One Week Later

So, I have been Shredding for a week now. And, as crazy as it might seem, I am LOVING it.

Jillian is HARD CORE! And, in my head I know she is just on my TV and cannot hurt me, but I still think she might and that thought gets me through the entire workout. I am getting up early every morning to do it before I start my day and I would've thought it would make me tired for the day (and the first few days it SOOOOOOO did!) but I find it gets me going.

Now, it is NOT easy. After day one I could not do this:

Those four little steps were TORTURE! And going down was ten times worse than going up. I have no idea how she managed to do THAT! Plus, my poor arms were ready to fall off. So the laundry piled up pretty high before I could get down there and lift it into the washer! I had to release the sides on Sophie's crib to get her out of it and still had to just wrap my arms around her and use leverage! Day two my arms actually gave out mid push up and I kissed the floor. BUT, I survived the first two days and day 3 was the turnaround day. I actually had the endurance to finish everything and the pain was beginning to ease.

Now, after seven days, I am feeling pretty comfortable with it all and am even considering moving up to level two. Now, I have WATCHED level two and there are some pretty high impact moves involved. Sadly, I think I inherited my Grandma's knees so that may be hard, but there are low impact variations that do not look too bad. Maybe tomorrow.

I am also considering adding some additional cardio stuff to my day to help burn off this gut a little quicker. HOWEVER, in the last week I HAVE lost 6.8 pounds, so I am NOT complaining! AT ALL!!!

Now, to all of you who may be considering this - I totally recommend it. It is as hard as they say it is - even my friends whose workouts have consisted of more than lifting the spoon/can of diet coke to the lips and mashing buttons on the remote control have found it difficult - but once you get through the first few days it gets better. And trust me when I say, if I can do it, ANYONE can!

In other news, Sophie is talking a million miles a minute. Most of it is gibberish, but gibberish with effort. She is CLEARLY trying to communicate! And we can understand more and more of it every day. She is as joyful and sweet as ever - although we are seeing a few more Nellie Olsen style hissy fits here and there the closer we get to three! Yesterday, in a mini rage she grabbed my "pretty" (my cross necklace) and yanked and broke the chain. It broke my heart but I had to put her into timeout. She stayed there though, crying hard, and it hurt ME! Afterwards we hugged and made up, which was almost sweet enough to make up for it all. Almost.

Her favorite words are "please" and "thank you" and "hi". And just last week she started saying "love you" when we say it to her. I cried like a baby the first time - so very sweet. She is joy personified!

Hattie is growing like a weed - just up though, never out. She can still fit waist wise in some size three's but height wise she needs a five. And even the slims leave her lookin like a plumber most of the time! She loves to sing and dance and "read". She also likes to pretend she is any given Disney/Nick Jr character at any time. She is fun to watch play pretend and more and more she lets us play WITH her.

She loves school, but I think she is really ready for summer. It cannot come soon enough for this mommy. She is such a happy, sweet affectionate girl and a joy to be around. Even her "meltdowns" are coming a little less often and it is getting easier to pull her out of them - although Sunday was a hard day and I ended up staying in the nursery with her and Sophie because Hattie refused to go in her classroom. Not sure why - this is where that whole communication thing would come in real handy!

That about sums us up right now. I really am tryin to get back on a regular schedule with the blogging ... please be patient with me. That is, if you are still out there ...

Hello?

Anyone?

Beuller?

dern...

PS - Amy Grant has a new EP out and here is the handy dandy link (tryin to win a copy cause I LOVE me some Amy, oh yes I do!!!)