So our little munchkin is five months old today and hasn’t the time flown! I know this is a terrible cliché but honestly, where does the time go when you have a baby?
Gabriele Aged 5 Months Attempting To Eat The Dog
So at five months Gabriele is twice the man he used to be bless him; he’s eating three solid meals a day, typically baby rice and fruity porridge and every now and then we throw in a mashed up rusk as a treat. He has the most adorable smile that takes up both chubby cheeks on his face and displays his gorgeous little dimple on one side. And his giggles! Well, they melt my heart and strangely entice me into making silly faces at him and sniffing his toes in public.
Everyday I notice little changes that when added together have suddenly turned him into a child instead of a baby. His strength is incredible; he can roll over and hold himself fully supported on his front with his head held high looking around. He’s started to grip onto toys and feeding spoons at dinner time, and on the odd occasion he’s managed to grip his fingers onto his rubber spoon when I’m about to scoot it into his mouth, and ping it back with such force to fire the baby rice across my face, my clothes, up his nose, in his eyebrows and onto the window even. And I can’t help but laugh and carry on!
In the bath he’s like an olympic swimmer, kicking away with his chubby little thighs that are so incredibly soft and edible I can’t help but blow raspberries on them and tickle his tummy when I cover him in puffs of talcum powder clouds. And when he’s excited his whole face lights up like some kind of mechanical puppet in a circus booth, his expressions are fantastic and would make every botox fan incredibly jealous. It seems his eyes have an ability to double in size when he opens them wide, his eyebrows somehow meet with the top of his head, he can crinkle his nose better than a shar-pei and his mouth turns from a massive grin to a perfect pout in one second flat. It’s hilarious to see him stiffen his arms and legs and change his expressions as he studies the world around him and I only wish as adults we could have just a small part of his enthusiasm as we go about our daily life.
Millie attended her friends fifth birthday party yesterday and it was lovely to see her running around at the local soft play area Whizzkids with all of the little girls from school, going down slides, holding hands and climbing and running around. It feels surreal to think that in a matter of weeks our little princess will be turning five and it just highlights how fast time goes and how precious everyday is with the children.
Millie Playing At Her Friends 5th Birthday Party
And it makes me feel incredibly old to think that only six years ago I was a teenager and now here I am a mother to two beautiful children. And what do I do to mark this occasion? Try to become a man! Well, sort of, as I bought a sit up bench to add to my workout collection yesterday and when I arrived home from the school run this morning the postman had left me a delivery note to say that they were holding a parcel for me as I was out when they had called. I’m really hoping it is my Semtex – which for those of you who may not already know is a new gym supplement range by Jodie Marsh to help you to train harder, burn more fat and get in shape. So I stood oohing and ahhing in my hallway clutching the red Royal Mail card and dreaming of my big tub of wonder arriving but I have to wait three hours until I can collect it, torture! Today was my weigh in day and I really wasn’t sure what to expect as I stepped on the scales. I’ve been working hard at the gym on average five days each week, but as I’m getting more exercise I’m also eating more, and as I burn off excess fat I’m gaining muscle so I was undecided as to which way my weight would go this week.
Overall I’ve had a fairly indulgent week, we had a few too many drinks at the start of the week which left Luca slightly green and me taking refuge in the boot of a car – don’t ask! And last night despite knowing it was weigh-in day today we ate snacks, crisps, chocolate, cheese and crackers like it was the end of the world, but didn’t I enjoy it! I know that we don’t get out enough as a couple anymore but that’s part and parcel of being parents and I honestly think if we were to go out wining and dining every week we really wouldn’t appreciate it as much as we do now, our children wouldn’t have such a stable home life and Britain’s roads might end up misplacing a fair few road cones! So for now I’m happy to remain a lightweight social drinker. Much safer.
Perhaps I May Have Had A Few Too Many Drinks?
And now for this weeks weigh-in which I can’t delay any longer!
My Weight Loss 20 Weeks After Giving Birth
So as you can see I’m at a stalemate which I guess is a good place to be as my weight hasn’t changed from last week. Day by day I’m feeling better about my post-pregnancy body but I realise there is still some way to go before I’m confident enough to streak across a football pitch should the thought ever take my fancy. Now that I have my sit up bench I’m excited about focusing on my abs and having a washboard stomach, perhaps not to the extent of a full on six-pack, but a nice firmness would be great. I don’t want to lean over to pick up a sock when I’m thirty and have all of my organs come falling forward and hanging down in front of me so it’s about time I do something about my muscles. I’m looking to also get some free-weights so that I can trim up my bingo wings at home, tighten my abs and generally shrink wrap myself a little so that I can focus my attention at the gym on cardio for the little time that I have to work out. I’m hoping that way, even if I can’t go to the gym everyday it isn’t time wasted as whilst I’m pottering around after the kids I can do a few bicep reps whilst I’m rocking Gabriele in his bopper and maybe a few ab crunches as I feed Millie her grapes! It’s all about maximising potential and getting the most out of your time and I’m more than a little tempted to make myself a chart right now! Ha.
So here is my gym routine for drum roll please… WEEK TWO at the gym! This week has been hectic for us and I’ve not been able to get to the gym as much as I’d have liked to so by building up my stock of equipment at home I’m hoping it will help to scratch the spandex itch a little.
My Gym Routine Two Weeks After Starting
I love the feeling of going to the gym, putting on my spandex and trainers and making my way through the doors. It’s possibly 10% more exciting than arriving at the airport primed with a new suitcase and sunglasses ready for holiday. And I love the smell of the gym; it’s not stagnant or sweaty like I was expecting, but fresh, white, wide open and the slight hint of rubber. It tingles my sense of smell every time I walk in as it reminds me of my childhood buying a new bouncy ball filled with bright shiny swirls of vivid colour, smooth and smelling unmistakably of rubber, so new and exciting and wahhhay! I want to run into the gym with my arms in the air and jump around like nobody is watching. 🙂 It’s brilliant.
And I’ve pushed myself that little bit harder this week, as my addiction to setting myself goals is as strong as ever. I tell myself when I get in that I’ll do twenty minutes of cardio and then some weights and be in and out within the hour. But when I get on the cross trainer and I see the minutes clocking up it’s hard to not keep adding on five minutes each time I reach my goal, just to see if I can keep going or morbidly what would happen if I couldn’t. But either way I have to end my workout at a time divisible by five, which is most commonly twenty, thirty, thirty-five or forty minutes.
On Wednesday I had reached my twenty minute goal on the cross trainer and was about to start slowing it down to ease off and stop when a man got onto the machine next to me and like a meerkat my senses pricked up. I could feel his eyes slyly looking over at the timer on my machine and fixed my gaze forward as the music blasted down my earphones, I took a swig of iced water from my bottle and carried on. From the corner of my eye I watched like a coiled snake in silence as I continued to workout alongside him, catching him looking over at my machine from time to time and seeing that he was running at the same pace as me; despite my legs and arms feeling like I’d been tenderised by a toffee hammer I had this burning desire to beat him and I have no idea where it came from, but I fully entertained it.
Each minute that passed I upped my speed knowing that he couldn’t keep up with me and it was such an amazing feeling. I must have looked like the terminator next to him, running for my life and glancing over involuntarily to check his digits against mine, his nosiness only served to spur me on and made me more determined to out-stride him with every step. And several minutes later when his machine beeped and he stepped off I took another fifty or so strides of victory, just long enough for him to walk away and notice my commitment, accepting that he had lost our duel, to I, the glorious olympian representing my country. A sweaty, berry-faced, gasping and exasperated Olympian who hobbled back home with shin splints, but it was so worth it! 🙂
And finally a quick glance at Gabriele’s sleep pattern this week:
Baby Gabriele’s Sleep Routine 19Weeks After Birth
As you can see his hours are still all over the show, he wakes long enough to have a little shout, a nappy change and a bottle of milk before nodding off again, as I lay in the dark staring into space and listening to Luca snore like a caveman. And what would fill these long empty minutes of the night? Your comments! So please hit that little speech button at the top of my posts and tell me what you think of what I write. You don’t have to give your real name, you could call yourself Super Ted for all that I mind, it’s just nice to feel appreciated and/or hated every once in a while! 🙂 x
