Yesterday, Snacks Declared

that he was not, in fact, going to go to his new school in the fall...

because he doesn't want to practice wiping his own butt this summer.

Wednesday Check-In

Not surprisingly, whenever I have a Wednesday where I've gained, I have ZERO DESIRE to check in. But I'm forcing myself to do it tonight--if only because I knew Jen will check (hi, jen).

I'm beating my sugar addiction and had lots of successes this week, unfortunately part of beating the sugar cravings included eating a lot of fruit and eating several tons of cheese...which, of course, showed on the scale.

This next week (and I already started today), I'm working on the following:

Curbing my new cheese-instead-of-sugar habit

Getting away from eating at night (where did that come from this week???)

Getting back on the scale every day (the once a week thing didn't pan out as I had hoped)

Walking or running more--not so I can eat more or lose more, but because I am tired of feeling my muscles atrophying and I've been having trouble sleeping, which sucks on many levels

Sometimes I Wonder

if she can really be my kid...

Sissy often turns down sweets for vegetables.

Sissy's First Haircut

was last week. I took her to my salon.

Here she is reading ladies' magazines while waiting for her turn:

In the chair:

And celebrating afterward with her victory Tootsie Pop:

Snacks Woke Me Up

from a deep sleep at 4 a.m. to ask, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

I think it's time I get him his very own calendar.

Wednesday Check-In

I am up several pounds since my last check-in two weeks ago. I'm bummed, but I'm not freaking out. I've mostly been maintaining for the past several months--losing and gaining the same few pounds. While I wish I were dropping pounds, I'm grateful that I haven't been watching the numbers continue to climb. I feel pretty good that I have been able to easily maintain a weight loss of almost 40 pounds for almost two years.

I've been doing some "soul searching" in the weight loss department these past few weeks. I've wondered if I would just be happy maintaining this weight, and I've decided that, no, I won't be happy long-term this way.

Even though I can wear clothes in a size that doesn't horrify me from regular stores like Gap, or Ralph Lauren, or whatever, I would like to feel more comfortable in pants and wear skirts and sun dresses without looking like I am wearing a tent. I want to feel pretty and flirty and not always be tugging at the front of my t-shirt to make sure I feel covered in all the important places.

I recently realized that my expectations of myself were unrealistic and that I have been setting myself up for failure. Because I was losing 3-5 pounds a week while eating McDonalds and drinking pop when I was running and nursing, I wanted to keep that up, even after Sissy stopped nursing and I was unable to run because of an injury. I was frustrated with myself because I wasn't losing at that rate, even though I know it's not healthy to lose weight that fast on a consistent basis, and that I would be less likely to keep it off if I was successful at that rate.

SO, my new goal is to lose ONE pound per week for the next year, which will get me to my goal weight by July 23rd of 2009.

I will do this by continuing to strive for healthier eating, as I have been for the past several months.

Right now "mini meals" are working wonders for me psychologically to keep me away from the drive-thru. It has been almost a month since I've had McDonald's or other fast food. I don't miss it or my pop at all.

I've discovered that if I eat a sugary treat, it will likely not be limited to just that one. It will likely lead to sugar bingeing that lasts days or even a week before I can pull myself back on track. The same goes for fast food. I watched everyone else eat ice cream cake and drink pop at a birthday party last night and I didn't even care. I didn't crave it, I wasn't sad, it was just there.

I am taking my scale down to the basement today where I will visit it only once a week, instead of every day. That way I won't see that I have lost a pound one day and decide that I can "afford" to eat a little more the next, thereby sabotaging myself.

Also, I don't want to HAVE to exercise in order to lose weight because I know that is not something that I can always be consistent with. I love to run, I love to walk, but sometimes circumstances--from my recurring injury to whining children--make doing those things very difficult. I want to exercise to get fit and to feel good, but not to lose weight. I've committed to changing my diet so that I can lose without needing the extra "Points" that working out affords.

Lastly, I want to make a point of celebrating what I AM doing well, instead of beating myself up for what I screwed up on. I don't spend enough time congratulating myself for beating my pop addiction and for successfully avoiding the drive-thru (which also means I'm saving lots of money!).

And now I'm off the back yard for some quality "me" time--something else I've been doing consistently for myself!

Running Through the Sprinkler

has been a favorite pastime this summer. Several afternoons a week, we end up in the front yard blowing bubbles and getting wet with the neighbor girls.

Almost Every Saturday Morning

for the past five years Kiki and I have met to walk around Lake Harriet followed by a bagel and Brueggers. Sissy has been joining us since she came along (Snacks is always invited, but he prefers spending Saturday morning hanging out and watching Spiderman with his dad...).

It's always fun picking out Sissy's special "Kiki-worthy" outfit.

Jackass Update

For anyone who was wondering, my husband spent the next evening emptying the dishwasher, reloading all those that had piled up in the sink, and picking up the house after the kids went to bed.

And no, he will probably never learn.

Jackass Quote of the Day

Just in case some of you have been missing these from Marlee's Rant...

"It's not my job to come home at the end of the day and pick up
after the kids when I haven't been here all day."

(I had asked him to empty the dishwasher.)

If this is any indication

of what the Terrible Twos are going to be like, then we are in BIG trouble. Today before we went for a walk, I switched my orthotics from one pair of shoes to the other. Apparently, Sissy felt I chose the WRONG pair of tennies and this is what happened:

I mean, was it really THAT big of a deal that I switched from these:

to these?:

I mean, is she freaking KIDDING ME???!!!

Today I discovered

ANOTHER reason it's important to latch the screen door in the front (the first reason is that Sissy has learned to let herself out and wander off on her own)...

This evening, while I was sitting on the couch reading, Sissy was on the front porch saying "hi" to passers-by. Before long I heard the little girls from next door approach our front door. They said "hi" to Sissy and kept asking her if she was going to come out. Then they tried to bust her out. Luckily, I had remembered to latch the door so they couldn't just let her out--something I hadn't thought to worry about before--but they kept trying and trying while I just sat on the couch quietly listening to the conversation:

Sissy: "Hi!"

M: "Sissy, are you going to come out?"

Sissy: (silence--although there may have been nodding that I couldn't see)

M: "Are you going to come out?"

(Door is banging repeatedly while the girls are trying to pull it open to let her out.)

H: "Sissy, are you home alone?"

M: "Are you home alone?"

H: "Are you home all by yourself?"

(I have no idea what Sissy was doing at this point, maybe nodding, but I DO know that she had NO IDEA what the girls were saying to her... I kept waiting for them to say, "Is your mommy home?" Or, "Where's your mommy?" which she would have understood and could have answered, but they never did).

M: "Oh my gosh! She's home alone!"

H: "You're by yourself in the house?"

M: "I better go tell Mom that Sissy's home BY HERSELF!" (runs off to tell her mom)

But, alas, the pizza delivery man came just at that moment and ruined all my fun.

I PRETENDED like I bought this little guy for Sissy...

but he was really for me.

(Isn't he cute?)

This may be one for the record books

World's Largest (and Longest Lasting) Snot Bubble

(Yeah, I know it looks like the bubble's coming out of her mouth but, trust me, it's not.)

Sissy's newest pastime

is to stand on the back step, at the front door, or at one of our windows yelling, "Hi!" to the neighbors or any passers-by. She says it over and over until they are out of sight.

Here she is standing in our front window. She tossed the laptop off the ottoman and onto the floor and then used it as a step stool to climb up.

Obviously, she's been taking lessons from her older brother...

Summer Soccer

Snacks started summer soccer yesterday. He was really excited to play. At five, he is super focused on winning, even though I have been trying to explain that the fun is in the playing--it's not about winning or losing. This is a point that is totally lost on him, of course.

The first day of soccer went much better than the first day of T-ball, when Snacks hit himself on the back of the head with his own bat (the coaches forgot about the batting helmets...). At T-ball he was generally bored so he found his own entertainment by putting his glove on other kids' heads, kicking up gravel in the in-field, and wandering off the field so his dad had to keep running out to tell him to go back to his base.

Soccer was a blast for him because he got the ball a lot and the coaches had them constantly running.

So far, he loves it!

Wednesday Check-In

I've lost track of how much weight I've lost since my last Wednesday Check-In, since I haven't done it for a few weeks. I just know that I'm down a total of 38.5, with 42.5 to go.

Things have been slow in the weight loss department, but at least I haven't been gaining. In fact, I even managed to lose about .5 pound on our trip last week, which I'm particularly proud of since over our Memorial Day vacation, I gained 6 pounds in just 4 days.

The key for me on our trip was to be totally anal about my food and the kids'. I even went so far as to UPS a small box of our dry goods ahead since I knew they were things that we wouldn't be able to find easily once we got there. I had to be persistent with our hosts upon our arrival to make sure we got to Trader Joe's THAT DAY to get the milk, eggs, and produce that we needed for the week. I'm sure my relatives thought I was really obnoxious, but I was SO GLAD I was assertive (unusual for me) because it turns out that they have terrible eating habits--like not eating breakfast, eating a late lunch, and not getting around to dinner until hours after my kids are in bed--that would've had the kids and I starving, crabby, and grabbing anything and everything in sight.

I also had the foresight to bring our soft-sided cooler and cold packs, which we couldn't have survived without. I always had a baggie full of protein powder with me and my "shaker thing" so I never got myself into a bind. I only ate sugar on the last day and it was only a small amount and was with my protein shake.

I feel AWESOME about how and what the kids and I ate on our trip!

This week I am trying out what my husband has been pressing me to try for weeks. He lost 20 pounds in a blink of an eye (at least it seems that way) and is now down to a weight lower than he was when we met. He has been eating six "mini meals" (which is all the rage now, I know...), and that has worked great for him.

I was resisting because I hate food prep and being in the kitchen and I figured I would have to be in there TWICE as much with six meals, but then I realized that it was LUNCH that has been a major stumbling block for me. LUNCH is always where I hit the drive-thru. I hate eating LUNCH at home. I hate soup, salad, and sandwiches, which are typical LUNCH foods... so it occurred to me if I was doing six mini meals, there would be no actual LUNCH to eat! I can just have an apple, some almonds, and some cheese and be done with it (no real prep work!); or a turkey and cheese roll-up and some fruit; or a protein shake and some spelt pretzels and fruit. It's only been a few days, but DAMN has it been freeing for me so far!!

We'll see how it goes. I love that I feel like I'm always eating so I'm not ever worrying that I'm not getting Enough (another huge issue for me...).

To be continued...

Snacks Loses His First Tooth!!