A Plethora of Problems Keep Me From Fitting in Fitness

Normally, I am the queen of at-home exercise. I have a DVD library so that whatever mood I'm in, I can step with Cathe, get my groove on with Allison, find my zen with Sara, or practice pilates with Ellen. My daily exercise is a huge source of stress relief for me, and boy do I need stress relief, especially on days when the monster eczema rears its ugly head. I look forward to Daniel's nap time as my mini-vacation from the demands of daily life. I know, a lot of people probably can't relate, but I like exercising. Stephen and I used to make fun of a t-shirt created at Berry College with a list of natural highs, but exercising really does give me a wonderful, natural high.

So you can imagine my frustration at the onset of multiple exercise inhibiting issues. Some of the issues have been plaguing me off and on since Daniel's birth, such as a general feeling of instability in my pelvis and ongoing back pain from my little Daniel who loves to be toted. However, I know these stresses are part of the job description for mothers of small children, so I just worked through it. I actually decided, after trying an extended rest period that did NOT help, that I just needed to work all those areas and attempt to strengthen them. Anyways, I was not letting those aches and pains hold me back. But a few weeks ago, I started having nagging pain in the joint of my big toe, phantom pain that came and went with no obvious cause. A couple of days, the pain was so intense that I was hobbling around gingerly. I decided another rest was in order. After about ten days of no exercise, I was ready to start back. I did a couple of days of workouts; the toe wasn't worse, but wasn't all better, so I decided to employ the same, grit-my-teeth and get through it strategy I had used for my back.

Well, that same day I bashed my little toe into our kitchen step stool. I felt no pain for about two minutes, but soon discovered that was only because my toe had been completely numb. When the feeling came back, it HURT. I felt like I might have even broken it. Of course, the injury necessitated more rest, although I did go ahead with an upper body strength workout. Another week later, I have decided my toe was not broken, although it has turned a lovely shade of periwinkle violet.

Today, I finally attempted a full body, low impact workout. It went well. My toe was a tad sore, but not a major issue. However, when it was time for the relatively intense Pilates floorwork, Nathan (who was not sleeping) decided it was the perfect time to come lay on Mama, lean on my legs that were hovering in the air (making my major ab work more intense than I really wanted it to be), and generally sit or stand anywhere that would disrupt my good form. Ah well, life with small kids. I love 'em, but they are demanding, even the good ones like my two precious boys. And what little kid can resist the human jungle gym that is an adult laying on the floor with limbs splayed in all directions?

My big boy

I've written a post about Daniel, so I thought I'd write a few things about Nathan. He's still a really easy child. Of course, we have to train and discipline, but he's usually pretty responsive (for a three year old). He's got a strong grasp of language, but he's still working through some of the more obscure wordings and pronunciation. He says "yogret" instead of "yogurt," and "mans" instead of "men." He also misunderstands what we say sometimes, although he's always listening. The other day we dropped by Publix and were looking for apple fritters for Papa, and he kept saying, "Where's the apple critters?" Today I was talking to Stephen and I asked if he wanted to go today to get Nathan's C-A-R-S-E-A-T, and Nathan heard me spelling and said, "Mommie, I want a C-G-A!"

I'm afraid Nathan has inherited my wicked sweet tooth. Today we went to Truett's for ice cream, and he ate a cookie and drank a third of my milk shake (and would have drunk more, had there been any left). He loves marshmallows and cookies. However, he also eats many healthy foods. He LOVES creamed corn and corn on the cob. He also likes roasted zucchini, pan sauteed green beans, and grape tomatoes straight from the plant. Another favorite is cheese (something else I think he probably inherited from me).

As far as toys are concerned, Nathan has two favorite things--balls and cars. He loves kicking balls, throwing balls, hitting balls with a baseball bat, and sleeping with them in his bed at night. He plays with his cars like they're little people. "Hi Percy, what are you doing?" The cars go to the grocery store, they play at the play ground, they go to the Mexican restaurant.

When it comes to going places, Nathan is his father's son. Stephen just about goes stir-crazy if he has to stay at the house all day. I, on the other hand, could stay home for days on end, and find myself getting stressed out if I have to run errands on too many consecutive days. Just about every day, Nathan wakes up and one of the first things he asks is "Where are we going today?" On the days when I have to tell him we're not going anywhere, he's always so disappointed.

Now that I have two kids, I see even more clearly that each child is very much an individual. My two children are already very different, but I love them both with such overwhelming love. A couple of nights ago, I was putting Nathan to bed in his crib. I tucked him in, looked over the side and said, "I love you, Nathan." He looked straight up in my eyes and said, "I love you, Mommie!" Now those are the moments a mommy lives for!

Prince Caspian, the Movie: Regrettably, a Bummer

So I watched Prince Caspian for the second time. I tried to get into it. I really wanted to like it. I think it is so important to support family friendly movies no matter how cheesy they are, because they are so few and far between. Prince Caspian from a movie standpoint was very good. No obviously amateur actors. No cheap looking movie sets. No low-budget screenwriter. But I couldn't get past the gigantic gaps between the Prince Caspian C.S. Lewis introduced me to, and the Prince Caspian I saw in the movie.

Caspian in the book is uncertain about his fitness to rule as king. He fears that he is not ready to rule Narnia. He does not, however, have an unbridled sense of revenge towards his uncle that leads him to raid Miraz's castle (something which does happen in the movie).

Lewis's Peter tells Caspian early on that he did not come to claim the kingship for his own, but to help him regain his throne and establish Caspian as rightful king. Movie Peter has constant outbreaks of aggression towards Caspian as they engage in some kind of primal male posturing.

Oh yeah, and Caspian and Susan never have a barely cloaked passion for one another. In fact, in Lewis' book, there is no special chemistry between Caspian and Susan--ever.

I understand that of the seven Chronicles in Narnia, Prince Caspian is possibly the least movie-friendly book (the only rival for most boring movie screenplay being The Silver Chair, comprised of a long journey in the wilderness ending with one dramatic scene). The plot of waiting, gathering forces, trying to decide what an absent Aslan would have them do is not exactly thrilling big screen material.

Nonetheless, to depart so far from the character of the book as to, in my opinion, tamper with the integrity of the story, is intolerable, and that's the reason I won't watch Prince Caspian again, unless I just happen to forget how disgruntled it made me (I am still operating on about 65% of my ideal amount of sleep!).

Something to celebrate

I am gearing up for the Tour de France, running from July 3rd to July 25th. Last year I watched every bit of the last two-thirds of the race, and I was into it. Sometimes this amuses me since, growing up, I abhorred all sports save the two weeks of Olympics of which I watched as much as I could. So what happened? Well, babies happened. Any mama who has nursed a newborn knows just how much time you spend sitting on the couch milking. For those of you who haven't nursed newborns, the answer is A LOT.

With Nathan, I whiled away the hours by getting into golf (one of the sports I loved to hate as a child; isn't it funny how time changes us?). For Daniel, the sport was cycling. (Stephen keeps hoping I will pick up football as the next sport of choice; I told him we'd have to have a lot of kids, running out of other eligible sports for that to happen. In fact, the only sport I find more distasteful than football is fighting.) I watched these men push themselves to the limit, as I was pushed to the limit with a newborn who cried a lot, nursed a lot, and slept very little.

I didn't know that my own challenge would continue, day in and day out, for over a year. Actually, Daniel slept eight and a half hours without waking up last night. Unfortunately, I couldn't fall asleep until after four, only two hours before he did wake up. Yes, I am tired. But what's new?

Anyways, watching the Tour provided a much needed distraction for me. I was inspired to keep going, even as I had to keep going. After all, if these men could push themselves until their lungs were gasping for air and sweat dripped off their noses and fogged their sunglasses, when they didn't even have to, I could keep stumbling to the crib every two hours to feed and soothe my precious baby who depended on me for everything. So day after day, they fought to wear the yellow jersey, and I fought to keep going. It was the perfect sport for a time when I needed to see others persist through hard stuff.

So this year, as I watch, I will be cheering for more than my favorite cyclist. I will be celebrating getting through an impossible year. I will be celebrating the possibility of sleeping more this year. I will be celebrating Daniel, who is healthy and curious despite his skin disorder. I will be celebrating the Lord, who has carried me when I could not keep going on my own. I will be celebrating the prize that lays before me, and striving for it. I will be celebrating the joy of being a mother, the longest endurance marathon I can think of.

Oh yeah, and if my guy wins, I'll celebrate that too...

Mommy Guilt

Okay, another moment in the hall of famous mommy guilt moments. I was feeding Daniel a little bowl of spaghetti sauce--maybe the messiest meal ever, especially since I was feeding him with the tip of my index finger. Because of his eczema, I try to be very careful not to leave anything on his skin for long, especially an acidic food like tomato, so I was frequently wiping his mouth off with a wet baby washcloth. About two-thirds of the way through, I glanced at the washcloth and was horrified to see hundreds of little black spots all over it, looking very much like mold. That's right, mold. Don't ask me how it happened, or even what was on the washcloth, but I felt terrible. Here I was, wiping my baby's sensitive little face, right on the mouth, with a cloth covered in who knows what disgusting substance. Not my best moment.

Shop at home

I was reading a magazine article about saving money. As expected, it was filled with the usual line-up of suggestions: don't pay fees on your credit card and checking accounts, use coupons at the grocery store, eat at home more. However, one tip did jump off the page as a fresh take on too much consumption.

Ready for it?

Shop your home. The article went on to say that most of us have made purchases of clothes, movies, and other sundry items that we have never worn or used at all. This started me thinking. I definitely have books I haven't read, games I have never played, and movies that I haven't watched. I thought about how much I already have that I could be enjoying if I would just get it out and utilize it.

I also have a ton of books and movies that are ready for a rerun. I think there's two kinds of people, those who do reruns and those who don't. For those of you who don't, the library and Redbox are probably your best money saving friend. However, for me, if I love it, I can never get enough of it. Just ask Stephen, who retreated into his sound blocking headphones while I watched Sahara last night for the fourth time (What can I say? I love a good, cheesy, action comedy!). And I've read Anne of Green Gables so many times that I literally wore the books out and am now preparing to replace them.

Shopping my home works for my kids too. Case in point, today I took out a Fisher-Price barn that had been in storage for a couple of months. Nathan acted like he had been reunited with a long lost friend. "My barn!" And Daniel gabbled and cooed the whole time he opened and closed the little doors, picked up the little animals, and slid the rooster back and forth.

So anyways, although I don't know that I'll give up shopping entirely, I am going to try to make sure I am maximizing my use of the things I already own, because if I'm not using and enjoying them, then they're just another thing that needs to be cleaned. (And we all know that's not going to happen!)

Pants Challenge

Daniel's first birthday is coming, and as it approaches, I have been doing a lot of reflecting, on things like how little sleep I have gotten in the past year and how much sugar I have eaten. (It takes a lot of sweets to keep going on very little sleep.) I've also been thinking about how said sugar habit has kept me from losing--you guessed it--the last five pounds.

Now I don't tend to obsess about the numbers on the scale too much, but I do have one big motivator: I want to wear my pre-pregnancy wardrobe again. My all time favorite khaki pants. My hot pink pants that I wore to my rehearsal dinner. And, of course, my skinniest skinny jeans. I've cut myself a lot of slack this past year because it's been one heck of a year, but I'm ready to give my best effort to getting rid of enough of the baby weight to wear my old clothes. Therefore, I am embarking on the Pants Challenge.

My goal is to get back into at least one of my old pairs of pants by August first. There. It's out there. I'm committed. Time to ramp up the exercise, go to bed early and take naps (essential if I'm going to cut down on the sweets), and control portions. If I do meet my goal, how do I plan to reward myself? How else? By getting some brand new pants.