Thursday, June 30, 2011

4th of July Fun Facts

Click image to enlarge
4th of July Fun Facts Infographic
Via: VA Home Loans

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Stupid Blogger

Apparently, I've had a few people tell me they couldn't comment on my posts. It seems to be a Blogger issue, so I've changed my comment format. I hope this works for everyone now. :)

Monday, June 27, 2011

It's Tuesday!

Which means, its time for Toddle Along Tuesday! Hop on over to Growing Up Geeky and link up if you've got a mommy or pregnancy blog!



As for us, we had an enjoyable evening out at Wildwood Highlands. I love that Olivia is getting old enough to do a lot more things now. She played in the indoor gym with Grandpap and Daddy. Russ said she went all the way to the top, which is a first for her. They have outdoor kiddie rides, so she got to ride the Merry Go Round and the choo choo train. Russ and I took a spin on the Go-Karts. Alex took a nap at the end. :)

Seriously.. how cute are these 2 girls?

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*Giveaway Time* (Local residents only)

I've been thinking of an idea for a giveaway for about a week now. Someone suggested I giveaway something I love. So, I thought, the 2 things I love the most is massage and being a mummy. So, here is what you'll get!

The Prize:

1 hour massage (by me!) at your home

I am a legitimate massage therapist. I've been practicing since 2004 and am fully insured with liability insurance. I am qualified to do prenatal massage if you happen to be pregnant.


The Rules:

You have to live in the Pittsburgh area (Butler is fine as well)
You have to be a mummy or a mummy to be. It doesn't matter if your kids are 50 years old, you're still a mummy!

Relatives are not eligible. Sorry.

To Enter:

Leave me a comment telling me something funny your child(ren) do. Or, just say why you'd want a massage!

Optional:
Tell your local mummy friends about this contest on Facebook or Twitter! (extra entry, please make a different comment)

I'll leave this open until Sunday (7/3) and pick a winner on Monday the 4th. I'll be picking at random by random.org.


I want to hear some funny stories!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Return of the Woombie - Part DOH!

We're going on Day 4 of Sleeping in the Woombie. The good news (well, great) is that her naps have gotten SO much better. She's sleeping at least an hour every time I put her down. Her normal BW (before woombie) was about 30-40 minutes. Yesterday, she slept for 2.5 hours for one of her naps. I thought I might have been in the Twilight Zone for a moment.

Ok, so the not so great news is that she's waking up at night. With her SwaddleMe, she would sleep pretty much all night except to eat around 6am, then she'd go back to sleep until 7:30-8. She's been waking about 2 times a night since we putt her in the Woombie. I try and comfort her, replace her paci and put on some music, but it just doesn't work all the time. So, she's been eating in the middle of the night for 3 nights.

My hopes are to try and just let her go free next week. I might need a stiff drink after its all over.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Return of the Woombie

I seriously think my baby is going to be swaddled until she's 5. *sigh*

After every effort on my part to break Alex out of her swaddling, I caved in *again* and swaddled her so I could get some sleep. She will fall asleep un-swaddled, on her own, and sleep for 4 hours or so. After that, it all goes downhill. She will wake up and fuss. I insert paci and turn on her Violet music. Rinse and repeat every hour or so.

I do not do well on very little sleep. I'm crabby and irritable. I pretty much have tried 3 different times to try and get rid of the swaddle. I'm weak and I cave by 3am when I'm tripping over baby toys to get to her crib.

We've been using SwaddleMe blankets since she was born. She's getting too big for them and I really don't want to buy the larger size. She looks like she's been stuffed into it every night. Apparently she's into that sort of confinement.

I bought a Woombie a couple of months ago to try it out because it seemed easier than the SwaddleMe. I'm the only one who can swaddle her or she will escape at some point in the night. Anyways, she didn't like that she could move in it, so we threw that in the back of the dresser. Well, it's time to revisit this Woombie. In my world, she will adjust to it, then it will make transitioning to being un-swaddled easier. *It's never that easy*

I've been putting her in the Woombie for naps today and I've gotten an extra 20 minutes of sleep out of her. She's a terrible napper. Terrible.

We'll see how it goes tonight.

By the way, this is ALL new to me. Olivia never took a pacifier OR swaddling. It's amazing how different my 2 babies are from each other.

I'm up for any helpful tips if anyone has had an easy transition.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011

Belated Father's Day

I'm really terrible at taking photos of Russ and I with the girls. I was trying to find photos of Russ and Olivia/Alex alone, but I only came across 3 photos of Russ/Alex together! I need to take more of them alone. We have a ton of Russ/Olivia pictures. Poor 2nd child is getting the short end of the stick already!

Anyways, we didn't really do much yesterday. Russ got a haircut and we went to a local beer emporium place that sells specialty hot dogs for lunch with his dad and brother. I went to the store and picked up some fresh delmonico steaks for dinner. Came home. Cooked. Russ ran out with Olivia to Target and picked up a bookcase that will match our new TV stand. Got the girls ready for bed. Picked up Bruster's for dessert. Russ went to bed because he's on daylight this week. Pretty low-key day.

He got a new coffee maker and a light that attaches to his grill for fall nights when it gets dark at 5pm. I think he made out pretty good.

He's the best daddy around!

OKDadCleese
Olivia - 6 weeks

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Olivia - 7 months

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Sesame Place - June 2010

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Flying!

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September 2010

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Alex - 3 months

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Alex - 4.5 months

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Alex - 5 months

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Idlewild - June 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

My Weight Loss Journey

In high school, I was always around the 150's. For my height, that's in the normal range. I always thought I was fat (how stupid teenage girls are). After I graduated, I packed on about 30lbs from 2000 to 2004. It was just living an unhealthy lifestyle. Russ and I ate at McDonald's and tons of other crappy places ALL the time. We got engaged in July 2004. I knew I had to get my butt into gear and start losing some weight for my wedding. I kind of slacked around for awhile and in August 2005 I started dieting/exercising for the first time in my life! I was 181lbs. I lost the first 10lbs doing very well eating and making sure I was getting at least 15mins of cardio a day. In October, I started having these horrible panic attacks. My anxiety levels were so bad that I could barely eat normally without feeling like I was going to throw up. My weight dropped to 165lbs by December. By the time our wedding rolled around in February 06, I was 154lbs. I started to feel better after the wedding was over and began to live my life as a married lady. I really liked how I looked, so I decided to push it a little further and began working out hard and eating healthy again. I dropped down to 145lbs by August 2007. This is where I stopped trying to lose and just wanted to maintain. I was so happy with my body at this point in my life.

That summer, I had another bout of anxiety and I ended up going on a medication called Zoloft. Well, even after going to the gym 4x a week and eating right, my weight just kept going up. I switched off that medication to another and I finally stopped gaining weight, but I was stuck at 168lbs. By this time, it was around February 2008. We decided that we would stop preventing pregnancy and just let it happen. In March, I got a positive pregnancy test! I gained more than 40lbs with Olivia. The day I gave birth to her, I was 211lbs. I lost weight throughout her whole 1st year. By her first birthday I was 170lbs, so I lost almost all of her baby weight. Fast forward to April 2010, Olivia was 16 months old and we were ready to start trying for another baby. Believe the doctors when they say "It's very easy to get pregnant the 2nd time". On Mother's Day, I found out we were expecting our 2nd baby. I was determined not to gain as much weight as I did with Olivia. Thankfully, Alex had the same idea and helped me out. I was SO sick for 2 months. I felt like death most days and it was the summer, so I barely got off the couch. I lost 3lbs in my 1st trimester. I ended up gaining about 21lbs with Alex. The day I left the hospital, I was 199lbs.

So, since having Miss Alex, I've been trying to get back to that great number of 145lbs. Right now, I'm 170lbs. I've lost 29lbs since leaving the hospital, 5 months ago. I know 145lbs is a lot to lose, so I would be HAPPY if I got to 154lbs like I was on my wedding day. As of right now, I have 16lbs to lose to get back to there. If I do, and I'm feeling confident that I can lose 9 more, I will.

Here are some pictures of me through my journey:

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2004

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Honeymoon

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2007 - lowest weight ever

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33 Weeks with Olivia

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Olivia's 1st birthday

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Right before I got pregnant with Alex

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39 weeks with Alex

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Last weekend (5 months postpartum)

Monday, June 13, 2011

5 Months

Miss Alex is 5 months old today! Time sure is flying by! She's still a little peanut, but she's growing all the time. She's definitely finding her voice and has discovered screeching. She's also doing some full out belly laughs, especially at her big sister. We go to the doctor next month for her check up, she's got this month off. :)

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Here is a 5 month comparison of Olivia and Alex. Such a difference. This will probably be the last month I can dress Alex in the same clothes as Olivia. The ones in the picture are pretty big on her, they're 6-9 and 6-12 months. Alex is still in 3-6 and 6 month. I'm pretty sure Olivia's 6 month picture she's in all 9 month clothing.

5Months

My babies are getting so big so fast!

Idlewild

Yesterday was the annual USW Local picnic at Idlewild park. We went last year when Olivia was 18 months, she did alright, but this year was a lot better. She was able to go all day without a nap and didn't throw a fit. She went on more rides and was able to sit in the stroller while they were doing door prizes.

Alex stayed home with Gramma and Pappy. She'll be old enough to go with us next year. Here are some cute pictures of the day.

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The day started out yucky with rain

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But, it stopped shortly after and we were happy again!

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Her favorite ride! She wanted to go back on all day.

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Cute picture dispite my terrible hair-do

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On the train with daddy

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The Whip! My favorite ride as a kid

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On Mr Roger's Neighborhood trolly ride

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On the Merry Go Round

We had such a fun day. Exhausting, but so much fun. :)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Baby Food

I finally got the things I needed to start making our own baby food. I've been researching different containers to freeze/store it in. I came across these at Target today:


They are perfect and CHEAP! They're actually on sale this week for $2.12. I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find a coupon to go with them. I picked up 3 packs, so I have 24 mini pots to store food.

The process was pretty easy. I chose to make carrots. I did buy a bag of frozen, but you can use fresh if you have the time to cut them up. I just popped them into my steamer. I have this one. I steamed for about 15-20 minutes because they were frozen. I then took about half the bag and put it into my Magic Bullet with about 1/2-1 cup of water to blend.

I made sure there weren't any pieces that didn't get pureed and poured the mixture into the pots. Simple! Here is the final product.

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I let them cool down, put the lids on and popped them into the freezer. I labeled them with a dry-erase marker, so it comes off easily.

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Tada! It was so simple and inexpensive. I paid $1.09 for the bag of carrots. Those pots are $2.12, and hold 4oz, so I can get 2 servings out of 1 pot. Not including the price of the pots, I made 16 servings for about $.15/serving.

I'm going to make sweet potatoes, green beans, apples, bananas, and squash. I have a bunch of recipes for stage 2 foods as well.

If you just take the time to make your own, it's so much cheaper than buying store bought.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

30 Months

Really?

My baby girl is 30 months old. 2 1/2 years old.

*insert sad face*

It's amazing how fast she's growing up. I remember last summer at this time, and she's like a completely different toddler. She's saying 5-6 word sentences, her vocabulary is so big, I can't even list the words she says anymore.

Some new things she's been doing lately is saying the months of the year. She can tell me when her birthday is. She's put on her shoe (it was on the wrong foot, but hey, that's a step forward). She's slowly learning her pronouns. She still says "her" when she means "my". She said to me the other night "I danced with her sister to Wizard of Oz." I didn't know who she was talking about and she said "Alex-angie-a".

She's just growing into such a funny and polite little girl. She always says "please" and "thank you".

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Last year

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This year

See how fast it goes??

Monday, June 6, 2011

Fresh Air

My weekend was spend sucking boogers out of both my children's noses. How fun is that? Seriously. How fun is that?!

Anywho, Russ is finally on his off week, so I went back to work. Thank goodness, because this momma needed a break from the babies. I love them to death, but dealing with 2 sick kiddos is NO fun. One of them is just a big crab butt who whines all day long and lets her snot run out of her nose before she'll let me wipe it off. The other is too small to realize that she's sick, she just knows she doesn't feel well, and it's a poopy day.

After I made dinner, we went outside for some fresh air. Who doesn't like some fresh spring (?) air when you're feeling crappy? Both girls were in good spirits and I snapped some cute photos. It's easy to catch some cute ones because I have 2 very cute subjects.

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Sisters

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This is Olivia's silly face

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Miss Alex

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Lovely Green

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Feeling Grass

See what Alex is wearing? This is her day to day uniform. A onesie and a bib. My baby drools like a leaky faucet. Olivia never drooled like Alex does. Holy crap, sometimes we have to change her clothes 2 times a day from the wetness she produces. But, no teeth yet. I'm not holding my breath for them. Olivia's first tooth didn't pop out until a couple days after her 8 month mark.

That's about all that happened over at my house. Hope everyone had a good Monday. :)

Toddle Along Tuesday



This is the very first Toddle Along Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by! If you haven't already, link up and meet some new mommas!


Friday, June 3, 2011

My Very First Fluff

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to buy cloth swim diapers since Olivia was 6 months old. But, I'm lazy and she's been wearing Pampers Splashers for 2 summers. Now that I have a 2nd little one, I finally decided to spend the money on a swim diaper that I could just wash and reuse all summer long.

After searching and asking questions, I bought 2 Thirsties diaper covers, which can be used for a normal swim diaper. Of course I had to get the cutest colors.

I got the Lavender for Alexandria in a size SMALL. The raspberry is for Olivia in a size LARGE. Olivia's is kinda big on her, but the weight was 28-48lbs which is a huge range. She's about 30lbs right now so I wanted to make sure that if she did gain more weight this summer, it would still fit her. HOPEFULLY, this will be the last summer she needs a diaper of any kind!

That is a whole other post though. :)




Wednesday, June 1, 2011

No House for Us

Well, it's June 1st and we've pretty much ran out of time looking for a house to buy. The owners of the house we put an offer on wanted 90 days to close. We don't have 90 days. We wanted to close in 30, but they didn't accept that.

After talking about it, we decided we're going to stay another year or 2 and save more money for a down payment. If we can save another $10K, we can increase our budget and look at newer, nicer houses. I didn't want to buy a house because we're in a crunch. I'd regret it sooner or later. I want to find a home I love and want to live in for years to come.

As for the tight squeeze of our apartment, we found out that our community has a "front to back" model. It's a more open floor plan and the 2nd bedroom is bigger. We decided to move to one of those come August. Russ and I are going to take the smaller room and the girls and all their junk can go into the bigger bedroom with more closet space. It's also on the ground level and we'll have a patio opening out into a nice piece of land so Olivia can run whenever she wants and we don't have to lug both of the down the steps and out the door.

I can't say I'm relieved. I'm so stressed out anymore, it's unbelievable. Being a mother of 2 has been a huge adjustment. Alex is still very dependent on me, so I barely have time to do anything other than take care of her. Add to the fact that she naps for 20 minute periods. I know this doesn't last forever. I'm trying my best to really enjoy every minute of her first year. I missed a lot with Olivia because I was always worried about something or another. Then I missed a chunk of her 2nd year due to being seriously sick with morning sickness and being a big whale on the couch all day.

I need to take some chill pills and calm the eff down.
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