Do you wonder what secret weight loss plan I am using, yea the big secret was giving birth  (delivering Nick helped drop 20 pounds, they were the most terrible to loose, but delivering Maddie I gained 5), the next big secret is I stopped breastfeeding (after a year), I don’t know why because most people find that breastfeeding melts off the pounds but I was so hungry I did not loose any weight while breast feeding. Then I started eating healthier (like perhaps only 2 desserts after dinner instead of the 4 I was eating when I was breastfeeding (you figuring out why I lost no weight?), once I was eating healthy (like replacing 3pm dessert with veggies and dip or meatballs) then I started eating less (really just not over eating), I was really overeating at my moms and grandmas houses, they are just such good cooks. So I am down to 135.5 and I either have to eat less or exercise more….and I just don’t want to do either (although I was doing ok on eating for the day until I ate 5 marshmallows, and I don’t even like them).

I am shocked that I have lost 74pounds…that means I used to be FAT.  I am so surprised looking back at pictures, yep I was fat, I mean I knew I was… but in my head I was still the skinny young adult I was before I had kids.

You might think Laura you are 5’6″ 135 is a just fine weight (BMI says it is) but I have a 36″ waist*, oh yea that is a nice look. (only doing 5 abdominal workouts since Maddie was born (almost 2 years ago) may have a bit to do with that))  I look like a stuffed sausage in my size 6 jeans. Oh pre-pregnancy body I miss you, I wish I had appreciated you when I had you…if only I had known how bad it could get. Here is to my giant version of my former self!

* waist meaning where my pants go, below my belly button. If I measure up where pants went in the ’90′s it is only 33. Anyway 37-33-40 is a long way from 34-25-35.

On Friday Nick got the stomach flu (8 kids in his class were out with it (out of 16)) I was up for him 4 hours in the middle of the night (although Scott was the one that got to deal with the vomit). When he woke up the next morning it turned out he had had diarrhea in the middle of the night in his jammies, so it was all over him, his jammies and bedding and bedroom carpet..and it got on the bathroom run cleaning him up (so 5 loads of laundry and some carpet scrubbing). He puked in the bathtub when we gave him his first drink of the day so I had to sanitize the tub and tub toys (although they are still in the bathroom sink dirty).

Saturday Maddie was teething again, she is getting 3 molars and a front bottom tooth all at the same time, so she is very miserable, she has a pacifier in her mouth constantly because if she closes her mouth she sobs, because she stabs her lower gums with her new molar points, she has been waking up every 4 hours all night for her next dose of Tylenol like clockwork. I don’t remember most of Saturday, I was not feeling well, but I was awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night even though the kids were sleeping because I did not feel well…I never got sick…I just did not feel good.

Sunday Maddie ‘fell’ (was tripped by her brother) and bashed her head on the corner of the door and had a giant goose egg with a cut right before bed. I finally got her to sleep (with Tylenol and an icepack) but we waited until she woke up crying to give her her next dose…but it was not enough pain relief (she is 1 pound away from the next dosage amount on the bottle, we have since looked it up and are dosing her more appropriately) and she was awake for 4 hours in the middle of the night and so was I.

Monday, I was tired so I had some caffeine to keep me awake so Scott could get a nap (he let me sleep in) Nick was feeling great and Maddie was doing better (still teething but the right dose of Tylenol was working) so Nick and I shoveled the driveway and made a giant caterpillar during Maddies nap. Well I had too much caffeine and could not sleep from 2-6am even though the kids were sleeping (Scott let me sleep in to 9, and went to work late)

Somewhere in there Nick and I organized and cleaned up all of the toys, we have a lot of nice toys! However we never sorted the cars out from the junk/garbage pile and we never put away the ‘needs new batteries’ pile so the family room is a total dump! I am also so behind on laundry, I had big plans to catch up on the 8 loads of dirty clothes (yea there are summer shorts in the pile)

So adding it up in a 4 day period I am short 14 hours of sleep…yea no wonder I am a zombie.

Does having kids ever get easier?

This is crazy, I would love being a mommy…if I could stay awake and remember it, I think.

Here we are ready for the first day of school!

He did not really want his picture taken, he was busy playing

We were twins…it is a ‘Mommy and Me’ class

Nick and I were both excited to go

Here are all of his party guests (this is the best one)

Here is another where you can see all of party guests

A fun game of musical chairs

The guests:

Adam (and Grandpa Rick)

Daniel

Bradley

Aaron

Dorothy (and Pop Pop)

1. Nick is in the 85th percentile for both height and weight
2. wears size 4T clothes
3. does not take a nap anymore
4. has a winning smile (you do not see it in any of the pictures because he did not want them taken, we were lucky he looked at the camera)
5. loves gymnastics class
6. loves school (we take a mommy and me class once a week) and does not want to leave
7. has absolutely gigantic feet size 9.5xW
8. loves to put on shoes (it means we are going outside)
9. loves to play trains, he talks to them too
10. gives kisses and a hug if you are lucky
11. is good at timeout, and sometimes is even excited to go to timeout
12. loves other kids…”hi pretty girl”
13. talks like crazy
14. might sleep 13 hours in a row
15. is afraid of Monsters
16. likes it when you drive crazy
17. is very good at grocery shopping…just let him out of the cart
18. if he wants something he tells you to “buy it!”
19. loves to play on the computer
20. oh shoot 24 things is a lot and I am tired…I will get Scott to finish it
21. something
22. something
23. something
24. the end

Here are some pictures of his Birthday:

Here is one of us blowing out his candles

The Family Photo

Grandmas and a boy

Original Post 7/1/2008
I found a new way to check the fit of your kids shoes. I realized that Nick’s shoes were too small when they got all wet (a rain puddle incident) and I pulled out the insoles to help them dry off faster, I looked at the foot dents he left…and I wondered why he did not complain, his toes were squished! so I bought him a half size bigger, only to realize 2 weeks later (after another rain puddle incident) that they were too small too even though they were easy to put on. So after a trip to the outlet mall and trying on every kids shoe there we realized our kid really does need wide shoes, extra wide is even better. Thanks Stride Rite for having on sale 9XW shoes! Hopefully these shoes last for the next year!