I'm back! And, with a sidekick!

So, I haven't blogged in just over a year.  Oops.  But I'm back with good intentions, and I am sporting the cutest of accessories, a ridiculously cute 4 month-old named Evelyn Vera.  She's the reason (if you want the really simplified version) of why I haven't written here since last January.  Also, I gave birth to her!  Yup, she is my daughter and my greatest accomplishment.  She's also the 'news' I hinted at in my last post (a year ago) which I never got around to sharing here (but I'm fairly certain everyone who knows me outside the web has figured out by now).

Of course, things have changed dramatically for me since I last posted, and so the focus of my blog will have to change as well.  I've given up the freelancing- temporarily at least- as it wasn't working out and I had a lot of other things to do, like grow and deliver a baby and move across the country.  Now my main thrusts in life are being a mom and losing all the weight that I should have lost BEFORE I got pregnant.  I'm proud to say that I've lost 55 lbs since giving birth on September 1st, which puts me at 20 lbs lighter than I was when I got pregnant.  I've set a goal for myself to lose an additional 40 lbs, which would put me at the lower end of my 'healthy BMI' range, but I'd be happy with 30 lbs too.  25 even.  In fact, it's interesting how your perspective changes with age and experience:  Right now I am at the weight that I was the 1st time I joined weight watchers, my sophomore year of college.  At that time I felt terribly chubby and like I had failed myself.  This time around, 6 years older and wiser, I feel like I look fabulous at this weight and I'm proud of myself for having gotten (back) to it!  I wish I could have had this perspective in high school, so I could have really enjoyed my little waist and not-flabby thighs instead of comparing myself to the stick-figures on the cheerleading team and finding myself inferior.  Oh well.  I hope I can use my experiences and lessons to save my daughter from the body image agony that I've felt over the years, but I'm pretty sure she'll have to learn the hard way, as we all do. 

So I guess I'm a mommy blogger now, and a weight loss chronicler, and maybe some other stuff depending on what I feel like writing about.  My posts may be short or infrequent.  In order to get this written, I've had to wave various toys in front of Evie's face, shouting, "Look!  Birdie!  Ball!  Horsie!  Pretty colors!" in order to buy a few second to type a couple of words ... and then repeat the process all over again.  Of course there is always her naps, but I need those to accomplish other things, like taking a shower, eating food that can't be consumed using only one hand, keeping the household mess to a managable disaster, and of course catching my own naps.  Seriously, being the primary caregiver for an infant is a special brand of insanity that you cannot understand until you'v been there.  Prior to having Evie, I thought I knew.  I DID NOT!!