Tattoo

Henry had an end of year picnic at his preschool. There was face painting and Henry decided on this. I promised him we would write a blog post about it. Here is his story in his own words....

It kinda washed off. I ate a lot of stuff [at the picnic]: pineapple, dessert, uh chips and cake. It was special [the cake] because it had pistachios pudding and swirls [Henry and I made the cake the night before].

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Me: Why did you decided to get a tattoo with I heart Mom?
Henry: Because I love her

Me: Why didn't you paint your face?
Henry: Because....then I couldn't see it.

Me: What was your favorite part of the picnic?
Henry: The bouncy house.

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I like the pictures even though there is not very much.

Now back to me.
I guess that is all for now. I got a pretty sweet guy wanting a tattoo of me. It's crazy that he has been in preschool for one school year. Starting next month he will go 3 days a week, which he is excited for. Last night after we tucked him in bed I heard him talking. He usually talks himself to sleep and I don't much pay attention to what he says, but last night I heard  " 69, 70, 71......100." My boy counted all the way up to 100 (minus the 80's but who really cares about those numbers anyway) and then after that he promptly fell asleep and I never heard a peep out of him again.

What a guy!

The Bug

I always find that once I do one good thing, it makes me want to do more. Since I've tackled nutrition, the next step is fitness. Henry is a very active guy and helps us get out and do things. This last week we have had lot of outside adventures: we walked to the farmers market, to a new yogurt store, rode on the pontoon, played golf and tended our garden. After Frances was born, we bought a nice double stroller which Henry really likes, but Frances hates. We will just keep trying, but on all of our walks, it has ended up with me carrying her. I've been able to run a little bit by myself and it feels nice. Don't get me wrong, it's hard, but it feels right. I actually joined a running club and will be doing a beginners group run starting in a few weeks. I'm pretty excited about it now, hopefully I won't get too nervous when the time comes.

I feel like our pace in life is settling down and is much more enjoyable. I would still like a little bit more free time here and there, but really, it is better than expected. I had a great mother's day with my family. Even though the day itself seems a little silly, it's nice to sit back and reflect on how I'm doing as a mother, where I want to be and how grateful I am to have a great mom and family.

With so many things (fitness, family, life), it's all about the journey, I just hope I'm paying enough attention.

4 Months and 2 weeks

I like my last post's title "The Garden and the Bee." I wanted this one to be as cool, but sadly it is not. All it seems like is 4 1/2 months, but oh, it is so much more than that.

First off, Frances had her 4 month shots and is growing well. It was a very low key visit since my co-worker already knows all about her. Still, it's fun to objectively see how she is doing. Today she weighed 15 pounds and 2 ounces and was 24 inches long. That places her at 50% for height and ~85% for weight. That was with a cloth diaper on, so maybe she is more 75%. I don't remember her head, but it was in the 50%.  All in all growing well. It looks like she might just be and "average" height kinda gal. At this time Henry was already taking off in the growth chart.  We'll see if she keeps up her average trend. This wouldn't be a good 4 month post without some adorable 4 month pictures.  I am happy to oblige.

With her getting older, it is becoming apparent how different she is from Henry. She is a talkative smiley girl, but always wants to be with me (Henry was fine with either one of us). It's crazy. She'll fuss when Aaron is holding her, but if I put her on my lap she is completely content just sitting there, looking at Aaron with a huge smile. I must smell good or something.  To be honest, I'm over being flattered about it. Take for instance last Sunday. There was a great show on PBS called Sherlock that just entered its second season (I highly recommend it to anyone who used to read Sherlock Holmes, Encyclopedia Brown or has a pulse). I have been looking forward to watching it for a year. So when it came on, I passed Frances to Aaron (Henry was already in bed sleeping like a good little boy). I went upstairs to watch it and the clock said 8:06.  I heard Frances fussing at 8:11. I looked at the clock because I wanted to see how long she could go without me. Five minutes, five measly minutes! The whole show Aaron and I were doing a little pass back and forth. I would get her nice and happy and then send her back to Aaron and then he would get her nice and fussy and toss her back to me (not literally).  Since I have been at work now for 1 1/2 months, you would think she would get over it, right?

Now to the 2 week part of my post. I wrote a little bit ago that I would be eating clean for 2 weeks. Well, I basically did that and it went pretty good. I'm going to be honest and say it didn't make me feel to much different as far as energy level or mood or things like that, but I was happy that I was doing it. I do think that it has changed my taste buds and it has me craving more healthy things. I no longer crave surgery things. The perfect snack for me is now plain greek yogurt with honey and blueberries.  What? I like plain yogurt now (well with honey)? In my mind, it is the perfect diet, the way we are supposed to eat. I was glad I was able to stick to it. I think it has taught me a lot. I am going to continue eating all the fruits and veggies that I have been doing and will still try to cook clean meals. I have learned that I love steel cut oatmeal in the morning and have learned some very good recipes (moroccan chicken with lentils and veggie burgers with sweet potato and quinoa to start). This change is good for my family and even though our grocery bill has gone up because of the produce, it simplifies grocery shopping a lot.



It's so weird not buying packaged food in the grocery store, weird but good.

The Garden and the Bee

First off, our garden is growing really well. Henry is doing a great job checking on the plants, watering them everyday when there is no rain and weeding with me. He really loves it. I'm not surprised, I guess I just wish we would have kept up with it three years ago.  Here, take a look at our garden.

Henry would never smile big for the camera on purpose. I had him tell me a funny joke and obviously it was pretty funny.



There are carrots in the background and edamame in the foreground.

This is Henry's flower from church and you can see little wild flower seeds sprouting around it.

This week has been pretty nice out. I got to run outside with my Garmin watch. The first five minutes were great. The breeze was perfect to keep me cool and waft in the smell of lilacs and other flowers. Then things got a little tougher and then even more tough. I was trying to run slow, but it was hard to keep my legs from going at their natural pace. After about 2 miles or so, I had to walk. Walking is fine, but the whole time I felt I was on the verge of puking (don't worry, I didn't). I guess I pushed it a little too hard. Hopefully I can run again today. In all honesty, I am not as bad off as I thought I would be. To go from nothing to two miles is pretty good. I guess my body stayed in okay shape throughout the pregnancy. I think I will be joining a beginning running club next month. This should give me some motivation and maybe some good tips. I'll keep you updated.

One day after work I took Frances and Henry to the park across the street. I had Frances in the Baby Bjorn so I could have my hands free. When we got to the playground there were some kids from the neighboring school. One walked up to me and said "I like your baby" and then walked back to where he was playing. A little bit later that  same boy came up and talked to me again. He was playing with two other girls. One of the girls asked Henry if he wanted to play with them. Henry said "no thank you." Such a polite guy. The kids were still talking with me and I was trying to keep Henry in the conversation. One asked where we lived and Henry said "across the street."  When Henry started playing on the playground again, the kids just joined him, and you know what? Henry loved it. I was so happy to see him playing with kids and I could tell he was too. The kids were in 1st grade and all of them seemed really nice. I love the part of mommyhood where you can just step back and watch your child flourish.

Eventually we had to go home and while we were walking Henry felt something on his hand and he brushed it off. I looked on the ground at it and it was a bee. Henry seemed scared so I squashed it, but then Henry started crying and I knew it stung him. I looked at his hand and I could see the stinger. I was trying to get the stinger out and Henry was saying "Mommy you're hurting me." I got it out pretty quickly and then I scooped him up with my right arm and started for home. Henry was crying pretty hard and I knew it hurt him pretty bad. I'm sure I was a site to see, with Frances in the Baby Bjorn and Henry on my side. Still, we made it home and with Aaron's help we managed to ice it and give him a dose if ibuprofen quickly. After a few minutes he was calm and it seemed like the pain was in control.  His hand did look pretty red. Then next day I could see his hand was still a little swollen and he said it hurt, so we gave him another dose of ibuprofen. After that he was back to normal. Even though this was a small, minor pain, in my mind I keep reliving the point where he realizes he got stung and the pain starts.  Poor little guy, well I guess maybe not. There are worse things to happen and this one is over and done.

So time for a little tally, Henry has been stung by a bee twice now, Aaron has only been stung once and I've been stung a gazillion times (or so). I'm the winner!

The truth about cloth diapers

If you research online, you will find lots of websites boasting about cloth diapers and how wonderful they are. They are great, I'll give you that, but it can be a lot of work. Here is the truth as I see it.

Before having kids, the thought of cloth diapering didn't even cross my mind. I knew I had cloth diapers as a baby, but I assumed I would use disposable like the rest of the world. Luckily when I got pregnant I had a friend who was using cloth diapers on her baby. I saw how much easier they were compared to the old fashioned prefolds and how soft they were. That got me thinking (and Aaron too). We did some on-line researching and we bought cloth diapers for Henry with Velcro closures (BumGenius if you want to know).  During his babyhood (up to 1 year) they were working pretty well, but then it went downhill.  He was always leaking at night and the Velcro was not working very well. We tried stripping the diapers, but that didn't improve the leaking. We also were not diligent in putting the Velcro on the Velcro taps when washing (to prevent damage). So, around that time we switched to disposable and finished out his diaperhood in those.

Henry, 3 months with his cloth diapers

When Frances came around I felt we needed to move on from our mistakes. This time we bought cloth diapers with snap closures and adjustable elastic around the waist and legs (FuzziBunz).  For us, these are working a lot better. It seems like every few weeks we have a lot of leaks and have to adjust the elastic or snaps until it is right, but eventually we get it right and the leaks stop. Frances also started soaking through at night (because she is a lot better sleeper than Henry). We bought some hemp inserts and these work well if we put them in. Sometimes she falls asleep early and we don't have time.

 Another issues has been that Frances is very sensitive when there is poo in her diapers. She usually lets us know right away, but when she doesn't she gets a little red. Most diaper creams don't work for cloth diapers, but we found one that works and have been pretty happy with the results. If her bottom is super bad, we might switch to disposables for a diaper or too, just to use strong diaper cream. That usually remedies the situation.

The most important issues that scares people away from cloth diapers is the laundry.  We have 18 diapers and end up doing laundry every 2 1/2 days or so.  It isn't so bad since Aaron stays at home, but we really do need to keep on top of it.  When we do her laundry we have a cold cycle with no detergent, then a hot cycle with special cloth diaper detergent then drying on a gentle cycle. This takes time and if Frances has a lot of little poos during that time, we can run out of diapers quickly. If that happens, we again need to use a disposable diaper until the regular ones are clean.

So, here's the thing, because I have only used cloth diapering on both kids when they were infants, I'm not sure if they leak more or less. I'm inclined to think a little more, but I don't know.  Usually the leaks aren't that bad and for me it's not big deal because urine is sterile. We just have to change her outfit, but luckily for us we are not lacking in these.

Compared to disposable, cloth diapering is more work,  but the rewards are pretty huge. I like not throwing away the diapers, I like no wasting money and I like they way they look.  I'm definitely willing to put in the time.

Now like Elmo, it's time to ask a baby.  Frances, what do you think of cloth diapering?

She has spoken!

P.S. I also should put a little plug in for FuzziBunz here. One of the diapers had stitching that was coming out. I e-mailed the company with a copy of my recipt and a picture of the diaper and I got a new diaper quickly. It was very painless.

Race Day

It was exactly one year ago that I was in the best shape of my life. Last year Aaron and I ran the Trolley Trail 4 mile race. It felt really good and I was fast (well for me). Little did I know I was a few weeks pregnant....

This is us last year right after my race and before Henry's.

Now fast forward 1 year later. We again signed up for the race, but this time we were going to walk it while pushing Henry and Frances. When we woke up it was storming out; not too ideal for the kiddos. Although I wanted to do it personally, I couldn't take my kids out in that weather. If we started the race, we would have to finish it, no matter what. I could already hear Frances' cries. So, we passed on that and hoped Henry could still do the kid's race.  Last year he loved it and has been talking about it ever since. It would have been such a disappointment for him. Luckily the rain and thundering stopped so he could race.  Before the race he seemed a little nervous and short fused. I guess he was getting his game face on. We chose for him to do the 1/4 mile race.  We wanted to see if he could do it on his own, but in the end, Aaron ran with him.  Henry did great and ran the whole way. Great form and stayed serious the whole time, even with me clapping and cheering from the sidelines.

Henry running this year.

While we were at the race, I had Frances in a front carrier. She loved looking around and eventually fell asleep. While we were walking back to the car, her body was curled in to mine, relaxed and in complete trust. I could feel her heart beat next to mine and it felt like we were one again.  I don't know how to describe it, but it just feels right, so perfect.

The whole crew

So maybe I'm not in my best shape anymore, but I have something even better. I will get back to that level and when I do, I will have a little girl cheering for me in the end.