Day 8 - Stress

As we move closer and closer to putting the house on the market (which I feel like we've been trying to do for a month, but maybe it'll happen next week. Next week!), our stress level increases a bit. How much do we really need to fix? Should we replace that window? Do we really need to paint that little white spot on the wall? How nice should the carpet be that we install? How much, really, do we need to clear out of the closets? And then, what if our house sells super quick and there's not a house on the market that we want to buy and we end up homeless for a while? And where do we want to move?

When the stress levels go up you need to do good, fun things. Go for a walk. Work out with Jillian. Take a nap. Eat pizza from La Cucina. Toss the baby in the air for a while and listen to him giggle. Watch USA/Canada hockey. Tell John not to even turn on a computer if he doesn't want to know the score (he's got it on Tivo). Go play outside and say good-bye to the last remnants of snow. It's supposed to be 50 here next weekend. 50! Hellooooooo, SPRING!

Speaking of stress, we've got two more days of Jillian at Level 1, and then we move up to harder, kick your ass a little bit more, Level 2. Helloooooo, sore muscles!

Check out Dexter's cute new shoes from Grandma, and his cute 18 month blue jeans

Day 7 - What's Your Sign?

Today was our last day of Baby Sign class. Which for Dex was basically a fun play date every few weeks. He certainly never signed in class. But he has, in the past few weeks, started signing more at home. He has a fairly reliable "drink" sign, which actually means "hey, give me that thing over there." Most of the time it means drink, but who knows - it could mean yogurt, or broccoli, or hi. Last week, in the middle of the night when he woke up for a fever, Dex asked for milk for the first time ever. And, pretty much the only time ever. In the past week his "all done" sign has become reliable. Usually. Sometimes he signs all done and then shoves another cracker in his mouth. And he kind of does a sign for "cracker." It's always entertaining when he wants something, and just goes through all three signs a few times to see if anything sticks.

Enough snow has melted around here and turned our back yard in to an ocean that we were actually able to go for a walk today. On a sidewalk. And I? Am out of shape. I am not sure how that's possible, with Jillian workouts and the like. But it's been a while since I've carried a 25 pound kid on my back, while walking up a steep hill. We need to get back out and walk some more. Winter, winter, go away.

John's got to go play with Jillian for a while, and then we may watch a movie. Or watch the Olympics. Or take a nap. Or, perhaps, all three.

Day 6 - You're Cute Even When You're Not Sleeping

I turned the baby monitor on as I was going downstairs this afternoon to do Jillian. About 25 minutes after Dex went down for a nap. I was expecting to just hear the ocean from the baby monitor, but instead turned it on to immediately hear "Tooka, tooka, tooka" from Dexter. His new favorite sentence. Tooka tooka tooka. Who knows what it means. Could mean "Life is good, let me just take this here nap." Could mean "Dear Lord, why am I trapped behind bars AGAIN?" Regardless, it is hella cute to turn on the baby monitor to hear some tooka-ing, even if the baby was supposed to be asleep long ago.

I resisted beer and wine temptation (easy) and cookie temptation (not as bad as expected) last night at movie night. Quite possibly because I ate my weight in soft pretzels. That were OH SO GOOD. I did Jillian this afternoon today, because I took a nap this morning, which was rudely interrupted by a snow plow. Plowing, may I ask - WHAT SNOW??? There is no snow to speak of here. Go about 10 miles north, however, and you enter a new state (called Pennsylvania) of snow hell. Which I drove through at 1AM. It was... a wee bit on the treacherous side. Fortunately I had the truck, and fortunately I followed a snow plow for part of the way home so I could still find the road.

John said he wore his IPod while working out last night because he was sick of Jillian talking to him. He had it on random shuffle, got stuck in Christmas music hell, and somehow ended up doing most of his workout to the songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Not all bad, really. Not exactly workout music. But better than listening to Jillian.

Hmmm. To post this now, or to wait til the baby gets up and take a picture of him in his cute turtleneck that he won't ever wear again because it's too small? That is the question...

Dex spent a fair bit of the afternoon in this position. The sleepy, I don't feel well, let me cuddle in your lap position.

But he rebounded after a while to play some more. With his cute, too small turtleneck.

Day 5 - Tales From the Tub

Dex has always been fascinated by water. In the past week or so he's taken to putting his hand under the shower head when I am filling up his bath tub. And then will use one hand to pull the shower head closer to him, so his other hand can reach. It's cute. Today, though. Today he got brave, took the shower head in one hand, and guided the water right on to his face and in to his open mouth. Multiple times! So cute. I, of course, had no camera. So you'll have to trust me with the cuteness.

I went downstairs to do Jillian during Dexter's morning nap today. As I was in the basement I heard Dexter's little Ernie "he-he-he" laugh. And then a couple squeals. And some more Ernie laughter. What was the child doing up there? He and Frazier (the stuffed horse he sleeps with) must have been having some serious fun and games in the crib. I have no idea what he was doing up there. What he was NOT doing, at all, was sleeping. So we had a sleepy boy during My Gym today.

Today is going to be a tough one for me, to meet all my rules. I've already done Jillian, so that's cool. But I am STARVING, and I have no idea why. I need to find a snack, before snack time. Plus we have Girlie Movie Night tonight, and there is sure to be something sweet and terrible there for me to try not to eat. We'll see how I do. Perhaps I can load up on hot soft pretzels and can avoid the sweet stuff.

Oh, and also! We're supposed to be getting more snow. Not as much as you suckers up in NY, though. Ha-ha! We've had our blizzard. It's your turn now!

For you, today, only because I love you - video of Dex from My Gym. Enjoy!

Dexter at My Gym from Alissa Norman on Vimeo.

Sorry about the lack of sound! It would have just been loud music, anyway. From My Gym on 2/25/10

PS - I have no idea what happened to the sound in the video. Sorry!

Day 4 - Archives

Nothing going on here today. Jillian? Check. No sweets? Check. Nothing but water? Check. John, by the way, doesn't subscribe to the nothing but water rule. Which is fine. He has his own rule - no alcohol after 9PM. So the other day at 8:58 he looked at the clock and said he'd better hurry and open his beer if he was going to have one tonight. Go, us. We procrastinate even in our drinking! :-)

We weren't home much today, so I have no new baby pictures. Here's another one from the archives. Cute baby? Check.

No worries. My archives are deep. I won't run out of new baby photos for a few years, at least...

Day 3 - Relief

I know that the past week and a half or so has been hard on the baby. Also hard on John, as Dex hasn't really wanted anything to do with him. Only Mom was good enough for the sick boy with 17 teeth coming in. Now that I think we're out of the woods for a while (fever is gone, teeth have broken through the gums) I am realizing what a relief it is for ME to have my cute fun baby back. It's so nice to have him happily keep himself occupied with his toys in the pantry in the kitchen while I am cooking breakfast. SO much nicer than having him hang off my leg, crying. It's definitely been a better week.

Dex went to My Gym today and was the most independent he's ever been there. Off on the other side of the room, cheerfully chasing a ball around, and occasionally looking over to make sure I am still there. Most excellent.

He also was quite the walker today. Several times he let go of what he was holding on to and stood on his own for a few seconds. And a couple times I stood him up and pointed him in a direction, and watched him walk off. It was impressive.

Anyway - Day 3 of our little challenge is going well. Jillian and I duked it out this morning, and I even managed to shower today, which is impressive. I might need to get myself a snack before 8PM, because dinner of fish and veggies is not cutting it for me. But no sweets at all. Unless you count graham crackers. Do you count them? I am going to say "no", even though the second ingredient is sugar and the fourth is high fructose corn syrup. I am still going to say they don't count as a sweet. Cool?

John, dear cute boy that he is, has been doing Jillian in the evenings wearing the black socks he wore to work. Which is... quite the fashion statement. He says it's because he doesn't want to give me any more laundry to do. Awwwww. What a sweetie!

OK, off to find some peanut butter. Or something. And you'll have to deal with an older pic of Dex today. My camera was acting funny, so none of my pictures turned out. I might need to read the directions...

Day 2 - I need a tiny little pass

I've been good today, I promise. I did Jillian this morning. I ignored all the candy in the Wal-Mart check-out line. I ignored all the candy in the Target check-out line. I EVEN ignored the cheap cheap cheap candy at the Dollar Store! I've had lots of water. But dinner today? It's going to be a late one.

Monday nights are swimming nights for Dex. If he gets up early enough from his nap I can cram some dinner in to him before we go, and also in to me. Today that didn't happen. And I didn't have enough leftovers to feed John, Dex, and I for dinner. And John didn't want to eat dinner before Jillian, as he didn't want pizza sloshing around in his belly while he was doing jumping jacks. And so - dinner is late tonight. Pizza in T Minus Three Minutes. And it's currently 8:05.

Enough excuses. Here! Look at a picture of a cute baby!

Day 1 - Oh, It's ON

Bring it, Jillian. We're on it. Day one of our 30 day challenge. Jillian and I had a date this morning while John paid our taxes. Oh, no, wait. While John computed our taxes and saw that Uncle Sam owes us money. Sweet! Thanks, Dex! And also thanks jobless wife. John is currently watching girls jump up and down in the basement. Hopefully he's doing a few jumping jacks of his own.

And day one of no sweets, no chocolate. So far, so good. Although the night isn't over yet. And I didn't go through any grocery store lines today, with Cadbury cream eggs saying "Psssst. Alissa! Eat me!" So it's been fairly easy to avoid the sweet stuff.

I thought, briefly, that my cute sweet cheerful baby had returned to us today. And he did, for a little while. And then he woke up after his second nap and WOW. WOW. Yeah. That child went to bed early early. Poor kid. His fever seems to be better, but he's got some deep congestion in his chest. And those damn teeth haven't come in yet. Boooooo, teeth!

Off to watch some Olympics! A little less interesting when you already know that Bode Miller won gold today. Oh, sorry. Did I spoil it for ya? :-)

Sometimes You Just Gotta Get Outside

It's been a tough couple days. OK, it's been a tough week. OK, OK - it's really sucked since we've had eight billion feet of snow on the ground. Ability to play outside has been significantly diminished. Ability to take small child out for walks? Also not good, as a vast majority of the sidewalks in this neighborhood are not shoveled (slacker neighbors) and the shoulder of the road is covered with three feet of frozen solid snow.

Factor in the child who is going on day four of a fever, two nights in a row of middle of the night wakings with a super high fever, thus making it impossible for us to even to go a friend's house to play and... We're having some serious cabin fever.

But sometimes, or all the time, you just have to get outside no matter what. Just for a change of scenery. A new set of stairs to climb. A different environment in which to chase the dog.

We wander outside the day after the third big storm of the winter to check on Dad and his shoveling.

Dad and his shoveling? Tired Dad out.

What's that white stuff on my foot?

He really isn't as happy as he seems here. We just pose him well.

Dex can walk on top of the snow - it's pretty heavy stuff. Mom? Yeah. Not so much.

A little displeased. With all the walking. In the heavy white stuff. That is cold.

A few days later, we went out on the deck to do this. And this is pretty much all Dex did. Down the stairs. Sit on the landing for a long time. Up the stairs. Down the stairs. Sit on the landing. Repeat.

It IS kind of entertaining watching him try to get around with fleece lined pants and a snow suit and mittens and a jacket. Oh, yeah - and slippery SmartWool socks on his feet.

A couple days ago, we ventured outside again, this time to wander around on the sidewalk. And check out those big piles of white stuff again.

OOOH! CoCo! Sweet! I'll follow her back here in the grass.

Except that the grass has turned to a sloshy trail of mud. We used some serious Oxy-Clean that day

Rear view. Not any cleaner.

Dex leaves cute muddy mitten, knee, and shoe prints down the sidewalk, chasing CoCo again.

The kids go up the stairs. Neither is graceful. Neither is clean.

Post-mud-walk playing. The dog got dumped in a snow bank before I let her inside.

Our Regularly Scheduled Programming Will be Replaced By...

I was thinking today might be the day to start the Jillian 30 Day Challenge. But then the baby was cranky all day yesterday, and had a fever that kept getting higher. And then I stayed up too late napping during the Olympics. And then Dexter woke at at 3AM crying, with a fever of 104. And then he woke up again at 5:30, no longer feverish but still awake and hungry. And I got up some time during the night to grab some water and some ibuprofen for my pounding headache. And then John went to re-stock our baby drug supply today and brought home a donut and some Cadbury Cream Eggs. And then my morning nap was just interrupted by the floorboards in the house squeaking like someone was walking around. The dog doesn't weigh enough to do that, and the baby can't walk. So, the Boogie Man was just walking around my house. Great. And now the carpet selling dudes are coming this afternoon to tell me how many trillion dollars it's going to cost to carpet both bedrooms, so before they come I need to do some sort of cleaning up. Like maybe wash some dishes. And get dressed.

SO - today doesn't sound like a good day to start 30 days of no chocolate. Maybe tomorrow? C'mon, BABY. Stop being sick, and be better now, ok? Mama needs some sleep.
PS - Dexter's fever broke last night and when he woke up this morning he was back to his typical (for the last few days) kind of grumpy but ok, temperature hovering between 99 and 100 degrees, self again. He's got like 27 teeth coming in right now. Between molars and eye teeth, his poor mouth is a mess. He spends a lot of time chewing on above green thing.

The 30 Day Challenge

I've been thinking about doing this for a couple weeks, and I chatted briefly with John about my plans last night over a delish dinner of Wal-Mart rotisserie chicken and red wine from the winery across the cow field from us. I think he's in, too. At least, we did a fist pound over it. Me with my thumb inside my fist, of course. Which John says completely doesn't count...

So here's our challenge. Because we both have a raging sweet tooth we'd like to get under control, and because we'd both like to be a bit more fit. I'll say that for John. Me? I'd like to be less of a fat-ass.

1) Do Jillian's 30 Day Shred for 30 days straight. 10 days each at Level 1, 2, and 3. This is a bit of a challenge for me because although I've been doing Jillian off and on since July, I've never gone for more than 10 days straight, and have never moved past Level 1. John's done Jillian exactly twice, but I don't see it as being too much of a challenge for him. Perhaps making the time in his schedule is going to be the biggest challenge.

2) No sweets. No chocolate. No cookies. No cake. No ice cream. We're going cold turkey on this one. And we're going to start... as soon as we finish off the Valentine's candy in the pantry. And the Girl Scout cookies. Which, given the amount of binging we've been doing recently, shouldn't take more than about 20 minutes or so. This one? Oh, this one is going to KICK MY ASS. Especially in the car. And in line at the grocery store. I'll be ok at home if I just don't buy anything sweet to have in the house.

I have a couple more goals that I'm aiming for, but I haven't shared with John.

3) Drink only water. Not really a big deal, except for those really crappy days when the baby is cutting 17 teeth all at once, sleeps little, and I haven't showered in days. Those days when you're just waiting for 5:00 so you can crack open a beer. Those days when you hope John comes home early so you don't feel bad about drinking alone. Oh, sure, you're not really alone. There's a completely helpless child and dog there with you, so it's totally ok. Right?

4) No eating after 8PM. Also not really an issue. I don't often eat after dinner, except for chocolate and ice cream and Girl Scout cookies and all those things I'm not going to be eating, anyway. So it'll be fine.

DAMN IT! I just realized something. No hot chocolate, either!! Shit! I am going to have to convert to tea. Can I have tea with honey? Can I just get a pass for that one little thing? DAMN IT AGAIN! Tea goes against the "drink only water" goal. Oh, man. I am screwed.

Anyway - keep checking back for my hopefully daily posts about how much Jillian sucks and how I am going to kill someone if I can't have ONE little Cadbury Cream Egg. They hopefully are going to be daily posts because then I at least feel accountable. For something. And will be more likely to stick to this craziness. Wanna join us? It'll be FUN!


Yeah, yeah. I am already hearing the grandma's grumble now. "Why do we have to read daily blogs about our CHILDREN? Those silly people we gave birth to? We don't want to hear about them. We've known them for 35 years. We're sick of them. We come here to see pictures of the cute baaaaybeeeee." Fine. How about I try really hard to take a new picture of Dexter every day, and I'll post that along with our daily challenge report? Will that make ya happy?

Step One

I am way far behind on blogging. We've had Valentine's Day. We've had a THIRD snow storm for the winter. I have a one year video I still need to make. I am slacking. I don't have any good excuses. I've been... watching the Olympics. Napping. Trying to keep the house clean. Not walking outside because there's no place to walk.

But this one can't wait.

Dex has been walking between John and I for a few weeks now. I have video of it, but I haven't posted it yet because I suck. He's been getting pretty good - walking rather than falling, and we've been moving a bit further apart. Plus, every now and then in the past couple days Dexter lets go of whatever he's been holding on to and stands, for just a split second, before he loses his balance, flails wildly, and grabs on to the nearest object.

So I was surprised this morning after breakfast when Dex was holding my hand to walk upstairs, and then just... let go. All on his own. And walked about five steps. And then fell down on his knees. And then was so sad that he fell down that he proceeded to bang his forehead on the ground. Oh, this child. He's going to be a self-harm inflicting, tantrum throwing pain in the butt.

It'll be a while yet before we get any sustained walking. But Dexter is on his way. Lots more trouble to come, very soon!

Dear Weather: WTF?

No, seriously. WTF? Maryland doesn't DO snow. 1 inch of snow causes mass panic in the streets, Home Depot to sell out of shovels, and school to be canceled for at least a day. But now, weather, you're killing Maryland. KILLING IT! A weekend 24 inches of snow storm (apparently some kind of two day snow record for Baltimore, or something), followed on Tuesday by ANOTHER 18 to 24 inches of snow storm? There will be no salt left in the entire state. All the snow plow drivers are going to be propping their little eyelids open with toothpicks. WAL-MART might even close! The horror!

I think that my poor friends in Virginia are going to be covered with snow again, too. All I can say is: It's a damn good year to NOT be the stable manager at Sweet Briar. Because getting 75 horses and a barn and vehicles and hay and water and all that stuff prepared? HUGE pain in the ass. I shall happily totter out to Wal-Mart tomorrow with the rest of the world, pick through what's left of the toilet paper and bread, and then hunker down and play with the baby, inside, during this next storm. Sorry, horse peeps!

John brushes off my car on Sunday. Not like I am going to drive anywhere, but still. Nice to know there was a car under there.

Helllllooooo? White car? Are you in there?

24 inches of snow IS pretty. Oh, also? That huge pile of icy snow on the bay window slid off yesterday. It made quite the loud crash. And I think the bushes under the window are forever smooshed.

Note snow height = taller than fuzzy brown dog. Who, by the way, was HIGHLY unimpressed with having to go outside.

Bundled up to watch the shoveling.

Video Trial

Sick Day from Alissa Norman on Vimeo.

Blogger has basically sucked ass at having posted videos available when people (namely, Grandma) want to watch them. So I tried uploading to a video hosting site, and embedding that video in the blog. Let's see how it works! If it seems to work ok then I'll upload all the videos that way.

The Big Snow 2 - Mother Nature Strikes Back

We're nearing the tail end of "The Blizzard of 2010" right now, at 2PM on Saturday. It's been snowing (well, it started as sleet) since about 5PM on Friday. We haven't measured yet to see how much snow there is out there, but maybe when John comes inside we can measure how high it is to ABOVE HIS KNEES and that will give us a good estimate. It's ridiculous. The world is going to be shut down for weeks. We, fortunately, are well stocked with beer and pizza and diapers and formula. We are good to go for a week or so. Sure, we might be down to eating popcorn by the end of that week, but there's nothing wrong with that, right?

Dex checks out the snow from the nice cozy living room

I had just opened the door so Dex could play with it. Ummmm. Wow. I don't think we're going out the front door any time soon!

John trying to decide if he really wants to go shovel. He did then decide to go out and re-shovel the path for the dog. Poor old dog. She'd be buried out there if John didn't shovel for her.

Then I looked out the front door and saw a cute hubby buried in snow.

This is how deep the snow is. Seriously. ABOVE John's knees. And John? Is not short.