Too little too late, I think, as Elaine has already posted most of our happenings for April. It was quite the busy month.

Easter was an adventure with Ian. He returned to church, but told us a week or two before that while we were at church on Easter that he would be thinking about his eggs at home (we had just stated during family home evening that we should think about Jesus during Easter and the wonderful sacrifice that he performed for us). I like to think that Ian got it, but mostly I'm convinced that it was all about the candy for him.

Like I wrote in a previous post, we saw the Braves play six innings of baseball, but left early to avoid freezing the remainder of our tushes off.

Ian continues to do very well with his recovery. Livy keeps growing like a weed. Elaine does a great job keeping up with both, and I just try not to get in the way of any of the three.

I'm approaching my first goal with my exercise efforts. I may not reach the goal I had in mind, but I've made significant progress. I'm down about 15 pounds at this point and my weight has dropped below 240 lbs for the first time in over four years, though I'm still hoping to reach my goal of 230 by May 9 (that's a lot of weight in a short amount of time). I'm pretty happy with the habit development both on the exercise front as well as the eating battle. I've been able to shift my food intake to less and overall healthier. Naturally, I do cheat every so often. I'd go nuts without the occasional chocolate bar, and I still crave Troy's Philly Cheesesteaks (haven't found a comparable one here in Chucktown yet). I have not allowed myself to return to non-diet soda, since I'm fairly sure I would have a hard time giving it back up. This is my hardest challenge, to be truthful, since I LOVE Mountain Dew's Livewire and Voltage flavors.

Why, as humans, is it so hard to overcome the psychological aspects of some things (see: Mt. Dew Livewire)?

Well, we had another trip to Atlanta this past week. It was good, I think, except for the trip to and from and everything in between those driving periods. No, just kidding. CHOA partners some with the Braves (or vice versa), and the Braves provide tickets to the game, dinner, and pictures with some of the players. It was fun. We got the stadium around 4 or so, walked around outside (see Elaine's blog or Facebook page), and then got out of the wind for a while before heading into the stadium around 5:20. Dinner was a ballpark dinner, which was fine. Two players, Matt Diaz and Blaine Boyer, came up. Ian did pictures with Diaz, but wasn't interested in Boyer (really wasn't interested in Diaz, but we convinced him to go ahead). Chipper was busy getting ready for the game, we suspect. :) The wind blowing across the stadium was sharp and quite chilly, so we got cold pretty fast. Livy didn't make it to the first inning and she was ready to go, so Elaine and Livy left for the car to wait on Elaine's sister to come get them. Ian and I got a blanket from the car, courtesy of Elaine, and made it a bit longer. We got some cotton candy for Ian around the end of the 4th, and he said that was worth staying for. But he got cold trying to eat it, so around the end of the 6th inning we called it quits and headed for the car. We stopped at the restroom (that's an important detail for everyone, isn't it?) and finally cleared the stadium around the 7th inning stretch. Ian is interested in doing it again next year, I think.

The visit at the hospital went well. They are pleased with how Ian is doing, and we got some tips for dealing with 'Evil Ian'. He gets pretty bad at times in terms of sassing and poppin' off. Some of his meds contribute to that. He has done well the last few days, especially.

The drive home was pretty rough. Livy cried...no, Livy screamed a lot. Elaine climbed into the back seat between the two car seats in the Corolla and sat back there. She has a nice bruise to show for it. The Corolla is officially done taking all of us places. Its just too dang small. We also determined that Livy is done travelling to Atlanta for a bit. Six hours in a car seat is not fun for her, and therefore not fun for us either.

I have not blogged much on my weight loss efforts much, but I'm pretty pleased overall. Since February, I've dropped close to 15 pounds, so I'm down from around 255 to around 240. I still have a ways to go, but I credit the Wii Fit for most of the progress. Not only does it help me to exercise, but now whenever I even think about eating something, I have to also consider what it is going to do to those scales later. Thus, my eating and drinking habits have changed considerably. I eat better and less, and soda is pretty much an unthinkable now. I do love the Vitamin Water, though, especially the Energy flavor. I'm not too certain that the weight loss is visible yet, but I feel better, which helps with the motivation to keep going.

Not much else for now...