.  So in my head, using a monitor as long as we have a child in a crib seems like the only way to go.  (By the way, it would be totally different if I could easily hear them from my room.)  Brian just defers to me because a) I'm the one getting up with them, and b) he doesn't EVER hear them, even with the monitor on, so it's not like leaving it on disturbs him.  So.  Thoughts?

My Monday

The kids LOVE the rocking toys.  Kalena always wants Will to rock with her.  I'd post the adorable video, but blogger hates my videos these days.

And here's the cake I mentioned eating:

We celebrated my mom's birthday Monday!  So happy birthday mom!  (That was my first attempt at chocolate buttercream by the way.  Yum yum.)  Had some more of that today.  Fortunately it's gone now.

Weekly weigh in

I'm only down 1.2 lbs this week.  There are many things I could blame that on.  The trip to Dairy Queen on Saturday, having hamburgers Friday night instead of the weight watchers recipe we had originally planned, the fact that I skipped two workouts.  OH WELL.

For those of you who are wondering, here's what I'm doing in terms of diet: eating less.  HA!  I know that is like the most generic way to diet, but that's what works for me.  Specifically, I've stopped making desserts (and don't think that brownie mix isn't calling my name) and I quit snacking.  I know the idea behind lots of small meals instead of three big ones, but if I snack?  I eat many, MANY more calories than I would otherwise.  I found that out when I was doing weight watchers.  Most days I ate close to half my points as snacks.  It's because I don't like healthy snacks.  If my choices are carrot sticks or nothing, I'll pick nothing every time.  So nothing it is.  I have a hard time not snacking in the morning because we eat breakfast so early, so most days I have a diet soda (or energy drink) while Will is napping.  The caffeine helps curb my appetite.  And I KNOW that is not the healthiest way to do things. And once I'm done losing and go back to maintaining I'll just go back to snacking.  

I'm no good at the diets that exclude stuff.  As soon as you tell me I CAN'T have something it's all I want.  That is probably why weight watchers works well for me.  Anyway.  It's a new week, so I'm back to being good.  Right after the cake I'm going to eat tonight.

A question

When did you transition your kids from a crib to a bed?  I've heard that the ideal transition age is between 2 1/2 and 3 years old and Kalena is right there.  But she doesn't want to sleep in a bed, she wants to sleep in her crib.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I am oh so grateful that we don't have to fight the "getting out of bed" fight.  Putting her in bed and knowing she'll stay there is excellent.  She's never climbed out of her crib, so I don't have to worry about her falling and hurting herself.

Part of me wants to wait until she's dropped her nap before transitioning, to avoid having to deal with her getting out of bed at naptime.  I really don't know when she'll drop her nap though.  She's still napping every afternoon for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, so as of now she still definitely needs one.  (I guess that's what happens when you get up at the crack of dawn.)

Also, as I said, she doesn't want to sleep in a bed.  We offer sometimes, since there's already a twin bed in her room, and occasionally she'll say yes, but it only lasts a few minutes before she wants in her crib.  (Interestingly, she doesn't actually get out of the bed, she just cries until one of us goes in to get her.)  So how do we get around that?  We're thinking that maybe making her crib into a toddler bed would be familiar enough that she'd sleep there, but that's just a guess.

So.  How did you do it?

A "Kari problem"

When I was a senior in college, my sister Kari lived with me and our two roommates, Laura and Stacey.  Laura and Stacey and I were all students at Mines and Kari worked at Charlotte Russe.  There were definitely some, ah, discrepancies in our priorities.  We used to joke about it, especially when Kari would tell us she had a problem and we'd get all serious and then she'd say something like, "I just don't know what shoes to wear with this outfit."  So, to avoid confusion, we started calling those "Kari problems."  A Kari problem is something like not knowing whether or not to cover your cute shirt with a coat when it's cold out.  Or not knowing which necklace to wear, or what color make up would look best with your outfit.

Ah, those were the good old days.  Now I should probably start referring to most of my problems as "mommy problems."  You know, problems like what to do when Kalena won't stop whining or what to do about the fact that half Will's food ends up on the dining room floor.  College and motherhood.  Two VERY different worlds.

Time for some complaining

So.  P90X.  Have you heard of it?  I knew of it, vaguely, before my brother recommended it to Brian and I.  (We were asking for the advice, he wasn't just randomly telling us we needed to work out.  (Although, he wouldn't have been wrong.))  And I always take fitness advice from my brother because he's probably the most in shape person I know.  Also, he gave us a set of the DVDs to use so that was a big motivator.

Anyway, so far so good.  Except.  I really don't like the yoga video.  It has almost no beginner modifications and has some poses that beginners really shouldn't be doing.  In fact, it has some poses that *I'm* not comfortable doing even though I've been doing yoga (on and off) since I was 17.  (I don't need the beginner modifications, I'm just complaining about them because every other workout has modifications and this one doesn't.  Okay fine, the ab ripper video doesn't have modifications either and I should complain about that one because ohmyheavens I need some there.)  ANYWAY.  I think in the future we'll be subbing in another yoga workout for the P90X one.  And for anyone thinking of doing P90X in the future, you shouldn't be doing shoulder stands unless you've got LOTS of yoga experience.

Now, on to the ab ripper video.  Oh MAN.  Kills me every time and I can't even do like half the stuff.  It was kind of funny though, the first couple times I did this one I kept wondering why I was having such a hard time (WAY harder than the other workout stuff.)  Then I realized that I haven't done ANY kind of ab workout since before Kalena was born.  Two pregnancies and one c-section.  Of COURSE my abs are shot.  I felt a little less pathetic after that.  Only a little though.  I'm still pretty pathetic.

The time is flying

 I am having a really hard time believing that this was a year ago, and not like, weeks ago.

They're both so big now.

Also, we don't have that many pink blankets, but apparently I only take pictures when my kids are wrapped in them.

Weekly weigh in

There it is.  I'm down a total of 5 lbs so far.  If you're curious, the short version of what I'm doing is P90X and eating less.  And Sunday is a day off.  From P90X AND from eating less.  Let's see if I can keep this up.

More Kalena

Yesterday Kalena put her Hulk toy in time out.  She kept telling me, "That guy sit in time out."  (Although, "time out" sounds a lot like "tie nap" when she says it.)  Anyway, I couldn't figure out who she meant, but when I turned around there was the Hulk, standing on the time out chair.  When I asked why he was in time out she said, "He no hit Miss" (meaning he shouldn't hit her.)  (By the way, for Laura, and anyone else who was wondering, we call Kalena "Miss" and Will "Buster" like 95% of the time, so that's why Kalena uses those names.)  She must recognize how strict we are with hitting around here.  It's the only thing that gets her sent straight to time out without a warning first.  I did think it was a little funny that it was the Hulk that ended up in time out.  I mean, of all her toys, he is *probably* the one most likely to be hitting...

Anyway, a couple other funny things she does that I missed the other day:

When you give her something she says, "Thank you.  You welcome."  Like it's all one response.

She does the can't reach something fake out.  Ever pretended to stretch for something and then said you can't reach it?  Well apparently we do it a lot because Kalena has picked it up.  She'll lean away and then hold out her arm and say, "Miss can't reach it!" in her best strained voice.  It's hilarious.

Apparently there are many things that Will doesn't want

Here's a brief list of the things I'm pretty sure Will doesn't want:

Me to have a clean kitchen.  He gets out all the pots and pans anytime I'm in there for more than about 20 seconds.

Any younger siblings.  Otherwise why did he quit sleeping through the night?  He's not up every night, but every time he gets up I think, "we are NEVER doing this again."  Not sure how many consecutive nights of sleep I need before that attitude is going to change.

Me to get in shape.  He's been waking up extra early and interrupting my workouts.  I already get up at 5 to work out.  Is it too much to ask that he sleep until 6:15?

To play by himself.  Luckily Kalena is a willing playmate most of the time.

To eat with a spoon.  He'll attempt like 2 bites with a spoon than either throw it on the floor or bang it on his tray with one hand while he eats with the other.

To sleep without his bear.  EVER.  Heaven forbid he drop it out of the crib before he falls asleep.  Oh the wailing!

It's a good thing he's cute.

Kalena-isms

Kalena is quite amusing these days.  

She likes to narrate her life:

"Miss run fast and (s)cream!"  (Why she needs to narrate this is beyond me.  I am well aware of when she's running "fast" and screaming.)

She wants to help out with Will:

"Miss go get Buster.  Mama stay here!"  

She likes to be funny:

Puts food (or whatever) on her upper lip and says, "Miss have a mustache!"  (This is always followed by hysterical laughter on her part.)

She likes to follow the rules:

When we arrive at our destination: "Miss unbuckle NOW??"

She likes chapstick:

Anytime we put on chapstick: "Miss wants shapsick!"  (And who wouldn't, it's Burts Bees!)

She also REALLY likes Will to play with her.  In fact, the other day Brian looked over and saw Kalena dragging him by one foot over to the toys while yelling, "Come play toys baby!"  

It's a good age.

Biggest Blogging Loser

The results are in, and it looks like people want to hear about all this weight loss business.  First of all, if you click that Biggest Blogging Loser link over there on the side you can check out all 109 contestants.  And the jackpot we're all competing for.  (It'll be split 70/30 between the top two losers.)

Now.  Here's the first weigh in number.  (From last week.)

As much as I'd like to blame some of that on the kiddos (and by some I mean like 30 lbs) that's actually not much more than I weighed at the end of college.  That's about what I weighed when I got pregnant with Will and actually a little less than when I got pregnant with Kalena.  

I'm 5'4" and according to most charts that's already in a healthy weight range.  That weight also puts me in the healthy BMI category.  BUT.  I don't feel healthy.  I was always pretty small growing up; I weighed just over 100 lbs when I started college.  However, 4 years of unhealthy habits didn't do good things for me.  (And, weirdly enough, I was an inch shorter when I started college.)  I probably ate my weight in papa john's garlic butter during those years.  (Mmmmm.  Garlic butter.)  And I mostly quit working out, something I'd been doing 5 or 6 days a week during high school.  So I put on about 10 lbs a year for all 4 years of college.  And then I put on a little more between the time I moved to Texas and getting pregnant with Kalena.  I've done weight watchers a couple of times (after Kalena was born and after Will was born) but both times I've quit around the time I hit 140 lbs.  (I wouldn't have quit the first time, but that's when I got pregnant with Will.  They pretty much frown on losing weight while you're pregnant.)

ANYWAY.  The good news, for me anyway, is that I don't struggle with maintaining a weight.  Between the last time I quit weight watchers and the first weigh in for BBL I gained about 2 lbs.  That means 3 months of not working out or watching what I ate.  Those months included Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the food that goes along with that, plus I ate all my Christmas candy before the start of the competition so it wasn't around to tempt me.  All that and I put on 2 lbs.  Once I get to a weight I just tend to stay there, give or take a few pounds.  On the flip side, that means I have to make a serious effort if I want to lose weight.  And now I am.  So here's today's weigh in:

So far, so good.

Pretty in pink

One of my sister's friends recently gave her a huge box of girl's clothes.  But, since the clothes were all 3T and bigger and my niece is only 17 months old and a teeny tiny little thing, Kari passed them on to me.  Kalena will wear them for now and then they'll go back to Amelia when she's a little bigger.  You know, in 5 or 6 years.  (She's TINY!)  

I love getting clothes from other people because I always end up with at least a few things that I LOVE but would never buy.  

Like a little pink trench coat.

And pink cowboy boots.

Kalena has recently discovered that some clothing has pockets!  And she can put stuff in them!  SO!  GREAT!  (She really likes pockets.)

Now if I just got a huge box of boys clothes in Will's size I'd be all set.

Food fight

We don't fight with the kids about food.  Every meal we set food in front of the kids and they eat it, or not. We don't do the "one more bite" or "clear your plate" or "no dessert until you eat your dinner."  There's no way to force them to eat, so why try?  (By the way, nobody would ever make an adult eat something they don't like, so why do people do that to kids?)

Anyway, I've always liked doing things this way (WAY less stress) but it's really paying off now.  Because right now?  Kalena is going through a phase of "not" wanting to eat.  I say "not" because she'll tell me she's not hungry and as soon as I tell her that that's fine and she doesn't have to eat she's suddenly ready.  Although, sometimes she does change her mind 6 or 7 times before she actually eats (and in the end she ALWAYS eats.)  Every time she decides she's hungry or not hungry I just say, "okay" and resume what I'm doing.  I'm sure that if I tried to make her it would turn into a battle of the wills and I just don't want to fight that fight.  So.  How do you do food with your kids?

You wouldn't believe how much this is annoying me

My hands are dry.  Like really, REALLY dry.  Like, most of my fingers have painful little splits in the skin.  It's a combination of the dry climate and all the dish washing (we don't have a dishwasher, have I mentioned that?) and the cold has just made it worse.  Anyway, lotion isn't doing much and did I mention these things hurt?  So today I put a little neosporin and band aids on the worst two, which happen to be on my first two fingers on my right hand.  And that's when I discovered that I pretty much can't use my mouse pad with bandaged fingers.

I LOVE that macs let you scroll with two fingers (in fact, I always try to do that when I'm using other laptops) but as it turns out it's not so easy to scroll with my ring finger and pinkie.  Also, turns out I'm not very good with my left hand.

So, does anyone have a recommendation for a great hand cream?  Or want to come over and wash my dishes every day?

I'm eating my words this time.

Remember last year when I complained about how it never snows in Junction and then we got eight inches and a snow day?  Well, I was just getting ready to write another post complaining about how it never snows here and it's been all warm and rainy and not at all like Colorado winter is supposed to be, and then this happened:

And since then it has just been FRIGIDLY cold.  Miserably, horribly, no-fun cold.  Like, all I want to do is sit in the living room (the warmest room in our house) under a blanket.  Unfortunately, the kids want me to do more than that.  (Brian, on the other hand is much more forgiving of all the sitting on the couch.)  So, Grand Junction, I'm sorry about complaining about the lack of snow.  I'm ready for it to be (relatively) warm again!

It's not so much a New Years resolution as just a general resolution

So, the holidays are over and I'm back to making an effort on the weight loss front.  In fact, I am participating in The Biggest Blogging Loser competition, hosted by the lovely Jennie.  BUT, I don't really know how much you guys want to hear about it.  That's why you all need to vote in the poll over there on the side.  I'll keep quiet about it, at least until the poll is finished.

Let's start this blog off right for 2011

With pictures of the kids of course!

Will and his giant head.

Kalena wanted in on the pictures when she saw me taking some of Will.  The closed eyes are not an accident.  She would look right at me, then smile and close her eyes.

She loves to have Will sit with her.  I love it.