Tuesday, January 31, 2012
True!
I always keep this thought in my head when the alarm goes off at 4:45am most days of the week!
P90x
So, I'm sure you're wondering how your favorite fit mama is doing right?! Well, after the Chicago marathon in October I went on a little hiatus because of the move and adjusting to being a stay at home mom in my very own home (instead of at the 'rents). I didn't do a single exercise for a couple weeks and it was not fun! Sure I was lifting boxes, going up and down 3 flights of stairs way too much and walking Clifford 1-2 miles a day...which may pass off as exercise for some of you but for me? Not so much. I felt sluggish and gross. Luckily, good 'ol breastfeeding kept me at my pre baby weight but my pre baby thighs were looking a little soft.
Then I snapped out of it and went to the library and got some workout DVD's, which is my least favorite way to workout. However, I wasn't up to getting out in the cold pushing the stroller and having to deal with either leaving Clifford at home or taking him (excuses, excuses!). After hits and misses I got Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zones" and had lots of success with that. If you're looking for a new DVD, give this one a try!
Well that did the job for a couple months before we bit the bullet and bought........duh, duh, duh.....P90x! We may be the last people to jump on this train, but who cares, we LOVE it! Matt wasn't working out at all either after the marathon, minus a few random runs on the treadmill, so despite the price he was happy to start an actual program. Now we are up 4 mornings a week at 5:00am and during Jack's nap time on the weekends working out. I think we're on day 26 right now and have made a lot of gains strength wise. We weighed ourselves and took measurements and pictures on day 1, which I may get the courage to post depending on the stats at day 30. I'm only looking to lose maybe 5 pounds to get right around 130lb. Muscle weighs more than fat and I love the look of toned arms and legs, so I won't sweat the scale to much. Get it? Sweat? Haha! I'm sure Matt will be able to gain a lot of muscle easily....but don't worry, you won't be looking at a muscle head because it's just not in his DNA! Stay tuned for our 30 day update!
Then I snapped out of it and went to the library and got some workout DVD's, which is my least favorite way to workout. However, I wasn't up to getting out in the cold pushing the stroller and having to deal with either leaving Clifford at home or taking him (excuses, excuses!). After hits and misses I got Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zones" and had lots of success with that. If you're looking for a new DVD, give this one a try!
Well that did the job for a couple months before we bit the bullet and bought........duh, duh, duh.....P90x! We may be the last people to jump on this train, but who cares, we LOVE it! Matt wasn't working out at all either after the marathon, minus a few random runs on the treadmill, so despite the price he was happy to start an actual program. Now we are up 4 mornings a week at 5:00am and during Jack's nap time on the weekends working out. I think we're on day 26 right now and have made a lot of gains strength wise. We weighed ourselves and took measurements and pictures on day 1, which I may get the courage to post depending on the stats at day 30. I'm only looking to lose maybe 5 pounds to get right around 130lb. Muscle weighs more than fat and I love the look of toned arms and legs, so I won't sweat the scale to much. Get it? Sweat? Haha! I'm sure Matt will be able to gain a lot of muscle easily....but don't worry, you won't be looking at a muscle head because it's just not in his DNA! Stay tuned for our 30 day update!
What's new with Jack!
So what has Jack been up to these days? Well, he's a busy busy boy! He is now doing his funky crawl (video below) all over the house and is like spider man, pulling himself up on anything and everything! He is signing "more", "dadda" (so says Matt!) and "milk" but understands many more. In the mornings he loves sneaking into the shower whether someone is in it or not, just to splash in the water! He likes to dance to music almost as much as he loves to either turn it up or take a CD out of the player. If there is a remote or cell phone on the floor - he's on it! Same if Clifford is on the floor.
We started swimming lessons once a week in the mornings, which he of course LOVES. I'm so happy he's comfortable in the water already and want to keep getting him in the water to continue this.
Jack got his first cold a couple weeks ago, and was a snotty mess! I feel very fortunate that this was the first time he was sick and that it was so mild - complete credit goes to being at home with me and breastmilk!
Speaking of, he is still nursing several times during the day and night and we hope to continue as long as it works for us both. Yes, that means beyond his 1st birthday and well past it hopefully! As far as food, right now his favorite is oranges. In fact, he ate a whole clementine today and turned his nose up to my homemade whole wheat blueberry pancakes. Humph. He eats whatever we eat, including lots of black beans, avocado, quinoa, corn, blueberries, apples, scrambled eggs and pasta. We haven't given him any meat yet because we insist that it be grass fed and organic, but we plan on it once our farmers market opens back up and it becomes readily available. So no, he won't be a vegetarian like his mama! ;)
When we first moved into our house, we had Jack transition to his crib. This worked well for the first couple months, when he was only waking up to nurse once or twice. Fast forward to 4 teeth coming in at once and a cold and he is now in our bed! Cosleeping just feels right to both of us and we all sleep better (most nights!). We put him to bed in his crib and then he comes into bed with us after his first wake up. Say what you want, it works for us!
Anyway, I think I covered the big topics of playing, eating and sleeping. Pooping will be a separate post if you're interested!
We started swimming lessons once a week in the mornings, which he of course LOVES. I'm so happy he's comfortable in the water already and want to keep getting him in the water to continue this.
Jack got his first cold a couple weeks ago, and was a snotty mess! I feel very fortunate that this was the first time he was sick and that it was so mild - complete credit goes to being at home with me and breastmilk!
Speaking of, he is still nursing several times during the day and night and we hope to continue as long as it works for us both. Yes, that means beyond his 1st birthday and well past it hopefully! As far as food, right now his favorite is oranges. In fact, he ate a whole clementine today and turned his nose up to my homemade whole wheat blueberry pancakes. Humph. He eats whatever we eat, including lots of black beans, avocado, quinoa, corn, blueberries, apples, scrambled eggs and pasta. We haven't given him any meat yet because we insist that it be grass fed and organic, but we plan on it once our farmers market opens back up and it becomes readily available. So no, he won't be a vegetarian like his mama! ;)
When we first moved into our house, we had Jack transition to his crib. This worked well for the first couple months, when he was only waking up to nurse once or twice. Fast forward to 4 teeth coming in at once and a cold and he is now in our bed! Cosleeping just feels right to both of us and we all sleep better (most nights!). We put him to bed in his crib and then he comes into bed with us after his first wake up. Say what you want, it works for us!
Anyway, I think I covered the big topics of playing, eating and sleeping. Pooping will be a separate post if you're interested!
We're still here - don't you worry!
After much bugging from my lovely sisters, I've decided to get back on the blog train. Especially because I have lots of opinions and feel like I can post topics of interest here versus on Facebook because let's face it, people are sensitive to every single parenting choice out there!
So, what have the Zernicke's been up to the past 3 months? Here are the highlights....
So, what have the Zernicke's been up to the past 3 months? Here are the highlights....
- We moved into our new house in Holland in the middle of October and are completely settled in now, but have lots of purchases to make yet. We need new furniture (CLIFFORD....!), something for above the fireplace, some book shelves (that AREN'T from Ikea!), landscaping and a new tv or two. We'll get there though. We love our house though! It's 5 bedrooms/3.5 baths with a finished basement, open floor plan and a nice big deck. Our neighborhood is full of kids and has easy access to a ton of trails leading to the beach and parks.
- In November we spent a long weekend in Phoenix visiting friends and eating our favorite foods....we miss it so much.
- Thanksgiving was spent with my family in South Haven, where Jack didn't enjoy any Turkey but had some mashed potatoes, bread and veggies. Matt, sister Carrie and I did a TurkeyTrot 5k too - Carrie won of course!
- In the beginning of December we had a housewarming party/Decemberfest (in honor of the Novemberfest party we put on in Phoenix). In the past year, 3 of our favorite couples also moved from Phoenix back to the midwest, so it was great to have them over to our house and reunite for the night! My family came for a little bit, as well as some of our new friends. We just love hosting parties and hope to do another one in the summer!
- We celebrated the holidays with Matt's family in Wisconsin, where Jack loved watching his 2 cousins (who are 7) play around and be silly for him! We also flew down to Florida (Jack's 4th roundtrip airplane ride!) for a week with my family. We were in a big house, so there was lots of help with Jack and Matt, sister Carrie and I got to go for lots of runs on the beach in the mornings. Such a treat these days! Jack LOVED the pool at our house and is becoming quite the water baby!
- We returned to Michigan for NYE, where our family was all asleep before midnight - LAME! :)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
6 month growler and a marathon!
Is it just me or does that title sound like our son is a beer? Anywho! We celebrated Jack's 6 month birthday in Chicago, where Matt and I ran in the Chicago Marathon! This was a big deal, especially for me. I signed up as motivation to lose the baby weight I was putting on and Matt wanted to get his first marathon under his belt before our schedules became too busy. It's tough to train with a baby, and we couldn't have done it without living with my parents and having my mom watch Jack every Saturday. Not only did I have to worry about running, I had to worry about Jack's feeding schedule. I'm still exclusively breastfeeding and while I did pump some milk for when we were on really long runs I prefer not to bottle feed. We timed our runs with that in mind. Easy enough for training, but race day was another story! My mom brought Jack down to the race start so I could nurse him as close to start time as possible (more for my sake than his!), then she had 2 bottles to give him while we were running. About 30 minutes after I finished there I was, sitting in the grass with all the other runners nursing him again.
Unfortunately, I didn't really account for the extra calories burned, so I started out the race pretty hungry. Matt and I ran together for the first 13 or so, and then I had to tell him he could go on without me. I was crashing big time and had to down a bunch of gels and pretzels to get my calorie intake up. I walked a bit until I felt better and then went at it again, finishing in a SLOW 5:19....and didn't care one bit! Matt did better with a 4:56. It was a great weekend with my mom, sister Carrie, cousin Debbie and her husband Brian. I'm proud to say that Matt now loves marathons and I reconfirmed my belief that marathons are not fun! But hey, at least I lost all my baby weight!
As for Jack at 6 months - he is cracking us up with his growl noises, he is reaching for objects while sitting and most the time falls on his face, he loves bath time with dad, and laughs and smiles all the time! Love our boy!
Unfortunately, I didn't really account for the extra calories burned, so I started out the race pretty hungry. Matt and I ran together for the first 13 or so, and then I had to tell him he could go on without me. I was crashing big time and had to down a bunch of gels and pretzels to get my calorie intake up. I walked a bit until I felt better and then went at it again, finishing in a SLOW 5:19....and didn't care one bit! Matt did better with a 4:56. It was a great weekend with my mom, sister Carrie, cousin Debbie and her husband Brian. I'm proud to say that Matt now loves marathons and I reconfirmed my belief that marathons are not fun! But hey, at least I lost all my baby weight!
As for Jack at 6 months - he is cracking us up with his growl noises, he is reaching for objects while sitting and most the time falls on his face, he loves bath time with dad, and laughs and smiles all the time! Love our boy!
September Updates!
I have a good excuse for not updating the blog in over a month - a great dane sat on my computer! I always think a blog is more fun to look at with pictures, and since I haven't been able to access mine I haven't wanted to blog either. But enough about that....I stole my sister's computer for a bit for an update.
Let's see....highlights in September included some serious training for our marathon in October, a visit from Matt's parents, a trip to Grand Rapids to see ArtPrize (where Jack's birth was featured at an exhibit by our doula), and lots of progress on our house in Holland!
Jack started sitting up unassisted and is a happy, smilely boy! I love my days with him even more as we do lots of singing, book reading, block building, and peek a boo....I'm so happy I'm content being a stay at home mom, as I can recognize it's not for everyone. For me, I wouldn't be anywhere else! Here are a few September pictures:
Let's see....highlights in September included some serious training for our marathon in October, a visit from Matt's parents, a trip to Grand Rapids to see ArtPrize (where Jack's birth was featured at an exhibit by our doula), and lots of progress on our house in Holland!
Jack started sitting up unassisted and is a happy, smilely boy! I love my days with him even more as we do lots of singing, book reading, block building, and peek a boo....I'm so happy I'm content being a stay at home mom, as I can recognize it's not for everyone. For me, I wouldn't be anywhere else! Here are a few September pictures:
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Summer travels!!!
Woah, what a slacker on the blog huh?!?! We've had a busy month since I've last posted. Where to start.....
We took our longest road trip yet (7 hours!) up to Shawano, Wisconsin to Matt's grandmother's house. Jack was a trooper. The whole crew was there - Matt's parents, sisters and families, and a whole slew of cousins and extended family and friends. His grandmother's house is the hub for everyone in the summer, which is so special. Jack met everyone and was his adorable, laid back self! Matt's sisters also threw us a baby shower (surprise!) and we were so honored that everyone could make it. We had a fun weekend with lots of sun, good food and laughs with family! Oh, and happy 31st birthday to me! :)
Next up, a trip to New York City!! We had never been and thought we'd go while Jack is the perfect age to take everywhere. He did awesome on his 2nd airplane trip, and it helps that we got another upgrade to first class. He was awake a little more than his 1st airplane ride to Seattle last month, but just full of smiles! Once we landed we took a cab to our hotel in Times Square....with Jack on my lap. It seemed very unsafe to travel that way and I can't believe you don't need a car seat in taxi cabs, but when in Rome....
While in NYC we saw all the major sites: Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, World Trade Center memorial (must see....life changing!), Times Square and Grand Central Terminal. Jack was so amazing the whole time - content as can be in the Ergo exploring the sites or taking a nap. We took him out of the Ergo at many of the sites to stretch, nurse, and rest my back. On a side note, I breastfed him at all the sites below and didn't get one weird stare at all......refreshing and so very easy!! Matt and I were even able to get a 6 mile run in around Central Park - a special treat! We took turns watching Jack while the other one ran and we'll be looking forward to being able to use our BOB Revolution running stroller in a couple months.
The downside of traveling with a 3 1/2 month old is that he doesn't sleep the day away anymore, so we weren't able to eat more than 1 longer sit down dinner or stay out drinking until the wee hours like we would have liked. :) Oh well! Even though we had him to bed most nights around 10:00pm, he still slept like a champ until around 8 or 9am most days. Love our boy!!
We took our longest road trip yet (7 hours!) up to Shawano, Wisconsin to Matt's grandmother's house. Jack was a trooper. The whole crew was there - Matt's parents, sisters and families, and a whole slew of cousins and extended family and friends. His grandmother's house is the hub for everyone in the summer, which is so special. Jack met everyone and was his adorable, laid back self! Matt's sisters also threw us a baby shower (surprise!) and we were so honored that everyone could make it. We had a fun weekend with lots of sun, good food and laughs with family! Oh, and happy 31st birthday to me! :)
Next up, a trip to New York City!! We had never been and thought we'd go while Jack is the perfect age to take everywhere. He did awesome on his 2nd airplane trip, and it helps that we got another upgrade to first class. He was awake a little more than his 1st airplane ride to Seattle last month, but just full of smiles! Once we landed we took a cab to our hotel in Times Square....with Jack on my lap. It seemed very unsafe to travel that way and I can't believe you don't need a car seat in taxi cabs, but when in Rome....
While in NYC we saw all the major sites: Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, World Trade Center memorial (must see....life changing!), Times Square and Grand Central Terminal. Jack was so amazing the whole time - content as can be in the Ergo exploring the sites or taking a nap. We took him out of the Ergo at many of the sites to stretch, nurse, and rest my back. On a side note, I breastfed him at all the sites below and didn't get one weird stare at all......refreshing and so very easy!! Matt and I were even able to get a 6 mile run in around Central Park - a special treat! We took turns watching Jack while the other one ran and we'll be looking forward to being able to use our BOB Revolution running stroller in a couple months.
The downside of traveling with a 3 1/2 month old is that he doesn't sleep the day away anymore, so we weren't able to eat more than 1 longer sit down dinner or stay out drinking until the wee hours like we would have liked. :) Oh well! Even though we had him to bed most nights around 10:00pm, he still slept like a champ until around 8 or 9am most days. Love our boy!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)