Ordered- check! Delivered- check! Satisfied...not sure yet

We finally went ahead and ordered Brynna's new "big girl" car seat. We ordered it Monday (and got it for a STELLAR deal!) and it was sitting on our front porch Thursday when Batman got home with Little Miss. (Hooray for Dia.persdotcom!). We put it in the car on Friday (RF of course).

We got her the SK Radian XTSL in flora. I'm overall happy with it... I think.

It's been a bit of an adjustment transitioning from her infant carrier. More for me than for her. The Chicco keyfit we had was just a dream and I was kind of in love with it (even though I HATED infant carriers before I had B). It was so easy to use and relatively light weight (well, without her in it).

See, the thing with the radian is- it's heavy. Mind you, I won't be taking it in and out all the time the like the ic, but still- moving it from my car to Batman's or to my IL is going to be a PITA! Plus it's bigger... I knew it would be, but that's just an adjustment to make too. And I kind of hate how it tightens the shoulder straps. It's this "one-click-at-a-time" kind of contraption and I either haven't really figured it out yet or I'm just destined to hate it (anyone else out there with the xtsl that can help me out here?).
And there's no sunshade. Poor girl had sun in her eyes all the way home from church (yep, this is the second time we've gone- go us!) and it was just awful to hear her pitiful cries (granted, we live a mile and half from church so it wasn't a long trip) ;-) I know I could get a little shade to put in the back window- which we may end up doing- but I really HATE these things and my back window is already hard to see out of since her little mirror is back there already.
I guess a couple of these issues are problems I would have with ANY convertible car seat though, so I can't really blame the radian for those. I think it's just going to take some getting used to.
I do love the fabric (both color and texture)! And I like how it fits in the car- there's a little more room for people who get stuck in the back with her ;-)
And I really like that it's just so safe!
I guess I can get used to the other things.

The Little Gym

We took their free introductory class on Wednesday and Brynna had an absolute BLAST!! I just wish it was something a little more affordable. We could swing it, but Batman really wants to get her into swimming lessons and we couldn't (well, shouldn't) really do both.

The teacher was SO sweet and even sent us a follow up email with some pics from her time!




She even got a hug from the token boy in the class- I WISH I would have had my camera! It was so cute!

I think I may have to check out some of the other local "gymnastic" programs and see if they're any cheaper.
Do any other kiddos out there do things like this?

Wednesday {thursday] weigh in

Well I forgot last week and the week before was just bad all around, so I stepped on the dreaded scale this morning.

Weight loss/ gain: -.5
Skinny jeans: let's not go there

So down a little, which is better than I thought, by a LONG SHOT. I was expecting to have gained especially after the last week I've had.
I'm back to my motivated self again, so hopefully this will help shed some more weight.

I had my annual today and went... okay. I talked to my doc about feeling "off." Kind of like I'm just not "me." I keep waiting for all my hormones to regulate themselves and get me back to feeling normal again.
He decided to check my thyroid to see if there's something going on there.
I complained about my weight loss (or lack thereof) to him and I think that may have pushed him towards the testing. What I didn't mention was that I don't always make the best choices... Oh well. We will see what the test shows tomorrow I guess? Somehow he was "okay" with me being 30 lbs over my normal weight (pre preggo and pre TTC weight). That kind of disturbed me, but he chalked it up to my "aging metabolism."
I chalk it up to being a lazy ass.

Meh.

Time to work out while the munchkin is sleeping...

A few projects

I've been doing more and more crafting lately, so I thought I would show you what I've been up to.

For V day I made a bunch of stuff:
I made these for the sibs


and inside


I made these for my cheerleaders:

I put a couple chocolate hearts, a heart sucker, and little $store game and a bible verse about LOVE inside
I made this for my parents and my IL:

Here's what the fine print says (please disregard my ET glowing finger reflection- the flash was just too bright)

And here's what I made for Batman:


And a friend had a baby shower last weekend:




And I've been a crocheting fool lately too. Brynna has been my hat guinea pig:

Thank God for the IL!

For those of you who know me on FB, you know that we dropped Brynna off at my IL last night. FOR. THE. NIGHT.
As in, no baby at home all night long.
As in, we can go on a date, not worry about what time to be home, watch a movie as loud as we want, have wild and crazy, loud sex, and sleep in until the late morning.
As in, no interrupted sleep.

It was heaven.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely ADORE my daughter. Batman does too. But sometimes mommy and daddy need a night to just be Batman and T. Not someone's parent. And we haven't had that since she was born. Not even once!

And so Batman and I had a date. We went to Famous Dave's (NOT vegan or even vegetarian... how have I fallen this far? It was mighty delicious though...) and rented The.Other.Guys. HILARIOUS. And then had some (okay, A LOT) drinks. And then had some wild, crazy, loud sex. And then fell asleep.

The only part of our plan that didn't work out too well was the sleeping in. We've both been up since 5. I guess old habits die hard.

We are picking up the munchkin in a few hours and I can't wait to see her.

But it was nice to have a night off. I'm not gonna lie.

Valentine's Day is like Christmas

See... my parents have always been big into gifting. Doesn't matter the holiday. They usually see each one as an excuse to give gifts. They've always done it. There are pictures of our "first" holidays receiving a various array of gifts. Kind of like Christmas multiple times a year.

So of course Vday would be no exception. Only this year, all we got was an email. Until yesterday...

The UPS guy dropped off a couple of these for Batman and I:


OMG! I'm so excited! I've been finding all sorts of FREE books all morning!

B is getting a few of those recordable books from them- they just haven't had a chance to record them yet (because my dad finally was able to GO BACK TO WORK this week! EEEEE!). So hopefully in the next couple weeks we will have a couple more books with their voices on them :)

On a side note- the UPS man really ruined B's whole afternoon yesterday. We had a snow day so she had been taking her gloves and hat on and off all day long in hopes we would stay outside (we did go out a few times). Well, after lunch she had put them back on. And then the doorbell rings- which usually means one of her grandparents or a friend is at the door- so she RUNS to the door. Only to find no one there. I open our storm door and grab the package and after I close it she presses her face to it looking for whoever. After a good 2 minutes I think she realized no one was coming and this is what happened:


Poor girl. To compensate, I took her outside again.

What are you having for dinner?

I've been craving this spaghetti recipe for like weeks now... so I'm finally making it.

And it's foods like this that are keeping me from losing the weight I want to lose.

We call it Cowboy Spaghetti Bebop XXX... although I grew up calling it just plain ol' Cowboy Spaghetti. Not really at all like the RR version, but I think twice as tasty!

here's how we make it:

1 jar of pre.go (or whatever is your favorite) jarred spaghetti sauce
1-2 cans Nal.ley (or your favorite) chili (we use a vegetarian one)
1lb spaghetti (cooked a little firmer than al dente)
1-2 c shredded cheese (again go with your favorite- we usually use a mix of cheddar and jack or mozzerella)

Cook spaghetti for 8-9 min until it's slightly firmer than al dente. In a box {haha- I meant bowl} mix spaghetti sauce and cans of chili (if you like it a little thicker- use one) and 1/2-1 c of cheese. Once noodles are done, drain and stir into chili mixture. Pour into casserole/ oven safe dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min (or until cheese is melted).
Let sit for 5 min and serve.

You can add ground meat to it if you want. We opt out.

So yummy! But so full of calories... see why I have a hard time going completely vegan? It's the cheese!

Happy Valentine's Day

Had a busy weekend between cheer and crafting and baby showers and church (yes, we actually went!)...

But Happy Valentine's to all you ladies out there! Hope your SO treat you well and spoil you rotten :)

Wednesday Weigh In

Having body issues this week...

skipping the weigh in...

As of Monday I hadn't gained or lost)

*sigh*

Restless Adventures

Even though we've been busy this week and out and about pretty much everyday, I got a little restless this morning and HAD to get out of the house.

So what better excuse to take B and see some of the sights within quick driving distance of our house? Right?

We looked up online different scenic drives and decided on this one (of course B puts in her opinion... doesn't your 15 month old? Ha! Okay so I decided). Quick and had a waterfall at the end... or so I thought.

Apparently Swan Falls Dam is just that... a dam. No waterfall. Not even a little white water. It was kind of a dissapointment. Especially driving all that way (which turned out only to be about 25 miles from my house- not 40). Here's a pic of miss and me at one of the lookout points about said "dam"

And one of the actual "dam"- although it doesn't look anything like EVERY OTHER dam I've seen

There was another scenic viewpoint that we passed on our way so we headed there to see some more neat stuff. This part of Idaho is well known for it's birds of prey (falcons, hawks, osprey, etc) so I thought we might catch a glimpse of a bird or too. Unfortunately, I forgot birds generally MIGRATE SOUTH for the winter, so we didn't see any either, but here's B checking out the view- gorgeous!

Then we ended up at the local park. B had fun swinging and playing with all the musical "instruments" that they have.

And now we are back home, relaxing until Batman gets home :)
I think we are ready for summer around here! Or at least Spring!

Wednesday {Thursday} weigh in

Well this week was kind of a wash again. Not because I failed. Honestly, I did pretty well. I had a couple slip ups, but kept them to a minimum.
Mainly, I didn't work out as much as I wanted. I let myself use the "I'm too busy" excuse and missed all but 2 days. And those days were only half a$$ed if I'm completely honest.
So here's the damage:

Weight loss/ gain: 0 (at least I didn't gain!)
Skinny Jeans: See all previous weeks (obviously, they weren't going to fit)

So this week I will be ramping up exercise again, along with being more careful about what I eat. It will help that batman and I are going to revamp our budget so there is less money going towards bad food (eating out).

See you next week scale!

15 months!

Miss Brynna turned 15 months 12 days ago! Once again, I can't believe my little girl is getting so BIG!!

We had our well baby check and here are her stats:

Height: 29 in (10%)
Weight: 22 lbs 1 oz (40%)

Still our petite little girl! She got a clean bill of health and a couple shots. Since B is pretty strict vegetarian (more so than Batman and I are, I think she has only had meat maybe 5 times in her life?), he was a little concerned about her iron levels, thus getting an extra poke in the heel (poor kid). Turns out she's better than fine (take that all you skeptics!) and we are not worried about any missing nutrients. She does NOT like Dr Roy anymore though, even though he didn't do the poking!

She's starting to talk more and more and this month she added baby, socks and book to her vocabulary. We did discuss this with her doc and he isn't concerned at all. He let us know though, if she doesn't have 10-15 words by 18 months he'd like her to come in.

BTW, he doesn't see kids at 18 mos... is that weird to anyone else? He won't see B again until she's 2. Just seemed like a long time to me. She isn't scheduled for any vaccines until then, but it still seems crazy she will go 9 MONTHS without a check up! Hm...

She's still in a a lot of her 9 mo clothes and all her 12 mo stuff too. I have a feeling we will FINALLY outgrow the 9 mo stuff soon though. We have tried on a couple 18 mo outfits this last week and they are still pretty big on her. She still is in her size 4 shoes, but I think we will be moving up soon. Her toes are getting a little too close to the end for comfort.

Still CDing almost exclusively, but when we do sposies she still in size 3. (Oh, I stripped the dipes last week and it seems to be helping a bit- plus I've added an extra pad from our neighbors stash that I *think* may be hemp?)

B has discovered Sid.the.science.kid on pbs. She normally didn't give TV the time of day, unless there was some music playing, and even then it was for like 2 min and then she was on to the next thing. However, the other day Sid was on and she sat for the WHOLE EPISODE. I realize this makes me a bad mom for letting her watch TV, but you guys... I have a whole 30 min to get things done WHILE SHE WAS AWAKE! Granted I don't let the TV "babysit" her, but it does give me a chance to walk into the bedroom and put some clothes away or clean the toilet with NO "HELP"! ;-)

We also downgraded our high chair. Brynna is now the proud owner of a booster chair (basically the portable high chairs that sit on a kitchen chair). Batman and I were tired of the huge one taking up so much room, plus she really likes the one my IL have. We got this one from BRU. She LOVES it! And it's nice having her right at the table during meals :) Oh my girl is growing up too fast!

We are still researching car seats. We need to make up our mind in a hurry since B is only an inch away from outgrowing her Chi.cco infant seat. I think I'm set on this one. It just seems to fit us best and I wasn't really sold on the Bri.tax BLVD when we tried it in BRU the other day (which is too bad, since I could get 25% off by trading in that nasty, huge, old high chair we just took out). The Reca.ro is still in the running, but falling behind.

B is such a happy girl! She has really turned into a chatty cathy (although it's still mostly babble). It's so fun to see her trying to engage in conversation.

She loves carrying around all her "babies" and laying them down. She has started stacking her blocks and playing with her puzzles (although the pieces don't always make it into the correct space).

We are still waiting for more hair to grow on her head. She has the all sorts in the back, but the top is almost bald. I don't even think you can classify it as a mullet?! It looks more like old man hair LOL

She still drinks a bottle of rice milk at night before bed. We've tried switching it to a sippy cup, but she was having NONE of that, so we will wait a little longer to try that.

I think that's it? Here are a couple new pics of my girl:

Having fun on the swings- it was cold, but so sunny out we had to go!

Enjoying a snack in her new chair!

Caught in the act! She takes Kino's food out of his bowl and feeds it to him...

Coloring! My baby is a coloring genius- notice the nicely colored Nemo page on the left? LOL

Breakfast at one of our favorite places- 'bucks!