The weight, I am watching it!

So I joined Weight Watchers a couple of weeks ago. Yep, I finally took the plunge. It was time to get serious about eating better and exercising. It was hard because I had grown accustomed to eating treats more often than was, um, prudent. It was hard: first I had the excuse of being pregnant and then the even better excuse of having just had a baby. Also, this wonderful bakery opened near my house. It’s SO good! Yeah, for a while I was going a couple of times a week for lunch (and the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake or a cupcake). Some of the staff even know me by name (hi, Katy).

So yeah, it was time to do something. My first goal is to lose 19 pounds. The first week I lost 5.4 lbs., 1.4 lbs. the second week, and 1.2 lbs. this last week. It’s been going pretty well, although I have to admit that I’ve been slacking off on writing down everything I eat. But I am eating better (I miss you, Katy!) and I’m exercising 3 or 4 times a week. Of course I’m looking foward to being thinner, but I also want to be in better shape and have more energy to do things and run around with E.

I’m just trying to keep motivated and be positive about it.

Did you hear the one…

…about the German and the 200 Koreans?

They all went camping together.

So, every Memorial Day weekend the members of the Korean branch (church congregration) that my mom attends go camping. They’re done it every year for over 15 years. Growing up it was pretty much a given that our Memorial Day weekend was going to be spent in the middle of the woods with Korean food simmering over the campfires (even if my sulky teenaged self was not at all interested in being there). Looking back on it now, there were some good times. One year I entertained myself by trying to convince the younger kids that I had a twin sister (named Hope, naturally); another year (I think I was 14) I spent most of the time clumsily flirting with the only boy my age there; and yet another year my sister got engaged to her now husband of 10+ years. So yeah, good times.

Anyway, my mom is a great Korean cook. And she REALLY likes sharing her food with other people. Since they live by the water, she will go dig her legal limit of clams for days leading up to the campout so she’ll have buckets of clams ready to make her special soup when the camp-out arrives. Last week she was digging clams when a “VERY nice looking young man” (her words) came up to her and asked her what she was doing. She explained how you dig clams and he asked her what she was going to use them for. She explained all about her special soup and the Korean campout. It turned out that the guy, whose name was Oliver, was from Germany and on a month-long tour of the States. Anyway, Oliver was intrigued by my mom’s description of Korean food, which he had never tried, and about the church campout.

Long story short, my mom invited him to tag along with her and my brother to the campout and Oliver accepted. He thought that hanging out in the wilderness with 200 Koreans sounded like fun. What a brave guy!

Ugh.

It looks like E. and I have picked up the same bad cold. I’m surpised by how fast it developed. Hopefully that means that it will be over soon. On Wednesday we were over visiting a friend who had recently had surgery and her baby was congested and had a drippy nose. I tried to keep E. away from her, but yesterday there were onimous signs: E. was overly tired and cranky and my throat was a little scratchy. Then this afternoon E. started randomly bursting into tears and my head felt like it’s stuffed to bursting with cotton. Being sick or having a sick baby is no fun by itself, but both at once can make me feel overwhelmed (and also whiny–did I mentioned whiny?). I’m grateful that at least it’s a holiday weekend and so will be around to help out. I have to admit that I miss the pre-baby luxury of taking a sick day and being able to sleep all day uninterupted.

I hope your weekend is better than mine is shaping up to be!

My baby bird

I’ve been feeding E. rice cereal once a day since Sunday and yesterday I could tell that the light went on in his head. He started opening his mouth and leaning forward as soon as he was finished swallowing the last bite. N. said he looked like a baby bird. It was pretty cute. A couple of times he even grabbed my arm to guide the spoon I was holding into his mouth.

In other news, it looks like Robin Watch ’08 has ended sadly. Last week there was a horrible windstorm and the willow tree was shaken like crazy. Afterwards I didn’t see the female robin sitting on the nest for days. I went outside and checked and two eggs had fallen out of the nest and smashed on the ground. I took a peek inside the nest and there was one egg left, but since the robin hadn’t been sitting on it for days there wasn’t any way it would hatch.

I read online that robins lay about 3 clutches of eggs a season, so the pair probably decided to cut their loses after losing the eggs in the storm and decided to build a new nest somewhere else and try again.

Rice, Rice, Baby!

Yesterday E. had his first real experience with solid food. (I’m not counting the handful of times in the last month that N. has snuck E. tastes of random things such as ranch dressing and frozen yogurt.)


His first solid meal was rice cereal; it seemed to go well. He was really good about opening his mouth and actually seemed to swallow most of the cereal, contrary to the photographic evidence.

I’m going to give him rice cereal once a day for a week or so and if everything continues to go well, it will be on to tastier things. Kimchi, here we come!

I’m the Decider!

So, we were recently selected to be a Nielsen family for a week. I don’t know how the selected us, but N. received a phone call asking him if we’d be willing to record our TV viewing for a week. Nielsen said we’d even get paid $30. We’re both kind of suckers for surveys and so N. agreed to do it. A couple of weeks later a envelope showed up containing a paper diary, instructions, and $30 in cash. We were both surprised when the $10 and $20 bills fluttered out of the envelope and onto the table. It just seemed odd–I thought they would send a check or send us the money after they received the journal. Nielsen: proud supporters of the honor system!

I sadly neglected to scan or take photos of the TV diary before we had to send it back. But this guy has scans of the diary if you’re interested. It was all very retro feeling. You’re supposed to write down the channel or call letters of the station you’re watching, the name of the program, and which members of the household are watching/listening to the show. The diary tracks things in by 15-minute increments. If you’re watching something that you recorded on a DVR, then you also have to write down when it originally aired. Yeah, it was kind of a pain.

Nielsen is really on the ball, though. The day we received the diary they called to see if we had any questions and then they called again to reminder us to mail the diary back on time. I think that Nielsen is probably pretty successful with getting the diaries returned due to the reminder phone calls and the guilt factor of having been paid in advance.

We only tracked the shows we watched for a week but writing everything down definitely got old after a few days. But the power was intoxicating! This was our chance to strike a blow for our pet shows that get low ratings. (You can thank me later, 30 Rock.) Other times, it was a little embarrassing to have to write down what I was watching (I’m looking at you, back-to-back episodes of The Dog Whisperer!)

Our Anniversary

This week N. and I celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary. Yep, seven years! It really has gone by quickly. Being married to N. is for the most part pretty easy. Among other things he’s funny, intelligent, caring, and supportive. Also, he has a very cute butt. Tee-hee.

It really is lovely to be married to your best friend. He still cracks me up. We have a lot of fun together. And he’s such a good dad to E.

Anyway, happy anniversary N! I love you.

Our First Mother’s Day

Yesterday was low key but lovely. N. surprised me with a fancy bread machine for a combination Mother’s Day/anniversary gift. I’m really excited to use it. It makes a 2 lb. horizontal loaf and comes with recipes for all sorts of bread. I’m particularly intrigued by the recipe for the cheese and onion bread–yum!

In the evening we went up to N.’s parents’ house for dinner. Holidays with N.’s parents are getting a little poignant because in June they are moving to Korea for three years to perform full-time service for our church. So it was N.’s mother’s first Mother’s Day with E. but also her last one with him until at least 2012!

I wasn’t able to see my mom yesterday since she lives out of state, but I wanted to thank her for everything she’s done for me. I know it’s trite, but becoming a parent does give you more appreciation for everything your own parents did for you.

Hooray for mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and friends!

Letter: Month Six

Dear E,

This week you turned six weeks old. It’s hard to be believe that you’ve been a part of our family for half of a year: the days have gone by so quickly and yet it feels like you’ve always been a part of us. Before I became pregnant with you the days, weeks, and months seemed to stream by in a blur. Don’t get me wrong – life was very good. I enjoyed my hobbies, my job, traveling, and spending time with your dad. But on some level it felt like the days were slipping through my fingers like sand. One week was much like the next.

But since you were born, every day is different and most of them are simply lovely. You have such a great sense of humor and are so good-natured. It’s interesting to introduce you to new things and see how you react.

Last weekend you had your first scare – when your dad unwrapped his birthday presents it freaked you out. Your eyes got so big at the noise and then your face crumpled up and you started crying. I would by lying if I said it wasn’t kind of funny. You settled down pretty quickly but continued to look distrustfully at the wrapping paper as if you were waiting for it to attack your dad again.

Hmm…other things you’ve been doing lately include your pacifier out of your mouth and staring at it like it was the most wondrous thing ever. You started grabbing your toes this month and bringing them to your mouth; it’s ridiculously cute. We got you a jumper that hangs from the doorway but you haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. You kind of list from side to side and slowly turn yourself around it in. But you continue to love standing on our laps and have started to creep forward on your tummy a little. But you still tire of being on your tummy after a while. It’s hard for you to hold up your giant noggin. I don’t blame you–your head is probably a solid fourth of your body. At your six-month checkup it measured 44.9 cm around, which puts it in the 75th percentile. You’re also a tall little guy. You measured 27 and 3/4 inches long (90%) and you weighed 18 lbs. and 1oz (50%).

This month there was some more health-related drama for you. Nothing too serious, you just had a bad flare of eczema on your face that was misdiagnosed and turned into a secondary infection. It took about 4 weeks and 3 trips to different doctors (one of them a pediatric dermatologist) to get it cleared up. At one point I had to give you two baths a day and then slather multiple creams all over you. And you took it so patiently. You’re such a trooper.

The days continue to quickly stream by but now every day is different because every day you’re different. And it is so much fun to watch you grow.

Love,

Mama

Announcing Robin Watch ’08!

The other day I noticed a robin hopping around our backyard picking up pieces of dry grass in its beak. Then he flew up into the willow tree next to our house and added the grass to a nest he was building. I was excited to see it building a nest in our tree. Ever since I was a kid I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for robins. They sing so prettily and it cracks me up how fast their tiny feet move when they run around on the ground. And their eggs are that wonderful shade of blue.

I looked it up and apparently the female robin will sit on the eggs for about 2 weeks and then they hatch. After that, it only takes another 2 weeks until the babies are ready to leave the nest.

The female robin started sitting on the nest consistently over the weekend, and so I’m going to keep an eye on her to see when the eggs hatch. The nest is in a tree right outside our bedroom window and so hopefully I’ll be able to get some good shots using my telephoto lens.

Let the countdown begin!