Post Gearing up for Post Baby Weight Update This Weekend: 53 lbs of baby weight down and one muffin top to go!

Some how, some way in my pregnancy I gained about 60 pounds. I started out at about 118 pounds and made my way past 168 pounds. Ok, so you are probably thinking I was indulging myself in craving after craving. Quite the contrary for the most part. I mean there is the occasional cookie and frozen yogurt cup that had be had but very occasional. I think it all started to go really wrong with my emergency appendectomy which I think led to pre-term labor and was put on bed rest at 29 weeks. This is when the weight went nuts. Anyhow, the 60+ pounds i gained during pregnancy was a really hard pill to swallow once my little guy arrived. I held on to the hope that breastfeeding would literally suck the pounds off. I had friends say that no matter how much they ate they could not keep weight on and they were skinnier than they had ever been. HA! So not the case for me. Night sweats took care of the first 20 pounds, so that was pretty good. But the next forty were tough. Between yoga, baby boot camp and circuit workouts at a local park after about 6 months, another 20 pounds came off. Holy moly! 20 pounds still to go and my little guy was a year old. What?!?! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine having this sort of weight problem. Extra weight was one issue but my confidence level was another. I have dreaded having any pictures taken. As I peruse my pictures online, I hardly having any pictures of my with little guy. Very sad! And then there is the “getting dressed” ordeal every day. I can never seem to find anything to wear that I feel good in. Inevitably, the muffin top seems to spill over the top of my pants and every shirt seems to accentuate my love handles. It doesn’t matter how many times my hubby tells me I look beautiful…I still want to cry every time I get dressed. So in the last month. my girlfriend drug me out for a zumba class. I was skeptical about it, but willing to try anything that helped burn extra calories. As it turned out…It was awesome! I have taken 10 classes in the last month and lost over 7 pounds. AMAZING! I feel my confidence levels rising and feeling more like the me I used to know pre-pregnancy. Do I still sport a muffin top? Yes ma’am, but its much smaller and getting easier to hide. For the first time in 16 months, I have hope to lose my muffin top once and for all; however, while I write this post I am left wondering why I feel/felt so much pressure to lose the baby weight as quickly as possible. Why is that I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin with the extra weight? Any other mamas deal with post pregnancy weight? Low confidence issues post birth?

Helicopter Parenting or Due Diligence (Contributor for SavvySassyMoms.com)

The other day I ventured over to our local park to let the little guy enjoy some fun in the sun with some of his buddies. It seemed like everything was going well and then it happened….a little kid came running from one side of the park over to my little dude and smacked him right on his little noggin. My jaw dropped to the ground and I was temporarily speechless. Thoughts were racing. Did what I think I just saw really happen? Would a kid really do that? And then I snapped out of my haze and reverted my attention to my little guy whose bottom lip was quivering and a silent tear out of his eye. Where was this kid’s mother? And just as this thought was running through my head, I was in mid “swoop” to pick my kiddo up….SMACK! It happened again, except this time I grabbed the kid’s hand before he was able to run away and calmly yet firmly said “we don’t hit people.” It was right in this instant that the mother appeared and glared at me as she took her child away. No apology, no embarrassment, nothing. With my heart racing out of my chest, there were a million and one things I wanted to say to this woman but inhibitions set in. I know toddlers and young kids test boundaries and don’t always know right from wrong but we as adults should. If that was my kid, I would put my little one in a timeout after he apologized, ask if the other kid was ok, and say I was so sorry to the mother. For the longest time, I thought that this was the “right” way to ensure a more positive social outing until I came across an article about “helicopter moms.” What the heck was a helicopter mom?!?! Wikipedia states it best by describing it as “ parents who try to resolve their child’s problems and try to stop them from coming to harm by keeping them out of dangerous situations.” Was this me? In my defense, my little guy is just a little over a year and a half. He cant defend himself. He was just playing nicely on the jungle gym. I know a lot of parents will say “kids will be kids,” and I totally agree but I certainly do not want to be a parent of a kid that turns out to be a bully later in life because I subscribed to that theory when my little dude was a wee toddler. Veteran mommas out there… What are your thoughts on this situation? Was I being a helicopter mom or a diligent parent? How would you have handled this scenario?

What a Difference 7 Days Makes...

I am finally starting to come out of my haze of "toddlerhood." By no means are we out of being a toddler, I just am starting to catch my breath from moving, remodeling and chasing this little dude around all day. MANY more blog posts to come soon. Earlier this week, I was downloading the last couple months of pictures and I realized what a difference 7 days can make…check it out:

The little senor in rare form…sleeping in his way cool Orbit Stroller on the Miss California stage. I parked him while we were waiting to take a former Miss Californias picture with our newest "has-been" member, Noelle Freeman (Miss CA 2011) and the freshly crowned Miss California 2012 Leah Cecil :) Seven days later…

The dude snoozing after a long hike while we were camping in Lake Almanor. Very rare form for anyone who knows my sweet, little terror snoozing in two pictures. Fun blog posts to come…STAY TUNED!

Cashews….Love 'em or Leave 'em???

OK, so I had my first official mama scare this week. I have been really lucky up until now not having to deal with anything really scary. No SIDS, illnesses, falls..nothing until two days ago. There we were at home, hanging out in our PJS at noon and reading books on the couch. In my defense, I am not normally a couch potato but the little senor and I were getting over our cold and chillaxing at home all day. It was all going well until I got the urge to eat some trail mix. There were almonds, raisins and cashews. Munchin, munchin, munchin and then the little dude had some boogers coming out of his nose. So, I did what any mom would do and squeezed his nose, got the boogies out and then went to wash my hands and grab a paper towel for the next booger encounter. Well, somewhere in there I must have gotten a cashew crumb in the little guy's mouth or just had the cashew oil on my hands but his face started turning bright red. Then his cheeks started swelling and the redness was traveling dow his neck. The little guy started scratching his neck and cheeks and little white bumps were starting to form. I was panicking and called the hubs who suggested I call the advice nurse at Kaiser. Panicking more and feverishly checking my little one's breathing and checking to see if his lips were turning blue…the nurse finally came on the line. She asked nonchalantly if he was blue…NO! She then asked if he was still breathing..YES! She then went on to explain in the slowest manner possible that should these two items change I should most definitely call 911. Really lady?!?!?!? What am I supposed to do right now??? She said she would recommend Benedryl. OK…that would be a very fast, easy solution except that I didn't have any Children's Benedryl at home. As I was explaining this very quickly to the nurse, she went on to put me on hold because she wasn't comfortable with me driving to the drug store. WHAT?!?!?! What am I supposed to do here? If I stay at home, i can watch the little guy and check his symptoms but it does not get us any closer to stopping the allergic reaction which was getting worse by the minute. The redness was creeping up to his eyes and more white bumps were appearing on his chin and neck. I was panicking more by the second. Call the hubs on the home line and he beelined to the drug store to pick up the meds for me. Somewhere in there the nurse said to call her back should things continue to worsen or call 911. Ay yay yay1 Husband was home within minutes, little guy got his liquid Benedryl and within minutes the allergic reaction was reversing. THANK GOODNESS! So this experience has taught me several things:

1) How much I love my little guy and that I freak out at the thought of anything going wrong with him
2) Always have liquid benedryl on hand
3) Do not put off food allergy testing any longer

So the question remains about cashews after this disaster…Love 'em or leave 'em…LEAVE Em!

N is for Nocturnal????

OK, so the other day I went to a parent group to let the little guy and me socialize. Yes, I know you are supposed to learn something from the facilitator but it was a Friday, it was cold outside and I was dying for a chai latte…so a parent group looked like it was going to hit the spot on all fronts…until I got there. Maybe I still haven't fully embraced my sing-along-song-with-cheesy-hand-motions self but this class was more than I could keep a straight face for. The teacher, while she meant well, was educating us moms on "good" reading choices. For me, that includes Dr. Suess, Eric Carle and other fun kiddo books which means anything short, lots of good pictures and humorous. Apparently, that does not "make" good reading material these days. In my defense, the little guy has knows where his feet, hands, eyes, teeth and nose are. Unfortunately when the dude is asked where his nose is or sees the "Nose Book" he puts his finger up his nose. While this totally cracks me up, I know in another 6 months this might not be so cute…LOL! Anyhow, back to class. This woman strongly recommended that we, moms of kiddos less than a year old, read our kids some sort of ABC book. I was thinking to myself…BINGO!…I have been reading the little senor Dr. Suess' ABC book. So far so good. The teacher said it was important that there were pictures and repetitive letters…Cha Ching! Still good on that front and thats where it took a tune for the worst. My books sound more like this: Big Z, Little Z what begins with Z? A Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz as you can plainly see (insert picture or pink and white checked monster-thing with funny yellow eyeballs and teeth). The teacher recommended some sort of ABC book with "N is for Nocturnal." My first thought was HUH? Did I just hear that right? Just as I was running through these thoughts in my head…the educator was chattering away about how we have to challenge our babies with more interesting reading material. I am sure thats true and all but when has the letter "N" ever been associated with "nocturnal." She also went on to talk about how if we don't read to our kiddos now, this will lead to illiteracy which leads to poor performance in school and so on a so forth. Holy moly thats a lot of pressure! While I get the jest of what this woman was saying, it was really stressing me out. Was I reading to the little guy enough? Was it educational enough? Any then I sat back and thought about it all…I should be reading books that the little guy enjoys and breeds a love for reading. In the years to come, the idea of "better" reading materials will be more important. For now, I will look forward to making green eggs and ham while reading Dr. Suess' "Green Eggs and Ham" with my little dude.

Terrible Twos or Just Terrible

Ok….so this is something I just now starting to deal with…I wish I didn't have to though…here goes:

So the other day the little guy and I went over to Barnes and Noble to look at books and play at at the Thomas the Train table. La La La..everything was going great. The little dude was playing with a slightly older dude and they were both running the trains every which way and then….cue Jaws music…

A kid who was about 2 years old comes over to the train table. Initially, he looked innocent. Then, he beelined for my little guy and smacked him over the head. Thwack! My eyes went wide in disbelief and I sat there dumbfounded. Did that really just happen???? I think so because my little guy looked at me so sad and with his mouth all scrunched up they way he does before he cries, which is a very rare occurrence. Once I got my bearings back, I looked at the mom and she says that my son must have riled up her son. WTF?!?!?! Seriously lady?!?!? My kid is one and was playing right in front of me with another kid when your son marched over and popped my kid on the head. Trying to keep my composure, I took a deep breath and encouraged my little senor to resume playing with the trains. And then it happened again…the terrible two year old marched right back over to my kiddo and went to whack him on the head again. This time, I grabbed his hand midair and told him that it is not ok to hit other kids. The mother just stood there and never once offered an apology. This time I gathered my things and we left the kiddie area of the bookstore. Is this normal? I was so riled up after this event I didn't know what to do with myself. What do you do? Can you teach a grown woman a lesson? It was after this episode, I realized how strong my maternal instinct is to protect my kid. It makes perfect sense to me when people say they would go to the ends of the earth for their kids :)

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