McFatty Monday, Week 1

I wish I could say this week was a bigger success. I lost 2 pounds so its not a complete failure, but I was REALLY hoping to lose more than that. The beginning of the week I did really well eating wise. I pretty much lived off of our standard Chicken, green beans and asparagus dinner. We fear change and eat this meal at least 4 nights a week... And then the weekend and Mothers Day came. Guess I picked a bad week to start this process. I cant tell you how many bananas, pineapple, and strawberries I ate that were dipped in yummy yummy chocolate and then Sunday morning Anthony made us a breakfast complete with bacon, eggs, mimosas and pancakes with homemade syrup. Totally low cal right?... right? This was very unusual for us since we don't usually eat breakfast let alone bacon and pancakes and the chocolate dipped stuff is never kept in our house. I guess I should be thrilled to have lost any weight at all after stuffing my face all weekend.

I need new tennis shoes, BAD. I went to the lake by our house and walked 3 times this week and did a total of around 7 miles, a decent start. My feet were KILLING me after each walk, like really really hurting. My old Nike's just aren't cutting it anymore. So I'm on the search for new shoes. I bought a pair of New Balance yesterday but decided I hated them after getting home and returned them this afternoon.

I'll be heading to Vegas this Friday to Monday so it's not going to be an easy week but I'm hoping to keep on track.

Total weight lost: 2lbs

Mothers Day, a first

Today was my very first Mothers Day and I have to say that I loved every single second of it. Each day I am amazed at how much love I have for this little guy. There are days when I feel like I just cant hold him close enough to me and I long for him to be back in my belly where just he and I had a special little bond.

Yesterday I had a surprise delivered. Connor had managed to get on the computer and order his mom Edible Arrangements. I have always wanted one of these so I was super excited for it. I was miserable by the end of the night from stuffing my face full of strawberries, pineapple, and bananas dipped in chocolate as well as cantaloupe and honeydew melon.

This morning Anthony got up with the baby and let me sleep in. When I came downstairs I was greeted with Mimosas and a incredibly yummy breakfast he did all on his own. He only had to ask me one question the entire time he was cooking, which is quite impressive.

And if that wasn't a good enough Mothers Day, Connor decided to roll over! I was SO damn excited for this. He rolled from his back onto his belly, and then over onto his back again. We were able to get him to do it a few times and even caught one roll on camera. What an awesome gift!

I cant wait for all of the future Mothers Days to come.

these are a few of his favorite things

Connor is rather simple to please when it comes to toys. The majority of toys purchased by us naive first time parents are pretty useless. Hopefully our next child is as easy to please, but I'm sure she (yep I'm determined it will be a girl) will take after me and have to have everything imaginable.

So here are Connor's top 3 favorite things that make him smile, squeal, drool and just in general be the cutest damn baby on the planet.

1) Plastic Keys. Of course he picks the absolute cheapest thing he has and decides that he will be best friends with it. He LOVES these keys. He shoves them in his mouth and drools all over as you can see in the picture below. He throws them as hard as he can across the couch and squeals with delight. He naps in his swing or on the couch while tightly holding onto his precious precious keys.

2) Baby Einstein Exersaucer. This is a rather new favorite as I just put it together 2 weeks ago. Once he discovered he could press the buttons and it makes animal noises his world was complete. He will press the same button over and over again and just stare at it smiling while a big string of drool hangs out of his mouth. Notice that drool is a trend in this post? I have no idea how he even produces so much drool. He's learned how to play with a few other things on the exersaucer but the buttons are by far the favorite.

3) Sophie the Giraffe. I was hesitant to buy this product....really really hesitant. Not because of choking hazards or any other safety concerns. Oh no, my concern was the fact that it cost $22 and is in all honestly a glorified dog toy. She's made of rubber and squeaks when you squeeze her- dog toy right? I looked on Amazon and it got amazing reviews and some of the ladies on TheBump.com swore by it so one day while in Nordstrom's I noticed that they had them and took the leap and bought it. My son makes out with the giraffe. Really, he goes to town and shoves her nose and face as far as he can get it in his mouth. He likes her legs every once in a while, but the face is what he's after.

Taz can be found within 2 feet of Connor whenever he has Sophie out to play. He just doesn't understand why Connor gets dog toys and he doesn't.

Sweet little things...

I've picked up a new hobby in the past 6 months and if you cant tell by the pictures that hobby is....BAKING.

I became really interested in cooking after I moved to CA 2 1/2 years ago but baking always scared me. Not the Betty Crocker type of baking, but the make your dough from scratch and cover everything in ganache type of baking. I've found that I really enjoy it though and am actually quite good at it.

If you look at the history on my computer it will be littered with several daily visits to The Pioneer Woman, Bakerella, Tartelette, and Sweet Designs. These women have talent beyond belief.

So usually once I week I find something ridiculously unhealthy to make and whip it up around 9pm after Connor goes to bed. This past week I made homemade brownies with chocolate chip cookie dough (also made from scratch) chunks in it and covered the thing with ganache. It was to die for. I pulled 4 to the side (2 for me 2 for Anthony) and quickly packaged up the rest of the batch for Anthony to take to work.

I justify it by convincing myself I'm doing something really nice for the young guys. I mean they live in a barracks room with a toaster oven and haven't had anything homemade in months. So really I'm doing it for them.....yup.

I think I'm going to look into cake decorating/baking classes at the local community college. I would really enjoy that, plus it gets me out of the house without the baby and it gives me a chance to meet other people!

Meeting new people and keeping my sanity are always a plus in my book.

(the picture below is apple pie on a stick. too freaking cute right?)

BLOW OUT

Lord help me.

I thought I was lucky... I had been rubbing it in other moms faces and basically gloating that my precious little boy had been very kind to mommy and hasn't made me suffer through an infamous "blow out".

I had nightmares of waking up to a baby covered in poop from head to toe while I was pregnant and was fully prepared for the worst. I had even convinced my husband that it was inevitable and we would be dealing with it quite often.

Naive little me thought that this kind of thing only happened with newborns so I was totally in the clear. WRONG.

Connor had been having tummy issues the past 2 days so I was quite surprised when we were cuddling on the couch this morning after breakfast and we was the happiest baby ever. I soon found out why. I picked him up and thought "hmm thats odd, my hands feel damp". Yep, poop all over his legs and up his back was starting to seep through his jammies.

I may or may not have gagged the entire time I was changing him. But on the plus side, I have my happy baby back!

Hoping for a midwest way of life

When Anthony and I first got married he had made it very clear that he wasn't ready to get out of the military. This was ok with me as it is a stable job, we are guaranteed a roof over our heads and the military lifestyle isn't quite as bad as what people make it out to be.

This all changed the night Connor was born.

That picture sums up the moment when Anthony decided that he's not ever leaving us to go on some long deployment across the world. Of course he still thinks it would be fun to go to Afghanistan and ride around in his MRAP looking for bad guys to shoot, but he now knows its not whats best for us anymore. Coming home to us every night after work makes him happy. I kept telling him throughout my pregnancy that his feelings/emotions and life in general will totally change once the baby was here and he didn't believe me.

So this all leads to the hunt for a job. Yes we want out of the military, and yes we want to move away and be able to buy a home where we can raise Connor without having to move every 3 years...but we aren't willing to give up his guaranteed job without having a new one lined up. In this economy I think the stupidest thing we could do is leave the roof over our head and a steady paycheck with the assumption that we will be able to find him work in the following months.

Anthony has already flown back to Omaha to test for their police academy and this following weekend he will be in Lincoln NE testing for theirs. Two weeks after that he goes back to Lincoln yet again and tests for the fire department. If ya cant tell we REALLY want to move to Omaha/Lincoln. My brother is there, housing is affordable (and adorable), great school systems, and the people are great. You actually know your neighbors there. The whole atmosphere is different in the Midwest.

Competition is fierce, the Lincoln police academy has around 600 guys signed up to test and there are only 8 spots left in the academy. It wont be easy but we are hoping and praying that one of these jobs comes through.

Denial at its best

I love my husband....Every day while pregnant (and even now not pregnant) he tells me that I'm beautiful and he actually means it.

Because of this I guess I failed to realize how RIDICULOUSLY large I was at the end of my pregnancy because I still felt beautiful.

....What on earth was I smoking?!?!

This picture was taken about 5 days before I had Connor and it blows my mind looking at it and seeing how big I really was. I suppose I had selective vision and was only seeing the adorable little baby clothes that were filling my home and chose to ignore the sight of my midsection (although how the hell I managed to ignore something that large is beyond me)!

I loved being pregnant and looking at these pictures: A) REALLY makes me miss having the belly and feeling the kicks and hick ups. B) I now totally realize that its SOOOO true and you forget about all the crappy parts of the journey as soon as its over. Of course I remember how I couldn't roll over at the end and how bad my hips hurt, but looking back it really wasn't all that bad. Plus, it was well worth it, look at the adorable little guy I got out of it.