I got bit by a dog!

It's true, I really did, but it wasn't that bad.

Yesterday Aaron and I had this marvelous plan. I would walk to the gym, he would come later with Henry and then Henry and I would swim while Aaron ran. Quite a perfect plan.

While I was walking about 1 block to the gym, this fat little pug started running toward me. I swear I didn't freak out at all. I kept my hands in my pockets and I think I might of said hi to him or something. Then I kept walking. I guess he was excited or mad or something, but I felt a scratch and looked down and he bit my leg and then was bitting the heals of my shoes. It didn't really hurt that bad, but I couldn't believe it. The lady who owned the dog was calling the dog the whole time. I told her he bit me and she said "oh, really?" I told her I was okay but there are a lot of kids in the area and I have a 3 year old and it makes me uncomfortable. Then I walked away.

I think I was too polite. Thinking about it more, I should have been more forceful. One, I think it is illegal to have a dog unleashed in a private area. And two, if you are any kind of owner, you know your dogs temperament, and a dog that runs up to people, disobeys your orders and bites people is not a dog you want to roam free!

Today the scratch mark is gone from my leg and now only the emotional wounds remain....

Oh, and by the way, the rest of the plan went great. I ran 7 miles and had a great time swimming with Henry.

Morning Mistake

This morning Henry and I awoke at exactly 7:00 (he was watching the clock and knew that was the earliest he could get up). We went into the kitchen and started baking. I found a good sounding recipe at www.foodtv.com that was called "banana muffin crunch". Henry helped me all the steps along the way: mashing the bananas, stirring, cracking the eggs and licking the batter. After the muffins came out of the oven, I realized that I forgot one crucial step, spraying the muffin tins with cooking spray. I had thought about it earlier and noticed it was not on the recipe. Well, it probably was originally, but I wrote it down on paper and probably didn't write that part because it is too obvious. This morning I thought "well, maybe there is so much butter it coats the outside of the muffins so you don't need any spray." Tell me, what muffins don't need spray? They all do! What was I thinking.

I let the muffins cool a little bit and carefully carved each individual muffin out of tin. To top it all off, the muffins were just okay. They tasted more like a cookie than a muffin (too sweet). Ugh. I guess that was 2 hours of my life wasted, oh well not really. Still, so much for morning efficiency.

Updates from Grammy

Henry always says funny stuff, but it is so hard to remember. Luckily, Mary remembered some from yesterday when watching Henry. Here they are.

#1. Henry said to Mary, "I'm not good at swords on Wii Resort any more. I keep losing because my power is gone. I keep banging my head and if I banged my head one more time we had to turn it off and go downstairs. I banged my head one more time so it got turned off. We went downstairs and had mac & cheese."

I do remember this incident. He gets frusterated when he is loosing. Sometimes he does just the practice mode in the game just so he won't looe. This particular time he was hitting his head on the carpet and we pulled the plug. He had a little rug burn for a few days after that.

#2. Henry and Mary were looking at a photo alburm from Mary's recient trip to Spain. They were looking at a picture of the ocean.
Mary: " Have you ever seen the ocean in real life?"
Henry: " No, but I would like to. Today when my daddy picks me up I will ask him to take me to see the ocean and he will and we'll go see the ocean, then when I get home I'll play Wii."

I should mention that when he was 4 months old we went to California for my cousin's wedding that was on a boat in the ocean. For some reason, he doesn't remember it.

Well, thanks for the help Mary/Grammy.

Milestone

I have now reached my first major milestone. According to the medical definition, I am no longer obese, just plain overweight. Isn't that great? It seems so funny looking at me, but the American definition is much different. The medical definition is based on BMI. A normal BMI is 20-25, overweight is a BMI of 26-30 and obese is anything about 30. BMI is weight for height based and although it does have its limitations, it works for me. My final goal is to be in the normal range, but to be honest, I have never been there. Right now I am 5 pounds away from the heaviest I ever was before Henry. When I started medical school, I had a BMI of 29. I started exercising and brought it down to about 26. Then I got married, had Henry and here I am.

These last 2 weeks with a personal trainer has helped a lot. It really breaks down the monotony of exercising and it makes me feel stronger. I can already tell I can do more sit ups than before. I read somewhere that it takes at least 4 weeks to really feel a difference, so we'll see at that time.

I am also cooking more, and when I cook, I choose to do healthy foods. I am enjoying the cooking (but not the clean-up). Sometimes it is hard to think ahead for grocery shopping and preparation time, but really not too bad. I think Aaron and Henry like this new plan too. My Henry is such a great eater I never have to worry about cooking special meals for him.

My weight loss was starting to slow down, but with these two things listed above, it has kick started again. It is a great feeling of self satisfaction that I can do this, although I never really doubted it ( I am glad it is working faster than I feared) . I don't think I have as much emotional attachment to food as some and I don't really mind working out. I am in the best shape of my life and look forward to all the new things I can do.

The Knights of Henry

Maybe it was because I wrote about it, maybe it is because Henry is getting tired or matured, but whatever the reason, the last couple of nights have been great. Each night he has come into our room once and easily goes back to bed... and that's it! It's amazing how refreshed you can feel with a solid chunk of hours.

Henry has been saying some funny things. Wish I could remember them all, but the most recent one was driving in the car. He said " I bet the clouds are saying ' no, don't get night time.'" Isn't that cute? He not only empathizes for people, but clouds too. My boy is definitely not autistic, although I could have told you this long before.

He has also been trying to negotiates more, which means he just states what he wants things to be. For example....

Me: "It's time to get in the car"

Henry: "No, it's not time to get in the car. It's time to play Wii"
Me: "Let's go"

Henry: "Okay, but after the car I get to play Wii" Then he willingly gets in the car with the expectation to play Wii later. Tricky guy. What am I supposed to do with that? Usually when we get home, he does not forget.

Gotta love him.

1-2-3 Yodo

Last night Aaron was searing some steak (very very good by the way) and there was a lot of steam. Henry and I were in the dining room and he got a little scared. He asked for it to stop, but we couldn't. Then, he put it hands over his ears and kept repeating "1-2-3 yodo, 1-2-3 yodo, 1-2-3 yodo." He was upset, but he wasn't crying or anything. I asked him where he heard of that and he didn't know. Strange, but kinda cute at the same time.

These last few days nights with Henry has been pretty miserable. Aaron and I have been pretty consistent on not letting him come to bed until 5:00AM, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Man, he comes in every 2 hours or more and then usually has to come 3-4 times each round. It's almost like having a newborn.... I thought it would get better by now. I guess we spoiled him for so long it takes time. We might have to change tactics a little. If it is attention he wants, then maybe we shouldn't talk at all to him and shouldn't re-tuck him in. What a hole we've gotten ourselves into. I dream about the day when I'll have one big block of uninterrupted sleep, but I think so do most parents.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Who needs a personal trainer?

So, with being a member of the YMCA, you get three free sessions with a personal trainer. This last month or so, I've been very static with my exercises and I felt I needed a change. I have thought about seeing a trainer before, but it always scares me. I guess I feel like he would be very negative and I would come out exhausted and unhappy. Not exactly sure why, but that's how I feel. Now is the time.

Last Monday I had my first appointment. Before I started, I was quite nervous. It felt like a basketball try-out or something. While walking in the gym I was rehearsing in my head what I wanted to say (why I'm here, what I want to get out of this, why I let myself get this way, etc). I always want to be prepared.

Once I got there, things were fine. He felt circuit training would be good for me, so we went at it. It really felt funny to start doing pop-ups, and planks and things like that. Some of it was hard aerobically (but not all) and there was only a couple of moves that I couldn't do muscularly. The trainer said he was impressed and that made me feel good.

I fear this blog post is getting boring, but I wanted to give and update. I am meeting this guy once a week for 2 more weeks. A few days ago I did the routine with Aaron and I believe we got a good work out (we're going to do it again today). It is hard to find time for running and circuit training.

Also, since I am using a trainer, I thought I would put in an extra effort to eat better. I went on epicurious and they have a great meal planner that we are using this week and so far it is going really well. I made some great ginger pumpkin muffins, a winter bean-pesto soup, a Thai tofu red pepper thing and more. Honestly, it's hard to keep up. Exercising and cooking take a lot of time (not to mention Henry and my sewing).

Don't get me started about sewing! All I have to say is that there are too many babies in the family for me to keep up with (really it is not bad, but I don't like to think I am behind).

Henry does well with the cooking. He really likes to help and now has started cracking eggs for me. The only down side is that it takes so long with him "helping." It's worth it. Maybe someday he'll be a chef, or at least cook me some meals.

We'll see how this week goes.