Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

Kids doing pushups. It's hilarious. I'd put pictures but it would be of other people's children, so I am thinking that would not be so awesome. Instead I had my son pose. From my observations of those new to our karate class and warmup, the kids' pushups fall into a few different categories: The bottom in the air What not to do - pushup with bottom in the air That's what the top of the motion looks like when they do this. The bottom of the motion is closer to more what the start position should be! The hip on the floor In this one, the hips and top of thighs stay on the ground but the elbows bend. So that's good, the elbows bend? It's not correct, but at least the elbows bend? What not to do - pushup with the hip on the floor The head bob I don't have pictures of this one. Liam got tired of doing pushups incorrectly and was highly suspicious of me taking pictures so he declined to do more. "Mama are you going to show peo...

The boys sleeping under a mosquito net, Trinidad, July 2016. This is just a short post about an epiphany I had coming back from my recent trip to Trinidad. Prior to going to Trinidad with my sons, and in planning the trip and the schedule, I'd been concerned about the length of time we would stay and how the boys would adapt. The longest they'd ever been there was 10 days. This trip was considerably longer. I felt I could adapt, after all, I grew up there, but them? How would the boys handle the heat? (There was no central air conditioning where we would be staying, only air-conditioning in the bedrooms.) What would they be able to eat? (Food was typically spicy and rich, full of fat, salt and sugar and unfamiliar in general.) What about the schedule? Irregular bedtimes, wakeup and activities. The constant rotation of visitors and visiting. Would they sleep comfortably? The mosquitoes! And Zika! And Chikungunya! And on and on. 2 weeks of disruption I felt they ...

Usually shopping with Liam consists of following behind him and putting back whatever he picks up, or taking things out of his hands. Sometimes, it is entertaining, as long as I don't plan on getting any shopping done.  Like a recent trip to get towels.   I take a quick look at Liam and there he is trying to figure out how to put on a yellow and black, polka-dot halter-top bikini. Hmmm.. we're not in the main aisle, so noone can really see him. I'll just let him play for a bit, so I can look around. I look back.  Oh my, he's got the neck under one arm and one of the cups on his shoulder.  That's funny! I look at the bottoms that go with the tunic top I've been looking at.  Oh good grief! Pull-on, elastic-waist pants?! I need to get a life! We move on to towels after he gets tired playing around with the bikini top. " You have to come down from there." "Why?" "Well this isn't a playground. These shelves aren't f...

Hopefully, you won't have to do this for a long, long time.  We just completely restrict access to news, but that is just us. Recently Lucas' school had a Veteran's Day ceremony, where they honoured veterans in the community.  It was beautiful and moving and the ceremony included the eventual placement of 5,248 flags for fallen veterans representing those who have died in Iraq & Afghanistan as well as those who died recently at Ft. Hood (including the unborn baby). Lucas has had a fascination with "being an army" for a long time - as evidenced by the number of times he's been an army soldier for Halloween, and the number of green army men I keep finding everywhere in the house and car.  As usual, I tried to gauge what he understood about being "an army". Me: So Lucas, how did you find the (veterans') service this morning? Lucas: Good Me: Do you remember anything about it? Not really, but they called out the names of some veterans ...

If you don't, well I feel really, really incompetent right about now, because I do, but I do try really, really hard not to scream at the children.  This NY Times article, For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking, rang true for me. We don't spank, although I still use tools like 1-2-3 that " don't work to change behavior " in the words of one expert quoted in the article...Oh. In general, I have 2 triggers that put me over the edge: When Liam is not in good shape (either getting sick, sick or missed sleep) and Lucas insists it's a good time to "play" with Liam (that is, provoke him). My second trigger is described in the case of one mom interviewed for the article.  For this mom, like me, it is  " when adult peace is within her grasp ", that is, when the kids don't want to sleep.  I am so ready for time away from children...but then Liam delays brushing his teeth, or wants to try and use the potty (really?? now??) or doesn...

I made the mistake of leaving my laptop open.  Liam was attracted by the pretty picture on it (wallpaper), and wanted to type, so I opened up a Wordpad document for him to type in and in the 2 seconds it took me to turn around and put away a dishcloth I had in my hand, this is what he did to my laptop.  He is 2. Well!  I had never actually seen that before, I didn't know it could be done.  So instead of rotating those pesky photos, I could have rotated my whole screen? Who knew?  I got a crick in my neck searching for help sideways. And I do mean search: display, settings, orientation, layout, rotate -  no dice.  I gave up.  I won't admit to how long I spent on this fruitless endeavour before I sought a second opinion. (Restrain yourselves from laughing at me - I feel foolish enough as it is.) Me to my husband: "Hi.   Ummm do you know how to change your laptop layout from sideways?" G: "What do you mean sideways?" "I mean like yo...

It's days like these I really enjoy being a stay-at-home mom.  I was with Liam last week and as we were driving out of our street we saw a fire engine ahead of us. The sirens weren't on, so I figured it may be going back to the station a few blocks from our house.  Not having to get to work, I was only too happy to follow it around, besides, I could hardly do anything else because Liam was squealing so loudly .  Good thing he was strapped-in otherwise he would have literally jumped out of the car. So we followed the fire engine around for a few streets, talking about what we could see on the truck (the hoses, controls, ladder) and then finally it reached the fire station.  We stopped and I turned the car so he could get a good look at the firefighter reversing the engine back into the bay. What could be better than that? Well, it's the little things that occur in the day.  Last evening, I saw my husband looking at Liam (my 2-year old) playing happily in th...

If my husband is reading this, I can just imagine his reaction, "WHAT NEXT CHILD??!!!" A friend of mine recently mentioned wanting another child (this is someone who is finally ready to do sleep-training with her 2-year old - a baby who is not completely weaned yet), but anyways, yes this crazy mom is talking about another child. (By the way, I should warn you, this is a short post on a complex topic.) So it got me thinking. Liam is 2 now, and it would be great to have a little princess, but I started this baby business a little (ahem) later than some of my peers and having a child later in life is complicated because of the risks (both for mother, baby and of course emotionally and financially if baby has health issues). I look at Liam and think what a sweet child he is, wouldn't it be wonderful to experience that all over again? But getting there would be a problem - struggles with nursing, up every 1 1/2 hours, not to mention getting through a pregnancy and deli...

Originally I thought of calling this post "Lord, help me get through the day", but then I thought the issue isn't so much as the days being hard, just very, very long. Since Lucas is home for the Christmas holidays, I don't get a break when Liam sleeps (I'm busy entertaining Lucas). That coupled with the fact that Liam is back to waking up at 5:00am is enough to do me in. I've tried to do something with them every day, so they are both busy and today was grocery-shopping. Lucas was very helpful. He was bringing in a gallon of milk from the car and it slipped, cracked half open and spilled everywhere in the garage (at least not inside!). Our neighbor had to conduct an emergency evacuation of her baby since he had wandered over to check out what we were doing and he is allergic to..well..anything you can think of. In short, milk everywhere was not good for him. I had cleverly put a load of baby clothes in the wash before we went to the grocery and Lucas helpfull...

In the 4 1/2 months I've been home I am forced to admit, I have only had one completely successful grocery shopping trip - yesterday, and that's because the shopping list was very short. I can just imagine the snickers from other parents who do this...but I really do my best..but then things happen...I can't explain it. Now, in my former, professional life, I could be on a conference call, doing instant message with a colleague and be working on a deliverable for my boss all at once, and still be able to respond to a question from the call or pick at something I heard without missing a beat. Foolishly, I assumed I would be able to transfer my focus and concentration to grocery shopping...I mean, surely, surely I could do this, right? Yeah..well, I don't know what the issue is exactly, but it's different each time. First I made up my list, but then I would realize that I had already passed the aisle where the item was. For a parent trying to do a quick grocery run...