Monday

Aw,  everyone was so nice and encouraging about The Haircut I Hate.  And I could hardly tell that you were all thinking, "THANK GOD IT'S NOT ME!"  With some drying technique experimentation, I can pin the bangs back and look fine.  It's just hair.  I think I may be going through a midlife crisis (at 31) because now I want to color it.  Maybe I'll do one of those lasts-for-28-shampoos colors.  Maybe I'll color E and L's hair, too!  Something fun, like blue or purple.  I'll see what they think.

So I mentioned recently that I have been losing weight and doing my T-tapp, just the basic workout plus, at least 3 times a week.  I've started learning the longer workout, but I can see myself getting bored quickly and oh my gosh, her voice is grating.  I decided that if I continue to exercise regularly, I am allowed to join the Y in the fall.  I think if I have remained committed for several months, I am less likely to waste the membership fee money.  Embarrassingly, I joined the Y once in college and never went once.  What a waste of money.  But in the fall, E and L will be in preschool three times a week, C will be weaned (or close to being weaned), and maybe I can fit in yoga or weight-lifting twice a week?  Plus, E and L will be old enough to join some of the kids programs and I think they'll love that.

I read an article recently and the author said something like "There are no overweight octogenarians."  It really struck me.  It's not like if you're thin you will live forever (and you can be thin and UNhealthy), but I do want to be around for my kids and my high sugar, sedentary lifestyle is not doing me any favors.  Then I read an article about stomach fat and if you gain weight in your abdomen you're a million times more likely to have a huge laundry list of ailments, most of which will kill you painfully. (I don't gain weight like this~I gain it in my butt and thighs~but A does and maybe he'll use the Y, too.)  It provided some inspiration for me and now I am dramatically asking myself, "Do you want that cookie or do you want to SEE YOUR GRANDCHILDREN?"

Me: E, please stop touching your girl parts while we're all watching TV together.  They're private.*

(*Seriously, I want her to have a normal, healthy attitude toward her body and sex, but it grosses me out if she touches her crotch and then touches things in our living room, toys her sister will put in her mouth, lunch, etc.)

E: Okay, mama. I didn't know! I'm just a kid!

A and I laugh because she's so adorable!  And precocious!

A few minutes later.

A: Honey, don't eat your boogers.  Put them on a tissue and throw them away.
E: I didn't know that!  I'm just a kid!

Okay, now she's pushing her luck.  But she's still adorable and precocious.  And: yuck.

Saturday evening I nursed C before I left for work and then she didn't eat until 7 am, 14 hours later.  So don't tell me, little missy, that you can't do 8 hours overnight when I'm here.  Since she normally wakes up sometime between 11 and 1, I decided to wake her up myself for a few days.  Sometimes you can jiggle them out of a regular wake time, kind of throw off their habit/schedule/what-have-you.  If she's going to wake up between 11 and 1, I'd rather it be at 11~before I'm sleeping~then 1, when I've just entered that deeper sleep cycle.  Conveniently, she woke up a little early, around 10:30, just after we finished Sweeney Todd (love that musical!) and I nursed her then.  She didn't wake up again until 5 and I nursed her and tried to go back to sleep, but I think we're hitting that age where it's easy to wean from cosleeping.  She squirms and kicks and just won't settle, but as soon as I laid her down in her crib, she snuggled in and slept till 7:30.  If cosleeping was important to me as a philosophy, instead of just a lazy way to get more sleep, we could probably stick it out and learn to sleep together.  But this was an easy and non-traumatic way to stop when E and L were this age, so we'll probably let the gentle cosleep weaning continue.

Last night we had a family game night of Candyland.  I've let A do the rule teaching because his blood pressure doesn't rise dangerously while teaching limited attention span kids.  E and L are solid Candyland players now, except that each time they draw a card that sends them back, the other kid exclaims, "You can pick another card!" and then they squeal and hug.  He thinks that's so cute, and it's fine to do, but eventually they'll have to learn to take the hits.  We practice not gloating (a very important skill) and say "Good game!" at the end.  I've waited so long to get into the board game era~rules to be followed!~and it's nice to finally be here.

At one point in time, I remarked, "I'm good at Candyland!" and A replied, "That's like saying, 'I'm not good at much.'"

Last week at the grocery store, a mom of 5 kids got in the checkout lane behind me and we mentally counted each other's kids.  I watched her get a cup for a fountain drink for one of her kids and say, several times, "We have to pay for it.  YOU HAVE TO WAIT."  We smiled at each other and I said, "I say that all the time, too," and we bonded the bonding of women who buy gallons of milk 4 at a time.

Comments

[Sarah]

You know, I've heard that fact about stomache fat so many times and it completely freaks me out. I have PCOS, which means I tend to gain weight easily and it's all around my middle. It also seems to mean that it's hard to loose, too. I've just come to a point where I'm eating healthy foods and putting some exercise time into my week (even if it's just walking around the mall with the kids) and hoping it's going to be enough. Like you, when the kids get a little bigger I'm going to look into joining a gym.

Last year, we splurged and bought an eliptical glider. It sits in our basement most of the time, but it's great to have in the winter when you haven't left the house for a week. I hop on and spend a half an hour going at a somewhat easy pace. Think it will be enough to let me live to see eighty?

[Today Wendy]

For what its worth, my grandmother is overweight (not enormous, but definitely barrel-shaped) and we just celebrated her 90th birthday. She says that eating is one of the few real pleasures she's got left. Not that I'm trying to dissuade you from the exercise! I keep trying to get going with T-Tapp but I'm having so much trouble figuring when to fit it in. I feel so much better when I am getting a bit of exercise though.

[Summer]

You know I'll support any decision you make about hair dye. Color is fun!

So, Sweeney Todd... I've been debating about whether this one goes on my Netflix queue or not. I don't like musicals ("hate" might be a better word, honestly) but I love love LOVE both Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman, so I'm torn. I mean, I love Johnny enough I sat through every disgusting minute of "The Libertine." If I could handle that, I can deal with a musical, right?

[Swistle]

We used to go to a nursing home periodically (one of those things where the children do little dances to entertain the conscious residents), and there were tons of overweight old people. In fact, I'd say the thin ones were in the minority. Scrawny people don't have much in reserve if they get sick!

[Laura K.]

Yep, I've got to get rid of the gut. We just bought a membership to our community fitness center, which is cool because they have this awesome play area and my friend and I go and take turns watching the kids while the other runs the indoor track or does machines. They have a babysitting area, too, but I'm cheap. I imagine I'll use it someday, though. They also have drop-in yoga. I'm quite excited about it. Although right now I can't exercise due to my endo. ablation, so I'm kind of chomping at the bit to get back. I feel better when I exercise, even if I don't necesarilly look better.

E cracks me up! We still have ocassional conversations like that here. Particularly lately, becuase K has a yeast dermatitis infection, and the dr. recommended that she sleep sans bottoms until it clears up completely (it's almost gone, thankfully!). I just tuck the sheets in tight around her and hope for the best (and make her wash her hands immediately each morning!).

Glad you're feeling better about the hair. You might like the bangs more in a few weeks. And really, if the long bangs/dirty glove thing is only an issue at work, you can always clip it back then, too.

[Laura K.]

OMG...can't spell worth crap tonight. Lo siento!

[JK]

No offense to Swistle, because she's so cool, but maybe she doesn't see non-overweight older people in the nursing home because they don't NEED to be in a Nursing Home? Maybe they (the thin ones) were still in their own homes able to take care of themselves?

I know overweight people can live long lives, but many of them have mobility problems. I want to be as energetic and in-shape for as long as possible. Working out is good stuff, Maynard!

[Jody]

Okay, now I'm torn between cheering on your get-healthy agenda (YAY! GO YOU!) and being really irritated at all the books you're reading to motivate you.

Because the correlation between weight and longevity is tricky (studies on both sides) and the causation stuff is even trickier. Not to mention, one of the reasons why you might not see as many overweight octogenarians is because folks in their eighties, having lost most of their taste buds and often some percentage of their sense of smell, tend as a group, in general, to eat like birds.

The question might need to be, how many octogenarians were overweight at 40 -- and damn if you could tell just by LOOKING at them. (You really do have to imagine me rolling my eyes at the idjit who wrote that book.)

Anyhow, I'm exercising more and eating better (mostly) and I'm trying not to get too depressed that it's not actually affecting my weight that much, or even my waist measurement. My energy level is higher, my mood is better, my skin is clearer, and all my blood-work numbers are in the zone. It's all good.