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Happy Friday eve everybody!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter 2011
We had a wonderful Easter yesterday. The dreaded bunny left a nice little basket for G and we feasted on tons of great food. Oh and we also went to church in the morning! Haven't been in a couple years, and we always drive by this one church so we decided to try it out for Easter Sunday. It was nice, but the crowd was on the older side. And we were so overdressed. Seriously, who goes to Easter services in jean shorts and Nike sneakers?
After church we came home and had a little mini egg hunt in the back yard. By egg hunt I mean I plopped G on a blanket and scattered some eggs in grabbing distance ;-)
With grandma and grandpa...
And great grandparents too!
Hubbs and his mom...
Cracking eggs. G had her first taste of hardboiled egg yolks on Easter and she loved them!
Her basket!
After church we came home and had a little mini egg hunt in the back yard. By egg hunt I mean I plopped G on a blanket and scattered some eggs in grabbing distance ;-)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
10 Months Old
Well now this is just unfair. How am I to be expected to write about all of G's accomplishments now that she's into the double digits in months without sobbing like the baby she once was?! She will never again be only single-digit months old. I mean really, she's practically a child now, not a wee little baby. She'll always be my baby though, of course :-)
This month really was spent perfecting a lot of her new skills that she's acquired the last few months. She is cruising expertly and I'm afraid she's going to have her sights set on walking relatively soon. A week ago I found her rummaging through a laundry bin filled with her toys (ok it just happened to be a quick and easy way to keep her stuff all together in the living room!). She picked one up and stood there just inspecting it. Not holding on to anything. Just standing there holding her toy. I wish I could tell you what would have happened next, but I grabbed her because she was just so darn cute. So who knows? Maybe she would have busted out in a little jig or something. ;-)
She just loves getting into everything now and has an obsession with shoes, purses and jewelry. Well, the jewelry thing has been going on for months now, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet. She LOVES staring at it and twiddling it around in her tiny fingers. My mom always has a lot of jewelry on (ok, but not in a crazy lady sort of way), and G adores it. And purses... well, she just happened to grab onto a little pink purse at Gymboree... and when I tried to take it from her, she freaked out. So, she now has her first purse. Oy. Mini temper tantrums already!? I thought that happened at 2, not 9 and a half months!
Her new thing this month is she helps me undress her. LOL. When I start to lift up her top or onesie she yanks it up and off over her head! It's so funny to see her do actual things that us "grown-ups" do, even if they're run of the mill, ordinary things. She's still comfortably in the 6-12 month size, which boggles my mind because she's in the 90th percentiles for height and weight. She does have some 18 month pants that she wears. It's kind of nice to see her be able to wear things a little bit longer - she blew through the 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff so fast, I was sad to put away outfits that were worn only once. Now it's funny because I'm getting sick of seeing some of her winter clothes that she's been wearing since December (I may just be ready for warm spring weather already!).
Words-wise she's still saying mama, dada, up and now nana (though not to her grandmas or anything in particular at this point). I'm really excited to see what new words will crop up next in her little vocabulary. Her upper teeth (not the front ones!) are thisclose to coming through, any hour now, seriously. I have a feeling that a bunch of teeth are going to break through really soon. We've had a couple nights where she wakes up uncomfortable for a bit, so hopefully we can get them all over with soon!
Anyhow here's my little munchkin on her 10 month birthday. Less than 2 months to go 'til her party!
Oh and here are some Easter-y shots I snapped of her the other day. I got this roll of paper from Michaels for $3 (after a coupon ;-)). It was so hard to get her to stay still! This little one loves to move around on me now. I usually take like 60-100 frames when I do a little shoot with her (I am indeed nuts - whatever she's a little ham and loves it), but I was only able to do about 30 before giving up... And I had like no natural light going so I had to bump up my ISO = noisy pictures. Ah well I still love em!
This month really was spent perfecting a lot of her new skills that she's acquired the last few months. She is cruising expertly and I'm afraid she's going to have her sights set on walking relatively soon. A week ago I found her rummaging through a laundry bin filled with her toys (ok it just happened to be a quick and easy way to keep her stuff all together in the living room!). She picked one up and stood there just inspecting it. Not holding on to anything. Just standing there holding her toy. I wish I could tell you what would have happened next, but I grabbed her because she was just so darn cute. So who knows? Maybe she would have busted out in a little jig or something. ;-)
She just loves getting into everything now and has an obsession with shoes, purses and jewelry. Well, the jewelry thing has been going on for months now, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet. She LOVES staring at it and twiddling it around in her tiny fingers. My mom always has a lot of jewelry on (ok, but not in a crazy lady sort of way), and G adores it. And purses... well, she just happened to grab onto a little pink purse at Gymboree... and when I tried to take it from her, she freaked out. So, she now has her first purse. Oy. Mini temper tantrums already!? I thought that happened at 2, not 9 and a half months!
Her new thing this month is she helps me undress her. LOL. When I start to lift up her top or onesie she yanks it up and off over her head! It's so funny to see her do actual things that us "grown-ups" do, even if they're run of the mill, ordinary things. She's still comfortably in the 6-12 month size, which boggles my mind because she's in the 90th percentiles for height and weight. She does have some 18 month pants that she wears. It's kind of nice to see her be able to wear things a little bit longer - she blew through the 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff so fast, I was sad to put away outfits that were worn only once. Now it's funny because I'm getting sick of seeing some of her winter clothes that she's been wearing since December (I may just be ready for warm spring weather already!).
Words-wise she's still saying mama, dada, up and now nana (though not to her grandmas or anything in particular at this point). I'm really excited to see what new words will crop up next in her little vocabulary. Her upper teeth (not the front ones!) are thisclose to coming through, any hour now, seriously. I have a feeling that a bunch of teeth are going to break through really soon. We've had a couple nights where she wakes up uncomfortable for a bit, so hopefully we can get them all over with soon!
Anyhow here's my little munchkin on her 10 month birthday. Less than 2 months to go 'til her party!
Oh and here are some Easter-y shots I snapped of her the other day. I got this roll of paper from Michaels for $3 (after a coupon ;-)). It was so hard to get her to stay still! This little one loves to move around on me now. I usually take like 60-100 frames when I do a little shoot with her (I am indeed nuts - whatever she's a little ham and loves it), but I was only able to do about 30 before giving up... And I had like no natural light going so I had to bump up my ISO = noisy pictures. Ah well I still love em!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Easter Bunny Sucks
At least that's what my daughter believes. We tried not once.
Not twice.
Not even 3 times to take bunny pictures.
You'd think we'd have given up at that point. But we went once more.
Because her mama's anal about capturing these milestones every year. She just hates that darn bunny. He scares the crap out of her. And I sort of don't blame her. I mean look at him. Does he look sane to you?
Not twice.
Not even 3 times to take bunny pictures.
You'd think we'd have given up at that point. But we went once more.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
DIY Party Hat
Supplies:
Scrapbook paper - 1 sheet for the hat, another for the number
Marabou feather trim
Glue gun
Scissors
Existing lame party hat (haha)
Step 1 - Take apart party hat and lay flat on whatever paper you want to use for the main party hat color. I went with a sparkly yellow because of our bee theme. Cut it out. No, really. Cut it.
Step 2 - Reassemble party hat (the tab should fit right back in) and cover it with new awesome paper. Using hot glue, glue it down, man. You may want to staple the paper to the hat close to the bottom to make this easier. It won't show since you'll be covering it up with fluff and stuff.
Step 3 - Hot glue marabou feather goodness all along the bottom. Cut out another piece and tie it into a little knot and glue that at the top of the hat.
Step 4 - Admire your work. Get a diet coke. Have some nachos. Reward yourself. You've worked HARD these last 9 minutes.
Step 4.5 - Cut out a number from another piece of scrapbook paper. If this proves difficult for you, you can always print out a number and use it as a template to cut out from the scrapbook.
Step 5 - Hot glue number on hat.
Step 6 - Place hat on head. Have good time.
If you want you can also remove the elastic part that the hat normally comes with and add your own ribbon, which I plan on doing. You can also opt to cover the back seam with ribbon too, which is something else I am also considering, since, you know, I can never leave well enough alone. ;-)
Only 2.5 more months of preparations to go before her 1st birthday (yep, friends think I'm nuts for starting this early)! I ordered her the most ridiculously adorable pettiskirt tutu deal from etsy and it arrived lightning fast (I was expecting 5 weeks!). I've also decided to do a bubble bar (or bubble zzzzone?). I think that's a fun activity for the little ones to enjoy and grown ups love blowing bubbles too, right? -or am I the only one?
Oh and we finally had our
Monday, April 4, 2011
An Awesome Discovery
Long ago (2008) I put away all my favorite jeans in a plastic bin. I got a bit "fluffier" and could no longer wear them. 7 for all Mankinds, True Religions, Citizens... If you were to add up the value of how much $$ was spent on the contents of this bin, it would be quite laughable. Or cryable.
Since my body changed after cancer, I felt unhappy with myself. I did not want to treat myself to new clothes with this new figure of mine. That meant accepting this weight gain. I didn't want to accept it. I wanted it to be a temporary phase. I would redeem the contents of that bin soon, I told myself. In the meantime, I bought clothes at Target in various shades of gray. My wardrobe had a lot of gray. Again, I'd remind myself that if I just buckled down, I'd have my old clothes and figure back in no time.
But I never had discipline. Diet attempts really turned into a lot of self-loathing. Any time I thought about how I wanted to lose weight, I would get hungry. I'd watch the Biggest Loser for inspiration, they would air a Jack in the Box commercial and I would leave to get my spicy chicken sandwich fix (but really, how cruel to air fast food promos during a show about obese people!?). Months turned to years, and then I got pregnant. I was so, so happy pregnant. Sure, I was disappointed when I went to a Pea in the Pod to pick out a pair of 7 for all mankind maternity jeans only to discover the largest size wouldn't fit over my hips (and when the whore saleslady told me to buy a bra at Lane Bryant!). But this was my time to be pleasantly plump. I got a kick out of being huge, and giggled at my massively swollen feet. I figured I would get to lose all the baby weight, PLUS chemo weight just by breastfeeding. I even joked that I would keep pumping long after weaning just so I could lose weight (ha!).
But that was not the case. Sure, most of the baby weight came off, but there was quite a bit more left after that. It was clear that if I wanted this to happen, I had to work for it. Half on a whim and half stubbornly determined that this will be my year, I signed up for Weight Watchers online on January 3. I've lost 17.5 lbs in threeshort months.
Something clicked. It just works. I've tried Nutrisystem in the past (and it works for about 4 weeks, and then you want to die if you have to eat one more of their meals). Weight watchers taught me how much I can eat of things I actually want to eat. Really, I've had a lot of chili dogs during this "diet". And cookies. And tacos. Because I've learned how to portion out my daily allotment of food, I have been able to make choices depending on what sounds good to me to eat. I've learned what the really bad foods are, and that if I want to have a large lunch, I'm going to have to have a smaller dinner. I've learned that I can have little indulgences and not feel guilty. I am not feeling deprived. This is just working.
So back to that bin. All of my jeans that I have been wearing since last year are huge on me. And the boyfriend look isn't looking too fab for much longer. But I'm still not quite ready to go out and buy all new clothes, since I still have a few more pounds I'd like to lose. So I got out that bin. One by one I tried them on, expecting to feel disappointed. As I slipped on pair after pair, and slid through that top button, I was in total disbelief.
I now have 6 "new" pairs of designer jeans. Honestly, it feels better than buying new jeans. It's like I've reconnected with 6 dear, old friends. Oh how we've missed each other!
There are still a few more pairs in that bin that would like to find their way out (ok and a couple that I've held on to for sentimental reasons that I seriously doubt I'd ever fit into again!). But what I have found that is so totally strange, is how my weight now is more than what I weighed when these jeans became too small for me. How does that work? Am I carrying more weight somewhere else? Elbows? Maybe from working out I have muscles? Though we haven't made it into the gym in weeks because we all took turns being sick around here.
I don't know, I don't care. I feel lighter both physically and emotionally, and you can't put a number on that.
Since my body changed after cancer, I felt unhappy with myself. I did not want to treat myself to new clothes with this new figure of mine. That meant accepting this weight gain. I didn't want to accept it. I wanted it to be a temporary phase. I would redeem the contents of that bin soon, I told myself. In the meantime, I bought clothes at Target in various shades of gray. My wardrobe had a lot of gray. Again, I'd remind myself that if I just buckled down, I'd have my old clothes and figure back in no time.
But I never had discipline. Diet attempts really turned into a lot of self-loathing. Any time I thought about how I wanted to lose weight, I would get hungry. I'd watch the Biggest Loser for inspiration, they would air a Jack in the Box commercial and I would leave to get my spicy chicken sandwich fix (but really, how cruel to air fast food promos during a show about obese people!?). Months turned to years, and then I got pregnant. I was so, so happy pregnant. Sure, I was disappointed when I went to a Pea in the Pod to pick out a pair of 7 for all mankind maternity jeans only to discover the largest size wouldn't fit over my hips (and when the whore saleslady told me to buy a bra at Lane Bryant!). But this was my time to be pleasantly plump. I got a kick out of being huge, and giggled at my massively swollen feet. I figured I would get to lose all the baby weight, PLUS chemo weight just by breastfeeding. I even joked that I would keep pumping long after weaning just so I could lose weight (ha!).
But that was not the case. Sure, most of the baby weight came off, but there was quite a bit more left after that. It was clear that if I wanted this to happen, I had to work for it. Half on a whim and half stubbornly determined that this will be my year, I signed up for Weight Watchers online on January 3. I've lost 17.5 lbs in three
Something clicked. It just works. I've tried Nutrisystem in the past (and it works for about 4 weeks, and then you want to die if you have to eat one more of their meals). Weight watchers taught me how much I can eat of things I actually want to eat. Really, I've had a lot of chili dogs during this "diet". And cookies. And tacos. Because I've learned how to portion out my daily allotment of food, I have been able to make choices depending on what sounds good to me to eat. I've learned what the really bad foods are, and that if I want to have a large lunch, I'm going to have to have a smaller dinner. I've learned that I can have little indulgences and not feel guilty. I am not feeling deprived. This is just working.
So back to that bin. All of my jeans that I have been wearing since last year are huge on me. And the boyfriend look isn't looking too fab for much longer. But I'm still not quite ready to go out and buy all new clothes, since I still have a few more pounds I'd like to lose. So I got out that bin. One by one I tried them on, expecting to feel disappointed. As I slipped on pair after pair, and slid through that top button, I was in total disbelief.
I now have 6 "new" pairs of designer jeans. Honestly, it feels better than buying new jeans. It's like I've reconnected with 6 dear, old friends. Oh how we've missed each other!
There are still a few more pairs in that bin that would like to find their way out (ok and a couple that I've held on to for sentimental reasons that I seriously doubt I'd ever fit into again!). But what I have found that is so totally strange, is how my weight now is more than what I weighed when these jeans became too small for me. How does that work? Am I carrying more weight somewhere else? Elbows? Maybe from working out I have muscles? Though we haven't made it into the gym in weeks because we all took turns being sick around here.
I don't know, I don't care. I feel lighter both physically and emotionally, and you can't put a number on that.
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