Ellowyn is 11 months (and one day)

Ellowyn is 11 months old!  It's strange how it feels like she has always been here.  I can't seem to remember life without her.

A few weeks back, she went through a month-long phase of getting sick.  She caught one thing right after another for four weeks solid.  It was miserable.  But since then, she's been much better.  She's now sleeping 12 hours straight through at night, no night wakings, and also taking one nap a day for an hour and a half.  This has taken some work and time to achieve, but it puts her on the same sleep schedule as her sister, which is SOOOO nice.  She's eating like a trucker; I have to plan extra food for her at every meal (as opposed to Mira at this age, who could just share a little off of our plates).  And she's still nursing 4-5 times a day.  But despite all that food, she remains a skinny little thing.  She must have the metabolism of a hummingbird.

In the last week she's learned two new skills: waving and walking behind a push toy.  I don't have a good video of the waving yet, but I'm hoping to get one soon.  In the mean time, here's a video of her walking with the push toy:

Weigh in - 2 months

In the month since my last weigh in, I've been pretty busy.  

In the first part of the month, I did really well.  I was working out 4-5 times a week, 45 minutes to an hour each, and making good progress.  I was up to 30 minutes on the rowing machine (rowing about 6000 meters, burning about 400 calories) and I was mixing in an occasional workout class.  In the first two weeks of the month, I lost 3 pounds.  I was really happy about that.

The last two weeks of the month are another story.  We travelled to and from Dallas twice in those two weeks, once for Thanksgiving and once for a training conference I attended.  The trips both ended up being great, but I'm sure you know (or can imagine) how stressful and time-consuming and exhausting it is to travel with a toddler and an infant.  In those last two weeks, my workouts were sparse and my diet was shot, so I didn't lose any weight.  And really, I'm just happy I didn't GAIN anything.

So there it is: I lost 3 pounds this month.  Since I started 2 months ago, I've lost 7 pounds, putting me 23 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.  

Weigh in - 1 month

It was a month ago today that I wrote this post beginning my goal of eventually losing 30 pounds.  I've decided that I'm going to weigh in here once a month.  The results are in...

But first I'm going to make you all sit through an analysis of my diet and workout regime this last month.  Ha!  See how I'm the blogger and so I have the power?  (What?  You're just going to scroll to the bottom of this post anyway?  Ok cheatypants.  Way to rain on a blogger's parade.)

I've only been half serious about my diet.  I'm making a lot of healthy substitutes: fruit or gum instead of other sweets, turkey instead of fattier meats, salads with low-calorie dressing, etc.  But I'm still not counting calories.  I know that would be most effective for me (and it's what I prefer to do, diet-wise) but I hesitate to do so because I'm still breastfeeding and there's no way to know how many calories that burns.  Also, we eat out about once a week and I know I'm not making low-calorie decisions when it comes to eating out.  I tell myself that it's only once a week so I can splurge a bit.  Which is a fine mentality to have, I think, but it doesn't exactly help shed the pounds.  On the positive side, I have noticed a huge cut back in my snacking.  And for Halloween we didn't even hand out candy because I didn't want it in my house.  (Mira has some candy that she got from trick-or-treating, but for some reason I'm not tempted to eat it, probably because it's HERS and I don't want to take it away from her.)

But as blase as I've been about my diet, I've been totally attacking my workouts.  I'm going usually 5 times per week and working out for 50 minutes to an hour each time.  I usually do the eliptical, since that seems not to aggravate my plantar fasciitis.  Actually it's this weird eliptical that makes your legs go out in front of you like you're doing a knee lift, instead of going round in circles under you like a traditional eliptical.  I prefer that one because it burns a lot more calories in less time.  So doing 50 minutes on that thing, with a pace of 120-130 strides per minute (which is pretty fast, I maintain that rhythm using music that is 120-130 beats per minute), at an incline of 3 and a resistance of 20 (whatever that means), I can burn 500 calories in 50 minutes.  Which I do.  About 5 times a week.  I'm starting to get a little bored with that though, and I want something that's more of a whole body workout.  Not to mention that I don't want my body to get too "used to" any specific workout.  I tried a zumba class and thought it was fun and definitely intense, but I felt like I was spending too much time trying to get the choreography and it was still just all cardio as opposed to having some strength training.  So today I tried the rowing machine for the first time.  Whoa.  Fifteen minutes on that thing and my butt was kicked.  My total workout today was 20 minutes on the eliptical, 15 minutes on the rower, and then another 20 minutes on the eliptical again.  I wish the rower would tell me how many calories I burned on it because I bet it was a ton.  If I had to guess, I'd say I burned about 200 calories in that 15 minutes on the rower, making my total calorie burn today a whopping 600 calories.  It felt good, but my shoulders are already a little sore.  I think I'll keep the rower in my workouts for this next month and see how that goes.

Ok ok... here's what you've been dying to know.  In the month since my last post, I lost 4 pounds.  I feel good about that.  It's a rate of about a pound per week, which I think is realistic and maintainable.  That said, I have hopes that this next month will yield bigger results.  Mostly because Mira, Ellowyn, and I were all sick TWICE last month and when any of us is sick, it's pretty impossible to get my workout in because I can't go to the gym.  So there were a lot of times last month that I wanted to go work out but couldn't because someone was sick.  Hopefully we will all be healthier this coming month and that won't be a barrier for me.

One month in and I've lost 4 pounds, putting me 26 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.  Feeling good.

Halloween 2011

This year was the first time that Mira picked her own costume.  She chose an adorable little witch outfit (and I added the striped tights because every good witch has striped tights and also because CUTENESS OVERLOAD).  And poor Ellowyn got Mira's hand-me-downs, like always: she wore Mira's old goldfish costume.  Someday that girl will have something of her own... I'm just not sure when that will be.

This year the girls made good use of their costumes; we attended FIVE different Halloween events.  (It would have been seven if Mira hadn't been camping the weekend prior... yeah, we get around.  :-P)

1) Halloween party in the park:
The Tuesday before Halloween, we met a bunch of friends at the park for a Halloween costume party.  We painted pumpkins, ate Halloween themed snacks, and played on the playscapes.  At one point several of the kids were all sitting together eating lollipops.  It was so cute how they were all lined up together.  I swear the photo below is completely unstaged!  (I didn't bring my camera, but my friend shared with me this photo that she took.)

2) Halloween party at a friend's house:
Saturday evening on Halloween weekend, we went to a big party with a bunch of Mira's friends.  One of the moms hosted in her big beautiful backyard.  The costumes at this party were awesome.  It made me wish that I had dressed up as something, since Brian and I were one of the few not costumed.

Yes, the baby there with Ellowyn is dressed up as french fries.  His big brother was a hamburger.

You've heard of mini golf... well here's witchy golf.

Why yes, that is a bouncy house in the background.

3) Hyde Park Fall Festival:
My parents' house backs up to a park owned by Hyde Park Church and every Halloween they throw a big festival there.  It's really great for preschoolers: activities, bouncy houses, a train ride, crafts, a puppet show... basically everything a toddler could want in a Halloween celebration.  So the Sunday of Halloween weekend, that's what we did.

"Fishing" for candy.

Ball toss.

Bean bag toss.

Everyone's a winner!

Crafts.

Cookie decorating.

Obstacle course

Ellowyn had fun from her comfy seat in the stroller.  Plus this sock is delicious.  Wanna bite?

4)  Fall Fun Fest in Round Rock:
And the Hyde Park Festival was so fun that we figured we'd do it all again the next day.  On the morning of Halloween (Monday), the city of Round Rock put on a similar festival in Old Settler's Park.  We also ran into quite a few of our friends at this event, so that was fun.

Watching the jugglers.

Bean bag toss.  Again.  By the end of the festivities this year, she was a pro.

There were some uniformed police officers there with a police car for the kids to look around in.

More crafts.

5) Trick-or-treating:
And of course, Halloween evening we went trick-or-treating in my parents' neighborhood.  Last year, Mira was only up for about 4 houses.  But this year, she thought trick-or-treating was the best thing since sliced bread.  She said "trick-or-treat" at every door and remembered her manners with a "thank you" after receiving candy or compliments on her costume.  After every house she'd say "And now let's find ANOTHER house!"  I think we probably did about a dozen houses before Ellowyn demanded bedtime.

"And now let's find ANOTHER house!"

The last house we trick-or-treated had this strange bearded man... oh wait it's just Grandpa.

Ellowyn is pulling up

In the last couple of weeks, Ellowyn has started pulling up to stand.  Lately she's gotten really good at it and loves to practice her new skill.  I have hopes that she'll be an early walker (babies get so much easier when they can walk).

Mira went camping!

Last weekend, Mira went on her first camping trip.  Brian took her and met some friends out at a local camp ground.  They spent 3 days (and 2 nights), which was the longest Mira had ever been apart from me.  Apparently she did great!  She didn't sleep well (no napping, late to bed, early to rise) because she was so excited about sleeping in the tent with Daddy, but Brian says that it didn't make her cranky or unruly and that she behaved very well and really enjoyed herself.  There was some swimming, some hiking, some nature-watching, some star-gazing...  They couldn't have a camp fire because of the draught, but I'm told they still were able to make s'mores using a propane grill.

I told Brian to take pictures for me, and he did.... a whopping 6 photos.  Sigh.  Well here's the best of the slim pickings:

Brian sounds VERY enthusiastic in that video, doesn't he?  He assured me that he did actually enjoy himself quite a bit, despite the lack of evidence supporting that claim.

Meanwhile, Ellowyn and I got some one-on-one time.  I decided to keep her home with me because (1) I'm not a big fan of camping and (2) with Ellowyn being at that crawling-around-putting-everything-in-her-mouth phase, I was picturing a never-ending game of "chase the baby and pull things out of her mouth and then console her while she cries about having that delicious stink beetle taken away from her and then finally put her back down to chase her some more and repeat until dead".  It was a nice break to have only one child to care for, and it was nice to interact with Ellowyn in ways that are not possible when Mira is involved.  But I was still really happy to see Mira and Brian when they got home; I missed them so much!

Mira is learning her letters.

Mira's been getting really good with letters.  She recognizes and can name any letter, upper or lower case.  And she's starting to work on the sounds the letters make.  There are a few letters that she knows the sounds of really well and can name multiple things that start with the letter, like B and D and M.

Playing with some letters.

She can spell her name.  Given a pile of letters, she can pick out the ones that go in her name and put them in the right order...  although that whole "left to right" concept is a little iffy.

And she's even starting to work on writing some letters.  If I draw a letter, she can do a pretty good job of replicating it in her own handwriting.  I'd say, for being 2 and a half, this is pretty impressive:



And all of this is not because I push this kind of learning onto her; SHE wants to learn it and asks me to draw letters so that she can do it too.  She'll start up a conversation out of the blue about the sounds different letters make.  It's information she genuinely wants to know and regularly asks about.  I think she may understand that this is the key to reading and that is why she wants to learn it.  She's just like her father that way... naturally inquisitive.  And like me in that she has a strong desire for understanding and craves explanations.  Needless to say, I am so proud of her.

A touch of sibling rivalry

Most of the time, Mira and Ellowyn play really well together.

Playing "Train"

Ellowyn tickling Mira's toes

Other times not so much.

It really wasn't a problem until Ellowyn started crawling.

Before Ellowyn was crawling, Mira went through a phase where she didn't want Ellowyn to have certain toys (or sometimes any toys).  But that was pretty easily handled by a combination of teaching Mira how to trade toys with Ellowyn and telling Mira that the rule is that she cannot grab toys out of Ellowyn's hands.  Things were under control.

Until Ellowyn started crawling.

Now Mira will be playing with something and (since Ellowyn thinks Mira is the bee's knees) Ellowyn will decide that she wants to play too.  But the way a baby plays is basically to mess things up and create chaos.  This really bothers Mira, as organized and orderly as she is.  So then Mira lashes out at Ellowyn, by pushing her away or snatching the toy away from her or yelling at her or something similar.  And Ellowyn doesn't understand what went wrong so she starts crying.

I've been reading various sources on the subject of sibling rivalry, and one common theme seems to be that the parents need to stay out of it as much as possible.  The reason for this makes sense to me: every time you intervene, you inevitably take sides (and taking sides only makes rivalry worse).  But I can't just stand by while Mira pushes Ellowyn over.  Having a baby in the mix complicates the "work it out yourselves" approach.  I've also read the tactic of putting a toy into time out if it is being fought over or having children take timed turns with a toy, but it seems to me like both of those tactics would have little bearing in my situation, since there is a baby involved.


My sister and I are 12 years apart, so I never experienced sibling rivalry first-hand.  I do have some experience with mitigating sibling rivalry from my years as a nanny, but all of those kids were older and there are lots of tactics that you can take with older kids.  I simply have no idea how to handle this when one of the kids is a baby with no concept of consequence or respect for others.


I know that, to some degree, sibling rivalry is just part of having children who are close in age.  And really, this is not that big a problem: as I said, most of the time the girls play great together.  I just hate feeling like I don't know if I'm taking the right approach on those occasions when they do have trouble playing happily together.

Mostly what I'm doing right now is using distractions with Ellowyn and giving Mira places to play where Ellowyn can't reach (up on the couch or at the table).  I also do use time outs with Mira as a consequence for physical violence, but that's rarely necessary.

Anyway, I would welcome any suggestions, if anyone has ideas that I've not thought of.

Ellowyn is 9 months old

Two days ago, Ellowyn turned 9 months old.  

She's such a bright, happy, easy baby!  She sleeps well, eats well, entertains herself easily...  I really lucked out with her.

Here are her stats from her 9 month well-check:
Height: 27.5 inches (40th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds, 2 ounces (3rd percentile)
Head: 45.5 centimeters (90th percentile)
The doctor is a little concerned about her weight being so low.  Mira was low too, but never this low.  He says it's probably because Ellowyn is so happy playing on the floor, crawling around almost constantly.  But it means that he wants to keep a closer eye on her, so rather than waiting till 12 months to see her again, he wants to see her back in 6 weeks.  He says it's just a precaution, he's sure she's fine, but he likes to keep closer tabs on the tiny babies.

She's still just got the two teeth, but I can see by looking at her gums that the top ones are on their way.

Flashing that toothy grin.

She's crawling very proficiently now.  She still sometimes prefers the army crawl, but certainly not because she isn't *awesome* at crawling on her hands and knees.

Crawling, crawling, crawling...

Just a couple days ago, I caught her attempting this new trick:

Gonna have to get out the gate pretty soon!

And she still LOVES to eat.  She mostly eats what we eat, with only a few exceptions.  I'm already having to plan larger meals to accomodate her; sometimes I think she eats more than I do.  After eating, her belly is always so distended, she looks like a tadpole.  So her low weight is certainly not for lack of trying.  In addition to 2-3 solid meals per day, she is still nursing about 6 times daily.  Girl loves her some noms.

We tried avocado again recently and got the same reaction as before: hives, this time on the chest.  So she really is allergic to avocado.  The only other food that she has shown a sensitivity for is egg white, which she throws up every time.  I'm hoping she'll grow out of that one.

And she can drink from a sippy cup all by herself now!  Watching her do this cracks me up.

Girl needs some dance classes

I think Mira has an innate love of dance.  She frequently asks me to turn on music so that she can dance and every time she hears music she starts dancing.  I can't tell if she is an especially talented dancer, but does it even matter when she loves it so much?

The place where she's taking her gymnastics class does offer dance classes too, but they don't start till age 3.  You better believe that she will be in those dance classes just as soon as she can be.

I recently got some photos of her doing what she calls a "dance clap" (she turns around in circles, picking her feet up high and clapping her hands).  Excuse the pajamas, this was first thing in the morning.  Also note the cute little ballet slippers (a gift from Aunt Kevan).

And after a dance, every good dancer knows to do your stretches.