Wordless Wednesday-- Cousins

Peek-a-boo!

Silent Saturdays-- Second Swim

aka Daddy was jealous about the Wordless Wednesday photo that did not include Daddy.

Wordless Wednesday-- First Swim

Fitness & Health

One of my 2 major goals for these months as a stay-at-home mom was to get back into shape and back to my "fighting weight" (the other goal was simply to relish my time with Miriam). Here's a timeline of my fitness & weight (without telling you the actual numbers!) over the past year and a half or so...

Jan. 2010-- Found out I was pregnant with Miriam! :) However, I was at my heaviest weight ever-- a whopping 15 lbs more than I weighed at our wedding (which was a weight where I felt I looked good and trim but could very easily maintain). My BMI was 25.5-- technically overweight, as a BMI of 25.0 or greater is actually overweight.

Jan 2010 to September 2010-- Continued to work out regularly at least a few times/week up until about 7 months pregnant, when it simply got too tiring to hit the gym after a 9 hour day at work. I started prenatal yoga, which I *LOVED*, in May and continued that up until I was 38 weeks!

September 8, 2010-- Gave birth to our beautiful little girl. Total weight gain= a healthy 28 lbs (my doctor had recommended gaining anywhere between 25 and 32 lbs).

2 week post-partum visit-- Had lost 20 lbs

6 week post-partum visit-- Had lost another 8 lbs and was exactly at the weight I was when I discovered I was pregnant.

And from October through the middle of February, that weight remained very static. I fit back into 2 pairs of my "pre-pregnancy" jeans (although they were honestly probably stretched out because I wore both of them until I was 5 months pregnant or so), but none of my slacks/trousers fit.

I started to focus on losing weight & getting fit in about mid-February. A horrible case of the "plague" caused me to lose 6 lbs in 5 days, but obviously I knew I would gain at least some of that back because a good amount of that weight loss was probably due to dehydration. But it did motivate me to get the scale reading a happier weight. So I started making lifestyle changes to my diet on February 21st. I have been using the new Weight Watchers Points Plus program, but I will not call it a diet. Because this time, it is really going to be a LIFESTYLE change. I am really ready this time, for 2 reasons. (1) I am vain and I am truly sick of being "fluffy" and (2) I want to set a good example for Miriam, instill good eating & exercise habits, and prevent her from the struggle & self esteem issues related to my weight that I've faced since I was about 25 or so.

In addition to the healthier eating (BTW, the new WW Points Plus program is way better and encourages MUCH healthier eating vs the old Points program), I missed being physically fit and active. I started walking Prescott & Miriam at a brisk pace for at least 30 minutes as often as possible, weather permitting. And in mid-March, I started attending a dance fitness class at a dance studio in Milwaukee, which was an awesome birthday gift from my parents. The class was not exactly what I expected, but it is a really good total body workout. It incorporates ballet barre exercise (great for creating those lean dancer legs and also for abs), Pilates, a smattering of yoga, and a little bit of cardio. It also has challenged my brain a bit in thinking back to my dance class days in middle school to remember what terms like "attitude," "releve" and "tendue" mean! That's made a big difference, but I still didn't feel as fit and strong as I would like, so Jason & I started doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout DVD on Sunday. It is only 22 minutes long, but man! You work H-A-R-D for those 22 minutes, my goodness! No rest for the wicked! It is basically interval training with strength training, cardio, and targeted abs exercises. Very fast-paced, no rest breaks. I have been pushing myself as hard as I can! Jason and I are out of breath and sore after finishing, but it feels good. It's sort of crazy that I'm looking forward to it tonight! Everyone I know who has done it has lost inches off waists, hips, and arms, so I took my pre-Shred measurements for comparison... will let you all know what kind of results I have! :) It's great to have J working out with me too. Jason is naturally very thin, which is great, but I'm glad to see him getting more fit and cardiovascularly in shape again too. I want us both to live very long, healthy, and active lives together. :)

So all that said, here's my current status: My weight is down 10 lbs since we moved to Wisconsin and my BMI is back safely in the normal/healthy range at 23.4. My old jeans are too big, and my old slacks/trousers fit without being the slightest bit snug (they were tight & I was straining to button them in the fall/winter of 09 before I got pregnant with Miri). My goal is to lose 4 more lbs to be back at that wedding weight (which should put me at a BMI of 22.7) AND to have my tummy looking good enough to be back in my bikini at the pool this summer!

Now I've gone public & posted about it.... you all need to keep me accountable! :)

Wordless Wednesday-- I Heart Prunes!

Wordless Wednesday (a day late)-- Busy at Play

Hairy Houdini

Jason and I have shared plenty of Miri stories, stats, and shots... but we haven't said much on our blog about our first baby, Prescott. Well, have I got a story for you!

Let's back up to March 2007 when we first adopted our lovable little neurotic furball. I'm sure you all remember the difficulties we had getting Prescott acclimated to his new life with us. Our little guy's separation anxiety almost cost him a home with us. That little 27-lb dog managed to escape from a metal crate like this:

And he did a bunch of damage. Ergh. We thought, "Okay, he doesn't like crates." We decided to try keeping him contained to our hallway using a baby gate like this:

The little crazy managed to gnaw and then knock those down. More damage and mess in our apartment while we were at work. We tried tougher metal baby gates that were screwed into the wall:

No dice. He got through those too... we believe by slamming his 27 lbs into it repeatedly until the door opened and let him through. More damage. At that point, we were ready to give up the dog. We loved him to pieces but thought we might be in over our heads with our little headcase. Fortunately, we gave him one last chance by getting in touch w/ Curtis Scott, dog trainer extraordinaire. To this day, Jason and I can't say enough good things about Curtis. He's the only reason Prescott is still a Bashaw. Curtis helped us with Prescott's separation anxiety and recommended a crate like this:

For the last 4 years, that has worked well. No escapes! Yeah, he sometimes goes crazy and drools a lot in there. And we've noticed that over the years, he's gradually chewed up the bottom of the crate near the door lock. But it's held up and all's been well. Until Monday afternoon. Jason was at work, and Miri and I went on an outing with my Mom. Prescott was left home alone in his crate, per the usual. Everything was just like always. Except that when I got home, he greeted me at the door. The little stinker had finally managed to chew his way out of the crate, after 4 years. Here's a picture of his handiwork (or should I say, his mouth-i-work):

The good news was that the only damage Pres did while we were gone was to put 2 little toothmarks in the mini-blinds in our bedroom. FYI, that type of damage is pretty textbook for animals with separation anxiety... they go at the entrances/exits in an attempt to get to where their person/people are at. Anyway, my overall summary of the damage is that it is annoying... we'll need to replace the $10 blind before we move out. But not too bad at all! In a strange way, I was kind of proud of him for "only" doing that and not destroying any of our furniture or other belongings. Had we had the blind raised or had he not been able to climb up there from a storage bin we had under the window, I don't think he would have done any damage. This is HUGE improvement from the days of yore! Still, Jason & I decided we didn't trust him enough to start phasing out the crate altogether at this point, especially while we're renting... we'd like our security deposit returned. So when Miri and I went out on Thursday, we had several measures in place to keep Prescott contained in his faulty crate (until we could get a new one). Here's what we did. First, Jason had designed a complex rubber band system to keep the door shut. So once I had him in there, I put on the rubber bands:

Next, I pushed the entire crate, with Pres in it, so that the busted door side was flat against the kitchen wall, just in case he was able to break the rubber bands:

Foolsafe, right????

Alas, it was to no avail. Prescott greeted us happily at the door again upon our arrival home. Here's how I found his crate:

The entire crate was moved 90 degrees, so the door was no longer flush to the wall. The rubber band system was still perfectly in place (I accidentally left them off for this picture re-enactment, oops). He must have slammed on the door enough to stretch the bands without breaking them and then

S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E-D

out the partial opening. It just goes to show that where there's a will... there's a way. At least, there is if you are Prescott Bruiser Bashaw, aka "Hairy Houdini."

Probably needless to say, Jason has made a trip to Petco and bought Prescott a new secure crate. We should be good for the next 4 years! I'm hoping that by the time he chews a hole in that one, we won't need to replace it again. Curtis says most dogs with separation anxiety EVENTUALLY "outgrow" the need for crating. There is hope!

Even if he's eternally crazy, we love our Houdini and can't imagine the Bashaw family without him.