I like to move it, move it (Vol 1)

People - I need a name for these weekly updates that is not "weekly updates." Ideas? Beyond my lame-o attempt above?

Whoa-K, here are my goals from last week:

Nutrition Goal: Track everything I'm eating and drinking in photos. The point of this will be to give myself an accurate picture of how and what I'm eating and to pinpoint what needs tweaking. Plus force some mindful eating on myself. Also, I would also like to hit that water goal each day and go back to no dairy in my coffee.

Exercise Goal: 3 Couch-to-5Ks and get my butt to one yoga class.

And how I actually did:

I tracked everything on my Mothership Eats blog and came to some conclusions, none of which were very surprising.

• Too much sugar/sweets. I don't need to be that indulgent. I don't even really want it or enjoy it half the time. Honestly, I'm still feeling extra rebellious after that nasty thrush diet from January/February. Why am I taunting the thrush?
• I'm also feeling just plain pissy about having a bunch of weird food intolerances. None of them are serious enough to fully justify eliminating them entirely so it's a mental debate every time I come across dairy and gluten. I don't want to face the music on this, but I have to. I really need to respect my body and lay off what is making me feel icky. But it's haaaaard. I want cheese with my whine. (AM SO FUNNY HAHA)
• Overall, though, I feel pretty good about my eating. Lots of veggies, fruits, cook a decent amount at home. Ate out several times last week, but that's not so usual so I'm not overly concerned.

As far as exercise - I did great. I didn't go to yoga just once, but 5 times (6 if you count this morning)! I did one couch-to-5K before starting up with daily yoga. I have decided to put my regular gym membership on hold and stick with exercising at home, outside, and at the yoga studio. The gym I belonged to currently has such limited availability for childcare because of a random influx of babies (you have to make appointments), plus it's over 20 minutes away. It's just not that convenient when I factor in both kid's naptimes and mealtimes and bedtimes and how long it takes to drag two kids there.

For next week:

Nutrition Goal: 80 oz water per day. Limited dairy & gluten - respect the gut! No desserts/sugars until Friday, then moderate amounts of indulging on the weekend.

Exercise Goal: I will do 30 days of yoga, plus add in some walk/runs a few times a week. I will be fine with not adding in running until next week - it's quite intense doing heated power yoga each day. But eventually I will need additional aerobic exercise beyond yoga and besides I love getting outside in the nice weather. I think yoga & running will be a nice mix for the summer. Then I can re-evaluate.

Day in the Life 2012: Sunday

8 AM yoga with my friend/former roommate. Having a friend there made me feel less weird when we all went to the wall to practice handstands. Such a mental leap to do things like that sometimes when our kids just DO it. Ah, to be fearless. Afterwards we treated ourselves to Caribou since we could smell the coffee during class.

Bella was asking about what day it was and if Husband had to go to work. To the schedule board!

It was picture day for Bella's dance class and it was supposed to be full costume and hair so I got out her costume to shower steam it. But we later decided that all that effort for pictures when she is only 2 years old was just too much. Besides, it would have messed with naptime. There is no messing with naptime. I'll get plenty of candids during her dress rehearsals and recitals - no need to pay $30 for professional dance pics.

"Apple dippers" - a favorite snack. (The dip is peanut butter.)

I sent Husband out for a couple hours so that he could have some time to exercise/chill and Bella made this stunning collage for him while he was gone. She likes layering :)

Husband put the chin-up bar up and both kids like hanging off it.

Family walk to the new playground we just "discovered." Usual dumping of the sand from the shoes from our last park visit. So much gets tracked in.

I continue to be obsessed with taking family pictures in this random apartment building's front door.

Loves climbing.

Oliver is really starting to enjoy the playground equipment. He wasn't so sure of swings and the rest of it at first, but now it makes him smile and laugh.

Husband got a bee in his bonnet (HAAAAA) about going out to lunch. I love going out to eat for the most part so I didn't push the fact that we had been rather indulgent all week already. We went to Brasa - a local/organic place in NE Minneapolis. Food was good and the kids behaved well but it was a reminder that it's just not worth the expense to eat out right now. So much management of the kids and their own eating that you end up shoveling in your food. A nice lady offered to take our picture. There was also a rather bratty little girl who came in with her dad to get take out - think Nellie Oleson - and she made such a fuss about Oliver (she was mad that his sippy cup fell on the ground? or something?) that it attracted the attention of half the restaurant. The dad seemed oblivous to how rude she was being. Bella was completely fascinated, which made us cringe. Other tables made eye contact with me just to roll their eyes. Anyway! It was an unpleasant few minutes.

We wrapped up lunch and walked back home. Then Bella and I took care of a little task. This might be gross, but we sprinkled Bella's curls from her haircut earlier in the week for the birds to use in their nests. I googled before we did it to make sure it was an actual thing and not just some crazy notion I had made up :)

AAAAAARG. I didn't do them Saturday night, but a night off makes for double duty the next day. Boo. However, it was naptime and I just wasn't interested. So I left them to ferment some more.

I tried to nap along with the kids, but couldn't fall asleep. Once Oliver woke up I took him with me to Babies R Us for more formula.

Bella was up by the time we got home so we skyped with my parents.

While Husband was getting HIS parents on the computer so we could chat with them, I got the bubble machine up and running. A big hit.

Dinner for the kids and then a bath for both of them. There is something so crazy cute about siblings in the tub. I had to bribe Bella to take a bath with Oliver, though, by giving her a jellybean. Maybe I shouldn't have told her about that time my little brother pooped in the tub when he was a little baby :)

One last bottle for Oliver - with the usual scoop of probiotics (he gets them twice a day, Bella gets them once) and to bed for Bubby.

Bella asks to paint - she has been really into art projects this week - and requests Daddy paint along with her. This ends up being Husband's and Bella's favorite moment of the day.

I work on the dishes for what seems like forever while they paint and Bella helps me finish them up.

Someone is not happy about it being bedtime. Her bedtime routine these days: potty, brush teeth (dentist-style in the recliner), Berenstein book, pinkies & entourage in bed, singing 3 songs, a snuggle, a back rub, a hug, a kiss, and EXTRA snuggle and an EXTRA kiss. Then I deny her a bunch of other things - songs, hugs, kisses, etc. Tricky bedtime delayers.

Husband feels I duped him by having this giant vat of jellybeans and not telling him. I maintain that I told him several times about it and he wasn't listening so that teaches him to listen to his wife. Plus - I have been eating them regularly at home and have posted pictures on the blog! One must take personal responsibility for one's own jellybean consumption.

I blog, blog, blog while semi-participating in the house hunting. We will start viewing houses in the next week or so! We want to be moved in by September.

Love in a time of Children.

Saturday, April 28

Two things before I dive into Saturday's going-ons:

1. If you did a Spring Day in the Life/Week in the Life - you still have plenty of time to get it posted and let me know about it so I can include you in the round-up post. Just email me at navigatingthemothership@gmail.com by Monday night. The blog hop post will be up on Tuesday.

2. Husband shouted about the pictures I posted yesterday, citing unfair angles and hideous moments. He is insistent that I don't portray him as a simple-minded man with much chin on the blog. Anyhoodles, as punishment he is insisting that I share the following picture from several months ago.

He keeps it on his phone to gaze upon during time away from me. I am his treasure.

[Husband's comment: First of all...(Editor's note - I am already rolling my eyes) there was no shouting: I thought those were private pictures (Ed note: sounds pervy). Second, for ugly pictures permission should be granted and third - it's only right to have to post an ugly to make things right again.]

Okay, done with the business side of things. Onto the day.

Yoga first thing on a rainy day. The earliest class is 8 am on the weekends.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Biggie does his typical chew-the-bottom-of-the-sippy-cup thang and

Bella does some painting

 Then later Oliver attacked Bella and they wrestled and it ended up being Husband's favorite moment of the day...

I get home from yoga and I shower quickly and then Bella ends up taking a quick bath. This is her Chicken towel that she got from Auntie Valerie & Uncle Alex a couple years ago. 

Bella and I hit up music class for the second time in a week (future Bella reading this: HUGE parental sacrifice. HUUUUUUUUUGE! Oh, but you love it so...)

Back at home...

After music class, Bella and I go to the grocery store (my fourth grocery store trip of the week? OY. I'm seriously troubled.) Bella is delighted to see her BFF Liz behind the cheese counter. We say hello, Bella gets a huge hunk of cheese and catch up for a few minutes. I am completely over and done with our townhome, but I will miss the community we have built here. Of course, if I hadn't married Chatterbox #1 and given birth to Chatterbox #2, this would never have happened for me. Interesting the path life takes you on.

Home again. Lunch time. Most flattering picture ever.

I attempt to nap, but even my kind of boring Amish memoir can't put me to sleep. So I get up and start fixing dinner while watching a Grey's episode. I always think I can multi-task things like these, but it's no good. Dinner will be chicken & veggie fajitas/fajita salad with avocado pico de gallo.

We wake up Bella from her nap as a whole family. Whew! Not grumpy. I generally put my pj pants back on for a few hours midday, every day.

Lindsey is one of my oldest friends - we go way back to early Fargo days - and she got a brand new puppy so we went to visit and bring a little puppy gift.

Ellie is 8 weeks old. I can't imagine getting a dog until the kids are muuuuch older - so much work! But very cute. Confession - I find puppies & kittens much easier to coo over than human babies.

Dinnertime back at home. We feed Oliver quickly and then I do his bedtime routine. He takes 15 seconds to fall asleep.

Dinnertime for the three of us.

We have continued to write down our favorite part of each day as part of our dinnertime routine. I'm loving it.

Then after clean-up and bedtime routines and a little time playing catch-up on my blogging, I found myself completely exhausted. The clock said only 8:50 pm but I was too tired. So I dragged myself upstairs and called it a day after reading a few more e-pages of the Amish memoir. Swear that book is like an Ambien. Zzzzz. Yet I'm interested just enough to keep going.

Week in the Life: Friday

Still blogging daily food intake at Mothership Eats...

Early yoga...day 3 of yoga in a row.

Get home by 7:15 AM and find that Husband will be working from home today due to needing to use a Mac (his office is all PC). This means he has extra time to lounge in PJs and play with the kids. We all do some laps around the couch and Bella is in hysterics as we chase each other.

Friday are also babysitter days and I had plans to meet Erin from It's All Happening for coffee (along with new-to-the-world baby boy Luke) so that we can plan a MN blogger get together (look for posts about this on our blogs next week!). Self portrait in the car. I'm always a little surprised by wrinkles in photos - I don't notice them as much in person.

Erin has a Living Social deal that's about to expire so she tells me to order whatever I want. I do not have to be told twice in situations like that!

I eat about half and am then full for the next 4 hours. Which is a long time in Laura land :)

Then after meeting with Erin, I go to meet Husband with plans for us to both work at a coffee shop on computer stuff. But the place we had picked out won't work due to boring reasons that I won't get into. We pick Keegan's instead -they have internet, are in our neighborhood, and Husband wanted to eat lunch. I wish Panera hadn't closed in my neighborhood - that was my go to location.

I end up not getting much work done at all, but a surprise date is fun.

All day long he has been obsessing about a stock and whether he should sell or not. I try really, really hard to pay attention and not let my eyes glaze over. Sorry, Husbo!

Meanwhile, with the babysitter, Bella is so proud of herself for going down a slide that made her scared just a couple days before. I'm happy to outsource a visit to the park on this chilly day!

Back home for naptime.

Random stuff on the table, very representative of life. I clear the table off regularly and yet it piles up within hours.

I catch a little nap along with the kids while Husband works. Oli gets up and we play downstairs. The cats are surprisingly willing to hang out around him. This might change very soon as he gets more and more mobile!

Folding clothes. I don't like cloth wipes (dunno why), but I find these little washcloths ideal for wiping faces and hands after meals. I fold them overlapping and keep them in a wipes box in the kitchen.

Give Oliver a bath and Bella wakes up. Husband wraps up his work for the day and joins in the family fun.

Bella types her name for her daddy and he is impressed.

"Helping"

Practicing letter writing in a creative place.

Dishes: always and forever more. Also featured: hideous outfit of regular clothes on top and Husband's pj pants on the bottom.

Lazy Friday night after the kids go to bed. Husband does more computer work. I watch a documentary called Doctor's Diaries on Netflix. I'm tired of Netflix having no movies to watch, but this documentary is pretty interesting. Kind of anxiety producing, really. Glad Husband did not pursue medical school like he talked about early in our relationship. We would have made it work, but it would have been so challenging with it's extreme demands.

 Up to bed. Bella is zonked out between us while Husband and I look at stuff on our iPhones.