Prouds and Sorries

Weekend update in lame iterative software development terminology from big company I used to work for. 
***This post title is dedicated to Laura...and to whatever that penguins name is.  Chuckles maybe?

Prouds:
6 year wedding anniversary
Went to a local brewery Saturday night with some friends
Wyatt sleeping through the night Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
A 3rd tooth for Wyatt (see sorry below)
A babysitter lined up to enjoy our first dinner out without a child (see sorry below)
Hunter caught lots of fishies on Saturday

Sorries:
Chigger bites from my stroll
Sick baby on Sunday - snotty, coughing, sneezing, low fever, non sleeping.  Maybe teething?
No dinner out - don't want to spread cooties to babysitter's family
I ate an excessive amount of brownies

Today's agenda:
Wipe Wyatt's nose, rocking chair therapy, finish 3rd girl with dragon tattoo book, maybe brave the grocery store?

Our 6th Anniversary

I have known Hunter since we were twelve.
I have dated Hunter since we were seventeen.
I have been married to Hunter since we were twenty-five.
I am now twenty-one years old.  Oh wait.  That doesn't work out mathematically. ;)

Time flies when you are married to your bestie!  I can't wait to survive the next 6 years.  Happy anniversary to us.

Wyatt Update

Stats
7.5 months old
Around 18 lbs - Still a little dude
2 bottom teeth
Size 4 diapers
Clothes size 6 or 9 month

Eating
We moved to three meals a day. This means we poop more times a day.  Hoping this is a temporary adjustment phase.
We are still nursing, maybe 5 to 6 times a day
Wyatt digs veggies
Fruits are just tolerable
No longer a vegetarian since sampling turkey
Working on foods with texture.  Had our first non pureed food, quinoa with grated zucchini and cumin.  He likes it aight but gags on it every other bite or so

Sleep
Two to three naps a day around an hour and a half. We are attempting to drop the third nap but this only happens when the first two naps were good and we go to bed earlier
Bedtime is from 7:30 PM to 6:00 AM. He usually wakes up once a night but this is getting closer and closer to all night.  I got a 5:00 AM wake up today.

Skillz
Being a perfect baby when we are out in public and saving his bad side for mommy
Pulling up on everything (stroller, toilet, couch, coffee table, crib, toys, mommy leg, daddy leg, any toy that gives him a boost)
Standing - the only way to play. I started putting his toys on couches and coffee tables so he can play while standing
Escaping at diaper time.  Little dude is fast! I have to have a new toy almost every time to keep him laying on his back.
Drinking from a straw. He figured it out on his first try
Staying on the magical blanket boundary when we sit outside
Smearing baby food into his eyes at every single meal. Hurts so good!

Dislikes
The post meal wipe down
Stroller rides. I think I just realized that the stroller isn't so bad.  I am usually putting him into the stroller when he is already grumpy.  The past few days have been happy stroller times.
Waking up from naps and bedtime.  Babies his age are supposed to wake up happy but he has missed this milestone.  He needs a minute or two of mommy time before he can put a smile on.
Monday night softball games.  Don't mess with my schedule Mom!
Church nursery 

Likes
Sitting outside and watching the wind blow the trees
Swinging in baby swings
Reading books
Leaving the house. I am not making this up. I think he gets bored at home too.
Pears.  He doesn't like many fruits, but this is the one!
Being in the Baby Ergo backpack
When Daddy comes home. He saves his biggest smiles for this moment.  I am a little jelly.
New toys. He gets so bored of the usuals.
FaceTiming / Skyping with aunties, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  It puts him in a better mood.  I wish I knew if it was because of the shiny phone or the relatives. :) 
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.  He hearts this song.
Pretend eating his hands, feet, back.  This is when you get the really good belly laughs.
Car seat....hurrah!

Sports Bras for Nursing Women

If you are a male, you may want to stop reading.  I am about to talk about things like bounce, cup size, sports bras, and nursing.  I repeat...all males, stop reading!


Before I was pregnant I could run in the cheapo compression sports bras.  To be truthful, I was so small chested, I could have run in band aids and been happy.  No joke!  Due to pregnancy and nursing, things are a little bit different "around here", and the first time I tried running in one of the sports bras I used to wear, I could not handle the bounce.  It drove me crazy.  I figured it was time to invest in a real sports bra.  Moms, those nursing sport bras that are sold at places like Destination Maternity and Target will not cut it for running.  Basically if it it has nursing friendly clips, do not buy it if you want to feel good while running.  I do love to wear those around the house and for things like walking and yoga.  


Here are the 3 sports bras that I have had good luck with for running as a nursing mama.

Nike Dri-FIT Maximum Impact Shape Wire-Free Sports Bra #419413

Nike Maximum Control Rival Convertible Straps Soft Cup Sports Bra #381303

Champion Double Dry Zip Tech Bra Style 1699

Note: Do not spend a lot of time wearing these before or after your run as they can mess up your milk supply.


Note:  These are good recommendations for people like me that were an A cup before pregnant/nursing.  If you were larger, there are probably better options for you.  You probably learned to deal with bounce before you got pregnant.  It was news to me!


Note: I have not run in 2 weeks so I feel like a phony writing this.
 

Hello Maintenance Men

Tuesdays are the day that the house is the messiest, Wyatt is the grumpiest, and I am the least put together.  We play softball on Monday nights and keep Wyatt up way past his bed time (and our bedtime).  At 10:00 AM, I answered the door with a a spiked hairdo (not the cool kind) and in my jammies (again, not the cool kind).  The kitchen had exploded with dishes and breast pump paraphernalia, the living room had exploded with toys, and there were shoes and laundry blocking the door from opening all the way.

Maintenance!  Automatic sprinkler and fire alarm checkup.  How rude of these two guys to ruin my "pretend" I have everything together image.  Back to reality.  It is nap time now, so gotta start dishes and laundry.  Hooray for another crock pot dinner today. 

It's Almost May?!

I can't believe how fast April is passing us by.

We had a busy weekend for parents of small child.  We drove to the big bad city of Orlando Friday night to have dinner with some friends from San Antonio.  Wyatt was a perfect angel.  Whew! 

Saturday was supposed to be the best fishing day of the year, but there was a 100% chance of rain so Hunter passed it up.  He watched Wyatt while I went to check out the Hunger Games movie.  I thought they did a great job on the movie, but read the book.  As always, the book is better.  I am a little jealous that Wyatt took a 2+ hour nap when Hunter was watching him because he hasn't done that for me in ages.  Hunter is a little angry at the weathermen because it rained not a drop all day.  We also went to Wal Mart that evening for a few things (aka $100).

Sunday we went back to the church that we tried last week and put Wyatt in the nursery.  We got paged early.  He was upset the whole time...doing the weird breathy thing he does when he gets so upset he can't calm down.  He shouldn't have been hungry or tired.  Maybe he just missed his momma?  Got overwhelmed? Not sure.  We will try again next week and if that fails, I can go sit in the "Cry Room".  Fun fun.  We finished off our Sunday with a quick trip to the beach and a disappointing dinner.  Not all of your recipes can be winners I guess.

Even though it is only April, you can start your Christmas shopping now.  Check out what we found at the surf shop.  Red solo cup wine glasses by Kountry Krystal.  They also have a Mason Jar version.  Chuckle.

Photo a Day Challenge - April Week 3

Here are the photos for week 3 of April.   Better than week 2!

Day 15 - Sunset

Day 16 - Flower

Day 17 - Something you don't like

Day 18 - Hair

Day 19 - Orange

Day 20 - Something you drew

Day 21 - Bottle

For day 17, yes I do like my son, but I do not like the almost daily head wounds I allow him to have since he loves to bash his head on various pieces of furniture / toys.  I have decided not to hover too much.  

For day 20, the Draw Something application for phones is a great way to pass time.  Can you tell what my picture is? 

Week 2 photos
Week 1 photos

Fat Mum Slim's April Photo a Day Challenge

Some Blog Reads

Here are a few interesting reads for your Friday.

I have only been a mom for 7 months and I am already seeing some instances of Mom Wars.  One mom talking about how her baby has been in such pain due to teething and the only thing that would help is Tylenol.  Another mom jumps on her and says you should not give your baby Tylenol....stick with homeopathic.  One mom says my baby won't take a bottle. Another mom says if your baby gets hungry enough, they will take a bottle.  Perhaps they have good intentions, but it only makes the other mom feel like a failure, get defensive, and maybe even doubt their parenting instincts.  I enjoyed a post by Kelly called Things Good Moms Do.

One of my paranoias is how our family would survive in a major crisis where we could not depend on grocery stores, gas stations, etc to meet our needs.  Your Own Home Store is a family friendly blog that walks you through something you can do each week to make sure your family is prepared in that situation.  This site is a bit friendlier than most "end of the world as we know it" sites. Here is week one if you would like to check it out.   

Read about the rule of thirds, a general photography guideline, and how you can use it to take better iPhone pictures with Chantelle. 

Healthy "Cherry Limeade" Recipe

I am obsessed with Perrier, TopoChico, and various other over priced sparkling mineral waters.  This started when I was pregnant and for some reason did not leave.  It was a good way to force more water in me.  Once we find a way to get our CO2 canister from Texas to Florida or break down and buy a new one, I will make my own.  Until then, I will continue to hydrate in a most expensive way.

Here is a fabulous new recipe that you might like if you can handle the sparkling mineral water.

Ingredients:
Crushed Ice
Limes
Maraschino Cherries
Your favorite overpriced carbonated mineral water

Directions:
Fill your cup halfway up with crushed ice.  If you have a Sonic ice maker, that would be AWEsome.  Fill your glass with sparkling mineral water.   Squeeze about half a lime into your glass.  Dump in 2 maraschino cherries and a teaspoon or two of the juice.  Stir. 

Variation:
Use a lime flavored carbonated mineral water.  My fave is Topo Chico. 

Requirement:
Drink with a straw.  Enjoy the bubbles. 

Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Most crock pot meals are mediocre to me, especially ones that are listed as healthy.  I found a keeper.  Try Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup by SkinnyTaste. 

I opt not to use reduced fat cheese, sour cream, etc not because I don't believe in it...just because I don't believe in the taste. ;)  Make sure you have an avocado in the hizzy before you make this.  I also used chicken thighs because I have a plethora (thanks Costco). 

Side note...is 7 months the NOT magical age that babies decide they don't enjoy sleeping and would much prefer crying and screaming?  A new level of awareness maybe?  A new phase?  I realize I am alone?  I don't think its teeth.  Poor Wyatt.  Poor Janet's heart.

Another side note.  I am trying my first BB Cream.  Since I don't really wear makeup anymore, I decided this might have a chance since it is an all in one and has big SPF.  I bought Clinique's Age Defense BB Cream SPF 30.  I plan to wear it at the next baby play date or my next grocery store trip.  Whatever comes first. 

Photo a Day Challenge - April Week 2

Continuing with FatMumSlim's photo a day challenge for April.  These are even less inspiring than week 1.

Day 8 - Inside your wallet

Day 9 - Younger you

Day 10 - Cold

Day 11 - Where you ate breakfast

Day 12 - Stairs

Day 13 - Something you found

Day 14 - How you feel today

Can you guess my feelings in day 14?  If you guessed attached, jealous, and frumpy....then you guessed right,  Attached, no explanation needed.  I was jealous because Hunter got to go play golf for 4 hours sans kiddo.   Frumpy, again, no explanation needed.

Happy Tax Day! Be sure to go to Sonic for a half price drink all day.  I plan to.  I plan to try some sweet tater tots too.

Weekend Update

Get ready for the most exciting post ev-er.  This weekend we cleaned, laundried, and groceried. I cooked this Shrimp Etouffee. A real cajun would probably scoff at the recipe, but it was simple and good.  We tripled the spice requirements (of course).  Hunter washed trucks, changed oil, and got in a round of golf.

A few more random thoughts.

I ordered a CJ's Butter sample pack since I was almost out of cloth diaper safe cream.  The smells are awesome.  I could hardly narrow it down to 8.  Mamas you need this for your hands.  Bebes you need this for your booty.  I think my favorite is the blueberry crumble or the ginger lime.  Even if you don't cloth diaper, help yo'self.  

We got the courage to try putting Wyatt in a church nursery and tried out a new church.  They said he did great.  When we picked him up he stuck out his pouty lip suddenly realizing we had abandoned him for over an hour. 

Our standing instead of napping is getting much better but still could use some work.

Every day when I lay Wyatt's toys out he looks at me like "these again Mom?".  Made me wonder what people did in the good ol days for baby toys.  They probably played with grass, rocks, sticks, and rags.  They probably had to play a lot of patty cake with mom or be entertained by big sis or bro.  Maybe some home made dolls?  Little things like that do work.  I am currently booping Wyatt on the head with his jammies so I can type this.  He loves it!  I am glad I live in a time of toys though.  I also don't imagine Mom being able to spend all day entertaining her baby.  If Mom didn't work hard a family might not eat.  Did the baby get backpacked around?  Did the baby learn to be happy with lots of alone time?  Was one mom or big sister assigned baby duty so the rest of the moms could do their work?

Random thoughts by Janet.  I hope your Monday turns into Tuesday realll quick like. 

Determined

I think I have identified a personality trait.  Determined.  Maybe all parents think the same thing?  He stands ALLL day long.  Wyatt will have nothing to do with sitting down and playing.  That is so 2000 and late.  He has no problem moving between couches while standing.  He wants to stand in his stroller.  He wants to stand during diaper time. He wants to stand instead of napping.  Our old nap routine went something like this....sing twinkle twinkle little star 2 times, put in bed, cry for 30 seconds, wiggle for 5 minutes, nap.  Our new nap routine goes something like this....sing twinkle twinkle little star 2 times, put in bed, stand up, have a blast for 5 minutes, cry, cry cry.  I let him cry for 30 minutes yesterday thinking it was just a phase and he would get tired and lay down and sleep.  Those baby legs did not get tired.  Sooo I rocked.  This phase is taking too long for impatient me.  Also, when he falls over he doesn't even get scared or cry.  He just works on standing back up.  Happy 7 months to Wyatt today. I am going to work on having an appropriate and patient attytude. :)

Here is a pic of his new teethies

Key West, FL

For the 3 day Easter weekend, we made the trip to Key West.  The town is great, and the drive there is beautiful, but feels so long because you go about 40 miles an hour once you leave Florida mainland.  We went with the Salame family and rented a condo we found online.  This worked out great because we could have a kitchen and all be in one house instead of trying to cram into 1 or 2 hotel rooms for the same price. If you need a condo recommendation for a group of 4 to 6 check this out.

I had an itinerary planned in advance (shocking, I know) and we were able to stick to it for the most part.  Wyatt was getting his first two teeth and skipped a nap on Saturday.  Saturday afternoon was unpleasant for us, and we ended up passing on dinner and going to bed early.  :)  The rest of the crew enjoyed a bike ride through town and a late dinner.

The dining that did not disappoint:
Titanic Restaurant and Brewery, South Miami
Hogfish Bar and Grill, Key West - this was REALLY great
El Siboney, Key West

Denell's quote of the trip..."We are on vacaaaaaytion!"

Roosters everywhere in Key West..at the condo, downtown, the middle of the road

90 miles to Cuba

The Beach

The bikers

Group shot

The Edmondsons and Salames travel well together.  We didn't have time to kayak or fish, but there was some snorkeling done.  We hit all of the high points, but would love to explore more.  Maybe check out Key Largo?  Good times.

Now back to reality.  I fell off the workout and cleaning train last week.  The house is a disaster.  Wyatt isn't sleeping great (durn teeth).  I did manage to cook a nice dinner last night and unpack from our trip.  Baby steps.  Oh, and the most exciting adventure since vacation....our house smelled like rotten fish and I could not figure out what it was.  I cleaned the kitchen top to bottom.  I was going cray-cray-crazy!  Finally, I discovered a leaking carton of seafood stock.  Gross, but easy enough to clean.

Photo a Day Challenge - April Week 1

FatMumSlim is doing a photo a day challenge for April. In an attempt to channel my creativity and improve my photography skills, I am participating.

Here are the pics from week 1.

Day 1 - Your reflection

Day 2 - Color

Day 3 - Mail

Day 4 - Someone who makes you happy

Day 5 - Tiny

Day 6 - Lunch

Day 7 - Shadow

As soon as I have time, I will post some pics from our Key West trip.  The highlights were the beach, the view, the city, and the food.  The lowlights were two new teeth, a 6 month old strapped in a car for 6+ hours, and skipping naps.  I would do it all over again a hundred times.

Zzzzzz

We sent our 23 year old mattress to the graveyard on Monday.  We were going to keep it as a guest bed but decided it wasn't even worthy of that.  I won't miss our taco bed. You spend all night fighting to stay out of the middle.

We bought the Tempur-Pedic Cloud.  So lovely.  It is supportive and wonderful and I can't wait to jump in it every night.  So far the additional heat from the memory foam hasn't bothered us.  Gotta hurry and pack for our vacay to Key West.  Can't wait!

How To Follow Blogs and Make Bloggers Happy

This post is for my friends and family that are new to following blogs and my definitions may not be all accurate and stuff and things.

What is a blog?
A blog is like a journal.  The blogger writes posts about topics they are interested in.  For me that is Wyatt, food, and fitness.  There are a kazillion blogs out there.  I love to follow bloggers because you get to know the writers personally and you can find up to date information about topics you are interested in.  I follow blogs on couponing, raising children, religion, makeup, fitness, friends, food, and cloth diapers.  Whatever your interests may be, there are several bloggers blogging about it on a daily basis.

How to get blog updates:
A blog is a website that the blogger updates as often as they want to.  You can check the website frequently to get updates but that is the old skewl way.  You can subscribe to email updates so that every time the blogger writes a new post, you get an email letting you know what the content of the post is.  On my site, look for the WANT EMAIL UPDATES? box in the right hand side. 

The hippest way to get blog updates is to use an RSS reader.  RSS is just a standard way of providing data to software so that the software can notify the blog readers that there is new content.  RSS Readers also allows the blog reader to organize and manage their subscriptions. For me, that means putting my blogs into folders (food, fitness, parenting) and letting me know which ones are read/unread.  It also allows me to favorite ones (ex: recipes I want to try).  Read more details here on Wikipedia.  


How to know if a site offers an RSS format:
In Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer, you will see the RSS block or orange button indicating that there is an RSS format.  In Firefox, it is hidden because nobody ever clicked the button.  Click it for fun and you can see the RSS version of the data.  Most sites that publish content frequently provide an RSS version of their data. You can follow news that way too. 

Safari (see the RSS at the end of the address bar)

Firefox (see the icon immediately after the address bar)

RSS Readers:
Now that you know about RSS, you can pick your RSS Reader Software and get started.  I use Google Reader when on a computer and FeeddlerRSS on my iPhone.  Feeddler just uses Google Reader.   Go here http://www.google.com/reader/ and create an account to get started.  Or find a different RSS Reader software if you are anti Google.  Google Reader provides a nice how to page. Once you have an account, you can click Subscribe and enter the web address for pages you would like to receive content updates for.  Most blogs will provide short cuts for you to subscribe in a reader.  On my site, click the drop down next to Posts under Subscribe and you can simply click add to Google.

How to Make Bloggers Happy:
This is the most important part.  Even though there are all these fancy ways to receive updates (email, RSS readers, etc), go to the bloggers site occasionally.  They love to see the traffic (I get 2 hits a day).  They love to count the number of people subscribing to their blog in Google Reader (I have 5).  They love, love, love to get comments (I get less than 1 a day). They love friends on Google Friend Connect (I have 6).  They love email subscribers (I have 6). I am pretty sure I will have people sponsoring me soon with all of this traffic.  

Enough rambling?  I thought so.  Does this confuse you more?  Maybe so.  I would love to help make it clearer.  Maybe you could ask me a question in a comment??  Exciting for me and you!

A New 'Do

I have not cut my hair since I found out I was pregnant and now my bebe is over 6 months old so that is a long time with no hair cuts. My hair was nice and purty and long, but the pony tail that I wore EVERY SINGLE DAY was becoming a nuisance.  I don't fix my hair.  I shower and I comb it.  I refuse to blow dry it or flat iron it unless it is a special occasion.  Special occasions don't happen very often once you have kids.  I have tried YouTube tutorials for how to fix my hair and I can't master any of them.  I have mastered hot rollers and curling my hair with a flat iron, but again, those are for special occasions and take a long time.  Yesterday Hunter walked Wyatt around the mall for an hour while I had my hair chopped.  Here are the before and after pictures.   Good bye ponytail, I will miss you. 

In other news, nap times around here are a little more exciting since Wyatt likes to practice his stand up (pant, grunt, groan, giggle), sit down (cry), stand up (grunt, groan, giggle), sit down (cry) routines a few times before falling asleep. Isn't it funny how you can be so proud of your kid's developmental advances and then wish they were back to where they were when it starts driving you batty? It is sweet to see how proud he is when he pulls himself up to a standing position.  You da bomb Wyatt, now take your nap DEAR SWEET CHILD!!!!

We also had a successful beach day on Saturday with the Gilliams.  Our bebes stayed on the beach for about 4 hours.  We thought we would be home by lunch time.