Wii Fit - Day 2

Well, turns out if you start your body test right before midnight and you finish it right after midnight, the stamp goes on the next day. Bummer! Now it looks like I skipped a day.

I would have gotten on the balance board sooner, but I had company until just before midnight. My brother and parents came out and we stayed upquite late playing Ticket to Ride. Lots of fun!

I was very tempted to skip the Wii Fit for the day, but like I said yesterday, public humiliation is a good motivator. Missing day 2 on my quest for 30 days in a row, well that's just sad. So, I decided that I'd give it a whirl anyway, since tomorrow is Saturday. If my children ever miraculously decide to sleep in, technically, so can I.

So, day 2...

First, the bad news... up 1.1 pounds (maybe something to do with my tendency to dine out on Fridays - first an office lunch at the pub, second meeting my family for dinner at the resort halfway between our towns)

Second, the good news... a Wii Fit age of 37... not bad, not bad at all.

I know I said I would do strength training tonight, but it was too late to concentrate on learning anything new (how's that for an excuse?), so I went with what I know... more Aerobics. This time:

• A short run (on the treadmill) for a warm-up
• The beginner step game twice and the advanced twice. I'm getting better at it. It helps that I figured out that green footprints mean to hover over the board and not actually step on it. Probably the biggest reason for my low scores yesterday.
• A long run, but it only took about 8 minutes, so not really that long. I managed to unlock a free step class and a free run, so I'm thinking this is where I'm going to be able to set my own time limits.
• I finished off my workout by doing the free step for 10 minutes. Turns out that is really boring and the Wii actually recommends you change the channel and watch tv while doing it.
• Lastly, just to say I could, I tried the first two yoga poses. I aced the first one, deep breathing. Turns out I am really good at breathing! The second one was a little harder and I really did feel the stretch.

As a reward for finishing another workout, I played the two new balance games that I'd unlocked... a funny one where my Mii is a penguin and I had to lean left and right to catch fish, and a really hard one where I floated down the river in a bubble, which I kept popping because apparently my balance is terrible.

So, two days down... 28 to go. So far I am thoroughly enjoying this form of exercise!

Wii Fit - Day 1

On Tuesday I celebrated my birthday... not a milestone by any stretch of the imagination but my family made it special anyway, by coming and spending the evening with me (and cooking me a yummy supper).

Cory and the kids (although Alex said "hey, I didn't pick that out!) gave me a Wii Fit to go with the Wii we gave Cory for Father's Day/Birthday in June. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. My brother set it up for me after supper and bravely volunteered to be the first one to set up a profile, while we all watched. I'm not sure how accurate it is because he has a Wii fit age of 40 (he's 28 and a personal trainer at a gym and in no way is overweight) whereas I am 33, hanging diligently on to my baby weight, and not the least bit active (going for a brisk walk for me entails walking at the pace of a 2 year old who likes to stop and pick up rocks every 20 seconds) and had a Wii fit age of 39... which is about 20 years younger than my Wii Sports age, mind you.

My 5 year old has an age of 26 (his sports age is 80, LOL) and my 2 year old... well, the machine declared him "2", so he was pretty pleased with that.

So... nothing overly scientific here, and a pretty inaccurate way of assessing people's level of fitness, but still kind of fun.

So we spent the evening of my birthday eating cake and messing around on the Wii Fit, taking turns using Eric's profile (cause I wasn't going to step on the scale and create my own until my family was out the door). We even got my Dad up doing the stretching excercises and ski jumps. It was fun, and really is a video game system the whole family can enjoy without too much guilt.

I have decided to give the Wii Fit a serious try. I really don't get much exercise with the kids around. If I go for a walk or bike ride, they are with me so we go their pace. I bought a treadmill in February, instead of joining a gym and I really was doing well with it until I returned to work. I haven't touched it since. Right now it's an expensive place to rest the remote controls for the television in the basement. So, because I've been given this fun gift, I've decided to try to use the Wii Fit every day, and see what kind of progress I can make. According to a certain person who doesn't have children in the home and has all the time in the world to clean hers (Flylady), it takes 30 days to establish a habit... so I'm setting a goal of daily use for 30 days. And because I know that public humiliation is a great weight loss tool (I was rather successful in 03 when I attended Weight Watchers and had complete strangers weighing me), I am going to record my attempt here.

So...

Wii Fit, Day 1:

I did the fitness test again tonight, and earned my little footprint stamp on the calendar (with the comment "you must have been too busy to work out yesterday"). My Wii age today is 43. I'm not going to tell you my weight (I'm not that motivated by public humiliation) but I will say that I have set a goal of 22 pounds of weight loss (that's the most it would let me choose) over 3 months (this is what I achieved at WW).

I decided to do a cardio regimen today. I learned, from Tuesday's experimenting, that the Wii Fit doesn't really set up a program for you to follow, you just pick and choose what you want to do. Not good for people like me that don't have a clue how to start.

So... I decided I could do whatever I wanted in AEROBICS as long as I kept moving in between games. Here's what I managed to accomplish in 30 minutes:
1. Warm up doing the running in place (short distance) --- I used my treadmill for this because I don't like running in place on the floor, and it worked fabulously. So yay for me, I brushed some dust off of it!

2. Hula Hoop - 2 rounds of this. It's hard on the knees, but fun catching the hoops.

3. Running in place (short distance but a faster speed) again on the treadmill.

4. Stepping - I found this one a bit disruptive because the computer kept stopping and reminding me to follow the other Mii's lead... thinking I was confused, rather than just horribly uncoordinated. I did get the hang of it, though, by the third set I managed to unlock an advanced step class, which I failed miserably at. Still, I had no audience, so who cares! :)

5. Running in place (on the treadmill) around the island. This took 7 minutes. It was fun. I had to follow a dog. Weird.

By this time I had hit the 30 minute mark and was really sweating, so I treated myself to two balance games and called it a night. Then, as a reward for my hard work, I played 30 minutes of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, a Sega game I remember liking as a teenager, that Cory bought from the Wii Shop Channel.

Tomorrow I'm contemplating doing strength training exercises, but I'll see how I feel after the kids are in bed.

The trickiest thing for me was keeping my heart-rate up between games, as I had a hard time aiming the remote while I jogged in place.

Anyway, that's my Wii Fit experiment, Day 1. I'm aiming for 30 days, but I also know myself well enough to admit that I'll probably hit about day 5 and that's the last you'll hear of me.

We'll see! :)

EmEmEmoPee...

I swear, I have one of the cutest 2-year-olds in the world. Unfortunately, this video does not reflect that in the least. It's bedtime and the lighting in the bedroom was really poor... so, for your listening pleasure only, here's Connor's rendition of the "ABC's"

Take 1...

Take 2...

Take 3...

I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that he's got talent! :)

Busy times...

It's occurred to me that I have seriously neglected this blog lately. Something I tend to do cyclically, as my life gets busier. I went back to work in April, so now I juggle my full-time career and motherhood, which doesn't leave room for much else. By the end of the day I'm too tired to care about doing anything. And on weekends we're trying to cram in all the housework and family time we can before Monday rolls around and routines start all over again. So that's my excuse for not updating in a while.

And yet, my brother's blog http://deathofmonopoly.blogspot.com/ is continuously updated... and he's in the throes of his Master's Thesis. I guess it's all about priorities... do I want to sit and spend an hour waiting for photos to upload to my blog, or do I want to fold the endless mountain of laundry while I enjoy the quiet that is my post-bedtime living room? Do I want to thoughtfully compose updates about my family to the few people that read them, or do I want to log on to Facebook and whip off one-liner status updates? Do I want to post photos of my kids being "oh so adorable" to people that probably think their own are cuter, or should I go scrapbook them for my own enjoyment, instead?

Tonight, I feel like blogging. Probably as a way of putting off the things that really need to be done, the supper dishes, the laundry, the floors... the endless chore list that is constantly renewing itself...

So, what's new with us???

My 4 (almost 5) year old!

Alex has a loose tooth. Really loose. Like, "hanging by a thread" loose. The dentist pointed it out to us last month, when it was just a tiny bit wiggleable. I had no idea how long those suckers take to fall out. I remember hurrying mine along... I couldn't help it, I would wiggle and twist it until it popped out. Fast forward 25 years and I don't have the stomach to even consider pulling it for him. I've been avoiding serving him crunchy foods and tonight he drank his milk from a straw because he didn't want to put any undue pressure on it. We're hoping it hangs in until he's 12...

He seems rather upset by the entire process. I didn't realize why until we had a conversation about it. I told him how proud I was that he was getting to be such a big boy (who am I kidding, he's not even 5 yet, I don't want him to grow up and assume the jack o'lantern look that signals the end of his babyhood). He said that he didn't want his teeth to fall out. I told him that everyone's teeth fall out, that's an exciting part of growing up. He started to cry... then I told him that my teeth all fell out and it wasn't scary or painful at all. He said (incredulously) "But YOU have teeth!"

Oops... forgot to tell him that he will grow more! That explains his anxiety! :)

My 14 month old TODDLER baby!

Kirstin is walking all the time now. For about a week now, she seems to have completely given up crawling for something a bit slower, but more satisfying. I love watching her with her Frankenstein gait. It's soooo cute! She's also a climber. She'd go up the steps all day if we let her, but down isn't something she's terribly interested in doing properly, so the baby gate is out of storage once again. She's officially getting her share of bruises. The other night she climbed on top of the piano (aargh!) and upon her dismount, ended up flat on her back with the bench landing on her nose. I believe that was her first ever fat lip, but not her first nose bleed, we've been down that road already.

My two and a half year old hooligan

Connor has finally started to master English. He's much more understandable now than he was just a couple of months ago. We can actually have wonderful conversations with him. I've even heard him use the word "me" a couple of times. I'm going to miss his third person way of speaking about himself ("Connor hungry, Connor go pee, Connor do it!").

Yesterday I commented on what a big boy he was getting to be as I strained to lift him up. What followed was, in my opinion, a brilliant conversation (of course, being his Mom, I'm highly biased):

C- "Connor as big as Alex?"

Me - "Not yet, but I bet you'll be as big as Alex soon!"

C- "As big as Daddy?"

Me - "Maybe when you're an adult like Daddy"

C- "As big as Mama?"

Me - "Maybe soon"

C- "As big as Kirstin?"

Me - "umm, I don't think so"

C - "Nooooo, Kirstin tiny! (laughs hysterically at his sister's plight)"

Cory and I just celebrated our 11th Anniversary. We left the kids with grandparents, something I always have a hard time doing. Cory thought I was being a bit over-protective (as I'm sure did his Mom) because I didn't want to leave all three kids with one Grandparent. Grandpa was in town and due back any minute, so I wanted to wait there until she wasn't outnumbered, even though it meant we might miss the beginning of our movie. She assured me that they'd be fine, so we left. Before we'd even got out to the driveway, I could hear Connor howling and Grandma saying "It'll stop in a minute sweetie"... so of course I had to go back and investigate. Cory (the heartless) sat in the car and revved the engine. My boy was covered in blood (as was his Grandma) from a spill on their deck. Alex was rushing for the Kleenex and Grandma was trying to calm Connor down so his nose would stop bleeding. I don't know who I felt more sorry for, my baby or his Grandma. Well, okay, my baby... but I'm sure Grandma was thinking "why couldn't you have waited until they'd driven off before spilling your blood?" The rest of the baby-sitting went without incident (or at least that's what they tell me) and Cory and I enjoyed a movie, Japanese dinner, and 37 minutes at the Casino (that's how long it took us to each blow through our $20 limit). It was actually really nice. I ate my dinner still steaming, and realized that eating food hot is a guilty pleasure that I haven't really experienced in the last 5 years.

Next week we're on vacation and we're looking forward to a mixture of staying home and enjoying our family, and camping (and hopefully still enjoying our family). We're keeping it low-key i.e. inexpensive. I have a million plans to get this place sparkling clean before I go back to work, but who am I kidding? I couldn't do it in the year I had off, so I'm sure not going to be able to do it in 2 weeks.

I can try. Or maybe I won't. It's all about priorities!

My priorities

First Steps... 2009

I believe that I posted something very similar to this last year... but it's still amazing and so adorable to watch, no matter how many children you have. Here's our newest "walker". Please ignore the mess. I had a very unproductive weekend and you're getting a glimpse into our primal habitat! :)

Adventures in potty training...

So... being "seasoned" now, I have decided to share my potty training technique!

And yes, I do know that "potty training" is a loaded, non-PC term these days... my kids are not dogs, they do not need "training", rather "learning". But for the sake of nostalgia, I'm going with the term that every uses, so forgive me for not saying "toilet-learning", that just sounds so not charming, as all things toddler should be.

Alex was potty-trained at 2.5 years old. Not bad at all, since everything I've read online suggests that this is the average for boys. I'll admit, we started way earlier than that with him, thinking our firstborn brilliantly advanced. It never really sunk in, so we quit trying about 2 months before Connor was born. I knew, from my online research, that the worst time to potty train a toddler is when there is a new baby in the house (I also read that online). So, at 2.5, with a three week old baby, Alex suddenly was ready to use the potty, I fought it, telling him "No, we have a new baby, you are not supposed to want to do big boy things right now..." but since he doesn't google, he was determined to go against the grain, so I gave in. 3 days later, the kid was a peeing and pooping pro!

Fast forward 2 years, and Connor is now in potty-training full swing. I will admit, I have dragged my heels, since we're not yet at the magic 2.5 years old mark so I really am not ready to kiss his diapers good-bye. This kid, however; obviously has no concept of averages, and insists on not waiting to reach his, so I gave in and hauled up the potty seat from the basement a couple of weeks ago.

So... for the uninitiated, or those who just want a good laugh... here's our version of the "Potty Train your child in a day" technique (although it's taken longer than a day, so really, I flunk that part of the training!). I call our version, simply, "Nekkid Potty Training!"

Step 1: Watch your child for signs of readiness.

For Connor, this was pretty obvious. He pulled off his pants and diaper and left them scattered throughout the house. He began putting copious amounts of toilet paper in the toilet and flushing it several times per day. He climbed up on the toilet and wiped his nose on the toilet paper, then washed his hands for upwards of 10 minutes (a little OCD with the hand-washing). When we still didn't get the hint, he let us know he was ready by pulling off his pants and poopy diaper in the McDonald's play area (on his father's watch, might I add).

Step 2: Decide whether or not you want your child to use a toilet insert (I think it's called a potty seat, but around here, apparently, it's a "lid") or to use a potty chair (free-standing, no water involved which is a bonus).

We have both, and use whatever is more conveniently located. The potty chair is in the living room so Connor doesn't have to run as far if he's not near the bathroom or someone is hogging it. Encourage your child to try out the insert to see how comfortable he is with it. Some kids find big toilets scary and prefer a potty seat. I suggest both so that you have a child that will know how to use big toilets out in public. That's always handy!

Here's Connor demonstrating his technique with the potty seat:
It's actually a pretty good fit. He's quite happy with it.

Step 3: Strip your child from the waist down and let him run around the house.

This is the Nekkid Potty Training part. Watch him carefully because if he's somewhere inconvenient, you might end up with a clean up job. Keep some old cloths handy for wiping up spills. I promise, there won't be that many if you're vigilant. Listen for your child's clues like "Connor pee on top bunk!" so you know where to wipe.

Step 4: Determine an appropriate reward for success (alrighty, bribe him).

With Alex, I sat him on the potty seat and read him stories until he accidentally peed in it. Then I rewarded him with smarties for pees and glow in the dark wall stars for poops. Long after Alex was potty trained he would try to con my Mom into giving him candy for using her bathroom. So... with your second kid... skip the junk and do something different instead. We grab Connor's hands, jump up and down, kick are legs and sing "Connor peed in the potty" several times. Let's see Grandma get conned into that! :) He loves it. So does Alex, who joins in.

Step 5: Buy your child some special underwear that he will not want to pee or poop in.

We use Tigger underwear. We put it on in the morning and say "No peeing on Tigger". Connor heartily agrees, and then proceeds to say "Connor pee on Tigger" as the pee is running down his leg. The other thing you will read online is that in underwear, children can tell when they're wet... but if your children are raised in cloth diapers, like mine have been, then really, what's the difference between diapers and underwear. Cloth is cloth... pee away! And so we go back into naked mode for the rest of the day, so as not to make Connor feel like a failure. (Seriously, he bursts into tears when he has number 2 accidents in his pants).

Which brings us to the final step in my tutorial...

Step 6: Transitioning from Nekkid, to clothed.

I have no idea! Go google potty training somewhere else, cause my technique is complete crap (pun intended).

I spent 2 years teaching Connor to pee in diapers. I spent 2 minutes teaching Connor to pee in the potty whenever he was naked. Now I've spent the last 2 weeks trying to teach him to pee in the potty while wearing underwear. He has taken to stripping off his clothes whenever and wherever he wants to. I think we have a whole nother set of issues to work around...

Thankfully the weather is getting warmer...

Fun to watch...

Just some video of Kirstin and what she's been up to lately. She'll be 11 months on Saturday.