After nearly two weeks of jotting down every meal and snack and recording my blood sugar four times a day like the good student that I am, I had a follow-up appointment this morning with both a perinatologist and dietitian. The good news is my numbers are "beautiful," in the dietitian's words. Just a couple of days into recording I called the dietitian because I was worried my numbers were too low. While the fasting blood sugar taken first thing in the morning before breakfast is usually between 75 and 85 (within their desired range of 60 to 90), my one-hour-after-eating numbers have only twice even made it into their range of 100-130, usually between 80 and 95. Numbers do not appear to be creeping up at this point, rather bouncing around between those ranges, even with a few "experiments" and generally relaxing the restriction on carbohydrates.
The bad news is I've got a lot of pregnancy to go and as the perinatologist in particular pointed out, I need to be psychologically prepared for those numbers, especially the morning fasting blood sugar, which is notoriously hardest to control with diet and exercise alone, to go up as I get further along and the placenta continues to grow. While I have enjoyed being less strict with the diet over the past week or so, and have to admit I was pretty anxious for about a week after being told I'd "failed" the early gestational diabetes screen, in hindsight I'm actually glad I was on the diet for a couple of weeks before beginning to monitor my blood sugar four times each day. I think, had I seen these low numbers early on, I wouldn't have taken the diagnosis as seriously and would have "experimented" a lot more. As it is, the three small meals + three snacks, all the while watching my carbs in general and my sugar intake in particular, has already become a bit of a habit. I'll admit that part of me was really hoping they'd let me off the hook, at least until the glucose tolerance test (the "sugar drink") normally administered between 24 and 28 weeks and go from there. But I think particularly because it's so early, they want me to continue to monitor my blood sugar levels, but only twice a day, and stick to the somewhat relaxed diet as much as possible between now and my next appointment in one month.
So for anyone coming to this blog by way of searching for gestational diabetes (something I did a lot those first few days), here's what I've found to be helpful. First a GD cheat "sheet":
As far as GD is concerned, you've got your carbohydrates and your proteins; fats and non-starchy veggies are "free" (you can have that double-double from In 'n' Out but order it protein style or discard the top half of the bun - it's a little like entering opposite land, at least for pregnant women, I think because they don't want to tell you that, basically, you can't eat anything). 15 grams of carbs = 1 serving. Carbs include the obvious: breads, grains, and cereals - and the not so obvious: milk/dairy, fruit, and starchy vegetables. You can subtract grams of fiber from overall grams of carbohydrates for an
adjusted serving size; for sugar alcohols (in sugar-free items), subtract half (i.e. if an item has 14 total grams of carbs including 8 grams of sugar alcohols, you'll subtract 4 of those grams for an adjusted serving size of 10 grams of carbs or 2/3 serving).
Protein is your friend. Protein slows down the sugar so balancing carbs and proteins is key. 1 ounce of protein = 1 serving. Think eggs, meat, of course, nuts/seeds, nut butters (good luck if you have a nut allergy...or if you're vegan, for that matter), cottage cheese, fish/tuna, soy/tofu, and cheese.
For breakfast and snacks, I try to have 1 to 2 servings of carbs plus at least 2 servings of protein (1 for snacks). For lunch and dinner, I can have 2 to 3 servings of carbs and at least 3 servings of protein. Packing in that much protein is harder than it sounds, not because I don't like all the protein products, but because they take a little more effort to prepare and eat. Carbs are quick and easy, unfortunately.
A typical (A+ kind of) day would go something like this:
7:15 am - breakfast: 2 multi-grain waffles (I like the Trader Joe's variety) with 1 tbsp. almond butter, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, and sugar-free syrup, plus scrambled eggs with a little bit of cheese.
9 am - snack (the dietitian wants me to eat every 2 to 3 hours - not a problem for me but I guess this might be hard for non-snackers): small homemade granola bar (I analyzed my recipe and each bar contains 4 grams of sugar from honey - still technically a no-no, but I figured I'd try it and see how my numbers looked...they were fine), 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese, and 1/2 nectarine.
{Digression} - I forgot to add that you're not allowed cold cereal - ever - nor should you have dairy or fruit first thing in the morning. Additionally, you should never have dairy (milk, yogurt - cheese is usually okay) and fruit together in one meal or snack. That said, I haven't had a problem with combining things like Greek yogurt (much higher protein content than regular yogurt) or a soft cheese like cottage cheese with fruit, thankfully (because who can eat plain Greek yogurt? not me). I've also been able to have cereal for breakfast, so long as I include some protein (nuts in the cereal, eggs or turkey bacon on the side, etc.), without it affecting my blood sugar levels. For now at least.
12:45 pm - lunch: turkey/cheddar/pesto wheat wrap with 1 ounce potato chips and 1/2 apple (as with Elias, I've had a consistent craving for potato chips this pregnancy, something I rarely eat otherwise; sweets are my vice!)
3 pm - snack: one serving peanut butter pretzels with one babybell cheese
6 pm - dinner: 3 pieces of Trader Joe's frozen spinach pizza with a side chicken caesar salad (frozen pizza is usually light on toppings, so you can boost the protein content by adding meat and cheese - or getting pizza out, where toppings aren't usually a problem; passing on the crust will help keep the overall carbs in check)
9 pm - snack: Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (these things are ridiculously good); I'm also a big fan of the popcorn/candy/Fresca combo in the evening, but obviously the candy is out. Chocolate covered almonds (no candy coating) don't seem to bother me at this point, oddly, but a possible alternative in the future might be those cocoa dusted almonds. Additionally, we use coconut oil and Himalayan salt (both of which you can find at TJs) to stove-top pop our popcorn (I say we as if I ever make it - that would be Neal's job), both of which have various, supposed health benefits. And hey, if not, the coconut oil will make your house smell like the beach and Himalayan salt is pink!
The evening snack is actually pretty important as it helps to control that fasting blood sugar level the next morning (something about how if you go more than 10 hours without eating your liver produces more glucose, thereby ironically increasing your blood sugar level despite the long fast between dinner and breakfast). So, yes, a lot of eating has been going on around here. I think eating every 2 to 3 hours is key - as soon as I'm peckish, it's time to eat again so I'm never really all that hungry. And if I'm never ravenous, I'm less likely to go for the easiest snack on hand, or snacking while preparing a meal, etc. I actually lost weight the first week or so, but I was up about a pound the next week.
I rounded out the epic morning of prenatal medical appointments (on this, our last day of private medical insurance...hello, Medi-Cal!) with my monthly visit to my OB/GYN, getting to hear the baby's heartbeat not once, but twice this morning. That never gets old, does it? The 20 week, sex-revealing ultrasound has been scheduled for early September, so stay tuned for that announcement, as well as other pregnancy and kiddo shenanigans in the meantime, I'm sure.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
the 4th day of July (and all the other ones, too)
I thought this blog post would be about the 4th of July holiday but as it stands, we didn't do much! Or, at least, we didn't do much documenting. Since the 4th fell on a Wednesday, and with our memories of Bay Area fireworks displays being hardly worth the hassle in terms of driving, camping out for hours in advance, and battling traffic to get home, we decided to forego any formal fireworks display this year (and sadly, the DIY fireworks are completely banned in most Bay Area cities). I had work to do the next day and Neal had jobs to apply to so to school Eli went. Imagine staying up 4 to 5 hours past your normal "bedtime" only to be expected to wake up at your usual time and head to work as if it was just another weekday. So yeah, keeping Elias up until 11 or so on a weeknight is not such a good idea. Instead, the highlight of the day was checking out the family-friendly afternoon celebration at Oakland's Jack London Square, with requisite firetruck:
...and bouncy house:
Backing up a bit, we celebrated Neal's birthday the weekend before with equally inexpensive activities like an easy hike in Redwood Regional Park.
Is it just me or does Elias look impossibly kid-like and grown-up in this picture?
This is how at least a portion of all family hikes goes. With Neal's birthday and 4th of July so close together, we made a decision that whenever possible in the future, even if all we can afford is rustic camping, we're just going to go on vacation for both. Or in the very least, take the day after off.
Other July photo highlights include mysterious preschool shenanigans, above (I'm not sure what they were doing here - some sort of group walker?), as well as slightly creepy preschool art projects, below.
Also this month we wrapped up our first year of informal soccer fun with fellow preschool buddies with a potluck and medal ceremony a couple of weeks ago.
For the first time all year, this "practice" ended with a scrimmage and Elias was one of several kids completely mystified by the concept of putting all the drills together in a team sport game format. There were basically two groups of kids - one group that moved en masse around the ball, and one group that stood there dazed and confused. Plus the one or two kids with actual soccer experience who stood ground as goalies.
Finally, this past weekend we pretended we were on vacation here at home after a last-minute offer to spend the weekend at Neal's family's cabin at Donner Lake didn't quite work out (a minimum three hour drive there and back for less than 24 hours of R&R didn't quite seem worth it in the end). We temporarily relaxed our austerity measures and enjoyed lunch at Alameda's version of the food truck craze Off the Grid, had ice cream a couple of times (more on the supposed gestational diabetes and "experiments" like these after tomorrow's follow-up appointment with the dietitian), including trying out the unbelievably-priced $2 ice cream sandwiches at Cream, and spent the entire afternoon at Crown Memorial Beach. Now if we could just do that for an entire week, preferably away from Oakland. Sigh.
...and bouncy house:
Backing up a bit, we celebrated Neal's birthday the weekend before with equally inexpensive activities like an easy hike in Redwood Regional Park.
Is it just me or does Elias look impossibly kid-like and grown-up in this picture?
This is how at least a portion of all family hikes goes. With Neal's birthday and 4th of July so close together, we made a decision that whenever possible in the future, even if all we can afford is rustic camping, we're just going to go on vacation for both. Or in the very least, take the day after off.
Other July photo highlights include mysterious preschool shenanigans, above (I'm not sure what they were doing here - some sort of group walker?), as well as slightly creepy preschool art projects, below.
Also this month we wrapped up our first year of informal soccer fun with fellow preschool buddies with a potluck and medal ceremony a couple of weeks ago.
For the first time all year, this "practice" ended with a scrimmage and Elias was one of several kids completely mystified by the concept of putting all the drills together in a team sport game format. There were basically two groups of kids - one group that moved en masse around the ball, and one group that stood there dazed and confused. Plus the one or two kids with actual soccer experience who stood ground as goalies.
Finally, this past weekend we pretended we were on vacation here at home after a last-minute offer to spend the weekend at Neal's family's cabin at Donner Lake didn't quite work out (a minimum three hour drive there and back for less than 24 hours of R&R didn't quite seem worth it in the end). We temporarily relaxed our austerity measures and enjoyed lunch at Alameda's version of the food truck craze Off the Grid, had ice cream a couple of times (more on the supposed gestational diabetes and "experiments" like these after tomorrow's follow-up appointment with the dietitian), including trying out the unbelievably-priced $2 ice cream sandwiches at Cream, and spent the entire afternoon at Crown Memorial Beach. Now if we could just do that for an entire week, preferably away from Oakland. Sigh.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
I'm sorry, I'm just a little pregnant here
Yep, you read that right. Eli will be a big brother in January! This information is barely public and I've already had to send one of these apology cards. I blame being pregnant on top of 2012 being, so far, pretty much the most stressful 6-month period of my life. Ever. Hopefully the recipient understands. Backing up, however, as I feel I must always preface this announcement by explaining that no, we didn't decide to get pregnant after the primary wage-earner in the family lost his job - it happened right before. And by the time we sensed that things were brewing at work and put family planning on hold, it was too late. After I wrote this post last summer, we decided we'd starting trying for baby #2 this spring. Training for the Oakland Marathon figured in perfectly, one of several last hurrah's, if you will, before surrendering to pregnancy, nursing (with any luck), and the general chaos of having a newborn, infant, and then toddler (plus Elias, of course). After I completed the marathon in late March, it was baby-making open season. And it didn't take long, which, despite the timing not being perfect for now at least, I'm pretty grateful for.
So how has this pregnancy compared to my pregnancy with Elias? Wow, what a difference four and a half years makes! I took an early test on the day we got the news that Neal was being "let go" (I didn't think I was pregnant since we hadn't tried for too long, but I wanted to be sure because if I wasn't you better believe I was going to enjoy a beer that night). It seems I enjoy coordinating big life events, good or bad, having tested for Elias on my 30th birthday. But Neal and I were happy. Eight weeks later, with severance (and health insurance coverage) officially over, I'm feeling much more stressed about the whole thing now, but the excitement of the pregnancy still somewhat tempers the crappy situation that is unemployment. Two days later, however, I experienced some spotting, something I never experienced during my entire pregnancy with Elias. In hindsight I'm guessing (and my ob/gyn agrees) that this was probably implantation bleeding, but because I'd taken that crazy early test and gotten a faint positive (and didn't think you could have a positive pregnancy test until after implantation), I feared the worst (chemical pregnancy, blighted ovum, etc.). While the spotting only lasted the afternoon, I was on edge for several more days until I tested again and got another positive result, this time presenting a much darker line than the first. Even so, I was extremely guarded about the whole thing until our first prenatal appointment around 7 weeks. Seeing the heartbeat reassured me only slightly. When I saw the heartbeat again at my 10 week appointment I started to breathe a little easier. I don't remember being nearly this anxious with Elias.
Other things have been different, too. While I never had to break my nearly decades long no-vomiting streak (the last time I threw up I was 16), I did have low-grade nausea every day until about mid-afternoon. Prenatal vitamins made it worse so I opted for a regular multi-vitamin plus folic acid supplement for a few weeks until I started feeling better (around 10-11 weeks or so). The fatigue I remember so well with Elias took a little while longer to present itself this time around but once it did it hit me like a wall. I'm still pretty sleepy here and there during the day but I'm also not getting the best quality sleep lately so it's hard to say exactly why I'm more tired than usual. Fatigue was one of those symptoms I've heard can be less extreme in 2nd pregnancies since you're already used to being more tired than you were before having kids. And I think that's true to some extent. I don't indulge in naps the way I did the first time, at least not yet. But I do feel damn tired at some point most days.
The main difference between pregnancies, however, has been an early diagnosis of gestational diabetes. Since I'm considered AMA this time (advanced maternal age, turning 35 a few months before the baby's due), my doctor recommended a number of tests in addition to the standard first trimester screening, including an early gestational diabetes screen. The blood test I took measures your hemoglobin A1C, which calculates your average blood sugar level over the past three months. Mine was 5.9%, which is just within the range for "increased risk" of diabetes. There was much confusion and disappointment on my end, but after several messages and phone calls with my ob/gyn, nurse practitioner, and dietitian, I finally came to the understanding that, essentially, anything in the pre-diabetic range (5.7-6.4%) is gestational diabetes. I've already modified my diet (no obvious sweets, no cold cereal or highly processed foods, no dairy/fruit first thing in the morning, etc.), am trying to be more consistent about getting in at least 30 minutes of "movement" a day (as it is I tend to have these bursts of 4 to 5 days of working out then nothing for 2 to 3 days), and as of today have started recording everything I eat in addition to checking my blood sugar levels four times each day. With about a week and a half of data I'll meet with the perinatologist and dietitian again at the end of the month and go from there. Hopefully I'll be able to control my blood sugar levels with diet and exercise alone but about half of women diagnosed with GD end up needing medication of some kind - either one of two pills or insulin injections. Hopefully I don't fall into that category. I'm cautiously optimistic since I was on the low end of the range but the fact that it's still so early (and the plancenta - the cause of a lot of these hormonal, insulin-blocking problems - has still got a lot of growing to do) worries me since it does tend to get worse as the pregnancy progresses. And while I do have an increased risk now of developing permanent diabetes after pregnancy, most women are just fine within 6 to 12 weeks after delivery. I figure if I can avoid sweets (not easy to do with my insatiable sweet tooth) for the next six months, surely some of this will become a lifetime change. I just want to be able to indulge every once in awhile. And I'm not sure what's more depressing - the thought of no sweets or no alcohol. Because you better believe mama is already thinking about her first margarita post-partum!
The good news is that all of the other tests have come back normal. We had our NT scan last Wednesday and that - the grand finale of the first trimester screening - was a huge relief. Here's one of several images they captured from that ultrsound.
Here's another - this is my "tiny dancer" shot (look at those long legs!):
It's still a little surreal to me and I don't yet feel as connected to this little creature as I did so early on with Elias, but friends have reassured me that's normal the second time around. What's interesting is that people treat you differently with baby #2 (and I'm guessing subsequent babies). I remember once Elias was born and we were dealing with sleep issues, breastfeeding issues, and reflux (man, those first 6-7 months were brutal!), I wondered why nobody had told me just how difficult it really is! And yet with baby #2 it's as if all bets are off. People have shared all sorts of horrific details about their experiences with pregnancy #2, baby #2, how child #1 reacted, etc., none of which has been particularly helpful (insightful, yes, helpful, not really). And yet I suppose I'm getting the honestly I felt was lacking the first time around. For now, I'm just focused on getting through the next six months! And with everything else going on, I'm definitely tackling the second half of 2012 one day at a time.
So how has this pregnancy compared to my pregnancy with Elias? Wow, what a difference four and a half years makes! I took an early test on the day we got the news that Neal was being "let go" (I didn't think I was pregnant since we hadn't tried for too long, but I wanted to be sure because if I wasn't you better believe I was going to enjoy a beer that night). It seems I enjoy coordinating big life events, good or bad, having tested for Elias on my 30th birthday. But Neal and I were happy. Eight weeks later, with severance (and health insurance coverage) officially over, I'm feeling much more stressed about the whole thing now, but the excitement of the pregnancy still somewhat tempers the crappy situation that is unemployment. Two days later, however, I experienced some spotting, something I never experienced during my entire pregnancy with Elias. In hindsight I'm guessing (and my ob/gyn agrees) that this was probably implantation bleeding, but because I'd taken that crazy early test and gotten a faint positive (and didn't think you could have a positive pregnancy test until after implantation), I feared the worst (chemical pregnancy, blighted ovum, etc.). While the spotting only lasted the afternoon, I was on edge for several more days until I tested again and got another positive result, this time presenting a much darker line than the first. Even so, I was extremely guarded about the whole thing until our first prenatal appointment around 7 weeks. Seeing the heartbeat reassured me only slightly. When I saw the heartbeat again at my 10 week appointment I started to breathe a little easier. I don't remember being nearly this anxious with Elias.
Other things have been different, too. While I never had to break my nearly decades long no-vomiting streak (the last time I threw up I was 16), I did have low-grade nausea every day until about mid-afternoon. Prenatal vitamins made it worse so I opted for a regular multi-vitamin plus folic acid supplement for a few weeks until I started feeling better (around 10-11 weeks or so). The fatigue I remember so well with Elias took a little while longer to present itself this time around but once it did it hit me like a wall. I'm still pretty sleepy here and there during the day but I'm also not getting the best quality sleep lately so it's hard to say exactly why I'm more tired than usual. Fatigue was one of those symptoms I've heard can be less extreme in 2nd pregnancies since you're already used to being more tired than you were before having kids. And I think that's true to some extent. I don't indulge in naps the way I did the first time, at least not yet. But I do feel damn tired at some point most days.
The main difference between pregnancies, however, has been an early diagnosis of gestational diabetes. Since I'm considered AMA this time (advanced maternal age, turning 35 a few months before the baby's due), my doctor recommended a number of tests in addition to the standard first trimester screening, including an early gestational diabetes screen. The blood test I took measures your hemoglobin A1C, which calculates your average blood sugar level over the past three months. Mine was 5.9%, which is just within the range for "increased risk" of diabetes. There was much confusion and disappointment on my end, but after several messages and phone calls with my ob/gyn, nurse practitioner, and dietitian, I finally came to the understanding that, essentially, anything in the pre-diabetic range (5.7-6.4%) is gestational diabetes. I've already modified my diet (no obvious sweets, no cold cereal or highly processed foods, no dairy/fruit first thing in the morning, etc.), am trying to be more consistent about getting in at least 30 minutes of "movement" a day (as it is I tend to have these bursts of 4 to 5 days of working out then nothing for 2 to 3 days), and as of today have started recording everything I eat in addition to checking my blood sugar levels four times each day. With about a week and a half of data I'll meet with the perinatologist and dietitian again at the end of the month and go from there. Hopefully I'll be able to control my blood sugar levels with diet and exercise alone but about half of women diagnosed with GD end up needing medication of some kind - either one of two pills or insulin injections. Hopefully I don't fall into that category. I'm cautiously optimistic since I was on the low end of the range but the fact that it's still so early (and the plancenta - the cause of a lot of these hormonal, insulin-blocking problems - has still got a lot of growing to do) worries me since it does tend to get worse as the pregnancy progresses. And while I do have an increased risk now of developing permanent diabetes after pregnancy, most women are just fine within 6 to 12 weeks after delivery. I figure if I can avoid sweets (not easy to do with my insatiable sweet tooth) for the next six months, surely some of this will become a lifetime change. I just want to be able to indulge every once in awhile. And I'm not sure what's more depressing - the thought of no sweets or no alcohol. Because you better believe mama is already thinking about her first margarita post-partum!
The good news is that all of the other tests have come back normal. We had our NT scan last Wednesday and that - the grand finale of the first trimester screening - was a huge relief. Here's one of several images they captured from that ultrsound.
Here's another - this is my "tiny dancer" shot (look at those long legs!):
It's still a little surreal to me and I don't yet feel as connected to this little creature as I did so early on with Elias, but friends have reassured me that's normal the second time around. What's interesting is that people treat you differently with baby #2 (and I'm guessing subsequent babies). I remember once Elias was born and we were dealing with sleep issues, breastfeeding issues, and reflux (man, those first 6-7 months were brutal!), I wondered why nobody had told me just how difficult it really is! And yet with baby #2 it's as if all bets are off. People have shared all sorts of horrific details about their experiences with pregnancy #2, baby #2, how child #1 reacted, etc., none of which has been particularly helpful (insightful, yes, helpful, not really). And yet I suppose I'm getting the honestly I felt was lacking the first time around. For now, I'm just focused on getting through the next six months! And with everything else going on, I'm definitely tackling the second half of 2012 one day at a time.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
holiday wrap-up 2011-2012
Man, could we ever use a vacation! As most of my eleven readers are related to me in some way, this probably won't come as news to you - since about mid-May, Neal's been on the hunt for a new job. He was lucky to get a decent severance package but we're in week eight of eight of that package and if I think more than about 2 to 3 days in advance, I'll admit I get pretty bummed. I know it could always be worse, but damn, it sure could be a lot better at the moment.
But enough time sitting on that pity potty. What say we relive some memories of holidays and vacation time spent over the past year! Okay, okay, so Oktoberfest isn't exactly a holiday but for the second year in a row we checked out Oakland's own Oaktoberfest in the Dimond neighborhood, where Elias, who doesn't usually enjoy soda ("too fizzy"), nevertheless found some merit in his first root beer float. Cheers!
In the same spirit as Oktoberfest-as-holiday, we celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks later with a dinner at Zza's, where Neal and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner over seven years ago. I'm not a huge fan of gift-giving holidays (preferring food-centric holidays like Thanksgiving instead), but I do enjoy birthdays (more about Eli's latest anniversary at the end of this post).
Halloween wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. This year we traveled once again to Livermore to the pumpkin patch we went to the year before. It's a little crazy to look at those pictures and see just how much Elias has grown in a year!
As I mentioned in my last post, Elias celebrated Halloween 2011 as the big bad wolf, with Neal and I standing in as the three little pigs, wearing pig ear headbands, pig snouts, and pig tails, with assistance from a pig finger puppet I kept tucked in my jacket pocket as pig #3.
If I remember correctly, Elias came down with his first (of many) nasty colds and viruses right before Halloween weekend, keeping our usually lengthy celebrations to a minimum, which probably wasn't such a bad thing as we tend to overdo it a bit with these multi-day celebrations, completely burning out before the actual holiday!
We did manage to carve a couple of pumpkins. I'm not sure what Elias is doing here - lounging with the jack-o-lanterns it seems.
As I mentioned in my preschool post, there was a costume parade at school, followed by a "boo-fet".
The parade and boo-fet ended with a bang for Elias. Still recovering from that bug and after eating way too many treats like the graveyard brownies above, he threw up in the classroom, all over the circle time rug. Yep, that's my kid - the barfer. Needless to say he came home with me for the rest of the day.
But that didn't keep us from trick-or-treating later that evening. With full disclosure about Eli's earlier "episode" we headed to Hazel's place for a pizza party and trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Elias is still fortunately pretty pleased with a relatively small amount of candy. I wonder when this whole Halloween/trick-or-treating thing will really kick in. He was more into it this past year than the year before, but he's just not - not yet, at least - one of those kids that is the first one out the gates, so to speak (candy from strangers, eggs at an Easter egg hunt, etc.).
For Thanksgiving this year we traveled back east to celebrate in Connecticut with my brother and his family. I've wanted to do this ever since we moved back to California three years ago since, during the four years we were there, we celebrated every Thanksgiving with them (coming back to California for all but one Christmas). The trick to flying anywhere for the holidays is to fly on the holiday, which worked out pretty well since my brother was working on Thanksgiving anyway (firefighter is his day job...I could tell you his other job, but then I'd have to kill you). So we flew on Thursday, and celebrated on Friday. I snuck in a couple of runs with my sister-in-law, who'd just completed the Marine Corps Marathon for the fourth or fifth time (seriously, I've lost count at this point) a few weeks before our visit, while I had just started training for the Oakland Marathon this past spring. We also spent a girls' afternoon out shopping with my niece.
Other highlights included riding cousin Alejandro's scooter around the 'hood while sporting cousin Adriana's old helmet. This inspired the gift of his own scooter for Christmas.
Hanging out with Jed, the dog.
Visiting local playgrounds.
A decent hike (three miles or so, round trip...he was carried for at least half of that) in Sleeping Giant State Park...
...the highlight of which is this stone observation tower that resembles a small castle where we stopped for a snack.
And finally, a visit to the Children's Museum in West Hartford, followed by lunch at the only decent Mexican food in New England: Chipotle (I would say I'm kidding but it's kind of true).
Up next? Christmas, my favorite (I'm being just a tiny bit facetious). This year we decided to establish some boundaries, reserving Christmas eve and morning for us only and inviting anyone who cared to visit (i.e. Grandma Joanne) to come up late Christmas morning and spend the rest of the day and night. I don't know how Grandma felt about it but it worked out so well for us.
This year we drove out to a live tree farm and actually cut down our tree, a first for me (something Neal did pretty regularly in his childhood). I think this is where we went but I honestly can't be sure at this point! The trees were not cheap, and we ended up with one of the cheaper varieties and, not to complain (I am the person who doesn't care too much for Christmas traditions, after all), but I was never really happy with the tree. It just didn't look like a Christmas tree. But Elias didn't seem to mind.
Some Bay Area holiday festivities have become tradition, like checking out the houses and lights along Christmas Tree Lane in nearby Alameda. New this year was a trip to the Oakland Zoo's Zoo Lights with buddies Ivan and Zach. We went while Neal celebrated his brother's birthday with him down in southern California, but I'd love to do it again this year with the entire family. The trick, I think, will be to get there right when it opens, hit the train first, pack a picnic dinner (or eat an early dinner before or on the way), and give up any hopes of getting Elias to bed on time that night. Actually, that's not a bad idea for the entire month of December.
Ah, Christmas eve. My favorite part. Once again, we had pizza for dinner and checked out the lights at the Mormon Temple.
When we got home Elias got to open one gift (pajamas! what a surprise!) and then we set out some treats for Santa and his reindeer.
The highlights as far as gifts included a drum set (what was Santa thinking, right?!) and a scooter, mentioned above.
Despite how things appear in the image above (Elias checked out in a pile of presents), even when Grandma showed up a bit later, the gift-giving did not feel overwhelming, which was a welcome change from the year before.
Neal made a delicious dinner that evening, including coq au vin and pumpkin pie. Yum.
In April we were invited once again to our friends' folks' house in Sacramento for an Easter egg hunt that continues to be impossible to top when Easter actually rolls around the next week!
We decorated eggs for the first time, which went well enough. I think about a third of our boiled eggs were cracked before they ever made it into the dye. Elias continues to get frustrated or bored (not sure which) relatively quickly and then wants us to continue the project.
We had our own very brief egg hunt in our back yard...
...and then we finished the day with a traditional Easter dinner of...fondue? I think we may have started a new tradition!
Ah, finally, we get to Eli's birthday a few weeks ago and the end of this epic, holiday 2011-2012 post! I wrote a fairly lengthy post about the birthday party shenanigans on my other blog if you're interested in even more reading!
In a nutshell, Elias had a great 4th birthday, celebrated over the course of about four days. One of the things we gave him was a little cooking set, complete with the apron he's wearing above, helping me make special cookies for his preschool celebration.
For his actual birthday, he lucked out with a school field trip in the morning and the rest of the afternoon spent at home, chilling out, watching a movie, and opening gifts. We headed to Fenton's for the traditional birthday dinner and sundae-bigger-than-your-head.
This year we had his party at the zoo. We may have spent a bit more than our home party last year but it was so much less work! I kept the DIY projects to a minimum and while a few details didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, I was pretty happy with the party overall. Despite some serious stage fright when it came time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles (to which Eias replied, "no smiling!"), he seemed to have a really good time.
Holy cow, my baby is 4!
But enough time sitting on that pity potty. What say we relive some memories of holidays and vacation time spent over the past year! Okay, okay, so Oktoberfest isn't exactly a holiday but for the second year in a row we checked out Oakland's own Oaktoberfest in the Dimond neighborhood, where Elias, who doesn't usually enjoy soda ("too fizzy"), nevertheless found some merit in his first root beer float. Cheers!
In the same spirit as Oktoberfest-as-holiday, we celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks later with a dinner at Zza's, where Neal and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner over seven years ago. I'm not a huge fan of gift-giving holidays (preferring food-centric holidays like Thanksgiving instead), but I do enjoy birthdays (more about Eli's latest anniversary at the end of this post).
Halloween wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. This year we traveled once again to Livermore to the pumpkin patch we went to the year before. It's a little crazy to look at those pictures and see just how much Elias has grown in a year!
As I mentioned in my last post, Elias celebrated Halloween 2011 as the big bad wolf, with Neal and I standing in as the three little pigs, wearing pig ear headbands, pig snouts, and pig tails, with assistance from a pig finger puppet I kept tucked in my jacket pocket as pig #3.
If I remember correctly, Elias came down with his first (of many) nasty colds and viruses right before Halloween weekend, keeping our usually lengthy celebrations to a minimum, which probably wasn't such a bad thing as we tend to overdo it a bit with these multi-day celebrations, completely burning out before the actual holiday!
We did manage to carve a couple of pumpkins. I'm not sure what Elias is doing here - lounging with the jack-o-lanterns it seems.
As I mentioned in my preschool post, there was a costume parade at school, followed by a "boo-fet".
The parade and boo-fet ended with a bang for Elias. Still recovering from that bug and after eating way too many treats like the graveyard brownies above, he threw up in the classroom, all over the circle time rug. Yep, that's my kid - the barfer. Needless to say he came home with me for the rest of the day.
But that didn't keep us from trick-or-treating later that evening. With full disclosure about Eli's earlier "episode" we headed to Hazel's place for a pizza party and trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Elias is still fortunately pretty pleased with a relatively small amount of candy. I wonder when this whole Halloween/trick-or-treating thing will really kick in. He was more into it this past year than the year before, but he's just not - not yet, at least - one of those kids that is the first one out the gates, so to speak (candy from strangers, eggs at an Easter egg hunt, etc.).
For Thanksgiving this year we traveled back east to celebrate in Connecticut with my brother and his family. I've wanted to do this ever since we moved back to California three years ago since, during the four years we were there, we celebrated every Thanksgiving with them (coming back to California for all but one Christmas). The trick to flying anywhere for the holidays is to fly on the holiday, which worked out pretty well since my brother was working on Thanksgiving anyway (firefighter is his day job...I could tell you his other job, but then I'd have to kill you). So we flew on Thursday, and celebrated on Friday. I snuck in a couple of runs with my sister-in-law, who'd just completed the Marine Corps Marathon for the fourth or fifth time (seriously, I've lost count at this point) a few weeks before our visit, while I had just started training for the Oakland Marathon this past spring. We also spent a girls' afternoon out shopping with my niece.
Other highlights included riding cousin Alejandro's scooter around the 'hood while sporting cousin Adriana's old helmet. This inspired the gift of his own scooter for Christmas.
Hanging out with Jed, the dog.
Visiting local playgrounds.
A decent hike (three miles or so, round trip...he was carried for at least half of that) in Sleeping Giant State Park...
...the highlight of which is this stone observation tower that resembles a small castle where we stopped for a snack.
And finally, a visit to the Children's Museum in West Hartford, followed by lunch at the only decent Mexican food in New England: Chipotle (I would say I'm kidding but it's kind of true).
Up next? Christmas, my favorite (I'm being just a tiny bit facetious). This year we decided to establish some boundaries, reserving Christmas eve and morning for us only and inviting anyone who cared to visit (i.e. Grandma Joanne) to come up late Christmas morning and spend the rest of the day and night. I don't know how Grandma felt about it but it worked out so well for us.
This year we drove out to a live tree farm and actually cut down our tree, a first for me (something Neal did pretty regularly in his childhood). I think this is where we went but I honestly can't be sure at this point! The trees were not cheap, and we ended up with one of the cheaper varieties and, not to complain (I am the person who doesn't care too much for Christmas traditions, after all), but I was never really happy with the tree. It just didn't look like a Christmas tree. But Elias didn't seem to mind.
Some Bay Area holiday festivities have become tradition, like checking out the houses and lights along Christmas Tree Lane in nearby Alameda. New this year was a trip to the Oakland Zoo's Zoo Lights with buddies Ivan and Zach. We went while Neal celebrated his brother's birthday with him down in southern California, but I'd love to do it again this year with the entire family. The trick, I think, will be to get there right when it opens, hit the train first, pack a picnic dinner (or eat an early dinner before or on the way), and give up any hopes of getting Elias to bed on time that night. Actually, that's not a bad idea for the entire month of December.
Ah, Christmas eve. My favorite part. Once again, we had pizza for dinner and checked out the lights at the Mormon Temple.
When we got home Elias got to open one gift (pajamas! what a surprise!) and then we set out some treats for Santa and his reindeer.
The highlights as far as gifts included a drum set (what was Santa thinking, right?!) and a scooter, mentioned above.
Despite how things appear in the image above (Elias checked out in a pile of presents), even when Grandma showed up a bit later, the gift-giving did not feel overwhelming, which was a welcome change from the year before.
Neal made a delicious dinner that evening, including coq au vin and pumpkin pie. Yum.
In April we were invited once again to our friends' folks' house in Sacramento for an Easter egg hunt that continues to be impossible to top when Easter actually rolls around the next week!
We decorated eggs for the first time, which went well enough. I think about a third of our boiled eggs were cracked before they ever made it into the dye. Elias continues to get frustrated or bored (not sure which) relatively quickly and then wants us to continue the project.
We had our own very brief egg hunt in our back yard...
...and then we finished the day with a traditional Easter dinner of...fondue? I think we may have started a new tradition!
Ah, finally, we get to Eli's birthday a few weeks ago and the end of this epic, holiday 2011-2012 post! I wrote a fairly lengthy post about the birthday party shenanigans on my other blog if you're interested in even more reading!
In a nutshell, Elias had a great 4th birthday, celebrated over the course of about four days. One of the things we gave him was a little cooking set, complete with the apron he's wearing above, helping me make special cookies for his preschool celebration.
For his actual birthday, he lucked out with a school field trip in the morning and the rest of the afternoon spent at home, chilling out, watching a movie, and opening gifts. We headed to Fenton's for the traditional birthday dinner and sundae-bigger-than-your-head.
This year we had his party at the zoo. We may have spent a bit more than our home party last year but it was so much less work! I kept the DIY projects to a minimum and while a few details didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, I was pretty happy with the party overall. Despite some serious stage fright when it came time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles (to which Eias replied, "no smiling!"), he seemed to have a really good time.
Holy cow, my baby is 4!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Preschool!
As Elias wraps up the first of his two years of preschool (I find myself thinking of him as a soon-to-be "2nd year student," as if he's in a two-year graduate program or something), I figured it was about time I wrote a little recap. In a nutshell, we pretty much love his preschool. And we lucked out in finding it, I'll admit. A friend of a friend sent her kid there and loved it and, coincidentally, this girl also attended the same daycare, briefly (I swear I'm not stalking her). And since it's about a five minute drive up the hill from where we live, it made the short list of preschools to check out beginning around December 2010 (I know, right?!).
In the end, our top three schools consisted of a home-based, basically glorified daycare with a very loosey-goosey approach to "academics." While play-based schools were the only kind we considered, I do want Elias to be more or less prepared for Kindergarten come next fall. And their schedule was odd, open from 8:30 to 5 Monday through Thursday but only until noon on Fridays. Turns out that schedule would still work totally fine for us but at the time I wasn't sure if my business was going to thrive or take a serious nose-dive and leave me searching for a "real job". I'm happy to say I've been doing pretty well and this is for another post altogether, but I have no desire to do anything differently for a very long time. So in addition to that school we checked out two "play-based" preschools attached to churches. That's common around here (I'm not sure how that compares to the country in general or if it's a Bay Area thing). The churches own the schools but there's no religious instruction. Of the two, when I walked into the school we eventually chose, it just felt right. It looked how I kind of expected a preschool to look, the number of kids didn't seem totally overwhelming (35 or so total, but not necessarily all there at the same time), I liked the teachers well enough (as it stands now we love two of the teachers, including the director, but could take or leave the other two), and the outside space is amazing, sitting at the top of the hills between the immediate and extended east bay and offering stunning views to the east that probably go mostly unappreciated by the kids.
The other school we visited, while still "play-based" seemed way more structured. The school is much bigger which is part of the reason for all that structure, I'm sure, moving the kids in groups of a dozen or so, separated by age, every hour or so, I believe it is, between different classrooms and teachers. Like high school. I liked that they had a mixture of mixed-age time and time together in smaller groups with kids closer in age (the school Eli goes to is always mixed, all the time, which has its pros and cons). And I'd heard good things about the teachers and overall academics. But the director was lacking (that was my general impression of her, echoed by sentiments from parents with kids there), the outdoor space was put to shame by the outside space at the school we went with in the end, and I felt the structure might be too much for Elias at the time, just past his third birthday. Plus, it's farther away and in a neighborhood where he's highly unlikely to continue to see these kids when they enter public school.
My one hesitation with the school he's at now was that the second year might not be, you know, pre-K enough, but I felt we should pick a school that felt right at the time, knowing we could always move him in the second year if we felt the need. So far I don't feel that need but we are considering a pre-K summer camp right before he enters Kindergarten. It will depend on how the next few months go.
So one year later I have no regrets. Elias has learned so much this year, from physical tasks thanks to all that outside time (climbing and general playground confidence, something he seemed to be lacking a bit before, and riding a trike above - this may have happened anyway, but the fact that they have several scooters and trikes outside, plus all that outside time to practice, definitely helped) to more academic tasks like the alphabet and letters, numbers, and the very beginnings of spelling and reading. His daycare buddy Hazel went to a different school and eventually moved out of the area altogether but he's made a number of good friends at his new school. He's enthusiastic about the daily projects and activities and is finally starting to show some drawing skills beyond delightfully abstract scribbling.
Highlights from the first year include a fall field trip to a local pumpkin patch:
A Halloween parade (Eli was the big bad wolf - more about holidays, including all Halloween shenanigans, in my next post!):
A Christmas program:
A special Day with Dad:
Porcupine soccer (and other discoveries in the park). Here he is with good buddy Max:
A very sweet Mother's Day brunch - they made us hats out of big, industrial sized coffee filters and little wooden picture holders and helped prep a delicious breakfast casserole and salad. The Thursday or Friday before when I dropped Elias off that morning, several kids were busy chopping onions! The highlight for the kids? Ringing the church bell and looking for bugs!
And finally, wrapping up this spring was the annual Spring Fling fundraiser:
Following right on the heels of all the fundraising (not to mention time-consuming training) I did for Team in Training all winter, I had volunteered to organize the Silent Auction portion of the Spring Fling. So. Much. Work. But combined with raffle ticket sales and game/food ticket sales, we raised over $7000 for the school's financial aid program and improvements to the classroom and outside area. So it was well worth it and next year should be a breeze!
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