Milestones and deadlines

Well, another deadline is looming.

Nine days before Evie's second birthday is another somewhat momentous occasion. Elly's six month "birthday." Which is also my self-imposed deadline to be back to my pre-Elly weight. My summer before Evie weight is a WHOOOOLE different story. But I'd like to be back to the weight I was last June by the time Elly is six months.

As of 7 a.m. today I weighed 132.5 lbs. That leaves me 7.5 lbs to go. But only 6 weeks left. I feel like I need to really buckle down and work to lose more than a pound a week but man. I have been craving bad foods like crazy. No, I'm not pregnant. Or PMSing. Or anything else hormonal that I know of. But instead of my usual summer metabolism, the one I had before I got pregnant the FIRST time, the one where I was barely hungry and a cup of coffee for breakfast, a small salad for lunch and a sandwich for supper kept me full...yeah, that metabolism doesn't exist anymore. Instead of the summer heat and activity making me NOT hungry, I'm starving nearly all the time. And sitting around in the bat cave for 40 hours a week, it's hard to come up with appealing and healthy snacks.

So I'm trying to walk every day. Doing yoga as many days as I can find the time and energy. Trying to give myself a cheat day occasionally to keep me from being totally depressed. And crossing my fingers every morning when I step on the scale.

No matter how much weight I lose I'm pretty sure that my pre-baby body will never return. And most days I'm okay with that. Sometimes, like when I see a picture of me on Facebook where I just look so BLAH, I wish I could get back that pre-Evie tummy. And if I win the lottery, I'm definitely getting a boob job. My boobs are practically non-existent now! But my sweet babies are totally worth it. And I don't look as bad in my little tankini two-piece as I thought I would. My size 8 jeans leave me some breathing room and size small shirts look good, as long as they aren't so tight they show the muffin top that my excess tummy skin can make.

Little Elly is rolling over now. And sitting up by herself. She's starting to play with toys and have some more personality. She's sleeping good and enjoying being outside and watching what's going on. Even Evie has noticed that Elly is improving. Evie brings her toys to play with and enjoys sitting in the floor and showing her how to play with toys. I can't wait until Elly is 8 or 9 months old and really crawling and playing. They are going to be such good friends!

Six months is a big milestone. With Evie is seemed like when everything seriously sped up. Babies work so hard to accomplish those first big physical milestones, rolling over and sitting up, but once they have the muscles developed for those, the rest of the gross physical milestones just sort of rush along. The first six months are spent on tummy time to finally accomplish rolling and sitting propped on their little hands...then the second six months is a rush of crawling, pulling up, feeding themselves, cruising and walking. It's amazing! And overwhelming. A baby goes from being a little squab to being a fully-mobile little person in such a short period of time.

And it is so amazing to see how much different individual children are! Evie was so advanced physically, but in the big physicals. From the get-go that girl was determined to walk. And no surprise that she was walking at 10 months old. As long as she got what she needed, she had no interest in talking. So again no surprise that she didn't start talking much til 18 months old. Elly on the other hand is a talker. Technically she's already said her first word "Ooma" for Momma. (Yay! A momma's girl!) And while Evie was never behind on the more localized milestones, things like grabbing and pincer grasp, I can tell a tremendous difference in Elly's capabilities. She can grab toys and pick up things far better than Evie could at this age.

So...six weeks...and I just feel like life will be so much different afterward. But it's not a bad thing.