Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Littlest Rower

Ade loves to come to the gym with us.

He gets lots of attention from everyone and has fun playing on the equipment! We think it is important for him to see us and other people we know being active so it becomes second nature to him to work out.

His favourite machine to play on is the C2 Rower...we think rowing might be in his future because he picked it up quite fast.








Friday, March 16, 2012

The Potty Train

So, it looks like we are taking the first tentative steps towards potty training.

This is very exciting news in our house.

The talk of all things poop and pee is certainly first and foremost in all of our conversations as a family. Even at supper time there is much chatter from the wee lad about where the poop and pee is supposed to go and who he is supposed to call when he needs to go.

Wee man has been going on the potty for a long time but still wearing diapers. We had progressed to pull-ups in the last couple of weeks and THEN....

This morning gotchies were asked for and so we quickly obliged and explained how he had to be sure to let someone know if he had to go potty.

We were in our bathroom getting ready for the day. We told Ade he should go pee and one of us would take him.

He said "No way" and we thought he was being his 3 year old self.

But then...we heard a door open....followed by the sound of the toilet lid being lifted....with 2 little feet on the step up to the toilet....and when we went to look in his bathroom he was sitting on the potty!

AND

He had peed and pooped all by himself!!!!!

To say we did a happy dance is an understatement!

One lucky little dude received 2 chocolate chips for being such a big boy.

Now we know there will be accidents....it is only natural...but wow!

That, my friends, was big step!!!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Wee Legs Can Make for a Long Journey

"Hey! Wait for me! I'm coming!!!"




"I said wait! I'll be there soon!"



"Oh man! Why is this taking so long???"



"Almost.....there...."



"If it's o.k. with you....I'm just gonna rest for a bit!"



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Crazy Weightlifting Lady A.K.A Why I love Crossfit!

I've been called a crazy weightlifting lady! It's not true. O.k. the crazy part...I'll give you that. I do lift some weights! They aren't crazy by any means.

Seriously!

You should see the ladies (and guys too) in our gym, Synergy Strength and Conditioning, rock out the heavy lifting! I aspire to lift weight like they do. Not to degrade the weights I do lift! Because for me they are pretty cool, and I have room to grow which is awesome.

The thing I love about lifting weights and Crossfit in general is that I am continually surprising myself. Every time I walk through the door to the gym and look at the WOD (work out of the day) I think "Holy Mother of Pearl" how am I going to do that?"

And then, I do it!

Many crossfitters will tell you it is the energy of those people who are working, sweating, grunting, groaning and getting it done beside you which pushes you to do one more pull up, one more box jump, or one more kettle bell swing.

It is in those moment when you are the last person doing the WOD, and those who are done stay to cheer you on to the finish, that you realize strength is in numbers. No one is left alone to finish a work out and so you dig deep to get those last 5 power cleans in. Other people know that you can do it even when you think you can't and they will make damn sure you don't give up.

Community is everything in Crossfit, because in all honesty it would be really hard to do these workouts on your own. At least for me it would be. I never been to a gym before now where I have actually made friends with the people who are also working out there. That is because the standard gym, for the most part, is a solo effort. Crossfit gyms are not like that. You work out with the same people everyday. You become friends and cheerleaders of one another.

Crossfit has been deemed a 'cult' by some. A derogatory term used by people who have no idea what they are talking about because they have never tried it. If by cult you mean, a group of people who gather together because they have the same fitness, eating, and healthy-living lifestyle goals than heck ya! It's a cult! And I'll sign up any day.

But I'm getting caught up here...

I started Crossfit because a friend recommended it and I could see how it had changed her physically as well as mentally. Yvan wanted to try something new and more challenging than we had been doing. So we took the leap and stepped outside the box....or rather inside the box. (Crossfit gyms are called boxes because typically they are large warehouse boxy spaces.)

2 years later we are still doing it and seeing gains every day.

If you follow me on Facebook than you know I signed up to do the Crossfit Games Open . I know I won't make the games this year. That is just fine with me. I didn't get into Crossfit to compete just to get healthy and strong.

Along the way though, I saw the benefits of competing now and then....in challenging myself to push myself harder than I might do in a typical WOD on a typical training day. I didn't think about the fact I wouldn't be able to complete some of the more technical movements. Instead I thought to myself, "Let's see how far I can go during this challenge and do my very best."

Kimmy says best it best on her blog "Sometimes It's a Little Bit Like a Butterfly". Now there is a gal who has gumption, dedication, determination and an awe-inspiring attitude towards life.

As always happens with Crossfit, I have surprised myself. After two rounds I am still in the Open. I have been able to do both WODs to the best of my ability. Am I the best in the world? Nope, but it's not the worst either.

Last week, the second work out was my Nemesis in terms of weightlifting - The Snatch! (It's a lot of people's harbinger of evil). The snatch is a movement where you lift a barbell from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement. It is a very technical movement and damn hard.

I have just started getting the hang of this movement. Just. Started. To. Get. The. Hang. Of. It. After two years. So, when it came up last week to do multiple snatches in clusters of 30 at increasing weights with a time cap of 10 minutes ..well, I knew it was going to be tough.

(I should also mention here that I am actually afraid of this movement. It scares me. Putting weight up over my head lifted directly from the ground is a bit intimidating)

I got through the first 30 @ 45# in about 2:30 and moved onto to the next cluster of 30 @ 75#. I have only done 1 power snatch at 75# before so I figured if I got 1 or 2 reps I would be laughing...over the next 7 1/2 minutes I got 8 reps.....8 reps!! That is a lot for a max effort....and yes, I'm tooting my own horn here. I actually got a little teary because by the end of the 10 minutes I was beginning to really understand the mechanics of the movement and to not be afraid of it anymore.

I didn't do it by myself. My fellow crossfitters were there cheering me on. One of the coaches, who could see my frustration level rising, came over and talked me through every 8 of those snatches. I could hear people yelling my name and telling me I could do it.

Once again, I was surprised by my own efforts. Not by the people though, because you can always count on them to be there for you.

I guess what I am getting at here...is the reason Why I love Crossfit and have become a crazy weightlifting lady.

It helps me face my fears. It breeds friendship and positivity. It makes me a better, stronger, faster, healthier, more productive person.

When I have conquered a WOD, I know the rest of the day will be a breeze.

(And yes, this is a shameless plug to get everyone I know to try Crossfit at least once.)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Is February finally gone???? Thank Goodness!

February 2012 was awful.

I needed to step back, take a break and re-evaluate which is why I haven't been blogging of late.

My dear, sweet, kind, feisty, lovable Grandma passed away.


We were close. Very close.

Growing up I probably spent close to every day with her except when we lived out of town. After school I would go to her house until my mom was done work and could pick me up to take me home. We would sit and watch t.v. together and argue over the news. We always had differing opinions on everything so it was always enjoyable to get into heated debates with her. There is probably no one else on the earth who could challenge me like she did...and get me riled up the way she did too.

Even as an adult, we talked every week. I tried to see her every week too but sometimes it was hard and it would only be a couple times a month. She loved Yvan. I think more than she loved me and she always told me how lucky I was to have found him. She was right.



She prayed hard for our adoption to go through as well. She would always say she just couldn't understand why it was taking so long and why they were keeping our babe from being in our arms where he most needed to be. She was beside herself with joy the day we came home with Ade.

She was fiercely protective of her kids and grand kids (great grand kids too) and her world revolved around family. Many holidays were planned with Grandma involved because we just all liked to be together.

The last month before she died I was privileged to be able to spend almost every day with her and to tell her how much I loved her. Her family came to be by her side in her last days and she was so happy to have them all there.

I was very honored to be able to say the Tribute to her at her funeral. It was incredibly hard to put her 88 years into words. I did my best to honour the little lady who was so special to so many. She always said she was so lucky to have us as her family but the truth is, it was us who were so unbelievably lucky to have her as our Matriarch.

I miss her terribly. I always will. As a friend so eloquently said, "the longer someone is in our lives, the more we miss them when they are gone."

My grandma had been in my life since the day I was born.