KATY IS TWELVE MONTHS!!

My sweet Katybug.  You turned 12 months on May 26th.  You are such a bundle of joy!  We had such a good time at your birthday party, during your one year pictures and on your birthday!  I'm writing this way too late, but posting it on your birthday week because I want to keep it where it should be in time. :)  Now, back to the 12 month post...

You were such a stinker for these pictures, I don't have many good ones at all actually, but hey, they just show your little personality, right?

Right after you turned 11 months, you started at your new "school" daycare.  You were in the babies class for just one month before you transitioned into the "ones" class.  You went from taking 3 naps at home with Sissy/Nana to only taking one short nap at daycare.  It was a tough transition.  You were so sleepy when you got home that you had to take a short nap until dinner time, then you got up to eat with us.

You went from taking three bottles to two (with none at daycare), and you did fabulously.  You were eatting more table foods, and you still like the baby foods.  I buy the second foods pouches.  We tried the third foods, but you didn't like the chunks in the food.   You love yogurt.  We've been buying the YoBaby yogurts for you and have started the Yo Toddler ones as well.  Yum Yum.  You still take your reflux meds, but we talked to the doctor and you're going to keep taking them for awhile, then we'll try to lessen them and phase them out completely.

Clothes and Diapers - You're still in a size 4 diaper.  You're wearing some 9-12 month clothes, but very few, most of your clothes are 12 months now.

You still aren't walking.  You will walk while holding onto something or someone, but not yet on your own.  And SUCH A CLIMBER!!!  We cannot stop you from climbing up on everything!

You are such a smiley girl.  You're so happy.  You're ticklish and love it when we tickle you.  That is nearly the only time that you really get a big belly laugh in, but when you do, I just love to hear it.

You still sleep like a dream.  It's amazing.  I just hope you continue to sleep this well!

Your eyes are still greyish.  They have some brown hints to them here and there, but mostly grey.

Teeth.  you have five teeth now, two bottom teeth that you got last month and then you got three on top this month.  The third top one is still coming in - but it has broken through.  We are so lucky - you don't seem to fuss much when you're getting a new tooth.  You do slobber a lot, but that's normal.

You aren't saying all of the words that you did last month, but the doctor says that's normal.  You'll get those words back plus some in no time.  You still babble and it's so sweet to hear your little voice.

You are such a little dancer baby girl.  You just love music and will dance by swinging your hips and I think it's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I just love it.

 

We've been told by your teacher, and we know it's true, that you give the best "stink eye" in the world.  You sure do make some crazy faces at people.  You get this one, it almost seems like you're mad, but you're not, I think you're just deep in thought or something.  Such a funny funny girl.

It's so hard for me to believe that you're already one year old.  It's just crazy how fast time has flown over this past year.  

You had your last bottle on May 25th and you didn't mind not having another one on your birthday.  It's such a milestone, and one that I'm proud to say you had breast milk your entire first year.  You haven't had much to drink this week though, so I asked the doctor about it and she said you'll adapt soon, you'll begin to like whole milk.  Since then you have and we actually buy much more milk now than we did with just Cooper drinking it, so you two must be quite the milk consumers! :) 

Here is one of those funny looks we were talking about above! :)

Katybug, you are such a booger.  We love you so very much and cannot wait to see how you enjoy this summer, fall and every season from here out.  You're so fun to be around and you can literally light up the world with your smile.  I hope you are always as happy as you are these days.  I love you to the moon and back sweet girl.

Katy is ELEVEN months!

Katybug, you’re eleven months, plus some now, but I’m only writing today about what happened with you during your eleventh month…  ELEVEN months.  I can hardly believe that in a few short weeks, you’ll be an entire year old.  Your party invitations have been mailed out and party preparations have begun.  But, let’s get back to that eleventh month, shall we?

During this month, you spent one week at Charlotte’s house then the rest month at home with your Sissy and your Nana.  Nana watched you one day per week and Sissy watched you 4 days a week.  You love them both so it was super nice for you to have some quality time with them before you started at your new school.

Let’s talk sleep. You still sleep fabulously at night.  It’s still awesome by the way.  You’re still going to bed between 7:30 and 8 and sleeping until 5:45 – 6am.  Naps are also great – you take 2-3 one and a half to two hour naps per day.    Sissy and Nana put that sleep sack on you for your naps and you sleep like a dream, and you still need a pacifier at naptime and bedtime as well.

I’m not sure how much you weigh this month, you haven’t been to the doctor for any reason, so we’ve not weighed you on an accurate scale.  BUT if I had to guess, I’d say you weighed just around 19 lbs.  Just a guess.

You have started eating much better – as we’ve been incorporating more whole milk into your diet you seem to take your bottles better.  You’re also eating baby food and puffs and a couple of table foods (green beans, puffs, pieces of sweet potato, bananas).  You’re still doing a bottle at breakfast, baby food fruit for breakfast, bottle at lunch, baby food veggie for a snack, then bottle and cereal for dinner.  Along with some puffs, teething biscuits, and yogurt melts thrown in there for fun.

You are still taking your reflux meds 2x per day – and it seems to be helping you eat – I wonder how long you’ll have to be on this medication, but as long as it’s helping you, I’m all for it!

Clothes & Diapers.  You're in a size 4 diaper now. Accidentally actually.  I happened to buy a size 4 instead of the 3, so instead of waiting and buying more 3s, I just decided to use them.  They aren’t that much too big, so we’ll probably stick with them from here on out.  You’ve been in 9 and 12 months clothes this month.   You’re just about out of the 9 month clothes.  They are just getting too short on you.  The pants are alright, and they might carry forward to be used as capri pants.  At least some of them……

Kate girl, you’re into everything.  You’re everywhere and you love to “walk” everywhere as long as you have someone/something to hold onto.  You still climb on everything you can, and we really have to follow you around, because the first place you dart to is the stairs.  You love climbing up there!  You’ve gone up the stairs with Nana, mommy and daddy. 

In the past, you were afraid of your Papa Gary, but this month, at Easter, you seemed to really like him.  So we’re happy about that.  We thought it was his beard, and it still might be, however, you never minded your Uncle Craig, and he’s got a beard too, so we’re not really sure what’s the problem.  Anyway, we’re glad you like your Papa now!   You love your Daddy, Mommy and you light up when you see big brother Cooper!  You love Nana, Sissy, Kampbell and your Bobo too. Actually, when thinking about it, I’m not sure there are any family members that you don’t like!  You are still a big mama’s girl though.  You really get excited when you see me, and get upset when I leave you in the mornings to get a shower, even though you have a ball with your daddy during that time.  You really love that guy too. 

Your eyes are still grey, with little hints of brown, but mostly grey.  They are pretty, and will be no matter what color they are, I just wonder if they’ll change.  You got two teeth this month!!!  The bottom two teeth are in and you weren’t very fussy either.  You slept well and we’re so blessed!  

You are saying more and more words it seems.  You say ‘dada’, ‘mama’, ‘nana’, ‘hi’, and ‘baba’ which I think means bye bye, but I’m not 100% sure on that one.  You ramble on all kinds of other nonsense, and we just love hearing your voice.  The funniest times for me are when we are in the car going somewhere and you are getting ready to go to sleep.  You just say “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm” or “nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn” over and over again until you’re asleep.  I’d forgotten, but Cooper did the same thing when he was tired.  You doing it reminded me of when he did it around your age.  Two funny kiddos!

One last thing I’ll add – you LOVE music.  Every time it’s on, you “dance” by swinging those little hips of yours, or shaking your shoulders.  You’ll wiggle your head and bee bop around to pretty much whatever music is playing.  I love that!  It makes me excited to get you into dance classes when you get older.  

Kate, we love you so much, you just make us so happy.  I’m so blessed to have you and Cooper as my kiddos, you both love each other and are the happiest kiddos (most of the time!).  Thank you baby girl for making our family complete!

Happy 11 months! (Back on April 26^th ……)

these are the days of our lives.....

High School Baseball Season.  Baseball Widow.  Single Mommy.  These three phrases go together during this time of year.  It's a busy/hectic time of year.  Since Tim has been umpiring the past couple of years, I thought it was tough with just Cooper, but this year, tough doesn't seem to be a big enough word to describe it.  EXCEPT, it's not just tough, it's FUN!  I am crazy stressed some nights/weekend days, but we're almost always having a great time.

Last year, I remember just praying for bedtime for Cooper.  I couldn't wait until that little booger went to bed because I was exhausted.  Tired of entertaining him.  Tired of everything.  I was pregnant, I worked all day, picked Coop up from school then took care of him, and if I'm honest, we both drove each other crazy some nights.  Most nights were fun, playing outside, coloring, jumping on the trampoline, reading, doing puzzles, singing songs, having dance parties etc.... But the other nights - those that we drove each other nuts - seemed to be the only nights that stuck in my mind.

This year though?  Our nights and weekends seem to be SO MUCH BETTER overall.  I have really no idea why.  We have so much more to accomplish, more worry about a certain baby girl's schedule to keep, throw t-ball in there and we just have more everything it seems.  However, we're doing it fabulously.  I'm not wishing its time for bed.  I'm really not even as strict about bedtime with Cooper as I am regularly.  I think he's growing up.  He's much better about entertaining himself when he needs to - and he's becoming such a little man.  Katy is certainly an easier baby than Cooper was, and for that, I am grateful, especially during this season of our lives.

I started this post because I wanted to document a typical day in our lives with a timeline as I've done in the past.

Kate wakes up sometime between 5:30 and 6am most mornings.  So I'm up with her and we get her bottle in her.  I feed her in Tim's and my bed.  After she's finished eating, her usual routine is to get up on all fours and crawl over to daddy and start hitting him to wake him up.  I think this might be one of the best parts of his entire day.  The smile he gets on his face when he gets awakened by his daughter is just priceless.  The way they interact is so great.  She's so happy to see her dad.  By this time its usually sometime between 6 and 6:15.

I hop in the shower while they play, and after that, Tim hops in the shower and  I begin to get dressed and my hair fixed while Kate plays in our bathroom/walk in closet.  I shut that door so that she's stuck in there - we've had many toys migrate into our closet right now so that she has something to play with.  She's mostly got her attention captured by my hair dryer though, she seems to love watching me blow drying my hair.  Funny girl.

When Tim's all finished and dressed - we wake Cooper up if he hasn't gotten up yet.  We get Katy dressed and she either goes back to bed for a nap, or she stays up and plays some more.  Cooper plays around some and then gets himself dressed.  I let him dress himself most days.  He usually does a good job.  We've only had a few mornings where he looks like a bruise wearing navy shorts with black shirts or vice versa.  I'm learning  to let these things go, (for now).  Once he's in kindergarten, I'm not sure I'll be able to stand him looking like a bruise.  

By this time it's after 7am, and once Coop's ready, we head downstairs for breakfast, lunch prep, bottle prep and whatever else we've got to do before we head out the door.  Tim sometimes needs to leave pretty quickly, so he does his thing while I get Cooper breakfast and shoes on etc.  When Tim doesn't have to rush out, he's very good about helping with the kids.

Cooper, Katy and I leave after all that morning stuff is finished.  Sometimes its as early as 7:30, but usually it's more like 7:45 - 7:50.  I rush them off to daycare - get them both checked in and head out for work.  Work is only 5 minutes from their school, even with traffic, so I normally make it by 8:10.  It works out pretty nicely actually.  I love having them in care so close to our home and my work.

If it's not a t-ball game night, I work from arrival to 5 then go straight to pick up the kids.  We normally go directly home, change clothes (me) and head outside.  Cooper loves playing outside and Katy is pretty good about crawling all over the grass (and eating it too), so we spend the majority of the evening outside.  We are back in the house by 7pm at the latest though, because Cooper's bedtime is supposed to be 8, with dinner, baths, and one 24 minute Disney Jr show thrown in, it takes awhile to get him there.  Kate goes to bed normally between 6:45 and 7:30 these days.  7:30 is on the late side for her, so sometimes I end up feeding her outside, then bringing her in to finish right around 7.

If we have t-ball, then I leave around 4:45, pick them up and head home to get Cooper a snack, then him all dressed and ready, gather the stuff I need for Kate and we leave the house by 5:30.  Game time is at 6pm.  Games usually last until 7:15 - 7:30, then we head home and get the bedtime routine started.  Cooper is usually up until 8:30 - 8:45 on those nights, where we are really pushing Kate's limits of staying awake/eating well by keeping her up during the game, so she's fed and put in bed pretty immediately after arriving home from the games.

After bedtime, it's finally time for Mommy to grab a bite to eat!  (This is why I try to meal prep as best I can on Sunday, so that I'm not just eating cereal after they head to bed each night.)  Tim gets home normally between 8 and 9.  If Cooper's still up, this delays bedtime even more for him, otherwise Tim and I sometimes eat together, then we're so pooped, we try to get a few more things accomplished, sometimes we just crash.  THIS is why our house is a complete disaster right now.  We've been without time to even pick up the normal "stuff" recently.  This past week especially.  Weekends are usually our time to at least get things back to normal.  My mom hasn't been able to do a real clean on our floors etc for a couple of weeks now, so I seriously need to get that done this weekend also.

This life is crazy, but it's FUN, and I'm really enjoying soaking up these hours with my babies.  They won't ever be this young again, so instead of wishing it away when times are busy, I'm trying to make the most of it, and be so thankful for what times we have together!

What are your lives like?  Are you this busy?  I'm imagining it gets 2 or 3 times harder with multiple kiddos......  Have a fantastic weekend and Happy Mothers Day!

Advocare 10 Day Cleanse: Day 10 and Results

The 10 days are done.

First and foremost, I didn't go on this "cleanse" to lose weight, inches or anything else.  I wanted to clean up my eating.  I believe that this did help with that goal in a significant way.

The most difficult part for me was to avoid dairy.  I did miss pasta, chocolate etc, but dairy was the worst.  But I did it and I survived.  All I have to say is, thank goodness for almond milk!

The cleanse did help me lose almost 2 pounds, but the inches were the most amazing part.  I lost 14 inches around my entire body.  Now, I do believe some of that was in "bloat" but I'll take it none the less.  I seriously thought my measuring tape wasn't right this morning when I measured, but I did it twice and sure enough, 14 inches lost.

Will I do the Advocare cleanse again?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

The supplements, fiber drink and all that didn't bother me, but I wonder how much they really "helped" me.  Could I have gotten the same results by just eating clean?  I think its worth trying.

I also didn't exercise during the cleanse.  Not even one day.  So do I think I could have gotten better results from doing so, absolutely.

Overall, I'm glad I tried it, and it seemed to be successful.  If not for losing weight and inches, then for teaching me that I can indeed give up sweets, dairy, breads for 10 entire days and survive.  I honestly could probably do it for much longer.  I lost the cravings after a few days.  I want pizza yes, but I don't crave it, and would be just fine without it.

That's my overall observation.  Have you done the cleanse before?  What were your results?