The Splendidly Imperfect Miss M!

Christmas in May

2013-05-25T03:58:00.002-07:00

You can tell if I've been crafting because when I do, my craft room is clean. I'm really good about working in a neat area and cleaning up after each project. However, an extremely messy room is a good indicator that I have not been doing anything creative. The space ends up being a total dumping ground for junk and things I want to get around to doing when I have time (HA!) and it's just terrible. Based on my lack of posting this year so far, I'm betting you can guess what sort of state my craft room has been in.

Last Sunday, I told my husband I wanted to take a "personal day." I went into my disaster of a craft room that hadn't seen any love in literally months, and I got to cleaning. One giant bag full of trash, four bags of miscellaneous crafting supplies given away via my local Freecycle, a bag of paper and stickers to my neighbor's daughter, two boxes of stuff for the Goodwill, and a week later, my room is finally clean.

I did the bulk of the work on Sunday, cleaning and reorganizing for about seven or eight hours. I did the final small tasks during the past week, a few minutes here and a few minutes there. It was a long process, but one that sorely needed to be done because my storage was bursting at the seams!

It feels so good to have so much gone! Gone are the remnants of yarn and cheapie skeins that I didn't really love and for which I had no plans. They were given to a woman who makes hats for preemies in the hospital. Gone are all the fabric scraps that were too small for any sort of cohesive project. Gone are the cards I made literally a decade ago but never used. Gone are the supplies I've had nearly as long that I haven't touched in years to two different ladies who are just starting out with scrapbooking. Gone is the pile of brass embossing stencils that I had never, ever used. Gone are the half finished projects that I know I'm just never going to get around to finishing.

There was, however, one half finished project that I knew I wanted to tackle: My December Daily album... from December 2011!!! Isn't that terrible? It has sat on the corner of my work table for almost a year and a half; just this huge pile of patterned paper, stickers, and photos waiting patiently for me to get to them. Well, since my room is cleaned I figured, why not today? I sat down and worked all night until finally, FINALLY!!! It was done.

It's not as fancy as some, or in a great album, or anything like that. It's very "me" though, and it's DONE. That's good enough for this girl!

Rather than photograph the pages individually, like I've done for other projects, I decided to make a video like I did for the Gratitude Album that I made a few years back. Pardon the shakiness - I broke my little tripod and haven't gotten around to getting another one yet.

I'm thinking I may do a room tour video if time and my little people permit. Just something to show how my room is set up and what I do for storage of certain items. I've been watching those on YouTube and I love getting to peek into other people's spaces! In all honesty, those videos are what inspired me to get up off my butt and clean my room, so thank you to everyone who posts those! I love them!

Lately...

2013-05-19T15:11:00.001-07:00

...I sleep until noon most days.
...I stay up until two or three in the morning.
...I watch a lot of YouTube videos.
...I eat a lot of junk food.
...I don't get to shower as often as I should.
...I'm kinda lazy.
...I don't really want to do my chores and have been slacking.
...I've taken up playing video games, and not just on my phone.
...I've figured out how to use the xBox.

Dear Lord, I'm turning into a teenage boy.

One Month

2013-03-26T15:32:00.002-07:00

Missing: One Blogger.

She's been gone for slightly over a month. Where did she go? Oh, nowhere exciting. She's pretty much been where she always is - at home with her children.

So why has she been away for so long?

I blame one precious little miracle.

That's a photo of what I deal with when I try to pump. Or do anything really. Someone hit her clingy/stranger anxiety phase and she's hit it with a vengeance. I haven't been able to do ANYTHING. I shower maybe twice a week. I never cook anymore. My house is in total disarray. Forget doing things I'd like to do, such as working on my Project Life or blogging. Things are more chaotic now than they were when she was a newborn. As I take two minutes to type this, she's clutching my ankles and having a total melt down.

Going to pee is no fun, let me tell you.

Lord help the person who gives me "helpful" suggestions such as "put her in a carrier" or "do chores or shower while she naps!" Have I mentioned that my child will not freaking take a nap??? It's making me nutty. Her brother was on a perfect, every three hour Babywise schedule when he was a baby. This one? No nap until Daddy comes home, then it's maybe 20 minutes in his arms. Still, I feel like I can't complain too hard since she does sleep through the night like a champ and has almost since the beginning.

And that carrier business? Did I ever tell you that I'm short? Did you know short people have short arms? With a baby strapped to my chest, and considering I have a bit of a belly and 36DDD boobs (yeah, I went there) there is not a lot of arm length left over. I'm not doing many chores like that, and I'm especially not cooking.

Even when she will play on her own I have to watch her like a hawk because she is also loving to stick junk in her mouth that shouldn't be there. At least once a day I have a finger down her throat fishing out some piece of detritus that is causing her to choke because I had the nerve to look away for one second. Imagine if I didn't have eyes on her constantly?

I'm frustrated.

Did I mention I have another kid too?

He's hardcore testing boundaries. He talks back like it's his job, doesn't listen, has an attitude. I know it's his age, and hopefully this too shall pass, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant. I also have quite a bit of guilt because I'm just not able to give him the one on one time he so desperately needs. I'm certain that a lot of his acting out is just an attempt to gain some attention. At this age, negative attention is better than no attention at all. This is a dangerous trap into which to fall!

So, if you are wondering where I've been, and why I am not around as much... yeah. :(

PL 2013 - Week Three

2013-02-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Week three! I feel like I'm really accomplishing stuff here!

Left side:

I got a few more good hybrids in there this week. On the Doctor card the background and the manila tag are digital, but the button and Thickers were added after printing.

Here's a close up of some of the digital cards:

Here's the right side:

The quote was found on Pinterest and cropped to fit in Photoshop. The font on the Hello Cutie card is Clementine Sketch. I printed the Walking Dead cards on my printer at home because I didn't want to get in trouble for violating the copyright laws or something. I think it's important to document stuff we enjoy, like tv shows and music.

Close ups of the digital cards:

Font is Batik Regular. That's pretty much my "go to" typewriter font these days.

Letters are Sahlin Studio.

Font on the title is Sketch Rockwell. I can't remember what I used for the text.

The journaling is Batik Regular, and I forgot what I used for the title. The notepaper, as well as the chipboard looking background on the previous card and the graph paper background on the "So Sweet" card are from here. I use something from there on most of the cards I make!

As promised, here are the freebies for February:

I decided to go with 4" x 6" cards this month, but of course I labeled them 5x7. WHOOPS! I don't know why I did that! I will correct the file before I post it. These can be found by becoming a fan of my Facebook page. These are free for personal use only. Please do not pin them directly from the hosting site. Enjoy!

PL 2013 - Week Two

2013-02-21T03:30:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo for two posts in a row! Here's week two of this year's Project Life.

Left side:

This week is a pretty good mix of digital and traditionally scrapped cards. The title card is all paper, for example, while this card about the new piece of Pyrex I got that week is all digital.

As is this one about the baby's bed head:

I have all my digital cards printed at my local Walgreen's on matte paper. They do a pretty good job and since they're only a mile up the road, they're super convenient too. It's cheaper than doing it at home and constantly having to buy ink and paper!

Some cards, such as the Mow card are hybrid. I added the typed journaling on a piece of cardstock with a few staples to there would be a bit of texture to my page. Everything else on the card is digital. I found the scrabble tiles here.

Here's the right side:

The calendar is actually a screenshot of an app I use called Cuptakes that has the cutest wallpapers for the iPhone. They put up new ones each month and they work great as these cards too. If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen some of the ones I've edited on there to use as placeholders so I can tell what happened each week.

The one that looks like an old timey newspaper at the bottom with the weather report is a screenshot of another app called Daily Weather. It was worth the buck to me because once you crop off the ad on the bottom, it's the perfect size for a Project Life card!

The Operation Shink-A-Booty card was on my January freebie sheet and can be found by "liking" my Facebook page.

And here are the close ups of some of the digital cards:

Can I tell you how cute it is that they play together? It doesn't happen all the time, but I was surprised to find how well they interact. I didn't expect it to start this early, but I'm happy it did.

I added a bit of a paper doily to this one after it was printed.

Truth.

Notes from a fun evening out with my friend Suzy.

Bubba's pet inventory as of the end of January. It's like a Littlest Pet Shop class photo or something!

That wraps up week two!

PL 2013 - Week One

2013-02-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't forgotten about Project Life. I've just gotten way, way behind. Having a new baby will do that to a person I guess, especially when said baby is anti-nap. She sleeps fine at night, so I can't complain too hard, but man! The occasional ten minute daylight nap doesn't really help one's productivity levels, you know?

I finally managed to get the first three weeks of this year's PL into the book last night though, so the rest of this week will be dedicated to that. Be sure to check out all the posts because one of them will include a new freebie when I get around to finishing it!

Here's week one, left side:

As always, click on any image to see it larger.

I journaled about our New Year tradition of going out to eat noodles. No black eyed peas for this family! YUCK! Here's the journaling for that:

That's one of the freebie cards I offered last year. I still have them up, but they're charging 99 cents for the file now. I get like a quarter of that, LOL! Big money, here I come - not.

I also added my goals for the year:

I'm so-so on those so far.

Here's the right side:

I added a couple of quote cards as space fillers because I didn't take many pictures this week. I also added this funny observation that I had tweeted:

I think it will be cool to go back in 20 years and see what packaging, logos and advertising used to look like.

I added a little snippet about going to physical therapy:

And that's it for this week! Check out Week Two tomorrow!

Big Boned

2013-02-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon, while at physical therapy, I totally lost my shit.

I hate when that happens.

I've been going to physical therapy for my knee and my tailbone for about two months now. While my knee has shown marked improvement, my tailbone continues to be, well, a literal pain in my butt. Physical therapy involves my physical therapist massaging the area around the coccyx to loosen the tight muscles that they think are causing me pain.

That's right - twice a week I get my butt massaged. It's so awesome.

I don't know when I became such a prude about my own body, but it was really hard to accept that this man I had just met was going to by rubbing my behind. I mean, I've never even had a male doctor before, nor am I comfortable with the idea of ever having one. However, in the interest of getting better, I sucked it up, so to speak, and dealt with it. When his assistant started to work on me, I told myself that he was very busy, and hey, at least this was a woman. I could deal with it.

Then on Friday the new guy, who I had only seen once before was instructed to do a treatment on me. A treatment that called for my pants to be pulled down quite a ways so that my butt crack was exposed. I didn't like it, but what was I going to do?

Then it was time for the massage, and another girl who I had seen before but had never worked on me was sent my way. She too had my pants down pretty low. And that's when it started.

First, there was just a strong feeling of unease. Then the more I thought (obsessed) over it, the more my hands started to shake. As I laid there after my massage with the ice pack over my lower back, I started to feel the familiar tightening in my throat, where a lump was beginning to form. I told myself repeatedly to just calm down, that I was overreacting, but do you know what? The same way a hysterical woman will become more hysterical when someone else speaks those words to her, I become more upset when I say those words to myself. It's awful.

So I'm laying there and tears start leaking from my eyes. I was frantically wiping them away, first with my hands and then with my shirt, while trying to unsuccessfully will myself not to cry. I wasn't sobbing or anything, but the tears just kept leaking and I was powerless to stop them. I knew I had to talk to Chris (my therapist/trainer/nutritionist) before I left or the situation was going to be stained in my head all weekend.

I pulled him aside (by this time it was pretty obvious I was upset) and explained to him what had happened, and why I was upset, and why it was a big deal to me. He knows about my OCD, but not my childhood or the anxiety disorder or the PTSD. I confessed that I felt ashamed (because I do) that something that happened over 25 years ago should be able to affect me like this and I can't control it. He was really nice and apologized. I guess when you're dealing with people with weight issues, it comes up occasionally.

I confessed to him that sometimes it feels like I'm too broken to fix, so why am I even bothering to put myself through all this?

Earlier in the week we had a discussion about body type. It seems to me that there's a certain comfort in being a fat kid and saying to yourself, "Hey, I could be skinny if I wanted to, but who wants to starve themselves and do all that work?" The thing is, when you start to watch your diet and start to diet and you are told that you will never be able to be tiny because your body type makes it impossible, well, it's discouraging. All I heard was that I was "big boned." I didn't know that was a real thing! I thought that was something that fat people said to make themselves feel better about being fat!

So, when I picture my five foot, four inch frame, here's what I see in my mind:

Oh, not the one on the left. The gorilla skeleton on the right. Short, squat, and big boned. UGH.

I know that's not accurate. I know that is my mind reacting to things it sees, things it hears, and emotions that I feel in a negative way. I know that when I run on the treadmill, the reason each footfall makes a loud noise is because it's hollow under the belt, but what my mind tells me is that I'm TOO FAT to run, and I'm TOO BIG to be on there, and those footfalls aren't normal, but rather THUNDEROUS AND LOUD and I'm going to break the machine if I don't stop.

I consistently buy clothes that are too big for my frame because if they are even the slightest bit snug I fear that the hulking bulk of my body will burst forth from them if I lift an arm too high or sit too fast. I think I have this picture of myself in my head where I'm much, much bigger than I actually am because I feel like it's better than thinking I look thinner than I actually am.

All this time I've been telling myself, At least I'm not in denial about how I look, but actually in a way, I kind of am.

I am making progress, slowly but surely. I'm eating better than I was three months ago. I weigh 13 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm down quite a few inches. I no longer weigh more than my husband. I've started jogging again and I've been exercising with weights and bands and all that good stuff for two months. Today I bought a pair of jeans that yes, are a little snug, but they fit and they are two whole sizes smaller than the ones I was wearing to the store.

I just need to keep moving forward and to get out of my own dang way.

Crushing Milestones

2013-02-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Or perhaps I should say, "Chewing up milestones and spitting them out!" because Baby Doll's first tooth made an appearance on Tuesday. I've only felt it though, because every time I try to get visual confirmation she makes this face:

Girlfriend has that tooth on lockdown.

So here she is, seven months old and she's crawling, pulling up, CRUISING, has her first tooth, and last night? She started clapping. Crazy! She also will wave bye-bye at herself, but not other people, so in my head I'm not counting it yet.

Doesn't she know she's just a little baby? Doesn't she know she needs to slow down because she's my last baby, and I want to savor this time? I mean, if she wants to skip all the bad parts of babyhood, by all means, be my guest! But to cram all these milestones into a period of just a few weeks is too much.

Slow down, Baby Doll. You have time.

This is the one where I rant a bit.

2013-02-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

Like millions of other people, I watched the Super Bowl last night, and like many, I came across Facebook posts, tweets and blog postings about it today. There was one in particular that I came across this morning that annoyed me to the point where I thought about it off and on all day today. (I guess that's the Obsessive part of OCD huh?) This woman was complaining about how the commercials aired during the game were inappropriate for her children to watch when the game was billed as a family friendly event.

Um...

Since when is an event that brings together grown men who physically beat the crap out of each other trying to get a ball while another man who is in charge of them shouts obscenities and periodically throws stuff family friendly? Since when is an event that inspires people to get together for the purpose of drinking alcohol, gambling, and shouting obscenities at the television family friendly? Since when is an event that is touted as much for the advertising as for the event itself family friendly?

Did I miss something?

Now, the blog post mentioned two commercials specifically. The first was the Gildan ad about the favorite tee shirt, which you can see here. The blogger said her nine year old asked her why the guy was trying to undress the sleeping lady, and she was upset that advertisers made her have to explain this to her child.

Here's my thought on what I would have told my child: "Oh, she took his favorite tee shirt while he was asleep and he's trying to get it back. It probably would have been nicer if he waited until she woke up, wouldn't it?"

And I would have left it at that. That nine year old probably has no idea what a "one night stand" is, nor should he have to learn. What he probably does know is that sometimes men have girlfriends. He probably knows that sometimes people borrow things without asking. Heck, he's probably done it himself, or has siblings that have borrowed his stuff without asking. He probably can identify with wanting to take your stuff back, especially if it's your "favorite" anything, and wanting it back NOW. My answer takes all that into consideration without having to go into "one night stands" and "walks of shame."

See, we as a society tend to talk down to kids and act like they're dumb. That is, of course, until they wander off into some area that we deem "too adult." Then we like to forget that they don't have all the wisdom and knowledge and experience of the world that we do, and we overreact. They've demonstrated a bit of awareness and therefore they must be fully aware of all the things!!! I'm reminded of a time when I was a teacher's aide and a six year old brought us her journal to read. The entry that for that day mentioned her brother having "big p*nis." The teacher and I kinda looked at each other like, HOLY CRAP!!! initially, but then the wise teacher asked the girl to read the entry to us.

Turns out, her brother had BIG PENNIES - you know, the foil covered chocolate ones like you can get at World Market in the novelty candy section? Phonetic spelling can be pretty dang tricky to read! I learned a valuable lesson that day. Not only are kids smarter than we give them credit for, they're also still pretty innocent. You don't assign your preconceived, worldly notions to them. Give them the benefit of the doubt!

Back to this blog post though. The second ad that was mentioned was this year's Go Daddy ad. Come on. You're really surprised that Go Daddy had a gross ad? I'm not disagreeing here - all that smacking was gross. It was a pretty inappropriate commercial, but you know what? That's what Go Daddy does. That's what they've done every Super Bowl for the past few years. That's how they roll. If you're shocked that Go Daddy had a gross ad, well then, you're just not paying attention. If I had kids old enough to where I was concerned about this sort of thing, then either we'd be watching the game online with no commercials, or I'd be flipping the channel as soon as I saw Danica Patrick on my screen.

So here I'm mildly annoyed after reading this post, and then I read the freaking comments. DUDE. Never read the comments on the Internet. I should know this by now! I think that's what pushed me over the edge and stuck this crap in my mind all day. I'll pick the two that stuck out to me in the interest of keeping it short.

First off? All the comments complaining about Beyonce. Come on, people. I don't even hardly watch tv. All my tv watching is on video or online and even I have known for weeks that she was the performer for the halftime show. If you have a problem with her style of clothing or dance, why is it so hard to change the channel when the halftime show comes on? It's not like they go straight from the game into the show. The broadcasters talk about the game for a bit first so they have a chance to set up the stage.

One woman complained in the comments that her kid asked her why Beyonce kept shaking her butt, and felt that said rump wiggling was too much for her kids to have to see. Come on lady. This is a woman who is famous for singing "I don't think you're ready for this jelly" and you're not only surprised that she's shaking her rear end, you're upset about it? That's how she made her money. If you don't want to watch it, CHANGE THE EFFING CHANNEL BEFORE THE SHOW STARTS.

Others said her outfit was too skimpy. WELL DUH. She was dancing, and that was basically a fancy leotard. Sure, it was a skimpy leotard to be sure, but no more revealing than what your kids would see at the beach or pool. I hate to break it to you, but your kids are going to see legs... and arms... and cleavage even (!!!) while out on the street. I see girls in junior high wearing shorts in public that are smaller than some underwear I own, and it makes me cringe much more than a performer wearing a performing costume in a performance setting on television.

But the best, absolute BEST comment? It contained the following line (and I'm probably paraphrasing because I read it this morning and now it's twelve hours later):

"I am a WARRIOR MAMA and I FIGHT to keep my sons SAFE from THE WORLD."

Sorry lady, but you are not a warrior. You are a stay at home mom who has nothing better to do than define your entire being by your children. Have you seen that Capri Sun Super V commercial on tv lately? You are the mom they were thinking of when they made this, at least based on that comment. (Of course, I'm making an assumption based on one comment, which isn't very fair, but to be fair, she is the one painting that portrait with her words.) You can't keep your kids safe from the world without doing them a complete disservice. Our job as parents is to prepare our children for the world so that when they enter it they have a fighting chance on their own. You spend eighteen years keeping them "safe" and sheltering them from everything you deem unsavory, they're going to have no idea how to deal with stuff when you're not around to deal with it for them. How is that keeping your kids safe?

All the people complaining about how the world isn't Christian enough - well I have one thing to say to you. There's a reason why we use the term "worldly" with a negative connotation. The world isn't Christian! As Christians we have to teach our children to be strong in their faith and values so that when they're confronted with "worldliness" they will have something from which to fall back on and draw the strength to make the right choices and do the right thing. We can't just keep them in a bubble and expect them to all of a sudden be functioning adults on their eighteenth birthday.

I would never want to protect my children from every bad thing in the world, because how else would they ever have the chance to learn? If you're always good because you've had other people making those good choices for you all your life, can you ever really say that you're truly good?

Yeah. Sorry, but I had to get that off my chest! When stuff like that starts to stick it's best to just journal it all out. :)

Edited to add:

I googled that blog post this morning (because I couldn't remember where I saw it) and read that the boy in question was five, not nine. Since I have a four and a half year old, this make it even more close to home and I stand by what I would have said if it were my kid that had asked about it.

s

Seven Months!

2013-01-31T22:50:00.001-07:00

Pictures this month didn't go very smoothly since somebody is crawling now.

She finds being asked to lay down (quelle horreur!!!) and still to be completely unacceptable now because not only is she army crawling all over the place, she's been pulling up now for about three weeks.

Not only is she pulling up, she started cruising a couple of days ago.

She's only SEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!

It's so frustrating to her, because she wants to be upright now at all times and those little seven month old legs just aren't strong enough to hold her up for as long as she wants. As a result, she falls. A LOT. I have to be next to her at every moment, ready to catch her. Sometimes she just slips and I'm not fast enough. She keeps banging her head on stuff and it's freaking me out!

This means that either I have to listen to her complain loudly that I'm not letting her do what she wants, or I have to be with her every spare second. To make matters worse, every single time this child bumps her head and starts crying, Bubba is right in my face demanding to know what happened even if he just watched it happen. The boy is relentless too. "WhathappenedwhyisKellycryingdidshebumpherheadshe'scryingwhymomwhy
isshecryingmomwhathappeneddidshegetanouchisherheadokaywhydidshefalls
momwhathappenedmomKellyiscryingmakeherstopdidshebumpherheaddidshe
fallwhathappenedwhyisKellycryingdidshebumpherheadshe'scryingwhymomwhy
isshecryingmomwhathappeneddidshegetanouchisherheadokaywhydidshefalls
momwhathappenedmomKellyiscryingmakeherstopdidshebumpherheaddidshefall..."

ARRGGGHHH!!!!! It's just a season, right?

Sassypants baby.

DownEast Home and Clothing - Gilbert, AZ

2013-01-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

This week I was invited to check out the new DownEast Home and Clothing store that opened a few miles from my house in the San Tan Shopping Center in Gilbert. It's the first one to open in Arizona. How lucky am I to have it so close? Let me tell you...

I. Am. In. LOVE!

They have both their own private label brands there as well as national brands (at 40-90% off national brand prices) that you wouldn't expect. The stuff is really cute too! Check out these:

Oh, if only my house was bigger and I had more of a decorating budget!

How perfect would this be in your favorite Anglophile's home?

They have all these great jewelry boxes from a big chain. Yes, they're personalized, but the salesperson told us that the personalization is basically vinyl. A little heat from a blow dryer to soften the adhesive, perhaps a little Goo Gone, and it would be plain and ready to use as is or to add your own vinyl personalization. For over a $50 savings? Heck yeah I'd do a little elbow grease!

They had tons of kids backpacks and lunch boxes from the same chain. Again, they're personalized, but it is possible to find your child's name in the pile. Of course, it could be in the wrong colors. HA!

If I needed one, I'd either pull out the embroidery with a seam ripper or have my own embroidery done on a scrap of coordinating fabric and then applique that over the existing personalization.

Oh, and the clothes! There's the great stuff you'd expect from DownEast as well as really high end brands here. I found a top I'd admired at another chain that cost $100 for 60% off here. For reals.

So, what did I take home? I bought the sweetest little doll baby carrier to stash for next Christmas (Kelly will be into dolls eventually, right?) as well as this:

That pretty fabric "F" was a fraction of what it cost at it's original store. Kick butt. I also bought a pair of these:

These designer jeans were 60% off their original price! I decided to treat myself and bought them a size small so I'd have something to work toward and reward myself for all the hard work I've been doing with my diet and exercise. Normally I wouldn't buy colored jeans like that, but I'm trying to work outside of my comfort zone, you know? I think they'll look great with a white tank and a navy cardigan, don't you?

To celebrate the new opening, DownEast is offering a chance to enter a “Shopping’s More Fun with Your Friends” giveaway from Friday, January 25, to Friday, February 8, 2013. Customers can register for the giveaway at the new DownEast Home & Clothing store in the San Tan Shopping Center in Gilbert. The giveaway will award one lucky winner a shopping spree valued at $200 and also present a $50 gift certificate to each of four friends selected by the winner. The winner does not have to be present at the time of the drawing on Saturday, February 9, to win.

You KNOW I entered, right? ;)

In the interest of full disclosure, I was invited to attend this event with other bloggers, and I did receive product in compensation for my time. However, all opinions I've posted here are my own.

The Not-So-Skinny Skinny Baby

2013-01-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

This kid went to the GI specialist again yesterday. Pretty much, she said the same thing that everyone else, including the nurse practitioner at my own pediatrician's office said.

This is not what one expects to see when the chart says "Failure to Thrive."

My NP actually did a physical double take, like a character on a bad sitcom when she walked into the room for her well check visit two weeks ago. "Not what I was expecting!" was what she chirped. The GI specialist said that what her eyes were seeing in front of her and the numbers on her chart just didn't add up, to the point where they actually made them go take her measurements again.

The fact of the matter is that no one knows why my child is "underweight." She looks healthy (small, but still healthy) and is hitting all her developmental milestones either slightly early (did you see yesterday's post?) or right on time. She's not allergic to anything in my diet, as evidenced when I went on that stupid Total Elimination Diet. She's not having any stomach issues that we can tell. She sleeps well (okay, maybe not this week because we think she's teething, ugh) and she's generally in good spirits.

EVERYONE IS STUMPED.

A lot of people have told me, well, screw the doctors. If she seems fine and has no signs of anything wrong then just ignore them. I mean, it's not cheap, even with insurance. It's a pain in the butt to have to haul her to all these visits and it's so stressful for people to act like you're not trying your best to get your kid to eat! It's not like I'm trying to keep her from gaining weight!

The problem is that she is eating, but not eating enough. We finally got her over the 24 oz a day minimum that they've been harassing us about only to find that because she's grown, the minimum is now 28 oz a day. She's usually at 25 and you would think three ounces isn't that much, but it is.

She's gaining weight, but not gaining it fast enough. She dropped from an average of 8 point something grams a day to six point something grams a day in spite of eating more these days. The doctor said it's probably because she's more active now that she's discovered her own mobility.

The recommendation I left with after an hour of poking, prodding, questioning, and a $45 copay?

Put butter in her cereal. UGH. Maddening! Skinny baby needs to just eat already!!!

Get Up, Stand Up!

2013-01-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

So...

This happened Sunday night for the first time.

This picture is actually from yesterday right after a diaper change.

We went to a friend's house to hang out on Sunday. As we were sitting around getiing things packed to leave, my husband says, "Hey - look!" I turned around to see my six month old baby shakily holding herself up using the carseat.

"Did you put her there like that?" I asked in shock.

"No!" he laughed. "That was all her."

I don't think I'm ready, y'all. I mean, it was one thing when she started to army crawl almost three weeks ago.

But I feel like this is different!!! I guess what one of my Instagram friends said is true: "Second babies are hardcore. They have things to do!"

Farewell, Fat A$$

2013-01-12T23:59:00.001-07:00

Oh yes, you've heard it before. I get on the wagon, I fall off, I play in the mud for a while, then I have a baby...

LOL!

Well, a month ago I reported I was back on the wagon. At that time I weighed in at 188 pounds. I have been seeing a nutritionist along with my physical therapist for the past four weeks. I get Physical Therapy for my knee and tailbone twice a week, along with some light exercise when I go in to build up my core and relieve tension from those muscles in my affected areas. The result of four weeks of work?

Not too shabby!

I'm down ten pounds and a total of nine and a half inches total, including one whole inch from my neck (!!!) and two each from my waist and thighs. My wedding ring fits for the first time in years and when I tried on a bangle at Target that previously would not go over my hand, it fit! Easily!!! What impresses me most is that this was accomplished over Christmas and New Years, plus I had a couple of other cheat days in there too. You know I didn't watch what I ate on those days. I've had a chimichanga, pizza, ham, cookies...

What I'm saying is that yes, it's been hard, but I haven't had to give up everything I love. I just had to learn how and when to eat it, and have those times in moderation.

Oh, and these. These kept this sugar addict sane.

I'm not a big peanut butter fan. In fact, up until when I was pregnant recently, I couldn't stand the stuff at all! Now it's just okay, but I still don't love it. My nutritionist/trainer/physical therapist (really, he's awesome) recommended Sun Butter, which is like peanut butter only it's made from sunflower seeds. Holy heck is this stuff fantastic! Bubba likes it too, so we're on our third jar. :) This is a recipe the nutritionist recommended, that I tweaked a bit.

Chocolate Banana Sun Butter Smoothie

3/4 cup almond milk
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 tablespoon Sun Butter
1/2 banana
handful of ice

Place everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

I use the Single Serve blender I posted about when I started this program. The lid opens up so all I have to to is pop in a straw and I'm good to go - no extra dishes to wash! I give Bubba the other half of my banana. Since that's about all he'll eat at a sitting it works out well.

This smoothie has 245 calories, 11 grams of fat (the good kind, mostly from nuts/seeds), 23 grams of carbohydrates, and sixteen grams of protein. An adult woman needs about 45 grams a day, so right there you're knocking out a huge amount! I like to have these for my first meal (I have five) of the day, right after I get out of bed. This gets my metabolism started and it's fast enough I can whip it together and drink it while I pump. If I leave out the banana, I can have it for my last meal on the days when I don't feel like eating any more but I know I still need to feed my metabolism.

If you have any questions about what I'm eating, feel free to add me on My Fitness Pal. I'm splendidmissm and I leave my food diary public so you can see what's on there.

Project Life 2013

2013-01-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

And so, my Project Life journey for 2013 begins.

I got my title page done today! I never made one last year, so I'm feeling sort of pleased with myself here. I wanted our pictures on there, and I wanted very current photos. So, on Tuesday I lugged my old green chair with us to dinner and we stopped downtown on the way to take some quick photos of each of us. I'm sure people who saw us thought we were nutty, but whatever. ;)

The quotes were found on Pinterest, the typewriter image on the Silhouette America blog, the family crest via Google, and the other cards were from Monday's printable. You don't have it yet? Well, go like my Facebook page and get it already!!! You can see I embellished each of those three cards that I ended up using to give them a little something extra. Easy.

For an explanation of how I do my version of Project Life, click here and here.
To see previous Project Life related posts, click here.
To check out my Facebook page, click here.
To check out my Pinterest boards, click here.

Happy 2013!

2012-12-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Even though it is still looking a lot like Christmas around here (the 12th day of Christmas is Epiphany, January 6th so the decorations stay up until then), in my head, I'm gearing up for a new year. We have no wild plans tonight. We're just hanging out at home, probably watching the third Back To The Future installment. ;) The boy is really into that time machine car lately!

I'm once again not making resolutions. Resolutions tend to imply that you find major fault with yourself and need an overhaul. Have you ever noticed that? Instead, I like to set goals. First of all, stick with the diet from the nutritionist. I'm down seven pounds in two weeks in spite of the three I put back on over Christmas, which is pretty darn good if you ask me! Not too many people come out this side of the holiday season that much lighter.

Two - I'd like to garden again this year. Last year I was way too tired and pregnant to even consider digging in the dirt, but this year there's no excuse! Since planting season starts in January where I live, it's time to get the ball rolling here.

Three - Project Life! I'm getting back on the wagon. I only made it to the end of April for 2012. At first I was thinking that I failed because I didn't do all 52 weeks, but you know what? That's four months of our lives that I documented that would not have been documented otherwise. How can I consider that a failure? I'm going to try again this year and we'll see how it goes. To celebrate?

New printables!

You know the drill - you must be a fan of my Facebook page to gain access to this PDF. I use Scribd to host my files, because it's free and it's easy for me to use. I make these mainly for my own use, but since I spend so much time on them I figured "Hey, why not share?" When you click the link to access them, Facebook will occasionally ask you to use Facebook Connect to access Scribd. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS. I have been using FBC since it was introduced with no problem, but I understand that some people are against it for whatever reason. You always have the option of copying and pasting the URL into a new window/tab to avoid the FBC thing.

Please, please, please do not pin these to Pinterest directly from Scribd. If you would pin them from here, I would appreciate it so much! Also, this will be the 12th printable I've uploaded to share. My work has been downloaded literally thousands of times, but I haven't even hit 200 followers on Google. If you could take a minute to hit the Google thingie over on the right sidebar if you have ever downloaded one of my freebies, or liked one of my recipes, or heck, even if I just entertained you on a bad day! I'd love that number to go up a little for the new year. Thanks! :)

Have a great and safe New Year!

December 2012 in Photos

2012-12-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot of blogging happening here in December. I think this may be one of my worst blogging months on record! Here's most of December documented in photos:

We saw Santa and kept our No Crying Children streak alive.

We sent out Christmas cards.

We got ready for the Mayan Apocalypse.

We painted a keepsake plate at one of those pottery painting places.

I scored some sweet Pyrex.

We read Christmas and Hanukkah books by the light of the Christmas tree.

I finally got cold and busted out a hoodie from college. That thing had not seen the light of day for probably eight years or so!

I started physical therapy and seeing a nutritionist. One week into the new diet and I'm not only down 5 1/2 pounds, but my wedding ring (that hasn't fit in almost two years) fits again.

New pjs were procured.

Santa came!

We attended Mass for the first time since the baby was born and she slept through most of it.

I made Christmas dinner and served it all in vintage Pyrex. Realized I needed a Butterfly Gold 043.

I baked a birthday cake for Jesus and Bubba decorated it. Kelly was into it... literally.

And finally -

Little Miss turned six months old today!

Hopefully you all had a great December! I hope to get back to regular posting in the New Year.

They tried to make me go to Rehab...

2012-12-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

And I'm gonna go, go go.

Not that kind of rehab. It's a place called Rehab Arizona, and I will be started the program this week for my stupid knee. I tried to start Couch to 5k a few months ago but I didn't even make it through the first week of the program due to my knee starting to hurt again. I was in so much pain for a few weeks after that I finally decided to see my doctor about it.

She said that I will probably need an MRI but that my insurance company wouldn't even consider covering one until I had received at least four weeks of physical therapy. She referred me to this place that includes metabolic counseling and a nutritionist with the physical therapy. You know what that means, right?

I'm starting a diet right before Christmas. AWWW YEAH.

(and this mama needs a pedi. OY)

I had my consultation yesterday. We covered the basics of the program, the diet, and I had my measurements taken. My therapist told me that my body fat percentage was estimated at about 34%. Not so great, but about what I expected. I've had it measured before and that's pretty much the number that comes up on a regular basis.

Here's what I didn't expect: he said that he estimated my lean muscle mass to be about 125 lbs. Now see, I went in there thinking I was about fifty pounds overweight. Every BMI chart I've ever seen says that for my height, the most I should weigh is between 135 and 140 pounds. They also say that at my current weight, I'm clinically obese.

My nutritionist/therapist said no way. He said based on my lean mass, it would be practically physically impossible for me to get to 135 without losing a lot of lean muscle. He said if I were to get to that weight, I'd only have about ten pounds worth of fat total on me and I'd look, in his words, "skeletal."

Blew. My. Mind.

I mean, like I said, I've had my body fat measured before, lots of times in fact. This was the very first time that anyone ever mentioned my lean mass. The focus has always been the fat. Interesting, huh? He told me he wouldn't want me to get any lower than 145, and 150 would be ideal for my frame. So, instead of having fifty pounds to lose I only have to lose about 35. Kick butt.

He also said that my metabolism has to be working like crazy based on what I'm eating and the fact that my weight has stayed the same. As one of his "thinner" (HA!) clients and coupled with the fact that I'm relatively young (HA HA!) and healthy, he estimates that I shouldn't have too much trouble losing that 35 pounds.

At that point he said I looked shocked, and I admitted I was. I told him I had this idea in my head of what my "healthy" weight should be for all these years, and to hear that I should weigh 15 pounds more than that just seemed crazy. He said, "Well, you have a lot of lean muscle under there." I was like, "But that much?"

He laughed and said "Girl, look at your legs!!! You are strong!"

Huh. So there's that.

I started the diet today and have been tracking my food on My Fitness Pal. (ooh, wanna be my friend? I'm splendidmissm) I have to eat FIVE TIMES A DAY and the first meal has to be within 30 minutes of when I get up. This is going to be tricky since most days I don't eat until I've been up for at least two hours! I pump first thing (20 minutes) then feed the baby (an hour) and then there's prep time (15 - 30 minutes depending on what I have) so that goes by quickly. Solution?

Protein shakes. I killed two blenders in the past year so I bought one of these:

That's what my trainer uses and he said he's had his for two years, so that's promising! Also, if it does break, I'm only out sixteen bucks! Much better than $100. :) It's so easy to toss some frozen berries, a scoop of protein powder and a little almond milk (very little dairy allowed on this diet, which is fine since I haven't really had much dairy since I started the failure that was TED) in there first thing and just sip that while I pump and feed the baby. After I take care of all that it's pretty much time for my second meal and I'll have time then to concentrate on something more involved.

I start the actual physical therapy part of the program on Thursday. Not only will they be working on my knee issues, but will also address my tailbone, which I did NOT break by spending too much time on my butt. Turns out, it's probably giant baby pregnancy related. Praise the Lord, because seriously? Wouldn't breaking one's ass by sitting on it too much be the ultimate fat kid move?

December Daily 2012

2012-11-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

For the last three years, I have attempted to do a December Daily. The first year, I was successful and I completed it. The next two? Well... let's just say there are two piles of red and green items still waiting for me in my craft room! Terrible!

As we know, this year I attempted Project Life. I did a great job the first half of the year, but then summer hit, pregnancy got the best of me, I had a baby, and it was abandoned. I still sorted my photos into weekly folders in hope I could catch up, but it seemed such a daunting task it never happened. I suck at this.

However, it's now December, and I'm faced with the question of whether to attempt the December Daily again or not. Part of me says no - I have two years of unfinished dailies to do. Part of me says it's the baby's first year here and it would be nice to document it.

So, my compromise is to pick up Project Life again and just do December. If I can manage to go back and catch up on those lost months later, great. Right now? I'm going to give myself permission to not worry about it.

What started out as something as simple as printing resized photos and adding typed journaling cards spiraled into detailed digital scrapping for each card that took way more time than I was able to devote. It's time for back to basics, and that means I needed some fresh journaling cards.

That begs the question - what fun is making new journaling cards if I can't share them?

So, my gift to you this year for being a fan of my blog and liking my page on Facebook is this brand spanking new set of six printable journaling cards, perfect for a December Daily. Just click on that link, "Like" the page if you have not yet done so, and get them for yourself! Yes, I know the colors are Christmas themed, since that is what my family and I celebrate and therefore what I would use. Unfortunately, like I mentioned before, I just don't have the time or energy to make Hannukah or non-denominational sets with a new baby in the house. Primarily I make these for myself, and then share them.

Enjoy and Happy December!

Meet TED.

2012-11-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

Well, the baby still isn't eating.

Don't get me wrong - since I figured out the business with the lipase, she's eating more than she did before. She was taking in between 17 and 21 ounces of milk on average before, and for the week after she was between 24 and 26 most days. She even took in 28 ounces one day, which is incredible! The GI specialist said she should be taking in between 24 and 30 ounces a day, so this was great.

However, a week or so after we started on the fresh-milk-only plan, she started to not want to eat again. Just making it to 20 ounces was a struggle. I figured that it took 20 minutes to pump, about 10 or so to wash bottles and pump parts, and 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get her to finish a six ounce bottle. She eats five times a day. Feeding the baby is almost literally a full time job!

I cried a lot this week.

When am I supposed to give attention to my other child? When am I supposed to take care of stuff like dusting and laundry? When am I supposed to take care of myself? Too many days passed where 2 pm would roll by and find me still not having eaten anything. I swear to you one day I ate half a can of nuts I found in the pantry simply because it was something I could grab with one hand and eat while pumping.

So, the Maalox didn't work, she doesn't like the Duocal in her milk, not one of the three doctors that have seen her can find a thing wrong, and she rejects formula. Oh, please don't get me started on formula! I am not breastfeeding because I have some sort of hippie Earth mother militant lactivist dedication to only giving my child breastmilk. I'm doing it because it's all she will take, even if it is just small amounts! We've tried four different formulas, including soy and the result has been the same each time - she takes a couple of swigs off the bottle, realizes what is inside, then spits it all back out.

I cannot afford to try every formula on the market to just have to toss them after one bottle. I don't need to be judged for being "stubborn" and insisting on feeding my child my milk. If the girl would take formula I'd do it in a heartbeat, because her eating is the most important thing right now.

Which is why I'm embarking on the last resort suggested by the GI specialist. It's the Total Elimination Diet - also known as TED. For the next three weeks, in an effort to clean out any possible irritants from my system, I can only eat the following:

turkey
lamb (I don't eat this)
rice
white potatoes
sweet potatoes
zucchini
yellow squash
pears (don't particularly care for these either)

I can use salt and pepper for seasoning, as well as olive oil for cooking.

Keep in mind I've been on a pretty high fat diet in an effort to make my milk as fatty as possible, so this is going to be a shock to my system! Today was my first day and all I can think about is food. People post photos of food on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Every other commercial on television is for food. There's still pumpkin pie in the fridge. I've had my husband eating meals of leftovers all day so the stuffing and mashed potatoes and apple bread won't be around to tempt me.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought some zucchini and pears. I picked up one each of the four kinds Target had to see what kind I liked best. Luckily we have a lot of leftover turkey in the house and THANK THE LORD for having me discover a few weeks ago that I liked sweet potato fries! I don't like sweet potatoes, but when they're fried they're pretty good!

So, that's where I am. I'm so sad I'm going to miss the Peppermint Chocolate Chip shakes at Chik Fil A, and chocolate covered Peppermint Jo Jo's from Trader Joe's, and egg nog ice cream. Every time I get tempted, I just need to remind myself of my Baby Doll, and know it's not worth it.

As an aside, I weighed 186.5 lbs this morning, which is two pounds less than I did five days ago. Who loses weight over Thanksgiving?!??!? Anyway, I'm interested in seeing how this affects my weight.

Thanksgiving 2012

2012-11-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

One of the worst part of not having any family living near us is holidays. We haven't exactly been able to afford to buy plane tickets for every holiday that has rolled around for the past 12 years, which means we're on our own for a lot of these special occasions. Sometimes a friend will invite us over to spend the holiday with them, and a couple of times family has been able to come here or we've been able to fly to Seattle, which is fun. However, there do end up being years where it's just us.

Now, I like to do what my husband calls "event cooking." The thing is that it just seems like such a huge waste of effort to make a huge dinner just for us. A whole turkey for just two people? That's crazy! Even after Bubba was born it didn't seem worth it, because the boy just doesn't eat very much, and he sure as heck doesn't eat most Thanksgiving foods. It's still pretty much just my husband and me eating dinner so it never seems worth it. We usually end up hemming and hawing all day trying to decide what to eat and then end up grabbing whatever we can find.

Last year, our Thanksgiving dinner came from Jack in the Box. It was sad. It made me sad. I decided we wouldn't do that again. Last weekend I took advantage of a sale at a local store that scored us a free turkey with a $30 purchase. I picked up some stuff to prepare sides and dessert. A sure sign that I was meant to make this meal?

I found an old Pyrex pie plate at the Goodwill Saturday morning. The mark on the bottom says Patented PYREX May 27, 1919. From what I can gather, that mark was used from 1919 to 1924, and the 209 (my plate's model number) was introduced in 1920. It retailed for 90 cents. :) That makes this not quite as old as my 193 oval casserole without the date on it's stamp, but still pretty darn old!

I made pies last night. The boy got his first lesson in how to properly flute a pie crust.

Today I roasted our turkey. It's been a while, but I've still got it! One day I'll get a grown up roasting pan.

I busted out the good dishes. I love my vintage ironstone.

One day, I'll have autumnish napkins too. :)

We all sat down and had a feast! Everything came out so good and I'm really glad I did it.

(Let's add "gravy boat" to that "one day" list. Thank heavens for cream pitchers!)

After we let our dinner settle a bit, we tucked into that pumpkin pie for dessert. I actually made two. This is the second one made in my Flamingo Pink Pyrex pie plate. The boy did a decent job on that crust, huh?

Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup

2012-11-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

It has FINALLY started to cool off here in the desert. I made this pot of chicken noodle soup (based on a recipe I found on Pinterest, original here) last week and loved how it came out so much I made it again last night. It's gone into my permanent file and will be my go-to recipe for chicken noodle soup from now on.

Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 medium carrots, cut into ¾ inch lengths
3 large stalks celery, cut into ½ inch lengths
3 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 whole bay leaf
10-15 cranks cracked pepper
32oz box chicken broth
salt to taste
7 oz. egg noodles

Directions:

1. Cook onion and garlic in a large pot over medium heat with 2 Tbsp of olive oil for a few minutes, until the onions start to turn translucent.

2. Add the carrots and celery to the pot and continue to sauté.

3. Add the chicken thighs to the pot along with the bay leaf, basil, parsley, thyme, and black pepper. Add four cups of water and the chicken broth. Cover, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour. Make sure the pot continues to simmer for the whole hour. If the heat is turned down too low and it is not bubbling, the chicken will not shred easily.

4. After an hour of simmering, remove the chicken from the pot. Using two forks, shred it slightly. Season the broth with salt. I use about two teaspoons, but you may like more or less. Start with one teaspoon and work your way up from there.

5. Add the noodles to the pot, turn the heat up to high, and boil the noodles until tender (about 7 minutes). Return the shredded chicken to the pot. You may add up to two more cups of water if needed to account for evaporation and absorption from the noodles. I didn’t because I like a chunkier soup.

6. Serve hot with slices of French bread or rolls.

Excess Lipase

2012-11-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yup... that baby is starting to sit up. She's four and a half months old.

I think I know where the idea to fill hourglasses with sand came from. It's because time can seem to go as fast as sand running through your fingers! The past week has been completely consumed with getting this baby to eat. The GI specialist said that she should be taking in between 24 and 30 ounces of milk a day. She's doing more like 17 to 21 most days, dipping as low as 15 some days. It's extremely stressful when your baby won't eat, as I'm sure you can imagine. She only weighs three pounds over her birth weight.

I do think I may have had a breakthrough a couple of days ago when I was feeding her and I randomly decided to smell the milk. It smelled TERRIBLE! The milk had been refrigerated and pumped that day, so I knew it hadn't gone sour. It didn't smell like sour milk at all though - instead it had a slightly metallic, almost soapy smell. No wonder the child didn't want to eat!

When we got home I fixed her a fresh bottle, making sure that I smelled the milk before I poured it into her bottle. It smelled fine. I started to feed her and as usual, the first two ounces went smoothly. After the first two, she started to fight the bottle again. I pulled off the nipple, took a sniff, and sure enough, it had that same bad smell again! HOW?

Well, it occurred to me that when I saw the lactation consultant two and a half months ago, I had made a remark about the smell of breast milk. I said part of the reason I don't mind pumping is because I can't stand the smell of formula. Breast milk doesn't smell good to me either, but it's better than formula! She exchanged looks with the woman she was training that day and asked me to describe the smell. I couldn't really, so she had me pump and then we smelled the bottle.

It didn't smell like I was thinking, but it did have a smell. She asked me if I had eaten asparagus recently. At first I said no, but then I remembered that we had Chinese takeout the night before and my beef had pieces of asparagus in it. We all assumed that it was something in my diet that was giving the milk that slight odor, or maybe what I was thinking about was the smell of old milk on baby clothes and burp cloths. It really didn't seem to be much of a concern.

What I smelled in the bottle a couple of days ago was NOT what I smelled in the lactation consultant's office. It was the smell I associated with breast milk in my mind, but only much, much stronger. I dipped my finger into the milk and tasted it too. Not gonna lie - I've never tasted breast milk before this because the thought of it made me gag a little. The milk tasted like soap.

Of course I freaked out and started Googling what could cause this, and if it could harm the baby. Turns out that there's an enzyme some women produce in excess called Lipase that can cause breast milk to get a soapy smell and taste after it's been refrigerated and frozen. I did read about this on someone else's blog a while back, but had forgotten all about it until I started looking for answers. It doesn't sound like it's harmful to the baby, only that it would make them not want to drink the affected milk.

This baby has only received refrigerated milk for the past three months of her four and a half month existence.

No wonder she doesn't want to eat! I wouldn't want to eat either if all I knew of food was crappy, nasty food! It's like growing up thinking I hated vegetables because the only vegetables my mom gave us were canned peas, corn, and green beans. Oh, and something called Veg-All. Once I learned about fresh veggies, and about all the different ways you can prepare them besides boiling... well, now I love vegetables!

So, for the past few days she only gets freshly pumped milk. This is kind of a bummer because I was only pumping three or four times a day and now I have to pump every time she needs to eat. I tasted the freshly pumped milk and it's actually very sweet, so that's good. We did try another kind of formula last week out of sheer desperation, and she refused that too. This would be the fourth kind that she's refused. She'll take a pull or two on the bottle, realize what it is, and spit it all out. Talk about a freaking picky eater! Sheesh!

On the plus side, she's been over 22 ounces for the four days we've been doing this. It's still hard to get her to finish a bottle, don't get me wrong. At least now it's hard but the bottle's getting finished. Before, it was hard and bottles were left with an ounce or two in the bottom. When we go to see the pediatrician next week I plan to take a bottle of the refrigerated milk so she can smell it and I can get confirmation that the lipase is the issue.

I keep telling myself that this is just a season. I bumped into someone I knew at the grocery store the other day and she told me the best thing: "Once they get big, you won't remember how hard it was when they were little."

We can hope. :)

Twelve of 12 - November 2012

2012-11-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

The twelfth of each month keeps rolling around faster and faster, it seems. Wasn't it just the twelfth of October last week? UGH. No, a week ago would be when I blogged last. WHOOPS!

Here are the photos from my day.

1. Get up and pump. This is how the baby watched me the whole time.

2. Bubba went to a birthday party yesterday and one of the things in his goody bag was one of those little army guys with a parachute. He talked his dad into taking it outside to show him how to use it.

3. Preschooler lunch. He prefers his fruit cocktail with a seafood fork, and his PB&J cut into puzzle pieces. Carrots are also about a million times more edible when cut into star shapes.

4. Trying to work outside my baby color palette comfort zone of pink, yellow and green. I picked up this Carter's top at the Goodwill last week and I paired it with a long sleeved white onesie and baby jeggings. I think baby jeggings are flipping hilarious.

5. This is the preferred activity these days. Apparently, it's Pet Cassidy's birthday and she's turning three.

6. No cubicle can beat this! We don't like to let the baby sleep on our bed, especially unsupervised, but sometimes that's where she sleeps best. My husband was working from home so he kept her company.

7. I gave up on trying to come up with an idea for a seasonal mantel and the will to execute it. Thank goodness for a well stocked decor/accessory closet! This may end up being my Christmas display too. Hey - it has red and green! HA!

8. Grandma is in town for a few days with my husband's aunt so we got together for dinner. You know you have to dress up when you see your Grandma, right?

9. Kelly was glad to see her too. We had dinner at Joe's Real BBQ. No one wants to eat at a chain when they're on vacation!

10. After dinner, we headed across the street to Liberty Market and got some dessert to go.

11. We headed back to our house to have dessert and coffee. This was Baby Doll's outfit for the evening. This kid had ruffles on top of frills on top of ribbon on top of lace surrounding her. She looked like a wedding cake!

12. Bubba talked his grandma and Aunt Susie into a few games of Candy Land. I had to go into the other room to pump, but it sounded like they had a seriously cutthroat game going on out there! It was so sad when they told him they had to leave and he started to cry because he didn't want Grandma to go.

I wish we lived closer to family. :( Especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

Pierced.

2012-11-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we took Baby Doll to get her ears pierced.

There are lots of reasons to do it, and lots of reasons people are against it. To those folks I say it's good I'm not your kid's parent, I guess. I can tell you that my ears were pierced when I was about this age and I've been thankful for it SO many times in my adult life! Never once did I think to myself, "Oh, my mother mutilated my infant body!" or "How dare she physically hurt me when I was a poor, defenseless baby!"

No. Rather, I am glad. Glad she did it before I was able to mess with the piercings so they had less chance of becoming infected before they healed. Glad she did it before I was able to form psychological aversions to pain that might cause me to flinch and end up with uneven holes. Glad she did it so long ago that there is no chance of my piercings ever closing up.

Maybe it's because I'm Mexican, and most of the other girls I knew growing up who were also Mexican had their ears pierced too. Is it a cultural thing? I'm not sure. I do know that I used to think it was so odd when I'd read in books about girls being forced to wait until they were thirteen to get their ears pierced, like it was some adult rite of passage like wearing makeup or getting your period. For me, having pierced ears was never a big deal.

So, it makes sense in my mind to do the same for my daughter as was done for me. While she can grab at things, it's usually things she can see. She's not able to say "Hey, I have these things in my ears. Let me pull them out!" at this stage. She's less likely to touch them now than she would be when she got older, and therefore less likely to get them infected as long as I care for them properly. She'll always have the option of wearing earrings. If she decides she doesn't want to wear them, well, then she can not wear them. Easy as that! And, if she changes her mind later, well, odds are good the piercing will still be open because it has existed for so long as opposed to someone who had only had it done a few years prior.

I'll tell ya, this kid did great. Honestly the hardest part was getting her to sit still enough so the lady (an older lady who you could tell had done this MANY times) was able to mark her earlobes evenly. That took a lot of tries and a LOT of fussing because Baby Doll did NOT like being held still. After that, she fussed a little after the first ear was done, and then cried for about 15-20 seconds when the second was done. That's it. I swear she cried longer and harder for vaccinations, and those had made me dread this a little for nothing. As you can see here, she was all sunshine and smiles right after it was done.

Afterwards we decided to walk around the mall and wandered into Gymboree. One of the salesgirls started chatting us up and asked how long ago we had the baby's ears pierced. I laughed and said, "Oh, I don't know, about fifteen minutes ago?" She couldn't believe it!

"But she's so happy!" she exclaimed before going to tell her coworker. The other girl immediately came over to see. "I don't believe it! She just got them done? You can't even tell! I got mine done a few months ago and I almost passed out!"

"That's part of the reason why you do it when they're babies," I told her. She then told me she wished her mom had done her ears when she was a baby.

And there's the final argument. Once you get older, you learn to anticipate and dread pain, then linger over it after it happens. Babies haven't developed that instinct yet so I believe the whole process is less traumatic for them. I'm not saying that I don't think babies feel pain because obviously they do. I'm just saying that sometimes the worry and the dread beforehand are worse than the actual pain. That is what babies lack.

I think her new bling looks ADORABLE. She hasn't messed with them at all so far which is good.

Originally I was dead set on having a pediatrician pierce them. No grubby mall kiosks with teenage employees for my baby! However, my doctor didn't do it, and the only other one I found in my area who would do it charged $55 and they weren't even using gold earrings! I have metal allergies, and so far this girl has shown a tendency toward sensitive skin. No way I was using anything less than 14kt gold in her ears. I remember how bad it felt when I had my navel pierced with "non allergenic" surgical steel. That was awful!!! Once I switched the jewelry to gold, the piercing healed within a few weeks.

I have to say, Claire's at the mall has a decent set up. The earring pierces the ear and comes preloaded in it's own little cartridge that is individually boxed. That cartridge is loaded into the gun, so the gun never touches the baby's ear. We paid the same there as we would have at the pediatrician's office but only because I picked the most expensive pair of earrings they had. Girlfriend needed a little sparkle! The price also included a big bottle of the ear care solution to clean them. They don't let any of the young employees do the piercing. The manager, who was slightly older than me I think, did it. She was very careful and very particular about making sure those earrings were going to be even, which I appreciated. Overall, I'd say it was a good experience. If I had to do it over again, I'd definitely do it the same way.

And no, Claire's didn't pay me to say that. :)