December is Style Month!

You know how they have a month, week, day, etc. for every single possible thing imaginable? National Save the Whales month, National Grow-A-Beard month...well, I'm not sure if those really exist, but I decided that December is my unofficial Be In Style month. It may not be national, but since nobody could possibly know all of the official ones, it doesn't matter at all.

I recently had a baby. Actually, I recently had two babies. This took an enormous toll on my body. Julia Child, my idol, says never to apologize for your cooking because you still have to eat it anyway, and apologies just make it taste worse than it already is. So I won't apologize for my looks these past two years, because you still have memories and pictures to look at. Let's just say, though, that I am totally ready to get back In Style.

Fortunately, I have a lot of things working to my advantage to help me with this goal. First, my sister is a stylist. So that right there is amazing. When she came a few months ago when baby Dan was born, I asked her for her top ten style tips, and she totally surprised me when she had them all written out for me at Thanksgiving. Now they are on my desk in a place where I can see them every day. I will write the list out later.

Second, my sister in law is also a stylist. Maybe I'll ask for her top ten style tips when I see her at Christmas...

Third, I work out every day. This is not a tongue-in-cheek comment about how motherhood is a workout (although carrying a carseat with a child in one hand and another child on my hip is basically like lifting weights!), I really do exercise every day. It's not a super intense workout, but every day Jane begs and begs for a stroller ride. Every day. No exceptions. So I take her, to the park, to the church, to the school, to the library, around the block...we walk. Low impact cardio. This month, I will start to *try* to do more, which I know I should, but if I don't, I won't feel too terrible.

Fourth, nursing burns a lot of calories. It did last time, although I didn't really have a long enough break between pregnancies to know exactly how fast I returned to my prepregnancy weight. I'm pretty sure I didn't, but we don't and never will own a scale. I seem to remember losing a ton of weight very quickly, and then retaining about ten-ish pounds.

Fifth, I have medium-long hair that is pretty much undamaged. Some split ends. But no heat damage or color damage, because I never straighten my hair anymore and Danny has said he would bawl his eyes out if I ever dyed my hair. Plus, I love my hair color. I'm super excited to learn how to do different things with my hair this month. I've mustered up the courage and motivation to move beyond half ponytails and french braids.

There are many factors working against me, but I will only choose to point out one of them: The majority of my clothes don't fit. I'm at that stage where my pants are either way too saggy to even have a belt hold them up effectively, or they're too tight and I can barely squeeze into them. But ::::drumroll::::: squeeze into my pre-prego pants today I did! Don't ask if I could button them, though.

So, here's how I did on day one:

• I did my hair in a French Twist. It looked awesome. First time in my life that I have ever held my hair up with just bobby pins; they're way more effective than I thought possible!
• I wore a skirt because it was the absolute only thing that fits me right now. Had to change my top three times because of spit up. Oh well.
• I did my makeup. I don't usually put on makeup unless I'm going out of the house. I found that I was a lot happier all day. Weird, but not that weird I guess.
• One of Dot's style secrets is to moisturize and wear SPF 30 every day. She stressed that point to me, so I did it.
• Walked to the park and played there with Jane.

All in all, a good start to STYLE MONTH.

If you want, you can join me in this journey. I will post Dot's style secrets tomorrow.