Book report: Run Like a Mother

One of my blog readers is a runner, a mother, and a published author (which is truly inspiring to me).  She just co-authored Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving--and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity (by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea) and they sent me an early access copy.  I'm HOOKED on this book.  Flipping through the pages I found myself thinking "uh huh," "yep, been there," and "me too," quite a book.

Dimity and Sarah chronicle their journey through momhood, working, and being runners and include anecdotes around everything from how to juggle it all, to the whole skirt thing that's hitting the scene.  I'm particularly digging the book because it's not a novel type where you have to sit and read it front to back (although sequence helps).

Already I've flipped open the book for a little pre-run inspiration taking in whatever is on the page presented me (post flip - you get the picture) before heading out the door.  It's an easy, fun read.  If you're a mom with the juggling act (kids + running +/- work) I highly recommend this.  It's always nice to know we're not alone ... but now I'm feeling a bit humbled that these moms can work + run + get published - stardom.

To do: enjoy family!

This weekend my dad came over to help out with the boys (which was awesome). We had such a good time talking, hanging with the little men, and walking around the city - pure joy.

Money Saver Monday: Enjoy Surroundings

Living in San Francisco we're never at a loss for things to do - from the museums to the zoo to shopping and dining, we've got it all. I see many baby clubs popping up where for the low low price of $20/visit, your baby can crawl or wiggle around with other locals. We're also blessed with many FREE things to do - people watch, sea lion viewing, and just plain 'ol looking up!

This weekend we spent a lot of time just enjoying our surroundings - no cover charge required. We also enjoyed the things we already have - hand-me-down toys and instruments make for hours of entertainment.

To do: read!

We love reading to the boys, and the boys love (eating) books. Our new fav? This is London An awesome gift from Wilson's godmother Ryan. Love this book - great pictures, history woven in, and a fun story.

To do: financial fitness

Like many, I vowed to become more financially fit this year ... again ... but this time I mean it, I have to! Intro: mint.com. A friend introduced me to this site and it is terrific - you can manage your money all from one place; you put your bank info, credit card info, retirement funds, etc. in and it gives a graphical monthly budget and tracks spend. Don't worry mom, it's also secure.

Going over our finances this weekend we've had a "holy carp!!!" moment. Twins are expensive. San Francisco is expensive. We're going through everything to try to tighten our budget - here are some of the highlights:

Swapping:

• Whole Foods > Trader Joes
• Eating out > cooking or inexpensive takeout
• Wine bar with friends > come over!
• Bi-monthly races > more club runs + the occasional "needed" race
• New clothes > digging up old duds

To do: make a book!

We have photo books coming out of the woodwork (heh, get it? They're all in our bookcase (which is made of wood) but they're a little on the long side and all different shapes (read, wonky) so they're literally coming out of the woodwork ... ) as well as online photo books in a handful of places.

I have now found a new way to archive my memories and it doesn't involve glue and stickers - photo book creation - it's a book making site called Blurb where you can import photos from different photo streams or your desktop, add text (or not), click and publish. I'm hooked!

To do: pilates

Here's a little Christmas ditty for you...

The weather outside is frightful
And to run is not delightful
Too cold - can't feel my hands or my toes
Time to stretch, time to stretch, time to stretch!

I usually love winter runs - the air seems to standstill and the chill helps with long runs. That said, I usually love typical San Francisco winter runs (aka, 50s, not 40s and below). The chill factor we're having right now is driving me to my new favorite cross training workout for running - pilates. Over the past few weeks I've been trying to work in mat and machine pilates stretching out muscles I've allowed to shorten and tighten on my hill bursts, and focusing a lot on the core. I'm digging it.

To do: Get "it" back

After getting my 6-week clearance to start exercising again, I quickly realized there's hardly any time. Not only are the twins now 7 weeks old and starting to require more attention (at the 3-5 week mark this is something I didn't think was possible), but I'm now back at work and doing website QA and marketing strategy until the wee hours of the morning. That said, I think it's important to incorporate exercise where possible into the daily routine for my health and mind - a de-stressed mom (and marketer - my "day job") = a good mom, plus, being on the "fit" side of things gives me more energy to help combat the little sleep I'm getting.

With Lisa here, and a new nanny on board, I've been able to get a 3 mile run in almost daily for the past week which feels SO good. I wrote about the "stinky" side of momhood a while back - the thing is, sweat does a body good (except when not showered off as my husband loves to point out). I've been able to find the time for cardio / my passion (running of course) but I'm still looking for the time/motivation to get "it" back. Running is great for general fitness and for me it's the ideal workout for the mind/body/sole (btw, that's my little hint/preview to a site in development), but running is not ideal for getting rid of the glorious rounded abs introduced by pregnancy and c-section. Introducing, The Tracy Anderson Method Presents Post Pregnancy Workout DVD. I'm not a fan of workout DVDs - just the opposite actually, but I've done this a couple times and it's a killer. When Lis leaves and I lose my morning baby-watcher-so-I-can-run time, I'll start incorporating the DVD into the mix more as I can't yet bring the boys in the BOB so stay in the house workouts will become more needed. I can say in the few short times I've done this workout I can "feel the burn" - literally, it burns using muscles I haven't used in the past two months (in the greatest way).

I don't see myself getting the perfect Madonna or Gweneth body any time soon (although one can dream), but I do hope to get rid of the baby abs my twins and C seem to have left me with.

To (not) buy: Mia Bossi Tobey Rootbeer - what I'm craving today

I stumbled on this bag when doing online "window" shopping on Mamas and Munchkins. Since the boys arrived I've been trying to get a lot better about spending money - in fact, browsing my credit card statements the only things I've spent on are groceries, delivery (a must), and diapers. Go me! But my God do these things add up.

So, instead of spend, I'll crave.

It may be dorky, or "so 90s," but I am loving this Mia Bossi hip pack. I've talked hip packs before with a nod to Sex and the City and Cari's infamous Gucci pack, but this one comes with purpose! It's stylie, for those dorky minded like myself, and practical ... if you only have one baby - it holds diapers, some wipes, cell/makeup/money, and a bottle. I think wearing one on each hip would ditch any cool potential so this one was an easy one to talk myself out of it. But I do love it so...

Strollin' along

Now that the boys have hit the 5-week mark (side note, they're also almost 8 pounds now!!!), I'm trying to work a bit more normalcy into life. The first weeks were learning to feed (still working on that), recovering, and thinking oh-my-God-we're-parents (still thinking that and loving it). Yesterday the boys, Leanne, Wonder and I did one of my all time favorite things - hang with good friends and get outside moving! The boys loved walking along Chrissy Field, and so did the moms.

More weekend roundup to come - it's go time in the feeding arena.

Money Saver Monday: College Fund

As if saving for diapers, doctors, and daycare were not enough we're come to the (painful) realization that longer term our wishes of saving for a house is not the only big ticket item - yep, that dreaded but well worth it expense, college is going to sneak up on us. With my mom's help, we discovered college alone will set us back nearly $200,000 (!!!) eeeeeeeek! While I'm sure our boys are going to be nearly famous by college time, and schools will be lining up with full scholarships, the price tag is astonishing and it's time for us to save.

After comparing possible savings accounts (below is a handy chart to reference), we went with the UGMA/UTMA Custodial Account. This account allows us to direct deposit every paycheck to start saving for the boys now and when we pull the money out for college time the tax is paid for (i.e. we're paying the tax now - we chose this as I believe taxes are lower now than they will be in 18 years). Being a Custodial Account, when the boys are 18 the money is theirs (but shh, don't tell them that - they have to use it for college).

My mom was SUPER SUPER generous and put the minimum $2,500 into each boys' account. We're going to start direct depositing immediately (my philosophy - nothing is too small right now, and if the money comes out of my paycheck before I see it, I can't miss it). We're also hoping that our parents will put money into the boys' accounts for Christmas and birthdays as the gifts.

Handy chart:

Features	529 College Savings Plan	UGMA/UTMA (Custodial Account)	Coverdell
Any earnings grow tax-deferred and qualified distributions are federal income tax-free. See Income Tax Benefits		Part of investment earnings may be tax-exempt
High annual exclusion transfer tax limits. See Gift and Estate Tax Benefits	Up to $65K per Beneficiary in a single year ($130K per married couple)2	Standard $13K annual ($26K per couple)	$2,000 annual account contribution limit
Beneficiary can be changed1. See Ownership and Control
Parent (account owner) maintains control over distribution of assets. See Ownership and Control		Distributions must be used for minor
Contributions not limited by the income of the parent (account holder). See Ownership and Control			Cannot contribute if AGI is over $110k (for a single filer) or $220k (for a joint filer)
No age limit for beneficiary (child). See Contribution Limits and Other Features
Low impact on financial aid. See Effect on Financial Aid
Choice of investments. See Investment Management	A choice of Portfolios managed by professional fund manager	Owner (Custodian) researches and chooses investments	Owner researches and chooses investments

Weekend Roundup: Field Trips!

It's been a packed weekend - lots of firsts, and a bit more feeling like a person again (rather than just a cow living on the sofa).

Friday we had a real "grown up" dinner with Rob and Emily:Saturday Ryan and I did brunch (which was a HUGE treat!) - then Ry came over for some girl chat and boy time:Today, the boys met their great Grandparents, great Aunties, and visited with Gma and Gpa Wilson; seeing as we were in Marin, we even dressed them in their "cool" duds - pop collar, coordinated, and everything - we went all out:









Tonight, Courtney brought us an awesome home cooked meal of roast chicken (which she roasted!), green beans, brown rice, caprece salad, and carrot cake (my fav!):
We capped the day off with footprinting the boys:+ a lot of Matt's trying to slow moving feet ... = Wilson and Cole rounded it all out with a staring contest while trying to put off sleep - surely reflecting on their busy weekend:

The baby shift

It seems moms and babies are the "it" things these days. Last week Matt and I were musing about the increasing number of maternity and baby stores - there are three new ones in Union St. (yes, even in the wake of countless other stores and restaurants going out of business). Recently my mom sent me a few articles (NPR and Orpah) on how marteters are targeting mom bloggers to tout products - no wonder all the mom blogs I check out have "my favorite things" almost daily pushing random mommy-must-haves ... wait, I've done that myself! Unfortunately I never got free stuff for my efforts I really did buy the goods.

Here's a fun one for moms and non-moms to take advantage of: "Mani and Nanny" - a Pac Heights nail spa with an on-site nanny who watches your kids behind a 1-way mirror. Today there's a half off deal to take advantage of - my boys are 4-weeks so they're not yet old enough for me to take advantage of the daycare, but you can bet when they hit 6-weeks I'll be in a chair drinking tea and having my feet beautified.

A lift on pelvic tilts - getting my gut and groove back

I still haven't been cleared to workout (T minus two weeks and three days ... but who is counting ;o) ) so I'm definitely in the "take it easy" mode with short walks (time allowing - and time is minimal so these are short short walks) and light stretching. I'm a huge advocate of the "listen to your body" philosophy in recovery - this rang true for recovering from races and it's proving to be true for recovery from the c-section.
Side-note, there's no such thing as listening to my body to recover from the 2-hours a sleep I'm getting a night - I think that's a have-to-deal-dilemma.

The past few days, I've been incorporating VERY minimal core work back into my routine and I'm thrilled to learn that my old running stretches are proving helpful and effective. My favorite of the day? The Bosu aided pelvic tilt. Here's how it works:

• Lay on back with feet on a bosu ball - knees at a 90 degree angle
• Lift pelvis 6in - 1ft
• Roll feet forward extending legs almost straight
  
• Roll feet back
• Lower pelvis
• Repeat!

I've been doing 20 of these a day and loving it - it's not only a great baby step back into core work but it helps ease the pain in my lower back (leaning over cribs and Boppys 100+ times a day is a killer on the back) and stretch out my legs and rear (I want to keep a few years between me and mom jeans.

The boys like them too:

Wilson's version: ................................................... And Cole's:

To do: walk!

Today I took the boys for our first long(ish) walk. We've been doing short stints over Union St. to Pete's (something I need an IV for) and down around Washington Square, but I haven't had the energy or motivation to do much more. Matt went to a job site today leaving the three of us (Cole, Wilson, and myself) in the house - I've never wished for 4-arms more. I can manage feeding both boys at the same time, but beyond that I'm a bit stuck - diaper time is a howl filled process, both Cole and Wilson love cuddle time but aren't so in love with their crib, and cleaning up is a near joke.

So, after feed #4, I loaded the boys up in their Double Decker and off we went towards the water. The boys LOVE walking - I'm telling you, they're runners in the making. We made it all the way to the Ferry Building where we met Mahau and Veronica for a quick hello, then it was time to head home to, you guessed it, feed. About 3/4 of the way home one of the stroller tires blew out (!!!) leaving me to hold that half of the stroller up while balancing the boys so their little heads wouldn't wobble too much. Oofa. We definitely need to work on our walking technique (i.e. setting up the stroller, carrying a backup tire, etc.

Time Saving Tuesday: Shop Online!

We definitely have our hands full. And laps. And arms. And hearts.






The boys definitely have unique needs - when they're met, the boys are happy:











If we don' thave what they need, the boys are not so happy:







I prefer the happy and it's such a relief when we can get what the boys need - NOW!








Introduce - online shopping. Online shopping has saved us tons of time, money, and stress. Here are some of my new mom favs:

• Diapers.com: great for diapers, formula (we have to use it to supplement and like to have something on hand just in case), toys, you name it! They ship SO fast - we ordered Saturday night and received our order Monday at 7am (the doorbell was shocking but a happy surprise)
• Amazon.com: pretty much covers the field - I've been able to find furniture for the boys' endless onsies, accessories, etc. Amazon can prove more expensive than other sites so I've taken to comparison shopping when possible.
• Barneys.com: OK, this one is for mom - a girl's gotta feel good, though! I only shop in their sale section and recently it's been only window (Windows - heh, get it, online in IE?... oh boy, my humor went out the door with my sleep). They have awesome sales on clothes and makeup.
• Zappos.com: another one for mom - I love buying my running shoes here when I can't get to Sports Basement (a local discount store). They have free shipping and free returns. I guess it's part for baby too because mom's feet have to be ready to run when crying starts up.

And now my online time is up! Got a post in, not shopping - maybe after the next feed/change/nap.

To do: fun runs with Lululemon!

I may not be able to run, but I still love the Lululemon fun runs. Weekly we meet at Lululemon on Union St. at 6:30pm for 3-5 mile runs (or walks). Recently PacWest started offering yoga for runners at 7:30pm on Mondays at Lulu so we've been keeping the runs to 3 miles so everyone can get back in time to stretch/yoga.

Here are this week's runs:
3-mile hills / parks:

• Start at Lulu
• Down to Gough
• Right on Gough and up to Washington
• Right on Washington and over to Fillmore
• Up Fillmore to Broadway, right on Broadway
• Up up up to the park and down Lyon St. stairs to Union
• Back to Lulu

3-mile flat:

• Start at Lulu
• Over to Fillmore and down to the water
• Run along Marina to Sports Basement
• Turn and backtrack to Baker
• Right on Baker and up to Union
• Down Union to Lulu
  

To do: brunch!

I love brunch - it's hands down, one of my favorite meals. Today we had some old co-workers and friends over for a perfect Spring brunch: frittata, salad, fruit, bread and brie, and mimosas (for the non-preg diners).

Fittata is surprisingly simple! I decided to make it with a twist because I didn't feel like waiting for potatoes to boil and soften enough for the frittata. So, here are the two kinds I made:

Parmesan, asparagus, and mushroom:

• In a pan, saute handful of asparagus (8 spears?) and add 3/4c mushrooms until soft
• In a bowl whisk 8 eggs with 1/2c parmesan
• Put eggs/cheese and sauted veggies in a baking dish
• Put in pre-heated oven at 350 for 25min

Cheddar, egg:

• In a pan, saute 1/2 white onion
• In a bowl, whisk 8 eggs and 1/2c cheddar
• Put eggs/cheese and sauted onion in a baking dish
• Put in pre-heated oven at 350 for 25min

Why frittata is good:

• Eggs are loaded with nutrients: riboflavin, B12, and choline, which may well not only help developing brains in utero, but protect us from age-related memory loss; omega-3s
• Asparagus root contains compounds called steroidal glycosides, which may help reduce inflammation; calcium, magnesium and iodine and is an excellent source of folic acid
• Onions are low in saturated fat (which I made up for with the cheese) and high in vitamin C, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, folate and manganese

To do: let it go

I've decided people are really weird. There, I said it. When there's an unfamiliar incident or surrounding, people do weird things. People are especially weird around pregnant women. Here are a few examples that I find amusing (isms):

Strangers:

• In the Market: At Whole Foods (fondly known of as "whole paycheck" because that's where all my money seems to go) on Sunday, the baggers rushed looking irritated to be bagging groceries and crammed a week's worth of groceries for 2 (4?) into 2 bags. Needless to say, they were heavy. When the baggers went to hand the bags to me, I was rubbing my belly (I'm telling you, these kids can kick!) and their entire mood seemed to change: "Oh my God - these are too heavy. Can I re-bag these for you? I'm sorry. Can I help carry them?"
• On the street: On Sunday I was doing a photo shoot for Lululemon when a woman with her new baby walked by: "Woot! You look HOT. Go mama!" (I dig it :o) )
• On the bus: Well, I thought this one would be a bit different, but on the jam packed 1 back from the Dr. today the 20-something man in a suit stinking of cig smoke just stared at me. Nothing.

At work:
Work is the oddest - it seems all normalcy and ways to treat people go out the window. When I first found out I was pregnant, before I told anyone, a co-worker grabbed my breast saying how big I was. Lately I've gotten comments like this:

• Boy: "You need to stop wearing tight sweaters - you look like you have a beer gut."
• Girl: "Hi baby lady."
• Boy: "What's happening baby maker" or "How's it popping baby machine?"

Uhhhhhh...

To do: pushup contest!

The best way to challenge people now, I'm finding, is to pull the: "What, you don't think you can beat a girl? Oh, or you don't think you can beat a girl pregnant with twins?" That second line gets 'em every time. This afternoon the boys at work were gloating about how many pushups they can do and how "buff" they are.

Intro ... the pushup contest ...
Yes, I did "girl style" (I'm a girl!) no, I didn't win (I came close ... ish)