Author Archives: Cindy

we're gonna dooo the monkey

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I apologize in advance if you can’t get this damn Wiggles song out of your head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpYBANpkHew

Note that she’s wearing Thomas the Tank Engine underpants (which are actually boys’ underpants, but they don’t make Thomas for girls, and really, who cares at this age? It’s not like 2 year-old boys use the flap in front either).

But, yes. Underpants. Not diapers, not Pull-Ups. The real deal. She is still wearing Pull-Ups sometimes; always at nap and bedtime, but if she wants to wear them other times, I don’t really care as long as she keeps it dry. The other day she wore the same Pull-Up for about 24 hours, because she kept it dry the whole time – even when she was asleep.

She’s not 100% there yet, as we have yet to see a single poop in the potty, but still. MAJOR progress. She’s even used the potty at our neighbor’s house and at Dave’s office. I’m sort of stunned at how much easier it was this time compared to three months ago. I guess giving her some time to get used to the idea was all she needed.

So, that jumping & arm-flailing dance of pure joy you see at the beginning of this video? That about sums up my reaction to this whole potty-training business. Jump to the front & back, indeed, Wiggles.

weighty issues

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I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. I went to my OB/GYN and had my IUD taken out. So, yes, this means that technically we’re going to start trying for baby #2 – or at least, we’re no longer preventing the occurrence of baby #2. And I know that’s exciting, and yay! Squee! Baybeees!! But there’s something else about this doctor’s appointment that really bothered me, so we’ll leave the baby talk for another time (like, I don’t know, maybe after I get a positive pregnancy test, which could be a year from now, given my previous track record).

The thing that upset me? My weight.

I knew I’d have to step on the scale at the doctor’s office. You always do, right? I hate the scale. I avoid the scale at home. I’m almost never happy with whatever the number may be. But I thought I was mentally prepared. I had done a little calculation in my head on the way there – sure, most of my clothes are feeling a little tighter lately, but I can still button my size 12 jeans, so it’s not that bad, right? I had an idea of what the number on the scale would probably be.

Wrong.

I’m not brave enough to type the number here, but let’s just say that I have a mental block around a certain number – a weight that I haven’t been since my gastric bypass surgery. It’s a number that for the past 7 years, I have refused to ever see on the scale again. And now I’m dangerously close to that number. Like, I’m less than 10 pounds away from it. I can smell that number from where I am. And I don’t like it one bit.

And I know – I KNOW! – that it’s just a number and it’s all about how you feel and how your clothes fit and blah-blah-blah, but the thing is? I feel like crap most of the time. I feel comfortable in very few of the clothes that I own. So it’s not good, and I need to do something about it. I started a diet back in January, but I think it was too radical – I cut out ALL refined sugar and white flour, which is insanely hard to stick with when you have a 2 year-old in the house. But I did it faithfully for a month and lost a whopping zero pounds. That’s when I got frustrated and quit.

Since January, I’ve gained about 10 pounds, and I think I know why: I snack too much at night. I have always “grazed” in the evenings, but lately it’s gotten out of control. I would estimate that probably half of my day’s calories are consumed between 8 p.m. and midnight. Pretty much the worst possible time to eat, right? So that’s the biggest change I’m going to work on for now. I’m definitely going to be adding in healthier food choices and snacks during the day (plus drinking more water & less Diet Coke), but I also know that it’s pretty likely that I won’t be able to stay away from the occasional cookie. So for now, the main thing I’m going to do is stop eating at night.

I started last night. After I put Catie to bed, I had a cup of chamomile tea – because hot liquids trick your tummy into feeling full, plus it helped me start to feel sleepy. And you know? I didn’t die. In fact, it was fine.

I also need to work on getting in shape. I couldn’t do the 30-Day Shred because it hurt my knees too much, and I love the Wii Fit, but it’s more for fun & doesn’t feel like it’s giving me a really solid workout. So I’m thinking about trying Cool Running’s Couch-to-5K program. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to jog/run a 5K; I have wonky knees, and I doubt they’ll hold up for something like that. But I can try. The program only takes up 3 days a week, which seems do-able. Throw in one or two yoga/pilates workouts too, and I should be doing fine in no time.

Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

chicken curry, British style

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I mentioned on Twitter that I was going to be making my mother-in-law’s chicken curry for dinner, and a few people asked me to share the recipe. So, here goes:

Mags’ Super Awesome Chicken Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

  • About 2 pounds of chicken (Dave likes light meat & I like dark, so I buy 1 pound each of boneless, skinless breasts & thighs, and chop/mix them up)
  • Large onion, finely diced
  • Heavy cream
  • Garlic (either fresh or the chopped kind from a jar)
  • Salt
  • Vegetable oil
  • Almond slivers, either ground up through a cuisinart (if you have one), or if you’re me, pulverized with a meat tenderizer. I buy the little 1/4 cup bags in the baking section, and I use about 1/2 of it in the recipe. So, 1/8 cup? I guess? (I can haz math skillz?)

    • Herbs:

  • 1 heaping tsp cumin
  • 2 heaping tsps coriander
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • Chili powder to taste (for me, this means basically one microscopic shake because I am a HUGE wimp about spicy food; if Dave was making it, he’d probably dump the whole jar in there)
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger

    • Instructions:
    1. Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pot. Once it’s hot, add your garlic (to taste; I use about 1 tbsp because I looove garlic), and lightly fry it just until it starts to really smell good. Maybe a minute or so, you don’t want it to burn & turn bitter.

    2. Mix your herbs with water (~3 or 4 tablespoons) to make a smooth paste. You want it to be “runny thick” (my MIL’s term), about the consistency of heavy cream. Add your herb/water mixture to the pot and continue to stir fry. When it goes dark & separates, add your chopped onion. Turn heat down, cook on medium until the onion is caramelized.

    3. Add chicken. Cook it through; no pink in the middle.

    4. Add about 1 cup of water. You can add a chicken stock cube if you like; I do, but it’s entirely optional. Simmer for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour (the longer it cooks, the more tender the chicken). If you’re my mother-in-law, this is the point where you take a break and fix yourself a nice gin & tonic. After all this hard work in the kitchen, you’ve surely earned it.

    5. Add about 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to your chicken curry. (Obviously this recipe has no calories at all.) Let it simmer for a while to allow some of the liquid to reduce. Salt to taste.

    Serve over basmati rice. I also buy naan bread from the bakery section of our grocery store and heat it in the oven to serve on the side.

    Enjoy!

    a Facebook etiquette question

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    Last November, I went home for Thanksgiving and while I was in town, my sister & I attended a mini-reunion of a bunch of people that we went to high school with, who all happened to be in town for the holidays (and some who are still local). During that get-together, this picture was taken:

    me, Laurie, Tracy, Nicole, Sandra, and some dude I don't know

    That’s me in the flowery shirt on the left, and my gorgeous sister is in the middle in blue.

    If you click through to Flickr, you’ll see that my caption for the guy on the far right is “some dude I don’t know.” Well, I do know who he is now, because he’s added me as a friend on Facebook. Which is weird, because we only met that one time and I don’t remember him from high school at all. I only recognize his last name because I kinda-sorta knew his younger brother (or I should say, I recognized his brother’s name; I don’t know if we ever spoke to each other in high school). My sister had no clue who he was either, even though he was closer to her grade. But yeah, ok, we have like 15 Facebook friends in common, so sure I’ll add you. Why not?

    Here’s the weird thing: that picture up there? He has that set as his profile picture. WTF? I’m guessing he likes that there’s a picture of himself with 5 attractive women, but since neither my sister nor I really know him at all, I thought it was borderline creepy that we’re in his profile picture. But eh, ok, I let it go. But that’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

    Now, though, I’m starting to get really annoyed, because he keeps making these outrageous political statements on Facebook (i.e., one of his status updates said, “Oboma [sic] is such a liar!!!”), and he answers Facebook polls with “Absolutely!” on the “Would you vote Sarah Palin for president in 2012?” question. So, basically, all of this far-right rhetoric is popping up… with my sister’s and my faces right next to it. And since I’m pretty much the polar opposite end of the spectrum, I really don’t like this at all. (I think I can safely say for my sister that she wouldn’t care much for it either, but I don’t know if she’s noticed it yet.)

    So, my question is, can I send him a very polite private message on Facebook, and just say, hey look, you’re 100% entitled to your opinions, but I’d prefer if you use a different profile picture because I don’t want people to associate my face with that kind of talk? Or do I just have to suck it up & ignore it?

    Potty-Training Status Report

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    I’m scared to blog about this since last time was such a disaster, but potty-training is… going much better than I expected.

    Excuse me while I pause to look around and make sure no anvils are about to fall out of the sky and land on my head.

    Tuesday night, I got the ball rolling by telling Catie that she was going to start using the potty in the morning. She’s a cautious kid, and I thought she might need some warning time to process it and prepare. I think it helped. I also decided to use Pull-Ups this time instead of just going cold turkey to big-girl panties.

    Yesterday (day 1) was very hit-or-miss. She had a couple of successful pees in the potty, but she also peed in her Pull-Ups a lot. But I was happy with the progress that she made, since we were basically starting from scratch. Every time she peed on the potty, I cheered and applauded her, and gave her lots of hugs & kisses, and rewarded her with a York peppermint patty (her favorite treat). (And yes, that means that this morning I gave her chocolate before breakfast. I know, I’m the worst mother ever. Whatever, I was proud of her.)

    (Also, for the record, the little training potty? Does not work for her. She hates it. Maybe because she remembers the last potty-training attempt. So we have a Dora potty seat and put it on the regular toilet for her to use. She likes it because it’s the same “big potty” that Mommy uses. And I have to say, I much prefer just flushing & not having to clean out the little pot.)

    Today has been a lot better. She’s peed in the potty four times already, and has only had one accident. She’s pooped in her Pull-Up a few times – which, ok yes, the idea is to eventually get her to poop on the potty too, but after her 6-day poop strike that happened last time? I’m just happy that she’s still going & not holding it in. Baby steps, right?

    Also, I told her that if she can learn how to pee and poop in the potty, and if she can do it every time without accidents by the time we move into the new house, then when we move, I’ll get her a Thomas the Tank Engine table just like the one at the toy store. And we can put it in her new playroom. I think that motivation might help her a lot. (I’ve seen about 25 train tables for sale on craigslist. I was thinking about getting her one after we move anyway, now I just have a way to use it as a bribe.)

    So, yeah. I think we’re getting there. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get her 100% potty-trained, but at least she’s making progress and I can safely say that it’s a thousand times better than last time.

    Potty-Training 2: Bathroom Boogaloo

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    As y’all probably remember, we tried to potty-train Catie back in May. I’d describe that venture as one great big, epic FAIL. She clearly wasn’t ready, and I had no prior potty-training experience so I had no clue how to help her through the transition.

    Now, though, it’s three months later. And she seems to be completely potty-trained when she’s at the baby-sitter’s house. Meanwhile, if I ask her to sit on the potty at home, I get a bunch of histrionic wailing and “NO! NO POTTY!!” Hmm.

    Clearly, something needs to be done. To be honest, I think I was thoroughly traumatized by that last potty-training attempt, so I just put it out of my head and figured I’d tackle it again… someday. With no concrete idea of when that would be, because I was too freaked out to imagine revisiting that whole debacle.

    My sister Tracy and I were chatting online yesterday and she gave me this brilliant idea, and I’ve decided to run with it. Dave and I talk to Catie about the upcoming move a lot, and we’re always trying to reassure her how it’s all going to be great, because we don’t want her to get stressed out about it. So we talk about how it’s a really nice house, and we’ll all be there (Mommy, Daddy, Catie, Beaumont, & Teenie), and Catie’s big-girl bed will be there, and all of her toys, books, and movies will also be there. And oh, the fun we will have in our new house.

    BUT (and this is where Tracy’s genius comes in), I told Catie last night, the one thing that our new house doesn’t have? Diapers. There are no diapers in the new house. At the new house, we all use the potty.

    Catie is at daycare today, so we’re going to start working on this tomorrow. I think we’ll probably go the Pull-Up route for a day or two before going cold turkey to just big-girl panties, because that was a disaster last time.

    Wish me luck. I’m sure I’m going to need it. (Oh, and if you have any potty-training pearls of wisdom, feel free to leave them in the comments for me.)