Resolution Question

So I am trying to come up with my New Years resolutions and just like everyone else, losing weight is on my list. I am stuck however with reconciling my huge love of sweets with the need to cut them out (or at least scale back). So my question is how do I satisfy my sweet-tooth yet cut back on eating cookies, ice cream, chocolate of any variety? Life is short and I take lots of pleasure out of eating delicious things so cutting them out entirely really is not feasible and certainly would not be sustainable. However I could probably not eat ice cream every night anymore and still survive. 

So do I limit myself to a certain number of treats a week? A treat only if I've exercised? Only certain types of treats?

Any thoughts?

Readers of Buena Redux!

We recently discovered that some people are actually checking out Buena Redux, our website devoted primarily to Jack and all his cuteness (we weren't really sure if anyone but the grandparents were really keeping up with it). However, our comments section wasn't working (thanks for the heads up Momster). After Drew spent thirty plus minutes chatting with an Apple support person this morning, the problem was identified. Due to some changes with Apple and their website hosting stuff (blah blah blah), the URL for our page was basically read only. So we have a new URL and anyone interested in commenting on pictures, blogposts, etc, should now go to:

http://web.me.com/weitz_family

It's a subtle change, but apparently important.

Sorry to make you change your bookmarks.

O!

So apparently Drew and I are suckers for moving because we are once again going to be packing up and moving all of our stuff in a few months. Unlike our last move, that relocated us just a mile to the northwest, this move is going to take us two states to the west.

That's right, we are moving to Drew's hometown of Omaha. The decision was a hard one and one that we talked about for a long time. Ultimately, it came down to what was best for the family unit as a whole, and I think moving closer to family, to a more family-friendly city, and to a less stress inducing job for Drew will be good for all of us.

I am excited for Jack to grow up near his cousins and one set of grandparents, although my heart breaks a little to know that he won't know regular Sunday dinners with his other set of grandparents like I did when I was growing up. However, we hope to get back to Mpls more often, since Omaha is a bit closer and a much easier drive than from Chicago. Plus we won't have to divide our trips between two hometowns now, since we will be already living in one.

The last two weekends we have traveled to Omaha in search of a house. We both fell in love with one that is literally a two minute drive from where Drew will be working. It is a gorgeous house with an incredible yard. My favorite feature right now is the window seat in the family room that looks out into the back yard. We have made an offer and they've accepted, so now we are just in the limbo period until we close at the end of January.

Leaving Chicago is going to be hard. We have had some incredible times here. We have a solid group of friends that we see all the time. Starting over from scratch in Omaha will be hard and a first for us. Since Chicago is such a great city, we have had the fortune of entertaining a lot of guests over the past four years we have lived here. Whether it is for a conference or a weekend get-away, people usually don't have a hard time finding a reason to come to Chicago. I fear that we will have fewer house guests once in Omaha. All the more reason for us to travel more, I guess.

It will also be sad to leave our house. I fell in love with this house the moment I saw it and have never regretted anything about it (nope, not even when we had water in our basement or the many months we had to pay two mortgages). It's the house we brought Jack home to and where he first smiled. It's where we bounced him to sleep and heard his first laugh. I know it's only been two years and that our next house will hold just as special memories and probably a whole ton more, but this home will always hold a special place in my heart.

But I am looking forward to this next chapter in our lives and am hoping for many future adventures!

Dreary

Dreary is the perfect way to describe the past few days. Cold, wet, and dark. As much as I like winter (snow, Christmas, cozy fires) I really hate the period between Fall and Winter. They should make this a fifth season and name it Crap.

Five More Days

Hopefully we will have lots to celebrate next Tuesday! I am anxious to get to our local senior housing complex and vote. I don't ever think of myself as overly patriotic, but I really enjoy the feeling I get on election day when I see all sorts of people from my neighborhood doing their civic duty.

We don't have too much to worry about here in Illinois. In fact, although I figured it would be highly unlikely that I would be able to go, I did look into going to Grant Park downtown where Barack Obama will be having his party. Alas, you need tickets and they were long gone but the time I got around to looking for them.

We might have a little party of our own though.

How do you like our decorations?

$2.94!!

I can't believe gas is under three dollars. It's stupid how exciting this is for me, but I'm excited anyways! To be able to fill up my monster vehicle for less than $50 is quite thrilling.

Fresh Look

I was bored with my old look, so I changed this site up just a little bit. It's nothing drastic, I know, but I can only handle so much change at a time.

On a completely unrelated note, if anyone has advice as to how to get my kiddo to take decent naps, please let me know. He sleeps great at night, but fights his naps everyday. And I mean FIGHTS! He can be utterly exhausted and he will still cry and fuss and cry some more. And then if/when he does fall asleep, it's for 30 minutes. Precisely. He has the uncanny ability to wake up after thirty minutes every time. If anyone needs an alarm clock set for thirty minutes, you can borrow Jack. It has to do with his sleep cycles, I'm sure. That is probably when he moves into a lighter sleep and instead of staying in it and falling deeper asleep, he wakes himself up. It is so frustrating and it makes it impossible to get anything else done in the house.

So, advice??

Fall Has Arrived

The Evidence:

It is already dark out by the time our lights on timers turn on.

I saw a lot of pumpkins on people's steps this morning.

My ferns are dying and look pathetic.

I needed to bundle Jack up to go on our morning walk.

My hoodie did not keep me warm.

There are squirrels everywhere!!

Honeycrisp apples are now in grocery stores. Yum!

A Few Things

Yesterday I saw a man walk down the alley and throw away a squirrel. I did not investigate whether it was alive.

Jack is very chatty at 6am. I am not.

Hurricanes are frightening. I could never live in a coastal area because of them.

There are a lot of spiders and spider webs all around our house. BIG spiders. And I don't like spiders, big or small.

Caper always knows when we are about to walk in front of the door where a pit bull lives. He growls and becomes uncontrollable.  It makes me want to not take him on walks. But then I feel too guilty. Guess I will have to find a new route.

Jack just woke up.

Ugh

I don't appreciate waking up to a tow truck blowing its siren over and over as it goes up and down our street. I believe it was an effort to warn people that their cars are about to get towed. I say it's their own darn fault if they are still parked there. Tow them already and let me and my baby sleep!

Daily List

Here are the things I like to get done every day. If I'm successful, then it's been a good day.

1. Shower. I can't really wake up until I've had my shower. If this means a little crying from Jack while he waits for me, so be it.

2. Make the bed. It makes the room look so much better even if there is crap everywhere else.

3. Eat breakfast and lunch. I am hungrier now than I ever was during my pregnancy.

4. Take Jack and Caper on a walk. This way I feel like I am getting a teeny tiny amount of exercise at least. And I feel just a little bit less guilty about Caper and the lack of lovin' that he is getting these days.

Really that's about it. I don't ask for much. If Jack takes a nap or two that is even better. And if Drew is home before 6pm, my day is close to perfect.

Torture

So I never get headaches. It's never been something that I have been afflicted with. Growing up I saw my dad and best friend get frequent migraines and could easily tell how much they sucked. I felt fortunate that I never had to experience that kind of intense pain.

Fast forward to last week. It was a rough week. Jack was fussy for a good portion of the week and on Wednesday I got a headache. It wasn't so bad. Annoying but not much else. It lasted into Thursday a bit and then went away for a while. Friday was a really bad day for Jack and also for me. And the headache came back. Saturday went ok. I was distracted with errands and Drew being home so the day went all right, although my head did hurt all day. Sunday it got bad though. I would be fine, hanging around with my boys, when all of a sudden I would get intense, throbbing pain on the right side of my head - from my temple, down into my jaw and my teeth too. I couldn't handle holding Jack or doing anything really other than being curled up in a ball. This made me remember labor again. So I'm popping pain pills every four hours at this point with no really relief. I go to sleep and Jack gives me the gift of seven straight hours of sleep. I wake up thinking I am better. My head still hurts a bit, but I get up and showered and get Jack ready for the day and think the worst is past. Not so. Another spasm of pain hits (they last for about 15 minutes or so) and I completely fall apart. I'm screaming, Jack is crying, Caper is confused. It's bad. Drew comes home in the middle of the day and takes care of all of us.

Today the pain was here. Not so bad. More teeth and jaw pain than headache. My mom insists I go so someone. The doctor my OB refers me to says I can get in on August 4th. How is that helpful? So I go see my trusty dentist with the thought that there may be a small chance something is wrong with my teeth.

Turns out I should have seen him earlier. I'm scheduled for a root canal on next Tuesday. Joy.

Changes and Odd Lady

So a lot has happened since that raccoon attack. If you've checked out the other blog, you may have noticed Jack, the new focus in our lives. He is lovely and cute and an amazing pooper. He is currently asleep on my lap. I would really like to get up and fold some laundry, eat or even just straighten up a little, but no doubt that would wake him and we take our sleep when we can get it. He is actually a decent sleeper, it's just that Drew has been out of town the last few days, so it has been me and me alone. It hasn't been horrible, but I will be happy to have someone else be able to hold him when I need to go pee.

We celebrated his one month birthday on Monday by going to Sweet Occasions with some friends. I was holding Jack and just standing around waiting for people to get in line when this random lady approaches me. First thing I notice is that she is wearing an odd white trench coat and that she has chocolate on her chin. So she comes up to me and Jack and asks about him (how old, boy or girl, etc). She then launches into how natural I look holding him and how wonderful I am as a mom. I do not know this lady but appreciate her complimenting me and I thank her and figure that's that. I really want to step away from her because I feel very rude and I can't take my eyes off her chocolate chin. But then she starts inquiring about whether I am going to stay at home with him and how great that is and how I really need to stay hydrated and drink my fluids... Crazy lady, I do not need to discuss my liquid consumption with you. Get away.

Fast forward 15 minutes later when seven of us (plus Jack) are sitting around eating our various desserts. She comes back over to me and leans down as though to whisper in my ear and inquires as to whether she buy me a coffee or anything. "You need to keep your energy up," she says. "You need to get the frak away me", I think.

She leaves but then stops by several other random tables inquiring about who knows what.

It was a weird encounter and I hope to never see her again. I'm a bit of a regular at Sweet O. Let's hope she is not.

Also, would you have told a stranger about the food they had on their face? I couldn't decide at first. But then after she was annoying me, I took pleasure in the fact that she would wonder when she saw herself int he mirror just how long that chocolate smear had been there.

Terrified

So I just got home a bit ago after a delightful relaxing girls night consisting of mani's, pedi's, Thai food and a girly movie.  Drew is out at a baseball game. I go to let the dog out and I put him on his leash. I then think I must have stepped back inside to get his treat bag (in an effort to get him to learn the command "come" better, I have been accompanying him outside whenever he goes out) when I here him bound back up the stairs of our deck. That's odd, him wanting to come back inside so soon. I go to the door to get him and he is running down the stairs now, clearly after something. A raccoon. The raccoon is trying its darndest to get away but Caper gets it by its tail as it tried to squirm through the fence. At this point I'm screaming at Caper and completely scared shitless because how am I supposed to capture the dog and avoid being attacked by a raccoon? And let me tell you, raccoons are freaking scary. I swear this thing was looking me in the eye. Judging me. Clearly, I was less intimidating than Caper because it bounded up the stairs towards me. I try to disappear on the deck and the raccoon jumps up onto the railing and then onto the siding where it is clearly stuck and clinging for life, with no where to go.  I grab Caper, bring him inside (still on leash mind you) and proceed to call Drew sobbing.  I don't think being nine months pregnant helped my state of mind. 

Thank goodness for Drew. He is a wonder.

Caper appears to be "fine". There was some blood from his back paw, so I will be taking him to the vet tomorrow. That will be the third time in three days. But I don't think possible rabies and newborn babies are so great together, so in we will go.

In summary, pet ownership = fun.

Two Cents

If you want tulips to stand up straight and not droop over the side of a vase, put two pennies in with the water. It works!

It's May!

So my lack of blogging is sad. But I have good news for you all. I now have a partner in crime in the whole blogging world and have decided to spread the love beyond the three or four you who actually read this. My lovely husband and I have a created a web page to showcase and easily view pictures of our little one that will be here very soon. So if you all are interested, go check it out and bookmark it.

38 Degrees and Rainy

I should not feel the need for a large cup of hot chocolate when in three days it will be May.

Sad.

Insightful Afternoon Conversation

M (a four and a half year old who was staring at my belly) : I don't know how it will be for you, but it was pretty weird when I came out of my mom's belly...

Me (laughing) : I imagine it is going to be pretty weird for me too!

Baby Brain

So I don't really buy into the whole "pregnancy brain" thing. People say they are more forgetful, have a shorter attention span, etc., during pregnancy. I don't really think this is true and from what I have heard there are no scientific studies to back this up. I think it's just that we are so solely focused on the baby and its upcoming arrival, that we just don't bother to think about much else. It's like we just get lazy about everything else. Like this blog for example. It is very sad to see the infrequency of posts of late. However, all I can ever think of to post has to do with baby and I am not convinced everyone finds that quite as interesting as I do.

But yesterday we had our 32 week appointment and got a 3D ultrasound of the baby. He/she (I've had a lot of boys guesses recently) had her hand pressed up against its face the entire time, but you can still get a bit of an idea of what the babe looks like. Oh, and baby weighs 4 pounds 7 ounces already! Crazy. Can't wait for May.

Baby Dreams

So I've been having some crazy baby-related dreams recently. Early on in the pregnancy I had several baby dreams but they tapered off for a couple months until this last week. 

Two nights ago I dreamt that I had the baby (not sure of gender but baby had tons of dark hair) and that we decided to go to Disney World. We were getting the baby into the car seat when he/she became really fussy, so I told everyone to hold up and wait because I had to nurse the baby. So then all of a sudden the baby is on my lap, except for now it's my sister's dog and she is trying to squirm away from me.

Last night I dreamt I was at Target and frantically looking for Pamper's Swaddlers (I think that is what they are called). But the layout of the baby department had changed and instead of a huge aisle of diapers, they had cat food and cat litter on the shelves. I was totally confused going up and down all the aisles until I got distracted by maternity swimwear that was made of terry cloth.

I've never been one to do dream interpretation so perhaps someone else can explain these for me. 

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In other baby news, I had a baby shower back in Mpls this weekend, which was fun. So much cute stuff out there for babies. We have started setting up the nursery, we are just waiting on the glider now. We even bought a stroller and car seat a few weeks ago. Crazy to think of how soon the baby will be here. I start my third trimester tomorrow. Yay!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Hopefully the cuteness of this will make you smile today.

Today's Thought

I can think of few things that bring me more calm than a walk outside in the freshly fallen snow. Despite the annoyance of shoveling, I love the quiet and peace that the snow brings.

Babymooning

According to the NYTimes, apparently taking a babymoon is the new thing to do before having a babe. So after much arm-twisting, I relented, and Drew and I headed off to St. John for a five-day, pre-baby, last-hurrah, romantic vacation. Our normal vacations consist of traveling with one of our families, so it was really nice for it to be just the two us, with no one else to be concerned about. We also planned this trip rather hastily, a mere two weeks before we left, which for me was really great because I usually anticipate trips way too far in advance and by the time they arrive I'm already anticipating what will be happening when we get back into town. So this quickly planned trip allowed me to really live in the moment on the trip and take it all in.

Here are a few pictures. I would definitely recommend both St. John and babymooning.

The first day we just laid on the beach and read. And had fun drinks brought to us. Mine, while missing the alcohol, were still delicious.

The second day we rented a jeep and toured the island. Despite being a U.S. territory, everyone drives on the left (a hangover from the Danes). I only freaked out the one time we were going up a crazy steep hill and in trying to turn we instead slipped backwards and into the shoulder that consisted of forest. Turns out road maintenance may not be a priority on St. John. We continued on, in 4WD, and ended up having a lovely day.

Most of St. John is actually national park, thanks to a very rich Rockefeller who bought up all the land and donated it. On our third day we decided to do some hiking. This picture was taken about two minutes before I realized that hiking while five months pregnant is actually much more difficult than anticipated.

Our dinner the last night was at a delicious Italian restaurant that had a scenic view looking towards St. Thomas. We had an amazing sunset dinner and topped it off with molten chocolate cake for dessert. Mmmm.

Difficulties

I know I have no right to complain but it really is a shock to the system to go from laying on the beach one day in beautiful paradise to shoveling four inches of snow the next.

More on our trip soon.

How To Gain Weight

Last week we had our 20 week check-up at the doctor. All is good with the baby. Cute as ever and three days ahead of schedule in terms of growth. All the vital organs were checked out and spine and appendages too, and everything seems to be proceeding very nicely.

However, my doctor claims I have only gained one pound during the pregnancy. I contend otherwise but figure a fight with the lady who will be delivering our child may not be the wisest decision. So, the average at this point is 11 pounds. She is not really concerned yet since the baby is right on track with growth and the fundus is where it should be (don't know what a fundus is, no worries, you probably don't have one). 

But I left the office with the distinct impression that I have got to do some serious work and gain some weight by the end of the month for my next appointment. So, of course I went home and had a huge bowl of ice cream followed up by a s'more. However, I'm not sure that will be the healthiest way to put on weight. Anyone have ideas of how to put on the pounds smartly? 

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Completely aside, it is 65 degrees outside and thundering. And it's January 7th. That's just not normal.