But Mommy's Isn't Ready for Just One Nap...

Baby is almost eighteen months old now, and it's becoming painfully clear to me that he's ready to go down to just one nap a day. From what I've read, he's at the bottom end of the spectrum, and some kids as young as twelve months old make that transition. I think the reason Baby hasn't is because he wakes up so ridiculously early (for instance, he was up and babbling at 6 this morning), but that's because he gets so much sleep during the day.

The thing is, I kind of need that me-time for my sanity. Even if I'm cleaning during all of my baby-free time, it's still baby-free time. And going down to one nap is definitely going to lessen the amount of baby-free time I get. This is kind of not cool with me, I'm embarrassed to say. I'm so selfish!

Over the last week, I've been experimenting with the napping - laying him down some days for a morning nap to see what I happens. Does he fall asleep? Does he just have some peaceful quiet time? It's been a mixed bag. Some days, he has fallen asleep. Some days, he just cuddles with his blanket and rolls around.

So peaceful when he's sleeping...though he's only pretending in this picture

I don't remember having such a hard time giving up the third nap, way back when. Maybe I was still so sleep-deprived then that I didn't quite realize what I was giving up. Don't get me wrong, I will do what's best for Baby...just begrudgingly. And it will take some serious getting used to. I'm usually counting down the minutes to his morning nap, because I'm tired in the morning and because I'm not as much fun in the morning, so Baby is more prone to getting frustrated with me. Just because I don't wake up all perky and happy like the DJ on Yo Gabba Gabba. (BTW, that show is really kind of creepy, but Baby loves it, on the rare occasion that I turn on the TV. He sees Brobee and just starts flailing his arms around. Hilarious.)

So I think perhaps today will be our last 2 nap day for a long time, and only because our furniture salesperson screwed up setting up our delivery window for today for our new bedroom furniture (yay!). Au revoir to you, Morning Nap. You have been so wonderful for so long, you will certainly be missed.

Personal Training Day Ten:

Today was a good workout. And by good, I mean, that I felt the burn, but that I wasn't going to fall over from feeling said burn. We worked on the upper body, but with a combination of free weights and weight machines, so that was a nice change of pace. Not to mention that I was totally rocking out to my new workout playlist, which made the workout that much more bearable.

For me, music is integral for working out. Music, in addition in this case to my friends and the little jokes we crack in between catching our breath, makes the workouts survivable, even when they're really hard. I think an iPod or some other kind of music device is positively mandatory for working out. I've forgotten my iPod all of one time in my three or four months of working out now, and the one time I did, I plugged my headphones (because somehow, I remembered those) into the TV on the elliptical to pass the time, which didn't work out so hot.

Given how important music is to me when I work out, I thought I would share with you my Top Ten Workout Songs (which also double as my top ten for any kind of physical activity, like cleaning or vacuuming, too). And I'd love to hear about some of your favorites, too! You'll probably notice that a lot of these are older, retro songs, but that's just how I roll, I guess. Totally not on purpose.

1. Survivor "Eye of the Tiger" - Such a total classic, from the "Rocky" movies, it really gets my blood pumping, even at the end of a workout when I want to just fall over.


2. Britney Spears "Womanizer" or "Toxic" (a tie) - I'm a smidge embarrassed to say that I own some of Britney Spears's music, but she makes great music to work out to. Both of these songs make you just want to move, and that's the whole point.


3. Janet Jackson "Pleasure Principle" - This one actually is on the list because of the accompanying music video, which is for some reason burned into my brain. When I hear this, I just picture Janet running all over the place, and pounding on mirrors and such, and it just makes me energized.


4. Rob Base and DJ EZ-Rock "It Takes Two" - This might just be the best song of all time. It always puts a huge grin on my face, no matter when I hear it, and smiling and feeling happy will always make your workout go by faster!


5. Salt-n-Pepa "Push It" - I love this song. I totally rock out (in my head) to this whenever I hear it. It's totally motivational, like they know I'm working out, and they're telling me to work just a little harder. I know, it sounds stupid, but it really is an awesome workout song.


6. Jamiroquai "Canned Heat" - This one also has an image associated with it. This song was featured in the movie "Center Stage," which was kind of like a poor-man's-ballet-version of "Fame" not too many years ago. Love the movie. They used this song for the last part of the last performance, of a super-modern ballet, and I loved the dance they performed to this.


7. Say Anything "Alive with the Glory of Love" - This song just has an awesome beat, you can't help getting up to move when you hear it.


8. Michael Jackson "Beat It" - To be fair, this has been on my workout list for a long time, not just because the man passed away recently. I always loved Michael Jackson's videos, the dance breaks especially. "Beat It" was probably my favorite, with the whole gang-motif and everything.


9. The Dan Band "Milkshake" - This is a remake of Kelis's "Milkshake"...but by a guy. If you've seen "The Hangover," the Dan Band is the wedding band that cracked you up. Enough said. (And if you haven't seen "The Hangover," go see it tonight. You will thank me.)


(NOTE: This isn't "Milkshake," I couldn't find that on You Tube, but this is equally hilarious!)

10. Foo Fighters "Everlong" - This gets me pumped up for some reason. Maybe it's the guitar riffs. Maybe it's because it's just one step removed from Nirvana. I don't know, but it works!

Personal Training Day Nine: Jane Fonda Reincarnate?

Phew, training today was tough. We always do a lower body workout on Tuesdays, and it's always way more cardio-intense than our Thursday workout. Between the fact that we had the evil box and the table to step up and down on today, it was a miracle I didn't fall off anything. But, even without falling off anything, I seem to have hurt myself a little.

By the end of our hard-core workout, I had one last thing to do - my second visit with the evil box for the day. Our trainer was having us do the little 80's skip-hop up and down over the box, which we've done several times now, but the first time I tried to do it, something about my left ankle felt a little wrong, so I did it again, and it felt worse. A third time proved not to be the charm, so I pulled my trainer aside and told her that I surely wasn't wimping out, but that my ankle didn't seem to be onboard with the idea of doing the box. No problem, says my trainer. You can skip in place.

Skip in place? Oh yes. I felt oh-so-eighties, like I needed a big, thick sweat headband and striped leotard, skipping back in forth in place for thirty seconds, for three sets. In fact...speaking of which, it made me feel like I was in this iconic video, which I only vaguely remember from the 80's...



Go to about 5:25 in this video, and that's pretty similar to what I was doing instead of the evil box. It was super fun. I felt like the world's biggest dork, doing that, but oh well, because my ankle really does seem to be hurt. It's still awfully sore to walk on, and I'm just hoping it will be better in the morning, because I was hoping to go back to the Y for some basic cardio in the morning. Yikes!

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

I have just read what quite possibly could be one of the best books I've ever read - "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I've seen this book on shelves for months now, but never felt compelled to pick it up, despite the fact that every time I look it up on Amazon, it has a million 5 star reviews. What made me pick it up was that my dearest friend in the world happened to read it and raved about it. She polished it off super-fast, and handed it over to me this week, and I then got my turn to polish it off super-fast, and although I wanted to slow down and enjoy every morsel, I couldn't, because I just couldn't put the darn thing down. It was that gripping. I will definitely be re-reading this book at some point, and it's the kind of book I will be telling a lot of people about for the weeks to come. Wow, it was just SO good.

This is another one of those books that I don't want to spoil, so I'm not going to share much beyond the basic premise of the book. "The Help" is set in the early 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi, amidst the start of the civil rights movement, and is told by told black women who serve as maids and one single white woman who lives with her parents, having failed thus far to find a husband. The fact that the author could dip back and forth between these three very different protagonists's voices is just amazing to me.

Throughout the weekend, Husband complained that he was barely seeing me at all (in part because I spent a lot of time with my dear friend, and in part because when I wasn't out of the house with her, I was reading the book - even at the dinner table, which is a bit out of character for me).

My next book is Audrey Niggenegger's "The Time Traveller's Wife," which I've almost picked up a thousand times, but recently saw the trailer for the movie and decided I better read it, because the trailer looked awfully interesting. Speaking of trailers, I finally went to the see "The Hangover" this weekend with two friends, and I must say, it defnitely lives up to the hype. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard, really. It was just positively hilarious. And since then, every now and again, I'll remember something from the movie, and it will crack me up all over again. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. And make sure to bring friends, that makes it even more fun. Even if you are the loudest people in the whole movie theater and when you leave, you're walking toward the bathroom, still cracking up, and some little girl says to her mom, "Mom, you should see that movie they went to see!"

Personal Training Day Eight: The Assisted Pull Up Machine?!?!?!

Yikes, I'm tired today. It was really tough dragging myself over to the Y for training today, after the wild and crazy night at Moms' Night In last night. We had an awesome time, but I stayed up way past my bedtime, so it's a good thing that I paid some money for the training...otherwise I probably would have skipped it today.

So...today we worked on the upper body, but with machines rather than evil free weights. Phew! But, of course, it wouldn't be a personal training session if Cathy didn't make us use some kind of freaky new machine. This time it was the assisted pull up machine. I'm not entirely sure that's what it was actually called, but that's what it was. I was able to even find an animated GIF to show you what this evil contraption is for...

The first time I tried it, I couldn't do it. It was like trying to do a real pull-up, pulling up all of my massive weight. Um no. That's not possible. Ultimately, my trainer was able to get the machine set up right for me, and that made things infinitely easier - though still challenging. We also used some free weights to do some arm curls on a balance ball, which I shocking didn't fall off of.

Outside of the evil pull up machine, it was mostly a familiar kind of workout, which was a relief since my brain was working so positively slowly today. Still is, actually. It's taken me over 20 minutes to manage to communicate this much. Ridiculous. Maybe it's a sign I should call it a night and go curl up with a book that a dear friend let me borrow - "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Stay tuned to hear what I think on that...

Personal Training Day Seven: The medicine ball

OK, did the today's post title scare you yet?

After warming up today and proceeding to the front part of the gym where the lower body equipment is, my friends and I spot two medicine balls sitting beside the evil wooden box that has plagued us for the last three weeks. Oh yes, friends, we used a freaking medicine ball while stepping all over that darn box. Now, before you picture me hopping up and down on the box with some fifty pound medicine ball, I have to confess: I think it was like five pounds. But still. I'm not the most coordinated of people, so the fact that I haven't fallen off the box yet is pretty amazing (especially given that I fell off the StairMaster). When I saw the medicine ball and put two and two together, I thought for sure today would be that day. I am proud to report, though, I DID NOT FALL OFF! Yes, it was difficult, but I managed to keep my balance and not make a complete fool of myself. Talk about a relief!

In addition to knee ups on the box with the medicine ball, we did more evil walking lunges (have you noticed how all of the exercises that really make me work are evil?), but with weights this time. We even used the medicine ball a second time, for this odd twisting exercise depicted in the picture below.



We also used several of the lower body machines, one in particular that I have used before, and thought I was using correctly. Um, no. It's a machine where you place one knee on a little pad and use the other foot to raise a bar attached to some weights. I thought I was all cool, doing like fifty pounds, while lifting the bar with my toes (you know, the strong part of my feet). Apparently, you're supposed to use your heels, and apparently my heels are ridiculously pathetic. I don't even think I was doing 30 pounds of weight ultimately. Kind of disappointing.

Today was a serious sweatfest, and I'm already starting to feel sore, and I haven't even done much in the way of resting yet. I'm mildly scared to see how sore I'll be tomorrow. On the bright side, tomorrow is a mini-girls' night out for me with some good friends, so at least there's that to distract me from my aching muscles. That and the wonderful wagon wheels I'm making for the festivities...

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited

I joined a book club back in March that has picked some interesting reads:A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls, and now the third book I'm reading with them, Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein. I must say, this club's got a pretty awesome track record thus far.

I don't think I would have ever found this book, if not for my book club. I don't read a ton of everyday people memoirs. The few memoirs I read are usually celebrities (I know, so trashy) or historical figures. But, now that I'm thinking about it, I have really enjoyed the everyday people memoirs that I've read...maybe I ought to read more.

The premise of this book is like something out of a soap opera, in a way - identical twins separated at birth and adopted into different households, without neither of their adoptive families being aware of their twinness. It sounds like something that could only happen on a ridiculous soap opera, doesn't it? Except it happened to Elyse and Paula as infants.

This memoir is the story not only of how Elyse and Paula found each other, but also about why they were separated, which was quite fascinating. I don't want to spoil that for anyone, so I won't reveal anything more there. They also search for their birth mother, which also leads them to some interesting information. (Is this the most vague book review I've written thus far?)

There's a good bit of science interwoven into the narratives that Elyse and Paula write. They learned quite a lot about twins in their research as to why they were separated and in meeting other twins that were reared apart, which was very interesting to me. I knew several sets of identical twins growing up and was always intrigued by the way they could communicate with one another and how much they had in common. Elyse and Paula, though reared apart, had some eeriely similar experiences in their life and had many, many things in common, in addition to their appearance.

All in all, I'm looking forward to my book club discussion on this book in a few weeks. This was a wonderful book, and it's the kind of book I will probably read again at some point.

Now it's time to read something lighter...perhaps something Southern...I think I will pick up Rhett Butler's People at long last. I bought it practically a year ago and haven't touched it. I absolutely loved Gone with the Wind and even Scarlett was sort of okay. I'm fully prepared to hate it, since I've heard that it's just awful, but I want to at least give it a try. Stay tuned! And don't forget to tell me all about what you're reading!

My Husband Rocks Friday: The He Rubs My Feet Edition

There's nothing like a good foot rub. And let me tell you, there's nothing like a man who rubs your feet. Really. Yes, I love chocolate and cake and cookies, but sometimes a good foot rub is better. (See that, Husband, the word sometimes?)

I'm a very lucky girl. When I was pregnant with my munchkin, my husband rubbed my feet a lot. In fact, he ultimately kind of wound up in charge of taking care of my feet, once I could no longer see them. He even painted my toenails a few times (and I hate to admit it, but he did a pretty awesome job). After Baby was born, I was eager for the foot loving to continue, so I just continued to deposit my feet in Husband's lap at regular intervals. After all, I was a new mom, tired and often overwhelmed, and the foot rubs were often very relaxing.

Fast-forward to Baby verging on his seventeen-month-a-birthday in a few days, and the foot rubs are still a part of our regular habit. Sometimes I'm super lucky, and I can get one every day. Sometimes I'm not as lucky, and Husband will go away for weeks at a time, and my feet with atrophy with the lack of attention (perhaps I'm exaggerating here). Either way, though, I think it's pretty darn awesome that my husband rubs my feet. Especially since I don't rub his back. And for good reason - my hands are really wimpy when it comes to massaging. They're pathetic. So instead I do nice things like bake oatmeal cookies for my husband or buy him birthday cake flavored ice cream from Publix. I think that's pretty fair, right?

Personal Training; Day Six

For all the anxiety I built up about today, it wound up not being as big a deal as I'd built it up to be - yes, we worked out our arms, but we used machines, glorious machines for said workout! No free weights for me! It was such a huge relief. At the same time, I am already feeling a little bit sore, so I suppose I can't really gloat too much, but hopefully I'll still have the strength to lift my arms above my head tomorrow (unlike after last week's free weight workout).

We used mostly familiar machines today, although we did use a lot of weight on said machines. But that's okay with me. I think free weights freak me out a little because there's nothing between me and the weight - like if I drop the weight on a machine, yes, it will make a big noise, but there's zero chance of me dropping the weight on my foot.

In between circuits with the upper body machines, we were doing various cardio machines to keep our heart rates up. I wound up facing two big fears today: the StairMaster and running on the treadmill.

When my friend and I worked out on our own before starting our training sessions, we tried the StairMaster on a whim one day. I fell off the damn thing. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I just kind of fell off. And for some reason, I have a big mouth in the gym, because I told my trainer this, so she promptly put me on a StairMaster. I was TOTALLY doing it wrong. Rather than taking tiny steps, I was taking huge ones, and letting the steps fall all the way to the floor, when I fell off. I must have looked like a ridiculous mess then. I looked a lot better on it today, although it was definitely a harder workout than I anticipated (even if it was only for three minutes).

As for the treadmill, any of you who have read Katherine Center's "Everyone is Beautiful" will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say I'm afraid I'll fly off the treadmill. I've never run, let alone jog, on a treadmill before, in part because I'm not entirely sure how and in part because I just don't run. Short of a few moments of running after my munchkin, I've not run since the summer of 1998 when I had to take Personal Fitness in summer school, and that basically entailed running around the track in 95 degree Florida heat for six weeks. Not fun.

So, I was mildly horrified when at the end of the workout, for our last cardio bit, our trainer said we'd jog/walk on the treadmill - thirty seconds of speed walking, thirty seconds jogging. For three minutes. Seriously? I told her about my fear and she said she'd help me. She came over to my treadmill while I was speed walking (which I do well on a treadmill) and amped up my speed to 4.5. I was still speed walking, though I was having a hard time keeping up, so she told me to add some hop to it, and before I knew it, I was jogging! Once I did it, it was no longer anywhere near as scary, and I was proud that I did it.

Phew, I have officially survived three weeks of training at this point! I'm so proud of myself. In two weeks, we'll sit down and take measurements and all that to see what's changed over the first four weeks of training, so I'm very curious to see what will happen then. Stay tuned!

Julie and Julia

I've been reading a lot lately, and honestly, I'm behind on my book reviews, so you might just see two reviews this week. Last week, I finished reading "Julie and Julia" by Julia Powell, which I picked up on a whim during a random trip to Barnes & Noble. I'd seen the book at the library before, so I knew a little bit about the story. Here's a quickie synopsis, in case you're not too familiar:

Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto.

Well, I must say, I can relate to Julie in a lot of ways, and I enjoyed experiencing French cooking through her vicariously. Her writing style was awfully funny at times, but I found myself often enjoying her personal stories as opposed to her cooking stories. Not that her cooking stories were bad, they just weren't as entertaining (sometimes) as I'd hoped they'd be. It was still a very enjoyable read, though, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a twisted sense of humor and enjoys cooking. I also think that the movie adaptation looks pretty good. I adore everything I've seen Amy Adams in, so it can't be too bad.

I must admit, though, that the next book that I read (and just finished last night) was a bit better. I'll tell you more about that on Friday, though. :) So tell me, what are you reading? I love book recommendations!