Start of Workout

Today I'm starting a new workout. After being discharged from PT, I have no excuse not to get in shape. :) And after a 2-week eating-fest in HI, I have a few extra pounds to lose... ok, or just convert to muscle. After just one week back home, I've dropped 2 pounds just by going back to our old eating routine - light breakfast and lunch, big dinner. So not bad. But still, some flab to get toned.

Here's the "before" stats. Logging it here, cause I'm going to forget by the time I get to 90 days.

weight: 113.8
body fat %: 24.5

Sorry, no "before" picture. :)

I'm doing the P-90X Lean workout. The workouts are about an hour long and I'm going to try and squeeze them in during El's morning nap. Today, she took a short one, so I only got through half and just finished the other half. Hoo, it kicked my booty! I'll try and stick with it. 1-hour workouts, 6 days a week - anyone is bound to get stronger/lose weight/slim down with that regiment! :)

Top Whatever

Here's a top 'whatever' list for the last couple weeks. Mostly, highlights from our trip:

* Ellena's first plane ride. Relatively smooth!

* Lots of bonding time with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bang Bang. On our first day, Evan checked off all the things he wanted to do with them: play with the paint gun, see Grandpa's punching bag, check out Grandpa's John Deere mower, and water the plants with Grandma.

* Evan made fast friends with Rick, a close family friend that works with my dad. Every time, he would ask if Rick was over. He would look outside to see if Rick's Jeep was parked on the side of the house. Once, my dad's truck was there and he said, "Grandpa, you have to move your truck, so Rick can park his Jeep there." Ha!

* Went to another close family friend's farm. Roger let us pick oranges, fresh water clams, daikon and bananas. Evan had so much fun.

* Attempted to go fishing, but had to turn around due to a heavy downpour. We'll try again in the summer.

* Evan got to play with his cousins, Makana Lei and Shayden. He immediately took to Makana Lei and called her, "his girl cousin."

* Had luncheons and dinners with family and friends. So nice to see everyone.

* Got to spend time with the kids' great-grandparents. So much joy on everyone's faces!

* Evan discovered not all beaches are scary. We went to Ali'i Beach which was extra calm, shallow and peaceful.

* Evan got to experience the 'world famous' Matsumoto Shave Ice. Yum! Pops also snuck a taste to Ellena, too.

* We basically ate and ate and ate. I think Pops and I each gained 3 pounds in a 2 week period. Not good. Pops couldn't wait to get back to the gym this morning. I'll be starting a 3-month workout regiment and see if it will get me in shape before our next trip!

* Ev had the hardest time feeling comfortable at night and these sleep issues have followed us home. Ugh. No fun.

* Picked up material for some sewing projects. Can't wait to get started!

8!

Ellena is 8 months old today! Wow! She enjoyed her trip - she's a relatively good flier. She took two naps on each of the 6-hr flights, but was much more clingy the second time around. Only wanted the Momma. She is pretty much over her stranger anxiety - she doesn't really bawl when people get in her face anymore. But she does take a few minutes to check a new person out before warming up to them. Then, she's all smiles and coos.

In the last week, she has started scooching with a purpose. She shoots her arms out in front of her and pulls her body forward like an inch worm. She will get up on her knees and rock, but has not done a real 'crawl' yet. I'm sure it will be soon though! Now that she is mobile, she likes to entertain herself by finding toys on the ground to play with. Today she had a truck and top in front of her. She played for a few minutes, then did a 180 and entertained herself with the pack of wipes - still her favorite toy.

Ellena has also started making new sounds. At our last well child visit, I couldn't really think of any consonant sounds... maybe a ya-ya-ya, but it was very rare. In the last week, she has started saying new sounds like ba and ga. And she chatters like she's really talking to us about something. Love it!

A new developmental milestone for Ellena that is proving difficult for all - separation anxiety. She all of a sudden has gotten very attached to me and will throw a fit if I leave the room. Last night during her bedtime bottle (which Poppa ALWAYS does), she started crying - and it was her 'I'm in pain' cry. Very unusual. Gas? Bonk? Nope, I picked her up and she gave a sly smile to Pops. What a girl. Hopefully this will pass soon.

HI Pics Part III

Silly Ellena at Gyotaku eating lunch (carrot face).

Family picture at Evan's favorite beach, Ali'i Beach at North Shore

Ellena and Granny

Evan, Papa and Ellena

On a Roll

Today Evan was in a mood. He was "on a roll" with his comments... just spewing them out one after the other.

"Momma! You and that attitude!"

"Serious?!"

"I'm too busy for that!"

"I can't believe you!"

HI Pics Part II

Probably our last post before heading to Oahu tomorrow. Top 10 list will have to wait. But here are some recent pics.

El passed out at the farm.

Ev farming - pulling out daikon (radish)

Grandma and Evan at dinner

HI Pics Part I

Assuming we take more pics on our trip, here's Part I of our trip.

Grandma Sue & Grandpa Bang Bang

Rainy in Kahului

We made it to Hawai'i and I guess we brought the rain. Better than bringing snow, I guess. Evan was sooo excited the night before we left, he couldn't fall asleep. Finally, two hours later, he was down for the night... and up the next morning ready to get on the airplane!

The flight was relatively painless. Alaska Airlines rocks. They moved some passengers around so that we could sit together. They went the extra mile to give us a row of 3 and a seat across the aisle, even though we have a lap infant. Wow! So we were able to bring El's car seat on the plane and buckle her in for her naps (2 1-hour naps) and not have to carry her the whole time. Nice!

The kids are having a hard time adjusting to the 3 hour time change. Even though they go to bed at 8:30 HST, their bodies are telling them to wake up at 7 PST, which makes it the ungodly hour of 4 AM here. Ugh.

Evan has been looking forward to trying out Grandpa Bang Bang's paint gun. Here he is shooting water.

Here he is using the pressure washer. Nice form, dude.

Here's El on the plane. She's actually lying on my lap, but I rotated the pic, thinking she was sitting up. Oh well.

Here's Ev playing in the snow before we left home. Nice to get out of that mess.

Belated Birthday Wishes

Happy belated birthday to my brother, Stu - a guy who gets so much joy out of playing with his niece and nephew! Yesterday was too hectic to get on and blog, but hope it was a great one!

Swimsuit Beauty

As we were getting our swim clothes together for our trip, I dug out Evan's old swim diaper for Ellena to wear. Turns out, the size that she would wear are the swim trunks style, rather than Speedo style. So Ellena would look like a boy. But who cares, right? Pops, apparently. He made a big deal about getting his little girl a bathing suit, so I picked one up from Target and had her try it on (the 12 month/18-22 lb. size looked small.) Here she is in all her cutie-pie glory.

Top 10 for the Week of March 1

* We went to the Pacific Science Center for an adventure, before our membership ends. Ev's favorite activity - operating the robotic digger to scoop up the marbles. He could probably stay there all day.

* Pops and Ev got fish for the tank! One barb was sick and died, so they went back to replace him, and they picked up 2 albino tiger barbs. Evan calls them Albimo or Piggy.

* We had fixin's for a luau the other night and makes us anticipate our upcoming trip to HI!

* We had our friends over for Mommy group. Evan and Emily went up to Ev's room, turned on his radio and had a dance party. Too cute!

* We met up with Amy and Isaac for lunch. It was so great to see them and the boys had such fun running around Gilman Village.

* I have begun the huge task of packing for our trip. Wow, these kids need a lot of gear!

* I have been discharged from physical therapy! No more tail bone pain!

* Today is Evan's last day of soccer. He has asked to take a break from it so we're not signing up for the next session. We made rice crispie treats for the two coaches and Evan wanted to make them green. It looks festive (for St. Patrick's day) but Pops said it looks like snot.

* I'm getting my behind in gear and working on Ellena's first birthday parties. It's coming up too fast!

* Yesterday we had wonky weather. Snow, frozen rain, sunshine. Geez! Friends in HI are warning us that it's so cold there - jeans and long sleeve t-shirts for 60 degree weather. At least it's not in the 30s!

Fish Tank

Evan and Pops got fish this weekend for Evan's tank. He got 5 tiger barbs (all named Tiger Barbs), a red tail shark (named Sharkie) and a catfish (named Princess). They seem to be doing fine, although the shark is more on the shy side. Evan has been great about feeding them twice a day. He talks to the fish and tells them things like: "It's time to go to sleep now. I'm going to turn off the lights and it's going to be dark, but that's ok. Don't be scared."

Yesterday we were downstairs eating lunch and he looked up and started talking, "I'm eating lunch now. I'll come upstairs after." I asked who he was talking to. He said he was telling the fish that he would feed them lunch after he was done with his lunch. Too cute.

Happy Girls' Day!

Today is Girls' Day, a Japanese celebration of girls and dolls. Here's Ellena in a kimono a friend got for her in Japan. Thanks, Yuriko! Evan asked what we do for Girls' Day. I told him we display dolls, but we don't have any. So he said, "How about we display bibs instead?" So he went around Ellena's room and hung bibs on door knobs, etc. So festive. Next year we'll have some dolls to display.