Belly Dancing

What better way to celebrate baby weight loss than to take a belly dancing lesson with the girls?!

Last Saturday, we got together for one of our girls only adventures. It was a blast! Tara planned this one and set it all up with Sara at the Open Your Eyes to Dream studio in Bloomsburg. Our instructor, Chrys, was amazing and so knowledgeable about the dance. She gave us a brief history of the fascinating art and then taught us some basic moves which we put together in various dances that we did. It was a truly wonderful expression of body-loving, non-judging woman-ly-ness.

Afterwards, we were planning to have a scrumptious dinner at Bloomin' Thai, but they weren't yet open when we finished, so we opted for the Indian restaurant in town, Sakuntala. Mmmmm, it was so delicious. I had to run home real quick and feed my little bambino before dinner, since he refuses the bottle and doesn't eat enough solid foods to keep him going. My sweet lovely husband did baby duty thoroughout the day to allow me to have such a wonderful day with the gals :) It all worked out really well because I did baby duty late that night so Daniel could go see Cabinet play at Harry's.

Me, Jenny, Sara, Tara, Morgan, and Jessica posing before we started the lesson. Chrys brought some coin belts for hip-shaking jingling and other scarves and fun things for us to wear!

I think I can speak for most of us when I say we had to pay close attention to the instruction since none of us have a lot of background in belly dancing :) There were some challenging moves for me - but I'll admit to being fairly uncoordinated.


Working the classic shimmy!

The lesson ended with Chrys asking each of us to take a turn dancing in front of the group. She explained that although we may not want to do that, we were surrounded by the most supportive group of women, our friends, and that no one was here to judge. It was SO fun!

Jessica and I showing off our curves!

Group shot in the funky OYETD studio after we were all finished

Exercise

This past week I made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight! That is very exciting, although, I must say that I did not expect those last few pounds to be so difficult to lose. I only gained about 20 pounds overall with Trafton and when I came home from the hospital, I had eight more to go. A few came off quickly, but then the last five or so just lingered forever. Everyone told me that breastfeeding would help the weight come off, but I have to disagree. My appetite has never been so strong as it is now that I am breastfeeding. Hmmm . . . maybe that'll start to change now that Trafton is working on some solid foods. Anyway, I wasn't even this hungry when I was pregnant!

At my 6 week check-up over the summer, the doctor cleared me to begin running again. I had stopped running about a year prior to getting pregnant, due to knee injuries, and began working out at a gym (nowhere near as good as running!). I saw a physical therapist last summer prior to getting pregnant and he told me three things: you're 30, not everyone is meant to run, and you should really just take up biking and forget about running. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed that this health professional had absolutely no faith in me getting back into my running routine. He did continue to treat me, though, but I never made it back to running before I found out we were expecting a baby.

I started running in July, six weeks after Trafton's birth, hoping that things would just work out and I would be able to run again. I began using the Galloway Method which is running for five minutes and walking for one. Daniel uses this and has had great success and no knee pain at all! This method is supposed to help with body mechanics and reduce soreness. I ran for ten minutes and it was horrible. I felt like I forgot how to run as crazy as that sounds. Honestly, I was just sad. I felt so out of sorts and heavy and jiggly, it was just awful. Then I came home to do a few exercises like I always used to after a run only to find that I couldn't even do one crunch. Whew - talk about wanting to give up! Thank goodness I stuck with it - much gratitude to my supportive husband:) I added about a half mile to my run every two weeks, using the Galloway Method, and here I am 18 weeks later running my target distance of four miles, doing multiple crunches afterward, and feeling great! I did feel a good deal of knee pain and sought the help of another physical therapist. She was WONDERFUL! She was extremely encouraging and fully confident that there was no reason I shouldn't be able to run four miles a few times a week. After six visits with her, my knees are doing very well. (If you need a PT in the Bloomsburg area, let me know to be sure you don't see the first guy I went to!)

Although I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I am still not fitting into many clothes that I wore just before I got pregnant. I guess things move around and all during childbirth, though, so I can't complain about that! I am also considerably more flabby, but I guess that happens, too :) Still, I feel really good and I feel strong again. I did gain about ten pounds in the year that I stopped running before getting pregnant - maybe that'll come off, too, now that I am running again?!

Here's what we look like when we head out on the town for our runs.

I got this covering for the infant seat for the colder runs, but Trafton doesn't really like it. Here he is with it all tucked in around his head (it should be up and around like a little wind protector) and trying to get some of it into his mouth to suck on. Luckily, he forgets to not like it once we get about five/ten minutes into the run and he falls asleep. He doesn't usually wake up until the cart stops moving and we're home.

Here we are about to head out one morning. Trafton is so bundled, you can't even see his little head. I don't think any of my running clothes actually match - so funny :)

Kristin, Caden, and Abigail

Last Tuesday, I went to visit my friend Kristin who lives up in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. She has a little girl who was born six weeks before Trafton and a little boy who is a little older than 2 1/2. It was tons of fun to catch up with Kristin and see her little ones and also see Trafton's reaction to another child and baby. He was very well-behaved, better than I expected, but, of course, right before I left we took pictures and he was having a massive fuss! It was right at nap time and I planned it so that he would sleep on the way back to Bloomsburg - which was perfect, except that the pictures are full of his fuss. They are actually pretty hilarious!

Kristin made lunch for us and I tried Trafton in Abby's high chair. Although he is far from being able to sit up on his own, he fit very well in there and seemed to enjoy it. Right now, we are still using the Bumbo to feed him at home, but we'll have to get the high chair ready for him soon.

Abigail is just the sweetest little girl and no matter how awful Trafton was, she just seemed to smile and comfort him. I like this picture - it's like he's being flirted with and doesn't know how to react! :)

One of the times that Trafton smacked Abby in the face - sweet little girl didn't seem bothered by this in the least.

Now Caden joins the fun, but may also just be shocked at Trafton's uncontrollable fussing.

"Go ahead, take a picture, I dare ya."

Generally when Trafton is very fussy two things seem to calm him down (besides sleeping, which he needed here), standing and getting naked. Here I stood him up to see if that would help, but apparently not. I think he was getting ready to go in for a hair pull on either Abby or Caden (he enjoyed yanking on both of them, but, of course, those little sweethearts didn't mind at all).

Feeding Time

Trafton has successfully begun eating solid foods. Although it's funny to call them that since they are so not solid . . . last weekend we started with rice cereal, then moved to avocadoes, then on to bananas. This weekend we have sweet potatoes on tap - very exciting! He has done very well, better than I anticipated, really. He happily opens his mouth for the spoon, attempts to keep some of it in his mouth and swallow (although I am not sure how much actually makes it to his tummy), and fusses when he is full. He is very interested in the sippy cup full of water, but hasn't quite figured out how to use it. Sometimes he gets the spout in his mouth and water does come out and he swallows, but he seems equally as content to suck/chew on the handle or bottom of the cup. Hopefully he'll be a little more motivated when there is breastmilk in there and not just water. :)

First attempt - rice cereal

Mmmmm . . . this is fun!

Mommy's favorite food - avocadoes!

There's the part that makes water come out!

This is easy - I can feed myself bananas.

After Trafton tried grabbing for the spoon several times, I finally got another one and let him play with it. However, he kept putting the metal end of this one in his mouth and looking alarmed when he bit down on it sideways - like "Ouch!," so I bought some rounder plastic ones for him to play with during feeding time.

Dinnertime - bananas and rice mixed together - how exciting!

Wait - why isn't mommy feeding me?

Oh, it still tastes good when Daddy feeds me. I guess I can do this, too :)

Tree Removal

Last weekend Daniel's father, Al, and brother, Jonathan, came out from New Jersey to help us get rid of four terrible-looking trees and one badly-placed shrub on our property. It is something that we have talked about doing since we moved in, but I was a little skeptical because three of the trees, although dying, provided a good privacy barrier between our back patio and our neighbor, Scott's, back patio. However, now that they are all removed, I am SO much happier with the way things look! Jonathan borrowed Michael's (other brother) really awesome truck to pull the trees out. It was a very successful work day.

View of three dying trees from Scott's patio looking at our patio

Same view with trees removed - WOW! I love it :)

View from our patio looking at Scott's house

Same view with Al and Daniel working on removing the first tree

These three trees are down.

The tricky removal of the badly-placed shrub: tricky because its roots are very close to the very old cellar door; badly-placed because I usually scratch my car door on it when parking/opening my door in our driveway - especially getting Trafton in and out of the car.

Getting all the roots out and examining any damage to the cellar door structure - which was very minimal

Jonathan pulling the shrub out

. . . and it's out!

The other tree was here where the dirt spot is now - that one was dying also and was encroaching on the driveway, making backing cars in trickier than necessary.

Daniel and Jonathan loading up the trees to take to the compost site.

Trafton came out to inspect the work that his family completed.

Happy with Uncle Jonathan

. . , and spitting up on Uncle Jonathan

A smile for Pappy

Trafton wasn't too sure about being up on Jonathan's shoulders :)

The Beyer Men

5 Months Old

Today Trafton turns 5 months old! He is getting so much more active and fun. Some of the things that I enjoy most about Trafton are: when he's done eating, he stops, looks up at me and sticks his fingers in my mouth - he grabs at everything, from toys to the cats to us to the plants (the other day I saw him quickly grab a piece of Christmas cactus and stuff it in his mouth, which I then took out and he then screamed) - he opens his mouth really wide when he gives a big smile - his giggle and squeal - he is so quiet and peaceful every single time I take him for a run/walk - he recently started scooting on his backside by arching his back really high and pushing off with his feet, he moves himself completely across a room doing this - he totally refuses any tummy time at all by instantly rolling onto his back (he may never crawl at this rate) - and he wakes up so sweetly every morning at 7:00 am.

Getting ready for bed, but first grabbing Daddy's face

He loves to stand -putting Trafton in this position almost always gets him to stop fussing.

Trafton really enjoys this, too.

We listen to music pretty close to every waking moment in our house. When a song that I really love comes on, I usually grab Trafton and dance to it.

Here it is past Trafton's bedtime, but he just wasn't falling asleep, instead he was screaming in the crib. I went and got him and, of course, as soon as he was in the standing position, he calmed down.

On our way to the Blue Moose Market

Visiting Daddy in the backyard - Daniel was winter-fying the outside of our house by getting rid of everything in the garden and removing all the annuals that would soon die of frost.

Morning story time

Daniel's football watching chair - sometimes Trafton watches the game, too (although not the whole game).

Cuddling with me while I read about making baby food - who knew there was so much to learn about making natural food for a little guy?

Almost twins!

My friend Autumn gave us a TON of baby clothes - two huge garbage bags full. It took a long time to go through them all, but it was SO worth it! She and her husband have a little boy and are expecting a baby girl next month, so she has no more use for boy clothes. Trafton's wardrobe just expanded times ten for the next several months. Here is a picture of him on top of one of the many piles that I made. He was very happy to lay with us as we watched the Jets and organized clothes.

We borrowed an exersaucer from our friends John and Jacquie and recently started using it. Trafton really seems to enjoy it!

A picture that I can neither flip, nor delete, due to my lack of computer skills . . .

An extremely rare moment (like, maybe the only time ever) that Trafton stayed on his tummy for more than five seconds before screaming and immediately rolling onto his back. Maybe there is hope for him crawling :)

He loves books, but mostly just for tasting.

Trafton just before going for a run, sticking the seat cover in his mouth.

Trafton completely knocked out by a long run around town with his Dad.

Trafton sits at dinner with us every night like this and usually just plays with toys. This week he has been extremely interested in our food, which makes me think that he is ready to start eating. Here I am giving him breastmilk on a spoon, which he seems really excited about. I had to get two spoons and give him one to play with so he would stop grabbing for the one I have. We are planning to begin foods this weekend. He also has a sippy cup of water which he hasn't actually figured out how to use yet. I have been giving the cup to him every day because he is off to daycare starting January 3rd and still absolutely refuses to take a bottle. I am hoping that he'll be able to drink his milk from a cup during the day while I am at work.

Playtime!

Trafton always falls asleep sucking his thumb. In this picture he must have also been chewing on his sock, because it is halfway off and soaking wet.

He fell asleep while playing.

Trafton has really been enjoying sucking on his toes/socks lately.

When I put Trafton in his crib, he usually does the arching his back/scooting thing until he ends up happily cuddled in a corner. Sometimes, he is too sleepy to do this right away, but I will inevitably find him in a corner when he wakes up.

If Trafton gets himself in one of these two corners, we know because we can hear his head playing the piano every time he moves. This is an amusing thing to hear in the middle of the night on the baby monitor.