Wordless Wednesday - My favorites

Cue music! (And imagine really bad singing)

These are a few of my favorite things... Ah, I mean favorite people. Ok, that doesn't work either. Favorite boys? That works!

Husband, Fussy Gus and Wonder Mutt all curled up together for a little snooze. Does it get better?

Bad Mommy Award Nomination of the week March 29

Oh no, am I sensing a pattern? Last week's nomination involved Fussy Gus' daycare bedding and this week it's the daycare backup outfit.

Bad Mommy Award Nomination for the Week of March 29th: My baby looks like a gigolo!

If only I had a picture of it because it was a sight. It's Thursday afternoon and I'm coming up to the part of the day that I look forward to the most - picking up Fussy Gus from daycare. Things were going as they normally do. I entered the infant room and gave it a quick scan to see where my little man was and on Thursday he was in the exersaucer which he loves, loves, loves. But something was different. He was in a different outfit. This isn't uncommon, but something was off. And then I realized that while Fussy Gus was giving me the huge smile that I adore he looked like a baby gigolo! And then it got worse...

The outfit they had changed him into was a one piece that had a collar and three buttons down the chest and then it snaps at the legs. And there he was in the exersaucer with all three buttons opened and no onesie underneath. That's right, my baby looked like a gigolo showing off his chest. The daycare teacher quickly explained that this is the second time they changed him that day and the remaining outfit didn't quite fit. Well that was an understatement because when I picked up from the exersaucer I realized that only 1/2 of the leg buttons were done! They essentially had to wrestle him into the outfit, couldn't snap all the buttons and apparently it was tight across the chest as well, hence the open buttons!

Note to self, when your child outgrows their clothes at home, it also applies to the daycare emergency clothes so you need to swap them out as well. Oh and onesies don't grow on trees, so you need to bring them in as well because let's face it -- the onesies are the first line of defense when diaper incidents happen!

My saving grace for the week? In my rush to get him out of there before the other parents saw him (judge if you must but yes I care about what they think), I didn't think to take a picture of him while he was still wearing the outfit nor did I think to do it when we got home. I can't believe I'm going to admit it, but yes, I contemplated putting him back into it for a photo op for the blog -- but only for a second and promptly decided against it.

There you have it. My bad mommy moment of the week...

McFatty Monday Week 11

Week 11 of HeirToBlair's McFatty Monday (they are on week 13)

I feel good. It's been a while since I could say that. I don't look quite the way I want to yet, but I'm on my way and it's a good feeling. Some of this may be that Fussy Gus slept through the night twice in a row, but I think it may be more than that. I felt good enough about the progress I have been making that I wanted to have a picture taken of me and the little man, which says a lot. It actually makes me a little sad because I've been avoided many a Kodak moment since Fussy was born because of my own self-esteem issues, but I'm hoping to change that starting now.

Oh and did I mention that I wore size 8 jeans this weekend?!?!?! And not only did I wear them, they fit! Not fit like 45 minutes after you have been wearing them and they've stretched out a bit, these fit when I put them on and I wasn't dying to get out of them at the end of the day. Such progress!

The question of the week is around favorite work-out gear. Working out is not a strong point with me. Most of my activity is walking the dog in the mornings so most of that gear is sweatpants that doubles as pjs so getting out for the walk is as easy as possible. (I know, with sweatpants as pjs it's a wonder there is a little one to write about!) Favorite sneakers is probably New Balance. I don't have a sports bra that I love, so I may have to check out the Jockey recommendation. A thought just occurred to me, maybe if I had pretty work-out gear I'd be more likely to work out... Shopping trip anyone?

The results: Down 1 pound this week for a total of 6lbs in 11 weeks. In the beginning I made a goal to get to my first weight goal by April 25th, so in four weeks I need to lose another 5lbs. Looking at my past history it doesn't look good, but I'm going to be more positive about it and say that 5lbs in 4 weeks is doable and I am going to make it so with that I'm going to try for 2lbs this week! Oh and I have 11lbs to go before I hit Wedding weight.

Have a great week! (Oh, and I'm using the pictures we took this weekend for my post on Thursday, so come on back if you'd like to see what an Apparently P & a Fussy Gus look like)

We have a sitter!

Fussy Gus has been working on this for a couple of weeks now but we're at a point where we're going to call victory! To celebrate we did a little photo shoot this morning and Wonder Mutt decided to help out! Don't my two boys look cute together?

First we have Wonder Mutt gets ready for the camera

And then we finally get close to the pose that I was waiting for

Wonder Mutt may not look too excited, but Fussy Gus is one happy baby!

Congratulations little man!

Do you go the extra mile at your job?

I love getting a paycheck. I like my boss and most of the people I work with. I'm pretty good at what I do (except on days like today when it's Friday and I don't feel like working anymore). But do I love my job? Nope. Can't say that I do. Do I go the extra mile at my job? Sometimes. Less now than before Fussy Gus. Not sure why. It may be the lack of sleep. Or maybe it's because it seems less important next to him.

I work in the computer industry, so it's not like I working on curing cancer. (Fine. Computers play a role in curing cancer, but you know what I mean!) But today in the bathroom I realized that even if your job isn't on the scale of curing diseases, you can still try to step it up a bit and do the little extra. And I'm guessing it brings you a little bit more satisfaction when you do it. I know, I know -- the bathroom? Stay with me for a second.

As I said I work in computers and I sit in cubeville in a decent sized building. And like most office buildings we have cleaning people to take care of things such as cleaning the bathrooms. Look at the picture. One of the cleaning people goes to the trouble of making a flower on the toilet paper. We're not talking about a hotel triangle here people. A flower. This must take at least a couple of seconds to make. Is it required? Hell no. But she (or he) does it as a little extra. I'd like to think they did it to brighten someone's day. And today it worked for me.

Will this make me go the extra mile? I'll be honest, probably not all the time, but maybe a little more often then I have been.

Bad Mommy Award Nomination of the Week

I'll be honest, several times a week -- it's really several times really a day, but I'm trying to be more positive -- I'll do something that puts me into the running for the bad mommy award. Of course none of these things are harmful to Fussy Gus, but are things that you'd never see Marion Cunningham, June Clever or Donna Reed do on TV. (If these name don't mean anything to you then damn I've gotten old!) But since there are so many, I'm going to try and narrow it down to one bad mommy award nomination a week to share. Unless I get better at parenting, this will most likely be a running post. Here we go!

Bad Mommy Award Nomination for the Week of March 22nd: Dirty Sheet on Daycare Crib

Background: Fussy Gus goes to daycare and every Friday at pickup the parents are to strip their child's crib and take the sheet and blanket (if you use one) home to launder for the next week.

Confession: I picked up Fussy Gus on Friday, took his sheet and blanket home with me. The blanket and sheet went down to the laundry room. But then the weather was gorgeous on Saturday and I didn't get around to laundry. And Sunday was also nice and the short visit to my parents turned into a full day thing and I didn't feel like doing laundry Sunday night. So what do I do Monday morning? I go down to the laundry room and retrieve the sheet and blanket and put it back in the daycare bag. I my defense I did check to make sure there isn't any spit up or anything on it.

Granted they weren't really that dirty, but still...

And what's worse is that I keep an extra blanket and two sets of seats at daycare in case of an accident, but instead of putting those on his crib Monday morning I put the dirty ones back on so they (the daycare teachers) didn't think I was too lazy to do my son's laundry (which I totally was).


So here he is. Fussy Gus, asleep at daycare yesterday afternoon, lying on his dirty sheet and tucked under his dirty blanket. Doesn't seem to mind, does he? But it's still a bad mommy award moment...

McFatty Monday Week 10

I'm down two lbs from last week which was up one lb from the week before where I lost nothing. So I'm really only down 1lb and I finally undid the damage that was done from my road trip to Atlantic City. Did you follow that? Me either.

Seriously though some good stuff happened this week. One, I'm in the process of getting a fancy new look for blog - you like? Great. But wait, that isn't weight loss related. Ok then, I guess I'll start over.

One, I realized that exercise doesn't have to be torture. I spent a few hours on Saturday enjoying the 70 degree weather in the state park with the family and it was fantastic. The dog got to romp, the baby got some fresh air and I walked off some of the St. Patrick's Day corned beer I indulged in. And Two, I realized that I pretty much taste anything that passes by me which is edible. At Weight Watchers they always talk about avoiding the BLTs - Bites, Licks and Tastes because they can add up and to be honest I always ignored them because I don't do that. This week I realized that yeah, I do that.

Fussy Gus started cereal this week and every time I heated it up for him I stuck my finger in it to see if the temperature was ok and then promptly licked my finger. This is gross on a couple of different levels. For one I'm sticking my finger in his food and the other is that I've now tasted breast milk which I had avoided up until now. The first time I did it and realized what I had done, I swore not to make that mistake again. And guess what? I repeated the mistake. With. every. single. bowl. I. made! Breast milk and all. And now I have noticed that I do this with pretty much everything. I'm a taster! Have I stopped? No, but now that I know I'm trying to stop and that's a start.

So far that's what I've learned so far on my McFatty journey which isn't bad considering I wasn't trying to learn anything, just lose some weight.

And under the TMI category, the breast milk and oatmeal combo has a surprisingly sweet taste to it. I know -- Gross!

And now what we've been weighting (ha! - yes, I'm a dork) for:

The results: 1 real pound down this week for a total of 5lbs in 10 weeks. Doesn't sound like much, but I don't have a lot to loss so it makes sense that it's a slower weight loss. 6lbs to my first goal. 12lbs to Wedding weight!

Have a great week!
-Apparently P

At last! Spring is here!

As winters in Boston go, this one wasn't that bad. We had snow, but not ridiculous amounts like other parts of the country -- hell, other parts of the Northeast! And it was cold, but not as brutally cold has it has been in recent winters. All and all we got lucky, but nonetheless I'm I'm still glad to see it go.

So goodbye winter and let's give a warm welcome to spring! My little man has been cooped up inside the house for too long - his entire life really. It's time to take him for long walks with Wonder Mutt, point out the birds, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels (no matter how much his father hates them -- more on that another day) and other animals that scamper by our house and let him enjoy the fresh air. And what better day to do this than the first day of spring.

Today our little family went to the neighboring town's forest for a bit of a walk/hike. This is certainly not Mr. Tall Guys cup of tea, but he suggested it to make up for the long hours he's been working. He carried Fussy Gus in the Baby Bjorn and its an area where Wonder Mutt is allowed to run around sans lease. For two hours it was just the four of us no cell phones, no laptops, no television. It was fantastic. A great way to kickoff spring!

And speaking of kickoff, notice the fancy new look of the blog?!?! I'm loving it!

McFatty Monday Week 9 -- The Horror!

Those of you quick on the take will notice there was no Week 8 posting. Week 8 started after the Atlantic City road trip where I was supposed to alternate water with beer. And while that did happen occasionally, it didn't help. On the plus side it was a trip enjoyed by all. There was some quality time spent with Granny (my mom) and my sister (aka Mrs. Big Dubya) when we snuck off to the casino for a few hours one morning and started the day with either coffee with Baileys and whipped cream or hot chocolate with Baileys and whipped cream (Mrs. Big Dubya gave up coffee for lent). Granny got to spend quality time with her four grandkids and my sister and I got to go out with our husbands not one, not two, but THREE nights in a row for a couple of hours after the kids went to bed! Let's just say I decided not to step on a scale for McFatty Monday #8.

So where does Week 9 leave us? Up a pound, but I'm sufficiently scared straight. Strike that. I'm absolutely horrified at this moment and will be utterly fantastic at exercising and watching what I eat from this moment forward until I can correct this awfulness. What is the awfulness you may ask? It hurts me to type this, but....

I weigh more than my mother

And before you say that it's not a big deal, you just had a baby, blah, blah. Nope. Not cutting it. I've lost all my pregnancy weight. I'm about 10lbs less than when I got pregnant, I was just bigger when I got pregnant than I wanted to be. My mom weighs less than I do. Ugh! I typed it again! I need to fix this! Now! Ok, well it won't happen immediately, but no more doing this diet half-ass!

We're vacationing with Granny again the week of Memorial day and as long as I'm not pregnant again I WILL weigh less than her by that vacation. I will NOT be sitting by the pool with her knowing she weighs less than I do.

How sad is it that I'm in competition with my own mother? (and she does not know this by the way so don't tell her, ok? thanks!)

Blair asked a couple of questions over at her week 11 posting that are quite timely given my new poolside goal. Are you a bikini girl or a one-piece? Tankini? At times I had been a bikini girl although I probably never should have been. While I've weight less than I do now, I've never been in shape. I definitely prefer a tankini over a one piece -- when drinking by the pool or on the beach, one eventually needs to break the seal, so convenience is key for frequent bathroom breaks. On my last vacation which was just prior to getting pregnant with Fussy Gus (fine, it was when I got pregnant with Fussy Gus, but that's probably TMI), I was feeling a bit self conscious about the extra weight so I bought a tankini with a skirt bottom to try to cover up the extra weight. For the upcoming Memorial vacation I'm going to at the very least ditch the skirt and go back to a regular tankini, but I won't rule out a bikini if my new found inspiration to exercise goes well.

Have a great week!
Apparently P (trying out my new signature)

P.S. I have a fancy new blog layout coming your way. Hopefully it will be up for my Week 10 check-in where I'll have been kicking ass in my competition against Granny. Dear Lord I have so many issues....

McFatty Monday Week 7

Week 7 of HeirToBlair's McFatty Monday (they are on week 9)

Zip, Zero, Zilch.

Stepped on the scale this morning and the same number I saw last week was looking back at me.

I'm not shocked. I had an ok week, but because Mr. Tall Guy was traveling I had pizza every night for dinner (there will be a post about this because it's there is a sweet reason behind it), so I'm not surprised it didn't translate into a lost this week. I resolve that this will be a better week! (and even as I type this I know that won't be true because I'm going away for the weekend with my sister's family and I know there will be plenty of libations and yummy food)

Skipping the Good & Bad....

The Results: No change this week on my scale. We'll have to wait until Wednesday to see what the WW scale says, but last Wednesday they showed me as down 1.0 lbs. So 4lbs down by my scale, 4 lbs down by WW scale.

Pounds to Goal: 7lbs 1st Goal, 13lbs to stretch goal (wedding weight)

Goals for the week: Try and control myself while away with my sister. And I'm going to alternate water with beer/wine when we go out. That's got to help, right?