January 31, 2012

One of my friends and I at my birthday party :-)

January 30, 2012

J stole my birthday card from my mom. It says "Holy Cow!" Hee hee.

January 29, 2012

Happy birthday to me! (Also, my dear friend got married today, so I had an excuse to get all gussied up!)

Excuse the mess, we haven't had a chance to clean up after the party last night.

January 28, 2012

L is wearing a dress that used to be mine :-). My birthday party was a 1980s theme, so this dress was perfect!

January 27, 2012: 9 months!

Height: 28.75" 90th Percentile
Weight: 16lb 0.5oz 10th Percentile
Head Circumference: 43.25cm 25th Percentile

Happy 9 months to my little girl! You wear 9-12 month clothes (though sometimes you fit in 12-18 month things...) and size 3 shoes. You say 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother) and you absolutely adore your brother. You love toys, especially those that J gives you to play with (and those that he ends up taking away). You have just started scooting around on your butt to get places, though you're pretty slow at it. Right now you have 4 teeth (two on top and two on bottom) and you love everybody once you get to know them a little bit. You really like to turn pages in books, and you love to look at books before you chew on them. 

January 26, 2012

Another one from a couple days ago when she was playing with J's tools. I love the contrast and textures here! Plus, look at those teeth!

January 25, 2012

My hungry little girl, modeling her new amber teething necklace. No word yet on if it actually works, since she finished cutting her 4th tooth the day we got it. Hrm. It's cute, though!

January 24, 2012

Silly girl, playing with J's tools. She's a really big fan of that wrench.

January 23, 2012

All ready to go shopping tonight! (She's leaning against the couch, not standing unsupported.)

January 22, 2012

Yes, my son does still wear his sweatshirt from his Halloween costume. What of it?

January 21, 2012

J buried L in toys, and she was really happy about it.

January 20, 2012

She didn't want to be anywhere but on me, and dangit, I needed to vacuum. So here she is!

And for funsies, here's a picture of J in the Moby at 4 months old. :-)

January 19, 2012

Alright...I did it.

I rejoined SparkPeople. My membership hadn't gone anywhere, I just hadn't been using it. Turns out that I am *not* 4 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I evidently gained a couple pounds over the holidays, and am back at 140. I guess something must have been stuck under my scale or something the other day.

So I am back to tracking my meals, snacks, etc on SparkPeople. I don't really like Babyfit (their pregnancy/breastfeeding fitness site), so I just added 400 calories to my daily intake goal (so it's now 1650-1950, rather than 1250-1550 calories per day). I am hoping that just keeping myself accountable will help me lose this weight without impacting my milk supply (which *thankfully* has been great, and I've even built up a small freezer stash again! Okay, really small, it's like 20 ounces, but still! Progress!) and help me make better choices. I know that this system requires me to be honest with myself, and I can do that. I've done it before. So far (in 2 1/2 days) I've lost about 3 ounces. Yeah...140.4 pounds to 140.2. I guess I'm getting there, right? And that works out to about a pound a week, which is good.


Here's the breakdown so far:

Starting weight (4/27/2011): 161 (at 39w6d pregnant)

6/27/11: Return to work, weight 142

8/17ish: Weight 140! Reward: new nail polish

9/6/11: Weight 138. Woot!

10/19/11: Still 138. Wohoo!


1/19/12: 140. D'oh.

Goals:
135 pounds (BMI 24.7): NEW SHOES!
130 pounds (BMI 23.8): Jewelery! (Like a new necklace and earrings)
125 pounds (BMI 22.9): Haircut! Maybe go all short and sassy again. Also, mani and pedi :-)
Ultimate goal: 120 (BMI 21.9, where I was when C and I got married)! Reward: $100 in new clothes (consignment or new, doesn't matter)

January 18, 2012

This was unplanned, but I enjoy the fact that they are both doing the same thing!

January 17, 2012

A boy in motion (and me playing with camera settings)

January 16, 2012

Happy Beerika!

The Miracle of Beerika
At Christmas of 2007, C and most of the men in the family joined together to buy a bottle of Sam Adam's Utopia. Each got about 1 ounce. Once everyone got his due, the bottle was empty. The next day, C, in sad hopefulness, tipped the empty bottle over a glass. A small amount of liquid dribbled out. This miracle occurred again over the next several days, and thus began Beerika. We celebrate every January with friends, a feast, and fancy beer paired with every course. This year was the 4th celebration. I have no pictures of the festivities, but here's a picture of C's wall-o-beer (back in the day when this was pretty much it...there are about 5 times as many now)!

January 15, 2012

I made these robot cookies for J's daycare birthday party. They were a hit!

January 14, 2012

 My SIL gave J this straw for his birthday. He's in love.

January 13, 2012

I couldn't find my Broncos shirt to wear today, so I painted my nails instead. GO BRONCOS!

January 12, 2012

An egg that J got for his birthday. I took this picture (and some others, as I was experimenting with lighting and camera settings) because he was in bed and missed the beginning of the egg hatching. Inside was one of those grow-dinosaurs, which happened to be a mutant triceratops with only 2 horns. On the right is another growing dinosaur that hatched erupted out of a volcano.

January 11, 2012

This is what happens when your son decides to color by his sister, then leaves a marker uncapped. Thank god they're washable (the markers and kids).

January 10, 2012 - What a Difference a Year Makes!

One year ago, I posted this picture. I was 24 weeks pregnant, in pain, and apparently had dreamed recently that C was a Jesus T-Rex. I noted in that post that I had gained 8 pounds so far in my pregnancy.

I just want to brag that as of today, I am 4 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. Woot! 1 pound away from my shoes reward! 

Why can't we all just get along?

“Great job raising a kid who will probably not become a mass murderer.” - Jill at babyrabies.com

Ah, mommy wars. I have witnessed them in the blogosphere, on Twitter, on the Nest and the Bump. Very recently, I've even seen them on Facebook. I can understand the mob mentality, and getting so angry about something that you HAVE to jump in. I've done it myself (though not terribly recently) on forums where things are relatively anonymous. But on Facebook? Are we so judgmental as a species that we must call names and insult and berate fellow mothers and fellow humans when we can see their real names, and nobody is hiding? I try not to say anything to anyone on Facebook (and as time goes on, the internet in general) that I would not say to their face. Perhaps I'm being naive, but honestly, it's a little saddening and shocking to see grown women calling names and telling each other that their parenting choices suck donkey balls and that their kids are going to be ruined for life because their parents made them cry it out (CIO) or fed them formula or breastfed them til they were 2 or 3, or coslept with them. As Jill Kraus at Baby Rabies so aptly put it, odds are good that no matter what you do, your kid won't turn out to be a mass murderer. So come on, internet citizens. Deep breaths. Realize that there are living, breathing people on the receiving end of your comments, and don't be an asshole. Nobody is perfect, including you, so lets all behave.

January 9, 2012

She is getting so big! She was chowing down on some rice krispies and kicking her long legs!

January 8, 2012

A birthday gift for J from my mother-in-law, as J helped me with some cooking. (My apron was a bridal shower gift from her!)

January 7, 2012 - Happy birthday J!

My beautiful, blue eyed boy. I can't believe he's four already!

January 6, 2012

One last snuggle for the Christmas dinosaur before he goes downstairs with the other decorations.

Happy Birthday to my sister! (January 5, 2012)

Vintage sister and J (at 4 months! He was so teeny...)

January 4, 2012

This was right after they licked each other. L thought it was hilarious.

January 3, 2012

I think I need to accept that this is not going to fix itself. My mother suggested duct tape. This has been done, and is greatly improved (picture to be added below later, when I get it off the camera).

January 2, 2012

One last hurrah before bedtime for baby. J's bed is a fun spot to hang out!

I know the wallpaper is ripped. I haven't had it in me to replace that panel again (yes again, he first ripped it when he had a cast. That time was an accident and I had to replace 3 panels of the wallpaper) and J has been really good about not messing with it after the initial ripping when I said it made me really sad that he did it because I worked hard to make his room nice. Emotional blackmail education starts early, folks.

366 Days, 366 Pictures

I am going to try to post one picture each day this year. Since it's leap year, that means 366 pictures! Yay! Maybe it will also help my photography skills...That would be nice. Though there may be a limit to how much they can improve with my point-and-shoot camera (not fancy at all). Since I didn't post one yesterday, here's the first of two you'll get today.

I made this for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I even made the button, because I've got mad skills, yo. And BIL works at Left Hand.