Monday, May 23, 2011

Updates

Oh boy. I'm sucking with the blog post thing. You know what? I think part of my problem is that I used to have a laptop in front of me, and the words and creativity just flowed. Now, I have an iPhone/iPad and it just ain't the same to have to text your blog post.

But hi ho, Mark is coming back to us in a month-ish. I am SO beyond anxious. My heart races and my stomach does flips when I think of it. And, oh, we have a zillion plans. We have to move into our new home. Make it a home. Spend $600 of gift cards at the BX on stuff for our home. And do family things every.single.weekend. until it gets too cold to be outside. And then?? THEN I will have SO much to blog about that I will explode.

I promise that good blog posts are coming. Soon. Don't give up oh me. Please.

So now we are the parents of a 7-month old kid. Cuh-razy. That kid talks up a storm, eats real food, and will pinch the fire out of your skin. Oh I'm not exaggerating. She has made my face and my mother's face BLEED from her scratches! And I'm sporting a big bruise on my am from the pinch of the century. But I love my little toot so it's all good :)





Her newest favorite and most calming thing is to go outdoors. It's finally warm enough to take her out without a million layers and hats.



I'm already starting to plan her first birthday. The theme? Minnie Mouse. Not because I'm a huge fan of Minnie, but it coincides with our vacation, so it's perfect! Do you have any idea how many Minnie birthday items are for sale on Etsy?? It's a beautiful thing.

Ahh I am so excited about my life. And being a mommy to my amazing little nugget. And being a wife to the sweetest most loyal husband ever. I love it all!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

WW Week 1!

Week 1 weigh in:


I'm down four pounds in my first week!!! I am extremely excited and proud!

I get 36 points per day - higher than normal because I nurse, so they give me extra points. For breakfast, I have either Special K Chocolatey Delight or Cocoa Krispies... Both of which are shockingly low calorie & fat! I usually have a frozen meal or turkey sandwich & sweet potato fries or soup or something along those lines for lunch. Snacks consist of fruit or a pudding or granola bar, and supper is just a regular healthy meal! I can still squeeze in one Coke per day and still remain within my points, so that makes me a happy mama :)

My first weight-loss goal is 148, with my overall goal being 130. I hope to be 130 by the time we sail away on our Disney cruise at the end of October (Aka Adalyn's birthday).

I can so do this!! I just signed up for WW online, so I don't actually go to meetings or get weighed by a leader. But trust me, I have enough motivation. Once I see the scale numbers dropping, that's enough motivation for me to keep going! I don't want to give up on this -- I want to be a hott wife for my hubs and a healthy mama for my baby.

Once Mark comes home, I will be able to go to the gym, which will help! I am so excited to get my old body back and excited to blog about it too!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, May 16, 2011

I'm that mom.

Hi, friends.

I'm shamelessly going to ask you to vote for Adalyn's picture.

Will you? Pretty please with sugar on top??

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/858309?esrc=nwphotofaves_pmcover11

There's the link! PLEASE! :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

rantom thoughts!

I haven't heard a sermon in months. Many months. Somehow, it works out every.single.week. that Adalyn wants to nurse right when the sermon starts. Today she fell asleep while we sang, and I thought Oh BOY! Finally!! She's going to let me listen to the sermon!

Five minutes into a lesson on Ezra, she woke up and cried. So we made the walk to the nursing room (aka an empty room with a rocking chair) and enjoyed Sunday morning alone. Again. How does this always happen? Oh, my Little Toot.

I never really wanted to blog about poop, but the time has come: I'm about to blog about poop.

We're battling our first bout of constipation. Oh, when I say we, I mean Adalyn, of course! I have no idea how this has happened. I still nurse her and still feed her the same foods that she has always enjoyed. Suddenly, she poops very very hard poop. And I have to.. well, help her. I'll save you the details, my friends. I bought her Gerber prune juice and have been feeding her pears to get things moving. Poor kid has been grunting and in pain for 4 days now. I'm really at a loss of what to do. I hope things just.. correct themselves? Poor Little Toot.

Only four Sundays left in Kentucky. That makes it seem EXTREMELY close - does it not?! I can't believe that I only have 4 Sundays left here at my home church! Ack! Time is ticking away!

Adalyn thinks Mark is hilarious. When we Skype, especially on the iPad (where she can see him much better), she just smiles continually and laughs at him. I think they'll get along great.

While typing this blog post, Little Toot opened the desk drawer (she's in my lap) and is rummaging through items in the top drawer. Who is this kid, and how did she get to be so big?

It breaks my heart.
I need a newborn.
Pronto!

Sigh :)


I threw Adalyn on my back the other day.
It was way too much fun.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Spoon. And more!

This little girl


loves carrots.


No, like really


loves them!!!

But even more than carrots? This gal loves...








A SPOON!!!


In other news, Adalyn has transitioned from four naps to three naps a day. As soon as I published my 6-month update, she decided to prove me wrong and dropped a nap! I had a feeling she was reading my blog all along.

Guess how many times Adalyn wakes up a night. Go on, I dare you!

No, she doesn't STTN.
Nope, not once!
Not twice!

...Every hour and a half!

I bet your jaw just dropped. I'm (sadly?) used to it, though. We still bedshare and breastfeed, and apparently it is VERY VERY common for babies to nurse all through the night when you pair those combos. From what I've read from tons of mamas, their kids continue to nurse a lot until 18-ish months.

Adalyn doesn't sleep nuzzled to me. We each have our side of the bed, and my back is actually toward her. I sense when her breathing changes and know when she is about to wake up. She moves a little, and I nurse her before she is even totally awake. So we just go back to sleep. I'm sure that sounds bizarre to you (yes, you..), but it is extremely comforting to me that TONS of moms do the same thing. It's just that no one talks about it. Except on BabyCenter :)

We are almost to the 30-day countdown for our family's reunion!!! I am beyond excited to have a partner in parenting and a best friend to share life with again. Being a single mother is not easy.. I just do it! We have our own little groove now, but I am definitely looking forward to having some help with her!!

We are now on a car search. We currently have a Jeep Patriot, but we need something a little bigger. 12-hour trips home with a baby and a dog require a lot of room. We have no idea what we should get. Any ideas??

I've already lost 2 pounds on Weight Watchers in 3 days. I ate a salad from Longhorn for lunch. Afterward, I looked up the nutritional information online. It was 20 points. I only get 36 a day! Now I only have 4 points left today (after I had breakfast and a coke).. Ugh! Guess I'll be eating 0-point veggies for supper!

It looks like we won't be going back to base housing for sure. Well, we're pretty certain, anyway. I am looking very, very forward to decorating our new home. And having carpet. And an ice maker. And water we can drink.

I promise to try to blog more often. Hold me to that promise, okay?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

WW

Quick update:

We are 6-ish weeks away from Mark's return!! Which means I have 6-ish weeks to lose some weight.

I have 25 pounds to lose. Or so. 20 away from my pre-pregnancy weight, but 25 away from pre-marriage weight. So last night I joined Weight Watchers, and I am ready!

I've decided to blog it all. I'm still nursing, and the weight just will not come off. If I pig out on Mexican food or starve myself with heath food, my weight doesn't budge a pound. It's just stuck. And it's pretty frustrating.

I'm starting my journey at 157 and would like to end up around 130. We have a fabulous cruise planned for October, and I'd like to look somewhat decent for Mickey Mouse. Ha.. Kidding. Sort of.

In other news, how adorable is my 6.5-month old daughter? I can't get enough of her!








Monday, May 2, 2011

6 months!

Adalyn is six months (and almost a half..) old now! I've reached a point in this deployment where I just have no energy to blog. Well, I do. Kind of. But at the end of the day (730pm), I either:

a. stalk people on Facebook
b. read my October 2010 birth board on Baby Center
c. Google stuff
d. go to sleep insanely early

See, blogging just doesn't make the list. It's unfortunate, eh? But now, my sweet little possum is playing in her exersaucer. So mama has a moment to blog:






She is half a year old! And her personality is exploding! My little koala baby now loves about 85% of people and hates the other 15%. She is full of smiles all day long and only makes a grunt sound when she is bored and wants to do something else. She can still only go about 2 - 2.5 hours between naps. And, sadly, usually only naps for 30 minutes at a time. Resulting in 4 naps a day. Still. Sometimes she will take an hour and a half nap. And she still needs (!!!!) to be swaddled for naps and still wears her Magic Sleep Suit to bed each night.

I wonder how many times I wrote "still" in that paragraph.

Little Toot is wearing 9 month clothes now and some 12 month clothes. She is 50% for weight and 75% for height. Though my family still can't believe how teeny she is. She is so, so petite and sweet. I love her small little rolls on her arms and legs. I can't get enough!

She will laugh every.single.time. if you kiss her hands. She just thinks it's so funny. And she also loves my necklaces and has already broken one.

She is discovering her voice more each day and has recently learned to say "ba ba" and actually says bye-bye, though she has no idea what it means. We're working hard on learning dada, since her daddy would die of happiness to hear her say it!




She loves her Jumperoo, her My Pal Scout, and any little trinket toy that she can stick in her mouth. But her most beloved toy? A Munchkin spoon. I have 3 in my diaper bag for a quick entertainer while we're out & about.

We still co-sleep with no end in sight. I've contemplated putting her in her crib.. but just haven't yet. She takes her naps in her crib though. If you can count a 30-minute sleep-fest as a "nap," that is.



She thinks she's big stuff when she rides in shopping carts but still prefers the Moby above all else. I dearly love having her close to me and get pretty sad when I think of her growing up so fast.



We're right in the midst of the super duper oral fixation phase, so everything goes to her mouth. Would I sound like a bad mom if I admitted that I had to retrieve a hunk of play-doh from her mouth the other day? What? I don't know how she got play-doh. Ahem. I guess her mother should have been watching her :)

She loves to be sung to sleep. I love it too. She falls asleep for naps in 2 minutes flat when I swaddle and sing to her. And at night? We're still reading Won't You Be My Kissaroo, and she never gets tired of it. And I never get tired of acting out the book in dramatic hand motions and sounds!!

No sign of crawling anywhere in the future, though she loves to stand up while holding onto things (music table, ottoman, anything!).

She thinks Mark is hilarious, especially when he makes a "popping" noise with his mouth. I'm glad she finds her daddy so entertaining. They love "talking" to each other on the iPad.


Right now she is playing solo, chewing on her exersaucer, and saying "baaa baaaaa." I love her SO much. And, while she exhausts me to no end, I couldn't imagine a more perfect daughter. She is everything I ever dreamed of.

(This blog post was mostly written for my own personal memories.)