The world's best fruit salad

Finally here's a picture of the boys in their new room. Their room makes me happier than any other room in the house because it really feels like it's for somebody. The rest of the house has white walls and bare floors for the most part. I like the house fine, but their room feels like it's got personality. Until this weekend, neither boy ever played in their "room" for more than 5 minutes, now they love to play in there- especially if the radio is on and they can dance. The blue striped rug is from Target and at first I thought it was too expensive but now I think it was worth every penny.


I've got a nasty cold and didn't get to the gym this morning, so I was bummed about that. On the bright side, I've got some awesome fruit salad waiting for me in the fridge here at work for lunch. I went to our local warehouse-everything-in-giant-size superstore on my way home from work yesterday. I went for 2 things- the strawberries and tomatoes I enjoyed over the weekend. Well, I skipped my afternoon Kashi bar snack so I was hungry when I got there- very dangerous in the land of way too large packages of everything unhealthy yet tasty. I was wandering through the aisles towards the food section and found $6 pajamas- so I bought a pair, even though they are pink- they were $6! Then I went through the book section, they had a HotWheels activity pack with a coloring book, a paint with water book, a sticker activity book and a pop-out car model book. Of course I had to get that for HotWheels and right next to that was a giant-sized Superman coloring book- which I bought for Superman. Then I hit the produce section, found the tomatoes and strawberries although I was a little disappointed with the selection on both counts. I'm very picky about the box of strawberries I will buy- I eventually found an acceptable one. Then I saw the 2 lb box of green grapes, the 1 lb container of blueberries and the flat of 10 mangoes! I figured that $25 was probably enough to spend on fruit so I headed to the front of the store. I had to pass the sweets section and I saw the new Hershey's 100 calorie bars- chocolate wafers and chocolate pretzel bars. We like to have those on hand for the kids if they ask for candy. I also saw the Hershey's dark chocolate pack of individual dark chocolate squares and the dark chocolate with almonds, cranberries and blueberries. So I bought that, too, and ate one of each kind on the way home- $100 later. I get home, have all the food on the counter to put away and the kids walk in the kitchen. Hot Wheels sees the box of 100 calorie chocolate bars and runs over. As he gets closer, he notices the blueberries and yells "Blueberries, yeay!", the 2 boys sat at the table and ate blueberries and mangoes for the next 20 minutes while I cut stuff up for the fruit salad. They never even asked for the chocolate. After the fruit they each asked for a string cheese and a yogurt and then they were done with dinner- which we hadn't even cooked yet. I finished making the fruit salad and then Paul and I ate our dinner. I certainly couldn't complain that the boys wanted fruit, cheese and yogurt for dinner. I just hope there's still some fruit salad left for me to eat when I get home- I hear they already had some for breakfast.

I also hear we're supposed to finally get some measurable snow overnight, YEAY!!!! Not sure whether tomorrow's swim will happen, this cold is sitting right in my chest right now and feels sort of like a constant low level asthma attack. Not the best for breathing in the pool, have to wait and see how I'm feeling in the morning.

Pregnancy status: 12 weeks 2 days, 194 to go.

Unintentional weight loss

Never thought I'd utter these words but I unintentionally lost a pound last week. I realize that a pound is no big deal, but given that pregnancy generally brings gains only in that department it was a pleasant surprise. Today starts my second trimester (according to some sources) and I'm up 2.5 pounds which I'm happy about. This morning for church I wore my nice pants for definitely the last time- maternity dress pants will be unpacked for next weekend. But those pants didn't have a lot of room in them before I was pregnant so I'm glad they lasted this long. Excuse what I'm sure seems to be an obsession about my clothing but having been a fat pregnant lady twice, I'm sort of enjoying being a not-technically- fat-even- though-I-didn't- reach-my-goal- before-getting- pregnant pregnant lady.

More work around the house this weekend, we finally finished the boys' room- I'll post pictures soon. We also packed up Superman's crib and last night was his first night in a bed. It wasn't a resounding success, but it's a start. The crib will enjoy a 6 month storage stint in the attic before getting one last go around in August. The closet needed re-organizing and it's just about finished. Now, Hot Wheels' former bedroom is currently the junk room that needs to be cleaned out but I didn't have the energy. Yesterday was the start of an annual sale at my favorite used book store near our house. It's got to be the most awesome used book store ever, it's 5 buildings on a property with thousands of books and everything was 30% off. Paperbacks are $1 and hardcover books are usually $4. The only triathlon book I've been able to find is IronFit, but I keep checking the sports section for more tri stuff. I keep hoping.

Current pregnancy cravings: tomatoes and strawberries- not together, though. We bought 2 pounds of strawberries and 2 pounds of the largest cherry tomatoes I have ever seen at BJs on Friday. Unfortunately I had to share the strawberries (the only drawback to raising 2 fruit loving kids is that I have to fight for my own fruit) but I've almost finished all the tomatoes on my own.

Unfortunately, we all came down with colds this weekend and my throat feels like I swallowed glass last night. I hope this cold doesn't get too much worse and derail this week's workouts, but I'll have to wait and see. Both boys napped today, during the day, so I'm fearing a bad night for sleeping. Maybe some children's cold medicine will knock them out for the night.

Pregnancy status: 12 weeks, 196 days to go. Finally feel like the nausea is subsiding, waiting for the exhaustion to follow. (Or maybe it's just my life that's exhausting me.)

Half an inch makes all the difference

Here's our recent family photo.

I'm wearing my regular jeans today, zippered still, but there's an elastic band around the button and through the loop. It only gives me about an extra half an inch at my waist, but it's the difference between comfort and well, discomfort. Ahhh. Apparently you can buy a $25 contraption that pretties up the elastic band, but since no one can see it anyway under my sweater, I'll stick with the 350 for $1 method, or however much this rubber piece of wonder cost.

Week in Review:
Goal #1- Five days of workouts, check. Monday was cardio strength (intervals class with weights at the end), Tuesday- 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer then 45 minutes of Gutts & Butts, Wed- 45 minute swim- 1800 yards, Thurs- 45 min. cardio interval class- including 9 times running up and down the 20 step stair case on the way to the gym, Friday – 60 minute swim, 2000 yards. The workouts felt good, although I’ve realized that abs are quickly becoming uncomfortable and as the one trainer at the gym that knows I’m pregnant pointed out- “they’re going to be gone soon no matter what you do, so work on stretching instead”.
Goal #2- Back to calorie tracking, semi-check. I wasn’t totally faithful with it, but at least the last 2 days I’ve been better. I’m going to stick with it, I am!
Goal #3- Not get so aggravated over things at work and accept that sometimes life just isn’t fair, failed miserably. Ended up crying twice this week over how much I hate that place. Once it was while I was at home which aggravated me even more because I was letting work interfere with my happy time at home with the family. (The other time was in the car and it passed relatively quickly.) I’m generally not a crier, could be the extra hormones swirling around in addition to the other crap, I’ll try that goal again, after I’m done with this pity-party.
That was it for big goals for the week, don’t want to have too much to try to focus on, otherwise life gets in the way and then it all falls apart. It’s Friday, though, which means “pizza picnic night”. We rent a kids’ movie and all watch it while eating pizza on a blanket in the family room. It’s always a good time and we’re up to date on the latest releases in preschool appropriate movies. I haven’t seen a current movie rated above PG in years. I keep thinking we should rent a movie and watch it after the kids go to bed on a Friday or Saturday but I can’t stay awake. At least some day, when we all get more sleep so I can stay awake past 9pm or the kids are old enough to be out and about on a Friday or Saturday night, we’ll have years worth of entertainment catching up on all these years of movies we haven’t seen. Not too many are worth 2 hours of my time, though, maybe while I’m on the bike trainer or treadmill- there’s a plan. I’d just have to find the time to get in weekend workouts, also not going to happen in the near future.

Pregnancy status: 11 weeks, 5 days- 198 days to go. (Under the 200 days mark!)

Oh yeah, that felt good

This morning was a great workout. It was called cardio strength intervals, the first 30 minutes was made up of 1-minute intervals on the step with 15-20 seconds rest between. We did things like lunges, jumping jacks, lateral over-the-tops, and straddles- familiar terms if you've taken a step aerobics class. It sure got my heart rate pumping for a Monday morning. The last 15 minutes of class was a light weights workout, 8 lb hand weights with reps of chest press, shoulder press, biceps and triceps before a nice stretch cool down. What a way to start the week.

Went for my second ob/gyn appt, heard the heartbeat- which was great. I feel like it's official now. I'm glad to still be wearing my regular clothes, my size 10 jeans have been my looser ones for the past few months and they're not so loose right now but they're still on and buttoned. I've gained 3.5 pounds so far- much better than the first 2 pregnancies. I'm hoping to hold off on maternity clothes for at least a couple weeks. All my stuff from last time is too big because I started off 35 pounds heavier. A problem I'm happy to have, but I don't really want to spend money on maternity clothes I'll only wear for a few months. At least I'm near some outlets and good consignment stores.

Tough day at work today. Major lay-offs going around. I'm fortunate that it doesn't look like my group will be impacted, at least not for a while. Unfortunately, I've got quite a few friends that did not fare so well. Makes it hard to maintain motivation when there are some really good people being shown the door while some slackers seem to hang around forever.

Pregnancy status: 11 weeks, 1 day; 202 days to go.

Cinder*ella's ball gown

Is blue, and it's the color we stared at for about 5 hours today while painting the boys' room. Until next weekend it's just Superman's room, but Hot Wheels will move in next weekend after we get the furniture in and buy the new bedding for his bed. Because of the current state of both of their rooms (that would be full of junk we moved to paint), the boys and I will be having a big sleep-over on the pull-out couch in the basement tonight. Surprisingly, they're a little more excited than I am to sleep on the thin mattress down there while I've got a perfectly nice bed just 12 steps up and about 20 steps down the hall. It will be fun, in a way. We've even got a Tom and Jerry movie to watch before bed. It was strange having the boys out of the house for 6 hours today- they went to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house while we painted. The house was quiet, lunch was quiet and we talked about how less than 4 years ago this is what all of our weekends were like. What did we do with all that time? If only I had been training for triathlons then, I would have had hours every day to workout. Oh well, that's life and I wouldn't trade a single second of my life now for those pre-kid days. That's how it should be, especially since we're starting all over again in less than 7 months.


I did sleep in yesterday morning and it was WONDERFUL. I also realized yesterday and I could never be a model. Not like I could be even if I did want to, but I don't. At the photo shoot for the health promotion at work I spent 30 minutes having make-up put on by a professional make-up artist. I don't own any make-up other than a Burt's Bees all natural lip gloss so the world of mascara, powder, eyelash curlers, lip liners and eye colors was foreign to me. Then I met a very nice photographer who proceeded to take pictures of me for AN HOUR. By the time they were ready for the kids to be in a picture with me, the kids had completely lost their patience and it's not likely that they were able to get a good one of me with the kids. So I might be on a 20" x30" poster by myself. I'm quite sure that I never needed to see my face blown up to that size, professional make-up or no. I'm really hoping just one picture of me with the boys came out good enough. It was really hard to sit and keep smiling for that long. No action, no props, just me sitting on a box facing right, looking left, chin up, tilting my head, small smile, pearly whites smile- it just never ended. What a long day.

I WILL get on the treadmill tomorrow, for an hour! That's the plan and I'm sticking to it.

Pregnancy status: 10 weeks, 6 days; 204 days to go.

Then again, sometimes it's just stupid

Last night I was in my bed at 8:30pm. Superman, who's only 2 years old, was serenading me with Twinkle, Twinkle and Rock-A-Bye Baby from his room and talking to his blankets, toys and walls. I think I was asleep before he was, I was out by 9pm. Sort of pathetic.

At 1am, there was HotWheels, standing next to my side of the bed. I tried to get him to go back to his bed but he was upset about something and crawled next to me and fell asleep. That displaced the cat, who felt that he should move over onto my head. After about 20 minutes of cramped discomfort I headed downstairs for the couch with my down comforter, which I love. I might have dosed for a few minutes before hearing "M-m-m-o-m-m-m-y-y-y-y!!!! (yes, with that many exclamation points)" echoing from Superman's room. I tried to let him just go, hoping he'd tire himself out. After what felt like forever, but was probably 20 minutes, I decided to get him. I put him in Hot Wheels' bed and laid down next to him. That was when I realized I had let him scream too long because he had fully woken himself up and was ready to get up for the day there at 3:20am. I tried to doze, at least he's relatively quiet, but he was playing with my face, my hair, my clothes, the blankets and sheet and his fingers and toes until 4:42am. Then, he fell asleep. How convenient that my alarm goes off at 4:44am. The alarm went off and I nearly cried. I was awake enough, though, that I wouldn't have fallen immediately asleep myself so I got up and hit the gym. It was spin class this morning and I attempted a good effort but I really have no idea how hard I worked. I don't really know how I got through the day, I was chewing gum at my desk just to try to keep myself awake. Just last night I think I commented to Shytrigirl that sometimes your body tells you it needs a break and you've got to listen. I think tomorrow morning I'm sleeping in a little. I just can't make another day on less than 4-5 hours of sleep. And interrupted sleep at that.

I was hoping I might look half way decent tomorrow, too, because I have to have my picture taken at work. About a year and a half ago our company launched a new employee health and wellness program. We've got the on-site fitness center with group classes, nutrition counselors and personal trainers all for only $25 a month! There are incentive programs to help people improve their lifestyle in whatever manner is needed such as weight loss, stress reduction, better nutrition or fitness, etc. They were looking for volunteer health captains to promote the programs to colleagues. There I was, returning from maternity leave, I had started the pregnancy at 194 pounds and ended well over 200 pounds. I REALLY wanted to get in shape. We had just found out that Paul had type II diabetes and he was working towards his eventual 40 pound weight loss. We wanted to set healthy examples for our 2 young boys so they would grow up with better health. I decided to become a health captain and that gave me more motivation to get in shape. I couldn't tell other people how to do it if I hadn't made some improvements myself. Our site program leaders asked 3 of us (out of 4000 on campus) to share our success stories for our colleagues. I've managed to maintain my approximately 35 pound weight loss for over a year and now I've become a triathlete. I guess that makes me a success. More important to me, I do feel like I'm a good role model for a healthy lifestyle for my boys. They usually pick fruits over chips or sweets, and they think everyone exercises regularly. They're coming in to work tomorrow to be in the picture as well. Maybe a good night's sleep will make me look a little better. Or at least not fall asleep.

That's going to put me at only 3 workouts for the week, can I get on the treadmill 2 days this weekend? Not likely since we're painting the boys' room on Saturday, but we'll see what I can do.

Pregnancy status: 10 weeks, 4 days; 206 days to go

Me=1, Inertia= 0

The alarm went off this morning and boy, did my body want to remain at rest. Superman was up at 1:30am, went back to sleep around 2am. Then Hot Wheels got up about 2:10am, I got him settled back in bed and got back into my bed around 2:30am. At 3:15am he was up again, so I got out of my bed, he went to sleep there and I went to sleep in his room until 4:50am when the alarm rudely awakened me. I spent about 15 minutes deciding whether I was going to get up to get to the gym, therefore I missed out on my 20 minutes of cardio before Gutts and Butts class. But I made it to class and gave it a decent effort. One of the other trainers asked whether I've been feeling alright lately because I seem pretty tired. I've got about 2 more weeks until I want to make my pregnancy general news around here so I just gave the same kids not sleeping excuse I usually use. I'm also wearing my glasses because my eye is still inflamed so I look even more tired, I guess. But, the workout is done!

We finally got our family picture taken over the weekend, I'll post a picture when I get them online. The boys were both very well behaved, which was a surprise and a blessing because it could have been ugly. I can't imagine the circus it will be eventually trying to get three kids to sit for pictures, ugh. I did manage to get on the treadmill Sunday afternoon, so the 5 days a week of workouts streak continues 2 weeks into the new year. Not really newsworthy but it's all I've got to go with, so I'll do that.

Pregnancy status: 10 weeks, 2 days; 208 days to go.

Allergic to swimming?

Friday afternoon, for the third time in the past 2 months, my left eye started to itch and get inflamed. Yesterday morning it was more red and puffier, this morning it's half shut and looks awful. My face also itches on my cheeks and by the corners of my mouth. I look like I've got some sort of rash in some spots. The only pattern I can come up with to these outbreaks is that they come after I swam in the morning. But there have been times that I've gone swimming and haven't had any reaction. Could I be having a reaction to the chlorine in the pool? Nothing else has changed, same contacts, same detergents and soaps, etc. I feel very vain but I've got to have a picture taken for work on Friday so I'm going to skip the swim workouts this week and just hit the treadmill or elliptical trainer at the gym instead. The only good thing about my glasses is that they're thick enough that it sort of hides how bad my eye looks when I'm wearing them. Although I REALLY hate my glasses and wearing them during my gym workouts is so annoying. Oh well, my "year of the swim" might have to be re-thought if I keep having these reactions. Another swimming bummer.

Pregnancy status: 10 weeks, 210 days to go.

So I'm not as good as I thought

I had what I thought was a very nice swim this morning. Almost 45 minutes of straight swimming made up of sets of mainly 200 yards full swim, kicking and pulling. The woman who joined my lane about 30 minutes in is a co-worker who's training for an iron distance triathlon in September. I saw her workout sheet on the side of the pool and noticed she was supposed to be 8 x 50 yards of stroke count. I thought I'd give it a try for a few 50s. I've never counted my strokes so I had no idea what I was shooting for while I counted. My 100 yard time was consistently 2:00 flat and that felt pretty comfortable, I incorrectly assumed that I must be doing things relatively close to correct. My stroke count was 22 per 25 yards. I looked that up later on Google and found a link that stated "If your stroke count per 25 yards is above 20 you are woefully in need of stroke repair". Bummer, I thought that was the one area I was at least okay.

Overall, a decent workout week. Four mornings out of five I made it in for a good workout, I'd like to get a treadmill workout in over the weekend just to keep up my 5 days a week streak. It's still early in the year to blow the streak.

Pregnancy status: 9 weeks, 5 days. 212 days to go.

Hello, hamstrings, please come back

I think it was during set number 6 of squats this morning in Butts & Gutts that my hamstrings decided they were leaving the rest of my body. If the south can declare it's seceeding from the union, I guess my hamstrings can declare they're leaving. They didn't get far, but they sure quit helping the rest of the body for the duration of the day. It was only a problem when: sitting down, standing up, going up the stairs, going down the stairs, bending over to pick up Superman, bending over to wipe Superman's nose, get in the car, out of the car- you get the picture. I wouldn't have thought that only a little over a week away from the gym would have caused this amount of weakness on day 2 of the return. I am looking forward to tomorrow morning's swim.

Then I got home, checked out some favorite blogs and realized I've been tagged! It's a first for me and it's a much cooler first than the first anonymous comment blasting. Especially since I was tagged by the really cool Ironmomjenny. (Some day when I learn anything technical I'll be able to insert links in my text and on my side bars) So, here goes- my first tag.

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book & the author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Tag three more folks.

1. Already I'm in trouble because the nearest book is Clifford's bedtime and it's only 12 pages. So I've got to switch to the second closest book.

2. She's Such A Geek, edited by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders.

3/4. Jon scored well enough that he will be taking high-school-level math in the seventh grade next year. I got the information from Mrs. Frisch, and I want you to take the test." My mom's tine implied that this was a settled matter.

5. Okay, now to tag other people that I haven't already seen with this tag posted. I tag: Siren (Hitting my Stride), GeekGirl (Tales from the Back of the Pack, formerly Athena Diaries) and Julia (Five in Five). I hope this isn't like passing along the chain letter e-mails that everyone hates so much!

I had another good day of eating. I met my mom for lunch and we even split a serving of the chocolate bread pudding being served in the cafeteria today. Since I knew I was having dessert I was good and had a small tomato basil soup with some vegetables for lunch. It's nice having lunch with my mom for 2 reasons- first, we barely get to talk when we get together with the kids and second- she buys! I think I'm finally recovered from the stomach thing and just back to the low level nausea that I hope will be improving very soon.

Pregnancy status: 9 weeks, 2 days. 215 days to go.

The week started anyway

Not that it was a great start, but it was a start. I was up a couple times over the course of the night and moved out to the couch to escape the snorefest 18 inches from me in bed. The alarm went of at 4:45am (I've started sleeping in about 30 minutes because I've been more tired) and I heard the rain outside, so I laid there and listened to the rain for about 10 minutes before actually moving my body towards the door. I got to the gym for the 6am class and today was 35 minutes of kickboxing with 10 minutes of light weights and a stretch. Class was pretty decent for me although I'm definitely noticing a decrease in my energy output. But I was there.

I spent the weekend recovering from this stomach thing and I'm just not quite there yet. I'm guessing it could be back to pregnancy related nausea but I'm having major food aversions. Anything with taste- or smell, I can't eat it. So far I've mainly had toast, crackers, cheese, cereal, or chicken broth since Thursday lunch. Last night I was able to get down some scrambled eggs at least- firmly scrambled, along with the toast. That's probably the other reason my energy is low because I've got no protein in me. I couldn't even eat wheat pasta because it smelled too strong. I've had pregnancy food cravings before, but never food aversion this strong. I'm also still nauseated all the time. Unless I'm laying in my bed on my side only, I feel like crap. While I'm ranting and food's involved, WHY is there high fructose corn syrup in my bran flakes cereal?! I don't remember what brands I usually buy that don't have it but I was in Walmart last week and decided to buy a box. I tend to like cereals that taste like the box they come in- bland and a little cardboard-like. If someone wants a cereal with sweet taste, why would they choose bran flakes? I should have looked at the ingredients more carefully before I left the store but I just assumed that no one would adulterate my bran flakes with high fructose corn syrup- the crap of all sugars. Now I've got sweet bran flakes, so I'm mixing it with regular Special K because I'm too cheap to throw it out. Okay, pitiful pregnancy whining overwith.

I've got to try to get a family picture taken this week. Superman needs his 2-year picture taken and I usually do it on the kids' birthdays but last week it just didn't work out. Always interesting trying to get a good picture with both boys sitting and possibly smiling. Back to the regular routine, I'm off to have a bowl of cereal.

First meal update!! Tonight for dinner I ate the first real meal I had eaten since lunch on Thursday. It was the yummy ranch chicken pasta that Paul makes, without the parmesan cheese- which I usually love, or the wheat pasta- just plain white pasta. It was so nice to eat something with taste again. Almost 2 hours later it's still down, so it's all good tonight. Unfortunately, Superman napped this afternoon, so I anticipate a late bedtime tonight. I'm hoping I'll get into the gym at 5:30am for some cardio and then Butts & Gutts, we'll see what happens.

Pregnancy status: 9 weeks, 1 day: 216 days to go

Quick weight loss, not worth it

I'm not really in weight loss mode right now, obviously, but I did manage to lose a quick 3 pounds. A stomach virus will do that for you. There were 8 awful hours of vomiting and 36 hours later I've still got a lot of lingering nausea and a fear of eating. In the past 24 hours I've had a couple cans of ginger ale, some crackers, toast, chicken broth and this morning I tried a bowl of cereal. So far it's stayed down. I had planned another swim workout yesterday morning that I had to skip because I didn't sleep over night. Other than that it was a good beginning to the year on getting to the gym and staying active. Monday morning starts the new gym classes schedule so my week will go like this:
Monday 6-6:45a: Cardio strength class- kickboxing and circuit training type cardio
Tues 5:30a: 20 min of cardio- treadmill or elliptical trainer; 6-6:45a- gutts & butts strength class
Wed 5-6a: swim
Thurs 6-6:45a: Cardio blast- interval style class
Fri 5-6a: swim

There aren't any run or bike specific workouts but since I'm not in training for any run or bike events I just want to keep my general cardio fitness up. I like the group classes in the morning because the people are nice and the workouts don't get too boring. I'm just hoping to keep up a better fitness level than I did during either of my first 2 pregnancies. I'm also off to a good start with my meal tracking, although yesterday was easy since it was only 400 calories total.

Today's a birthday party for Superman and my nephew who turned 3 last weekend. It's at a kids' gym where they get to run around and have fun, it will be a good time, I'm sure. I usually tend to snack too much at these things so that's another good thing about the stomach virus because I don't even think I'll be tempted today.

Pregnancy status: 8 weeks 6 days, 218 to go

Leaving Slugville, slowly

After 10 completely sloth-like days of no activity, the GYGO New Years Day triathlon at least motivated me off the couch for a little while yesterday. I knew that my triathlon would be a 2-day affair since the pool wasn't open until this morning. But I wanted to start the new year off with some activity so I thought I'd run and bike at home. First workout of the year and I'm already making changes. I got on the treadmill, figured I'd bang out 2 10-minute miles and be done. No problem, right? Wrong. I know that the first 3 minutes of running always suck for me, but then it gets better. And it did, until I hit 7 minutes, then it got worse again. I ran the first mile and then walked the next one- total time 24:23. I had planned to get on the trainer for the 10 miles after that, but the kids were playing downstairs while I was running and I'm too worried that Superman would come over and get his fingers in the spokes before I could stop the wheel, so I decided I'd bike this morning after swimming.

Got to the pool this morning for the 1200 yards, that part felt good. Total time: 23:12. That works out to approximately 1:56/100yards. Not great, but acceptable.

I got to the gym for the bike ride but had to cut it from 10 miles to 5 because I had to get to work. Stupid work. Oh well, I did what I could with the time I had and at least it was a fun way to start the year.

Happy Second Birthday to Superman! We're off to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate this afternoon and then home for some Carvel cake. Fortunately, he won't remember that it's left over from his birthday party last week so we can recycle the cake instead of buying a whole new one.

Pregnancy status: 8 weeks and 2 days, 222 days to go.