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Healthy Goals

Wine touring
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

I am doing the Women's Challenge with Chrissy, Vanessa and others and this article really spoke to me today:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/bodyimage/kids/

It reminds me that, while I do have more weight to lose to be at a healthy weight, I need to be careful how I refer to myself during the process. I just get frustrated that it takes so long sometimes!

If we decide to get pregnant again in the future, my goal is to eat much more reasonably than I did last time. While it was fun at the time (can we say ice cream sundaes?), it's too much work to take it off now!

I know I'll get there. I've done it before and I can do it again.

I guess I never posted this, but during the first 10-week weight loss challenge at the Y I actually lost 20 pounds, over 10% of my body weight. Yea!

We've started the second 10 weeks and my goal is again between 10 and 20 pounds, (20 would put me at my goal weight). They warned me that it would be natural for the weight loss to slow down as I get thinner, and to not get discouraged by this.

Baby Book entry: almost 8 months
I'm having fun sitting on the floor next to Penelope who is fascinated with some finger puppets Aunt Lori bought her. She pulls them out and examines them, then I put them bag in the little purse them come in and the game starts all over again! She is so cute these days. GG (Grandma Gerri) is here and I am remembering what it is like to get things done around the house. Also, I've been able to go to the gym every day since she's been here, yea! It's a luxury to not have to work around naps.

Today I broke the rule and laid down with her to help her fall asleep. I don't want to make a habit of this, as we want her to be a crib-sleepin' baby, not a mommy and daddy's bed-sleepin' baby, but I gave her a break because her teeth seem to be bothering her today. Oh, the never-ending process that is teething; I'm tired of it already and she only has two teeth!

Two firsts today:

1) This morning she had her binky in her hand while I was nursing her laying down next to her and she repeatedly offered it to me, bringing it up to my mouth. When I pretended to munch on it, she smiled a huge smile.

2) I think she has started waving. When we wave to her, she seems to copy the motion by sticking out her hand and opening and closing her fingers.

She has added "nah, nah" to her ever-increasing vocal repertoire; she usually uses this one when she is frustrated-- usually on the changing table. She is back to growling again big time. Our friend Alex taught it to her at dinner the other night, and that seems to be a favorite sound right now. GG was showing her an animal book and telling her all the animal sounds; PJ "copied" in her own way:

GG: The duck says, "Quack, quack."
PJ: Grrrrrr.

GG: The cow says, "mooo."
PJ: Grrrrrr.

GG: The doggy says "woof."
PJ: Grrrrrr.
Mommy: That's right, honey. A doggy can say 'Grrrrr.' Oh, my daughter is brilliant!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Grrrs and ma-mas

weight loss progress
Yea! I just did my BMI (http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm) and I'm considered overweight, but no longer obese. I was obese after gaining my 50 pounds of pregnancy weight. I was supposed to gain 30-35, so it makes sense that it's been harder to take it off than I thought, I guess. Granted, I loved my pregnancy because I let myself eat pretty much whatever I wanted (except for alcohol-- and that I really missed, so I probably ate more in response). Next time I think I'll try to reign myself in a bit, it's just too hard and takes too long to lose the weight after otherwise.

The highest weight at which I have a normal BMI is 145, and that is, in fact, my goal weight. The Summer Slim Down Challenge I've been doing at the YMCA and the Women Challenge I've been doing with Chrissy and others have been helpful to keep health in the forefront of my mind and life. I've learned a lot, some of which I'll post about later.

Right now I'm going to go hug my husband, who just got home from work. :)

Baby Book entry: 7 1/2 months

changing table talk
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

At 7 1/2 months, Penelope is developing quite a lovely personality (teething crankiness aside). She seems pretty patient (must get that from Mark!) and will sit and play by herself on a blanket in the living room for quite a while-- as long as we keep providing her some fresh toys every so often. :) She has started to show preference for different toys, often tossing some out of the way to get the one she really wants. Once I saw her "dance" to the music that came from one of her toys, and she often babbles a sound along with music, or quietly to herself. We've heard ba, ma, ta, and la so far. She smiles often. She still doesn't laugh a whole lot, unless she's tired, and then it's a giggle-fest, which is adorable.

She has been dealing (seemingly endlessly) off and on with teething for a while. Which gives her a clear, runny nose-- which she hates having wiped now (up until about a month ago she didn't mind at all). Occasionally she makes the cutest little "o" with her mouth, which makes her look like she's surprised. I cant tell if this is because she has a stuffy nose, or if it's just another facial experimentation she's doing.

She recognizes her mom and dad, now, and will smile at us and bounce up and down when we come to pick her up from daycare. She is also lifting her arms up when we come over to pick her up, and, if she's tired, she'll lay her head down on our shoulder. That's an "awww" moment for sure!

PJ prefers to sleep on her tummy with her arms over her head (like her mommy). She's not sleeping as long as she was initially when we first did sleep training with her (at about 5 months); she'll go from about 8pm to 3 or 4am and then wake up for a feeding. The good news is that she'll usually go back to sleep for another couple hours after that.

I took her to Baby Lapsit the other day at the library and she really like it, was watching nearly the whole time. "5 Little Monkeys" with the finger puppets was her favorite.

PJ does not really enjoy riding in her carseat in the car anymore, and it's bad news if dad and mom forget the pacifier! We bought her next carseat, a "convertible" one which she will still face backward in, but we'll keep using the bucket until she's 20 pounds and a certain number of inches (I can't remember right now). The good thing about the bucket is that if she's falls asleep in the car, it's easy to put her in her room and she'll continue napping. Today I did that after coming home from the gym and she slept for about 3 hours-- that's a record! It was great, I got tons of laundry done (of which there is a never-ending supply), and I even was able to wash all her toys! I try to do that at least once a month to try to help keep down the number of colds.

Penelope has taken to eating oatmeal and jarred food like a champ. We are on stage 2 and 3, with such delectables as: oatmeal with apples and cinnamon, vegetable beef dinner and turkey or chicken and rice dinners. Mmmm.

Well, the toys have run their course for the moment, it seems, so I'm going to see if my fussy baby wants another nap.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: a vocal, and opinionated about something, baby

My first voice work
One of the reference librarians at Sunnyvale liked my voice during the closing announcements and asked me to be the voiceover for the summer reading tutorial sign up. You can see it here:

http://sunnyvalereads.org/
It's the video under "How Do I Register?"

It was fun to do. The tricky part was keeping an eye both on the script and the screen to make sure I matched what I was saying with the right point in the video. Kind of like looping or dubbing a movie, I suppose-- I have new respect for voice actors.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: baby babbling :)

Baby Book entry

Games with mommy
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

PJ is seven months and 18 pounds. She is in the 75th percentile for all the measurements, so, although she seems big to us, especially compared to her slightly older comrades we meet, she's actually a great size for her age.

She is so cute these days. She smiles readily and is laughing more, as this video shows. She has started playing peekaboo and looking for us, trying to look around things, if we hide behind something. She will still play independently some, which we are grateful for, but, more and more, she wants to be where the action is.

The video shows her briefly playing her leaning game. She started leaning from one side to another recently. We, of course, find it very cute and copied her, which she thinks is very funny. Another game invented. (Her first was peekaboo in her carseat.)

She is sitting up very well by herself now when we place her, and she can get on all fours by herself. However, instead of moving forward, like she wants, her legs slip out from under her and she scoots backward.

She is eating much more easily now, even peas, which she ate tonight, along with applesauce. She had a questionable reaction to prunes the other day, so we'll have to try those again soon in a very small quantity.

Mark set up a Twitter account for her so she can keep her peeps updated on all her goings-on. Check it out at: twitter.com/pjfw :) (BTW, you don't have to sign up for Twitter to read hers.)

Penelope is excited to go to Minnesota!

Happy girl
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

That's right, and so is her mommy!

In case any of y'all find yourself in the mosquito state (oh yeah, and something about lakes, too), here is where we plan to be-- we'd love to see you!:

Thursday July 16, fly to MN and drive to Superior, WI (right next to Duluth, MN); in Superior through Sunday.
Monday drive to Grey Eagle, MN (near Sauk Centre) and be at my parent's cabin until Friday 24th.
Friday afternoon drive to the Twin Cities and stay through Sunday 26th.
Fly back to CA on Monday, 27th.

As you can see, our time is somewhat crunched (ah, the limitations of PTO --paid time off--), so we may do some group meet-ups, depending upon people's availability.

So, if you will be near any of those places and would like to get together, drop me a line, and we can work on the plans.

Weight loss homework
I am currently participating in the YMCA's 10 week Summer Slim Down and the Government's Woman Challenge (with Chrissy and others), so weight and exercise topics have been a lot on my mind lately.

Some homework we got from our leaders at the Y was:
Email me your goals for the week with regard to diet, exercise or sleep - or anything we talked about on Tuesday. In particular are there things you need to avoid eating (they take control of you); do you need to work on improving your sleep routine?

So, my response:

Homework:

One of Mark and my biggest challenges is our frequency of going out to eat/ getting take out. And, honestly, I don't see this changing a whole lot since that is often the quickest and easiest thing to do with the baby. I am going to try to make better choices when we go out, for example, fajitas instead of chimichanga at Mexican, and no chips when going to a sandwich place.

The last couple nights we've been better about going to bed by 10:30 to 11:00 pm, even if it cuts our "personal time" or time together down a bit. I know consistency in a bedtime and wake time is important, but it's difficult that I don't get home from work until 9:30pm two nights a week, and then we have to eat dinner. PJ had been sleeping until 5am, but the last couple nights, she's woken earlier than that. :( Luckily, after I feed her, she'll usually go back to sleep for a couple more hours, so I'd say we generally get around 7 or 8 hours (interrupted with an hour of feeding/ settling), so really 6 or 7 hours.

As far as things I need to avoid eating, there are 2 big culprits: pizza and ice cream. I used to completely avoid them. I'd like to try to have them occasionally, since I *really* enjoy them, but not more than once a week. And I've *re*-learned that it isn't a good idea to buy a container of ice cream, even if it's just a pint, to bring home, because I just can't stop at the half cup serving size. That just looks like a pittance in the bowl. Ah, who am I kidding?, I don't put it in a bowl, that takes too long! So, although it's more expensive, it's probably better for us to buy individual servings from Baskin Robbins. Same thing with pizza. I tend to eat about 4 pieces at a sitting (half a pizza), which I realize is way more than a serving, but it's so good! Anyway, it's best to make those 4 pieces of a small pizza, rather than a large. ;)

My exercise has been really good so far this week, which I'm happy about, all days so far except yesterday! :)

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: birdsong and distant traffic noise outside

Baby Book entry

reaching and talking
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

Penelope invented a game today with mommy. I was "chewing" on her fingers making "num, num, num" noises and she pulled them away and giggled, then put them back up to my mouth for me to do it again, and again, and again... I love the baby giggles; PJ is starting to laugh more and more.

She is also starting true babbling. Last week was the advent of "ba, ba, ba," and this week I've even gotten a few "ma, ma, ma's," although I fully realize that this is not really "mama" in reference to me. All in good time. :)

She has learned to make a new face, too. She scrunches up her nose and eyes and huffs/ snorts through her nose. (It's much cuter than it sounds.) I can't quite tell if this is a happy face or a frustrated face. She seems to use it in a variety of circumstances--a whole lot when I was feeding her bananas today. So, maybe it's a good thing? Bananas seemed to be a hit anyway, seems to be the front runner so far, which doesn't surprise me at all, fruit being so sweet.

Right now she is kicking her feet in her crib; the last few days she has been resisting naps, even though she is clearly tired (lots of eye rubbing). I guess all these new discoveries are just too exciting for sleep!

Raspberry!

Raspberry!
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

What a great day it's been today. PJ got up at her usual 5ish am to eat, but then she went back down to sleep until 8am. I was able to do Body Pump at the Y-- for which I was even on time!

PJ fell asleep in the car on the way home, and, although she only slept for 45 minutes (read: not enough), she ate a great lunch (oatmeal, squash, and water from her sippy cup), and played nicely under her gymini so that mommy could eat her lunch.

She wasn't thrilled about her second nap (fussed for half an hour and two checks before finally falling asleep), but she's been asleep for 2 and a half hours, which I think is a record!

I've gotten a little reading done, some laundry, and even a few bits of office organizing.

Can't complain.

Oh, I also had time to upload a bunch of short videos onto our flickr site, so check 'em out if you like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freemanwilliams
The videos are the ones with the triangle in the bottom left hand corner.

Baby Book: PJ's milestones up to this point (6 months)

Bonding 2
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

Well, I am sick again-- so tired of it! It's either that or a really bad case of allergies. Either way I'm laying low here with Penelope. She has a diaper rash, so is laying here au natural with me on the bed, trying to let things air out. I have a long sleeve shirt on her, though, as it's quite chilly here today, 50 degrees-- after having gotten up into the 90s two days ago--crazy!

LJ has been serving as a bit of a "baby book" for me, recording PJ's doings and growings, and I'm probably going to be coming back and editing this post as I read through my current baby book (The Babycenter Essential Guide to Your Baby's First Year), and reflect on her milestones. So, if you're not into babies, feel free to just skip to the next entry on your friends' page. :)

( Baby Book entries here )

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: leafblowers outside, it's the gardeners day to come

Chow time!

I got my spoon
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

Penelope is changing every day! Two days ago she discovered that she can hum and make raspberry sounds- those little lips are so versatile! Yesterday she was sucking on my thumb and I discovered that she has her first little tooth, on the bottom, just barely poking through the surface. What a little trooper, she hasn't really seemed any fussier than normal. And maybe her low grade fever and runny nose are attributable to that instead of a cold, as I'd though. Sorry, daycare, for badmouthing you as the bringer of all that is germy.

Mark and I think she's lengthened out some and lost some of her chubbiness, except for her cheeks, of course, those are as squeezeable as ever.

Two weeks ago we started her on rice cereal, which she took to like a champ, opening her mouth for each bite just like a baby bird. Tomorrow we move on to green veggies, and we're trying to decide whether her first taste will be peas or green beans.

Mark apparently just asked her which she wants, and she said "Oo-ooo," which he said clearly means "green beans." I'm leaning toward peas, which I'm told have a stronger taste, but we'll see...

What else?, sleep woes...

Nana has her hands full
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

I am taking it easy today, determined to get rid of this cold. I always feel like I should take a nap, but I'm just not much of a napper-- even if there weren't laundry and housework to do, and I tried to lie down, it takes me so long to fall asleep, that I think I'd get 5 minutes in before Penelope woke up again!

I think part of the reason I was susceptible to PJ's cold is that I am so sleep deprived. Last night we had to keep getting up to put the pacifier back in. Penelope's a pro at taking the thing out, but then gets frustrated because she can't get it back in. The night wakings are getting to be too much, oh, who am I kidding, they have been too much for months now, but I think we are both dreading the crying involved with sleep training. Mark and I are debating about whether to start the training now or wait until after my mom comes. I'm leaning toward after, because even though it's supposed to work in less than a week, if it doesn't, we'd potentially have hours of crying while Nana is here, which seems unfair and no fun for a visiting guest. Although, as you can see in the picture, she's no stranger to PJ's crying. ;)

I wish I had understood the importance of training for both naps and night at the same time, it may have worked. I feel like I really trusted the process, got burned with 10 days of various lengths of crying before sleep, and now I'm so hesitant to go back down that road again. However, she does not seem to be getting the idea of sleeping through the night or falling asleep for naps on her own, as supposedly some children do (where are these miracle children?), so I think we'll have to intervene somehow.

She's been a sweet girl today, rather chill, which I've appreciated in my stuffed-up, uninspired state. She was fussing in her exersaucer and as I picked her up out of it, she giggled, mommy to the rescue!-- talk about melting your heart. :)

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: soft ticking of clocks and keyboards

Random (and not so Deep) Thoughts

PJ, We're number one!
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

The DustBuster is the best invention ever. I've reached the postpartum "releasing of the hair" stage, oy, what a mess, I have to take that thing to my bathroom floor every day, sometimes twice.

Well, we were all set up for our first playdate hosting, and then yesterday I got a cold. Crap. I put out an email about it, so I doubt if many (any) will show, but I didn't outright cancel because I didn't want someone to be like me, not read their email, show up, and then feel bad about it later when they read the cancelation email.

PJ is as cute as ever, she has taken to pulling her socks off and has managed to get her toes actually into her mouth, all of which, while adorable, makes diaper changing very challenging! I'll have to get quicker at that process, because her tolerance for it is lessening-- there's too much in the world to get out and see, we don't want to waste time on the boring old changing table, mom!

Oh, as I mentioned on Facebook, there was a 4.4 earthquake in Morgan Hill, which is about 30 miles from here. I didn't feel a thing. I've only felt 2 in the 2+ years we've been here and they were little. So far so good.

Oh joy, I hear bubbling coming from the diaperal region of Penelope, so time to cut this short.

I just received a booklet of KFC coupons promoting "bailout buckets." Advertisers will use anything they can, I guess.

By the way, if you want to reduce the amount of junk mail you have to paw through, check out:

https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/member/home.action
and
www.stopjunkmail.org

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Penelope's poor snuffly nose

An experiment: you may be more productive than you think.
Lately I've been frustrated thinking that all it seems I ever get done in a day are three things: 1) taking care of baby 2) cleaning up the kitchen from meals and 3) laundry. This has not been very satisfying to me-- well, the first one has, but not the second two. I've kept feeling like I needed to be more productive and get more done. The gals in my mom's group this morning had me look at it again in a more positive light by saying, "You actually get the laundry done?!" Well, okay, but still, there are so many other things I either need to or want to be doing, am I not using my time wisely?

So, today when I got back from class I did a little experiment. I wrote down everything I did, unrelated to me and my needs, from the time I got back from class around 12:15 until now, 2:15. I came up with 27 distinct tasks or chores in those two hours.

( (If you're curious, the list is here.) )

Now, granted, not all days are this productive, but this has been a good reminder that yes, it is possible that I am working hard, using my time wisely, doing necessary work, and *still* am not getting to all those other things on the list. It has made me aware of all the little things I do that take up my time. I need to remind myself when I get frustrated that I'm not wasting time, it's just that there's only so many hours in the day!

Anyway, if you're feeling frustrated at the stagnant items on your to-do list, might I suggest that you actually track what you *are* doing. You may be impressed and cut yourself some slack.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: PJ's noise machine and the birds outside

little sweetheart at daycare

little sweetheart
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

Well, the inevitable has happened. Penelope has caught her first cold. Damn daycare.

In all fairness, she had her 4 month immunizations on Tuesday and hasn't been herself since, but I talked with the doc on the phone and she said it sounded more like a virus than a reaction to the shots. Anyway, she's all snuffly and congested, and she's coughing and sneezing a lot. The doc said this could last 2 weeks-- yuk. I hate to see my little one not feeling her normal bubbly self. She has still been smiling and talking (a delightful assortment of growls and squeals), but her energy is way down and she becomes fussy more easily. I sure hope she's better for Nana's visit (my mom) in two weeks!

So, the daycare is because I started back to work at the library on Wednesday, and I'm glad to say that it's gone well. Although working nights and every other weekend was not my ideal schedule when I first got the job, I have to say that it's convenient from a child care perspective-- Mark can take care of her all days I work except for Thursday. I'm glad he gets that one on one time with her, too, and I know he loves it.

Does anyone now how to get the site Goodreads to hook up with Facebook, like Flickr and LJ does?

That's what we want to see!

That's what we want to see!
Originally uploaded by freemanwilliams

Well, tonight we decided to do a multiple step Ferber approach, which he mentions as an option in his book.

Okay, that's the fancy way of saying we caved and gave her the pacifier!

I think we'll probably have to go through this process again down the road now, to break her of the pacifier habit, but it just seems that what we were doing (trying to teach her to sleep with *no* associations) was not working! After 10 days, I would have expected more progress.

So, we're trying something new.

I had the nicest afternoon with Penelope. Well, looking at the clock it was only an hour, I guess; it was our play time between naps.

Speaking of which she just went down for her nap with only 5 minutes of crying. Yea! Now, that's no guarantee about what she'll do next time, but I'll take it this time!

Today I'm aware of how purposeful some of her actions are becoming. My favorite is that on her changing table today she grabbed her toes, she's not looking at them yet, but she loves to hang on to them. She also loves lifting up her feet and banging them down on the table, which makes diaper changing a bit challenging ;) and makes me think we need to put down more padding on the table, but she has a huge grin on her face the whole time she's doing it. Today she also clearly looked at the sleeve of my shirt and pulled it to her mouth. Oh yes, we've started the "everything goes in the mouth" phase, but that was the first time I've seen the cause-effect connection made for her.

She really is a happy baby who loves playing with her toys and she really focuses on things and looks interested. We think we got a laugh out of her during her bath the other day-- I can't wait for more of that.

I went to a mom's symposium up at Stanford today, which was a nice change of my daily routine. Wednesday the 18th I return to work and right now I feel good about that. I got programmed into the FitLinx system at the Y yesterday which is a great way to track exercise progress. I may actually do weightlifting occasionally now since I don't have to remember what settings I used last time-- it's all computerized. The screen even counts your reps for you, beeps at the extremes of the ranges of motion, and signals if you go too fast. It's very cool!

Mark is out seeing Coraline with a friend. As it was animated, I had no interest in seeing it. I have been getting to more movies than I thought I would with a baby thanks to Diaper Days at a local theatre. I love it!

I feel tired today (mentally and physically), but it's a happy day nonetheless.