Weekly Workout Wrap-up week 1

So it was a bit of a mixed bag this week. I made it to the gym twice this week, and walked a fair bit in between. My third night was replaced by a crafting night (good for my mental health, right?) where I only knew one person. My friend did most of the talking for the 12 ladies there, and this uh, knitting circle had a lot of novice knitters making rhomboid shaped scarves. Nice women, but not really my crowd. Especially the look of horror some of them gave me when I mentioned my son loves watching the documentary Babies.

Since only some ghetto uneducated mother would let her son watch TV or movies their stare told me.

 Most of them were not mothers. Just you wait ladies. Once you have a kid, you'll understand.

You'll be singing this in the shower:

Does trying to do the actions for this song count as exercise?

I did weights on Saturday. Hello weights. I've missed you most of all. Chock-o-block full of bench pressy goodness. Must get back into weight lifting on a regular basis. I need to figure out a routine that covers all the bases in two or three days a week.

The food intake was the so-so part of this week. I must get back on to Fitday. It's like an online food journal. Not to be obsessive about the calories I eat, but more to be accountable. That and it has pie charts of your daily intake of carbs, protein and fat. Gotta love the pie charts.

10 parenting lessons I learned in the past year

1. Do whatever it takes, whatever you can handle.

2. Once you figure out your child, they will change.

3. Toddlers are very different creatures than babies.

4. The skull is very resilient.

5. I am very resilient.

6. Do something for yourself, it will make you a better parent.

7. Baby signs really do work!

8. You can never have too many laundry tokens.

9. The tooth fairy (or she who brings the teeth) should have a house dropped on her head.

10. This isn't easy. Talk to your friends, you'll see you're not alone.


(I was going to expand on all the points, but I kind of like it like this)

Is one enough?

I've had this struggle going on in my head ever since Alex was born. Before he was born, I said I wanted just one child. The only child. Now I'm not so sure. I go back and forth almost daily.

The pressure to pop out a second one seemed to start early. From family, from friends, even strangers. Even before I was given the okay for heavy lifting after my C-section, people would ask if a second was in the works. My answer then was "HELL NO" (put more politely for the nosey grannies on the street who had no business asking me that in the first place). Then this person of mine became hard to handle. Something was wrong. He cried an awful lot, as did I. A second child seemed impossible. Not in the cards. Around the same time that Alex had a seriously messed up sleeping schedule, waking every hour for a few weeks (maybe longer, it's not something I put in his baby book) a dear friend told me she was pregnant with her second. It made me queasy to think of myself in that position. It seemed to me, to be good timing for her, she makes motherhood look easy.

I have an easier time with Alex now, but adding a second child into the mix? I struggle to get him out the door on time, to get him dressed or make supper without either of us melting down. I'm told it's easier with a second. Sure, you know the basics, but just when you think you have babies figured out, the next one that comes along says "ha ha ha, not so fast!". Managing two people with different needs at the same time seems daunting. Yes, I know, there's plenty of people that do it, heck even Octomom is able to hit the gym and do her makeup, but me? Am I up to the challenge? Getting through the newborn stage is what scares me the most. The fog, the lack of control, the crying oh the crying.

Why only one? My answer is quite simple. More time. More time with Alex. Losing my mom early, I am very aware of the lack of time I had with her. True, I can't control when I die, but I can control how much time I get to spend with my son. Dividing my time, at his expense for a second child. I then wonder if adult Alex will spend years in therapy because he had too much time with mom ("she puts the mother in smother" he says to his therapist). That's not what I want either.

However I don't worry about the stereotypes of the Only Child. The spoiled brat who doesn't know how to relate to others, to share. It's more about upbringing than birth order. Sure it matters, but so do many other factors as well. I'm also not worried about having a Spare. The kid you have so that in case something BAD happens to one, you still have another one left. Oh yes, I swear I've heard mention of this one.

Where the decision becomes more difficult, not as clear is the issue of a sibling. Someone who understands you, and fights with you and who will help you up the stairs in your drunken stupor so your parents don't find out you've been drinking. That is where my problem lies.

So I sit on my hands about the issue for now. Deciding not to decide just yet. If only I had more time to decide. Hmm, time.

On the mend

Miss Molly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick

So she called for the doctor to come quick, quick, quick
The doctor came with his bag and his hat

And he knocked on the door with a rat-a-tat-tat

He looked at the dolly and he shook his head

And he said "Miss Molly put her straight to bed"

He wrote on some paper for a pill, pill, pill

"I'll be back in the morning with my bill, bill, bill."

I woke up Friday morning to a very hot baby. He was feverish and pretty crabby. I gave him something for his fever and hoped for the best. His crabbiness went away but I just couldn't get him to sleep. He had been up a couple of hours straight the night before (a regular occurrence for him so I didn't think anything of it) so I really needed him to nap. So I could nap too. By 4pm there was still no napping, he was miserable and I was exhausted. I took him out in the stroller because that always does the trick (I gave up on my nap), He napped for about an hour. He was in slightly better spirits.

Then the no sleeping continued. He finally fell asleep around midnight after numerous attempts and tricks to get him to sleep. He slept for 45 minutes the woke up again. It took me another 30 minutes to get him back to sleep. This sleeping in 45 minute intervals lasted all night. All. Night. Sleeping only 45 minutes at a time does some crazy stuff to your brain. I think I was thisclose to seeing magic pixies dancing around my head as they chanted "no sleep!". Saturday was only slightly better with a 2 hour nap the entire day. He fell asleep at 11 and woke up, yep, you guessed it at 11:45.

 We took him to the Children's hospital, but he was only seen by the triage nurse (nice lady, but needs to pop a mint her mouth after her cigarette break). She said it might be an ear infection. I asked her how long the wait would be. She was honest and said it would be long and we'd be better off going home. So we left and even at 3am still didn't fall asleep on the way home. Rick drove up and down on a small expressway near our house. Alex fell asleep almost right away. Ahhh!

I went to the clinic near my house on Sunday and he was seen by a doctor right away since we were the only ones there. No ear infection but his throat is infected.

Last night was a decent night sleep wise. It's funny, all I need is a ok night of sleep to bounce back. Yes still tired, but no taunting pixies. Alex is much less clingy today and even went down the baby slide on his own at the park. Nothing like a little park therapy to make everything better.

Happy father's day!

When Alex hears him unlock the front door he SQUEALS

and crawls at full speed to see his dad.

It's love alright.

Getting his Yayas out...

This boy loves the park. It doesn't matter how crabby or tired he is. He can't get enough of it. A friend once told me that moms of boys socialize more, because they spend more time out of the house, trying to burn off some of that excess energy. I'm starting to believe it. I've met girls that are active too, but in general it's the boys getting into everything while the girls sit and play quietly. Um, yeah, there's nothing quiet about this person. He's intense, he's exhausting, even when he kisses it's more like he's devouring my face.

Definitely keeps me on my toes.

I am in serious trouble when he discovers how fast he can run.

Sing, sing a song!

Open, shut them, Open, shut them, Give a little clap, clap, clap.
Open, shut them, Open, shut them,
Put them in you lap, lap, lap.
Creep them, crawl them, creep them, crawl them,
Right up to your chin, chin, chin
Open wide your little mouth
But do not put them in, in. in.

tappe tappe tappe
pique pique pique
roule roule roule
mange, mange, mange
cache cache cache
coucou!

When I started this whole parenting thing, maybe my brain was fried. The only nursery rhymes I could remember were Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old Macdonald Had A Farm. Poor Alex had to hear those and Christmas songs over and over again. He didn't seem to mind. There were even a couple of weeks where I couldn't get Lily Allen out of my head, and would sing that to him "good dancer love but you should have worn a bra".
 To entertain myself I started making up songs as I walked around the house with Alex, while I changed his diaper. Kitties in the Bed, Little Baby Alex, Baloo Balloon songs. Oh yeah, I'm the Taylor Swift of baby songs.

I never used to sing, rarely listened to music. Music was a distraction while I was on the Elliptical, or running, something to keep me company at work.  This little person of mine seems to love when I sing to him, loves hearing music. He grabs my hands, pushing my hands together to make me clap. This is the first sign he's conveyed to me (I'm doing baby signs with him).

I figured that I should get some kids music so Alex wouldn't learn any bad words from the Beastie Boys. Problem is, most kids music sucks. Seriously. I have a friend who happily listens to the Wiggles all day. I don't think I can do it. There must be a happy medium!
I do have a new found appreciation of music. I may be a terrible singer, but hopefully growing some brain cells.



This was the only song that would soothe Alex when he had a bad cold. I love this version of the song. (This was the only "video" I could find)