-
The Littlejohns Exchange Valentines
02.14.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on The Littlejohns Exchange Valentines
From Gigi to Mommy and Daddy. I found this at my plate this morning for breakfast.
From Tamara to Bradley. I made these cards with my class. No, this is not real hair, rather doll hair. Only available in super jheri-curl variety.
From kids to Mommy. Daddy is super reliable at letting Gigi pick out blooms for me on holidays, and Gigi is super reliable at picking them out in either pink or purple. I can’t complain, they are lovely. Yesterday, after walking by the display of flowers in Costco, Gigi insisted on making a frantic call to her father, “about Valentine’s Day, Mom! It is really important.” Then proceeded to walk behind a giant display of nuts to have her private conversation with her dad, which I think might *MIGHT* have been about these flowers.
From Bradley to Tamara – Calla Lillies were my bouquet at our wedding. Bradley made my bouquet.
From Mommy and Daddy to the kiddos – when we bought balloon bunches for another Valentine gift to a different person who does not live in our house, the kids went bananas so we decided that this was the way to go this year. Cheap, too! Again, they went bananas when they saw them. Balloons are just terribly exciting!
And lastly, Jude’s Valentine’s chocolate’s package said, “You’re top dog, Valentine!” Jude proceeded to say, “Cockit!” And then ate the face off of his chocolate dog. Mmmm! Not such a happy Valentine’s Day for the chocolate dog, I guess, but we Littlejohns are full of love for one another. And full of a little ‘cockit’ too!
-
Be Mine, Valentine
02.13.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Be Mine, Valentine
As we wandered the Valentine aisle at the store, I expected Gigi to beg for the best, most wonderful, every-girl-would-love-them Hannah Montana Valentines to give out to her friends. Instead, I was surprised (and charmed) that she wanted to make her own with her own two sweet little hands.
I am always up for something doing something crafty with my girl, so we spent way more money purchasing supplies for homemade Valentines than we would have on the pre-made variety. That is okay by me. Naturally, this task is best completed when wearing a Cinderella princess dress and feathered sparkle crown.
Then we had to add a gift, of course. Her classmates have many varieties of allergies, so we could not include any food items. She chose pencils and a little mini pad of paper. We taped them to the back of her Valentines.
She had so much fun making her Valnetines, and, I think, a sense of pride when she got to hand them out to her friends!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
-
Our Cheerleader
02.10.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Our CheerleaderRecently Gigi had the opportunity to go to a cheer clinic.
From 10:00 -4:00 she spent her time learning dance moves and cheer steps that she could use at an upcoming Lynnwood High School ladies basketball game.
The best part was that it was taught by REAL CHEERLEADERS and one of them looked like TAYLOR SWIFT.
Gigi learned a lot of awesome moves. However, aside from a pose here and there, upon leaving the clinic she couldn’t exactly remember any of her awesome new moves. She did, however, remember this one, cheerleader smile and all:
On Monday, we trundled over to Lynnwood High School to marvel at the halftime show. Many key players were in attendance: Mom, Dad, GSB, Pipi and Jude. We all wanted to cheer on our little cheerleader!
She was awesome. Suddenly she recalled all of her fancy moves and was able to perform in her cheerleaderish outfit.
At first she was reserved and sticking to the most basic of moves, but by the time she reached the end of the halftime performance, she was doing high kicks and jumps with the best of them!
Gigi thinks that she may choose to join gymnastics instead of ballet, as cheerleading is a new passion of hers. She may even be a professional for life.
-
Snow Days
02.09.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Snow Days
It appears that this year no snow shall fall on our fair heads in Seattle. It makes me glad that we got to get away for a quick weekend of fun in the snow a few weeks ago…
Walks…Â Sledding…Â A Sleigh Ride…Â Â In a Bavarian setting.
Perfect!
-
I Hate PCOS
01.30.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on I Hate PCOSSo, I have PCOS. Sexy, huh? That’s short for Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, which in essence, means that I have many cysts on my ovaries which makes it hard for eggs to escape and babies to be made. You would think that would be it. You would think that now that I have my babies I wouldn’t care about my PCOS anymore but believe it or not, I still have to battle my ‘syndrome’! Why? because a nice little side effect of having PCOS is something called insulin resistance. That basically means that instead of creating glucose from sugars (fructose or otherwise) for energy, my body does a better than average job of storing those sugars away as fat instead of processing it and using it as an energy source. Then, because I don’t get that energy boost from the glucose, I want to eat more and the cycle continues. In addition, my body hangs onto the fat cells like gold. So I get really fat really really easy, and stay that way because losing the weight is quite challenging. PCOS be damned!
When I hit puberty is when my PCOS started rearing its ugly head. My diet didn’t change and I was a very active kid, but I started gaining weight. My ninth grade yearbook picture looks like it should be on the staff page, weight makes you look older.  My family thought I was sneaking food at my friends and elsewhere, but I honestly don’t remember eating all that differently than my friends. My weight gain seemed unexplainable. There were other symptoms too, let’s just say I was far from ‘regular’, but I didn’t mind that one bit. I met with doctors and took blood tests, but we couldn’t connect any dots to determine what was going on with me. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that my sister in law sent me an article that matched me to a T: Overweight? Check. Irregular? Check. Tired? Check. Everything in the article sounded like me. I approached my doctor and she said that it certainly was a possibility. I decided that for sure, I had PCOS.
A few years ago my doctor suggested I lose about 5% of my body weight in an attempt to boost my fertility chances. We had been trying for baby #2 for a few years with no luck – even the meds I used to get pregnant with Gigi didn’t work. I was motivated to lose weight by the chance of a baby, and it worked. After losing about 50 pounds (way more than the 5% for you mathematicians) I ended up pregnant with Jude. I also ended up being able to run and play and hike – I felt so good, we were so active! With the pregnancy, I said goodbye to the diet, assuming that I would hop back on the bandwagon once the baby was born. That did not happen. In fact, quite the opposite happened and I ended up gaining some weight back – and it piled on really really fast. I have spent the last year and a half or so trying to be motivated enough to start it up again. Then my mom started the battle and lost 40 pounds and I got the motivation I needed, PCOS be damned!
Last week I started the diet again, in an attempt to get healthy (my focus is always health, thinness is an attractive side effect). I started eating a ton of vegetables, riding my bike nightly, and am staying away from processed sugars and white stuff like rice, potatoes, and food in the staff room on Fat Wednesdays (the day when we bring treats at my school). I lost four pounds and hollered it from the rooftops! “I am losing weight! I lost four pounds! This is it! I am going to do it this time!” Week two arrived, and using the same strategies, I lost about 1/2 a pound. While that is nothing to sneeze at, a loss is a loss, it does not help my momentum any. Of course I want to lose 1-2 whole pounds a week but with my ‘syndrome’ that is difficult. So here I am now, going into week three with determination. A pound please, that’s all I ask. I can do it. Wish me strength and luck, please. PCOS be damned!
