My daughter Pippa turned seven today! Doesn’t that sound freaking ancient?

Pre-Corona, my girl had some serious birthday plans. All year, her first grade classmates have been bringing in small gifts to celebrate their birthdays. Pippa picked out some oversized bubble wands at Target a few weeks ago and was so excited to distribute her gift.

Obviously that did not happen today.

Pippa was also very excited to host her cat-themed birthday party this coming Sunday, but thanks to Corona, that event has been indefinitely postponed as well.

It sucks. But my girl is handling these challenges like a champion. When I broke the news that we had to postpone her party, she was disappointed. She wanted some certainty about when it would happen. I could not give her that certainty. But after a few minutes of venting, she was good to go and moved on. She has not complained about her delayed party since.

And today, we had fun! I got her a ridiculously huge cat balloon; she opened presents; Nathan got bagels for breakfast; we had pizza for lunch; we went outside for a photo shoot (my girl loves to pose); we got an ice cream cake; and we gave the middle finger to formal home schooling. (Because hey, if a pandemic is going to shit all over my daughter’s birthday, there’s no way I’m going to make her do math.)

Some fun details I want to remember:

• We put Pippa’s birthday candles in a bagel so she could still get the experience of blowing out candles without spraying mystery germs all over the cake.
• Pippa was serenaded several times during the day, including over Facetime twice. I need to make an effort to use Facetime to stay in touch with friends and family. Isolation is no bueno.
• Her best friend played Happy Birthday on her keyboard and texted the video to Pippa. (Well, my friend texted the video to me. You probably already guessed that. Now I’m rambling. Shit.)
• Another friend sent a gift by way of Amazon after Pippa’s party was postponed. How sweet! Note to self: if this pandemic quarantine continues much longer, I’m going to send gifts to all the friends stuck at home on their special day.
• Pippa wore a fancy dress all day. She is not one for fancy dresses very often, but she wanted to feel special so there you go.

Everything is weird. Here in California, the governor suggested the kids might not go back to school in the fall. That is utterly mind boggling. So fuck it, I’m not thinking that far ahead. I can, at most, handle thinking about three days ahead at a time.

When this is over, we’ll throw Pippa’s Post-Pandemic Party. (Ooh, so much beautiful alliteration there!) But for today, I think we hit her birthday out of the park and gave her some special memories even in the middle of all this weirdness.

Happy Birthday, Pippa!

Like so many people in the United States, I am at home with my kids as the world responds to the Corona virus. Nathan is home with us as well, doing his best to work from home. We are adjusting, but everyone is under stress.

I have a long and tortuous relationship with emotional eating. For most of my life, I have used food to numb my feelings. Most recently, when Julian’s preschool was shut down last spring due to asbestos contamination, I did All the Emotional Eating and gained twenty pounds.

Three weeks ago, I joined Noom. It felt like the right program at the right time. And damn, now that school is cancelled, I am so glad I joined. I have already lost six pounds (cue the applause track) but more importantly, I have the momentum to continue my new healthy Noom habits while I live through this Strange AF Corona Situation. That said, I have lowered my expectations for the next month. I joined Noom to lose weight, but for the next month, I’m aiming to break even. After all, our world is in crisis. If I lose some weight with Noom during the next month – fantastic! But I will be ecstatic if I can live with all this craziness and gain 0.0 pounds.

Two weeks ago, I signed up for Noom. I’d call it a weight loss app, except it’s way more than that. It addresses the psychological issues that make it difficult to lose weight.

So far, I’m loving Noom. I signed up for a two week trial and now I’m paying for another six months. These are some of my initial thoughts and experiences with the app:

1. I have lost four pounds in two weeks. Woot woot! I gained about twenty pounds last spring and summer after Julian’s preschool was closed for asbestos. (Hello, emotional eating!) Then I stopped the weight gain but the scale stayed stuck at the same number. For months. It turns out that thinking “I’d like to lose weight” is not enough to actually lose weight. Noom has finally helped me turn the tide.
2. There are Harry Potter jokes.
3. I am allowed to eat whatever I want. I do not feel deprived.
4. This feels like something I can do for the rest of my life.
5. For me, this is definitely the Right App at the Right Time. I do not want to start insisting that everyone needs to use Noom. We all have our own journeys with our personal pitfalls, detours, and where was I going with this metaphor? Anyway, I feel like this is an awesome app for me, and I would encourage anyone who is curious to give it a try. But I know I have been doing a lot of work in therapy and journaling that has gotten me to the point where I am ready for something like Noom. You have to do what works for you. Noom happens to be working for me during the first quarter of 2020.

I do not have a lot of time for blogging these days but I am getting close. Next fall, Julian will be at school five days every week and I’ll finally have more than enough time for working on my fantasy series and exercise. Then I’ll be able to use some of that surplus time for blogging. But, in the meantime, I’ll try to post some updates about Noom and my weight loss adventures because I think doing so will be helpful for my journey.