More Trapeze Antics . . .

This last Saturday morning was chilly and rainy, not quite the weather you would wish for when doing Trapeze. I called the park and they said that all classes were still proceeding as scheduled so we headed out. When we got there it was misting and there was a small tent set up next to the trapeze nets. I guess the weather man had said that the rain would stop by 11:00, so the trapeze staff had set everything up and were expecting to go forward with our class. Not long after we arrived the rain really started coming down, but all around us you could see clear blue sky, so we waited out the weather for about 20 minutes while it wavered back and forth between clear skies and torrential downpours. Finally the clear skies won and we got to work.

Our new trick this week was learning how to do the splits while flying through the air. It usually isn't a trick that men do, but Dave (our instructor) wanted to teach everyone anyway. It consists of first getting upside down and planting one foot on the bar, and next pushing through and into the splits and spotting the imaginary "catcher", and finally falling into the net face first. The last part was the scariest to me at first, but after falling a couple of times it got more fun. Also, because the net was wet from the earlier rain everyone ended up funny checkered net-marks on their clothes.

Here are the videos of me and Gary attempting our new tricks:

Later that day we went to a party that our midwife, Karly, threw for all of her current and past clients. It was fun to meet other families and see their babies. It is interesting to see all the different people who are drawn to home-birth. And it is always fun to chat with other moms. It was great to catch up and chat with Karly too! We really like her and miss not seeing her all the time like we did during the pregnancy.

It's Working . . .

I am happy to report that a couple of people at work have asked me if I have lost some weight!! This is very exciting and definitely helps me keep my motivation up up up! I am just over half way through Chalean and am interested in seeing how much more my body will change, now that I have built up a decent amount of muscle. It is fun to feel my newly formed muscles under an ever shrinking layer of pudge. Now is the time to concentrate on burning the fat and revealing a whole new me! Thanks for all the motivational comments and positive thoughts, they have really encouraged me and lifted me when I was down!

Snackin' Time . . .

So Riley snacking skills, which include picking up tiny objects and putting them in his mouth, and drinking from a straw. His snack of choice at the moment is Yogurt Melts, because they aren't very messy and they dissolve in his mouth, no chewing or teeth necessary. His technique for eating them is as follows. He picks one up (or notices that it is stuck to his finger) and brings it near his mouth, then uses the other hand to push it into his mouth. Occasionally he drops it or it gets lost (usually because it gets stuck to a different finger or to the back of his hand), but all things considered he is doing a terrific job.

He is also mastering drinking out of a straw using a small juice box. This skill has it's good and bad attempts. He can usually do it pretty flawlessly, but sometimes the juice gets the better of him and he chokes, which causes him to sputter and gasp and cough juice all down the front of him. Poor thing! But juice is tasty, so he keeps trying.

Here is a little video to demonstrate . . .

(I was helping Riley and filming at the same time, sorry for the close camera angle and not keeping a totally steady hand. I just hope it doesn't make anyone feel dizzy!)

Flying Trapeze . . .

As some of you know, Gary and I decided to take a Flying Trapeze class. It is offered through Escondido's community education program. The class meets every Saturday for six weeks for an hour and a half each time.

Today was our first class, and it was awesome! My only real complaint is that the class should be a little smaller so you can have more chances to "fly".

Here is a pic of the equipment set-up:

We start off on the platform on the right. Next week we will be grabbing hands with someone hanging off of the bar on the left (the one with the guy sitting on it).

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and really warm (in the 70's, I may have even gotten a little pink sunburn). Perfect day for taking to the air!

Here are videos of Gary and me doing some trapeze tricks (I had to post them on You Tube because they apparently were a little too large for Blogger). . .

Gary, of course, does his trick practically perfect the first time. He is one of those people that is good at everything the first time. I have to admit that I am a little annoyed/intimidated by this. I hate having to follow him when we try new things because he makes everything look ridiculously easy and then I show how impossible it actually is by falling on my face. You can see how I might envy/despise him for this, right? However, I do hope that it is something that can be passed on to our children. How would it be to breeze through life being basically great at EVERYTHING?

Now for me . . .

Pretty great, I think! However, my other half did comment on my layed-out dismount. Apparently I really should have tucked in a bit. And you can obviously tell I haven't flung my legs up onto a bar for a LONG time! Oh well, at least I have five more fun-filled, high flying weeks to perfect my technique!

The last week is a "Friends and Family Day" if anyone is interested in seeing our new circus skills in person!

Riley Pics . . .

I promised some pictures of Riley, and here they are (finally) . . .

Playdate with friend Kennedy

Munchin' on some peas (notice that Gary has tucked his arms INSIDE his shirt to keep his fingers out of his mouth!)

Feeding Lorakeets at the Wild Animal Park

One of the first days of eating "solids"

"Bubble Head" - in the tub

Enjoying some books with his Tiger

Books are great for eating - I mean reading!

Trying to grab my camera

So Bigger! Standing by himself

He eats everything in sight!

At the Wild Animal Park

Opening presents at Christmas

Showing off the Christmas Jammies

Look at that face! Asleep in the car

Immeasurable Success . . .

So, according to my scale I lost a total of 8 pounds this week! Pretty unbelievable, wouldn't you say?

Oh, wait! Make that nine pounds!

Actually it seems to change each time I step on the scale.

Okay, so maybe my scale isn't really reliable, but I do believe I have lost something this week, even if I can't put an exact number on it. It still makes me feel pretty good about my progress. And it makes me think that maybe I need a different scale. Any maybe all that pouting last week was all for not.

Isn't it interesting how quickly your mood/outlook can change?

Another new motivator is that I just bought a new set of changeable weights. They are the kind that go from 5-55 pounds in 2.5 pound increments, so I won't need to be buying new weights every few weeks as I get stronger. And I really feel like I was getting the most out of my workout by using them too. You are supposed to be lifting enough weight to reach fatigue in 6-8 reps, and I really couldn't do that with the weights that I was using. But yesterday, after using my new weights I could tell that I had really exhausted my muscles, which means that I will build new muscle much more quickly. AWESOME! The best part about these weights is I saved about $150 by buying them off of Craigslist. Woo hoo!

On the homefront:

Riley is getting more and more mobile everyday, and he isn't just happy with army crawling he wants to STAND. He is most happy if you will just assist him with walking all around the house over and over again, but he will put up with being able to stand supported by some piece of furniture.

In not such great baby news, he is currently boycotting his wonderful 2 hour 11:00 nap. Oh how I miss it!! Where did it go? Why is the only constant with babies change, and why did this, of all things, have to change? It was what kept me sane. My all important "me-time". A chance to workout, and shower, and get ready for the day, and sometime even fit in time to compile a grocery shopping list or read a few paragraphs in my current novel. Will it come back? This is what I really want to know.

7 short months . . .

Riley is 7 months old today and I am devoting this whole post to him!

He is getting so big so fast and we see new facets of his personality all the time. Here are some new things that Riley is up to:

He now recognizes his name. He will turn and look at strangers when they say it.

He is also turning into a HUGE flirt! He grins and grins at all the ladies at the grocery store, who then need to come over and talk with him, at which point he really turns up the flirt and starts cooing too. We can hardly complete a grocery trip in less that 4 hours!

He is perfecting the one-armed army crawl, and gets around pretty quickly with it.

At the same time he is starting to think about crawling for real. He is constantly getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. We are just waiting for him to take those first crawling steps.

He LOVES to walk around, with assistance of course. If you hold him by the hands he will walk all over the house and he loves to walk after the dog.

He started eating "solids" the beginning of January. First food was rice cereal, but we have since tried carrots (tasty), peas (two thumbs down), corn (very yummy), bananas (not a huge reaction here), pears (acted like they were the most sour thing ever). I'm not sure what we are going to try next, but I'm sure it will be interesting.

He has started anticipating things too. For example, you can walk slowly towards him and tell him that you are going to tickle him and get your hands in position to do just that and he will smile and laugh, so cute!

He jabbers all the time, especially when flirting with strangers and when going on walks outside.

He rolls over, and over and over and over . . . He rolls everywhere, so you really have to keep an eye on him!

He pulls himself up to standing and likes to just stand there, looking around at everything and enjoying the new perspective.

EVERYTHING goes into his mouth for a little taste.

He scritches everything, meaning that he sort of scratches at things in order to feel them. He scritches at all the things in the touch & feel books.

I pat my leg and say, "Come here, Jack!" when we play with the dog and he pats his leg too.

We are working on "petting" the puppy instead of "grabbing" the puppy.

He loves reading books. His current favorites are: Maisy's Fire Engine, Touch & Feel Farm, Pajama Time!, & The Big Night-Night Book

He really enjoys taking baths and playing with his rubber ducky, and he loves splashing too!

He now weighs 21 pounds and is about 26 inches long.

For some reason I can't download any pictures right now, but I will get some on tomorrow.

Treading Water . . .

So I weighed myself today and found that I had gained 5 pounds, arghh!!

Now, I don't believe I have actually gain a full 5 pounds because I happened to remember that today is "weigh-in day" AFTER I had done my workout, gulped down a ton of water, AND eaten lunch. But still, I don't think that I consumed 5 pounds worth of food and drink {lunch consisted of a salad made from tomatoes, broccoli, and garbanzo bean, not what I would consider "heavy fare"} . . . unbelievably frustrating. Especially after all of my sisters are reporting losing pounds on almost a daily basis.

Sunnie and I have committed to eating better this week, so I will report on my progress in the weight loss area next week.

I have not completely given up hope though. Thanks to the logs that Chalean has us keep I know that my endurance has increased and that I am building muscle. Because of that I know that eventually I will win the war, even if I feel like I am currently losing the battle {of the bulge}.

Whatever!

Life is full of ups and downs, I know it will be better eventually and I will be back in the high again, showing off my well earned body!

Here's to better days ahead!

Part Two . . .

So I started phase 2, the Push Phase, of Chalean Extreme on Monday. It is different from the last phase because now we are really concentrating on individual muscle groups and lifting much heavier weights. I am really excited about it! I need to pick myself up some 25 pound weights for this one, which makes me feel pretty proud. Already I am able to lift a lot more and it is fun to look back over my logs and see how far I've come.

It isn't always fun and easy though. Here is a little story to demonstrate:

Last week it felt like the universe (and my baby) were all conspiring against my goal to workout. Our new (enormous) TV was delivered last Wednesday and Gary spent that evening hooking everything up. I was excited to use the new TV to do my workout because I was pretty sure that Chalean would be practically life-size and I figured that might feel like she is actually in the room with me and that would give me some extra motivation. The next day (coincidentally it happened to be Thursday, the toughest workout day, and the day I really have to psych myself up for in order to get through it) I went to start the DVD and it was like the machine couldn't see it. It kept saying "Open Tray", like it was waiting for me to insert the DVD, but it was already there. So Frustrating!! Even more so because I have played this DVD in this DVD player a bunch of times before with no problem, and two because I had gotten myself excited to do the workout and then I had this big let-down. So, unfortunately, the workout didn't happen that day. The next day I tried again, this time the DVD played just fine (of course!), but Riley woke up from his usual 2 hour nap 20 minutes after I put him down. Instead of stopping my workout and trying to get him to go down again I decided that if he wanted to be awake during "my time" then he would have to entertain himself and be a good boy. So I set him up with some new and interesting kitchen objects (wooden spoon, round cake pan, measuring spoons, spatula, etc.) for him to play with and I got to work. It worked out great! And I felt even more empowered because I had decided that I wasn't going to let anything else stand in the way of me accomplishing my goal.

Win for me!