Temptation!

Thanks for good reward ideas (well, mostly good ideas!) for my sugar-limiting challenge everyone! Here's what I've decided to do: I'm going to do the challenge for 8 weeks and will earn $3 every week that I stick to my goals. I loose all $3 if I mess up at all during the week. At the end of the 8 weeks, I get to spend whatever I have earned on anything I want.

Tomorrow will be the end of my first week, but man it's been hard. Temptations were thrown at me almost as soon as I posted my goals last week. It seems like everywhere I go there are desserts. I was strong though and saved my one dessert for the brownies I had to make for a dinner yesterday. It really helped knowing that if I cheated, I would have to tell all of you about it. Thanks!

Fresh Air and Exercise

We had great weather here again last Friday (it seems like we've had a lot of that so far this winter), so Alan took the day off work and we went back to the coast for some hiking. We went back to Lookout Cape and did an easy 5-mile hike. Most of the hike was in the forest. I love the forests here because they're so green. A lot of the tree trunks are covered in moss and the ferns were a brilliant, emerald green with the sun filtering through the branches. We also got some gorgeous views of the ocean. The hike ended on a cape and we got to see a whale breaching and spouting off several times.

It was Spencer's first hike and his first time in our backpack carrier, so I was a little nervous about how he would do. He loved the first half and babbled most of the way. We got him out of the backpack at the cape for a snack and he shared his cheerios with a friendly squirrel. He was happy until we put him back in the backpack. He cried a lot of the way back and we wound up taking him out of the backpack and just carrying him in our arms. Even an easy hike is hard when you're carrying a 20 lb baby. Luckily, Alan's pretty buff so I didn't have to carry Spencer very far! :) I guess we chose a little too long of a hike for Spencer's first one.

Of course, we had to stop at the Cheese Factory for a snack after the hike. Alan got ice cream, but I resisted the temptation and just got some squeaky cheese. I don't know if that's any better for you than ice cream, but it doesn't have sugar in it. It turned out to be a really nice afternoon. I don't get to be outdoors enough and the fresh air was wonderful. I'm glad we went when we did because it's been really rainy today and is supposed to rain all week.

No Laser Treatments

I took Spencer to the pediatric dermatologist yesterday. (I was able to get in really fast because of a cancellation.) This doctor, Dr. Krol, looked at Spencer's mark and poked it a little bit and immediately determined that it's not a birthmark, but veins showing through his skin. That's what Spencer's pediatrician originally suggested. Dr. Krol said the veins seems to be draining heavily and since they disappear behind Spencer's eye, he referred us to a pediatric ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist will probably do an ultra-sound of Spencer's eye to determine if there is blood pooling behind it anywhere. If he doesn't find anything, then we'll have an MRI to see if there's blood pooling anywhere else in Spencer's head. If we still don't find anything, we'll just watch the veins closely for any signs of bulging or change. I didn't ask much about what the treatment would be if they do find pooling blood anywhere. I guess I just didn't want to freak myself out before we know what's going on. Our appointment with the ophthalmologist isn't until March 20th, so we'll just have to wait to find out. Either way, laser treatments wouldn't do any good and I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to reduce the appearance of a bruise. Who knew that something like that could happen? Sometimes I think I should have been a doctor because our bodies are so interesting. But then I think about all of the schooling required and am very glad that I became a teacher instead. I'll keep you posted.

Sweet Addiction

So I have a problem. I never feel like I'm full after dinner until I eat something sweet. This happens to me every holiday season and it takes me doing something like this to end it. I never ended it last year, so this has been going on for over a year! I need to break this habit, not to lose weight, just to be healthier. So, I'm telling all of you about my new resolution to make myself more accountable for it. :) Here are my goals:

1) I will only eat something sweet after dinner once a week. I don't believe in completely depriving myself of some of the wonderful things in life! Sadly, this rule is going to include dried fruit. I actually stopped eating desserts a few weeks ago, but I've been cheating by eating dried fruit (which is just as sweet) instead.

2) I will not eat anything after 8:15 pm. That seems to be when the cravings are the worst and I lose my self-control.

3) I'm going to be really strict on this goal until Spencer's birthday on April 20th.

Lastly, I think I need a reward for myself if I make my goal, but I'm not sure what it should be. Let me know if you have any suggestions. If anyone else has this little problem, please feel free to join me. There's strength in numbers!

Laser Treatments?

Some of you know that Spencer has this weird bruise-like mark that goes from his left eyebrow down to the middle of his cheek. (It doesn't show up really at all in pictures, but I tried to get some good shots of it.) I first noticed it when he was about two months old. I asked Spencer's pediatrician about it at his 3-month check-up and the doctor suggested that the mark was just veins showing through the skin. I was still a little concerned about it though so I asked about it again at his 9-month appointment. This time the pediatrician referred me to a dermatologist mostly just for my piece-of-mind.

I took Spencer in a couple of weeks and the dermatologist said that if we were to biopsy the cells, they would look like mole cells that are just way beneath the skin. She said that it probably wasn't dangerous and wouldn't go away so we might want to consider having it removed with laser treatments. I'm supposed to make an appointment for a consultation with a pediatric dermatologist to talk about the options. They would have to give Spencer general anesthesia to do the laser treatments and they don't like to do that to little babies, so I'm guessing it would be 2-3 years before we did anything about it. I'm starting to get a lot of comments about it though. Almost every time I go to the grocery store, some one asks me if he fell down while trying to walk. It doesn't really bother me that people ask about it, but it does bother me that more and more people are asking so it must be getting more noticeable. Spencer's pediatrician even documented it in his doctor's notes so I won't get accused of hitting my son. I'm going to make the appointment with the pediatric dermatologist tomorrow, but I don't know how long it will be before we can get in.

Another Saturday at the Beach

Last Saturday was gorgeous here and I really needed to get out and do something fun, so we decided to head back to the beach. This time we went to Tillamook which is only about an hour away from our house. We decided to check out a state park called Cape Lookout first. It was so warm and sunny on the beach! We didn't realize there were lots of hiking trails there and were kicking ourselves for not bringing a backpack to carry Spencer in and our hiking shoes. We're going to go back for some hiking the next time we have a nice weekend, but that might not be until June! Spencer was super happy the whole time we were there and loved watching this little waterfall. You can't really tell in these pictures, but Spencer only has one sock on. This is because he spit-up all over his other sock. He'd been spitting up so much less that I even didn't take a rag down to the beach with us, so I had to turn his sock inside out and use it wipe up Alan's hands and hoodie. I never went ANYWHERE without a spit-up rag until he was 7 months old. Glad I wasn't holding him when it happened this time!

After the beach, we headed to one of our very favorite places in Oregon - the Tillamook Cheese Factory. They have observation decks there where you can watch them making and packaging the cheese. That's pretty neat, but the best part is the free cheese samples and Tillamook ice cream cones (which are not free!). The factory wasn't very busy so Alan went through the cheese line 3 times! Spencer even got to eat some of the cheese this time. We didn't give him the jalapeno kind, but he loved the colby jack! It turned out to be a really nice little trip and it was so refreshing for me to get out of the house. Now, I get to look forward to a Valentine's dance this weekend!