He-Man and Friend

From day one, my little boy has been very strong. Actually, from before day one, I felt his powerful legs and arms inside of me. Now, he's exercising those limbs outside. He loves to kick and tense his legs so that diaper changes are sometimes challenging for us. Yesterday, he showed us another level of his strength - he held a bottle all by himself!

He seemed a little unsatisfied after one of his feedings yesterday so Mike fed him a few ounces from a bottle. Now, he rarely gets a bottle (probably only a few times a week) so it's not like he has tons of experience with it. But Mike said Dylan stole it right out of his hands and held it solo! Wow! What a strong little man!

Another big event of yesterday, Lucienne seemed to want to start becoming friends with Dylan. Now, it was probably only because he was hanging out on his play mat, which she thinks is her toy, but this was the closest she had come to actually interacting with him. A big step towards what I'm sure will become a lifelong friendship between those two!

Big Days and Long Nights - Random Thoughts

We have had quite an eventful week. It all started last Friday when Dylan started sleeping through the night! Hallelujah! It appears as if this sleeping thing might stick. We had 4 nights in a row of him getting 6 and 7 hour stretches. And then, last night, he slept for 9 hours straight! Of course, when baby sleeps, so do the parents. Mike and I feel a world better this week and actually human again.

The really cool thing about him sleeping is that we're in a little less of a survival mode. Instead of just figuring out times during the day that we can catch some zzz's, we're actually working on some projects and getting out of the house more. It's amazing. Life is very different this week.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was an awesome mother and son day. It started with a walk to our yoga class. After boasting about how great he was last week, he was a mess this week. He got hungry just as class started so we spent most of the class fussing, then nursing then changing diapers. After that we went to my work and spent a very long time there visiting with all my coworkers I hadn't seen in months (weird...it really doesn't seem like it's been months). We went for another walk in the evening with a neighborhood friend and then Dylan and I played and read books while dad had soccer that night. He was such a good boy all day (being hungry during yoga class being the one fussy time exception) and we had such fun together. It was a really wonderful and perfect day with him. I enjoyed it immensely!

It's not going to be a very cohesive post, but I just wanted to share some other events and thoughts from the week.

Shoe shopping. I haven't bought shoes since I got pregnant, so I had some catching up to do. Plus, my shoe needs now are a little different than pre-pregnancy. So, we had a big shoe shopping trip. I'm a little horrified that I'm now drawn to the comfy looking shoes as opposed to the sleek and pretty high heels. Oh well, I guess practically just takes preference now. It's a good thing they've made strides in the comfy shoe category in the last several years and there are actually some cute choices. Anyway, I'm all caught up on shoe shopping now.

Last Saturday, we went out to dinner with Mike's sister's family. Dylan, of course, got fussy just as the food arrived. He seems to have a knack for that. It seems to be nightly that he'll be happy as a clam until I get my plate of dinner ready to eat and then he gets cranky. From what I understand, this is a super power all babies seem to have...breakdown just when the parents are trying to eat. What's up with that? Anyhow, he calmed with just being held by mom. So, his second restaurant outing went pretty well in the end.

Let's see, here are some notable developments with the little guy lately (other than sleep). He has discovered his hands and loves gnawing on them. It's great that they make him so happy. The downside...his face is now covered with slobber for much of the day and he has lost interest in his pacifier, which was always a nice calming tool for us to have. He has decided that he enjoys diaper changes (now smiles and kicks excitedly during them) and baths....those no longer cause screaming and crying. He also LOVES playing super baby! His neck is getting stronger daily with his flights around the house.

SUPER BABY!

Also, since he's been enjoying sucking on some fruits, I wanted him to also be introduced to vegetables. When I was chopping up a salad for myself the other day, Mike grabbed out a cucumber piece and let Dylan give that a try. He liked it!

Okay, I'm off to enjoy the day! Man, life is grand when you get sleep!

Boot Camp

Earlier this week, as I wrote about in an earlier post, Dylan and I took some work out classes together. Yesterday, I started another work out class at the community center that I'm taking sans son - boot camp.

During my pregnancy, a big concern I had was how the weight would come off after the kiddo was born. Every woman I spoke with regarding this reassured me over and over that the weight would just "melt off" with breastfeeding. Well, here I am 12 weeks post delivery and nothing - and I mean NOTHING - has melted. I realize that I wouldn't be pre-pregnancy weight at this point, but I at least expected to see some movement in the downward direction on the scale. Man oh man how I wanted to believe everyone that told me it would just come off. So much so that I forgot one very important fact I learned long ago - my body is a freak of nature and I have to work 2 - 3 times as hard as a normal person to lose weight.

So, it's time to get serious. My iPhone, which has become my lifeline, has a calorie tracking program that I'm religiously logging. I've definitely kicked up the exercise regime as well. And, to get a jump start on it, I figured I'd try out the boot camp craze that's sweeping the work out nation.

The concept is easy. It's 1 hour of high intensity exercises using only your body weight. So, theoretically, one could repeat the exercises at home since no equipment is required. The only catch to that is, even though you don't need fancy work out gear, what you do need is a drill sergeant to force you to inflict that kind of work out on yourself. No one exercise is that bad....it's just that an hour of them back to back with absolutely no break is really, really, really tough!

I will say this though. After completing that one hour, I felt fantastic....the kind of great you can only feel when you know you've pushed your body to the max and gotten through it. Today, I'm definitely feeling the effects of it but in a good way. Only when you have jello muscles and are sore are you assured that your work out did the job.

So, hopefully between calorie tracking, stroller fit, mom and baby yoga, running, weight lifting class and boot camp class I'll start seeing those pounds "just" disappear!

Magic Jammies

Last night, Dylan graduated to his 3 month size PJ's. His legs had gotten so long that they just couldn't straighten out in his newborn\0-3 month ones anymore. Mike and I had just gone on a shopping trip and found these super cute frog pajamas that we put on him. Little did we know they had secret magical powers!

Magic Jammies!

They helped Dylan sleep through the night! He slept for about 7 hours straight! Wahoo! Unfortunately we won't be able to test their magical powers again tonight due to an unfortunate pooping accident, but we're planning to get them washed and back on quickly to see if he can do it again.

Happy Friday

For those that work all week, Friday is a day to look forward to! Here's some Friday cuteness to add to your end of the week enjoyment.

Since every day of the week is about the same for us, we're happiest when we have a happy baby. As shown above, we've had a good morning with a smiley baby. Happy Friday everyone!

Startin' Him Early

It's been a good week thus far. I'm hoping not to jinx myself, but we've now had a couple of nights in a row of back to "normal" sleeping hours. For Dylan, that means sleeping for about 4 hours at the beginning of the night, waking for a feeding, then sleeping about 3 hours more. It feels like a TON of sleep for me in comparison to the last few weeks.

In addition to sleep, Dylan and I have also had some other new experiences this week. Not surprising news to most, I've become a bit of a work out fiend over the last several years. What started out as a necessity to shed the pounds turned into a habit that I just don't know how to stop (and frankly don't need to since it's a healthy habit to have). I was looking for ways to incorporate Dylan into that and have found a few.

1) Luckily Dylan loves his stroller. We've taken many a walk with him over the past couple of months and he's (mostly) enjoyed every one of them. Last week, I even started to run with him a bit.

2) Monday, Dylan and I tried out a Stroller Fit class. It incorporates working out with, well, your stroller (and of course the kid in the stroller). I found out about the class from a couple of friends of mine that did it and liked it. While I like the concept and got a great work out, I'm not sure whether or not we'll sign up for more classes. Mostly because I'm paying money for some other work out things and am not sure if I want to shell out more dough. Also, though, I'm not quite enough in the mommy world to feel comfortable singing kids songs in the park while working out....especially since my kid is too young to pay attention (in fact, he slept through the whole class). Very cool concept of a class though!

3) Yesterday, Dylan and I started a mommy and infant yoga class at our community center. It being only half an hour in length and incorporating a baby, I didn't expect it to be too challenging for me. It wasn't. Dylan seemed to enjoy it immensely though. Not to boast (okay, maybe to boast a little) but he was the only baby that didn't cry during class. It was really fun to learn some yoga moves that would help me get some stretching in AND interact with the little guy. Plus, the community center's on the other side of town, so coupling the class with a walk to the center and home gave a decent workout. I was running late yesterday so it was actually a run there!

I hope to set a good example for him and get him started early in life living an active healthy lifestyle.

Days End

Sunrise or sunset? Most people tend to have a preference for one or the other. Mike and I are sunset people. Why? 1) We think the colors are usually prettier than a sunrise and 2) we'd much rather be awake for the sunset than the sunrise.

We get a great view of the sunset from our front porch. Many a night we'll go out and enjoy a nice sunset. A couple of days ago, Mike got some nice shots of a particularly beautiful one.

Sunset (try to ignore the power lines)

Cool Reflection Of It Off Of The House