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Fat be gone!
Dieting and exercising are going well. For the first time in my life, I've gone 3 weeks without feeling discouraged. I feel good about this and the key, I believe, is that I am much more informed than I've ever been before. In my opinion, if you want to lose weight, you need to understand what you normally put into your body and figure out how you can change it without feeling like you're missing out on all your favorite things.
And I'm 6 pounds down now. Six pounds in 3 weeks ain't bad. I feel like I eat more than I used to. I drink a lot of water and eat smal snacks frequently. Keep that metabolism going!
Disappointingly, I don't feel like I've seen much of change in how my clothing fits, but I'm sure that'll come soon enough. Then, I get to buy a whole new wardrobe!!
Fat be gone!
Congrats!
So as I mentioned in an earlier entry, my middle stepdaughter, Sarah, decided that England wasn't for her. She returned here to Ontario and immediately moved in with her boyfriend, Bill. They live about a half-hour away from us.
And, in the news here, they have just announced their engagement. Sarah is now proudly wearing a ring and huge smile.
Trying to take a bath goes like this...
I go through fazes; sometimes, I'm a shower person and sometimes, I'm a bath person. Recently, the bath wins out. So, every morning, I put up the necessary 'gates' to keep Jake in the designated areas, I close bedroom doors and generally make the living room, dining room and hallway safe places for an 18-month old to play semi-unsupervised.
I run my bath, leaving the bathroom door wide open, so that Jake can come and go as he pleases. He usually comes in every couple of minutes then heads back to the TV in living room. I can always hear what he's doing and he generally comes when I call him.
But today was a good example of just what it can be like to do one's daily hygiene routine with a toddler in tow:
As soon as I'm in the water, Jake comes in with a toy in both hands. Before I can stop him, both toys get dunked in the water. I give them a shake and send him on his way. After a brief trip into the living room, he's back, minus toys.
This is when he decides to play with the bathroom door and closes it with him in the bathroom. No problem, you might think. At least he's with you. But then the temper tantrum ensues because he can't get out. Dripping all over the bathroom floor, I leap out of that bath - risking life and limb on the slippery, wet floor - and open the door for him.
Just to be difficult, Jake decides not to leave the bathroom at that point. Instead, he waits until I'm back in the water and then somehow manages to get the cupboard open where his potty is kept. The lovely potty has had a brief clean since it's last use but it is by no means sanitized. He pulls it out - against my adamant protests from a distance - and starts slinging it around. "No, Jake!! I said NO!!!!!!" And from Jake? Giggles! Out I leap again, grabbing the potty from his hands and slamming it down on top of the bathroom counter.
Back into the bath I go while he toodles off happily into the living room. Soon, I hear the coffee table being dragged across the floor. I know from experience that it is now in the dining room. No problem, I'm thinking, that can be moved back.
All of a sudden, my ears are attacked by the volume of the television, turned up to it's max by my little angel. And there's no use shouting for him to stop; HE CAN'T HEAR ME!!
Giving up, I dry off and get out of the bath. I go into the living room, turn down the TV, put the coffee table back where it belongs and turn to Jake.
"Hi, Mummy. Did you enjoy your bath?" he says with his eyes and his grin...
Still love him to bits though.
Halloween is coming!
I'm really looking forward to Halloween this year. Although Jake will only be 19 months old and not particularly into it, I feel that he'll be a bit more interested than he was last year at about 7 months old. We'll only take him out to couple of houses very nearby, as I don't think his little legs could handle much more than that.
And I don't have a clue what to dress him up as. It can't have a mask or a flimsy hat, as he'll pull those right off. I don't fancy make-up either. So it'll probably just be one of those store-bought ones... like Sponge-Bob or something. Last year, he had a Tigger costume. Well, Tigger pyjamas, actually.
Anyway, he's so much more grown up now than he was this time last year. Look at that pudgy face!!
This next picture was taken while my Mum's dining room table was covered in candy. She had enlisted the help of Stephen's daughters to make up some bags for her to hand out to Trick-or-Treaters. Oh yes, my Mum spends a fortune at Halloween.
Mmmm... chocolate. Gimme one of those!
Jury Service??
Arg... I've just received a "Questionnaire As To Qualification For Jury Service".
"Your name was selected at random from a municipal enumeration list to be considered for inclusion in a Jury Roll, which is a list of potential jurors... You are required by law to fill out the enclosed questionnaire... ensure that the answer is complete and accurate..."
I repeat: Arg.
Doctor's Office
I took Jake to the doctor's today for his 18-month jabs. He should have had them a couple of weeks ago, but he was ill at the time and it needed to be postponed. The nurse checked his weight (27lb 12), height (31") and head circumference (didn't take note of that) and was happy with it all. Jake, on the other hand, wasn't happy. He wasn't happy to be sat on the scales. He wasn't happy to be laying down to be measured. And he really wasn't happy when the nurse tried to measure his head.
The thing that made him most unhappy? The jabs, of course. One in each arm. But the good news is that he has now completed his "baby" jabs and isn't due any more until he's 4 years old. Yipee!
But I did encounter something strange while we were there and it goes like this:
While in the waiting room, I became engaged in a conversation with a woman who initially asked how old Jake was. Before asking the same of her son, I estimated that he was a bit older than Jake. (Interestingly, Jake was taller.) I was about to ask about her son, when she handed the little boy a piece of gum. Put it in your mouth, she instructed him. He did so and started chewing, then pulling it out for a look, then popping it back in again.
"How old is your son?" I asked, a bit perplexed and distracted.
"Two years old," she replied.
"And he handles gum alright?"
"Oh yes, he loves it," she beams.
Gum? For a two-year old? You've got to be kidding! That, to me, screams choking hazard. Nevermind being completely unnecessary. What two-year old needs or even recognizes that he wants gum?
Any thoughts, people?
Leaves, Witches and The Most Photographed Child Ever
The house is so quiet. There's only Jake and I at home and he's fast asleep. Ruth is due home in an hour and Stephen a few hours after that. I've been working on a website and I feel like my brain in melting. Time for a break, me thinks.
Earlier today, Stephen, Jake and I went out into the backyard to rake leaves. We have a huge tree back there and Autumn is definitely upon us. Stephen raked leaves into neat piles, Jake ran through them, then I gathered them. We'd been out to the Dollar Store (like the UK's Pound Shops!) a couple of days ago and purchased a pack of three orange plastic bags that have pumpkin faces on them. We filled all three with leaves today and now they are on display next to our real pumpkins out the front of the house.
I've been busy making a witch too. I've made the head out of papier macher and I've just finished painting it. We'll see how that turns out. Then I'll be fashioning a body, dressing it, sitting it on the small wooden broom that we bought for it and hanging on the tree out front. If it turns out well, I'll post a photo here. If you don't see a photo within the next couple of weeks, well, you'll know why: the witched got ditched!
Then, after raking leaves, I spent the next half-hour or so chasing a giggling Jake around the dining room table. I'd stop and let him catch up. When he'd see me suddenly, he'd squeal with delight and take off in the other direction. As you can imagine, after about a half-hour, we were both knackered and hoarse. Great fun though!
And finally, we played with the digital camera. I know that most first-time parents are probably the same, but I often imagine that Jake must be the most photographed child ever!
Arg. Double Arg!
At 4:45 this morning, Jake woke up and called out for us from his bed. He was wide awake and not at all happy to remain in his bed and play quietly. With Stephen due to get up around 5:30am, we decided that Jake would come in with me, have a bottle of juice and see if we might get a bit more sleep.
Well, he drank his juice and did his usual flip onto his belly (his usual sleeping position). After a few flips and flops, kicks to my chest, stomach and face, a giggle here and there, I was getting the picture that this wasn't going to work.
I reached into my virtual bag of tricks and pulled him toward me. I turned him away from me and cuddled him close to me. With a soft whisper, I kissed his face, making sure that I touched his eyelids and brows. This always makes his eyes rolls back in his head and he starts to realize that sleep isn't such a bad idea.
With Jake starting to settle, I eagerly readied myself for at least another well-deserved hour of rest. Until...
Knock-knock, on our bedroom door. Stephen had just left the house; it must be Ruth.
I told her to come in - at this point, Jake sits straight up and starts to get excited about seeing her. Arg - and she tells me that two of our gerbils are loose in the basement. Again. She had been sleeping but woke to the sound of scratching and rustling plastic bags in her room. She went to check the gerbil cages, had a quick count, and deduced that two were missing. The clever so-and-sos had knocked one of the attachments off the side of cage and had run for their lives.
We all went downstairs - Jake included - and started looking for them. Luckily, the two escapees were easily caught (by Ruth) and returned to their cage.
As you can imagine, Jake was wide awake again and ready to start the day. It was as dark as night outside while he sat in his highchair and scoffed his sliced banana and whole wheat toast. Now, at 11:30am, he's still going strong. I'm starting to wane.
She's gone!!
I am writing to report the sad passing of my laptop hard drive. Although she'd been coughing and sputtering for the last two days, we pretty much laid her to rest last night.
It started the day before yesterday. Out of the blue, while surfing the net, the computer starting ticking, like the hard drive was working. But not very quickly or efficiently. When everything slowed to almost a halt, I tried rebooting and a black screen was displayed asking for a boot disk or something.
I didn't really understand the problem but, after another reboot and a disk scan, I was able to get back into Windows.
The troubles persisted though. When Stephen had a look at it, he deduced that the hard drive was probably failing. He installed some software (don't know wat it was) that apparently lets you know what going on behind the scenes and it came up with "Hard drive failure imminent".
So, I quickly transferred all my important files (1.6GB!) through the network and onto Stephen's computer. I am now using his laptop until we can try replacing my laptop hard drive.
I've never had a hard drive fail on me before. I've only had the laptop about 2 years. So I'm a bit disappointed.
Ah well, I should look at the bright side; it's like a forced reformat. After we get the new hard drive, I'll have a fresh new system to work with. My laptop was getting a bit cluttered.
Mourning,
Nicola
Good day
Yesterday was a good day. I went from mourning the loss of a 30Gb hard drive to celebrating the arrival of my brand spanking new 80Gb!
So much room I don't know what to do with it all!
I've spent today replacing all my files and folders and installing software. I'm all computer'ed out.
Good night...
