Friday, August 23, 2013

7 Quick Takes (Vol 13)




This has been a rough week of workouts. I haven't managed to get up at 5AM to go to the gym most days to get in my cardio. I'm bumped up to 60 minutes daily and she wants me to split that morning and evening, which we thought would be perfect. I could do 1/2 hour on the elliptical in the gym in the morning, then we could do a long bike ride in the evenings. Well, we've managed to do 60 minute bike rides this week anyway.


For Christopher's speech therapy appointment on Tuesday the Speech Therapist was here to kind of check in. His normal appointments are with a developmental aide (I think that's what her title is) and then the SLP would come ever 6 visits or something. So, this week she came, and he really seemed to open up. We got several new sounds and he played with her. Today we had our normal appointment but it was early and we hadn't had breakfast yet, so needless to say, he didn't participate that well with her today. I'm hopeful though because it does seem like he is starting to respond and trying to make new sounds more frequently.


I know so many people who are pregnant or just had babies. I love it because I love babies, but I'm noticing a little catch, a little bit of pain with every announcement and that is fairly new for me. It's weird, it doesn't diminish my happiness for the couple, or happiness to see that new life...it's almost like a longing. I'm still trying to think less about GETTING pregnant this month so that it is not in my head every day, but it's hard when you want something so bad to not think about it.


Jason and I played Cribbage last night and I missed skunking him by like 6 points. It was simultaneously the best hands I've ever had in Cribbage while he had the worst he's ever had. It was a great night! ;-) We used to play a card game almost every night but we've gotten out of the habit, and it's been fun. 


Our town has 2 parks locally and one of them is really nice, but the other has seen better days. Well, our town got a grant to get some new, better playground equipment and we are so excited! They will have volunteers putting it together, which kind of makes it more exciting and more "ours". This is the equipment that was chosen.



I'm in a food slump. Since my diet is so strict, I'm struggling to find things that I can eat that I want to eat. Mostly I'm eating veggies and meat. The real problem is that I'm not a big veggie fan. Suggestions are welcome!


Since we signed up with the state and the city and are now an official business, we needed to organize things a bit better. So we set up a scheduling calendar using Google Apps, and let's just say, it was insane to get it so that I could set up the appointments from my phone and Jason would get a notification on his phone. We got it...but it was not easy!


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Theme Thursday - Food

I'm linking up with Cari over at the Clan because she's awesome and I can.

So, food, what a great link-up as anyone who knows me knows that I love food. I'm trying not to hate it right now that I can't eat all the things, but sometimes it's a struggle. I don't know why, it's not too different than how we usually eat, except that I usually don't think twice about baking up some brownies, granola bars, or cookies for snacks. Instead I'm eating raw, unsalted almonds or protein bars and shakes.

Anyway, this is what lunch looked like in the Spano house today.

I did not eat the dish soap honest!

Dominic eating the only thing he ever eats with a spoon, Snail Cheese

Lunch: 1 PB sandwich cut properly and 2 bananas

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Five Favorites (Vol 1)


Five Favorites, hosted at MoxieWife.com 

 This is my first time linking up with Hallie, I hope I'm doing it right!!

1. Am I the only person who cuts their hair to have bangs only to decide moments later that it was a mistake, not only do you hate yourself with bangs but they are always in your way?! Surely I can't be the only one. Anyway, what is one of my favorite things this week is french braiding my bangs into a headband sort of thing. I tried taking a picture but it was not pretty. So I'll just tell you to watch this video and you can see how I learned. Also, enjoy her finger snapping.

2. This hot wing sauce. I found it at our local Safeway, and I really love it. I'm eating plain chicken an awful lot with this diet, and it makes the chicken not plain and so yummy. It's got a little bite but it's not too bad actually.


3. Speaking of things that make my diet food worth eating? Cucumber salsa on egg whites. And chicken when I'm not eating hot wing sauce on it. And hamburgers. Yum.


4. These boys. They're my favorite every day.


5. Bike riding. Seriously, I can't believe how much I am loving a good long bike ride. I mean, Jason is pulling the boys and I'm just pulling myself along...but that's enough right now, believe me! We're managing to check out parts of Lamar that we don't usually see, and it's been really great!

So, there you go...head over to Hallie's place and check out some other people's favorites too!




Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Vacation and a Weight Loss Update



Jason was on vacation last week and it was great! I mean, we didn't go anywhere and yet it seemed like we were hardly home at all! Last week we were able to do a bunch of bike rides, I increased my distance and average miles per hour. A few weeks ago Jason bought a second bike trailer so that he could ride with both boys when I was gone working.





But then I found that I really wanted to ride too, so we started riding a bit for my workouts sometimes and we put Christopher and his trailer behind my bike. I could do it, I mean, it wasn't easy but I rode 5+ miles pulling the trailer. But it just started to seem like it was entirely too much for me and I wasn't able to go very far, so on Monday last week Jason moved it back to his bike. We rode 17 miles that day. That's a lot of bike riding!

Sunday we drove about 3 hours one way and went to San Luis (oldest city in the state!) and did the Stations of the Cross hike. It is really pretty, and Dominic even made it to the top!









So Monday we did our 17 mile bike ride, on top of normal playing and enjoying life together. Tuesday we woke up VERY early and left for Denver to go to the museum with Jason's parents, brother and his brother's 3 kids. We also stopped to visit the kids' only living great-grandparent for a bit!
Tuesday night we drove from Denver to Pueblo to spend the night there since we had to have Christopher at the hospital by 6:30am. About 5 miles from the hotel, on the interstate, we got a flat tire. I'll spare you my dramatically long story about this, but I'll just say that Dominic and went on Wednesday morning and got two new tires.

After Christopher was released we went to Olive Garden because nobody had eaten anything yet and it was already 11AM and the boys eat really well there. I ate off my diet, but I still did well. I chose off the "lighter fare" menu and stuck with a marinara even though I so desperately wanted alfredo.
Thursday I worked in Garden City and the boys went with me with the bike and trailers, but it ended up not being very fun for Daddy because having the trailers took all of our room in the van which made diaper changing...interesting to say the least. ;-)

Friday, Jason worked super hard to get the front yard mowed and edged. It looks the nicest our yard ever has I think!
Saturday I worked in Garden City again, and Jason got even more serious about pulling the boys in the trailers!
And I caught this video of him going up and down a pretty steep hill at our park.


So onto the weight loss. These last couple of weeks I've been feeling like I was in a slump, but I got my newest measurements from the trainer and I'm feeling a bit more invigorated. Also, my coworkers in Garden City who hadn't seen me for over a month and my dad all mentioned that they were really starting to see some changes. So...for the numbers. I am now at 265lbs, if you're wondering, this is down from 278 at my start of this weight loss journey and 274 from the start of my time with the trainer. Impressive right?! Also, I'm down a total of 5.25 inches. Down 2 whole inches in my hips! I'm so surprised and happy by this. Also down 1.5 inches in my thigh and .25 inches in my calf. I might not have cankles for the rest of my life after all! ;-) I've still got so far to go, but I'm feeling so much better. 6 months ago if Jason had taken vacation, there is no chance that we would have been so active with bike rides, hikes, and walking around the museum. I know that he has noticed, and I even think that the boys are noticing and enjoying.

A moment pause, because I can't decide if I want to write a full post about this and it kind of goes with my weight loss update. We have just had another negative month, negative as in, not pregnant. I'm still struggling to accept God's will with this, someone wise told me that at least we know what God's will is for us right now, and many couples do not. I know that times of not getting pregnant come with being open completely (as in not using NFP) and it's just hard to come to terms with that. We got pregnant so quickly with the boys, that we expected it would always be that way. If nothing else, I hope this serves as a reminder to those who think that not using NFP means you will always be pregnant, and also those who are holding out waiting for the perfect time to plan their family. Our fertility is a gift and there is no way of knowing for sure how long you will have it. That being said, I know enough of NFP to know that I'm ovulating and we don't think anything is "wrong" per se. We do think it's possible that my weight is an issue. I'm going to give myself at least to my pre-pregnancy weight with Christopher before I seek further help (225), although I was heavier when I got pregnant with Dominic, I'm giving myself this time. I think that if I could stop thinking about it constantly I would at the very least have some peace. I ask for prayers here, because I think I need all the Grace I can get.

Sorry for this incredibly long post...if you made it this far, there is no prize just knowing you made my day. :)



Monday, August 19, 2013

2 Years

Can you believe that it's been since Dominic's birthday that I last blogged? I can, I am terrible about keeping up with this thing, I always say I will do better, and I always fail. Sigh, I should stop saying I will do better! ;-)

Two years ago the Spano house got a little crazier. Christopher James Spano was born at 8:24AM via repeat c-section. He was born at the hospital that Jason works at and the anesthetist was so excited she wanted to call Jason and tell him right then. She used the surgery phone which came up as "unavailable" on his phone so he knew that it was work and he wouldn't answer. She had to call from her cell phone before he answered and she handed the phone to me so I could say we'd been blessed with another boy.






 He is such a funny little boy. He isn't speaking yet, but I think we're getting closer. He had a sedated auditory test on Wednesday last week to see if his hearing is OK, and it is perfect to 20 decibels. Also, his ears look "pristine" per the doctor so he removed the one tube still in and there was no need for more tubes, so hooray!







He loves to do this little dance on his tiptoes, it is so adorable, but of course impossible to catch on video. And he has recently started jumping with both feet. He thinks it's so fun and he makes himself giggle like crazy.







He seriously loves to have his picture taken right now. If there is a flash that he can see, he will come right up to you and smile so big for it. If you are taking a picture of something else then he will come photobomb.





Looks like not much has changed...he would still bite his brother's finger if he stuck it in his mouth. ;-)

Happy Birthday Christopher...you make the Spano home more fun and giggle filled and we love you!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

3 Years and A Lot of Laughs Later

I was going to link up with Cari, but I'm just not clever enough to make Dominic's birthday a knot. A knot of emotions? I'm so happy and so proud of him and so sad that my first baby is not a baby anymore.

I had a rough labor. I don't think I've written about it on the blog, maybe I did...I didn't bother going back through the archives so I'll give the cliff's notes version here. I was 41 weeks, and delivered in Garden City (2 hours away) and we were really nervous that I would go into labor and we'd not be able to make it so far so we drove up that Saturday and walked around the zoo...then we walked around Target...then Walmart. Then we ate a super yummy meal because I knew I wouldn't get to eat and I was having some pretty good and consistent contractions. I was slow at progressing and they started pitocin. I wanted a medication free labor but I was not handling the pain well. I might have gone for an epidural that night if the night nurse, upon hearing that I wanted a medication free labor/birth the night nurse told me to just order the epi then that there was no way I'd be able to handle a pitocin labor unmedicated. So I set out to prove her wrong and had the worst night of pain. Jason was so awesome, he didn't get any sleep at all, but I managed to sleep between contractions. Around 8AM on Sunday I called for the epidural and got blessed, sweet relief. I labored the rest of the day with the contractions coming hard and my epidural wore off and I was just still not progressing. Dominic's head was stuck in the birth canal for over an hour when they decided that a c-section was the best choice. We agreed. And at 5:31PM CST Dominic was born. Jason watched over the curtain and our life changed forever.
























This boy is so wild, so fun, so sweet. I can't believe that his first year is gone let alone his first 3. Every moment with him is a surprise really. His vocabulary is exploding and the things he picks up on shock us and make us laugh. There is an episode of SpongeBob (remember we have DVDs so he watches the same ones often) where Gary the snail is watching a love story and the characters say "oh Monica" "oh Brad" and Dominic has started hugging us saying "oh Bwaaaatt" and waiting for us to say "oh Monica!". It's so hilarious!















He's gone through loving his brother, being annoyed at his brother, and constantly looking for his brother. When we're getting ready to leave or heading downstairs or into another room he'll yell "Christopher hurry up" (I can't phonetically spell how he says those words because it's so nuts!).









And now he is 3 years old and he's a whole little person. He likes to have people draw SpongeBob and characters for him, whether it's in the dirt on the side of the tub or on a wipe off board. He loves when you swing him around in circles and loves to be chased...oh gosh does he love to be chased. Does this ever get old for little boys?! He loves anything that makes you laugh and if you laugh hard at him he'll fake laugh and then he'll do the same thing over and over. Being outside is the best thing in the world to this kid and he is constantly asking to go on the "pooouch" (porch) or in the car or on a walk. This summer he has increased his love of the water and now recognizes when we put our swim suits on and knows that means he gets to go to the big slide and play in the water. He likes to be a fish and he will crawl on his belly in the very shallow area. Another episode of SpongeBob (don't judge ;-)) has "snail bites" snacks for Gary and Dominic sounds so adorable when he says this. Today for lunch he had shells and cheese and yep, you guessed it he called it "snail cheese". Soooo cute!