Month: August 2016

Training Tuesday: Guess Who’s Back?

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

You guys. Guess who’s back?! Back again!!

Okay, now this song is in my head …

I digress.

Anyway, I’m excited to share that I’ve been cleared to run again! That’s right, I’m six weeks postpartum and I’m back running. I had a REALLY strong week running-wise because my parents were in town and were able to watch FW in the mornings while I ran. Now that they’re gone it’s going to be harder to get in runs on weekdays, but I’m happy with whatever mileage I can accrue on weekends and of course on some long walks.

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How did the week go?

Sunday, B went out with FW and left me at home to spend the morning however I wanted. It was hot, but I got in 4.4 miles (including a few stops along the way). It was my first run outside in forever.

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Tuesday morning, B and I somehow got up a little early and he suggested I go for a run with the extra time we had. I didn’t hesitate and got in 3.35 miles.

The same thing happened Thursday, and I was able to get in 3.8.

With my parents in town Friday and Saturday, I ran again- 4.3 and 5 miles respectively!

This made my weekly total: nearly 21 miles!

I don’t expect to have such a high week again anytime soon – and I’m not training for anything at the moment – but I am looking forward to getting back into shape and running more. Who knows – I may just have to get an infant jogging stroller so FW and I can run together! (and not like this …)

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Some questions for you:

What’s the longest you’ve taken a break from running or other exercise – and why?

Any tips for working out or running with a newborn? How do you fit it in, plus breastfeeding and the lack of sleep?

Weekend with the Grandparents

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

My parents were in town this weekend! This was the longest they’ve spent in Cleveland – they came into town Wednesday night and left early Sunday morning, so I had 3 full days with them and FW. It was great!

So, what do we do when the grandparents are in town?

We celebrate!

How?

First, with tacos and patio drinks at Barrio. FW was on his best behavior.IMG_20160803_204630

And plenty of delocius takeout. Sushi one night (with Anson and Celia!) And Taza the next. LOVE me some Lebanese.

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And during the day, walks to Farmers Markets with live music. Public Square has a brand new market now that goes Thursdays through fall. You should check it out!20160804_103742

We also went for a few long walks. Down to the Flats …20160804_110737

Down to the lake  (with a stop for FW to eat) …20160804_142525

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And to the river. 20160806_114252

We of course had some playtime.

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Pedicures with mom.  And wine.

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I also took advantage of them being in town by spending some alone time – I did some meal prep (yay for roasting veggies for lunches!) AND went for FOUR runs. That’s right – that’s more running than I’ve been able to do in forever. And since I was officially cleared to run earlier in the week, I was so happy to be out there. It is hard for me to run during the week days now because of FW, so I made sure to get in as much mileage as I wanted. I got in 3.8 miles Thursday, 4.3 miles Friday, 5 miles Saturday and even 4 miles Sunday morning. I’m definitely out of shape and slower than I was this time last year, but I don’t care – it’s just great to be back!

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And even though B was out of town for the weekend, Thursday night we took advantage of having my parents in town and spent the night to ourself! It was our first night out since FW was born – and even though I constantly thought of FW and missed him, it was great. We had amazing food and drinks at Alley Cat down by the water.

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Dessert was Cathy’s cookies. An amazing ice cream sandwich that was HUGE and so worth it.IMG_20160804_213206

Followed by a pretty walk home. I really am loving the new Public Square – even the fountains light up at night! If you follow me on Snapchat or Instagram (@koskim on both) you probably saw the light/water show. Who wants to be our next babysitter?

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My parents left Sunday morning and FW and I had the day to ourselves before B came home that night. We’ll be seeing them in less than a month, though, when we introduce FW to his New York (my side of the) family!

Some questions for you:

  • How often do you have date night?
  • If you had suddenly one hour to spend to yourself, what’s the first thing you would do? I guess I’d go for a run and take a shower 🙂 Life post-baby has changed me! Next on my list – mani/pedi, bake, blog …

Per usual, I’m linking up with Erin, Katie and the weekly wraps.

WIAW: Wednesday Beers (and food)

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

When I first saw What I Ate Wednesday posts a while back, I was a little confused. I thought that these were what people ate ON a Wednesday. I wondered how they captured it – was it the previous week? Was it what they planned for that day? It took a while and then I finally realized that it was just someone’s food – and they posted it on a Wednesday. Whoops. Anyway, for this week, I decided to share ACTUAL Wednesday eats – from last week. So this week’s WIAW foods are actually Wednesday foods! But not today’s foods. Confused yet?

Wednesday morning B and I took a pre-work walk for coffee and pastries. I just LOVE Bloom’s baked goods and if you go in the morning they have a great selection. Their almond croissants are my favorite.

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FW took a nap after our walk so I had time to make myself breakfast after B left for work! A runny egg, some egg whites, sweet potato with coconut oil and grapes. 20160727_095823

Lunch included a few random eats – an arugula salad with a corn salsa (courtesy of B’s mom) and goat cheese, a nectarine and leftover zoodles topped with a few bites of a veggie burger I hadn’t finished the day before.

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I was able eat the lunch with TWO hands because I was wearing FW. He hates being put in the wrap but it’s so nice to have both hands free and he calms down shortly after being put in it.20160727_162118

Afternoon snacks included more PB&J muffins and some beet chips. 20160727_161337 20160727_170913

For dinner, we had plans to meet up with B’s family and go to the Hofbrauhaus for his brother John’s birthday. We snacked on some appetizers (including a large pretzel and this large lunchmeat platter) and I had some of their hefeweizen to drink.20160727_185502

And for dinner? Their roasted chicken and potato salad. It was half of a chicken and I didn’t eat it all – but it made for GREAT leftovers on Thursday!20160727_194347

And that sums up my day of eats from Wednesday. Now, some questions for you:

  • Do you drink beer in the middle of the week? Or mostly on weekends?
  • How do you like your eggs?  I like whites or super runny! Or both (like above).

Unexpected New Mom Essentials

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Since I’ve been a mom, I’ve realized there are some things that I can NOT live without. Yes, there are the obvious – like diapers, onesies, bottles, etc. But there were also a few things I did NOT expect to need.  These are:

Easy Food. Nourishment. Comida. 

I’ve learned that it is hard to eat sit down meals during the day. When B is at work, FW is a fussy baby. He constantly needs to be held, changed, fed, and repeat. Or maybe that’s every baby?

So some days I don’t get a solid, two-handed lunch. Or breakfast. I need to turn to snacks to keep me full in between the quick meals and these have to be easy, healthy snacks. And they have to be easy to eat one handed! Some of the snacks I’ve found helpful include:

  • Ready-to-eat fresh fruit and veggies. Clean it, chop it, etc. do what you need to do to prepare it ahead of time. I’m serious. As easy as it is to wash some grapes and green beans or chop up a watermelon or celery, when a baby is screaming and you’re starving, you’re not going to want to do this. I find it easier to do when B is home – or even better, B does this for me 🙂 AND it’s so easy to just drop some pre-chopped fruit into some yogurt and eat that with some granola (yes, it can be eaten one handed – I’ve done it).
  • Dried or freeze dried fruit. It’s already prepared and it’s easy to eat. Just be careful and not to get one with a ton of sugar in it. I love these freeze dried strawberries – the ingredients only list freeze dried strawberries (no added sugar) and the whole package is under 100 calories. Yes, the WHOLE package.
  • Something salty. Yes, even though I have a sweet tooth, I love salty foods on occasion. I love unsalted nuts, as well as these spicy seaweed snacks. They help satisfy my salt craving without going overboard on food like chips and pretzels (which yes, I do enjoy as well).
  • Nut butter. I love nut butter. Peanut, almond, sunflower- you name it, I love it. Right now I’m loving some local peanut butter from the West Side Market as well as Peanut Butter & Co crunchy peanut butter. A plus? It can be eaten with one hand, fills you up, and is an ingredient in a ton of great healthy recipes.

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[If you’re breastfeeding] Stuff for your boobies :

Ha, I don’t know if I ever thought I’d write “boobies” in a blog post … but here we go!

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There are a ton of random things that I’ve found useful as I’ve started my journey with breastfeeding. Besides the “obvious” (like nursing bras), here are things I’d recommend for new moms:

  • Nipple cream (not optional): Buy this. Use this. You’ll be happy you did. The kind I’m loving now is the organic nipple balm from Honest Company. It’s in an easy to use jar and it works!
  • Brewer’s yeast: Why do you need this? There are tons of great recipes for moms to help your milk come in that use Brewer’s yeast. So really, this is an excuse to make cookies, like these ones that my friend Reanna (from the Last Mommy Blog) made me.
  • Nursing Support tea: I love tea, year round, even in the summer. And this is tea I can drink and feel good about drinking while I nurse – it has chamomile, lavender and other great ingredients.
  • Booby tubes: Nursing isn’t easy. It isn’t pain free. Booby tubes (yes it’s a funny name) can be heated or cooled to provide comfort depending on what you’re needing. And they’re reusable.

Miscellaneous

  • Extension cords – especially an extra long phone charging/USB cord: You may be wondering what this has to do with being a new mom. Well, especially when nursing,  I’m stuck in one spot for a while. And I am often using my phone one handed, and it starts to die. Having a long charging cord allows me to keep charging my phone while holding FW, nursing, or doing many other tasks or I’m stuck in one place for a while.
  • Thank you cards: I’m so grateful that my friend Coughi bought me a bunch of thank you cards as part of a shower gift. If you’re lucky, you will have many friends and family bringing you meals and giving you gifts when your little one arrives. If you have thank you cards on hand, it could be a great way to show your appreciation.
  • A Netflix/Hulu/HBO Go/Amazon Prime subscription: You’ll be spending a lot of time one handedly holding your baby or feeding him or her. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of reading and nursing or reading and holding FW at the same time, but I  can be easily watching Netflix!

Moms and mom friends- what would you add? What have you found necessary?

    *Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but some of the products mentioned were provided to me by Swanson Health. My views and comments are solely my own and do not represent those of Swanson

     

     

    Weekends with the Baby

    / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 14 Comments

    B and I had another great weekend with FW. It’s funny, I thought our weekends would be much different after the baby was born. And they’ve been different – that’s for sure. But we’re still getting to do a lot of the same things we did before FW, just with him along with us! And I know that this will change as he gets older and more mobile – but in the meantime, we’re enjoying bringing him along.

    Friday morning started out with smoothies from Restore. FW wasn’t impressed but B and I enjoyed an early walk before he headed into the office.20160729_092022

    Friday evening included a stop at the Asian Night Market for dinner and to meet up with friends.  FW definitely approved 🙂

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    Saturday morning started early – FW had his newborn photoshoot! B snapped the photo below and I can’t wait to see (and share some of) this photos!Screenshot_20160730-122935

    We dodged some rain and walked over to Public Square for the RNC Convention thank you party. There was live music and free ice cream.20160730_134712

    Free Wildberry Crumble for me 🙂 IMG_20160730_135002

    AND FW got to meet Slider for the first time. He wasn’t impressed. 20160730_135901

    It was also LCBS! We were creating sea shell crafts at Cuoghi’s. I didn’t get to take a photo but of course (as usual) she had an amazing spread – watermelon salad, orange salad, chips and guac and salsa, beet and lentil salad, egg salad and so much more. Oh and I’m so sad I didn’t get a pic of the desserts – Nicole made some amazing raspberry bars and Cuoghi’s ice cream cupcakes were awesome.

    I did get a pic with Emily and Jack, though. Isn’t he a stud? (watermelon hefeweizen not pictured)IMG_20160730_175534 IMG_20160730_183659

    B and I had plans to take a walk Saturday night and grab dinner in the Flats, but FW wasn’t cooperating. After a massive eating session (almost 3 hours straight), it was after 8 and we were starving. We picked up some pizza from Pizza 216 and it did not disappoint! It was pretty fabulous.IMG_20160730_215328

    Saturday morning, B took FW to his old softball fields to watch some games while I had some me time. Of course I used it to go for a run! It was my first run outside and while it was hot, humid and way harder than it used to be, I am so glad I got out there. I had to stop and take a photo (well, I had to stop …) along the way.

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    And a sweetie selfie. My face was the color of my shirt. 20160731_105013

    AND along the way, I caught a glimpse of Hillary’s bus and Secret Service! I waited for about 45 min but she didn’t come out so I unfortunately didn’t get to see her though – but I can pretend, right?20160731_094616

    That afternoon,  B and I took a walk to the Flats with FW. It was a hot day, and we stopped for drinks along the way.

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    We ended the day with ribs and cassata cake at B’s parents’ house. A good end to a good weekend!

    Questions for you:

    • What’s your favorite summer beer or drink?
    • How often do you eat pizza? We tend to have it about once a week on the weekend! Sometimes homemade, sometimes takeout.

    And because it’s Monday, I’m linking up with Erin, Katie and the weekly wraps.