Weekend Wrap Up

I thought we were going to have a nice quiet weekend, and instead we had a nice very busy weekend!

Friday night was 'Mom's night out' so I went to see The Lion King in 3D with some friends. It was super fun, and I ate too much popcorn, which is pretty typical of my movie-going experience. We kept it simple due to a few factors: 1. we're old and were all pretty tired 2. one of us had a fresh injury to a knee ligament and was therefore in pain and confined to crutches 3. we're old and were all pretty tired.

Saturday started with a bang! I got up at the usual 7am, and once Little Man had his breakfast I shot out the door to a HUGE consignment sale in Alexandria. I had no idea what I was getting into, but next time I'll come prepared with bags and sharpened boxing out skills. I did guess correctly though and left both the husband and the baby at home - there was not place for them there. The husbands that were in attendence were bag holders, and they didn't look happy about it.

I scored some great stuff for Little Man, I think mostly for his birthday.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing laundry and watching football, the usual routine. But, as I was folding laundry and Frank was preparing dinner and getting ready to go have his "Dad's night out" we got a phone call that totally changed my plans! My friend and her daughter are in town (for 6 weeks) and they were surviving their jet lag enough for me and Little Man to head over and say hi! We, well I, was super excited and immediately threw everything else to the side and packed up LM to head out the door.

This friend is super awesome, and since they moved to Cameroon 6 months ago I have missed her SO much. They also happened to move about 12 hours before LM was born, so they had never met. I got to spend a little over an hour with her that evening and it was great! I'm so excited to have them back for a while!

Sunday was sooo busy - church, brunch, football, diaper laundry, Honey Pig, and more football. That is a full 12 hours right there! A last minute trip to Honey Pig (korean bbq) was planned over football, and a sweet friend offered to hang out with LM so that Frank and I could both go! We paid her in free laundry, so everyone won!

Needless to say, all of us are a little sleepy today but I think it was worth it.

Thankful Thursday

I haven't done one of these in a while, but that doesn't mean I'm not thankful! I am thankful for many things in my life, I just don't always have time to sit down and write about it.

Today, I'd like to highlight my thankfulness for my husband - particularly in the area of cloth diapering.

Those two things may seem a bit unrelated, but I couldn't be doing cloth without his support. He has been supportive from the start!

1. When I said "hey, I've been thinking about cloth diapering, I'd like to consider it/look into it" he said "ok." He didn't say "no" or "that'll last a week" or "that is too much work" or any of the other easy excuses that people come up with off hand. He said "ok" and then he listened to me and let me make the case for our family and cloth diapers.

2. He trusted me as I navigated the process of building our stash of diapers. It is not an inexpensive endeavor, but he never questioned the cost. He trusted me that with some up front cost there would be long-term savings. I never once got a sideways look from him as I spent a couple (few) hundred dollars on things that were to be pooped in.

3. He jumped right in! When Little Man was big enough to get into cloth (took a couple months, he had skinny little thighs!) he was ready to go. There was no hesitation, no wanting to keep using disposables, he was all in.

4. While he doesn't enjoy doing diaper laundry (who does?), he does it when it needs to be done. He'll even help me stuff them if he has to (read: LM is completely out of diapers), and he doesn't complain!

I honestly could not have gotten up the courage to try cloth on my own, and while it is a decision I'd make again in a heart beat, it is a lot easier to maintain when I have such great support from Frank throughout the process. LM would run out of diapers a lot more often if Frank weren't such a willing and awesome husband and dad!

Wordless Wednesday: Laundry Day

Our Nanny

She is a total dream, and Little Man L O V E S her!

He lights up when he sees her each morning, it is such a huge blessing.



I love seeing them play together, it makes me so happy to know that he is so well loved while we're away at work!

Swimmin'

We went swimming a couple of weekends ago at a friend's house. It was Little Man's first time in a pool, and it went really well!

I was expecting some tears since the water was pretty cold and it really wasn't that hot outside, but he was a total champ and seemed to enjoy himself!

It helped that they had an awesome floaty boat for him to cruise around in. Frank even got him kicking at the end!

Wordless Wednesday: Piggly Wiggly

Watermellon

Little Man likes to try to snatch whatever we have in our hands, and usually we don't let him. But, since watermellon is mostly water....

He gummed it, mostly just dribbling the juice down his chin. He seemed happy though! Now, if we can just get a positive response to rice cereal...

"Chomp" is right, LM.

Football is here!

Manning is recovering from surgery.  Not good.  But we'll do our best to...

I'm Excited About: The Turkey Trot

The Arlington Turkey Trot is a 5K race that is run on Thanksgiving morning. I've had friends run/walk it before, and this year I decided to do it, too!

A while back I mused about signing up for a half marathon this fall as incentive to get back into shape, but after thinking about it for a while I remembered that I don't enjoy running enough to have to do it that frequently or for that long. I lost a lot of weight in preparation for my brother's wedding in June, and frankly, I can finish toning up if I get myself back onto the program I used then. (Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred)

But I do need another goal, something else to work toward for the next few months. Enter the Turkey Trot.

My plan is to use the training to get back into shape, and also as a way to spend some time hanging out with Henry. The Trot allows for strollers! Henry will be riding along with me for the race, so he'll also be with me for most of my training!

I'm not using any particular program (people have asked about Couch to 5K), just doing my best and dragging some friends along for the ride.

I was hoping to get out to do the course again this weekend (walking quickly), but with the rain it is looking doubtful. Looks like Jillian and I will be workin' it out inside until things clear up around here. That is ok with me, since I really do need to tighten a few areas up before running becomes an option anyway!

Rain, Rain, Go To Texas

This is our five day forecast. It has already been raining for daaaaaays. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have spent every minute of my rainy commute for the last 3 days praying that God will send this rain to Texas.

They need it, we don't. He can do it.

Wordless Wednesday: what

Feet!

Oh, hi there. I'm just hanging out here on Mom's lap in my diaper. There seem to be things of interest attached to my legs, so I'm just checking them out.

I'm not sure what these are for. The are similar to my hands, and sometimes I try to grab things with them - especially when I'm eating, it is really fun to pinch Mom's arm with them then!

Do they have a flavor? I'm not sure, but I'm working really hard to find out! I haven't quite made it to my mouth yet, but I think it is only a matter of time.

For now I'll just continue to analyze them sans taste test, I suppose.

I'm Excited About: Solid Food....or not

Little Man has been staring us down anytime we eat around him. Carefully watching the food go from our plates to our mouths. Then he started to grab at our food and drinks whenever he was within reach.

Like many parents, we took this as a sign that our guy was ready to try 'solids.' I say 'solids' because rice cereal is hardly a solid...it is more like milk soup with a little bit of rice flake added.

Here is a picture of our first attempt:

I tried to offer the cereal to him, he didn't seem interested and was suspicious of why I was allowing him to have this when I've not allowed him to have anything else.

I tried to entice him by pretending to eat it myself. He wasn't really buying this routine.


This is the face we got when the spoon actually made contact with his mouth. Abject horror. Might I remind you, this cereal is 90% breast milk and 10% rice flakes. Homeboy is acting like I just shoved lemon curry in his mouth.

Following this assault, and when he had consumed exactly ZERO of the cereal, he decided that the best way to wash the taste from his lips was to make himself gag until he threw up. A tad dramatic, don't you think?

Don't worry, Little Man, we won't be subjecting you to this torture again for at least a month - and then only if the doctor says we have to do it.

Five Months

Little Man is five months old now! He is gaining much better control of his body, and his facial expressions are fantastic! He is not far away from sitting up, and he is getting better at rolling over. Still has a ways to go before he is a pro, but he can manage to flip himself now and then.

He weighs about 15.5 lbs (as of 8/23).

For the most part, he is still a happy-go-lucky little dude. He's fighting us on naps these days, but he still sleeps through the night so we're not complaining too much!

We love you, Little Man!