Saturday, January 26, 2008

Saturday Procrastination

I should probably be tackling my desk or my cubby of shame... or that huge mountain of laundry the kids were playing in... but not just yet. I've got the house to myself (kind of Baby is sleeping) and these are the perfect blogging conditions.

So I'm going to throw out some topics and potentially get back to you with thoughtful posts if there seems to be interest.

#1 Baby is turning ONE in 6 days and I have done nothing in preparation for this. No gifts, no cake ideas, no invites, no party.... NOTHING. Second kid syndrome or is it just that with your second kid comes more perspective...

#2 Food sensitivities, allergies, avoidance.... Cooking without major allergens (yes I have a lot of experience with this)

#3 Momento storage and documentation. I actually do have great tips for this... for all you non scrapbookers.

#4 How to lower my body fat % without losing more weight... I may need some feedback in order to meet my new goal of 18%.

#5 Today is the last day to vote on the sex poll... wrap up discussion anyone?

Okay that's it for now. Feel free to let me know where your interests lie.

27 comments:

Torey said...

I think a sex poll wrap up would be great, but I also want some first bday tips, since Gup will be 1 in April.

I also want some more grocery shopping/pantry tips.

Mrs Furious said...

Torey,
I've got your back on the pantry post. I'll do that next week (probably Tuesday or Wednesday).

Anonymous said...

Ooohhh...sex poll wrap up. We all revealed..now its your turn! Frankly, just happy to know that with 3 kids, we arent the only ones NOT doing it every day (or once a week...or sometimes even once a month.....poor dh!). Actually, any topic would be great. I'm sick as a dog home alone w/ 3 kids, so lots of TV (what do you want me to do..I stand up, I puke!) and surfing the net...

Mrs Furious said...

Marie,
Oh I'm sorry your are so sick :(

that's two for sex poll. that's enough for me.

moley said...

Baby is turning ONE in 6 days and I have done nothing in preparation for this. No gifts, no cake ideas, no invites, no party.... NOTHING. Second kid syndrome or is it just that with your second kid comes more perspective...

A bit of both I think. Let's face it they won't remember it!

For Hetty's first birthday (on Christmas Day) we had a huge family party at my mum's on Boxing Day (do you call it that? - the day after Christmas), as we were staying there over Christmas. Mind you it was mostly adults and the few kids who were there were older teenagers, but we had a banner up and balloons etc, and mum had had a huge cake made in the shape of a starfish (her obsession at the time!). She got loads of cards and presents and revelled in all the attention. She's always preferred adult company to other kids.

Fast forward 2 yrs and for Bumble's first birthday, we had a small shop bought cake with one candle, we bought him a drum and had a single mum friend and her two kids (then aged 7 & 9) over for tea. We also bought Hetty a present. Being Christmas Day, he gets stuff on her birthday so it only seems fair that she gets something on his!

moley said...

Got carried away and posted before I'd finished.

#3 Momento storage and documentation. I actually do have great tips for this... for all you non scrapbookers.

I'm interested!

#4 How to lower my body fat % without losing more weight... I may need some feedback in order to meet my new goal of 18%.

Presumably you need to increase your muscle mass, but as you can't do weights I'm not sure how you'd go about that.

Just curious as to your thinking behind the need to decrease you body fat to 18% anyway?

#5 Today is the last day to vote on the sex poll... wrap up discussion anyone?

Sorry! What is sex again?

BTW Baby is so funny. She looks good in a bra! It was usually safe to leave Hetty for 5 minutes, but even now I can never be quite sure what I'll find if I leave Bumble unsupervised for too long! When the dog was still a pup and he was 3, I popped upstairs for 5 mins and came down to discover he'd decided to give her a haircut, so had climbed up to the kitchen drawer, got out some scissors and proceeded to scalp the pup's right flank. Thank god he didn't cut himself or her, although she did have a bald patch for quite some time.

Damn it's hard to express disapproval when you are trying not to laugh!

Shirls said...

since my hubby has severe food allergies that send us to the hospital in ambulance (after use of epi-pen)more often than I can count, I'd love to hear your take on allergies (especially food)

Mrs Furious said...

moley,
the body fat is my continuing motivation to keep the exercise up. I'm at about 20-22% body fat now depending on my cycle. That is pretty lean and lower than that is more athlete level. I don't do weight machines but I do strength train with weighted springs and bars and pulleys doing virtually identical moves for both upper and lower body with my Pilates equipment. I need to increase those workouts though... it is hard to give up the endorphins though. Anyway I'm not sure I'll be able to go much lower while I'm nursing and wonder if that is keeping me where I am.


Shirls,
you are not the only one and I will at some point do that post even if there isn't much interest now.


I've got to get another load in the washer I'll be back!!

Torey said...

I'm also curious about the food allergies, since N is allergic to gelatin and (?) mammal meat. I don't have any food allergies, and the ped told us that Gup probably won't get those from him, but it totally freaks me out when N has a reaction. I don't know how to handle it.

Amy said...

I would love to hear tips on non-scrapbooking ways to save memories. I hate having boxes of pictures but no rhyme or reason to them (pre-baby).

Another subject (maybe for a future post) I would love to hear from readers is how they cope with 2+ kids. I would throw this out on my blog, but my readership would not bring about the # of comments that your's would :)

Somedays it is a struggle dealing with one, and although I really want a second and can't imagine not having a second...I wonder if I can handle two. Did anyone else have these thoughts before having 2? I can't imagine my daughter being an only child, but 2 also makes me nervous!

Anonymous said...

I bet the nursing is keeping you higher than you would be at otherwise. I know with my girls, I could only get within 10 lbs of my "normal" weight while breastfeeding. Within a month of stopping, I dropped the 10lbs QUICK, and this was without changing my diet, exercising, etc. My body just insists on the extra padding while bf'ing. Of course, I know NOTHING of my fat %'s, but I assume they would have changed a bit too.

Mrs Furious said...

Marie,
I strongly suspect that is the case .. in that it makes complete logical sense. I weigh quite a bit less than I did pre-pregs and my body fat is certainly lower but I wonder if there is a threshold for milk production.


Torey,
LOL... the mammal bit makes me laugh everytime!



Amy,
I do want to do a post about how many kids people have. If it is any consolation I don't find 2 to be that much harder. But mine are nearly 4.5 years apart.

Mrs Furious said...

Shirls,
what is your husband allergic to?

Robin said...

#1 baby birthday- Kara was one on December 20th. Her first birthday party is scheduled for Feb. 2nd, if that makes you feel any better. I just couldn't get motivated for it. I don't know if it was second child syndrome, more perspective, or the holidays. This one will be much smaller than Kent's first birthday. My sister-in-law said to me, "it's a good thing she's too young to realize how much her mom is slacking on her first birthday." I told her that Kara was lucky I wasn't putting a cake in front of her and balloons behind and taking pictures without a party. Now that I have scheduled it, I am looking forward to a more intimate, less stressful party. Although I will be baking two cakes and cookies for it, so it will be a busy week!

#4 fat %- I know you do pilates and it does wonders for your muscles, but I think you may have already built the muscles you are going to build by using your body weight. I think you are going to have to lift heavier weight to build more muscle. Does your reformer give you the option to increase the resistance? If so, that seems like it would work.

I agree that you may not be able to lower your body fat while breastfeeding. I'm pretty sure I read (in my bfing research) that your body needs a certain amount of fat to produce milk. I think it is your body's way of protecting itself in case of famine. You know, the body wants the fat reserves in case you don't get food.

#5 sex poll - definitely want more of this. it was very interesting to see what other people are doing...or not doing.

Mrs Furious said...

Robin,
yeah I've got heavier springs up the wazoo. I just haven't putting much effort into my pilates period let alone changing up all the springs. With my set up it is more than my body weight as resistance but I haven't changed my springs in over a year and I definitely should. My number one problem is that when I head down to workout I just prefer the cardio cause I'm still a little mental about the calorie burn... it is hard to let yourself get out of "weight loss" mode. But I just thought of this... so I'm using the same springs and I weigh much less so I'm actually doing my workouts with like 68 less pounds of resistance than when I was pregs never thought of that before... no wonder they feel lighter... I will go adjust the springs tomorrow. Duh.

Feb 2nd... LOL... I do feel better! I think we are just going to have by brother and his kids and my mom over on Saturday. We'll probably do a small cake on her b'day that I'll let Kid decorate... I'm too anal about that for her party!

Robin said...

Very interesting about the springs. I wasn't sure how the reformer worked. That should definitely help you build some muscle. LOL that you hadn't realized that your body weight was so much less. :)

And I hear ya about the cardio. I prefer it to weight training, too. I just like getting on and zoning out.

I'm glad I could make you feel better about Baby's birthday. I was just in total denial about having to throw another party. We had one for Kara's baptism, Kent's birthday, we had people over for Christmas. I was just done.

Mrs Furious said...

Robin,
different exercises are done with different parts of the equipment. But everything uses these heavy weighted springs (think bowflex type resistance) so for somethings I am pulling (especially arm exercises) a metal bar that is attached with a spring that adds 30 lbs of resistance ... other exercises use pulleys to pull a carriage that you are on with varying springs to add resistance. I can use this for traditional moves like chest flys and what not and add weight for biceps, leg exercises, abs, planking so it makes it harder to move the carriage. Its hard to visualize if you haven't done it but I think the bowflex is the best analogy. In fact one old trainer did have a bowflex in place of one of the pieces of equipment. You can get very strong it is how ballerinas train and even major league sports players use it now. We saw these crazy acrobats from Australia and they said that they train with Pilates. It is just putting my mind into doing it. But I do like to just get on the treadmill and watch my shows... it is more relaxing.

Robin said...

Thanks for the explanation. I am familiar with the reformer but didn't realize you can use different springs to have different resistance. I thought it was purely body weight. I understand it is a great workout and would love to give it a try. They offer reformer type pilates at my gym, but it costs extra...lots extra. I think it starts at $25 a class for classes with 8 people and goes up the fewer people who are in the class. All the way to $80 a class for private instruction. Yikes. Not in the budget. I will have to stick with traditional weight training. They have mat type pilates for free, but that isn't as interesting to me.

BTW, re: sex. If you decide to have another sex post, I am willing to be completely open during a discussion. Having the kind of anonymity with strangers I think would allow people to be more honest, and I would be interested in hearing what people have to say.

Deb said...

I'm all about the 1st birthday non-prep and the memento storage. I almost didn't have a 1st birthday for my kid, so God help the second child! Currently, my Mac (and its back-up drive) are my memento storage, because I am too busy (reading blogs) to scrapbook. I did order a photo album from Mac.com of my child's first year. It's pricey, but that may be our direction for all future events. I need your tips.

Deb said...

BTW, I would be very interested in the body fat thing, but I suspect it has something to do with eating right and exercising, neither of which I seem to be on-board with at this point in life. If you have something else for me that will give me the chiseled abs of my early-30's, I'm all ears.

(Thanks for your comment on my blog today. Nice to hear I'm not the only asshole who hated their father. I already like your brother.)

emmyjw said...

My kids each get to pick out a cake and we have a b day with Granparents. Did I do more when Rainee was little...yes. Do my kids seem harmed by a lesser party on their day...no. I decided that trying to do that crazy,huge party thing four times every year especially twice in Dec and twice in Feb would just put me over the edge.The kids all seem to be happy with it. I would love the pantry and food allergy info.Baby is hilarious by the way:)

Mrs Furious said...

Deb,
Aw shit... once my dad told me he'd be proud of me if there was anything to be proud of..... he can be a bit of a dick sometimes.


Robin,
you should take the class once just to see what it is like... totally different than anything else. That is expensive though I had private training for $70 a session and her group rates are $15 but she has a private pilates studio. I'm surprised you gym needs to charge so much on top of the gym fees.
My reformer is also a half trap table so it is a bit different. Sorry to give you redundant info... I never can tell how much people know about pilates!
I did put up a new sex poll and post... is that what you meant?


emmy,
Good to know. I try to be a little less is more these days in general. Baby can have a *real* party when she gets off her ass and makes *real* friends ;)
Kid of course had a big costume party (Halloween b'day) with all our family and friends... oh well...

Mrs Furious said...

Deb,
I have a great idea in leu of a baby book or childhood momento system. I'll post it this week or next week.

michelline said...

It's been covered pretty well, but I wanted to say that it's no big deal about Baby's birthday. Parties for 1-year olds are for the parents anyway, not the kids. They don't really care. Now in a few years, you'll have to make sure things are level.

Amy, Our kids are 3.5 years apart, and we didn't find two any harder than one. It does help that #1 was out of diapers/pull-ups before #2 arrived. As they got older, for a while #1 was very helpful. Now they mostly fight all the time :).

Robin said...

I did put up a new sex poll and post... is that what you meant?

Sorry I'm a little slow. That was what I meant. I was answering that I would be interested in more sex talk, but I hadn't read that new post or noticed the poll, so I didn't realize you had already put one up. I will join in on that later when I have more time. So that brings up another good post topic...mommy brain, do you miss yours and does it come back?

Deb said...

Oooh... the baby book! I forgot that I spent an entire month of my last trimester looking for the perfect baby book, and I've never written a word in it. I do have a system for recording milestones. I'll see what you've got and then share mine.

Mrs Furious said...

Deb,
yes my system is a milestone documentation system. I too could never commit to writing in the damn baby book... I'm over it what I do it better than that anyway.
Still haven't done a wedding album though....


Robin,
after Kid I was totally mentally sound... now the sleep deprivation is absolutely starting to mess with me.

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