Jillian sweet Jillian

I was feelin' pretty darn good about my mastery of Level One of Jillian's Hell...er...30 Day Shred. So I say to my dear friend Kari, "You sure I can do Level 2? I am scared." And she says, "You can totally do it. It's really not that bad. I actually like it better than Level 1." It's official. Kari is certifiably insane. Tighten up the straight jacket and put extra padding on the walls; I am dropping her off at the asylum to-day.

Seriously. Level 2 is craziness. I found it so difficult. I suppose it could be argued that I should have tried Level 2 a while ago instead of being happy with having my ass only mostly kicked around the room with Level 1. Whatever. There were multiple points in the workout last night I had to stop. I swore I could go on no longer. And when that muscle-y little bitch says, "I want you to feel like you're going to die." I very loudly informed her that I was not the only one that was going to meet my maker.

However, the fact that I couldn't make it through without stopping a bunch of times is more motivating than anything. I will not let her beat me. Yeah, she may have years of doing nothing but training and exercising and making exercise videos and tv shows, but I think I can take her. After I finally caught my breath and managed to stop sweating, all I could think about was doing Level 2 again. And doing it better. That muscle-y little bitch knows how to motivate.

Good news, bad news

The good news is that Alex will sleep through three hours of some of the loudest thunder we have had yet this year. Not even a peep out of him.

The bad news is that the dog still hates thunderstorms...and she still hates going through them alone...for all three hours. The storm took a little break from 4am to 5am, so the dog did too. But then at 5am the thunder came back and so did the dog. At about 5:14, I sat up, had a tired frustrated wrestling match with my pillow for 20 seconds, and yelled "Just leave me ALONE!" at the dog. Which she did. For about 3-1/2 minutes. And then it was back to, "Hey...psssst...hey Mom...Did you hear that? Did you hear that thunder? It was really loud. Are you sleeping? Mom. Mom. Mom. Thunder makes me nervous. Are you awake yet?"

I gotta be honest, no amount of cute makes that tolerable. Refill on my coffee please!

Alex's almost 1 party

The beast is almost a whole year old. To be very cliche, I cannot believe how fast a year flew by. It just does not seem like only a year ago that I was giantly pregnant and willing to knock over anyone that dared get between me and my drumstick. Thank god it is not a year ago.

Last Saturday, we had a party to celebrate Travis and I being able to keep a child alive for a year. There was a bounce house. It was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Alex was very pleased with the turn out.

So just last week I was talking about how I can finally see how everyone thinks Alex looks just like Travis. And as Mariah pointed out, he clearly has learned his "gettin' girls" moves from his father. I give you Exhibit A:

And apparently the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree...Exhibit B:

In Alex's defense, Hazel looks much more impressed than I do. Those boys gots skillz.

Mini Him

When Alex was born his resemblance to me was insane-o. Looking through my baby album was like watching him grow up...but in the late 70's...and in girl clothes, when my mom was actually able to wrestle me into clothes. It really was almost creepy. He looked exactly like me. The only thing that was Travis was his eyes. Oh my does he have Travis's eyes. Ice blue with a thin dark blue edge around the iris. I dare you to try to not fall in love with those eyes.

Alas, things they are a-changin'.

Now every single time I take Alex somewhere and we run into someone we know, within the first two minutes they say, without fail, "Wow! You look like your dad!" And I have to admit, aside from those eyes...I don't see it. Most the time. This morning, I totally saw it.

After snuggling on the couch for a whopping 4oz bottle, Alex was off and cruising around the living room. His cruising landed him right next to the weed whacker charger thingy. The little LED lights were apparently too much to resist. Anywho, as he reached his chubby little hand for the charger, I said, "Hey...whadda you think you're doin'?" And with his arm still extended toward the charger, he turned and looked at me with a giant smile, a twinkle in his naughty little eye I swear you could see from Mars, all topped off with a look like "Me? Am I doing something wrong?"

And at that exact moment it hit me..."Wow, you look like your father."

This morning Alex was a sleepy sleepy baby. He slept until I woke him up at 6:20. I got to get everything I needed ready for the day without having to corral a crazed baby. It was fantastic. I didn't have to hold the bathroom cabinet closed with my knee while trying to brush my teeth. I didn't have to set up the gates for a makeshift playpen while keeping little baby sausage fingers out of them so they don't get pinched. I got to use both hands to put cream cheese on my bagel. Ahhhh.

Just swept the kitchen and found no less than 8 cheerios. Ah the joys of having a self feeding toddler and a dog that has the weakest sense of smell this side of the Mississippi.

Drum away kiddo!

I never thought I would say this, but Thank Everything Sweet and Glorious in the World for drum sets.

Mornings have been a bit of a challenge this week. A patience, arm strength and balancing act challenge. Alex has decided every morning this week that he wants to be held. For the entire morning. Which, you know, isn't a problem..except for the little thing called getting ready for work. And the fact that I cannot physically hold him in one arm for that amount of time. And the fact that it is really difficult to put cream cheese on a bagel with one hand while trying to hold and deflect a baby away from said cream cheese and bagel.

When we were in California, my lovely mom bought Alex a little drum. A drum that opens up to store the drumsticks, maracas, jingle bell loop thingy, tambourine and some clappy hand thing thankfully Alex hasn't figured out yet. I had this little gem out on the porch for a while. And I remembered it this morning. And Alex hadn't seen it for a while.

Thank you drum set makers and thank you Grandma for being naughty and bestowing this apparatus upon our house. It gave me close to 15 minutes of not baby holding time to get ready. It was fantastic.