More like mommy everyday . . .

Alexandra really likes to copy me these days. Here she is running off with my Coach purse. . .

and here she is "helping" me reorganize my wallet.

I don't know which she likes better - talking on the phone or playing the piano. Sometimes, she decides to do both at the same time.

I hope whoever she was talking to enjoyed the song that she was playing!

Snowpocalypse 2009

It's snowing!! Dr. Laura met up with us to have some fun in the snow today.

17 inches of snow at our house by 4pm today, and it's still coming down!

The Yurasko Difference outside when there was only (hah!) about 12 inches of snow.

We also met up with William, Will and Erica for some sledding fun.

Alexandra and Will seemed to like the snow. The two Williams having fun on the sledding trail.

Alexandra having fun sledding with Dr. Laura!

"Mommy, this is so much fun!"

This is our AC unit on our patio. 17 inches!! We bet that there will be around 21 or so before it's all done (the weather people say around 3am tonight). It's a good thing that it's the weekend and we weren't trying to go anywhere!!!

18 Months!

Alexandra likes to steal my blackberry and "work" for mommy. I'm in big trouble as soon as she figures out my password to unlock the screen.


I can't believe my little angel is 18 months old today! To mark the occassion, Christopher took Alexandra to see Dr. Lundgren for her 18-month appointment. I was bummed that I couldn't be there (I was at a training class for work), but Christopher managed to hold his own at the appointment and reported all crucial information. Here are Alexandra's 18-month stats:


height - 33 1/2 inches (93rd percentile)
weight - 24lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
head - 19 inches (90th percentile)

Christopher told Dr. Lundgren that Alexandra knew a couple body parts. To illustrate, Alexandra showed Dr. Lundgren her nose and her daddy's nose - I'm still in shock, since she hasn't liked to show off for anyone lately. I'm so proud of my healthy little girl. We've got to cut down on giving her so much milk (it's keeping her from eating her dinner), but other than that, all is well!

It's that man!

The Yurasko Difference celebrated the Christmas season by going to our complex's Christmas party. Santa came in on a fire truck, and gave all of the kids (most of whom were Alexandra's size) a small gift bag and a fire hat! Alexandra was especially excited about the hat, since she loves wearing a fire hat at daycare.

Alexandra was NOT excited, however, to meet Santa Claus. She would start to cry when he looked at her, and she wouldn't take her present from him (mommy had to get it for her). In fact, I'm surprised that she would be in the above photo. It reminded me of when our neighbor's kids were pretend-scared of Christopher - whenever he would come by, the little girl would hide and he heard her say to her brother, "it's that man!" Except in this case, Alexandra was really scared, not pretend-scared. I don't blame her - it's scary and weird to see a grown man with a crazy white beard and a big red suit, even if he does have a present for you.

So enjoy the photo of Alexandra, Christopher, and some of our neighbors with Santa - it's the only one we'll have for 2009!

Cat, cat!

Alexandra's current favorite word (not counting "no, no!") is "cat." She loves to chase Toby and Socks around the house saying "hi cat! Cat, cat!" Socks is very patient with her, and lets her pet him. Here she is about to "pet" him while he is in his bed. . .Here are Alexandra and Socks hanging out on the couch together. . . .

And here she is giving Socks a hug! Christopher wants to point out that while Alexandra is hugging Socks, Socks is hugging the remote control.

Shakespeare and Snow

Christopher and I went to see my friend from high school, John Behlmann, perform in The Shakespeare Company's production of As You Like It last weekend. This was our first time to go to the theatre since I had Alexandra, so we had a blast! It was also great to see John, and we were very impressed with his performance. I'm so happy that I got to see one of my friends from theatre make it to the big time! William babysat Alexandra while Christopher and I were out. He was brave enough to get her dressed in her snowsuit so that she could have fun outside in the first snow of the season.

Uncle William also let Alexandra try on his shoes.

Not sure what exactly he did to get the look from her in the photo below!

We hope Uncle William wants to hang out with Alexandra again, because she had a great time with him! Maybe the next time I want to see a play? :)

Thanksgiving Holiday Fun

We had a wonderful time hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. We welcomed Bill, Barbara, William, Erica, Will and our friend Laura to our home for a lot of great food. Christopher and I shared cooking responsibilites, and got a chance to wear our styling aprons (see photos above and below). My awesome sister-in-law, Sandi, gave me the apron that I am wearing in the photo below as a bridesmaid gift.

To help the toddlers get out some post-dinner steam, we introduced Will to the most amazing bubbles in the world. We recently bought this set of bubbles from Gymboree.
Check out the crazy amount of bubbles that you can create! And, because the bubbles are little, they stay in the air for a long time. This drives the cats (especially Socks) nuts! And, we've found bubbles stuck on the walls or furniture up to 24 hours later. So much fun!

Can you see how happy Will was to play with the bubbles?

The day after Thanksgiving, Christopher and I wanted to do something fun with Alexandra. We found that the Alexandria Chinquapin Rec. Center has a cool place called the Soft Playroom. It had all sorts of fun things for Alexandra to try. We hope to go back again really soon!

She loved climbing up and then going down this slide.

She discovered that it can be a lot of fun to stick blocks onto the wall.

And she had so much fun sliding into and then playing in this ball pit! When a toddler throws a tantrum when it's time to leave, that means they had fun, right?

Challenging Virginia’s Unconstitutional Regulation of Yoga Teacher Training

To follow-up on a previous post. . .I've really gotten into yoga the past 8 months or so. I have loved going to Little River Yoga Studio and learning to practice Ashtanga yoga. It's been such a blessing that has touched almost all other areas of my life. Only in the DC area could something so peaceful and tranquil become entangled with the stress of politics and regulation (and this statement coming from a government attorney!).

Yesterday, two teachers from Little River Yoga filed a lawsuit against the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), to stop enforcement of state regulations that purport to regulate yoga teacher-training classes. I've read the brief that the Institute for Justice filed on behalf of the two Little River teachers and another Virginia yoga teacher, and it's crazy - among other requirements, yoga teachers are supposed to submit a "school-plan report" to SCHEV before teaching training classes, create a library for students with prior approval by SCHEV, they would have to maintain records of students applying for admission, a formal process for students to express grievances with the program, instructors must possess a "relevant bachelor's degree in an area related to their area of instruction" or have two years minimum relevant experience (I don't know of a university that offers a BA in yoga), AND, the institution has to pay a $2,500 registration fee with at least $500 every year to maintain their teaching license.

I can see how this type of regulation would be good for large-scale vocational programs, like, say, trade schools. But, seriously, a YOGA program? I guess SCHEV doesn't know that yoga classes are on a much smaller scale than a trade school. For example, I have been in classes with as many as 14 people to as small as JUST ME at Little River Yoga. I can only imagine that the teacher training classes, at least at this studio, are on a similarly small scale.

If you'd like to read more about the case, please visit the Institute for Justice's website at http://www.ij.org. I posted a link to the YouTube video on my Facebook wall, but can't figure out how to post it here. Please take 3 minutes to look at the YouTube video, which you can get to from the Institute for Justice's website (or search "Virginia yoga"), as Little River Yoga would appreciate getting the hits.

Things I've made from my husband's jeans. . . .

Alexandra has watched her mommy do a lot of crafts lately. Including crocheting the adorable headband that she is wearing in the photo above (the only project NOT made from a pair of Christopher's old jeans in this post).

My mom gave me her old Singer sewing machine (circa 1974, we think). After I had it serviced and Christopher put a new electric plug on the cord for me, we were in business!

The first project I did was make a skirt for myself from a pair of Christopher's old jeans. It turned out pretty well - especially since I didn't have a pattern! It was a personal accomplishment to install a zipper in the back. It turned out a little shorter and tighter-fitting than I wanted, but still pretty good for a first project.

Next, I used another pair of Christopher's jeans (specifically, one leg of a pair) for the lining for my yoga mat bag. Once again, I didn't use a pattern, which meant that I had to rip out a bunch of seams when I realized I had made the bag too tight. . . .anyway, it turned out pretty good in the end. I'm happy to be able to tote my yoga mat to class in this snazzy original bag.

I've also done some great baby gifts, but am waiting until I give all of them as presents before I blog about them :)

Butternut Squash Muffins

This is my first recipe post!

Butternut squash was probably Alexandra's favorite baby food puree. Since it is now back in season (hooray!), I decided to try out some new squash recipes. First, I made homemade butternut squash ravioli. That turned out pretty well. However, what turned out even better were my spiced butternut squash muffins. Who would have thought that squash muffins would be so tastey? They taste sort of like pumpkin bread. Alexandra loves these muffins and has had one with every meal at home since I've made them.

I found a great-looking recipe on-line, but didn't have some of the key ingredients (pumpkin pie spice and butter). Also, I wanted to make the recipe a little healthier by using whole wheat flour. I think it turned out better (and definitely healthier) my way. Note of caution - if you are going to use whole wheat flour and applesauce, do NOT use muffin liners as in the photo. I found that these type of "healthy" muffins stick to paper. At least that's what I told myself when I got sad that mine stuck to the paper.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cooked butternut squash (I baked mine for 1 hr. at 375 in a casserole dish with a little bit of water in the dish)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used ½ cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice, so I used 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp allspice, 1/8 tsp ground cloves)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter, melted (yeah, I had run out of butter and used ¼ cup of applesauce instead)

Directions
· Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
· Puree the squash in a food processor.
· In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, white sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
· In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together milk, egg and butter. Stir in squash. Fold the squash mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
· Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling cups about 1/2 full. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

What you really want to know. . .

How much weight have I lost since having Alexandra and how did I do it?

I lost all of the baby weight + an additional 28 pounds (holding steady at that weight for the past three months). I am two sizes smaller than before I got pregnant, and haven't been this small since I was 15 years old.

I wasn't initially going to share this in a blog post, but some friends (thanks Margaret and Julie!) have encouraged me to share this story, as it can hopefully be helpful for other women, moms or not.

As you may know, I was induced to deliver Alexandra 2 1/2 weeks early because I had pregnancy-induced hypertension. The hypertension didn't go away after Alexandra was born - in fact, I was on blood-pressure medication for nine months afterwards. I have never been overweight, and although I thought I was in okay shape, my genetic pre-disposition to high blood pressure worries me.

I decided to do what I could to lower my blood pressure. Not only did I want to be more healthy in general, but I did not want to be on the medication anymore. Christopher and I would love to have more kids, and the thought of going through the stressful/scary process of pregnancy with hypertension is something we'd like to avoid.

I didn't lose all the weight right away. In fact, it took me about 6 months to lose all of the pregnancy weight (30 pounds). But, after the pregnancy weight all came off, following my simple steps below, I was able to lose about a pound a week for the next 6 months. I have found a "lifestyle change" a lot more effective that a diet would have been.

Here's what I did (and continue to do):

1. Extended breastfeeding. I exclusively breast-fed Alexandra for the first 6 months and still (at almost 17 months) partially breast-feed. I felt that breastfeeding caused me to hang on to some of the weight at the beginning, but after 6 months, that was no longer the case.

2. Eat 5-7 servings of fruit/vegetables a day. Dried fruit counts :)

3. Avoid caffeine and soft drinks as much as possible (diet ones included)

4. Eat whole grains (whole grain pasta is awesome!)

5. Eat organic whenever possible ( I swear the lack of high-fructose corn syrup makes a difference)

6. Eat non-fat dairy (for me - 3 servings a day)

7. Drink at least 6 cups of water (sparkling water like Perrier counts)

8. Have 2 small snacks a day (to avoid over-eating later)

9. Oatmeal is my new best friend (lots of fiber, keeps you full, helps naturally lower cholesterol - I eat oatmeal in the morning and then have an Oatmeal-to-go bar as a snack)

10. Avoid salt

11. Eat the vegetables first at a meal (then the meat, then the fruit, then the whole grain)

And Christopher, Alexandra and I have also been taking a family walk together in the evening. We used to do this after dinner, but as it is getting dark so early now, we do it when I get home from work. I've also taken up yoga. I'm crazy about yoga now. I practice (for the most part), Ashtanga yoga, which burns a crazy number of calories. I try to go to yoga about twice a week, and I've seen wonderful results in my strength, energy, and general health from this.

I keep my daily calorie count around 1900 calories - this gives me room (about 400-500 calories a day, due to my height and activity level) to have dessert when I want or splurge every now and then. To celebrate Veterans' Day yesterday, we had dinner (and then a doughnut) with Mark and Jen. I could eat my doughnut knowing that I wasn't going to put back on any weight. I thought adding up the calories of everything I each day would be depressing/scary/etc., but it actually gave me a calm sense of control.

Like I said, I've never been overweight. Before getting pregnant, my weight was well within the healthy/normal range for my height. After having lost the weight, while I'm still in the healthy range, I'm in the best shape of my life. My blood pressure is also much better (115/75 at my last doctor's visit - that's awesome for me!).

So there's my weight-loss story. You're a really Yurasko Difference trouper if you read the whole thing :)

October Trips

We went on three great day trips in October. In honor of Columbus Day (he did discover America, after all), we drove up to Lancaster County, PA, to enjoy Amish Country. We enjoyed eating a traditional family-style meal at Plain and Fancy (http://www.plainandfancyfarm.com/).

Alexandra tasted iced raisin bread, chow chow, apple butter, noodles, roast beef, chicken sausage, the best fried chicken EVER, chicken pot pie, carrots, corn, and ice cream - and then promptly fell into the most adorable baby food coma.


The next weekend, we went to Ft. Pickett to see Frank graduate from Officer Candidate School and commission as an officer with the Virginia National Guard. We are so proud of Frank! He also won a special leadership award and was given a sword.

We were excited to see Frank become 2LT Frank C. Yurasko. And happy to spend time with cousins (see Kelvin, Frankie, Jake and Bryce in the chairs ).

Alexandra had fun congratulating her godfather on this special day! For more photos and a video, see Melissa's blog in my list to the right (she's much more up-to-date than me and covers this trip in an October entry).

The next day, we headed up towards Baltimore. We were supposed to meet up with Margaret at a corn maze, but, as it was sold out for the day, we had fun at a local farm instead! This trip ended up being a perfect fit for me, as I recently finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma (thanks, Dad!). Alexandra really wanted to pet these turkeys.

Alexandra and Christopher are not sure what to make of this horse.

Margaret assuring Alexandra that the horse is friendly.

Alexandra really wanted to pet the horse- but she got a little shy!

Halloween!

I hope everyone likes our new layout! My wonderful cousin, Rachel, re-designed The Yurasko Difference, and I'm super happy with the results.

We had a great Halloween! Since Alexandra loves Tigger, we thought that she would make a perfect Tigger for her second Halloween. She loved her costume, and actually has enjoyed dressing up in it since Halloween. I had to snap this photo below of her pushing her Tigger while dressed as Tigger.

We started our festivities of the day by visiting the NRA, since they had decorated their museum as a "haunted" house for kids. Alexandra learned how to get candy out of a pumkin holder, and she got to try her first piece of candy (a twizzler stick). It's actually a very cool museum that I highly recommend (and I'm not into guns, so that's saying a lot!)

Christopher had a lot of fun leading our little Tigger through the NRA museum, but had even more fun. . . . .

HOLDING ALEC GUINESS' ACTUAL LIGHTSABER FROM STAR WARS!!! Yes, the NRA has this, and yes, they let us hold it!!!

Next, we visited Rachel, Sol, and Finley, and were happy to spend time with Laura, who was visiting during a short med school break. Finley was the most adorable monkey for his first Halloween. Laura is helping him model the cute hood in the photo above, and then Rachel is showing his face in the photo to the left.

What could possibly be cuter that a toddler Tigger on Halloween?

How about TWO Tiggers?!? Alexandra's cousin Will also decided to dress like Tigger for his second Halloween. Grandee and Granddad had to come and visit the two Tiggers on Halloween.

We had a lot of fun taking the two Tiggers trick-or-treating. They were great at getting the candy, but not so great at putting it into the bag, so we ended up with a lot of candy that had been melted by little Tigger hands.

We didn't have any trick-or-treaters come to our door this year, but Socks made sure that our candy was well protected.