for my iphone. It helped me lose 4.4lbs last week. I am so happy an amazed. I spent the entire month of January exercising and didn’t lose a pound. In 8 days of setting a calorie goal, charting every bite and exercises, I have shed 4.4lbs. I am loving life.
While I was happy just to have exercised in January, I am certainly a lot happier having shed some serious pounds.
Here are the kids–just because they are cute
My bonus mom’s dad celebrated his 80th in style. The kids danced. It was hilarious–maybe even more hilarious than the karaoke.
Dear Zoë,
You have been home with us for just over 7 months now–you have now officially been with us longer than you had been in agency care in Ethiopia. It is a glorious moment and I have a hard time remembering what it was like before you entered our lives. Maybe that is becasue you have been with us since we were in Ethiopia picking Noah up. That is when your daddy looked at me and said “I want a baby girl.” As soon as we were home, we began the process to add you to our family. I hope that you will someday know exactly how wanted you were/are. I want you and your brother to both know and understand just how much we wanted you all in our lives and not because we want your gratitude, but because I want you to be strong and confident and that will come from you understanding just how important you are to us.
You have started to play the harmonica and it is really cute. You walk around blowing into it and smiling at yourself and giggling like a school girl. You continue to follow your brother and dad around as though they invented all the cool things in your world. You and your brother are inseperable and are total buds. You pal around together all day and Noah only pushes you around sometimes and you are perfecting your fake cry so that Noah gets in trouble and you get the attention. It’s quite girly of you and it scare me for what those teen years are going to bring.
Life has been crazy this month and very busy. You are easy going and just roll with all the ups and downs. You are quick with a smile and a laugh. You love to snuggle and drink coffee. You haven’t met an opportunity to eat that you haven’t taken advantage of. You sit for minutes and attempt to put on your socks and shoes–even though you already have shoes on. You scream to let me know you want something, that you are unhappy, or that you are happy. You are an equal opportunity screamer and while it is often cute–sometimes it makes me want to gouge my eyes out and let my brain explode. But you never fail to make me smile.
Your rock our world Zoë and I can’t imagine my life without you nor can I remember what life was before you.
Love you,
Mommy
On the scale that is. I haven’t blogged month that last few months. Life has just been busy and I have been trying to figure out how to keep all the balls I am juggling in the air and the blogging ball has been left to lay under the table gathering dust.
Well, I am proud of myself that I have completed 36 days of exercise so far this year. That means I only have 329 more days to go. I feel great and am so happy that I have found my commitment to myself again. Sadly, after 31 days of exercise in January, I did lose a pound. Not one pound. I weighed the same amount on Jan 31 as I did on Jan 1. I was irritated and a little flabbergasted. I thought I was doing great–I felt great. I wasn’t tracking my food and I obviously should have been. That’s not entirely accurate. I tracked my meals and I was eating fine–what I wasn’t tracking was the food I was eating off the kids plates or the type of calories I was eating.
I have PCOS and have written about it in the past. I need to watch my carbs and make sure to eat the right kind and not too many. I shouldn’t have more than 150g of carbs a day and less would be better. Well, on some days I was consuming closet to 300g of carbs. That isn’t good for me, nor will it aid in my weight loss efforts. So, I have download the new LoseIt app for my iphone and am keeping tack of everything I eat and of my carbs/fat/fiber/protein and it has opened my eyes. And finally 4 days in I have seen some movement on the scale–nearly 2lbs.
I have accepted that losing weight is going to take a lot of work and it really is a numbers game and a numbers game that is more than just calories in vs calories out. I need to eat the right calories for my body and what my body needs and struggles with. I am looking forward to my official weigh in on monday to see what a week of doing what I need to do and should be doing has gotten me.
Dear Noah,
I can hardly believe that you have been home with us for nearly 30 months. How time flies and what a blessing you are. I am so lucky to have both you and your sister and I could never have dreamed to have such a perfect family.
You are two months away from turning 3 and you can’t wait. You have begun to ask a little more often “when my birthday is?” and we remind you that it is in March. You take that info and then ask “is it March?” It’s cute. You have also mastered holding up 3 fingers to indicate your age and relish that you becoming a big boy. Now if only we could channel some of this excitement about being 3 into excitement about becoming potty trained. We’ll get there.
You are growing so fast and developing at an alarming rate. Your vocabulary is expanding my hundreds of words a week. Some of the things you say are hilarious and have me laughing out loud. Your personality is also blossoming and you really are a sweet kid. You have your moments as do most toddler/pre-schoolers. But over all your a joy to be around.
The above face is one I see often, but it doesn’t last too long and generally returns to the happy “Silly maaan” face. You have overcome your Kung-Fu Panda obsession and are now obsessed with Cars. You ask to watch it a lot–at least 4 times a day that movie plays all the way through. Now don’t get me wrong–you don’t watch it all the way through each time–I’m not even sure you sit down long enough to watch it one full time a day. But you are all about Lightening McQueen, The King, Doc Hudson, Mater, and company. You have a collection of cars you carry around with you and that you dad and I spend a good portion of time trying to find as they get dropped or left in the most curious places. We also spend a lot of time playing cars and I hear “Mommy that not how you do it” more often than I care to admit. Who knew there were such rules to car playing?
“Mommy lets play Candy Lane.” I tell you “Sure but it’s Candy Land.”
You reply…”No, I think it’s Candy Lane mommy.” I have learned there are somethings I just can’t argue about with you my almost 3-year-old. We play lots of Candy Land and you are getting pretty good at it and understanding the whole concept of rules and turns, etc. I am pretty proud that you have mastered turn taking and are a pretty good sport. You don’t get mad when mommy beats you and your also a pretty good sport when you win. Dad gets mad at me when I talk about winning and losing, etc. But it’s a fact of life and I sorry, but I really like to win. You also enjoy a good game of Memory or Concentration whatever it’s being called these days. You are not so good at that one, but you do okay and you just seem to really like playing. You’ll get better.
You continue to keep me on my toes and you have grown quite fond of your sister. You play so very nicely with her and are rarely mean to her. You share your toys with her and have learned that if you want to take something away from her that you have to give her something else or she’ll cry and you’ll get in trouble. I am so happy that you can spend a good chunk of time playing with your sister upstairs and no one gets hurt. It’s pretty awesome. You are pretty awesome.
You are sleeping in your big boy bed and it’s getting better. You still manage to make it downstairs and into mommy and daddy’s bed every night/morning somewhere between 3:30 and 5:30am. You have learned quickly to sneak into the bed quietly so that no one takes you back to your own bed. I have to admit I love waking up and feeling you all snuggled up next to me. I know it won’t last forever, but I will enjoy it while it does. Keep rocking it little man and you will go far in this world.
Love you baby,
Mommy
Embracing Imperfection 