We did it!

So....I've had a rough couple of days. Stranded on the breastfeeding / toddler entertaining island. And needing a little extra love, encouragement and motivational talks from...someone. Greg gave it his best and offered me this bit of....don't know quite what to call it....thought when saying goodbye for work this morning, "This isn't Nam....we're going to make it." As in, this isn't the Vietnam war. Thank you honey. I feel much better now. And with the perspective, and an entire day with no plans, we rallied. Let's just say I picked myself up by my boot straps. That's what we do in Texas.

First mission. Target. Me. And both boys. I had avoided it long enough. Lyle is 6 weeks old and I have not ventured to any sort of grocery store / market with both of them. And there are some things that you just can't buy (or really shouldn't) at the drive thru liquor...I mean dairy in our neighborhood. So off to Target we went. After a brief anxiety attack in the parking lot, we got out of the car. I carried Lyle in the baby bjorn and Ben in the cart. Ben was an absolute delight and Lyle slept the entire time. We quickly got everything on our list and had I been able to bend over with out Lyle falling out I might have gotten a pair of shoes. And Lyle did get a new "outfit." Oh....the land of impulse buying.

Next, in an effort to get a work out in (desperate to move the numbers on the scale...I think I lost 15 pounds the first two weeks after Lyle was born and not a pound since....frustrating!!!), I borrowed a double jogging stroller from a friend and headed to Corona del Mar. Now please note that Ben has not been stroller bound in over a year, with the exception of riding the 100 yards to the park in our neighborhood. He just doesn't sit still and BEGS to get down the entire time. So I gave up walking with him long ago. And joined a fancy gym with child care...but can't take Lyle until he's three months old. But I was determined. And sold the whole outing to Ben as a great adventure with Mommy and Lyle and we would get to see the ocean and play at the park, and what ever else he wanted to do for the rest of his life if he granted me this one request.

So.....with a month's supply of snacks, juice, at least 10 books, and a video iPod in case of emergency, we walked. Or rather I walked. An honest to goodness exercise walk. Pushing about 100 pounds of boys and toys in a stroller along the Pacific Coast Trail. It was heaven. A georgous day. Ben happily in his seat with the sun shade all the way down (at his request) so he was almost in a fort. And Lyle...asleep of course. And I was sweating.

We finished our walk and RALLIED AGAIN! On to Gallo's to pick up lunch and back to a park near where we'd started our walk. I fed Lyle in the park, over looking the ocean. Ben played. We ate lunch. SUPER MOM! How many points for that morning I ask?!?!

And none of this is the real reason for my post. Ben's in love with Dora the Explorer. And has been watching a lot of Dora. Like everytime I feed Lyle, Ben gets to watch Dora. Everyone is happy, and bi-lingual. So the song she and Boots sing at the end of each episode run through my head over and over and over all day. And it's quite encouraging! This is how I felt this morning. We did it!