Monday, January 18, 2010

Happy New Year!

I took a few weeks off from blogging. Of course, last month, I posted a picture every day or so and called THAT blogging. Here is an actual blog update about the family.

So January...

For New Year's Eve, we went across the street to our neighbor's house. We played Garage Band and celebrated the New Year by illegally lighting fireworks off on our street. (The ones we bought on Labor Day). It was much fun.

On January 1st we had planned on having one friend, Matt, over to play Monopoly. Our friend, Lauren, called and she invited us to hang out with her family. Instead we invited them over to our house. Then we texted all of our other friends and invited them over. We ended up with Matt, Lauren, Paul and Bernatte Z, and Katie N. and Will Clark. We hung out, played Monopoly and had happy times.

On January 2nd, I went to the gym and ran 5K. It was awesome. Tom and I are both doing Weightwatchers and are having great success so far. I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight! Yay!

The next day we all started feeling bad. We all had a cold (caught from little Bernadette mentioned above..) It was annoying and I'm glad its over with. We fought back by eating Pho. Clark had his first taste of Pho and enjoyed it. We fed him noodles and warm broth from the fat asian spoon. He ate it really well, it was his first soup experience. The pictures below are from his first and second Pho times. It was very comPhoting to share it with him.



I started teaching The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth on January 8th. I have two couples as students. Tom is watching Clark and teaching the segments on Coaching. I am really enjoying it and even more excited to be a part of these women's birth experiences. They seem to be getting a lot out of the classes as well.

We had our 4th anniversary on January 7th and had a date night on January 9th. Clark was babysat by Lauren, Bernadette's mom. Tom and I went to Red Lobster and saw the movie Avatar in 3D. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. We walked in the town square and checked out the dessert shops, finally settling on Ben and Jerry's for a scoop of icecream before heading back to our little boy.

Things returned to normalish in our lives. Tom went to work, I managed the house and prepped for classes, and Clark played with his toys.




He really loves brushes, pens, spoons and paper. To harness some of that energy. I gave him some markers and he colored his first piece of paper.

What am I doing?? Is this fun? Wee heee!!! I LOVE Coloring!!!!

Here is the masterpiece itself. I cut it into 3 pieces. I sent one laminted strip to both grandparents and Tom has one in his office.
On January 15th, John Paul B. had his first birthday! I can't believe the first baby in Clark's Cohort is 1 already! He will be one in a month and a half! If he was born on his due date, it would be a month from now! It's crazy how fast time flies. Here are some photos from the birthday and other hanging out with JPB.

Clark and JP both LOVE walking with the walker. JP has already taken some unassisted first steps, as has Bernadette. Clark usually learns from the older babies, so he might take some any day now (or months... whatev..) Here I am with JP and Clark on JP's Birthday.

Having a cold kind of derailed our early month, nature was also having a cold and was keeping outside temps below freezing. It finally warmed up to 40!!! YAY!!! and maybe hotter at lunchtime. The whole family went for a hike around Lake Needwood a few miles north of our house. We put Clark in the hiking backpack for the first time. It was wonderful to get outside and move around, see nature again, and breathe fresh air. It was the first exercise I got since running that 5K and I was glad to be back.


We've been eating much healthier since Clark started eating solids and we started weight watchers. Here is a delicious meal I made. It was a whole roast chicken that was cooked with Terriaki sauce. The "fries" are baked carrots, cut into strips. The green stuff is lots of different vegetables (onion, turnip, garlic, bell peppers, and kale). It was a delicious dinner and looked beautiful (hence the photo and blog blurb).



Last week at my weightwatchers weigh-in, I had lost a total of 18 lbs since November. It was 10% of my starting weight so I got this keychain that is a 10. When I hit goal weight I get another charm for it, and same for when I become a lifetime member. I've started WW so many times before and this is the first time I got the damn keychain. I'm so proud!


Tom is doing great on it too! He lost about 5% of his starting weight, even with having c-diff. We are really glad we are doing it together and are going to sign up for another 3 months when our program ends next Thursday!

Thats it for January. Maybe I'll post again soon.
Peace out,
V