Resolution Check-In 6

Better late than never, right? 

1) Exercise for 20 minutes per day. This month I only made it 21 out of 30 days, the rest I was either working or we were out doing something as a family that I didn't really think counted as exercise, but I probably wasn't just lying down all day. As of July 1, when this post should have been written I was 159 lbs, just beginning to gain some baby weight.

2) Send one letter per week. I have done miserably at this. I sent one cake the entire month, I think. I definitely need to hop back on the letter writing train.

3) Bake and decorate one thing outside of work per month. In addition to mailing a belated birthday cake, I made an early birthday cake for my mom. I forgot to take pictures of it though, so you'll just have to trust me that it was pretty. 

4) Stop comparing myself to other moms. I've been doing pretty good at this, but I have a harder time with the get-up-and-go part of my mama-personality. In an ideal world, I like to get up, have breakfast, straighten up (dishes, laundry, general upkeep), workout, shower, then head out for the day. On my own, this can all be accomplished by 8:30/9AM. With a little one underfoot, it's usually more like 10:30. Which would be ok, except her preferred nap time is at 11. So if we wait for a nap, then have lunch, and pack up to go, we don't actually get out of the apartment until 2 in the afternoon. On your average summer day, this would be fine. We could go play in a shady park, hop on a bus to a museum, or ride the bike down to the garden to do some work. However, the ridiculous heat we've been having here combined with my pregnancy-induced light-headedness pretty much rules out any outdoor activities in the afternoon. 

I've had to accept that my ideal routine is just not going to work for us for right now. I've had to become comfortable leaving the dishes in the sink, saving the laundry and working out for later, and just getting ready and going. This is really hard for me to do. I don't know what it is about having an untidy home that makes me feel so anxious. Maybe it's because we're renting and I'm terrified the super will come in unannounced and evict us because there's a pile of clean laundry in a basket on the couch. I don't know, I just know that it makes me very uneasy. But for both Lily and my sanity's sake, it has to be done. There is a marked difference in the days we get out and do something and the days we don't. They go faster. We're both less irritable. I'm in a better mood when Joe gets home. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with this, but the benefits definitely outweigh the negatives. I'm clinging to the fact that fall and winter will be here soon when the afternoon sunshine is a most welcome sight.  

An Ode to Dairy

Oh Dairy, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...


In my coffee. 
I use a LOT of cream in my coffee. This is easily battled with non-dairy creamer. It's more difficult when going out for breakfast, though. A lot of places only have the powdered stuff (blech) if any thing at all. 
On my toast.
My favorite breakfast in the whole wide world is a piece of toast with melted cheese on it and a soft boiled egg. So delicious. And so out of reach when you can't eat lactose. There just isn't a good substitute for melted cheese. 
On my bagel. 
My second favorite breakfast in the whole wide world is a bagel with cream cheese. With coffee. Soooo good. Luckily, there is this magical substance called Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese which is just as delicious as cream cheese. Thank goodness. 
With my cereal.
My standby breakfast is milk and cereal. Almond milk gets the job done. 
With some fruit.
Oh fruit and yogurt. Or fruit and cottage cheese. Such a tasty and wholesome snack you make. I haven't found any good yogurt substitutes, yet. 
On my sandwich.
Cheese, cheese, glorious cheese, what a delicious sandwich you do make. Avocado is a delicious, albeit expensive substitute. 
In my pizza.
Chicago style deep dish pizza. 'Nuff said.  
In Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
Just after finding the most amazing recipe for these in the world I became lactose intolerant. Cruel, cruel world. 
In Mexican food. 
I know that there is plenty of Mexican food that is not covered in cheese. Fish tacos are good, but they just don't hit the spot when all I want is queso fundido. 
Frozen.
Seriously, all of the desserts that are worth eating have lactose in them. Thankfully, the food industry has acknowledged this and has therefore created a plethora of imitation products. Not the same, but close enough. 


So that's my whiney lactose intolerance post. I have also discovered Lactaid, a magical pill that solely consists of lactase, the enzyme necessary to digest lactose. I'm doing my best to not just use all of the soy substitutions there are available because too much soy isn't great for your body. And I'm only allowing myself one (or two) Lactaid pills a week because I figure there's probably a reason my body isn't liking lactose right now and I shouldn't force the issue. 


It turns out that not eating dairy is really great for weight control. I lost 4 pounds immediately upon stopping, and only just recently have begun to gain it back what with the growing baby bump and all. So in the end, it hasn't been the great tragedy I thought it was going to be, and there are some days where I just give in and order pizza for dinner because it's too hot/I'm too tired/Lily was a pill all day. All things in moderation, I say. 

Garden Happenings

Lily and I have been going to the garden about once a week to harvest pounds and pounds of strawberries. I'd usually pick a couple of spinach leaves for some salad or a sandwich as well. Other than that, I had pretty much let the patch go wild. Today I finally got around to cleaning it up and planning the next set of plantings. 

While clearing out the well-spent spinach patch I found that some volunteer tomato seedlings had sprung up. I'm fairly certain they are cherry tomato plants because those things are like weeds. I was planning on planting the broccoli here and the tomatoes in the next row over so there wouldn't be tomato plants in the same spot two years in a row. I suppose I could try transplanting them to the new spot, but I feel like that has disaster written all over it. So I'm contemplating just leaving them where they are and adding a few Roma tomato and Big Boy tomato plants to the mix. Is this a really bad idea? 

Here's a picture of Lily mugging for the camera while holding her watering can. The little tomato seedlings are right next to her. 

Our carrots finally decided to start growing! This makes me very happy. I love fresh carrots from the garden. They taste great, they're cute, and they're fun to harvest. I'll do some thinning on Thursday, and sprinkle some more seeds so we can have a longer harvest. 

Later in the week I'll be picking up a couple of tomato plants, like I mentioned before, and also some bell peppers and broccoli. The original plan was to try watermelon, too, but I'm starting to think better of it. I'm a fairly negligent gardener, and if the strawberries are any indication of my ability to reign in my plants, then I should not even consider doing something as large and unwieldy as watermelons. We'll just have to get them at the farmers' market or the grocery store. 

Finally, our little lavender plant is just about getting swallowed up by the strawberry behemoth, but it's still lovely. 

Co-sleeping

A lot of people, friends and random strangers, have been asking me about this lately so it seems like it deserves a post. I've written a little about this before, but I can't find it and things have changed since then anyway. 


We are confirmed co-sleepers. Some people call it bed sharing, or just part of attachment parenting, but whatever you call it Lily sleeps in our bed. She has been sleeping with us since she was born. Starting around 9 months she was sleeping at least part of the night in a crib in our room, but by 15 months she was getting too big to put down without waking up. So now she's back with us. We have a crib with one side removed bungee-corded to our bed frame so she has some extra space to spread out in. 


The thing you need to keep in mind when co-sleeping is that generally your kid needs more sleep than you do, so unless you have the world's greatest morning sleeper, they need to go to bed earlier than you do. For us that means around 8PM I give Lily a bath, put on her PJ's, give her a kiss goodnight and hand her off to Joe. He takes over and helps her brush her teeth, then lies down on the bed with her until she falls asleep. This whole thing - bath to sound sleep - takes about 45 minutes. Then he can usually get out of bed without waking her up, build a protective fort of pillows along the edge of the bed so she can't roll off, and we get to hang out sans toddler for a couple of hours before going to bed ourselves. 


Obviously, this doesn't always go according to plan. Sometimes (like right now) I can hear her chattering away to him almost an hour later. Sometimes she wakes up if you twitch a muscle and so you're trapped in bed. Sometimes the grown-up falls asleep, too, and that's fine. But most nights, it goes off without a hitch. 


The thing most people ask about is, ahem, 'alone time'. All I'll say is, you'll figure it out. We're having another baby in December, so there's proof enough. And no, we're not like creepy Maggie Gyllenhaal in 'Away We Go' (which if you're expecting or have kids and haven't seen this movie, you need to rent it now). 


This works for us. I like having her so close so I don't have to get out of bed when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I like when I wake up first and she's still asleep but slowly wakes up, smiles and says "Mama!" I like feeling her little body snuggled next to mine when she gets cold. I like having half an hour a day all to myself, no baby, no husband, nothing. I like having a couple of hours for just Joe and me to sit and talk, or read, or watch grown-up TV, or whatever. I like that Lily and Joe have something that only they do together. (When I have to put her to bed it's usually a disaster.) Joe likes having the time with her. Lily likes having the time with Dada. It's good for all of us. 


I know lots of people who would hate this arrangement. And that's totally cool. We do this because it works for us, not because we think it's superior parenting. We started it out of laziness and cheapness (we didn't want to buy a crib in Tucson only to have to pay/work to move it 6 weeks later). 


I also have no idea what we're going to do when the new baby comes in December. Originally the plan was to try to transition Lily to a toddler bed or a twin bed after she turned two. But I don't want it to seem like she's being replaced by the new baby. And it'll be getting cold then. For a kid who refuses to sleep under a blanket, parental body heat is a requirement. We also don't really have the room for another bed, anywhere. So, the plan now is to just all snuggle together and see how that works. Once it stops working, then we'll try something else. Suggestions are certainly welcome. 


So I guess that's it. Basically we've just been winging it and making it up as we go along. Sweet dreams!

The Little Mermaid

Lily is IN LOVE with The Little Mermaid. I've watched it with her a few times while fast forwarding through the scary parts. For the past couple of weeks she has been walking around clutching the DVD case singing the melody from 'Part of Your World.' It's adorable.


I've been thinking about getting a fish for a while. We were planning on getting one for Lily for her birthday next month. When I was a kid I had this cute Little Mermaid aquarium with three goldfish in it. So I searched online for something similar and only came up with something bigger and more expensive than I was interested in. Then I thought I'll just get some little plastic figurines from the movie and put them in a fish tank and tada! Little Mermaid aquarium. 


I went to the Disney store to see what they had. It's been a long time since I've been to one of those. I'm really not a fan of the whole Disney Princess thing. In fact it really creeps me out. Also, we don't really have any character toys. They're mostly more generic, open to interpretation/imagination types. It felt weird to be surrounded by so much branded stuff. I came upon the new line of Toddler Dolls, though, and fell in love. They're so cute and chubby. I had gone with my mom, and she was also smitten. Lily had been asleep the whole time, then woke up to us looking at the doll and "Ariel! Ariel!" is all we heard until we left the store. Grandma of course couldn't resist and bought it for her. (Truthfully, if she hadn't, I would have.) 


Now Ariel comes with us EVERYWHERE. She's already been in a puddle, some dirt, smelled lots of flowers, and had a run in with some crayons that Lily was using to apply as 'kissy lips' (lip balm). Lily sings to her, makes sure she eats, and tries to change her diaper (not that she has one, but she tries anyway). All in all, a huge success. 


I've been trying to get a good video of her singing like Ariel, but it's of course impossible to do. She realizes that I'm filming her and sings one bar then waits for me to show it to her. She's a vain little girl. She really does sing the whole melody all together, just not on film apparently. Sometime when we're driving I'll have to just record the sound because that's when she really belts it out. Enjoy!

Thing 2

Here's the official "We're having another baby!" post. I don't know why I've been putting off writing it, but here we are. One week after the official Facebook post seems appropriate. So far we don't really have a cutesy moniker of choice. We called Lily 'the Creature' the whole time I was pregnant with her. For now, Thing 2 works. 


Thing 2 will be arriving sometime around December 4th. That is one day before the end of classes for Joe, and finals are the next week. We're hoping that maybe the baby will hold off a week or so until finals are over and Christmas break begins. If not, that's ok, too, we'll probably still keep it. 


At 14 1/2 weeks pregnant, I'm at the beginning of the second trimester. There's no real baby bump to speak of yet, so there's no point in posting a picture. For the first couple of months I was really tired, and with just a little bit of morning sickness. Then I apparently became lactose intolerant. That's right, I am now sensitive to dairy. Those of you that know me well know how devastating this is. No cheese, no milk, no cream in my coffee, did I mention NO CHEESE???? I actually cried when I figured it out. But, I've been trying all sort of dairy substitutes, I'll write a whole post on these successes and failures. The only good part about cutting out dairy is I just about instantaneously lost 3 pounds and have very easily kept it off. Honestly, though, I'd rather eat cheese. 


I've been working out pretty regularly. I dug out my copy of my favorite prenatal workout video with Summer Sanders. They don't treat you like an invalid and it's mostly light lifting and good stretching. You're supposed to use one of those band things, but I hate them so I use free weights instead. I've been doing it faithfully twice a week for the last month or so and I can really tell the difference. My arms have some definition again that they had been lacking basically since before having Lily. I would like to do it three times a week, but I just run out of days. 


I guess I'll write one these pregnancy updates about once a month. It's weird, I remember the first time around it was this all consuming thought "I'm pregnant." Now it's like I have to remind myself, oh yeah, I'm pregnant. That's probably because I have to keep my toddler from destroying everything. I just don't have the time or energy to think much more about it. 


Don't let my non-chalance throw you off though, we are absolutely ecstatic to be adding another member to our little family. Lily will be 2 1/2, Joe will be almost done with school, and I can just stay inside in sweatpants for 3 months before having to venture too far out in the world. Sounds pretty perfect to me. 

Resolution Check-In 5

1) Exercise for 20 minutes per day. Again, 24 out of 31 days. And the days I didn't I was usually working or doing something else fairly active. I actually lost about 3 pounds, and then gained one back after eating lots of good food this weekend.     

2) Send one letter per week. I did a terrible job of keeping track of this this month. I know I sent out a bunch of birthday thank-you cards, and a couple of birthday cards for other people, and graduation cards. I still owe someone a birthday-mail-cake, though.   

3) Bake and decorate one thing outside of work per month. I made a cake for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law's bridal shower. My phone is being stupid and won't let me rotate the picture, so you'll just have to look at it sideways.   

4) Stop comparing myself to other moms. Well, I'm starting to struggle with this again. Now that I'm pregnant I have a whole other set of people to compare myself against: pregnant women. And there are SOOOO many things to compare. But I'm trying not to. We went more places this month and did more things, mostly nearby, but at least out of the apartment. 

A few random pictures that I just like. First, Lily LOVES peanut butter. When I put the jar on the table to make lunch the other day she grabbed it and gave it a big hug. 

This picture is from Memorial Day. Lily played in a sprinkler for the first time ever. She's wearing her Little Mermaid swim suit (there will be a whole post dedicated to Arial soon) and running around the sprinkler so as not to get too wet. She has great form though, I have to say. Joe and I are both runners, so maybe she'll be one too?