Keeping Cool and Plans for the Week

Hello and happy week-start to you. It's sweltering here, and we're starting to get a sense of how our new place handles heat. Verdict: Not very well. It's not bad on a warm day, because we don't get too much direct sunlight, but if there's no breeze and the air outside is just thick and hot like this weekend, we're in for a rough time. Thankfully, we have fans and cold water, so we're just muddling through.

We took a midday break today to grab some ice cream at new-to-us Beachy Cream. Their ice cream is all homemade, and our peanut butter fudge + hot chocolate flavors were deeeeelicious. We even gave Marshall a few bites! 

How is it that kids always manage to get food all over, even when they just get a bite or two? Good thing it looks adorable. Also, Marshall now officially loves his sunglasses. At first he just wanted to rip them off, but now he rolls with it!

Unfortunately, the little guy was under the weather for most of the weekend. He came down with something toward the end of the week and even got a fever last night. He slept pretty restlessly, but some teamwork and lots of comfort got us all through. The timing is tough, because it's SO hot so he's likely even less apt to sleep well, plus coughing keeps waking him up. Poor guy.

The poor sleep and short naps meant an afternoon nap was absolutely necessary (he has pretty much phased out the second nap!), so I got to hang out on the couch reading my latest book, which I borrowed from my sister-in-law. I'm reading My Life in France by Julia Child, and so far I LOVE it. Well hello, it talks about Paris and food, so I imagine it doesn't get much better.

The rest of our weekend was mellow to the point of boredom. Honestly, I think we're so used to planning ahead and having at least one big activity every day that when we stumbled upon this free weekend with no plans we sort of fell into a slump. Among the heat, Marshall being sick, and our lack of planning, we couldn't think of a single thing to do. So we hung close to home, wandered around the mall, took a walk or two, hit up the farmers' market, and tried to stay cool. We ate a lot of leftovers, too, so aside from a delicious batch of chili (Terry's creation), the food was pretty uneventful, too. I didn't even really work out because I wasn't feeling great. Talk about boring, right?

So anyway, here's to a better week ahead. We have plans for some good meals:

Crunchy Vegetable Sesame Noodle Salad

Homemade meatballs (I'm planning to just wing it as far as a recipe...but I'm sure Ina has something) for meatball subs

Homemade biscuits for egg sandwiches (made them tonight for dinner, so leftovers will be breakfasts)

Couscous Greek salad, similar to this one but using couscous instead of quinoa

For workouts, we are continuing with the theme of consistent but smart, incorporating plenty of rest as needed but still hitting all the essential aspects of fitness: strength, long slow cardio, flexibility, and interval/HIIT work. 

Monday: yoga

Tuesday: 20 min jog + 20 min walk

Wednesday: Upper body strength

Thursday: Lower body Tabata + strenth**

Friday: Long walk 

Saturday: Probably something quick because we'll be up north to celebrate my dad's 60th! Woo hoo!

**Last week, we did a Tabata workout at the park (we alternated while one of us hung out with Marshall and the other completed a round of the workout):

20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest:

Squat jumps

Tuck jumps

Jumping lunges

Plie squat jumps

(Repeat = 4 minutes)

That's one round. Then we rested and the other person went and we did it again for a total of 8 minutes. 

PLUS: 25 walking lunges (repeat x2 for 75 total)

My original thought was doing it for 16 minutes total (HA!) plus more leg strength stuff, but apparently we're not in that kind of shape yet. So now our new goal is to keep repeating this workout each week until we can build up to those 16 minutes. I'm still mixing up the other days of workouts, so hopefully it won't feel boring, but it'll be nice to see some progress (hopefully) as we build our endurance. 

Okay, I'm off to shower and get into bed early to ensure I don't get whatever Marshall has. Hope your week starts off wonderfully! Here's to cooler weather! 

Summer Chicken Salad and the End of the Running Challenge

Are you surviving the week? We've had some interrupted sleep over here (Marshall keeps us on our toes, for sure), but the days have been nice. There's a bit of a heat wave in LA right now (and the rest of California), but actually this apartment is the first we've had in a very long time that allows for a cross-breeze. We're enjoying the cool night/morning air as much as we can before it becomes unbearably hot a little later in the summer.

Today was the day to finish our 30 miles in 30 days running challenge! We completed our last miles just in time with a two mile jog this afternoon. We kept track on our refrigerator white board.

Yesterday's run was one of the toughest because we hit a LOT of uphill in the first two miles, so we did walk some. Other than that, though, we found our average speeds to be around 5.5 most of the time. Slower than we used to be, but better than nothing! Our longest run was four miles, but almost all the rest were two or three at a time. It was a great way to get back into the habit of working out every other day, so now we're ready to mix things up with some strength training, yoga, intervals, and a few HIIT workouts here and there.

Our evenings lately have included a lot of cooking, cleaning, prep for the next day, and plopping on the couch to watch a show or two before reading in bed. I'm about halfway through The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pseudonym), and Terry just finished Ready Player One. He's looking for another book to check out at our local library (I've got a huge stack for the summer already); any suggestions? He loves almost any genre!

I've been trying to come up with fun, creative, seasonal meal ideas lately and struggling a bit. (Yes, even with my fun chalkboard and menu planning assistant!) My friend Amanda and I discussed cooking recently and she told me she has been trying out Blue Apron, which I know a lot of bloggers love. Of course Amanda sent me a trial order (because she's Amazing Amanda), so we have that to look forward to in a few weeks! My friends Katie and Corey also gave us a housewarming gift of the same idea to Hello Fresh, so that will be the following week. My friends are way too generous, but I am excited to compare the two services! Of course I'll be sure to share as soon as we try both.

Meanwhile, I've felt motivated to try some new recipes lately. I love it when Terry requests meals, too, but often his tastes vary from mine, so we stick to the same ol' safe stuff. This week he found Ina's gazpacho recipe, which made me hesitate, but I can't exactly complain about not knowing what to make and then ignore his suggestions, right? So gazpacho it was!

I halved the recipe, but, in true Chef Julie style, forgot to halve all of the ingredients. Guess I should follow my own advice: When halving or doubling a recipe, always WRITE DOWN THE NEW MEASUREMENTS. Fail. So I halved everything except the white wine vinegar and olive oil and realized it too late. We sat down to a very acidic--but still tasty--meal last night and ended up turning to Google for help. I knew something sweet would balance the vinegar, but brown sugar in gazpacho? There weren't any other suggestions, so brown sugar it was. It worked okay last night, but today the vinegar had really set in, so we tossed the leftovers. I look forward to trying the recipe again without the vinegar flub. Poor Marshall did not care for his sour soup.

In recipe success news:

I made Julie's Chopped Summer Salad last week for a family picnic, and we loved it. This week, I wanted the same idea but decided to create a chicken salad and stuff it into a pita pocket. DELICIOUS. Here's what I did:

**Note: I recommend doing the first two steps in advance, if possible. They aren't difficult, but they require different temperatures for the oven, which can lead to feeling like you've been in the kitchen all day. It's supposed to be a simple meal!

- Marinate 2-3 chicken breasts in 3/4 cup teriyaki sauce (we used Trader Joe's Soyaki) for at least an hour in the fridge. Then bake in a baking dish lined with foil at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (check that the breasts are fully cooked). Set aside to cool.

- If you want bacon (and who doesn't want bacon?), line a rimmed baking pan with foil and place a cooling rack on top. Lay the bacon strips on the cooling rack (allows the grease to drip down and helps crisp up the bacon, plus less of a mess when cooking!). Cook in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, flipping the bacon strips halfway. Set aside to crisp up.

- Combine the rest of the ingredients:

• 1/3 cup hummus (we used Trader Joe's Organic Hummus Dip, which was delicious)
• 1/2 cup green grapes, sliced in half
• 1 chopped avocado
• 4 ounces feta, crumbled
• 1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped 
• Previously marinated and cooked chicken (see above), chopped
• Cooked bacon, chopped

Toss to combine and serve in slightly warm pita pockets (we like the whole wheat pita bread from TJ's or Whole Foods). Enjoy!

An excellent summer meal. Thanks to PB Fingers for the inspiration! I have a feeling this meal will show up several times this summer, because Terry can't stop talking about it. :-)

By the way, I stopped at Costco today and sampled these Aussie Bites, which were delicious, so I bought a box. Yum! (And here's a great example of where "some healthy ingredients" or labels like "organic" and "zero trans fats" shouldn't be mistaken for "healthy food". Plenty of added oils and sugars in here, so while I like the food and will enjoy it, I wouldn't make it a regular purchase.)

Hope you are enjoying your week! I'm looking forward to sharing some photos of our new (semi-decorated) place as well as a fun baby-related food post. Happy Wednesday!

Change in Plans

Lately, in response to moving yet again within Southern California, a place I hadn't intended to inhabit longer than the four years I attended college, I have been reflecting on the path that got me to where I am, as well as where I had hoped to be now. Ultimately, a lesson I've learned over the last eight or nine years, despite trying desperately to ignore it, is: Plans change. Roll with it.

I thought I would move "home"--back to the Bay Area, near my family--after graduating from UCLA. But Terry and I had been dating a year at that point and already knew we were in it for the long haul. He wouldn't graduate for another year and a half, so I stayed in LA to be with him. After he graduated, he accepted an excellent, stable (important, given that it was 2008 and a rough time to be graduating) job that would allow him to earn his Master's degree (completely paid for by the company!). Naturally, those benefits were too wonderful and financially sound to turn down, so again we stayed. Years later, we're still grateful for Terry's job, which has allowed us to start our home (er, multiple homes), travel the world, start a family, and be a single-working-parent household.

Speaking of which, I never imagined I would be a stay-at-home mom, and certainly not for over a year! I always heard that teaching was the ideal profession for having a family, because there's "so much" time off and the hours are aligned with children's school hours, obviously. Alas, for me,  there is no way I could have continued teaching the way I did (at least as a full-time high school English teacher; I cannot speak for other teachers) and balanced having a newborn/infant. So for us, although at first it was not a planned decision, my staying home was the right one. There are a LOT of days when I panic about a future career, about finances, about having an identity outside of my family. But for now, it's working out to have me at home, so we're going to see where it leads us, and if the right job comes along I'll be grateful for the opportunity.

I always envisioned that we would follow a more traditional path as far as our home life: move to a more suburban area, buy a house, adopt a dog, then have a baby. Instead, we still live in the city, we rent and don't see ourselves buying anytime soon (see previous paragraph), we have a cat but no dog (and our place won't allow the latter), and we had a baby before any of that other stuff. Of course, I'd love to own instead of rent, but the rest of the original plans are far less important to us right now. We love the city, we love our new apartment and neighborhood, we love our cat, and we definitely wouldn't change a thing about having Marshall!

For a long time, I let myself feel upset about the fact that we didn't seem to be making any progress on the goals I had set so long ago. But I'm realizing that I need to be flexible in my goals and allow any curve balls life throws at us to become part of the plan, not necessarily an obstacle.

Truthfully, now that we live in a neighborhood we love (walking distance to everything! families playing catch in their front yards! dogs everywhere!), we are really embracing the present. More importantly, I'm trying to be less focused on the future and goals and achieving some arbitrary definition of success. Instead, I want to enjoy our new apartment in our cute neighborhood--who cares when we'll finally own a place? (Well, okay, we still care, but you get the idea.) I want to soak in my son's first years instead of panicking about the fact that I don't have a job. I want to snuggle up with our cat at night and love on our nephew dogs and my parents' new puppy instead of wondering when we'll get our own.

It's been easy to focus on the negative for too long, but I have a wonderful life. For the first time in a very long time, I'm actually appreciating the present instead of worrying about the future.

What plans have changed for the better in your life?

Start to the June Challenge

Hello and happy Monday! We really enjoyed a nice weekend over here. Despite the short work week, we felt ready to plunge into some family time again Saturday and really took advantage of our time together. On Saturday we stopped by our old apartment for some last-minute cleaning (we handed over the keys on Sunday). I can't believe that when we moved in there, Marshall was still eight weeks away from his entrance into the world, and when we left he was crawling around as fast as he could go!

It was a lovely first home as a family of three. We will miss it for the memories we made, and we certainly took advantage of our short stint living in the South Bay, but we're already more comfortable in our new place than we ever were there. Still, I know anytime I drive near there I'm going to get a little nostalgic thinking about Marshall's first months! 

Next on Saturday we headed to the aquarium to meet up with two other families. Marshall got to see his buddies and we got to hang out with the adults while checking out all the exhibits! 

He smiles a lot more now, but I love that serious face.

Marshall seemed to love touching the water; it'll be fun to take him back when he's a bit more aware of the fish and sharks!

Now that we're more settled in to the new apartment, we're making a conscious effort to meal plan, grocery shop, and cook at home as much as possible. I'm even getting a little more creative. Case in point: This California caprese salad!

Tomatoes, avocado, greens, burrata, olive oil, and balsamic.

And today the week began anew. Marshall and I hung out at the house a bit, ran a few errands, walked to campus and played with bubbles and climbed the stairs. 

We saw a fire truck on our walk, and one of the firemen gave Marshall a hat!

Terry and I also started our running challenge today! We're going to run 30 miles in 30 days this month, so today we kicked it off with two miles (Terry pushed the stroller, which is an unspoken agreement between us, although I'll do it if I have to). The run felt pretty good overall, albeit slow. And my upper body was suuuuuper sore from a quick push up workout I did yesterday (6 push ups every minute for twenty minutes = 120 push ups!). But we had a great time chatting and stopped at the park for a quick climbing break for Marshall.

Before dinner, we finally (oops) gave Marshall his birthday presents! We weren't home on his actual birthday, and we never really made time to give him the gifts from us. But finally we just decided to let him pull them out of the box. He seems especially excited about the marble maze!

(This book is his Pinhole Press book, with photos of Marshall's family members and a few familiar toys.)

It's been a lovely day and a nice start to the week. We're going to be busy these next few days with packing for our big trip, continuing (still!) to get ourselves situated in the new place (including building this kitchen island cart--thank you Sarah for the recommendation!), and getting to visit with a friend from out of town. Busy week, but lots of fun stuff!

Have a wonderful start to June. Did you start with rabbit rabbit?!

Monday Miscellany

Today's post is a hodgepodge. Just roll with me. 

We're still under the weather around here. Marshall's sad cough makes me ache. We tried a humidifier tonight, but somehow it made his cough worse? He started coughing every five minutes, and then when Terry sneaked in to turn off the humidifier the coughing suddenly reduced to once every half hour or so. What the heck? I thought they were supposed to help? Is our water (we use water filtered through the Brita) that bad? Any other suggestions for a little one's cough? We've done steam in the bathroom, warm chicken broth, extra breastfeeding, and saline solution/bulb syringe for reducing congestion. I guess now we'll just wait it out.

Thankfully, Marshall is still mostly upbeat and energetic, so we took a family break this evening to hit the park. Marshall got to show his dad how he climbs the stairs and goes down the slide at the playground!

...and then he licked the steering wheel on the fire truck thing.

Kids are weird.

I came across this post from 100 Days of Real Food about reducing waste at the grocery store. I have been trying to become more eco-friendly over the last few years and give myself a pat on the back for my efforts: reusable grocery bags, not buying stuff just for the sake of buying it (or accepting free stuff just because it's free), switching to cloth napkins at home, trying cloth diapers, etc. But this list is far more extensive--and it's all focused on the grocery store. I especially agree with numbers 7 through 9. Happy Earth Day!

Tomorrow is my amazing husband's birthday! I'll write up my usual sappy post tomorrow, but we're celebrating with a family dinner out (Marshall's first fancy restaurant!) and hopefully a clean bill of health all around.

Love that guy. And the little one, too.

Today I went to Costco to buy dates. I wanted to make my better-than-Larabars-and-maybe-sorta-kinda-getting-famous(-but-only-among-Terry's-coworkers)(-and-really-only-like-two-of-them), but Costco was out. Marshall and I wandered around and bought a pair of flip flops (Flojos for $9.99!) and two boxes of butter. 

By the way, the imitation Larabars recipe:

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1 cup nuts (I usually use walnuts, but almonds have worked great)
• 2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon rock sea salt
• about a teaspoon of water 

Throw everything in a food processor. Process until all pieces are about the same tiny size. Roll tablespoonfuls into balls. If the balls are too crumbly, add a little water and process again. Store in fridge. 

Terry and I are obviously not working out while we're sick, but we've been talking about setting another running goal for May. The one we did in January (20 miles in 26 days) was fun, challenging, and just enough of a push to make sure we got active anytime we may have opted to skip the workout. This time we're thinking 25 miles in 31 days, which may be tough since it'll be a busy month. I also hope to increase my one-off mileage. I think my longest run postpartum is around 3 miles, so I'd like to be able to do 4 or even 5 (maybe without stopping?) by the end of May. Also, congrats to the Boston Marathon runners today!


Speaking of running, while my parents were here my mom forced me to go on a run with her, and we actually did really well! We tackled a HUGE steep hill (only ran up half of it, but still), and we felt pretty good about it. I'd say we were out for about 35 minutes and ran 15-20 of those. Not bad for two gals who don't run all that often anymore!

I finished my J.K. Rowling book! And I loved it. I'm excited to read the sequel, The Silkworm. But for now before bed I'm just rereading bits and pieces of Tina Fey's book Bossypants, which makes me laugh after a long day. 

Okay, it's 8:30 and I have important decisions to make: another (third) bowl of cereal? a different dessert? tea? These are my struggles at night. Wish me luck.

What book did you read last? Any recommendations? (Nothing scary--I need to relax when I read.)

Any fitness goals coming up?

Backing Up to Last Week and February Goals

Well, after documenting the first Monday in February yesterday, it's only fair that we look back to the last week of January before continuing with the month.

My parents came into town for just about two days last week, a short visit between two longer trips for them. We got to catch up on their two-week cruise and side trips in South America (amazing!), and of course they got to hang out with Marshall.

My mom and I also went shopping! We rarely do that nowadays, so it was nice to get an hour or two in while PopPop watched Marshall. I bought a new coat! And yes, I look super moody. So fashionable.

We ordered pizza and made salad for their first night here and went out for the second night. My parents suggested that Terry and I go to happy hour and then catch up with them afterward, which was a fun mini-date for us. Marshall was pretty tuckered out and didn't want to stay up so late, though, so that made for a bit of fussing. We also got to check out all my dad's photos from their vacation, and I loved hearing about their trip, especially since I don't know many people who have traveled to South America.

Then on Friday morning they were off again, back home, and Terry, Marshall, and I headed out for a run before the rain came. We had two more to go as of Friday, and I'm happy to say that we managed to complete our January goal of 20 miles in 25 days! Honestly, I wasn't sure we'd make it, and we had to squeeze in five miles those last two days, but we did it!

A little recap: Most of our runs were two or three miles at a time (usually two). We took it very easy, around 5.5 mph (my pre-pregnancy pace was 6-6.5 mph), and Terry had the stroller, so that added an extra challenge for him. We ended up running about three times per week, which was way more than we would have done without a little goal to get us going. I really enjoyed getting out there to run again, and I'm glad I had a buddy to keep me motivated, because I definitely would have skipped a few days without Terry's push!

As soon as we got into the groove of our January goal, I asked Terry what he wanted to do for February. We chose different goals this time around, but I think they work well together: for me, three days of yoga per week, and for Terry, three days of strength training per week. I'm designing Terry's workouts (fun for me!), and I'm using online (free!) yoga videos or DVDs I already own for my yoga. I'm shooting for thirty minutes each time, but my favorite video is 45 minutes, so maybe I'll throw some 20-minute ones in, too.

Also, I'm not a purist by any means, and I'm excited to have found a running groove again, so hopefully we can keep running once a week or so; it's just not our focus this month. With the baby and Terry's work/commute and other commitments, we just want to set a goal to keep fitness as a priority and to push ourselves a little more than we did last year. Naturally, I'll join Terry for some strength training, and I'm sure he'll do a little yoga with me here and there. We'll see how it goes!

I did my first yoga video tonight, a 30-minute video I found on YouTube. It wasn't amazing, but it focused on stretching, which was what I wanted. And here's Terry's workout:

I had him do the whole thing twice. The first time he did 8-10 reps, and the second time 6-8 reps, with a medium-heavy weight. 

And now some photos from today:

Marshall's My Gym class, where he crawled through a tunnel.

And pizza lunch with Daddy!

How's your February starting? Any fun plans this month?

Tupperware and Cardboard Boxes

I missed my blog post last night because I needed to get to bed early, and I'm so glad I made that choice. Marshall has been up every morning around 3 or 4 am this week, and it's been at least an hour getting him back to sleep each time. Last night I went to bed by 10 and told myself that if he woke up at 4 and wouldn't go back to sleep I would just roll with it and get up then.

Sure enough, he did wake up at 4, and I was dead tired, but I felt a lot less grumpy about it because I had told myself I'd likely be getting up then anyway. That way, if he went back to sleep (which he did!), great, but if he didn't, I would just have a few more hours of being awake. Lucky for me, he snoozed next to me for another hour or so before getting up at 6. Much more manageable (although my husband, who got to deal with my zombie self and brought me tea in bed after changing Marshall, may call my bluff).

After some tea and watching Marshall wave his Taggies blanket like a madman for twenty minutes (what? isn't that how you start your morning?), I felt downright chipper. I e-mailed Terry and told him I'm going to be positive today--no complaining, no matter what comes my way. It's so easy to whine about a lot of aspects of my day, and I find myself taking that route too often. Instead I'm going to look for the good and ignore the inconvenient.

So backing up a little bit, yesterday was a good day, even if I wasn't feeling super positive. Marshall and I enjoyed a productive morning, complete with Tupperware fun

 and then attended a class at Gymboree. I really loved our My Gym experience, but I thought I should check out Gymboree just for the sake of comparison (both sites offer a free first class). We enjoyed the class--bubbles, parachute waving, crawling up a ramp, lots of singing, puppets, and an awesome teacher--but I liked the vibe a lot better at My Gym, so we're going to stick with that one.

This is Marshall's "I'm checking things out before I dive in" face. One pointed foot and one flexed.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with Terry for another run. I am really loving how much this little running challenge has motivated us. 20 miles in 25 days isn't horribly ambitious for some people, but after taking such a long time off running (at least nine months?) I am feeling the burn. And honestly on days like yesterday I would normally just forget it and opt for a rest day or at-home workout (which, lately, is more like 15 minutes of whatever exercises I feel like doing that moment).  But as it was we knew we needed to get a run in, so we met up at the beach and completed about three miles, two of which were jogging. 

So now we have completed a total of 11 miles running; we have 10 days left and 9 miles more to go. We're only running two or two and a half miles each time, and veeeery slowly, mostly because of me. I knew pregnancy and the C-section would change my body, but I had no idea how much. I think I've mentioned it before, but the biggest obstacle is pain/weakness in my lower abs and hip flexors. Naturally, they must be super weak because I avoided core exercise during pregnancy and gave myself lots of time to recover from the surgery. But rebuilding those muscles is tough, mentally and physically. It's frustrating to remind myself that I need to take it slow and easy for a while until I feel stronger. I need more time to warm my body up, and my body gets tired much more quickly than it used to, so our runs end up being shorter. Thankfully Terry is patient and will run ahead a bit and come back for me when I need to walk. I think the important thing for now is continuing to take it slow, walking when I need to, and incorporating some safe core exercises (planks, crunches on the stability ball) to build up my lower ab and hip flexor strength. 

Well that was a hell of a tangent. On to today: 

We enjoyed a stroll through Target again, and Marshall's getting more comfortable in the cart.

He held on for dear life in that thing, which was adorable. He looks so little in the cart!

Marshall and I went to the park again, but this time I snagged an acai bowl and enjoyed it while we looked at the seagulls. 

Marshall had a few spoonfuls of lentil soup, which I had packed for him. The whole thing was delightfully messy, mostly because he was more interested in the birds than in getting the spoon to his mouth.

This seagull was a bully. He threatened any other seagull who came near us and stared at me the entire time. Terry said perhaps he was protecting us, and I suppose I should have thought the same thing in the spirit of being positive.

When we got home a special package had arrived: our video monitor!!! We chose a Dropcam at the recommendation of a few other parent friends, and it looks like a pretty awesome setup already (engineer husband had it ready to go about ten minutes after he got home). Marshall was much more interested in exploring his first cardboard box. 

Scout was pissed. Cardboard boxes are normally his thing. Poor little kitten. (See him in the background?)

Tomorrow Marshall and I are attending an infant library event (I have no idea what to expect, but I feel like finger puppets might be involved) and then he has his first swim class. But I think I'm most excited about a little girls' night out action (aka dinner with Jenn at 6:30, home by 8). It'll be my first night out without Marshall or Terry since the little guy was born. Speaking of which, Marshall turns 8 months tomorrow, and I'll have his little 8-month update on the blog next week.

Anyone else have these running issues post-pregnancy or post-C-section? Tips?

Do you hold on to your Target cart for dear life, too?

Any fun plans this weekend? Aside from my girls' night, we are planning to hang out at the park on Saturday and get a run in at some point. 

Have a wonderful, fun weekend!

Nonstop Tuesday

Well, did you survive your first Monday of 2015? Hopefully it wasn't too painful. My morning yesterday was a little rough--Marshall's spit up was back (not that it had disappeared, but it was starting to mellow out a bit) with a vengeance, and I can't help but think it's related to the fact that he's making some developmental progress. (No scientific evidence to support that theory, just observation.) He crawled yesterday morning for the first time AND pushed himself up to the sitting position on his own for the first time, so it was a big day. Can't blame the guy for being a bit fussy and overwhelmed.

We took it easy around the house yesterday, but today felt far more productive. First up, I woke up to some exciting news: I wrote an article for my alma mater's Young Alumni newsletter, and it was published yesterday! You can check it out here. I talk about how I gradually improved my health after graduating from college and what I do to maintain it now. I'm super excited to be featured--UCLA makes me proud and I'm glad to give a little something back. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you read it!

Today Marshall and I kept busy with lots of eating and exploring his room. Marshall is up to three meals per day (most of the time), so he joins me for breakfast and lunch and Terry joins us for dinner. So I ate oatmeal today, and Marshall got pureed banana and oats, too.

Mine was topped with peanut butter and coconut.

Then we rolled around and practiced crawling. He's only taking a few "steps" at a time. but I'm having fun watching what he does with his new freedom to explore.

And making notes of what we need to baby proof. And those thighs still kill me.

We met up with Terry for lunch at his office, because they bring in food trucks on Tuesdays now. We shared a turkey burger and a regular burger and both were delicious. Marshall ate peas and really seemed to like them. I, however, am not the biggest fan of peas, so I need to work on that.

After lots of fussing and two not-so-great catnaps, Marshall was ready for some fresh air and a change of scenery, so when Terry got home we all headed to the park to jog a few laps. Total highlight of the day! It was our first time jogging with Marshall in the stroller without the infant car seat, so that's something. We logged two miles, and we also decided that we need to set a running goal for ourselves. We've been pretty unmotivated to run lately, but we always feel great after we do it, so we're aiming to run 20 miles in January. We're starting a little late, but 20 miles in 25 days isn't too terrible. We knocked out two today! 18 to go. I'm hoping it'll get us into a more regular routine for pushing ourselves to get outside together, even though it's dark and cold. Marshall had a BLAST sitting in the stroller "the big boy way" as I call it, kicking his feet and giggling the entire time, so I'd say he's looking forward to this little challenge!

For dinner we reheated leftovers from last night--sauteed ground turkey and hot Italian sausage plus roasted zucchini and butternut squash. YUM. We also threw an egg on top for good measure.

Snacks today were half an apple, a piece of homemade cinnamon bread, a muffin that my friend brought me the other day, and hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream for dessert. I also baked some lemon-blueberry muffins today and am betting they'll be gone by Friday.

After Marshall went to bed and I finished dishes, tidying up, etc., I did my 15 minutes of stretching (so far I've only missed one day!) and then did some work before writing this post. Today was nonstop, but I love the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a busy day!

What was the highlight of your day?

Have you decided on/stuck to your resolutions so far? I know it's only day 6, but it's hard for some people. No judgment. I'm still working on getting to bed by 10 pm, but it's definitely been better than the usual 11, 11:30 routine of late.

Best thing you ate today? I have to go with dinner! It's SO simple, but I love the combo of spicy (sausage) and sweet (squash). The egg was an excellent addition.

Happy Wednesday! We're halfway through the week! (Oh, and fun fact: Despite writing this entire post about Tuesday and titling it "Nonstop Tuesday" and clearly knowing that it's Tuesday, I still got to the end and thought it was Wednesday and that I should have been linking to WIAW. What is wrong with me?)