.marriage looks fat on me.

My beautiful sister Viktoria, is currently in school to become a Holistic Nutritionist and as part of her program she needs to assess a few people on their body, symptoms they may be having and she needs to prescribe for them a meal plan to address the certain areas of their body that are having issues. I was excited to hear she needed some people to be her guinea pig, because I have a problem that I have never addressed, Marriage looks fat on me.

Ever since hitting puberty around 14-15 years I had been a pretty consistent 150-155 lbs. Back then I felt large for my age, which I was, but even as I entered my 20s I maintained that weight and I just decided thats where my body was comfortable at. I was chill with the weight I was. I felt active and healthy and that is all that mattered.

20 years old at 150 lbs

23 yrs old at 160 lbs

Then marriage happened.

All of a sudden after I got married at 23 years old, I put on a surprise 30 lbs in less than 6 months. I jumped from 160 to 190lbs and just like that I went from a little soft around the belly, to feeling huge. I went to the doctor to find out how one could put on 30 lbs in such a short amount of time, but there was nothing medically wrong with me. It could only be my diet, and my lack of excercise, BUMMER! I never had a reason to lose weight before so trying diets was not a fun idea. I would try something for about a week and then quit. I had 0 motivation to lose weight.

After 3 years of marriage and maintaining a weight of 190, I got pregnant with my first baby. I ended up gaining 20lbs with the pregnancy putting me at 210, but quickly I lost 10 lbs of it after he was born and I struggled to kick the last 10 bringing me back to my 190.

Post Elliot at 200 lbs.

Well, after Elliot I started to be really self conscious of my arms and the size of my thighs, but unfortunately just my laziness and love of food won over and I decided, "Well, maybe after I'm done having all my kids I will try to lose weight and be healthy."

It was during this time between babies that I had a gallbladder attack, and I had to go to emergency and they told me if I didn't fix my diet, that I would have a chronic problem. Yikes.

Not too much later I got pregnant with Sebastien. I hoped I wouldn't gain too much weight during the pregnancy, but I ended up putting on 30 extra pounds. Good grief. So here I was, about 6 months after Sebastien's birth, feeling larger than life. (thank you Backstreet Boys for making such relate-able songs) When Tori mentioned she needed a guinea-pig for her class. I jumped on the opportunity.

Post- Sebastien weighing 230lbs

Viktoria has spent the past few months assessing my eating habits (which includes consuming between 3000-4000 calories a day, and rarely exercising), and finding out which systems of mine need the most help. It turns out my liver is the biggest issue for me, I am slowly turning it to crap with fried, processed, and high sugar foods. I also have been noticing side pains lately, and I feel winded going up the stairs. Which makes sense, you know sitting at 225lbs as of today.

So it is time for a change! We already eat very healthy meals around here, but the big problem is snacks, when I snack, and what foods I am pairing together. Today we sat down and made quite the meal plan. I am never to pair starch and meat ever. So its either veggies with a potato or with meat. But the meat and potato NEVER get eaten together. There are all sorts of rules of which foods need to be eaten together. Like fruit must always be eaten with a protein and never at dinner time. I don't understand the science of it all, but if you are interested in learning more, you can follow her blog which is www.soljinutrition.com 

This Monday I am starting an 8 week meal plan based on combining the right foods at the right times, a 30 minute workout circuit daily, and then I will be doing a week long liver cleanse before she assesses my progress for her class. This is my first real attempt at weight loss in my life, and I have to admit I'm pretty nervous. I don't want to screw this up, especially since she's being graded on how we do. To make myself more accountable, I will be updating how things are going each week that I start this  major lifestyle change.

Wish me luck!

March 5, 2016 weighing in at 225 lbs

10 months, and the time is flying

baby sebastien won't stop growing! and time won't stop passing!

it seems i am never taking his monthly picture on time anymore, and last month i didnt even write him a post. i'm glad i only do these pictures until he is a year old, otherwise i would have petered out months ago. i am glad to have this month by month explanation of how they are growing because already i've found it useful to look back on what elliot was like, and it helps me explain why baby sebastien is the way he is.

this winter is passing by like a flash. it is so warm out it feels almost over, but with february around the corner i know better. we have been enjoying the nice weather a bit, but mostly our day to day consists of indoor play.

first I'll talk about Elliot. he is such a funny kid, and his vocabulary is expanding and just becoming more hilarious to us,

Elliot, Ellie-bug, Bean

Bean is 2 years and 9 months old and his favourite pastime is watching television. Unfortunately. He cried for the tele ALL THE TIME. Its pretty annoying. I try to limit how much he watches, but he always wins when its time to put the baby to sleep. Chuggington is his current favourite show, and we often hear him quote phrases from it. Yesterday he told me he was afraid to go to the repair shop to get his wheels fixed. I told him he doesnt have wheels, and he said "YES, DO!" and he choo chooed away from me. Take that mother. He also says "Oh, bumpers." Which is like saying oh no in train language.

He also has an obsession with an invisible scary monster that he calls Baby Elephant. Baby Elephant is always trying to chase him around the house and we always have to hide to get away from Baby Elephant. Mostly he's imaginary, but sometimes Sebastien plays the role of Baby Elephant and we have to run away from Sebastien screaming. (Sebastien loves being Baby Elephant.) His imaginary enemy has also been blamed for pushing over Sebastien, for pulling all the cans off the shelf, and for hiding Elliot's soother.

Elliot likes making pretend ice cream with playdough and his favourite food is probably popcorn. He is constantly asking me to make it. He still hardly eats anything which is always frustrating. The only foods he'll eat is limited to snack food (of which he will eat all) ,toast, broccoli, peas, cucumbers, apples, rice, eggs, hot dogs, sometimes ground beef and kraft dinner. Sometimes I force him to try other foods but its so exhausting. So most nights he eats veggies and rice and nothing else. Practically vegetarian save for the occasional hot dog.

He was a terrible sleeper up until he turned 18 months, and then he magically turned into the best sleeper ever! I dropped his afternoon naps when he turned 2 years, and now he goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at 8:30am, or sometimes 9am which is just perfect for me.  He also goes down super easily, although last night before bed he asked for a glass of water. I'm not sure if it was cause he doesn't want to sleep or he was just thirsty, but its too early to tell.


Sebastien, Baby, Punky

We don't have a real nickname for Sebastien yet, but I really just like calling him Sebastien so I dont think something will stick. When he does something mean (like biting Elliot) I call him a little punk. Or punky. So maybe thats his nickname.

Sebastien is cruising all over the place. He has been crawling since 7 months, and walking along furniture for over a month now. He can also crawl up onto several chairs, and can also get onto the couch. He can climb up and down the stairs, but if you don't turn him around when he wants to go down the stairs he tries to go down like it is a slide (he also loves slides). He has fallen down the stairs a few times when we didn't catch him in time to turn him around. Along with his cruising, he is also standing independently but not walking. He thinks its a funny game when he stands and I try to get him to walk. He instead leaps forward with his upper body and forgets to move his legs. He face plants all the time and his head has a fair amount of bruises.

Sebastien is a box baby. If there is a box of any size in the area he WILL climb in it. He has broken an empty box of Q-Tips sitting on it, and has broken two board game boxes that were put on the ground during play. He just cannot resist a box! All the kids toys are kept in ikea storage boxes, and often he climbs inside of them and plays in there. My favourite when the box is just slightly too small for him to fit and he falls over. I'm a cruel mom, but really. Hahaha. You are too big little boy! He always attempts anyways.

Mealtime used to be fabulous. Elliot hated eating since birth and still does. Sebastien LOVED it from the moment he tried food. Always shoveling everything into his mouth. And then 3 days ago happened. He was pretty sick and feverish from teething and refused to eat. And he's refused food since then. Occasionally he will eat some gerber puffs or some cheerios, but mealtime is just him screaming. He has been drinking more milk to make up for it, but c'mon man. What the butts.

He's always been a terrible sleeper, but interestingly the same time he started refusing food, he also started sleeping through the night save for a 4am wake up for a bottle. I dont mind at all, Elliot did a 4am wakeup till he was 18 months and it didnt bother me one bit. I'm hoping the past 3 days haven't been a fluke and he continues sleeping amaaaazing.

Sebastien's favourite activity is wrestling. He likes to attack us, and especially Elliot. He bites and claws and rams his head into your body parts. He also does this to pillows and blankets if you put them on the ground. He's just a bruiser. Likes to be in the way, throws things to move them, and will push over anything that remotely resembles a tower of any sort, much to Elliot's chagrin.

Sebastien is also extremely cuddly and affectionate. Much more than Elliot was, which was a lot. So I'm smitten with him. And hopefully he doesn't bite my face forever. It could be awkward once his adult teeth come in.

.eight months.

well baby Sebastien is 8 months old now. he is a bundle of cranky always. it is so weird going from Elliot who was a super happy baby, you barely had to look at him sideways for him to start giggling. and then going to Sebastien, who if you dare look at him and you are not his mother he will undoubtedly start crying. he doesn't like anybody and thats just the way he is.

Sebastien is also very much on the move. he loves to stand up on furniture and crawl really fast towards the basement stairs if he sees the door open. (yes, he's fallen all the way down them too. little bugger is way too fast for me) his favourite person in the world is Elliot. E is one of the only humans that can make baby Sebastien giggle however Elliot really gets annoyed by "Bastin" following him around and of course likes to push him over or take toys away from  him. The life of a younger sibling. But Sebastien is a big boy and kind of a bruiser so he'll take toys away from Elliot as well.

We still have no teeth but I am hoping they come in soon. Nights are terrible and days are long. I always get excited when Kevin volunteers to watch the kids so I can go grocery shopping alone.

Well, that is about all at 8 months. Here are some favourites:

-favourite toys are cars, balls and books. he doesn't care so much to look at the pages, but he LOVES to turn them

-his favourite food is peanut butter toast or scrambled eggs. so breakfast time is his favourite time. sometimes he gets peanut butter toast for supper too depending on what we are eating.

- his favourite game is screaming. haha. he squeals and i'll squeal back to him and he'll do it again. he also likes to click his tongue while he's crawling around the house. i think its crazy adorable.

here are some photos of him at 8 months!

sebastien and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

ok, so its not that bad. but we found mr.hippo and sat down to take some photos and this wiggling worm just wouldn't sit still for me. he's pretty grumpy this  morning so i shouldn't have been surprised when his grumpy face came out a lot.
someday maybe he'll say "of course, you took way more pictures of elliot, he was the first child. second children never get as many photos." and then i'll direct him to this post and show what a grumpy turd he was. take that, bastien.

Happy 1/2 Birthday to you!

Sebastien is 6 months old! We made it. Which means I am officially not pumping as of today. Hurray. I made it. However, we are trying to start breastfeeding after 6 months of exclusive pumping and bottles. So this little guy might be getting milk  for his entire first year provided things work out and people don't mind my flashes of skin because this kid WILL NOT be covered up.

At 6 months Sebastien is a pretty happy baby. Unless you change his bum with cold wipes. Or if he's super hungry. Or if you flush an automatic public toilet. (those are the worst, do they really need to be so stinking loud?)

Sebastien rolls from back to front and just started rolling from front to back but only on a bed or sofa. He hasn't quite figured it out on solid ground. He can scoot backwards but not an other direction. He usually hits a wall and then just gets stuck like a wind up toy.

We have started solids with him and his favourite foods are sweet potato, squash, apple/banana, pears, cheerios and those little puffed star snacks. I have yet to give him any finger food besides puffs and cheerios since his hand eye coordination is still young, but I've got a ripe avocado so we will see how he does with it.

His 6 month immunizations are this week and he usually does pretty well with them. We are interested to see how much he weighs because he is definitely not wearing clothing the same way that Elliot did. Sebastien is on some 9 month clothes already and Elliot was always wearing 1 size smaller than his age. I've had to buy some extra onsies just to fill in the gaps,

Happy 1/2 birthday my smiling boy! We love having you around.

Elliot deserves a shout out as well. His words are coming at an incredible rate and it is so fun to talk to him. Television has been a very good teacher. Whenever we are driving he always tells me "RED = STOP, GREEN = GO!" Very helpful.

He can count to 10 except he never ever ever says the number FOUR.  I have no idea why. We are also trying hard not to repeat the words he says in the manner he says them so he learns the proper way to say it. Its hard though because his interpretation of some words are so funny I just want to use them all the time. Examples:

CONGA = CORN

JUICE FALL = WATERFALL

SEDNA = SEVEN

SIBBY = SLIPPERY

POOKIE = SPOOKY

CHEEBY = T.V

So hard not to copy it. I have to thank television for all the words he knows. Its a good thing I am such a good parent and let him learn things by watching TV,

In other news, our front AND back deck are done! Pictures and a post to come tomorrow

Mr. Drools is 5 months

hes five months!

some things he is doing right now:

-he can still roll over like a champ from back to front but still hasnt figured out the front to back maneuver. its mildly frustrating, but he is doing a lot better on his tummy now.

-he is still being swaddled to sleep, but only through half the night. its weird. he needs it to initially fall asleep and then in the middle of the night he cries to get out and once he's free will fall right back to sleep. i'm trying to remember how we weaned E off of being swaddled but i didnt write anything down about it. curses.

-he has been eating rice cereal the past 3 days and seems to like it! he is working on this new thing called food and moving it to the back of his mouth. he seems to like the taste and his eyes go wide and feet kick a bunch. for that reason i feed him on my lap instead of in a highchair yet. so squirmy!

- no teeth have arrived yet, but he is is a complete drooling mess. i need to buy some of those baby bandanas to catch the drool so i can stop changing onsies every 2 hours. 

- sebastien is very friendly when paid attention to, very grumpy when not paid attention to, and very stone-faced all the rest of the times. he is a man of a million expressions like elliot was. except this babe has eyebrows so you can really tell his emotions.

- bathtime is too much fun and his favourite toys right now are sophie the giraffe, and anything that crinkles like the wipes bag. nom nom nom

- we are working on balancing. he really wants to be upright so we practice sitting often

already he loves watching elliot. bean was running circles around the living room last night and sebastien couldnt stop kicking, and watching him and gurgling. it was adorbs. they both like eachother a lot. elliot is also obsessed with baby lately now as well. last night before bed he spread out baby's fingers so they could high five and pound it.

LOVE MY BABIES!

4 month lil' porky

my porky boy is 4 months old! ok, so he is not really THAT porky according to his latest measurements. he is weighing in at 15lb 12oz as of his 4 month immunizations and falls in the 50th percentile. but he is porky to me after my 15th percentile babe, mr. string-bean elliot. porky and beans. my delicious children that give me gas.

sebastien's immunization appointment was yesterday and all went according to plan. he cried getting the shots (i dont blame him. those needles are LONG! and i have this weird irrational fear that the nurse is going to sneeze right before injecting the needle and she's going to miss the bebe thigh and stick me in my leg or hand. them things scary) after the shots were done he instantly got drowsy and started mumbling ow wowowo ow wowowow ow wowow to himself a bunch until he fell asleep.

i love my little porky bacon butt. he is well loved around these parts. even by elliot. i was worried bean would be jealous of the new baby and act out, but for the most part elliot ignores the baby, except to come rub his belly or head from time to time.

here are some facts about sebastien at 4 months:

-he still wakes up 2 times during the night. once around 3 am and the second around 6am. but he sleeps from 9-8:30 otherwise so I can't complain too much!

-he is very drooly, and seems to be teething from time to time getting pretty irritable and wanting to chew on everything.

-he LOVES to smile and make flirting faces at anyone who will stop to talk to him. if you stick around and talk long enough he will talk back or maybe practice blowing raspberries.

-he has discovered his hands, can roll from front to back and almost from back to front

-he is ticklish around his ribs and making him laugh produces the cutest sound you have ever heard. baby giggles are the best kind of music.

happy 4 months sebastien. it feels like you have always been a part of our family. we were all meant to be.