Two Months Old

Liam is 10lbs, 2oz and 23" long... oh yea... and super strong for his age. He has been rolling from belly to back since right before 5 weeks. The picture above was taken today to demonstrate his head lifting ability. He'll also stand with very little support. It's crazy.

He's only in the 10th percentile, but I have to remember that he was 6lbs 15oz at birth and got down to 6lbs 5oz, so he's trying to catch up from being so tiny from the getgo. He gained 42oz in 45 days. The doctor said he probably won't stay in the 10th for too long. Next checkup is 4 months! I might see if they'll weigh him when we go in next month for Kaylee's two year checkup.

Parents vs Teachers

Have ya heard the one where the teacher is no longer in charge and the second a special snowflake gets in trouble the parents run to the media?

Story Here

Back in my day - HA! I'm only 31...  - teachers had more control of their classrooms. Corporal punishment still existed in schools. Parents relied on "it takes a village" because if you couldn't trust your parent friends to help, then who could you trust? My parents signed the corporal punishment forms to allow it to happen. Did we ever get spanked in school? No. Because we knew if we got spanked in school, we'd get spanked at my grandmother's and then spanked at home. It was never worth it.

Guess what! I may be screwed up in the head, but it's not from being spanked. It's not from being "bullied", or as I like to call it, "picked on" in school.

So, back to the story. Mom is pissed because her special snowflake got called out. There's a few problems with this story. One is the school's side, which most likely explains that Special Snowflake has been warned over and over about not turning in homework. Notes were probably sent home. Parent/Teacher conferences were probably setup. This story has a lot of holes in it. There's no way the teacher would hand out an "award" like that if it wasn't a running joke that Special Snowflake never did her homework. There's no way the teacher would hand out an "award" like that if Mom hadn't been notified numerous times. So, MOM, where have YOU been? Not once do you mention how disappointed you are in Special Snowflake that she's so irresponsible.

I'm sorry, but if you have already lost control of your EIGHT year old, you have bigger problems than them being humiliated - correction - called out.

Dear Parents, Stop babying your Special Snowflakes and teach them about responsibility. Hovering over your kid is just as bad as not being involved. There's a fine line, but I bet if you try, you can figure it out. This subject grates on my nerves. However, if you choose not to parent your child, just know that my kids are going to rule the world because apparently they will be the only ones left on Earth with any real life skills.

Walking.. continued

I've mapped out a route in my neighborhood for 3 miles. My mom was in town today, so I have to go at her pace, but overall, I think she did pretty well. We walked the lake (3 miles) and around a few blocks (1 mile), then today, we went down every cul-de-sac and around a few blocks which was almost 2 miles. Tomorrow is a Zumba day, plus Liam's TWO MONTH checkup and lunch with an old friend, so my day is pretty full and probably won't allow for walking around the block. But, doing something everyday has felt great.... Now if my ankle would hurry up and get better, I could jump and hop during zumba and make my workout even better. Thankfully, my knee is doing good. If I just don't fall out of my front door again, I think I'll be good. LOL

PS: I can't believe Sir Piglet Benjamin Button is two months old already! I weighed him today and the scale said he was almost 11 pounds. That's what Kaylee weighed at SIX months. He's trying to move into 3-6 month clothes. I'm uber sad about that. He's growing so fast :(

Weight Loss Challenge

Things are going well all things considered. I'm truckin' along as far as my exercise, diet and weight loss are concerned. I started at 180 and am down to 161 as of today. Most of that has got to be from nursing and diet. I never really lost weight with zumba when I was doing that before, however my body shape was changing for the better, which is one of the reasons I keep going.

Next big goal is 135. That's how much I weighed when I started dating Brian. If I get there and can't lose anymore, I think I'll be fine. But, my ultimate goal is still 120, which for my height is considered a healthy BMI. I could down as far as 110, but I'm not sure I want to be that little. 120 is what I was in high school.

I plan to take up to a year to lose all of the weight, so 10 months to go. That's about 4lbs a month.

As far as my workout plan, I've been trying out walking with the kids. I've done the lake twice. The first time took me an hour an a half to walk 3 miles while pushing the stroller against the wind. That was hard. The second time, I wrapped Liam on my and pushed a single stroller. Much better. Only took an hour then. However, the track is crushed granite, which makes for a bumpy ride. So, we tried walking around the neighborhood on the sidewalk. I think this is how I'll do it. Plus, that means I won't have to drive anywhere.

Current work out plan:
Mondays - walk 2-3 miles
Tuesdays - Zumba
Wednesdays - walk 2-3 miles
Thursdays - Zumba (until July 4th..)
Fridays - walk 2-3 miles
Saturdays - Zumba
Sundays - walk 2-3 miles

Lots of cardio. I'm not ready for weights. But, come September, I hope to join the gym and do that. If I get ready before then, I'll just take my hand weights to zumba. That'll kick my butt... haha 

Happy Baptism, Liam!

While I'm not very religious, everyone else in our families are. Brian's family is Lutheran and my side is Baptist. Lutherans baptize babies and Baptists wait until the kid knows what the heck they are getting into... usually around late elementary to middle school.

I don't really see any problems with baptisms. A little water on the head (or in Baptists case, a nice little dunk) won't hurt. And what if I'm wrong about not being sure about things? At least my kids are covered. Technically, even I'm covered... I was baptized at 8. 

Anyway, here's a few pictures from today's event. The outfit Liam is wearing is what Brian wore when he was baptized. It barely fit! Like, if we waited another week, it wouldn't. Eeek! I didn't get any good pictures of him in it, so I'll have to try again tomorrow when there's less going on. 

 

Walking...

While soaking my bum knee and ankle in the tub, I decided that along with Zumba 2-3 times a week, I needed to start walking more than just around the block every now and then. I try to do that daily, but sometimes the day just doesn't start out well enough for me to get going before it's too hot.

While contemplating, I remembered I live right behind Pfluger Lake. DUH. With a 3 mile trail. This means, once I get going, I can't just stop and go back to the truck... I'd have to finish all 3 miles because the only other way back is to swim, which would prove to be difficult with a toddler, infant and a double stroller.

I will admit... I'm scared of taking this on. Not really because my knee and ankle are messed up (thank you front door step for jumping out in front of me and tripping me...), but because I'm tired. Really, really tired. While doing zumba, I feel like I'm going in slow motion. I miss a lot of the steps and am winded by the first few songs. I don't think I've ever been this out of shape. But, I'm hoping the walking will help boost my energy levels a bit. I do have an intense zumba class tomorrow as well, so that'll be a lot of exercising, but Friday - Sunday will be kind of off limits.

My mom is coming into town sometime Friday. We have a birthday party that pretty much lasts all day Saturday. And Sunday is Liam's baptism. I will probably stay away from the lake on Monday as well because it's Memorial Day and people think that's the perfect day to go to the lake. Ugh. Tuesday, however is my next zumba class, so tomorrow will be a good judge on whether I can handle 3 miles plus zumba all in the same day.

On top of boosting my energy for Zumba, I'm hoping it boosts my energy for just the day. Today, I won the "Mom of the Year Award" and I still feel guilty. I put Kaylee down for her nap around 1:45-2. She typically will sleep anywhere from 2-3 hours. At the same time, I try to get Liam to go to sleep so I can take a nap as well. Around 3pm, that happened... so I let myself fall asleep. Remember how my monitor broke? Yea.. so I woke up at 6:45p. My poor kid was stuck in her dark room for almost 5 hours. She was ok.. she was just playing in there.. no crying or panic that I could tell, but she was thirsty. That also means that Liam took a REALLY long nap as well... which means my night should be fun. Here's hoping he's going through a growth spurt and still sleeps tonight. Eek!

Am I Ready?

It's been almost a year since I signed off of the community I was involved with for almost 2 years. I went through a horrible pregnancy with them and then right as I got pregnant a second time, I had a break down that led me to sign off. This pissed some of my friends off. Some of whom I still hear from, others who just wrote me off.

Liam is now 7 weeks old. And things are calming down. He nurses on a more regular schedule and I'm able to sleep 5 or so hours the first stretch of the night if I go down when he does... then 2-3 hours at a time after that until we're up for the day. After that, I can wear him while I play with Kaylee.

Kaylee will be 2 next month. She has her own personality with her own opinions that she expresses any chance she gets. But there's those times when she says "Hug you?!?" and "Back!" so that she can rub my back. And it never fails when she rubs my back does to reach around for a hug. It's such a sweet moment to know that this kid really does love me, even after telling her no all day...

While I was on that forum, I made 2 trips to meet people. I've also met people here in Austin, whom I still get together with, just not during the normal "meetups." Those people I've met are the ones I miss. So, do I go back? There are certain people that really hurt me there, but that also came at a time when the emotions and hormones were running high. There are certain people who told me the truth, which I needed to hear... but at the same time, I can never look at them the same again.

So, dear internet... do I go back and reconnect with those people I miss? Do I do it openly? Or hide my identity and only reveal it to them?

For the record, I did try to log back on a few months ago, but my account was never approved, so I don't even know if they are allowing new members on the board... or, did the moderators (part of that circle of friends) recognize my email address and decide they didn't want me back? I don't know...

At the same time... this place was a time suck. I found myself online when I should have been hanging out with Kaylee. So, I guess if I do this, maybe I need to assign myself some "rules" and stick to them. Ugh. I apparently have too much time on my hands... Maybe I need to find a new hobby I can do with the kids.