It’s 7.30 am and already one of my kids is off to school.  Arden’s preschool doesn’t begin until next week (curse you, Y!), but Lily officially became a first grader when she yawned and told me she wanted to stay asleep this morning.  The great thing about having a first grader is I didn’t cry!  Next year when Arden joins Lily on the front porch for a picture, well, no guarantees then.

Pictures from the morning:

My online support group does weigh-ins on Friday.  The past few weeks on WW have been hard.  I’ve been tired, hungry, and slightly demotivated.  I hit a plateau in my workouts and couldn’t push through them and my schedule has been all screwed up with the girls being out of camp/preschool.  But today, I got a new motivation.  I am literally 1 pound away from hitting 30 pounds lost. 

School starts next week (for Lily - still one more week to go with Arden).  I can go back to my morning workouts without inconveniencing Mike or traumatizing the girls by “forcing them” to play at the Y in the afternoon. 

After doing a bit of self-analysis, I have a feeling that losing it is, relatively speaking, the easy part.  Living this way for the rest of my life might be just a tad bit more challenging.  I’m putting my 12-step hat on and taking it one day at a time. 

On another note, Lily and I went to her 1st grade open house yesterday.  She was dreading it, primarily because she loves her babysitter and didn’t want to waste precious time with silly things like school and meeting her new teacher and seeing her desk.  She was really shy and hid behind me most of the time.  We visited Mrs. Daniels, and she finally came out of her shell a bit to hug her.  Her new teacher seems great and she has a “big girl” desk (last year they sat at tables of four).  I for one am totally ready for school to start!  Can I get a hurray? 

I am SO far behind in blogging.  Between not having my car and a lot of things happening last week, I never got around to downloading pictures from Lily’s swim meet and our trip to Yorktown to celebrate Mia’s 2nd birthday.  Here they are!  Make sure you click on “show info’ during the slideshow to read the captions.  Or don’t, and just make up your own captions. . . 

I had a major, massive, incredible workout today.  I broke some rules at the Y by hogging a machine for an hour and a half (and before you get all “HEY DUDE, 45 minutes is the time limit” on me, I got permission from one of the trainers).  I’ve been trying to complete a 20 mile ride on the Expresso bikes.  20 miles isn’t all that bad, but the first 12 are uphill - gahhhhh.  Anyway, after 90 minutes I made it!  I was literally soaking wet and barely able to walk, but I still felt pretty good.  I picked up the girls, silently praying they’d be nice and not have a fight because I had zero energy with which to deal (that’s what happens when you burn 880 calories). 

We got into the car, and Lily asked me, “Mommy, why do you have to work out?”  A million sarcastic responses flitted through my mind, but thankfully my mouth filter was engaged and I said none of them.

“Because it’s healthy for me, just like you work out at Little Gym and on the playground.  Also, I’m trying to lose a little weight.”

A millisecond later, Lily started to make the weird sniffling/snorting noise she makes before she fake-cries.  “But Mommy!!!  I don’t want you to be thin!  I want you to stay exactly the way you are, RIGHT NOW!!!”  Arden joined in the conversation with this little ditty: “Yeah, Mommy, I would not like to hug you if you were thin.”

So all I need to do, really, is fill the world with clones of my children, and stay just the way I am.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream from Gelati Celesti, here I come. 

Today I watched letters Q and U get married (you know, they are always together!).  Lily’s name was picked out of a hat to be the bride (U), so of course I got all goofy and videotaped a bunch of it as well as obnoxiously snapping pictures.  She LOVED being the bride.  I tried to talk her groom (letter Q) into paying for her college education, but Chad wasn’t down with that, so I guess we’re still on the hook for 4 years of ivy league school. 

I’ve never heard of this, but it’s awesome - Lily will never forget that letters Q and U make a “Kwa” sound.  The best part was hearing that Q is always followed by U, except in the word “Q-Tip” - and that’s because (cue 18 kindergartners screaming):  “No one likes EAR WAX!”  You can hear that clearly on the videos.

The parents all dressed up in “wedding attire” too, which was fun walking around in heels at 7 AM.  Not!  Still, so glad I had the chance to go and see my girl get married the first time.  I wonder how long before she and Chad get divorced . . . .

Videos first:

Pictures: