Uma Thurman, you look just like me

The truth is, Uma Thurman is a solid 3 inches taller than me. She's also 8 years older than me and is light years beyond me in glamour, poise and material wealth. However, despite these undeniable truths, I often hear how much I look like her. In fact, I have actually been mistaken for her several times in my life.  I've had groups of people cheer and chant "Uma" when I walked by, I've been offered preferred tables at busy restaurants, I've had people demand to see my ID to prove I'm not Uma Thurman, I've even had to turn down requests for autographs (sorry Uma, I don't know your policy on signing and I've no clue what your signature looks like, maybe I should google these things ...).

I wonder whether anyone has ever mistakenly called her Anna? Probably not, but who knows, in certain circles my reputation certainly proceeds me ...

At any rate, here are two photos, one of her and one of me, see if you can tell which is which ..

In related news, I'd also like to share this photo which may or may not represent both Uma and myself in a bikini, I don't know yet what the fate of my stomach will be, but once again, I sincerely appreciate that not all celebrities go the tummy-tuck route and still manage to look good in their (somewhat jelly belly) skin ...

jelly rolls

I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to my co-worker Adrienne for sharing this photo with me yesterday, it definitely, definitely made me feel a lot less stressed over my new mom-belly.

I have to say that I've always been hard on myself over my body but it's generally insured that I haven't had any serious weight issues, so I deem that it's a good technique for staying slim. However, it's also bad for morale. So this photo is something I may end up printing out and carrying around in my wallet to sneak peaks at before I dive into a plate of wings or something. I mean, if it's good enough for a Hollywood celebrity, it ought to be good for a no-name like me, right?

In other news, I'm fitting in my jeans again, so a week of full-on mental warfare against chocolate, ice cream, cookies and wine is starting to work. I mean, I've indulged, I'm no masochist. A little fat is good for filling in wrinkles anyway, right? So I guess maybe Moose Tracks Frozen Yogurt is my answer to Botox ... It's cheaper and more delicious without any of that paralyzing venom or whatever the Botox magic is.

In conclusion, thank you to Adrienne, Katie Holmes and Jeff who discovered Moose Tracks Fro-Yo, you all are working wonders on my body image, belly-jelly, and taste buds!

Zzz, sleep walking

Babies make me tired. I mean, I love my baby, he's a cute, sweet, funny, drooling little doll, but he wears me out. The good news is, I think we wear him out too.

Yesterday, for Father's Day, we had a few friends over for a cookout. Thinking that a 4pm start time would mean we'd have a well rested baby just up from his afternoon nap, we told everyone we'd be serving up steak by around 5pm. Of course, any and every time we try to plan something Asa likes to remind us who is really in charge by totally breaking with whatever his usual habits are and throwing us a curve ball. Yesterdays curve ball came when he decided to completely skip having an afternoon nap.

He's never done that before. He's certainly taken an early nap, a late nap, an abbreviated nap, an interrupted nap ... but no nap? No way. Until yesterday. He was a champ though, and wasn't really very fussy or anything, until right around 5pm when we were just about ready to serve up dinner. Jeff took over feeding Asa his dinner while I worked out getting food out to the guests and before I knew it, Asa and Jeff had disappeared upstairs for his bedtime. At 5:30pm.

Asa has never gone to bed at 5:30 before. 6pm yes but 5:30? Yikes. Apparently his head was rolling around while Jeff tried to feed him in his lap, the result of his actually falling asleep mid-bite ... So Jeff called it and put him down. We were a bit nervous we'd have a wide awake and well rested baby in the wee hours of the morning but no! Our little dude slept all the way through until his normal wake up time, and in fact, he was sort of roused awake by us opening his bedroom door and going about the morning routine in the house, so that the background noise eventually woke him at about 6:15. It was pretty great.

We all got a solid nights rest and woke up feeling refreshed. Thank goodness Asa learned the family mantra, 'play hard, sleep hard', at such a young age.

And, as an update, he is now walking up to several feet at a time before either purposefully sitting down or just plain face-planting into a crawl to complete his intended route. It's really cool and he's definitely enjoying his emerging bi-pedial tendencies.

Baby Steppin'

Who remembers "What About Bob"? Great movie, right? I mean, who doesn't hate Richard Dreyfuss in that movie and who doesn't love Bill Murray and his "baby steppin' down the hall, baby steppin' into the elevator"? Great stuff right!?

Well, we over in Familyville VA are proud to announce that we've got a little baby stepper ourselves! This morning, while playing with his dad, our little Asa took two deliberate and independent steps on his own! I was right there but somehow missed the first one and just saw the second little step and it was adorable! Jeff had a front row seat for the show which is great and next time we hope to catch Asa's two step on video.

In related news, Asa also has begun walking while holding onto our hands/fingers, which is new. In fact, last night at his cousin's grad party he walked himself clear across the kitchen while gently clasping my index fingers in either hand. I have to say, watching him grow and learn is the most inspiring and joyful things I have ever experienced.

So, I guess soon I'll be shopping for tiny little shoes for the kid, but not yet, no need to rush anything, he's still just as happy crawling around as he is pushing his little car around. And tomorrow he hits the pool so maybe he'll need flippers before sandals!

Twix and other temptations

Day two (actually we haven't even hit 24 hours yet but whatever) of my new health kick. The update is that around 2pm yesterday I started craving a Twix somethin' awful. So I went to the store to see what sort of "healthy" chocolate bar I could find. Sadly, Twix, Snickers, M&M's and even just a bar of dark chocolate are not what I would consider healthy.

I ventured further into the store and found the diet isle where they had surprisingly large selection of power/fiber/diet bars. Another five minutes spent reading every label and I settled on a Cliff Bar. It was so called "chocolate chip" but in all honesty there were only about 7 morsels of chocolate in the whole bar.

Dang.

Anyway, I ate it slowly to try and relish every moment. It was good enough that I'd do it again but not so good that I feel it beats out a nice Cadbury's Dark Chocolate.

The good news is the rest of the day was fairly healthy. A chef salad for lunch, lentils and another salad for dinner. Then some chips and dip (but hey, a girl cannot live on salad alone) and then of course some delicious frozen yogurt to wrap the day up.

Oh, and I did 125 crunches so suck it pudgy belly, you are on your way out!

Get in shape girl!

It has been 11 months since Asa was born (as of 2 am tomorrow morning) and I am officially freaking out. Not about how quickly he's growing up, although that is scary, but about my belly.

I mean, wtf? It's been 11 months since he was born. It's been like 20 months since I got pregnant, which means it been close to two years since I had sleek, toned, flat abs. I've got a mommy pooch and it's keeping me up nights.

I think what's even worse than the pooch though are these sickening little round bits of flesh on either side of my waist that can only be described as "love handles".  Well guess what world, I can't handle the handles. I can't handle the pooch.

As of this moment Anna M.K. Lofgren Thorner is on a new health kick, not a diet, a health kick - remember that. The way I see it I have four weeks to get in shape before I'm officially stuck in the mom body for all eternity. I refuse to be a statistic. I will overcome! So, starting now I will let you know what I eat and what exercise I manage to do. It may not be award winning writing but you can give me your hints and tips and stuff and maybe, together, we can get me back to my bikini-body days.

So far today I had a "low-fat" blueberry muffin, an ice decaf with milk, a bowl of raisin bran and a chai and about 30oz of water. And I walked for about 30 minutes around the block with the family this morning, so all in all, off to a good start. Now, if I can avoid the fatty lunch temptation that will be a real triumph ... wish me luck!!

running not walking

Okay, so Asa isn't officially walking yet but he sure is trying. He's got a little push-car that he can either sit down and ride around the house or he can stand up and push while he walks along behind or beside it. His new favorite activity seems to be to pushing it around the house until he crashes into a wall or piece of furniture and gets stuck.

The thing is, after a day or so of walking a few careful steps with it he has now decided that running behind it is the thing to do. All of a sudden that kid was tearing around the house at a pace that just shocked Jeff and me. I mean, he's running. Not walking. Running.

Of course, take away the push-car and he's just standing there so I can't say he's a bi-ped yet but he's got the idea in his head. You can see his little brain working on it while he stands there. He'll bend his knee and the heel of his foot will come off the floor just a bit, as if he's about to take a step forward and then he'll change his mind and just sit his little bootie right down on the floor.

It's adorable and sweet and it's making me increasingly worried that his first step will happen when I'm not looking. I'm nervous to leave him at daycare for the seven hour stretch he's there for fear the older kids will inspire him just enough to get those little feet moving. I don't want to shower until he's gone to bed so I can be sure I'm not lathering up while he's downstairs giving Jeff a great show of his first steps. It's going to be such a huge moment ... But I have a feeling that even if I do miss those first steps, I'll be so amazed at watching him walk over the coming weeks that I'll get over it pretty quickly.

I know I'm biased but I have to say, every day Asa amazes me with how quickly he picks things up. He's a smartie, a sweetie and snugly little guy and I'm so glad he's mine! I'll get a video up of his current push-car walking so you can see what the little guy is up to first hand!