Operation: Hot Mom

I don't think I've mentioned this over the past week, but on Monday, I started the South Beach diet. I didn't have enough time to make ONLY working out work for me. I was getting into Curves three times a week and still eating whatever the heck I wanted. Not very effective! I'm able to work out more now that I switched gyms and it helps that I'm getting more cardio, but the diet has been amazing.

I've never been a diet person. I don't think I've ever been successful with one, besides that one time out of like 50 that I did Weight Watchers. But this one? This has been great so far.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with South Beach, but just in case you're not, basically you are cutting out carbs and sugar. It's broken down into different phases (phase 1 being the more strict of the two where you can have NO carbs or sugar. Phase 2 is where you start gradually adding GOOD carbs back in).
I was terrified to start this! I live for bread, pastas, potatoes... all that good stuff! But I knew I had to do something, so I just made up my mind. I was doing it. I literally had to mentally prep myself. Tell myself over and over that food is for nourishment, not fun.
The first day was super easy. The second day was the worst. I was starving and grouchy. Every day since has been great.

If you put a bowl of mashed potatoes in my face right now, I could easily turn it down. I'm never, ever starving. I feel healthier. Annddd....
I've lost somewhere between 5-7 pounds. In a week. (scale fluctuates.)

I'm being realistic about this. I know that it's impossible to say that I will never have a potato or a slice of pizza again. Ha! My goal is to make this a lifestyle change. Once I get to my goal weight, I plan to keep this up for the most part, but if I really want a good bad carb, I'll eat it and not beat myself up over it. It just won't be an every day thing. If I slip up, I'll jump right back on.
Of course, I want to feel good about myself and how I look, but mainly, I want to be healthy for my family. I want to run around with my son. I want to go on hikes with my husband and not have to quit halfway through. I want to live a long, healthy life and not worry about any preventable, weight related diseases.

Soooo.. wish me luck on this journey! I plan to do regular posts about this. I'll update with my progress and list some ideas for different foods to eat and ways to eat them.. ahem.. in the first two weeks eating eggs everyday gets old. You have to get creative! Stay tuned...

~ 5 Months ~

Happy 5 months buddy!

I can't believe that you have been with us for 5 months. 5 months. I don't know how, but it seems like time has flown by and has taken it's sweet time all at once. Either way, I do know that they have been the best 5 months of my life.

I sit here typing this as you are entertaining yourself on the floor. You are having such a great time on your playmat. I don't think you have stop squealing and talking to your toys for the past 1/2 hour. You are so full of joy and I love seeing life through your eyes! You smile all of the time! At all of your toys. At every single person you meet. Especially at other babies and kids. I think you are going to be Mr. Social Butterfly as soon as you are able!

You are growing like a weed and I just want to slow. down. time. Slow it wayyyy down. I am so thankful that I am able to spend every day with you so I don't have to miss one little thing. I love your daddy even more so for allowing us this time together!

Your stats:
~ At 5 months old, you are wearing 6 month clothing and they are getting a little snug on you. If feels like I am always rearranging your clothes because you grow out of everything so quickly. You are still in size 3 diapers though.
~ You still take a 6 oz bottle every three hours during the day. Plus, you have rice cereal late morning or for lunch and a veggie around your last bottle for the day. So far all you have had is green beans and peas. You will eat both of them, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that you love them! We are going to try feeding you a mashed up guacamole this weekend!
~ You sleep through the night for 12 to 13 hours at a time. 6pm to anywhere from 6-7 the next morning. I would like to change your bedtime, however, to a little later. Your daddy would like to see you for more than just an hour a day and you also put a bit of a damper on our social life ;)
~ You had two over night stays with a babysitter this month!! You slept over at Mrs. Sue and Mr. Chris's house twice while we went to two different Military balls! We had a lot of fun, but I sure did miss you!
~ You are a pro at rolling over from your tummy to your back. We can't seem to keep you on your tummy at all now, but when you do, you are getting much stronger and can hold your head up so high to look at things!
~ You also sat up without my help for the first time. You don't last very long, but you're learning and you can't wait to be able to do it on your own. When you are laying down, I can see your little stomach muscles trying so hard to get you back up.. especially in the bathtub!
~ You are so curious about everything around you. So much so that it's getting hard to give you your bottle because it seems like you just cannot miss anything that may happen! You look around everywhere and drool all of your milk out.
~ You are taking three naps a day. The first one is about an hour and 1/2 after you wake up. Then another one in the morning and afternoon. I can very easily tell when you are tired now and you are usually able to put yourself to sleep within 10 minutes!
~You love your exersaucer and have figured out how to work almost all of the toys on there. We love to see you figure things out every day and we are both convinced that you are the smartest baby ever. It's so much fun to see you learn.
~ You have finally started to enjoy it when we read to you, so I've made that part of our daily routine. We lay on your bedroom floor together and read. You coo a lot while I'm reading to you and try to eat the book.
~ Speaking of eating... you've also discovered your feet. You love to grab onto them and try to eat your cute little toes :)
~ Your giggle is contagious and I could sit and listen to you laugh all day. You do laugh a lot, but you have started this screeching thing. You do this high pitched screech throughout a lot of the day. It's not an unhappy thing though, I guess you just can't contain your excitement!!
~ You do still like your TV and though I won't allow you to watch too much.. you do enjoy Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, and The Backyardigans (really you would watch anything I'd put you in front of.. those are just my favorites actually)

We love you more and more each and every day. I think you are just perfect the way you are.. every one of your little features... your sweet, happy, outgoing little personality.. everything! God truly blessed us when he gave you to us!

Starting to take more than one take! Little wiggle worm

4 months

The Night I Lost a Few Hours of Sleep

I know that my son has completely spoiled me, so I have no real right to complain here, but I'm going to! Like I said.. I've been spoiled.

I was blessed with a very good sleeper (please don't hate me!!) From when he was born up until about 3 months of age, he was falling asleep at 6pm, waking up once during the night around 3am to eat, then back asleep until about 6-6:30am. Starting around 3 months, he started sleeping through the night. Like 12 to 13 hours through the night. Still falling asleep around 6 and not waking up until anywhere from 6 to 7 the next morning.

We had a little week long spell a few weeks ago where he was waking up around 2am and having a little party in his crib.. talking to himself for about a 1/2 hour until he fell back asleep on his own. Then.. back to normal. Until last night..

Gahhhh... I don't know what got into him, but I was up with him off and on from 2-4! Everything I've read about sleep training.. which btw has clearly worked wonderfully for us.. told me NOT to pick him up and feed him during the night. He's 5 months old and should be able to sleep though the night without eating. So I didn't. Until about 3:45 when I couldn't take it anymore and it's started to be very clear to me that he was starving I believe. I thought maybe his gums were bothering him (how the heck am I supposed to know what's bothering this kid anyways???) but maybe all along he really was... just a little hungry. Growth spurt?

I fed him. I wanted to cuddle him back to sleep since we haven't done that in so long. He had other things in mind.. like playing. So I put him down and he fell back asleep within 5 minutes.

Here is the real question though ~ when we have nights like these... how is it that I wake up feeling like a zombie and he wakes up in the greatest mood ever and ready to seize the day?? Good thing he's adorable... how can I be frustrated when he flashes me that huge smile of his??

Surprise!

I'm back!

I know.. I'm extremely fickle. I hated being private again. I missed feeling like a part of the community that I was involved in. Yes, the main reason I blog is for myself, but I also love being a part of your lives.. and that's hard to do when the blog is private.

I'll be making some changes I guess to make myself feel better, like taking Drew's pics down maybe and not be such an open book about where we live. One step at a time.

For now though.. it's good to be back!

Grab a Tissue!!

My brother surprised me with this video a few weeks ago. He had to do a slide show for a midterms for one of his classes. He was even working on it while we were home for Christmas and I had no idea. He sent me a text one day asking me to get on Skype and then watched my reaction as I watched the video. Needless to say.. there were ugly tears involved!! Hope you enjoy :)

A New Journey

I'm completely fed up with this baby weight. But I can't complain too much if I'm not doing anything about it.

Something clicked in me about two weeks ago. I'd had enough. I drove my chubster self to Curves and signed up on the spot. Not for the year commitment though.. I know myself better than that! *SN: I'm already coming into conflict with this. Trey is part of a new BN now and they are much more strict with his hours. He actually has to be present during formations now (gasp) which means they only time I had to go to the gym (6:30 am when they open) won't work anymore. I can't go after he gets off work or else we won't eat until 8pm and we all know that isn't good. Time to reassess I guess! Anywho.. where was I... After two and some odd weeks of working out and not really changing my eating habits (re: eating whatever the hell I want), I've finally come to terms with the fact that I needed to change said eating habits.

I've started South Beach. I was going to do one of those detox things for 17 days. .you know.. because everyone is doing it. But I had no clue as to what I was supposed to do after those 17 days. I mean.. once those days are over there are no guidelines. I need guidelines or I'll consume 5 pounds of potatoes in a day and top it off with a gallon of ice cream.

When we picked Andrew up from our friends house Sunday morning, I noticed her South Beach book on the table, started asking questions, read a few pages in the book, and made up my mind.

I went to the grocery store and had a mini panic attack as I saw the cashier load up all of those veggies. No bread. No crackers. No noodles or potatoes. I just knew I was going to starve!!

But day one is gone and over with and I have to say... I did pretty well. I never really went hungry.

I'm pretty excited about this.. especially since Trey is doing it with me. I plan to be very strict with the first two phases. After that.. I know I'll have some of those delicious carbs.. just once and a while. Not every night.

Sadly, you know what the hardest part of this all is? No No.. silly.. not the part about going without wine for 2 weeks.. too easy. It's trying to get all of my water in!

Wish me luck.. I'm very motivated today, but it's just day one.

Winter Ball

Last night was the winter ball for the Brigade that Trey is in. I was so nervous about leaving Andrew for the entire night, but ended up doing very well. We had such a great time.. I have no pictures yet as I forgot my camera, but I will soon!

I've only been to one of these Army functions before, but I forgot how much fun they are! Last night totally renewed my love for the Army. How could it not?

Not many girls have an excuse to dress up all Cinderella-like at least once a year and be on the arm of your very own Prince Charming hero.
The camaraderie among all of the soldiers there is infectious.
You get to hear about all of the strong and brave things your husbands do from day to day. Seriously... I was in a room full of about 400 of the bravest people in our country.. humbling!
The speeches that are made throughout the night are incredibly motivating.. and to hear those 400 some odd soldiers yelling out a big HOOAH at the same time after a few particularly inspiring words.. kinda cool.
The delicious food (and wine).
Seeing Trey drink out of the Grog for the first time. Grog Ceremony = a long standing tradition within the military, going back to the Calvary days of westward expansion. They would share their "spirits" with one another.. whatever they happened to have on hand... ensuring that all soldiers had something to drink. So now, some of the big wigs will get up in front of everyone and start pouring every liquor under the sun into this huge bowl.. each one representing a different time period in the unit's history. For example.. they start with a base of sand and blood ( sugar and grenadine). Then to represent something I can't remember, they pour vodka in (after said big wig gulps some straight from the bottle). And so on and so on until rum, brandy, tequila (that was poured in to represent our units move to El Paso I think.. that I kind of remember), beer, wine.. blah blah blah was added in. Some people choose to drink it and some people are forced to  as Trey was.. kind of a hazing if you will. Slightly.. I'm sure he somewhat enjoyed it no matter how disgusting he said it was.
I'll never tire of the colors being presented and retired. How quiet that room full of people get and how still those soldiers stand.

I know I mentioned this after our last ball, but that was over a year and 1/2 ago and is definitely worth talking about again. Right before dinner we do a few toasts. The last toast was a toast to our fallen comrades. During their last tour in Iraq, three soldiers were lost. There was a table set up for them last night and the last toast was made for them. I can't remember everything that is said, so to get the full effect I googled the exact-ish words.

"You may have noticed the small table set for three that is off on its own - it is reserved to honour our fallen comrades in arms. This symbolizes that they are with us, here in spirit. We should never forget the brave men and women who answered our nation's call [to serve] and served the cause of freedom in a special way. We are ever mindful that the sweetness of enduring peace has always been tainted by the bitterness of personal sacrifice. We are compelled to never forget that while we enjoy our daily pleasures, there are others who have endured the agonies of pain, deprivation and death.

I would like to explain the meaning of the items on this special table.
•The table is round - to show our everlasting concern for our fallen comrades.
•The tablecloth is white - symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to duty.
•The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of our fallen comrades, and the loved ones and friends of these comrades who keep the faith.
•The vase is tied with a red ribbon, symbol of our continued determination to remember our fallen comrades.
•A slice of lemon on the bread plate is to remind us of the bitter fate of those who will never return.
•A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears endured by the families of those who have sacrificed all.
•The Holy Book represents the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country.
•The glass is inverted, they cannot toast with us at this time.
•The chair is empty because they are no longer with us.

Let us remember - and never forget their sacrifice.
May they and their families ever be watched over and protected."

It's impossible for me to put into words what the room felt like at that moment.

Last week I would have told you that I am counting down the days until Trey gets out of this crap. Today - I am proud all over again. I'm a part of something magnificently bigger than me.

First Night Alone

We should be excited right? Not.At.All.

Trey and I have his unit's ball tonight and we are leaving Andrew with a very trusted older couple that we are friends with. He's spending the night with them :(

They have two grown kids, so they are very capable, that's not what I'm worried about. I'm going to miss him so much and I have very irrational thoughts... like.. what if he misses us just as much? What if he thinks we left him?

Most of all - I'm terrified of coming home without him. I'm so afraid that it's going to take me back to those very first few days when he was in the NICU and we were in an empty house. An empty crib. I'm so very scared of that feeling.

I'm going to try and concentrate on having a wonderful night out with my husband.. both of us all dolled up. I know that is important. We need nights like this. If only these knots in my stomach would go away...

Back to Normal

How is it even possible that the holidays are over along with the trip back to SC that I was so much looking forward to?? On one hand it feels like it was a huge whirlwind that never really even happened it went by so quickly, on the other hand it feels like we left to start the whole trip ages ago. We had a great time, but there is a lot to catch up with so you know what that means... another post brought to you by bullet points.

• I ADORED seeing Andrew meet all of the most important people in our lives! He did so well on this trip. He handled flying like a champ, the time change didn't phase him a bit, and charmed every single person he came in contact with with his beautiful smile. Seeing my parents as grandparents is something that warmed my heart more than I knew it would.
• We spent the first 6 days staying at Trey's family and the rest of the trip with mine. There was drama involved with that, but it's just how it worked out.
• Christmas was wonderful. Andrew was pretty much not impressed at all, but if he understood all the cool presents he got from everyone, he'd be pleased. Lesson learned though? We can't do it like that ever again. It cost Trey and I an ungodly amount (more than a round trip plane ticket) to ship everything back. I can't think of a fun solution yet, but we'll have to work on that!
• I went dress shopping with my SIL for her wedding. She found a dress and looks breathtaking in it. She is going to make a beautiful bride.
• Andrew rolled over for the first time while we were home! He did it once and that was it for a few days. I thought he would never do it again but then decided it was pretty fun I guess and I now officially have a tummy to back roller. Let the fun begin! He's also eating rice cereal mixed with fruit every night :)
• I got a Flip from my mum for Christmas. Couldn't be any more ecstatic about that than I am. Now if only I could figure out how to upload videos here and why FB takes FOREVER to upload them!
• I had multiple play dates with my friends' babies. It was amazing. I can't believe we are all mummies. Next year, Ashleigh's little one will be able to join!
• New Years Eve was spent at my parents house with some of our closest friends. The Blairs came into town. We had lots of delicious food, little bit of vino, and some fireworks at the end of the night. I couldn't have planned a better way to ring in the new year if I tried!

I'm sure there is lots more that I didn't mention. I think the biggest and most important thing I realized over the past two weeks is that no matter how much I love going back and seeing everyone, Trey and Andrew are my home. Yes, it is true that we may not have a stable place to live while he is serving in the Army, but I have FINALLY gotten to the point that I am okay with that. I'm sure I will still get homesick and of course I would pack up and move back in a nano second if that were possible, but I'm finally at peace with my little family. Doesn't that sound horrible? That I wasn't before all of this? But it's true. I was so stuck on missing the people I wasn't around on a daily basis that I was missing out of making the most of the time I have here with my family. It's taking me a while to "grow up", but I am getting there.
Yes, I shed a few tears leaving my parents, even though I know I'm coming back in 2 short months, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't a relief to walk into our own home and get back to just the three of us. Back into our little routine.
Speaking of routine... off to wash some bottle, do laundry and get some groceries in this house!!