Wordless Wednesday: Fi's Newest Fluff

8 Months Old

How is that my tiny baby is speeding steadily towards one year old and becoming less and less babyish everyday? What happened to that tiny baby who wanted only Mommy and was content to snuggle with me all day long? Now I have an active, happy 8 month old little girl.

Fiona has gotten to be quite the busy little baby lately. In the last few days she has finally mastered "real" crawling as opposed to her little army scoot, which was pretty comical. She also figured out how to pull herself up and that is all she wants to do these days. She is not happy to be held and snuggled much these days while she is awake. She wants to go, go, go. She is a pretty happy baby though, so that is a blessing. She is starting to get more friendly again and a little less shy. The other day in Church she spent the entire time flirting it up with some girls sitting behind us.

One of her favorite things to do these days is dance. She loves to dance with us or just stand and bounce. The one song that she will dance to pretty much every time it is on is "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga (gag me). I am not a huge fan of the song, but it is very funny to see her bouncing up and down when the song comes on. I really need to get that on video.

She is learning new things every day and it is so much fun to watch. I can't wait for all her other "firsts".

Happy 8 Months, Fiona!!

No Love of Cats

I am not a cat person. I am told that as a small child I loved cats, but then allergies reared their ugly head. It is quite difficult to enjoy something when as soon as you walk in the same house your eyes swell up and you start to wheeze, itch, and sneeze without the intervention of some major pharmaceuticals. My poor hubby was a cat person before dating me. He still morns the fact that his cat had to continue living with his mother and not move in with us.

Since I am very allergic, the princess has not seen too many cats in her short life. However, she has not met a dog that she didn't LOVE.

Recently we went over to a friend's house for dinner. He is a major cat person and has a kitty. When Fiona first spotted the cat she was very interested in this furry creature. I'm sure in her eyes it looked just like a dog and dogs are fun to play with. A little later she was sitting on my lap and the cat walked by, looked at Fiona, and meowed.

You would have thought the cat looked like this.

Because Fiona did this and climbed me like a tree.

She was scared silly and wouldn't remove her face from my shoulder anytime the cat was near. She would settle back down and then the cat would walk by or meow and Fiona would start crying and freaking out all over again. I know I shouldn't be as amused by my daughter's terror as I was. Honestly, I didn't think she would really discriminate much between dogs and cats. She LOVES dogs, so I figured that love would transfer to cats. Not so much.

Apparently, the girl has no love of cats. It is a sad day for her Daddy.

Body After Baby Week 2

We now have 2 weeks down in the Body After Baby Challenge, with 6 weeks to go.

I weighed myself this morning and I lost 1.5 pounds this week. Yay! I'm still right on target. Maybe by the end of summer I will be comfortable in a swimming suit again :p

I really focused on drinking more water this week. I am a little bit of a pop junky. When I was pregnant I pretty much cut out all pop, but I replaced it with juice, which isn't really much better. So I really wanted to tackle this bad habit. I really want to set a good example for Fiona and drinking all the pop and juice is not setting a great example. My goal for the week was to drink at least 3 large glasses of water a day. It took a little effort at the beginning of the week, but by the end I was grabbing a glass of water instead of a pop or a glass of juice. My new best friend is the flavored Aquafina and of course there is Crystal Light too.

I did really well with eating healthier, too. I planned a dinner for each night this week and prepped some of it last weekend, so that it was really easy to make a healthy dinner choice. I have also found that it is much easier if I don't deny myself what I want. I just eat a tiny bit of it. That way I don't screw up my whole day, but I don't feel like I'm being deprived of all the things I like.

I managed to work out at least 3 times this week (again I am including mowing the lawn, which Nathan doesn't think should count, but I am still getting results). My workouts were a little longer than last week, so I think I'm doing well on this goal also.

I am very proud of how I did this week. Bring on the next 6 weeks, I'm going to be smokin' by the end of it. Go Red Team!

Wordless Wednesday: Look What Daddy Showed Me

No More Rug Burned Knees for Fi

While going through some boxes of old clothes to donate to Goodwill I came across these gems.

I was about to toss them in the Goodwill pile when I suddenly recalled seeing something about making baby leg warmers aka Baby Legs out of knee socks.

So naturally I googled it and found this blog post. I thought that looked pretty darn easy. So last night I took the socks over to my Mom's and within 5 minutes we had these.

Here is Fiona kicking it in her new homemade Baby Legs. No more rug burn on her knees! Yay!

Body After Baby: One Week Down

That's right one whole week of the Body After Baby Challenge is finished. It went by super fast. I am pretty happy with how I did this week.

I weighed myself this morning and I lost exactly 1 pound. Woo hoo! That is what I was working towards. I really didn't know if I had accomplished it, but was thrilled when I stepped on the scale today.

I did moderately well with eating healthier. Most days I did really well until about dinner time when I was tired and had less will power. I am going to do better about that this week. I have planned a dinner for each night this week and prepped some of it so that it will be easier to make a healthier choice each night. The weekend was really a struggle. We went bowling Friday night, to a BBQ/boating party on Saturday night, and dinner with my parents' Sunday night. There were a lot of unhealthy options going on and alcohol, which is not very low calorie. Next weekend doesn't look much better for the healthy eating because we have a BBQ/Bridal shower and something else that I can't remember right now. I am going to have to be super good during the week to make up for a little splurging on the weekend.

I managed to work out at least 3 times this week, plus I mowed the lawn, so I am going to count that as a workout as well. I am hoping to improve on that number next week. It isn't a bad start, but none of those workouts were very long and I can do better.

My tummy, legs, and arms have been sore pretty much all week from my workouts, so I am definitely counting that as a success.

So I am proud of how I did this week. Now I just have to keep up the motivation for 7 more weeks.

Tiny Bubbles Detergent

The Natural Baby Company has done it again. They have come out with a great new product and are giving people the chance to try it out for free! You may remember my posts about Gro Baby diapers; this is the same company. We LOVE our Gro Baby diapers and I am SO excited for the chance to try out their new detergent, Tiny Bubbles.

Currently, we use Charlie's Soap to wash our cloth diapers. It gets the job done. However, you have to be extra careful with rinsing to make sure there is no detergent left or it could give the baby a rash. Princess Fiona has extra sensitive skin, so it has been a concern of mine. We haven't had any trouble with it yet, but it could happen.

One thing that I am loving about Tiny Bubbles is that it is phosphate free. Phosphates detergents are a major contributor to pollution in our lakes and streams.

Basically, this sounds like a great detergent. It is gentle for sensitive skin, good for laundering cloth diapers and keeping that stink at bay, and better for the environment.

Go here and check it out for yourself.

Diet Update

After 3 days, I am doing so-so on the Body After Baby Challenge. I am finding it really difficult to keep my motivation going at dinner time. I have done well for breakfast and lunch the last 3 days and even managed to squeeze a workout into the last 2 out of 3 days. However, dinner time is a struggle.

It is very hit and miss whether or not Nathan will be home for dinner, so I have a hard time planning ahead of time what to have. Usually by that point in the day I am getting tired anyway and would normally grab another pop with caffeine to keep me going until bedtime. I am trying really hard to resist the temptation of another pop. First, the caffeine really isn't good for me, and second, the pop definitely isn't good for me or my weight loss goals. So I'm tired, sometimes cranky, and sometimes still alone with the baby. I want something fast that doesn't take lots of prep time if Nathan isn't home to help. The answer to that is usually something that is not all that healthy.

I need some inspiration. What do you do for dinner? Anyone have any suggestions for keeping motivation going at dinner time?

Wordless Wednesday: Toothy Grin

Take Me Back Tuesday

So I have been scanning in a bunch of old photos for my Mom so I thought that this might be fun to participate in. This is a really old photo. My sister and I were best friends with the neighbor girls across the street from our Rees Street house. We were all pretty much inseparable.

This is Lauren, my sister Erin, Emily, and me on the end. Emily and I as the big sisters sometimes did mean things like make Erin and Lauren play our husbands or if we played cops and robbers they always had to be the robbers and get tied up with jump ropes.

Fun times.

Fit by Labor Day

So I blogged the other day about the Body After Baby Challenge that Samantha over at MamaNotes is hosting. Well, today is the first day. Head on over to her blog and check out everyone's "before" pictures. We are all gonna knock your socks off in 8 weeks when you see the "after" pictures. I am excited to get started.

My goals for these 8 weeks are:

1. Lose 8 pounds (about a pound a week). I am starting out at 129 pounds. Hopefully, down to 121 when we are done and back into a few of my old pants.

2. Get rid of my "mom" arms. Tone up my flabby arms.

3. Start eating healthier so that I set a better example for my daughter.

4. Feel better about myself physically and embrace the changes in my body.

My dreaded "before" pictures:

My plan is to eat healthier. We are bad at eating out too much, which is bad for our health and bad for our wallets. I am going to make an effort to be better at planning out meals for the week, so we don't get sucked into eating fast food so often. I also plan to work out at least 3x a week and get out and go on more walks.

Wish me luck! And good luck to all the other mamas out there participating too!

Body After Baby Challenge

Samantha over at MamaNotes is hosting a Body After Baby Challenge to be "Fit by Labor Day". It will last 8 weeks and start on Monday July 13th. Basically it is a way to meet other moms going through the same thing, get accountability and support, and reach your goals.

This is not normally the sort of thing that would catch my attention. However, after seeing her post on Twitter about it numerous times I began to think seriously about it. I have not been exactly pleased with the image in the mirror since Fiona made her grand entrance into the world. It has been 7 months since then and I honestly thought things would go back to "normal" afterwards, but that has not been the case. It isn't horrible and I have worked hard to lose most of the baby weight, but things aren't the same and I am fighting a losing battle to keep off the weight I have lost.

What better way to keep myself motivated about being in better shape than to blog about it. It is easy to cheat and skip a workout because I'm tired or the baby is cranky or to eat unhealthy options because I don't feel like cooking. If I blog about it than there is some accountability. Oh, and of course there is a before and after picture involved. Eeeek!!

So I am going to be brave and do it. My goals are:

-to lose about 8 lbs (that is about pound a week)

-get some definition in my arms (because I just saw a picture of me from the 4th and they are a lot flabbier than I remember them being)

-start eating healthier (I really need to work on this one because I will soon be setting an example for Fiona)

-feel better about myself physically (this is the big one, I just want to feel a little more comfortable in my skin, stretch marks and all)

Now I just have to get brave enough to take the before pictures and send them to her. You can do it too! Head on over to her blog and check it out for yourself.

Wordless Wednesday

Internal War

Lately I have been having an internal struggle. I have been feeling like I need to be doing something more in my life. Don't get me wrong, I love my roles as wife and mother and I truly thank God for giving me the opportunity to stay home with my beautiful baby girl. However, after years of working/going to school/being super involved and overbooked, my life just feels a little too slow some days.

It was definitely a difficult transition to go from working to staying home with a baby. I am not going to lie, I definitely experienced some depression being home alone long days with a colicky baby. The baby got a little older and less fussy, I found my MOM group, and I adjusted to life being a stay-at-home-mom. Now I really love staying home and I really don't like the idea of having to go back to work and leaving my baby with someone else.

However, I feel like I am missing a piece of myself. I never realized how much of my identity was tied up in my "job". I never realized just how much I really thrived on the occassional pat on the back and the satisfaction of a job well done. Those are two things that are pretty nonexistent in a mother's world. The "job" is never done and there are virtually no pats on the back or thank you's. (So you should all take a minute and call your mothers and tell them thank you and that you appreciate them. Don't worry, I'll wait ... Back? Okay. I know that I certainly try to do that more that often than before becoming a mother myself.)

I feel like I am not growing as a person as much as I could be. I have been juggling around a lot of ideas in my head recently, trying to find a good fit for me and for our family. Nothing seems to quite fit at the moment, so the struggle continues on between loving to stay home with my baby and the need for some sort of personal accomplishment. Maybe I am just not really appreciating the blessings in my life and just feeling like the "grass is greener on the other side".

What do you think? Do you stay home? Work? Do you ever question your decision? What do you plan on doing when you have kids, if you don't already?

Bad Mommy Moment

On Saturday I definitely had a bad mommy moment. We spent most of the day over at my parents' house for the 4th of July. I needed to lay Fiona down for a nap. She refuses to sleep in the pack-and-play, so I decided it was just easier to let her sleep in her carseat. She doesn't nap very long, so I thought I'd just stick her in that and stuck that in the middle of my parents' bed, since that was the only room we could shut the dogs out of. We didn't have a baby monitor so I was checking on her every couple of minutes, but she was sleeping just fine.

Then my Mom and I both hear blood curdling screams coming from the bedroom. I figured she just woke up and got scared not knowing where she was.

I open the door and look in the carseat ... no baby.

I look at the bed ... no baby.

There she was lying on the floor screaming her head off. I felt awful. My parents bed is pretty high, higher than most. Somehow she had gotten herself out of her carseat and off the bed. Thank God, she was mostly okay. She has a huge bump on the side of her head, but she calmed down pretty fast and was acting like herself in no time. She has definitely taught her Mommy not to leave her unattended anywhere but her crib/pack-and-play.

I am still feeling guilty about it. Just when you think you are doing okay as a parent, then your kid changes the rules of the game. I am just grateful she is okay and I've learned my lesson.

7 Months

Fiona's 7 month birthday came and went on Sunday. Time is just flying by. Somedays I don't feel like I am doing enough enjoying this time while she is little.

A few new things she does now: Gives kisses (well, she licks your face, we are calling it kissing and it is pretty stinking cute if I do say so myself), does a backwards crawl (then gets frustrated and rolls to whatever she wants), has 2 teeth (which she likes to use to bite her Mommy), will occassionally make the sign for "nurse" when she wants to nurse, LOVES to play in the swimming pool, sits up well on her own, and likes to stand for short periods of time.

Giving her Daddy a "kiss".

She's getting so big! Happy 7 months Fiona!!

Wordless Wednesday: Love of Books