Happy Halloween!

 

Adult beverages

While at the kid's well child visit last week, I got the ok from their pediatrician to engage in some light to moderate imbibing as long as I wait two hours before I nurse the baby again.  I then forgot all about it.  I'm not really a drinker, though I do like a glass of red wine with dinner occasionally.  Last night John made himself a cocktail after dinner and I remembered that HEY! I can have a cocktail too!  So I had him make me a wussy version of what he was drinking, I nursed the baby and began to partake of my peach crystal light spiked with passion fruit vodka (which was a delightful concoction). 

And then I remembered why I don't drink.  It makes me TIRED.  And I'm already TIRED (getting three or less hours of sleep per night and giving up all caffeine but my one cup of coffee in the morning).  I didn't even get a buzz, I just got really sleepy, which sucked because I'd totally forgotten about Max's evening freakout (every evening, around 6:30 or 7:00 he basically screams for a half hour to forty-five minutes for no apparent reason), and I was nodding off while trying to rock and soothe him.

So, while I CAN drink, perhaps I shouldn't until I'm getting enough sleep that I'm not passing out from exhaustion by six in the evening.

Geek by marriage

I was at a playgroup Halloween party with Alex as a gorilla and Max as Yoda.  One of the kids brought over a toy and asked their mom what it was.  They passed the toy around and no one could figure out what it was.  I took a quick glance and said matter of factly "That's a Star Wars toy"  Everyone was silent for a minute and someone said, "Oh, maybe it is a Star Wars toy".  "It is" I replied, "That's General Grievous.  I know my Star Wars characters, If you haven't noticed [motioned toward Max Yoda] my husband is kind of a geek."

I'm a big kid now!

Baby decided to get up and stay up at 5am this morning (usually I can convince him to go back to sleep until 6:30), So I got up and for reasons I can't remember, stumbled half asleep into Alex's bathroom to pee instead of using the master bath.  When I was done, without thinking I got the potty chart and put one sticker on, because I pee peed in the potty like a big girl!

Back to mall walking

It's gotten too cold in the mornings to take the kids out and walk like I used to, so this morning after I dropped John at work, we went over to the mall.  It worked out great except that every time we passed the Victoria's Secret store (six times), Alex would point to the mannequins in the shop windows and say "Those are Boobies!  Boobies make baby milk!" 

I give up.

There is no parental task so tortuous to me as potty training.  It has been, and continues to be the most amazingly frustrating thing I've ever attempted to do. 

Alex is ready.  He knows how to use the potty, he knows he's supposed to use the potty, he just chooses not to.  Any time I take him to the potty, he'll produce something, but he almost always goes in his pants in between trips to the potty.  And it's not like I'm waiting too long between trips.  There are days when I've taken him every fifteen minutes and he STILL pisses his pants!  The sticker chart had been working, but he's going through a whole sticker chart in a day (30 stickers) and STILL wetting his pants. We've tried rewards (get a toy, candy, etc. when peeing or pooping), punishments (take away a toy if he goes in his pants), constant reminding (every five minutes "do you need to pee pee?"), just letting him run around in soiled underpants which just resulted in a massive case of diaper rash, running around naked just made him realize he really loves to pee on his toys, my rug, the couch, etc.  We've tried a little potty, a potty seat on the big toilet, no potty seat at all.  We've tried cloth traing pants, superhero underpants, Pull Ups with "learning designs", Pull Ups with "cool alert" supposedly get cool when wet, but Alex couldn't care less.  He's even resumed peeing the bed at night, somthing he handn't been doing for months.  Short of inventing a Pull Up that stabs a hot poker into his scrotum when he wets, I'm at a loss for what to do next.

So, now, I say f--k it.  I give up.  This is a battle I'm clearly not going to win.  And it's just making me irritable and angry at Alex every single day.  We've been at this for about a year.  A YEAR.  So, f--k it.  Alex, you win.  They make Pull Ups up to a size 5t and he's currently wearing a size 2T.  If he wants to go to preschool next year (and he does), he can stop peeing his pants, if not, he'll have to wait another year.  If he's still not potty trained, he'll have to skip preschool all together.  If he STILL doesn't get potty trained, well, I guess we can look into homeschooling and adult size diapers.

Much ado about nothing, apparently

I spent today doing some much needed housecleaning.  During the course of cleaning my kitchen, I opened up the pantry with the intention of cleaning up the floor.  I took out the trash can and other misc. things that sit on the floor in there out and gasped in horror when I saw little brown pellets along the back wall of the pantry.

After screaming "Oh HELL NO!" and doing a wierd little "ew, ew, EW!" dance around the kitchen, I got myself together and swept up what I was certain were rat droppings from the bottom of my FOOD pantry.  I then Skyped John with the news that OH MY GOD WE HAVE RATS! RATS!  John, calm as ever was disbelieving.  I assured him that I grew up on horse property. We had a barn for goodness sake, I KNOW WHAT RAT POOP LOOKS LIKE! WE HAVE RATS OH MY GOD WE HAVE RATS!!!!!  He told me to call our pest control service.

I called and made an appointment for someone to come fumigate the hell out of our house as soon as possible.  The woman on the phone told me that if I saw any more I should save them in a baggie to show the technician so he knew what he was dealing with and he'd be here Tuesday morning.

I decided that I still had to clean the rest of the pantry, so I calmed myself down and reinspected the floor.  I noticed three more little pellets.  I carefully swept them up and put them on a paper towel.  And I looked at them.  And then I REALLY looked at them.

 

Then Alex stated the obvious "That not rat poop Mommy.  That chockit!"

You should have heard the pest control lady laugh when I called to tell her that no, we did not need them to make a special trip out to rid our house of miniature chocolate chips, I could do that myself.

More fun with waboppers

This morning, Alex found the discarded pipecleaners and demanded  "make me a GREEN WABOPPER ASSHOPPER MOMMY!"

"You want me to make a green grasshopper?"

"ASSHOPPER!  YEAH!"

Ok son, asshopper it is then.

Huh?

Making pipecleaner animals with Alex.  I made a dog.  He didn't want a dog. I made a mouse.  He didn't want a mouse. I ask him "What do you want then?"  he replies "I want a rabbobairs" I don't know what that is.  Rabbit ears?  No.  Rambo bears? No. Rabbi hairs? No. 

I just don't know.

**Updated**

It seems he means to say grasshoppers. 
"WABOBERS! WABOPPERS!" 
"Grasshoppers?"
"YEAH! WABOPPERS! WABOPPERS!"

But then things got confused again when I said, ok, I'll make a grasshopper, then he said "NO! I want Waboppers. WABOPPERS!" and pointed to the ziplock bag I had the pipecleaners in.  When asked "Are you just trying to say pipecleaners" he will only reply "WABOPPERS! WABOPPERS!"

I am so confused.

**Updated. Again**

Ok, so I think he thinks that pipecleaners are called Waboppers because now he's shoving a pipecleaner into a matchbox car and saying "Wabopper in dere!"  I try to get him to say pipecleaner, but he just looks at me and smiles saying "WABOPPER! No pipecweenah. WABOPPER!"  Gah!  Fine. Wabopper it is then.

Well children

Took the boys to the doctor yesterday for their well child checkups.  When we pulled into the parking lot Alex said from the carseat "I'm sick?" and I said, "no, why do you think you're sick?" and he replies "Because I go to the doctor"

When we went into the office, Alex ran into the waiting room (to the toys of course) and when he saw it was full of people, he says in a cheerful voice "GOOD MORNING PEOPLE!"

This was the first well child checkup of Alex's that he was measured and weighed and had his blood pressure taken like a kid.  As in, not a baby.  I don't know why it took me by surprise, but he just seemed so...big.  The nurse was giving him instructions "sit here, stand there, hold this, sit real still..." etc instead of telling me to put him here, hold him that way... The only problem we had with Alex was he refused to get undressed.  He's going through a shy/scared phase and he screamed like we were trying to kill him when we tried to get his shirt and pants off, so, we didn't.  He let Mitzi listen to his chest and back under his shirt and he just plain screamed when she had to pull down his pants and PullUp.  She didn't really get too good of a look down there, so I'm hoping everything's developing on schedule. Looks normal to me anyway.

His weight is now 31 pounds (41%  He's never been out of the twenties since he was Max's age, though he was wearing all of his clothes, which could account for at least a pound or two) and 37 inches tall (only 40% on height, which is odd for him, he's usually in the 60-70% for height).  She declared him healthy and perfect. 

His eczema contines to be a problem, though I seem to have found a way to at least keep it moderately under control by slathering him with lotion three times a day.  Sure, he's a little slimy, but quite a bit less itchy. I'm concerned about his Elidel creme he's used for the last three years as there is some evidence linking that particular drug to some skin cancers and lymphoma, so I've really scaled back my use and only apply it when he's got a real bad flare up.  Weighing the very real risks of infection against the sorta/maybe risks of this drug.  His thumb and wrist are always a problem because of his thumb sucking, but even that looked fine to the doctor at the moment.

He got a flu shot* and though he screamed and screamed and it took THREE of us to hold him down and poke him, he survived it and immediately began thinking of what he wanted to get at the store for his "brave boy" reward.  He was a little concerned about Max getting his shot, yelling "BE NICE TO BABY BROTHER!" at us when Max was getting his immunizations. 

Max continues to amaze the doctor with his extreme cuteness and amazing health.  The official report on his EEG was in (we'd only gotten the preliminary report two months ago) and he was declared perfectly normal and he doesn't need any more followup visits unless we notice anything strange, which we haven't.

He weighs a whopping 15.65 pounds putting him in the 64% and he's 26.38 inches and a shocking 91%! (in comparason, Alex at his 4 month well child visit was 14.2 lbs - 22% and an even 26 inches - 77%).

One funny little note to mention, when they were asking the regular questions like does he go to daycare?  Does anyone in the home smoke? etc. When they got to Does he (as in Alex) still sit in a carseat? I answered yes, then they asked Does he wear a helmet?  And I immediately panicked thinking there was some kind of law saying that not only do kids have to be in a carseat, but they also need to wear helmets while riding in the car.  I responded "NO!  Is he supposed to be wearing a helmet?  I didn't know!  What about the baby, does he have to wear a helmet too?"  To which the nurse cocked her head to the side and gave me a puzzled look. 
"The baby rides a bike?" she asked. 
"A bike?  What?" I reply. 
"The baby is too young to be on a bike, you need to wait until he can sit up on his own otherwise it's too dangerous" she tells me seriously.
"I'm confused.  No, the baby is not riding on a bike. Why are we talking about this? I'm wondering if I need to get the boys helmets for the car."
"Why would you need to get helmets for the car?"
"You just asked me if Alex wears a helmet in the car."
"In the car?"
"Yes. He has a carseat, not a booster, but he doesn't wear a helmet."
"A helmet while riding a BIKE.  Not in the car."
"Oh." 

We both had a good laugh about that one.

I continue to feel very, VERY lucky to have my two healthy perfect little boys.  And believe me, I know EXACTLY how lucky and blessed we are.  I take nothing for granted.  To even have them at all is a miracle.  The fact that they are also healthy is just the icing on the cake.  The fact that they are crazy cute is the cherry on top.

*and yes, I talked to her about the thimerosal in flu shots and was satisfied with her answer.  Vaccinations, even flu shots for kids, are a touchy subject. I've asked the questions,did the research, weighted the risks and still choose to vaccinate my kids. That's my decision.  You don't criticize me, I won't criticize you ok?

Holy crap! He can add!

We've been trying a new reward system for potty training.  Actually resurrecting an old one we used before with no luck, but we're out of new ideas, so we thought we'd try recycling.  The sticker chart.  He gets one sticker for a pee pee and two stickers for a poo poo.  We've just started doing this yesterday and it's been surprisingly successful! 

But that's not what this post is about.

Just now, I took Alex to the potty.  He peed and said "I get one sticker for a pee pee!".  We waited a while and he pooped and said "I get TWO stickers for a poo poo!"  Then I said "Hey! That's awesome Buddy!  How many stickers do you get to put on your chart?" And without missing a beat he shouted "THREE!"

He can add?  HE CAN ADD!?!?!

When did this happen?  We've been working on counting for a long time, but never really mathematics at all.  This was really the first time I'd even suggested the idea of adding them together to get another number, and here he already knew!  Of course, it could have been a fluke. Three happens to be his very favorite number at the moment owing to the fact that he just turned three and loves to tell people that, but I like to think my son is simply a genius, figuring out the basics of addition all by his little self.

Rested

I woke up this morning to Max's hungry "eh eh EH EEEEHH!" feeling oddly refreshed.  He wasn't throwing too much of a fit yet so I got up to go to the bathroom first before I fed him. On the way back I checked the clock and found it was 6:15 in the morning. And this was the first time he'd gotten up since 10!

A couple of months ago he had begun sleeping until 4:30, but that only lasted about two weeks before he settled into his routine of going to sleep at 8, then waking at 1:30, 3:30, 5:30 and 7:30 (or in yesterday's case 6:30 when John's alarm went off).  I'd pretty much lost hope of him really sleeping through the night until he started eating solids at six months.  If I was lucky. 

I was so taken by surprise, and so TIRED, that my body just went ahead and slept all night right along with him (A few months ago, when he was sleeping longer, my boobs were still waking me up at 1 or 2 in the morning and I'd just sit and wait with achey boobs until he woke up.  WASTE!).  Of course, I woke up with a soaking wet shirt, but I was so thrilled about him having slept, I didn't even notice my wet shirt until I got up to have breakfast. 

Even the dog slept through the night, providing further proof that she was only waking up because the baby was. 

Now, I know better than to hope this becomes anything more than a fluke, but I do suspect that it could have something to do with the fact that I didn't drink any diet Pepsi yesterday.  I had one cup of coffee in the morning, then nothing but water, milk and two cans of diet CAFFINE FREE Coke the rest of the day.  I'd known that the Diet Pepsi's weren't HELPING, but to be honest, I really NEEDED the extra boost to get me through the days, I didn't really believe that a few Diet Pepsi's during the day would keep my baby up ALL NIGHT.  Hmm, maybe I was wrong. 

In any case, I feel FANTASTIC this morning, and ready to conquer the world (or maybe just a mountain of laundry and a few poopy diapers)

Being a SAHM isn't boring

Today I:

• Breastfed Max while being stared down by a large potbelly pig


• Wrestled a baby toy away from a goat


• Read the voter info booklet cover to cover (getting lost in the section on constitutional amendments, CONFUSING!) then cast my vote in what I consider to be the most important election in my lifetime so far (THANK YOU mail in ballot!)


• Answered the door to find two very serious looking police officers and having to assure them that no, I am not being held hostage, everything is fine, REALLY! (the alarm system repair guy who came today failed to tell the security place that he would be running tests)


• 
  

  Apologized profusely to a police officer after Fancy ran at them barking like an attack dog when I opened the door

 

STOP THE CAR!

On our vacation I think John finally understood what I mean when I say I can't stand hearing the boys cry.  Max would be wailing in the backseat while we're between podunk towns in the middle of nowhere and I'd have my eyes squeezed shut grinding my teeth and balling my hands into fists in an effort to try not to claw my ears off.  One time he said to me "yea, it bugs me too"  to which I responded in a high pitched panicky voice "IT HURTS ME!"  And I meant it.  when my child cries, I feel real physical pain.  Whenever Max would start crying in the car I'd yell "STOP THE CAR! YOU HAVE TO STOP THE CAR!" and wherever we were he'd pull over and I'd go rescue the baby, only when he was calmed down would we be able to continue our trip.  This explains why it took us 14+ hours to get to San Diego when childless it only took us 10 hours.  He gets it so well that now, home in Salt Lake, when Max starts crying he immediately pulls into the nearest parking lot without my having to say anything. 

I wonder if it's a biological thing.  Do adoptive mom's feel this way?  When an adopted child cries, aside from the need to make them happy, does an adoptive parent FEEL it? I wonder because it doesn't seem to be the same for even a biological father.  For John it's just an annoying bleating from the backseat. Is it hormonal?  Is it just some phantom physical connection that remains after the umbilical cord is cut?  It's definately a physical response and it is so strange to me that I should be PHYSICALLY affected by the sound of my child crying.

PHM October Challenge - midway status update

Well, October's half over and how am I doing on my October challenge?  Four pounds lost so far (going for 10), so, I'd say I'm pretty well on schedule.  Wish I was down five pounds, but hey, I'll take four.

My birthday is this weekend, which John and I are celebrating tomorrow because he will be spending my actual birthday at various sporting events with his brother.  I've given him the ok to abandon me on my birthday with the caveat that he treat me like a queen tomorrow, a condition he's accepted gladly for the promise of guiltfree sports.  But my birthday means eating out, which means I'm not likely to stick to my diet, very likely for the whole weekend.  I'll try though. 

A different kid

I'd been getting discouraged about Alex's sugar free diet, thinking it wasn't really helping his hyperactivity at all, then, we let our diet rules slide for the weekend and Alex went ape shit crazy!  He ran around the house like Speedy Gonzales, he talked nonstop in a fast high pitched squeal.  He basically turned back into Wild Alex.  I hadn't realized how calm he had become recently.  He still had the "four o'clock freak out" where at 4PM every evening, he goes a little bit nuts, and I guess I just forgot how easy he was to deal with the rest of the day.

Two days in a row we've taken him out to eat with us and he just sat there, you know, like a regular human being.  He'd play with his food a little, colored, but mostly just stayed put in his seat without any kind of restraining devices or straight jacket required.  This morning I took him to my monthly mom's club breakfast and he just played nicely with his friends and ate his chips.  When my friend came in, she said to me "Hey! you've only got one kid today!" and I told her that no, Alex was here. And she looked at me in shock.  "WHERE IS HE?!"  He's right here! And I pointed right next to me at the child playing quietly with a toy.  "Is he Ok?" She asked me.  She thought he must be sick.  Alex is usually zooming around the bakery tearing down displays of freshly baked breads. 

I think it's prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyyy (watching too much Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sorry) clear that sugar was the problem.  We haven't done anything different, other than cut out as much sugar as we could, and he's a whole new child.  Part of me wants to do a happy end zone dance because YAY! We've figured out the problem!  And the other part of me wants to cry, because it wasn't Alex's fault.  It was MY fault.  I suppose I can be glad that we figured it out when he was three, not thirteen and having trouble in school or something.  He's still an excitable child, but no longer unmanageable. 

It's such a dramatic change, and all it took was taking a little closer look at what he was eating.  Alex likes candy, but never really ate a lot of it. He'd have a couple of gummies or a twizzler a couple of times a week.  He'd be allowed more on special occasions and even chocolate donuts or cake and ice cream at a party, but no more than once a week would he really over do it.  What I've cut out are the things he ate every day or several times a week; chewy fruit snacks, pancake syrup, white bread, enriched pasta, jelly with his PB, I've REALLY limited his juice consumption and have been replacing it with flavored water (he won't drink milk).  These were things I didn't think twice about.  I had even started giving him whole grain Poptarts thinking they were really a healthier breakfast option, not even thinking of the sugar laden innards of the whole grain crust. 

There are still things I'm letting him keep because I think he benefits from them more than it hurts.  His Nutripals granola bars are high in protein and fiber and he loves them.  I still let him eat Gogurt because he won't drink milk and won't eat yogurt that doesn't come in a tube.  His Spider man vitamins are the sugar coated gummy kind, but he won't take regular chewables.  And juice.  Oh the juice.  Kid was a miniature Jay "The Juiceman" Kordich.  I let him have diluted apple juice a couple of times a day and he is allowed to have one glass of VFusion with dinner, the rest of the day he's allowed to have flavored water or crystal light (he's also offered plain water and milk, which he always declines, and I think it's important that he stay hydrated).  Of course, all of these things are foods I'm working to find healthier, lower sugar alternatives for, and with Alex, you really have to let him ease into things on his own terms.  He's just like his daddy (and Grandma Babs!), the harder you push something, the harder he resists.  Kid wouldn't think anything of going Gandhi on me.  He may be able to stand being hungry, but his not eating DRIVES ME CRAY!

I think Alex must be more sensitive to sugar than other kids. When compared to what his buddies eat, he had a very similar diet, yet he was so much more out of control than they were.  I have to be honest and say that since Alex is so skinny, I never really watched what I gave him all that closely, I just wanted him to eat SOMETHING.  Strangely, now that he's on a lower sugar diet, he's actually eating MORE.  Go figure.

Dirty Old Woman

I feel like I'm the only person in the world who isn't loving the Twilight series.  I'm only reading them because we're discussing all four books in November for my book club.  Otherwise, I'd have read the first book and left it at that.  Twilight was fine.  It wasn't great, but it was better than I expected. Though, I have to admit, my expectations were historically low.  When you hand me a book and say "Hey! This was written by a Mormon housewife! It's about teenage vampires in love!" it doesn't encourage me to dive right in. Plus, I'm a little old for these books. I got them from the library, and you should have seen me trying to sneak out of the young adult section unnoticed with a stack of five 500 plus page books in my arms.

I finished New Moon last night, and it was, I am not kidding, 500 pages of Bella whining about Edward.  Boo HOO! Edward left me!  BOO HOO! I want to die!  BOO HOO my new boyfriend is a werewolf!  My werewolf boyfriend and my vampire boyfriend are blood enemies! WAH! SOB! WHINE!  By the end of the book I turned to John (who'd been waiting up for me to finish the book with the hopes that "hot teenage vampire lovin'" was going to turn into him getting some last night) and said "Wow, I'm glad that's over.  Gotta psych myself up for the next two.  Ugh"

Maybe it's because I'm not a romantic.  Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager.  Maybe it's because I just don't like book series' in general.  Hell, it took me FIVE books before I really got into Harry Potter.  And I forced my way through the Golden Compass trilogy and ended up wishing I could get that month of my life back.

I'm starting Eclipse today, and I just hope that it'll get better.  All these people who love the books (who aren't horny teenagers) can't all be wrong.  But I'm not sure I'll ever feel like nothing more than a dirty old woman reading about 17 (or, I guess 108 in vampire years) year old Edward's chiseled marble chest and his smoldering amber eyes and his velvety bedroom voice.  GAH! *shudder*  

Quickies

Post partum shed:

My hair is falling out in clumps. I'd be worried, except this happened three months after I had Alex and even, to a lesser degree, after my miscarriage.  I need a haircut, but I'm embarrassed about it. My hair is everywhere, and just running my fingers through it yields a handful of strands that have decided to jump ship.  There's nothing I can really do about it other than wait it out.  It'll either stop falling out or it will all fall out. Either way, there is an end in sight.

:::

Poop your way to weight loss:

I've been on the Sugar Busters! eating plan for almost a week now and it's going great!  I've re-lost the two I gained and even lost an extra pound.  So the grand total is: 17 total pounds lost, three pounds of that for the PHM October challenge.

I'm not feeling deprived at all.  It's not really a "low carb" diet like I used to do because I am allowed whole grain breads, pastas, tortillas, etc.  The downside to it though is that whole grain products are very high in fiber, which is good, but I'm spending a lot of time in the bathroom.  WAY more time than I'm used to.  I've always been regular, but this is ridiculous!  I'm pretty sure that those three pounds aren't actual fat or even water weight if you know what I mean.  But on the up side, I'm feeling...cleansed :)

:::

Chomper:

The baby's teeth have become a problem. Just when I was thinking that breastfeeding couldn't be going any better, that sure, I could do this for a whole year, the kid grows two teeth and starts acting like a little piranha every time he nurses.  Ow. OW!

:::

Fluffy:

Alex went up to John yesterday and said "Daddy!  You're fluffy!".  John has been off work a couple of weeks and hasn't shaved for at least two.  I LOVE IT!  John looks mighty sexy with a full beard.  I've got at least two more weeks of fluffy John before he shaves it to go back to work.  During that time I plan on lobbying hard for a goatee.

:::

Fancy and the cat:

Fancy is readjusting to living with us, and she has proven to be a wonderful addition to our family.  Well, unless you ask The Damn Cat, who is not happy one little bit about having her around.  Alex and Fancy spend a lot of time trying to fish the cat out from under our bed, Alex on one side, Fancy on the other and the cat hissing and spitting at the both of them (don't worry, she doesn't have claws).  There are times though, usually when the kids are asleep and John, Fancy and I are watching TV in bed, where The Damn Cat comes up on the bed to cuddle with us.  There will be a brief "Stare down" between her and the dog, but Fancy always looses, gets bored and falls asleep.  The cat will lay down, mere inches from Fancy, and snooze peacefully.  It gives me hope that this dog, and this cat, can eventually learn how to live together.

PHM - September Challenge - Update

Well, up until September 13th, I was doing fabulously on my September challenge. I'd lost six pounds (for a total loss of 16 pounds) and was well on my way to my 10 pound goal for the end of the month.  Then my mother in law died and have I mentioned I'm an emotional eater? Well, let's just say many, MANY Oreos were consumed that week, and I didn't set so much as my pinky toe inside the gym for the rest of the month. 

Then, we went on vacation and enjoyed the hell out of it.  Including all of the yummy, fattening foods at all the yummy fattening restaurants we went to.  And did I mention the Monte Cristo?  Oh GOD the Monte Cristo!  I practically licked my plate clean after slathering it with jelly and stuffing it into my face.

So, September challenge = fail.  But, there is good news!  I managed to only gain back two of the six pounds I'd lost at the beginning of the month, so I still lost four pounds in the month of September, which, I gotta say, shocked the hell out of me when I got on the scale this morning.  I'd fully expected to have gained not only the six pounds back, but a few extra for good measure.

While on vacation I read Sugar Busters! and Sugar Busters! FOR KIDS! (they are a little liberal with their exclamation points) and have decided to put my entire family on the diet.  I'd already been following a low glycemic diet, but I really liked the simplicity of the Sugar Busters plan.  Essentially, if it's white, don't eat it.  This includes potatoes, white bread, white rice, and enriched pasta.  If it's full of sugar, don't eat (or drink) it.  If it's overly processed and packaged, don't eat a lot of it. And make sure you get plenty of good foods like whole grain breads, vegetables and fruits. 

I really think that this way of eating will benefit all four of us (Max will benefit via breast milk for the time being).  John and I will loose weight, improve our blood chemistry, lower our cholesterol and maybe it could even do some good for John's bad kidneys.  Alex doesn't need to loose weight, in fact, he could stand to gain quite a bit of weight, but I suspect it will help his hyperactivity and perhaps most importantly, help him get into the habit of healthy eating, that will benefit him for the rest of his life.

So, thus begins PHM - October Challenge!  I will again set my sights on a 10 pound weight loss goal.  I will return to the gym, at least four days a week, and stick to my low glycemic / Sugar Busters! diet.

And...GO!