Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I Love You

These three words are really common in our house.  The Hubby and I say "I love you" every time we hang up the phone, whenever we part ways for the day, and sometimes just whenever.  We tell Baby Girl that we love her all the time.  

And now she's telling us back.

For awhile, it was "I you" whenever we said it first.  But now she's giving us hugs and looking up at us, unprompted, and saying, "I love you, Mommy".  And my heart melts every single time.

The other day I was crying because I was frustrated with her TWO-ness and she looked at me and said, "Mommy sad?"  I told her that I was frustrated and a little sad.  She wrapped her little arms around my neck and said, "I love you, Mommy" and my tears turned to tears of joy.  I gave her a big smile through my tears and told her that I loved her, too.  

I know someday she's going to tell me that she hates me and when that moment comes, I'm going to remember these moments, this little voice, saying "I love you, Mommy".

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Meal Plan: 8/14-8/20

Let's face it, blogging has officially been pushed to the back burner in my life.  Work has been worse than I think anyone could imagine, making me stressed out every moment that I'm awake (thankfully I'm not one of those people whose sleep suffers when they're stressed).  I have been wanting to tell you all about Baby Girl and how wonderful she is--because she really is--her official 2-year-old posts, and now to tell you about our vacation that we returned from Friday the 12th.  I wish I could say vacation was a great way to recharge my batteries, but it really wasn't the case.  But it was nice to get away and it was priceless to spend that much time with Baby Girl.

Anyway, something that remains constant is my meal planning.  I may not stick to it all week, but money has had me pretty stressed out recently, so we've been making a more concerted effort to eat the food we've already bought.  I made this plan this morning while Baby Girl played (almost a first, honestly) and then she and I went to the grocery.  She was a big help, counting green peppers and corn on the cob with me.  I was actually happy to have her along.

So even if I can't make the time to post about all the other things I want to, I can post my already-made weekly meal list so you all know I'm still around.  I don't really know what night we'll have each thing, but know that I want to do a lot of grilling to have cooked chicken for a couple of the dishes when we have grilled chicken for dinner. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza (the basis for this recipe is this but I don't get that complicated anymore--this is a meal we need pre-cooked chicken for)

Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake:  I'm going to lighten this up with smoked turkey sausage, fat free cream cheese, and reduced fat cheese.  It honestly shouldn't be nearly as unhealthy as it looks :)  And it looks delicious.  In fact, we might have it tonight.

Unstuffed Pepper Skillet: I have some steamer bags of rice that will work well for this recipe and I saw that my grocery had green peppers for $0.50 apiece (plus I have a few that might come out of my own garden soon).  Now I just need to see if all of my frozen ground turkey applies to the recall...

Grilled Chicken and Corn on the Cob w/ rice: Simple and yummy.  I have some marinade that I'll use on the chicken that we'll eat that night and then grill some extra for other meals.


Chicken Pasta Primavera: a recipe that uses some of the veggies I'm growing (summer and zucchini squashes), some of the many boxes of pasta I've got in my basement, and chicken that was on sale for $1.88/lb this week.

Smoked Sausage Pizza: When I saw that the Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake didn't use a whole package of smoked sausage and realized that I'd have an extra pizza crust (I buy the Kroger brand pre-baked crusts that come two to a package and are still cheaper than Boboli's one crust), I knew I needed to find something that used those ingredients.  And when I realized that this recipe also used green peppers, I was sold.  Never tried it before, but it looks yummy and my whole family will eat any type of pizza.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Happy 2nd Birthday, Baby Girl

I have a couple of posts I need to crank out.  I don't have any of them done, but couldn't let this day pass without SOMETHING from me!

On this day two years ago, I met the most beautiful little thing that would change me in ways I never knew possible.  We've both grown and changed an incredible amount over the past two years, but I can hardly remember life before her.

We had a great day today as a family, so I want to write up a post about how we spent her special day.  I also want to write her my traditional sappy letter and also a post about how she's developing.  To give you an idea of what a grown up she acts like, tonight while we were talking to God I asked her who she was thankful for and she said:  "Wait, Mommy, I'm thinking.  I know......Grandma and Papaw."  I never could have imagined, even three months ago, that she'd be so grown up at just two years of age.  Simply amazing.

Happy birthday, Baby Girl.  Mommy loves you more than you'll ever realize.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Meal Plan 7/24-7/30

I have been meal planning this whole time, I swear!  I just haven't been posting, for some reason or another.  And, honestly, I haven't stuck to my meal plan for a couple of weeks.  The first week was because The Hubby had an unexpectedly long recovery period from his wisdom tooth extraction so we were just winging it to make soft foods for him and the second week was...well....it just was. 

But I'm back!  We are putting ourself on a tight budget, though, and cooking with meat from the freezer and trying to make use of ingredients we have around the house.  This means the meals could be completely non-creative or really, really creative.

Sunday:  Sloppy Cubanos (I'd made these before and remembered loving them.  I actually bought the ingredients last week or we wouldn't have been having them, both because of health reasons (who knew ground pork was so unhealthy??!?!) and because of cost)

Monday: Leftover Subs from Baby Girl's birthday party and Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Tuesday: Black Bean Pizza (going to make pizza crust in the bread machine and hopefully have enough to freeze some)



Wednesday: BBQ Ribs and Summer Squash and Chive Pancakes

Thursday: Grilled Pork Chops and Corn on the Cob

Friday: Will probably eat out for Baby Girl's second birthday.  Either that or we will cook something fun for her (likely pizza or pasta--her favorites). 

Saturday: Will likely eat with my in-laws and my nieces (MIL and FIL are watching my three nieces while BIL and SIL are at a wedding reception and we're planning on taking Baby Girl over there after her nap).



Also, I have been doing my fun things.  I have a post ready to show you all but want to add pictures :)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

She did it (again)!

Baby Girl didn't poop at all yesterday and I was really beginning to be afraid that she was going to be a poop hoarder and have it hurt, then fear the pain, then hoard more, etc.  We told our sitter and talked about the conditions under which she pooped last time (pants off and in the little potty).  The sitter was excited that leaving her pants off had worked for us (it was under her suggestion that we'd done it).

I got a text just before noon from the sitter: "Success!  We have poopie in the potty!  Yay!"  I did a little happy dance while I tried to figure out who I could share my excitement with.  After exchanging a few texts, I learned that the sitter had left her pants-(and diaper-)-less and had also brought out the little potty.  After she revealed this, I asked her, somewhat jokingly, how long we need to keep her pantless.  She assured me that she'd get it and I couldn't be more excited.  I texted The Hubby and even called my mom, who I knew would be as excited as I am.

And now, because I'm still excited, I'm sharing with you.  You're welcome.  :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Not Preventing

I wish I could have this mindset when TTC.  I wish I weren't so aware of my body that I always know where I am in my cycle, whether I'm charting or not.  I wish I could just "play it by ear" and "let nature take its course".  I wish I could try without trying.

But I can't.

We've talked a lot about TTC in the next few months.  I still don't know if I'm ready, but I also don't know if I'll ever be ready, really.  I want to lose more weight.  I want to save more money.  I want to be making more money so we can afford daycare better.  I want to move to a better school district.  I want to own my body for a little while longer.  But I don't think I want our kids much more than 3 years apart, if I can help it.  And who knows how long it's going to take to get pregnant.

In other words, I still don't know what to do.  Why can't I love sex and just go at it with my husband without protection and get pregnant whenever it happens?  Why do I have to plan sex and still know whether it's likely within my ovulation window?  Why do I have to overanalyze every little piece of this?

Monday, July 18, 2011

I did it!

Baby Girl's phrase for the weekend was "I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  She'd climb up on the couch and yell "I did it!".  Kick her legs and "swim" across the baby pool?  "I did it!"  Her excitement was contagious.  Many times she was excited about things she's been doing for awhile now, but we all got excited all over again.

But once this weekend she did something she'd never done before.

I walked in the door from going to the grocery and heard "Mommy Mommy Mommy!  Poopy potty!!!"  I came running in as she points at the potty "Look!"  I gave her a big hug and told her what a big girl she is.  She started prancing around saying "I did it!  I did it!"

I looked at The Hubby for explanation and this is what he told me:

"She had just gotten up from her nap and we were sitting and eating plums when she started tooting.  She sat down to go pee and tooted some more and I asked her if she needed to go poop.  She tried and tooted some more and then hopped up and said she was all done.  She was doing a little dance that made me think maybe she needed to go, but she wouldn't sit back down.  I left her without panties or anything, like we'd been doing before nap, and went into the kitchen to get another plum.  While I was in there, I smelled it and immediately thought she had pooped on the floor.  I walked in and there she was, sitting on the potty!  She hopped up to "See it?" and since her bum was still dirty, I told her to sit back down.  I got her cleaned up and that's when you walked in."

I am so incredibly proud of and excited for her.  We've actually had more pee accidents recently because we've decreased the frequency of prompting her to go potty, so I was starting to doubt (again) whether she was ready.  But I think we're in this for the long haul now!

Oh, and I did take a picture, but am NOT posting it here.  I always thought those moms who took pictures of their kid's poop were weird....and now I'm one of them!  I am not, however, going to go to the level of posting on Facebook or on my blog, though.  I emailed it to my mom because she's taken an interest in Baby Girl's potty-training.  Her response was "Damn!!" and then followed with another email that said, "Way to go!  Aren't you glad you didn't have to clean that up?"  While it would've sucked to have cleaned it from her diaper, it would've been even worse to clean it from her panties!

Who knows what this will bring--I don't know if she needs to be pantless and have a potty she can get to on her own (she used her little potty instead of the potty ring) or if this has opened a window that will allow her to realize she can do it and she'll do it on the potty from now on.  We will see!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

30 Days of Fun

My bloggy (but hopefully soon in-real-life) friend, Cassie is starting an initiative to find and create fun in her own life by participating in 30 Day of Fun and I've decided to join her!  I've been incredibly overwhelmed recently by day-to-day life and think I needed this little push to find and create fun in my everyday life.  I plan to blog about it at least once a week, but if I do something incredibly fun, it might get its own post :)

I've already done something fun today (hello cheap Jimmy John's!), but may wait and see if something even MORE fun comes along this evening :) 

I'd love it if you'd join me!  Even if you don't blog, you can tell me all about your fun in the comments on my fun posts!  I think too many of us get bogged down by Real Life and don't take the time to find the fun and have fun on a regular basis.  My goal is to even find a way to make laundry fun one of these 30 days!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Potty Training

I started this post about a week ago and had honestly meant to blog more while in the midst of the heavy-duty potty training, but just haven't had the time (and haven't prioritized it, either--some nights it was just easier to stare blankly at the TV than to blog).  So here's my potty training update--July 2nd to present.
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Baby Girl has been using the potty in the mornings and evenings for us every day, but had been resisting using the potty at the sitter's house.  After a discussion with the sitter, she agreed to start trying harder to get her to go and was successful the last few days of last week.  She suggested that we try putting her in panties this weekend (the July 4th weekend) and having her try every 15 minutes or so.  Because she's shown so much interest, we agreed.  This is my chronicle of how the weekend went.

Saturday

Woke up, ready to tackle the day.  We didn't have anything planned and could focus all of our energy on potty training.  We got Baby Girl into some panties, had a talk about how special they are and how she shouldn't go potty in them, and started the day.  She sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and typically peed at least a little.  She did great all morning long!  She had one pee accident late in the morning, then we put her in a diaper for naptime.  We changed her back into her panties for the afternoon and had two more accidents then (once while talking on the phone to Papaw).  She still sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and usually produced pee.  We used a sticker chart to record her progress and she ended up with about 15 stickers over the course of the day.  What a great first day of potty training!

Sunday

Woke up about 5 minutes before Grandma was supposed to arrive.  Papaw dropped Grandma off before heading off to a golf outing.  Day #2 has begun.  Baby Girl did fairly well in the morning again.  She didn't even fight us when we'd ask her to go potty.  I was beginning to think that this might actually be working...as long as we could always be there to remind her to use the potty every 15 minutes or so.  The Hubby and I went to go run in the afternoon and during that time, she had another accident.  And once we were back, we had her try to pee, which she did, but then she had two more accidents in the next 20 minutes.  And down goes my morale, thinking maybe she just wasn't ready for potty-training.

Monday

She did well.  We spent most of the day at our house and she was willing to go potty when we asked.  She only had a couple of accidents and I felt a lot better about our decision.

Tuesday-Friday

Tuesday we returned to the sitter's and I talked to her about our experiences over the weekend.  We'd brought Baby Girl in a pull-up just in case she needed to go while in the car, so the sitter left her in that.  We took a stash of pull-ups and panties and let the sitter decide what she wanted to do.  The week was, in a word, amazing.  Baby Girl didn't have any accidents and only woke up from nap wet one time.  She was still pooping in her pull-up in the morning (the reason we keep delivering her in pull-ups), but peeing in the potty regularly. The sitter bribes her with candy (Smarties) and Baby Girl is smart enough to differentiate between the sitter's house and ours, where we reward with stickers (and sometimes money).

Saturday

Spend all day at a friend's house while The Hubby was helping build a shed.  Baby Girl did really well going potty and only had one accident during dinner.  I don't know if she woke up dry because I wasn't there when she got up.

Sunday

Went to my hometown to get photos taken for Baby Girl's 2nd birthday (eep!).  Stopped to let her try to use the potty on the way down once--we had the portable potty with us.  She didn't pee, but it ended up being a good solution for the future.  She went potty in the car when we were done with the pictures (was wearing panties the whole time) and did pretty well.  Again, I wasn't there when she got up from nap so I don't know if she got up dry or not (and no one else seems to think this is significant...).  She pooped in her panties later in the day but otherwise was accident-free.

Monday & Tuesday (July 11th and 12th)

Did great at the sitter's again.  She poops in her pull-up in the morning, then gets panties on after that, gets a diaper or pull-up for naptime, then panties again after that until bedtime.  She's going potty whenever someone asks and is also prompting the sitter to take her potty.  She doesn't ask us often, but we're also a little nervous to let her go too long.  The sitter lets her go and has concluded that she can hold it for awhile now.  I'm actually feeling pretty confident that she's really potty training and will be at least daytime pee-trained by the time she turns two.  Wow.  Amazing.

Wednesday (today)

Not a horrible day, but not the best, either.  Pooped in her pull-up in the morning.  Pooped in her panties in the afternoon.  Peed in panties at lunch.  :(  Enter frustration and uncertainty.

I honestly think I'm feeling so uncertain because she's so darn young.  Who expects their child to be ready to potty-train before they even turn 2?  So when she shows any signs that she's not getting it, I question if she's truly ready.  We've gotten this far, though, and will keep pushing through the slight regression.  We'll get there.  Next thing to truly tackle, though, is getting her to poop in the potty.  If we catch her getting ready to poop, she stops pushing and then can't (won't) push on the potty again.  We worry about getting her constipated.  The sitter (who has been right about what we should do so far) suggested we let her run around all day without panties or anything.  Apparently kids won't poop on the floor.  So it'll either get her to hold it or get her to poop on the potty.  It might be worth a shot.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

23 Months

In just one short month I'll be posting about my baby turning TWO.  Insane.

I've wanted to devote an entire post to the things Baby Girl is saying.  Let me just say that she's talking.  A lot.  She's forming sentences (minus "the", "a", "an"), asking questions (usually minus "what" and "where", such as "Daddy doing?"), using contractions, using pronouns (not necessarily successfully, of course...), singing, counting to 15, and repeating everything that comes out of our mouths...which could be dangerous.

The singing is the best thing, if you ask me.  She can sing all of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves Me.  She also sings a good chunk of quite a few other songs.  I love her sweet little voice singing with me.  We finally got a recording of her singing Carmen Ohio with me--so sweet!

Baby Girl officially has 13 teeth.  She has the eight front teeth, top and bottom, her first set of molars, and cut her bottom right eye tooth awhile ago.  No real signs of any other eye teeth yet, though.  She is drooling and chewing still, though, so I'm guessing the bottom left one will cut through sooner than later.  I check for it every night when we brush her teeth.

She's wearing size 2T or 24 months in many clothes now, but many pants are still falling off of her and some capris are too long.  If we had more shorts and capris in 18M, we'd have her wear those.  She must have a longer torso, though, because 18M shirts are too short.

We're still struggling mightily with bedtime.  I can't bring myself to shorten our bedtime routine, as I really cherish that time we get together.  I love reading books with her, praying with her, and singing with her.  She's still crying when I leave, but isn't crying as much when we have a later (not going upstairs until 8:00) bedtime.  I honestly think she's tired before then, but if it cuts down on the crying and she's waking up okay on weekdays, I'm okay with a later bedtime, I suppose.  It does give us time to do more things, like go paint pottery, cook dinner, and still get to have bathtime, like we did last night.  Maybe my kid will stop being dirty all the time now :)

I can't even begin to express what a sweet kid Baby Girl is.  She's quick with a hug and a kiss.  She now has an imagination and loves to play with her baby dolls, diapering them, feeding them, and putting them to bed.  She typically eats like a champ, although her favorite foods are any fruit (besides melon) and anything she can dip in some sort of sauce.  She is drinking a lot more milk than she used to (some days 3 sippy cups full, which is A LOT for her).

Baby Girl is still working on potty training.  She'll go whenever we ask (and typically has some pee to put in the potty), but tells us she has to pee as she's doing it.  We'll get her to the potty (typically after running there) and she'll have a warm diaper.  We'll still let her try, but we explain to her that she already peed.  She's really proud of herself when she does it, though, which we love.  And she's also finally peeing at the sitter's house.  Previously she'd just try and then want down immediately.  She's even trying to poop there.  Woo!

Her favorite phrase is "birdie eat it".  We've created a monster.  When we were eating dinner outside regularly, if she'd drop something, we'd tell her a birdie would eat it because she'd worry about it through the rest of the meal otherwise.  Now she's telling us that birdies are going to eat everything she drops, inside, in the car, outside...everywhere.  And now she's throwing things down specifically FOR the birdies.  We're going to have some fat birdies around our house!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Screw you, mommy

Seriously.  No matter how much time I spend trying to put Baby Girl to bed at night, I feel like she gives me a big ol' Fuck You every single night.  She cries and yells every night.  She's not winding down well, no matter how long we spend trying to have quiet time.  I sing and sing.  We sit in silence.  We read books.  She drinks milk.  We snuggle.  It doesn't matter what I do, she cries.  And it's gotten to the point where I wonder why I bother trying and don't just throw her in her crib, blow her a kiss, and walk out the door.

Argh.

And the worst part?  She's worse for her daddy than she is for me. 

Monday, June 20, 2011

Tooth #13

I'd meant to post this earlier.  Baby Girl is starting to cut her eye teeth now.  From what I understand, they're pretty painful and while she's handling it really well, she does seem to be bothered a little bit.  Saturday, June 11th we were able to confirm that her lower right eye tooth has broken through.  The spots for the others haven't even started to swell, but we know that doesn't necessarily mean anything (some teeth gave us no warning and just cut through without any swelling).

Once she's done with these, all she'll have left for awhile (I think) are her two-year molars.  Never thought my kid would be behind the curve on getting her teeth--my orthodontist told me I was the youngest patient he'd had with wisdom teeth.  (and no, before you think it, I am absolutely NOT worried about her teeth!)

Weight Loss Update: 216ish

I'll tell you a secret...I only weigh myself in the morning, before my shower, after I go Number Two.  If I don't need to go Number Two, I won't weigh myself that morning.  Last week was rough--I only had to go TWICE last week.  I think my body is saying, "No!  Please don't go, food!  We'll find a place for you!"

Anyway, I weighed myself this morning (the goal was to weigh myself Monday or Tuesday morning) and the first time I got 216.2.  I wasn't really centered on the scale, though, and thought the number should probably be higher so I tried again.  Honestly, I do it multiple times because my scale isn't particularly consistent.  The second time, I got 215.4.  Being the geek that I am, I knew I needed to find out which was closer to right, so I stepped back on the scale--215.4.

I'm calling it 216ish.  I'd last weighed myself and was 220, so this means I actually lose a point this week.  And if I were going to meetings, we'd celebrate "New Numbers!" (meaning I'm not in the 220's and am now in the 210's).

Hoping to see the 200's soon and I cannot wait to see a 1 in the front of that.  Onederland is a good place to be.  Of course, by the time that happens, I'll probably be trying to get pregnant again... 

I'm averaging 1.5 pounds per week, which is pretty good for me.  It's not Biggest Loser fast, but I'm able to be happy with what I'm eating and splurge a bit sometimes, too.  Of course, I haven't seen the results of this past weekend yet (that usually doesn't happen until Tuesday or Wednesday for me).  I was really, really good on Saturday, but Sunday ate a few too many sweets and then Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  Oh well--all I can do is move on.  Today is a new day!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

My huge milestone

(I apologize for any cursing in this post beforehand.  In real life, I have a potty mouth and it really comes out when I'm feeling a strong emotion.)

I cannot believe it.  This 220 pound, size 16W woman did it.  I just jogged for 20 minutes without stopping. 

I fucking did it.

Even in the best shape of my life, I don't think I ever jogged more than 1/4 mile without stopping.  And tonight I jogged 1.3 miles.  Without stopping to walk.  Without succumbing to the cramp in my calf.  Without catching my breath.

Wow.  Totally shocked.

Something I did discover?  It's my brain that was holding me back all those years ago.  If I can do it now, I definitely could've done it then.  And I'm so damned happy I found that inside me today.

I think we're going to try the run again soon (technically the program says we should do more running and walking for week 6 day 1), only we're going to try to push the pace a little.  4 mph is really slow--some people can walk that fast.  But you know what?  I DID IT. 

Monday, June 13, 2011

Weekends are going to kill me

I find myself really struggling with my weight loss over the weekends.  I do really well during the week but we've been incredibly busy during the weekends and have either been away from home or too exhausted to cook.

Take this past weekend, for instance.  On Saturday my parents came up and we went out to lunch. But then we got to the evening and didn't have dinner plans (we thought we would be doing something for dinner Saturday that then got switched to Sunday), so we ran out.  Sunday The Hubby's parents were at our house and they brought bologna salad and chips for lunch.  There were donuts for breakfast.  There were cookies around.  We had pizza for dinner because everyone was exhausted from working.

I made the best choices I could in bad situations--I had half a cookie.  I only had a few chips.  Used my light bread for my bologna salad sandwich.  Got a salad and a light lunch on Saturday.  Worked out on Saturday.

I just have a feeling, though, that it isn't going to do any good.  I do my best during the weekend but still feel like I need to put forth more effort.  This coming weekend we'll be back at the in-laws' house for the whole weekend again and I'll have little control.  Again.

I'm doing the best I can, but how can everyone else splurge on the weekends and hover at slightly pudgy or overweight while I'm in the obese category and analyzing every damn bite?  I guess I end up feeling sorry for myself sometimes.  Why do *I* have to work so damned hard at this?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Test

I've been experiencing some symptoms recently. I had written it off to feeling weird after being sick, but when they went away and came back, I started considering it could be something else.  I have been nauseous, had headaches, been dizzy, and been utterly exhausted.  After describing them to The Hubby, I realized that those symptoms sounded a little...familiar.

Trust me when I say that me being pregnant is EXTREMELY unlikely.  Between preventative measures and not much...action, there is a VERY low chance of pregnancy in this house.  But I bought a test last night anyway.  I stressed about whether to get the two-pack or just one and got the two-pack so I'd have them for when we actually start trying (note to self--go ahead and invest in the internet cheapies or at least some of the Dollar Store tests!).

I tried to take it after getting home from the grocery and even after a large mug of water and sitting around for three hours, I didn't have enough pee to run the test.  So I stuck the test in my pocket and planned to try the next morning, not knowing if a test would work again (no control line or anything).  I don't know why I felt so secretive, but I didn't mention it to The Hubby.

In the morning I peed.  I sat.  I stared.  I wasn't even sure how I was feeling.  Part of me was hopeful that it would be positive.  I kept looking at it over and over again, sort of hoping to see that second line.  But I didn't.  I wasn't exactly sad, but I wasn't exactly relieved either. 

I think I could be okay with getting pregnant, but still don't think I'm ready to start trying again.  I'm not ready to give up my indepedence and controlling my own body.  I'm not ready to get on that TTC roller coaster yet, either.  I think the part of me that would have been happy to be pregnant was the part that doesn't want to go through the testing, the thinking, the actual trying of it all.  It wouldn't be all bad to have a happy surprise.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Hi! Again.

Last year when we took our vacation (Baby Girl was just over a year old), Baby Girl's favorite word was "hi!"  She'd say it to everyone we passed.

She's doing it again.  And she's relentless.  Even if they say hi back, she keeps saying it over and over again.  It's nice because I used to say "can you say hi?" and she'd wave a little wave.  Now she yells "HI!!"

It's pretty cute, but sort of embarrassing sometimes, like when she's screaming at some delivery men while we take a walk.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The first time I wasn't so sure I want to have a girl

When we found out we were pregnant, I was hoping so much for a girl.  I love being a girl most of the time.  I love the versatility of it--I can be athletic, get dirty, but also wear dresses and makeup.  So when we found out we were having a girl, I was relieved and excited and have really enjoyed it so far. 

Recently, though, the smallest bit of doubt entered my mind.  Can I really handle all that raising a girl entails?  How do I make sure she grows up being confident and loving herself, no matter what she looks like?  How do I help her through body image issues that have plagued me my entire life? 

You see, Baby Girl picked up my makeup brush and started to try to apply makeup to herself like she's seen me do many times.  How do I explain makeup?  How do I explain that Mommy wears it to cover up all her imperfections and to help her feel more attractive?  How do I tell her that she doesn't ever *need* makeup?  I wear it almost every day and I know that action will make a bigger impression than telling her that we don't need makeup to be beautiful. 

How do I let my actions speak to her and let her know that she's beautiful, no matter what?  How do I tell her, with my own actions, that her size doesn't matter, that she can embrace curves and love her body, no matter what size it is?  I'm not comfortable in my own skin and I fear that she'll realize that.  I'm taking steps to take care of my body, but will I ever be happy with it?  And even if I'm not, how I make sure Baby Girl loves her own body and face?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Potty Training Update

Potty training is still going on.  We're at the point where Baby Girl is peeing on the potty at least once a day.  This past weekend it was 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  She hasn't really been asking to go, but will typically try when we ask her.  If she says no, we drop it.

When she does go, though, we have a reward system (that we aren't great about adhering to, but it still works).  We give a sticker for trying and money for putting pee in the potty.  She typically gets five pennies for peeing, which she then gets to count out and put into her piggy bank.  If we're around my parents, they'll give her some bigger money (my dad recently gave her a $5 bill!) for going potty, too. 

Our sitter says that next week when she's down to four kids on her busiest days (Tuesday through Thursday--Monday she'll have three and Friday just two) she's going to focus more on working on potty training with Baby Girl.  She says she thinks she can have it done in three days.  More power to her :)  If it doesn't happen, though, I won't be horribly upset--it is still really early.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Smarty McSmartyPants

Time to brag about my baby...if you don't want to hear it, move along :)

This weekend we were spending time with The Hubby's family and Baby Girl was coloring with The Hubby's cousin's kids (ages 3-6).  One little boy, who is starting kindergarten in August, was trying to sing his ABC's.  He kept getting stuck after E.  It was obvious he knew the phrases, but just kept mixing them up.  I felt a little sad, honestly, because I know his parents don't work on it with him at all.

And then Baby Girl did something that made me so excited and proud.  After he'd say "E", she started singing "F-G-H-I-J-K-L-(some noise that was supposed to sound like M-N-O)-P".  Atta girl!