I had planned to show a “one year later” picture from the pregnancy announcement I made a year ago this week. You know, a sappy collage showing “what a difference a year makes.” That’s when I saw Jill’s Slice Of Perfect In Our Messy Reality challenge. That’s a perfect excuse to dress up my kids and take the pictures I wanted to take anyway! Jill is fun. I love her blog and I enjoyed talking with her when I met her at BlogHer a couple of years ago.

Then my messy reality hit and I couldn’t find the originals of the photos I took of Charlotte when we announced that she would be a big sister.  This is likely due to my progesterone fueled brain in April 2013. So, for last year click here. I think it turned out pretty cute, but I’m all kinds of biased.

On with the challenge! It’s April, 2014.

Here are these beautiful slices of perfect I captured of Charlotte and Henry the other day. Ya’ll, I can’t even stand it when I see these shots of my babes. Gah!

Now for the messy reality. Sorry to break it to you, but they are not always this darling. I had to coax Charlotte into taking these pictures. Bribery in the form of Easter candy was involved. I did have to do a little editing with these. I cropped out some extra space, boosted the highlights and removed the wall socket. Now I will back up and show you the whole room. Charlotte is blocking the pesky socket in this shot.

We’ve lived in this house for a year now and this room remains pretty much empty. It will one day be a formal living room or dining room, I guess. Watch for the rogue coffee table we took out of the den because our kid kept banging into it. Beware the modem and WiFi extender on the floor. We still have mediocre WiFi at best. On the left is my nephew’s car seat since my sister and her family are in town for Easter.

I appreciate Jill doing this challenge. I have a bad habit of comparing myself to other’s perfectly edited DSLR photographs. Ya’ll, so many of us are duped into believing we aren’t good enough when we see other people’s lives through Instagram filters. Remember, no one shares shots of the messy reality on their Facebook wall.

This morning Greyson was quizzing Charlotte on her Sesame Street stuffed animals.  He would ask, “Which Sesame Street friend is orange?” She would reply, “Ernie!”  He would ask, “Who has a beak?” “Who lives in a trashcan?” and so on.

He asked “Who has a friend named Blogg?” For the uninformed, Abby Cadabby has a segment called Abby’s Flying Fairy School with a character named Blogg.

Charlotte said, “Mama! Mama has a friend named blog!” We stared at her in amazement. Somehow my 2 1/2 year-old is aware of my little online diary of our lives.

Sadly, it has been neglected in recent weeks and I’ve been posting less. This is mostly because I’ve just been insanely busy working. When I’m not working I’m enjoying myself  and not writing as much. Granted, my Twitter  and Instagram are extensions of this space and always hopping! You can find me there or on my Facebook page. I promise to be a better friend to my friend blog. We’ll be in touch soon! Promise.

Image from muppet.wikia.com and copyright of Sesame Workshop. (Blogg is the purple guy in the center.)

I didn’t know that I needed today.

I didn’t know that I needed to see my daughter’s excitement when she woke up in the bed next to me, surprised that I was there. We are spending the night with my sister and brother-in-law. When I put her down, she thought that was just her bed for the night, not knowing we were sharing. I didn’t know that when I woke up I needed her wide eyes smiling at me and I needed to hear her whisper, “Mama!”

I didn’t know that I needed to catch my husband on the phone for a last goodbye early in the morning before he flew to the other side of the world. I needed to miss him and needed to tell him I loved him.

I needed the last minute rush of printing blog business cards at the FedEx Kinkos at 8:00am this morning because I can’t for the life of me find all the damn cards I had printed for BlogHer ’12 and I had to have new ones for SITS Bloggy Boot Camp today. I needed the fast work and kindness of Chris at FedEx Kinkos. Hey, FedEx execs! Give that guy a raise!

I needed the bustling room of other bloggers and chats about SEO and utilizing Pinterest. I needed to hear the ideas of speakers and reminders of new Facebook rules for fan pages.

I needed to come home to my happy child who is finally feeling better after almost a full week of nasty funk. I needed to see that she had been spoiled rotten that day as only aunts and uncles can spoil a child.

I needed to eat greasy pizza and lick the parmesan off my fingers while listening to my sister’s infectious laugh. I needed to sniffle through the final episode of “The Office” and recall our favorite of Steve Carrell’s “That’s what she said” lines.

Mostly I needed this break.

I needed to restore myself a little and today did it. I’ve been a little worried about me lately. I wasn’t really myself through the first trimester and then the move. I’ve been more stressed than necessary at work. Frankly, I need to relax about it all. The pregnancy, work, the move, all of it. I need to give myself a break.

So I did, because I needed it.

This morning was one big flashback to 2 1/2 years ago.  I should say it was lots of little flashbacks to 2 1/2 years ago.  You know, when I was all round and glowy, maybe a little sleepy too.  Ah!  Here she is…

FLASHBACK! September 2010, about 34 weeks pregnant

I joined a group of round, glowy and sleepy gals this morning at Rapid Fitness in Raleigh.  I have been to lots of gyms, but I seriously love this one.  I like fitness classes because I’m an uber-extrovert who can’t stand the solidarity and monotony of running.  (Let’s be honest.  I hate running in general.  If that’s your thing, they have plenty of treadmills and ellipticals with fancy TVs.) What I really love is that they have specialty prenatal exercise classes.

No.  I’m not pregnant.  Thanks for asking, though.

Now that we have that cleared up, I have an explanation for my attendance to this class.  Rapid Fitness’ prenatal class was being featured on NBC 17’s local morning newscast.  As part of my Public Relations job, I do Media Training to prepare clients for interviews.  After helping Brandy, a Personal Trainer for Rapid Fitness, they asked me to use my baby blogging skills to tell all my darling readers more about what they offer.  I was there to observe and tell you all about the prenatal class.

Disclaimer: Rapid Fitness gives me free classes that I don’t attend like I should.  My opinions, however, come up more than they should.  They are totally free and totally honest.

Being with the TV news crew gave me flashbacks to all my early morning hours as a news reporter.  I was all busy and harried, maybe a little stressed too.  Ah!  Here she is… (Really cold and miserable on this day, apparently.)

FLASHBACK!  No joke. EXACTLY 3 years ago today January 29, 2010 (Found it on Facebook.)

This morning Brandy discussed the importance of prenatal fitness.  As a personal trainer and mother of a 2 1/2 year old, she works with moms-to-be to stay fit before pregnancy.  She explained to Page Crawford from NBC 17 that exercise while you’re pregnant can help with the following…

• More energy
• Less moody
• Better sleep
• Easier labor and delivery
• Decreased chance of Gestational Diabetes

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.  “Ha!  Sounds good Amy, let’s go workout when I’m already more tired then I have ever been in my entire life.  Did someone poison my food?  Seriously.”  I hear you.  These recommendations come with a caveat.  Do what your doctor says is okay.  Don’t push it.  That is something they really stress at Rapid Fitness.  Let me tell you, these were some seriously dedicated pregnant chicks.

You see the blond on the left?  That’s Jennifer.  She is my sweet, adorable coworker whom I love working with.  You want to talk about a tough cookie?  This poor girl has had an awful pregnancy!  She has been sick EVERY DAY.  If you have questions about Zofram and extreme exhaustion, Jennifer can answer them.  She is expecting a boy in May, and I think she will be glad to not be pregnant.  Yet here she was this morning, toning muscles and keeping her body strong.  She is my new hero.

All the exercises they offer in the class are modified and lower impact to make them safe for pregnancy.  They did lunges and squats to prepare your legs and booty for the big pushes of labor.  The class then used small free weights to tone arms.  I know I’m not the only one whose arms were seriously sore after labor. It’s hard work to pull yourself up by your legs like that.  Bouncing and sitting on the exercise ball while lifting the weights was encouraged.  Of course breathing, stretching, and water breaks were a huge priority.  (Wait, not those kind of water breaks!)  

I’m making it a personal goal to do more low-impact exercise the next time I get pregnant. (Whenever that is. Again, I’m not pregnant.)  I did a lot of walking the first go-around, but I want more overall tone this time.

Were you/are you able to exercise during pregnancy? What kind of exercise did you do/are you doing while pregnant?  Did you take a class?  Did it help you feel better during pregnancy or labor and delivery?  

Watch the NBC 17 segments and here so you can see some of the exercises.  (The second link is longer and you can hear more interviews!)

Hey there!  I was a little quiet on the blog this week, but believe me when I say I had blogging on the brain.  I had been wanting a makeover for awhile.  Thanks to Sarah at One Starry Night, things are freshened up quite a bit.  She came up with this fabulous design that I hope all you darling readers like.

I’m working to stretch my writing and make my site even better.  I can’t do it without the help of people like Sarah.  Poor Kelly has the arduous task of being my blog host.  She is with the amazing Twenty 70 Hosting  and has to hear my Widget whines and HTML blunders.  Both Kelly and Sarah are so kind and patient with me and my Internet ineptitude.

Thank you with all my heart for reading my blog.  Please comment and email.  I always want to know what you’re thinking, good and bad.  It blows my mind sometimes that people read the words I write.  This blog has been an outlet, a community, a recorder and a soapbox.  Above all, it’s been a happy blessing.