Week 5

Sorry this is one day late. Yesterday my mom came to the apartment to keep an eye on Lily while I cleaned and unpacked my books onto the new bookshelf Joe put together over the weekend. Then we went to her house and I did laundry. It was a very productive day! Anyway, amongst all the productivity I forgot to weigh myself. This morning it said 167.4 lbs. That's a bit less than last week, but at one point I was down to 165.8. Then I had Chinese take-out for dinner. I need to work on keeping up my motivation for exercising and eating healthy through at least Friday. I have pretty much gotten control over the evening munchies, though so that's progress. 


M: 60 min walk with 2x15min run. Felt awesome!
Tu: 3 hour stroll. It was so beautiful out Lily and I park-hopped up and down the lakefront all afternoon.
W: 30 min run + 45 min walk. My mom watched Lily while I got to run stroller free for a whole 30 minutes. I finally felt my first "runner's high" in over a year. Right at about 25 minutes I hit the right pace and felt like I could run forever. I was beginning to feel my lack of core strength however, and forced myself to stop at the planned 30 minutes so as to not hurt myself. I am encouraged that I'll be able to go for a long luxurious run in the near future! Then we went for a walk later that afternoon, and that's when I really felt it.
Th: Baby Yoga. Lily thought our cat and cow stretches were hilarious and laughed really loudly. It was pretty cute. 
F: 3 hour stroll to Museum of Science and Industry.
S: 2-3 mile walk at Morton Arboretum. We walked through the prairie and it was perfectly gloomy out.  
S: 1 mile walk roundtrip to grocery store. 

Gratuitous photos

So this is going to be a very random post full of random pictures from the week. This first one is Lily hanging out in her new high chair we got at IKEA. Best $40 spent ever. She happily sits in this thing with a toy for 30 minutes at a time. And it's so light and easy to move I can drag it all around the apartment with me. We got a little insert thing because she's so small. I'm pretty sure it was meant for another chair, but it fits. She really likes to swing her little feet and hold onto the soft insert. 

Here's a picture of Lily all snuggled into her stroller sleeping bag. I have no idea what it is really called, but it is perfect for the colder weather. (Thanks Aunt Becky!)

Over the past couple of weeks Lily has really enjoyed sitting up, with support of course. Her neck is very strong and she loves to grab at things, especially my hair. Also, she loves looking in the mirror. And honestly, wouldn't you if you were this cute?

This picture is just too sweet for words. 

And finally, our little drunken pirate. This hat was a hand-me-down from some friends in Tucson (thanks Rob and Sarah!). I absolutely love it. 

In other news, we recently started using G-Diapers with the biodegradable/flushable inserts. I highly recommend them. Originally, we had considered using cloth diapers, but since we have to use a shared laundry room and each load costs so much, we had to find something else. It just doesn't seem fair to the other tenants to wash dirty diapers without their consent. With G-Diapers, it's the best of both worlds. There is a cloth outer shell with a snap-in nylon liner that you put a cloth or disposable insert in. The do a good job of not leaking, and they have much less of that gross absorbent gel stuff. 

I will hopefully write a more cogent post later in the week. Only 40 days until Christmas!

Week 4

As of this morning, I am just about 5 pounds less than when I started keeping track. The scale read 167.6. Looking over my records for the past four weeks, it looks like the weekends are where I get in trouble (during the week I record my weight every day, but only post what it is each Monday morning). That's probably because Joe is around. I end up exercising less and eating more. I need to work on that. This next weekend I'm going to ask Joe to hang with Lily while I go for a stroller/baby/spouse free run. Sounds glorious already. My other problem is that as the nights get colder, I find myself hungrier in the evenings after dinner. The only thing I want to eat is dessert type food (chocolate, cookies, ice cream, etc.). What I should do is make myself a hot cup of tea with a tiny bit of honey in it for sweetness, but at that moment it is easier to grab a piece of chocolate and let's face it that's what I really want. So I'm struggling with that a bit. Any suggestions?


M: 70 min walk + grocery shopping
T: 70 min walk + 1.5 hr of housework wearing Lily
W: 90 min walk + 1 hr of housework wearing Lily. The maintenance crew came to fix our radiator so we went out for an extra long walk. It was nice to just be outside for such a long time. And Lily slept the whole way through.
Th: Baby Yoga. Lily made it through 50 minutes today. Towards the end we did a pose that involved sliding baby forward and down on her tummy, and Lily did NOT like it. 
F: 60 min walk with 20 min jog in the middle. We took a different route that was a longer distance than usual but it took me less time. I'm getting faster and stronger!
S: We walked to and around the Museum of Science and Industry. So cool. But FULL of people. I'm glad we have a membership (thanks mom and dad!) so we can go back again and again. I tend to get overwhelmed and a bit panicky in crowds so we only saw about half of what we wanted. Still, it was a good time and Lily slept for 4 hours in the stroller. Apparently the hordes of screaming children don't bother her so much. 
S: House stuff. Joe's parents stopped by to drop off some bookshelves and some more of Joe's stuff from their house, so I did about an hour of straightening up and washing dishes while Joe occupied Lily in the morning. Then later that evening we unpacked a good portion of it and I broke down/recycled a closet full of empty boxes. We're definitely making progress. It only took 2 months, but the apartment is starting to feel like home and I'm actually not embarrassed to have people over. Hooray!

CAGW

So, those of you that know me know that I am not very political and that Joe is extremely political. However, we were both equally riled up about this new ad put out by Citizens Against Government Waste:




I know there have been a million attack ads on all sides this election, but the sheer stupidity and inaccuracy of this one really gets to me.


1) "America tried to spend and tax itself out of a great recession." First, starting last year China is spending almost $600 billion on infrastructure projects to stimulate their economy (New York Times, March 2009). That really isn't all that much less than the $787 billion spent by the US (www.recovery.gov). In fact, China spent all of its stimulus money on infrastructure, thereby directly creating jobs. The current unemployment rate in China is about 4% (CIA World Factbook). Here, the stimulus package included $275 billion in tax cuts (Wikipedia - I found this same number in various other sources as well). Our current unemployment rate is about 9% (CIA World Factbook). Second, China has a 5 to 45% individual tax. Compare that with the 0 to 35% federal income tax in the US (Wikipedia - both numbers confirmed from other sources as well). While this does not include other taxes (state, property, sales, etc.), the point is that China has a similar tax rate to that of the US. Therefore, the implication that America is going to fail based on government spending and taxes should mean that China is equally doomed. 


2) "Massive changes to health care." China is moving towards a universal healthcare system (Forbes, January 2009). Specifically they are building cooperatives in rural areas to cover millions of farmers. These reforms are much more widespread than what was recently passed in the US (www.healthcare.gov). Again, if socialized medicine is such a scourge, China should be in shambles. 


3) "Government takeovers of private industries." In China, 46% of industrial output comes from state owned enterprises (Worldbank). In the US, there is no industry that is owned by the government. There are several examples of government sponsored,owned and acquired corporations, but not an entire industry. I cannot find an exact percentage, but our free market system means that much less than half of our industrial output is government driven. 


So I'm a little confused about the take-home message of this ad. The CAGW clearly see government spending, taxes, and industrial regulation as bad things that the US needs to stop doing, or China is going to take over the world. Except those things are exactly what China is doing to move up in the world, so our NOT doing them virtually guarantees the failure of the US. It doesn't matter to me what your political beliefs are, just take the time to find out what's really going on and don't just give into these stupid fear-mongering tactics. 

Silly Lily

Lily has been particularly comical this past week. She's finally gotten to the point where she can be awake for about an hour and be happy. This means I'm spending more of my day singing songs, reading books, and making funny faces. It is a welcome change. There are still hours of sitting and nursing, but they're more broken up now and don't feel like such a burden. 

Lily's newest trick is reaching out to grab at things. She has grabbed my glasses off of my face several times. Once, they landed on her face almost perfectly. I just had to straighten them out and take a picture.

My college roommate from St. Olaf, Kate, came to visit this weekend. She brought Lily a very soft bunny that she just loves. She really likes to grab it with both hands and smash it into her face while squealing. The ears and arms are perfectly floppy for her to hang onto, and it's a little bit weighted so it can sit up. Definitely a fast favorite. Here she is sitting on the couch with her bunny. She managed to kick off a sock, so logically we put it on the bunny. 

Of course we dressed Lily up for Halloween. There is a really fun toy store near our house that was selling really nice costumes. We got her a snuggly ladybug baby cape with antennas on the hood. It's definitely big enough to fit her for the next 5 years or so, so it'll be a fun dress item for a while. Also, it came with a little ladybug finger puppet that sits in the front pocket. All around cuteness. In this picture she is staring distrustfully at a lighted pumpkin in the window next to us. 

And finally, we have the smartest three month old on the planet. She can already read!

Week 3

This week was better for exercise. It was super windy earlier in the week so I couldn't go for a walk outside with Lily. The stroller turns into a huge sail and I was afraid I would lose grip on it and she would roll right into Lake Michigan. I tried walking around the neighborhood instead of the lake front trail, but there was so much debris flying around I was worried about getting stuff in our eyes, or getting smashed by a tree limb. So I had to get a little creative. All in all, I did pretty good. I was 168.8lbs this morning. 


M: We went to IKEA and Costco, each a work out on their own!
Tu: I danced around our apartment for 30 min of cardio and walked up and down our 13 flights of stairs twice while wearing Lily.
W: More than an hour of house work while wearing Lily
Th: Baby Yoga. Lily made it through the whole class without crying or needing to nurse! It was way more fun to actually do it than watch.
F: Walk home from campus, about 2 miles, after parking our car so Kate could park in our lot near the apartment. 
S: Field Museum with Kate. We took the stroller, but Lily just wanted to be carried the whole time. 
S:170, Shedd Aquarium with Kate. This time I wore Lily in the Baby Bjorn. She loved it! The belugas were particularly fascinating to her. 


Needless to say, I'm looking forward to getting outside for more walks this week. November is one of my favorite months weather-wise in Chicago. I love it when it is about 50 degrees outside and sunny. I hope it sticks around for a while!

3 Months

Lily turned 3 months old on Saturday, the day we went to the County Line Orchard with some law students. It poured most of the way there and then stopped by the time we arrived so that it was a perfectly grey day for picking out a pumpkin. We went on a hay ride, wandered around their barn looking at all their fun and delicious products, and had lunch at their restaurant. It was a good day, but at the end of it we were all pretty tired. 

The day before I made gingersnap cookies with my mom. (She did all of it while I watched. My excuse is that Lily had a shot that day.) They were excellent. So much so that when Joe was eating one Lily grabbed it out of his hand and looked very surprised that she was successful. She also made a cute little squeak that sounded kind of like "woah!"

Finally we had a lazy Sunday. This picture is actually from Saturday night, but is more representative of how we spent the next day. Duncan is not trying to escape, he just likes to dangle his head and paws off the edge of the couch. 

Friday's appointment was with the other pediatrician at the office we go to. I liked him MUCH better. When we were in Tucson we just picked someone off the insurance list because we weren't going to be there too long. We actually ended up really liking him. Then when we moved here that same approach did not work. I think because we had experienced someone so awesome previously, it was hard for anyone else to measure up. After three attempts we've found one that will do. I didn't think it would be so hard. Anyway, we're happy now. 

Have a great week!