Day 14 - Procrastinating

There's a lot of things I should be doing right now. The house goes on the market this week. The photo lady comes Tuesday to take pictures of our house, to post on the internets, to lure prospective buyers to us. So - it needs to look good. I should be cleaning the kitchen. Or wiping off the drier. Or cleaning stuff off the coffee table. Or cleaning the fridge. But... I don't wanna. I am SUCH a procrastinator. Why do today what you can do tomorrow?

I did, however, do Jillian today. After a three day break for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. And Jillian KICKED MY ASS. Ooof. Not good.

However, it looks like our three billion inches of rain is going to abate after tomorrow. And the rest of the week looks sunny and spring-like. So that should get me motivated to get some things done around here. What I WON'T be doing is packing up any more things to put in storage. Because it WILL NOT FIT. John and I went today to take one more load, and wondered how we ever fit all this crap in our house.

Now - enjoy some cute pictures of Dexter walking. He's a regular walking fool these days. He hasn't figured out how to stand up on his own yet, but if you set him up and get him started, he'll walk forever. Or at least til he trips over the dog and falls down.

John gets him set up, and Dex gets his game face on.

Wandering around the corner to find Dad. Where is Dad?

And rounding the corner again, to come back to Mom.

Does he not look about 27 years old?

Yay! I made it!

Day 13, Or Something. I Underestimated.

We seem to be back on the wagon with our challenge. The no sweets part was easy this week. Made easier when you don't really feel like eating. And I just finished Jillian for that we'll call Day 13. Sure. Let's go with that.

I've been wrong about a few thing the past couple days. Not entirely wrong. I just... UNDERESTIMATED a few things:

1) I underestimated how loud carpet installation would be yesterday. Silly me thought I'd just put Dex in the basement to take his morning nap. No problem. Except that the entire house shook with the noise. For an hour and a half. Morning nap? Poof! Gone.

2) I underestimated what kind of sleeping environment Dex needed to sleep in, when he's really tired. I put him in his pack-n-play in the basement to play for a while, so I could vacuum the seven billion bags of fuzz off his carpet. When I went down 45 minutes later - sound asleep, amidst all his toys, with his head facing right out toward the sliding door, blinds wide open, sun shining bright. Guess he was tired.

3) I underestimated the effect that weaning would have on the baby. At least I think that might be his problem. He's been RIDICULOUSLY clingy and whiny the past week and a half. I know, he's been sick. But hey - he's been better for a few days, and still the whining. I discovered, just today, really, the power of the hug. So instead of taking him from his high chair and plopping him on the floor, I sit on the floor for a minute, give him a hug, and let him wander away when he's ready. Sure, the dishes have to sit dirty for a minute. But it's completely worth it to have a happy baby. I've underestimated the power of a hug, many many times in my life.

4) I constantly underestimate the cognitive and physical abilities of the baby. I've helped him put stars on his star tower a billion times. Today, easy as pie, he put the stars on the tower all by himself. No problem! I about fell out of my chair. Last night he walked from John over to me at the sink. I didn't catch him - he just grabbed the cabinet, turned around, and walked back to John. This morning we were in his room and I stood him up, pointed him in the right direction, and told him to walk to the window. Over he tottered. He stood there looking out at the school bus in the parking lot for a while, and then I told him to walk to Mama. AND - he turned around, let go of the window, and walked right on over! He cracks me right up, what with his flailing arms, drunken walk, and HUGE grin. He tends to cackle when walking - a kind of a "Look at me! I kick ass!" kind of cackle. Over the weekend, he easily put shapes in the shape sorter at Grandma's house. He knows that his shoes go on his feet. He knows that a hat goes on his head. He's an amazing little specimen of a human being.

OK, let me save this for now. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of Dex today at My Gym, and then I'll post this, with a picture, later tonight.

Oh! New carpet looks good. Actually, it looks the same as the other carpet, just not stained.

Waiting for me to bounce the trampoline for him

Cute

My camera was too slow to do it justice, but what you're seeing is the tail end of Dex walking on his own, from me to these here stairs.

Hiatus

Our 30 Day Challenge is currently on hiatus. Until Further Notice. Hopefully, that will be tomorrow.

I knew we'd have to take a mini-break, as we had to make a trip to NY on Thursday night to go to a funeral on Friday. And really, who wants to avoid cake when you're at a funeral luncheon? It's kind of impossible. And also difficult to find a place to do Jillian at my parent's house. So, a 2 day break. We could manage.

And then. OH, AND THEN. We pulled up late Thursday night, took the baby out of the car, discovered he had thrown up. Changed his PJ's and he ERUPTED vomit all over me. Cleaned that off, got him some PJ's, more puke. Repeat, repeat, repeat. We went through pretty much every article of clothing I had for the boy in about three hours, plus two laundry loads worth of towels and blankets. Poor kid. He finally fell asleep in John's arms at about 3AM.

So John stayed at my parent's house with the sick baby while I drove further to a funeral on Friday. Friday night we both fell off the wagon as we indulged in yummy desserts. And at about 2AM Saturday I went downstairs to sit in Dad's recliner and to try to will myself not to throw up. I hate throwing up. I hate it worse than anything in the world. Except maybe snakes. So I lasted til about 5AM, and then had to make a dash to the bathroom. I was down for the count all day Saturday.

We stayed one day longer than planned, John was Super Dad of the Weekend, my mom took care of me, and as our way of saying thanks, now she is deathly ill with our fun stomach virus. John is thus far unscathed. We'll cross our fingers and hope he stays that way.

So no Jillian for me today, as I felt ill just taking a short walk around the block with the baby and the old old dog. Hopefully tomorrow. After the NEW BEDROOM CARPET gets put in. Yay!!

Oh! True to form and as predicted, CTB sent me this photo:
I can only take solace in the fact that she absolutely had to shudder more LOOKING for a gross snake picture, and sending it, than I did just having to look at it. What a friend, eh? I miss you, cutest CTB!

Sorry, no baby pictures today. I was doing all I could do just watching the boy. Taking pictures was more than I could handle.

Day 12 - Ugh. That Wasn't Any Better

Whew! This Level 2 thing is kicking my ass. I can handle the strength stuff. My arms are killing me, lifting my big huge 2 pound weights, but I can deal. The abs are harder, and my back is sore because I am obviously doing something wrong. But the CARDIO! Ugh! Torture! Squat thrusts! Plank jacks! Double jump rope! BLAH. I am dying.

In other news, Dex got his first bloody nose today at My Gym. Poor kid. He was reaching over trying to pull up on this plastic bridge thing, when his hand slipped off and he went face first in to it. Well, nose first. Just a little trickle of blood came out. Poor kid. This is the second time in a week he has bashed his nose.

Busy busy today. I don't have any new pictures. So, here. Have a picture of Dex that you've never seen before, from one year ago today. This is, I believe, him wearing 3 - 6 month footie PJ's. Because he is HUGE.

Days 10 and 11 - A New Level of Torture

We were both good yesterday, I promise. We both did our last day of Level 1 with Jillian. Poor John didn't do his til, oh, sometime after I went to bed. But we were good. I just forgot to write a post for you.

Today is Day 11, which means the first day of Level 2. I just finished. Barely. Holy hell. I knew it was going to be harder, but this was insane. There were some things I had to do in the modified form, and there were a couple things I just could not do. The last set of ab moves, in particular. I was going along and then POP! Something popped in my right hip and I couldn't go any more. I am now dead. I am going to be SO SORE tomorrow. But, hey - at least I know I am getting a work out!

Giving a shout out to Nonna and Grandpa, who just got home last night from a week of vacation in warm sunny Florida. We are very jealous. Although, perhaps, a bit smug at the same time because they are returning to the cold snowy Arctic Circle, while here in Maryland it's supposed to be close to 50 this weekend. Ha!

John said we needed pictures of Dexter's Starboard shirt before he grows out of it. I told John I'd better take those pictures today, then...

Dex wearing the slightly dazed and confused look I see on so many faces coming out of the Starboard

Blue teething rings bring such joy to a boy...

This would be such an awesome photo, if it weren't for the blue thing in his mouth. Ah, well. Nice to remember him the way he looks a vast majority of the time.

This page in Brown Bear Brown Bear really freaks me out. I still can't quite bring myself to touch it. Which is... ridiculous. Because it's a DRAWING. A pretty poor drawing, I might add. But still. It's a drawing of a snake and I cannot, CANNOT touch it. And my dear friend CTB is laughing her ass off now and is sure to send me some terrible internet photo of 27 people carrying the most enormous snake ever found on earth, just to give me nightmares. Because that's what friends are for! :-)

Day 9 - Weaned

It's been a long, slow, gradual process, but I do believe, barring any setbacks, that we can officially call the baby "weaned." This morning was the first boob-free morning of his life. And he didn't seem to miss it. Perhaps a tad confused when I plopped him in his high chair for a sippy cup instead of going upstairs to nurse, but he quickly got over it. Nursing was never really an emotional thing for us - it was all about food. So, replace one source of food with another, and it's all good.

I am, surprisingly, a little sad to see it go. I'm not really sure why. John thinks it's completely rational for me to be sad. It was a bonding thing between you, he says. Not so much, I said. It was just something I did. But now you know that he's growing up, he says. He's not your baby any more. And, yes. That's true. Maybe that's it. As much as I think I prefer the fun, curious, independent little boy he is now, it's a little sad to see the baby going away. And I will miss looking down at him and seeing him smile up at me, or him sticking his fingers in my mouth. But, you know what? I can do that anyway, when he falls and bashes his head on something and comes crawling over to me for a cuddle. So all is not lost.

It's entertaining to look back at my kind of rocky nursing relationship with this child. At our first visit to lactation group. At my ridiculous oversupply. Mastitis. Speed-nursing baby and painful nipples. And then, finally, things starting to get a little better.

Though it was a real pain in the ass (nipple?) sometimes, I don't regret nursing one little bit. I loved the convenience, the "free"-ness. I loved being able to walk out of the house without a bottle or a sippy cup. But it doesn't matter much now - I have to walk out of the house with snacks and water and food for the baby, anyway. So what's another sippy cup of milk, added to the mix? No big deal.

Besides, look what my boobs did! Yay, boobs! You rock.

Dex went from this

To this. All thanks to boobs. Good work!
(PS - boobs cannot take all the credit for such baby huge-ness, as last night for dinner he ate the equivalent of an entire slice of pizza, plus some black beans, plus some fruit. Good lord, child!)

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