day break

on sunday i made my way to st. louis

but just for the day.

i thought it would be cruel to make brette

ride in a car for 6 hours so i left her with ronnie.

it was our first day apart.

and ronnie's first full day of dad duty. 

i actually wasn't that nervous.

ronnie can feed her and put her down for nap.

what more does she really need?

i left at 6:30am and got home at 6:30pm.

twelve hours.

and it was really really nice.

i got to spend the morning with marge and her boys

and then i spent the afternoon with my sorority sisters

celebrating another one of us joining the mom club.

(congratulations, com buddy!

can't wait to meet your new little man.

 and ps- the baby shower was immaculate.

like seriously, out of a magazine.)

 

i will admit,

i was a bit anxious that last hour in the car.

i was just really ready to hold my baby.

which was also nice.

normally i'm ready for ronnie to take her

and give me a break.

it was actually a great feeling to miss her.

i never get to.

i guess that just means i love my girl.

and can you blame me?

just look at this face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps- ronnie sent me pictures through the day,

which i loved.

he also had his family over for lunch,

so he also had a super duper back-up helper.

his sister.

 

cupid's aim

did you have a nice valentine's day?

mine started out fine.

i made ronnie coffee

(first time ever)

and sent him off to work with a card at 6am.

then i went back to bed

and when i got up i found a card

and a reese's peanut butter heart on the counter.

yesssssss, breakfast.

 

yay us.

very romantic.

 

but brette had a hard day and

i ended up having a huge headache by the afternoon.

oh, and then ronnie decided to work late

and didn't get home until 5:45.

i asked him if he thought working late was a good idea since

it was a friday and also valentine's day...

he said, well do we have big plans?

more proof that men don't get valentine's day.

 

(the card i wish i bought him)

 

i had soup made and i was planning on making

heart-shaped grilled cheeses,

but my head hurt too bad,

brette sucked

and ronnie annoyed me.

so i threw a frozen pizza in the oven,

put brette to sleep

and crawled into bed with my laptop.

 

yay us.

very romantic.

 

but on sweeter note,

we've actually been celebrating the day of love all week.

brette had a bunch of vday clothes from madeline

so everyday she's been wearing lots of pink, red and hearts.

 

 

happy valentine's day! 

 

 

 

 

 

 valentine's day pasts:

2013

2012

2011

 

 

brette: eight months

growth:

ronnie weighed her the other day

and our scale said 18lbs.

not sure on her length,

i guess we  need to bust out our tape measure.

her next doctor appointment isn't for another month

so we'll have to go off our numbers.

she wears size 3 diapers and

is in 6-9 month clothing.

so far she still only has her two bottom teeth

but i think she's working on her next one

because she's starting drooling again.

we had a screening done and she is on target in her development.

she was tested on her
personal/social, fine motor, language, gross motor and problem solving skills.
b was perfection and on target in all areas, but

she got her lowest scores in her gross motor skills,

which is no surprise.

gross motor skills are:

 sitting without support, crawling, scooting, standing, beginning to walk.

so far, she can only sit without support.

we've been working hard over here to have her stand up

which means more time in her jumperoo and excersaucer.

i can already tell a difference,

but since she hates being on her tummy,
its hard to get her to even think about crawling. 

i'm interested to see how she decides to start moving around.

 

sleeps:

brette is back to sleeping through the night just like always.
i think her teething last month has run its course.
the one thing i can complain about is that
every night i put her down around 7:30 and
every night she wakes up about 15 minutes later
and i have to put her back down.
talk about annoying.
i'm really excited for next week
because we're going to start something new
and i hope that it takes care of this little issue.
(more on that under the eats topic)
she is still taking two naps a day.
one is long and the other is short.
sometimes her morning nap is 2 hours
and her afternoon nap is 45 minutes.
then other days, she reverses it and
her longer nap is in the afternoon.
she is definitely not consistent,
which makes it hard on me to plan out our days.
i never know when she'll be asleep.
but as long as she's napping,
i won't complain.
 

  

eats:

watching brette eat is so much fun.
she feeds herself so well
and it makes mealtime an adventure.
she has already moved past baby food
so i stopped making it.
she is able to pick up and eat almost anything with her fingers,
so that's the majority of what we do.
we can cut up veggies and fruit and she goes to town.
her favorite right now?  black beans.
she goes crazy for black beans.
i haven't given her meat, diary or berries yet,
but i think we decided to start meat this month
and start diary and berries when she's nine months old.
i give her food two to three times a day (depending on her naps),
nurse her four times a day
and give her a bottle once a day.
we've started weaning her,
 so starting monday she will be ready to add another bottle
and give up another time with me nursing.
we are going to try to replace her 7:00pm feeding
and have ronnie put her down.
(when i went out with my girlfriends he did a trial run of this and she past out so fast and never woke back up.  hopefully this takes care of her little wake period that i'm experiencing now.)

talks:
i added a new little segment here
talking.
brette is quite the talker
and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be making lists
of the words she is trying to say.
she is always yelling and making noises.
her favorite thing to say right now?
dadadadada
i'm pretty sure she's calling out her favorite parent.
what. the. hell.
new project:
mamamamama

 

plays:

one thing that was suggested by the lady that did her screening
was to not give brette toys.
instead, lay them around her and make her squirm and drag herself
to them to help her gross motor skills.
brette is not a fan of this,
but its what we've started to do.
i used to she sit her down and give her a toy and let her play.
now she is constantly a little frustrated at  t r y i n g  to get to her toys
but not quite making it.

i've also started putting small toys inside bowls
so that she has to work at getting them out.
she's really good at it,
so now i'm working at getting her to put the toy back in the bowl.
we haven't quite mastered that yet.
her favorite toys right now are bath toys.
she plays with them all time
and they are always in her mouth.

 

firsts:

she fed herself with her fingers.
she can stand and put all her weight on her legs.
she had her first dentist appointment.
she had her first month pacifier-free.


time is flying
and miss brette annaleigh is exceeding
all our expectations.

 

and for the first time...

all of brette's outtakes

and what i think she's saying.

 

you will be punished.

 i know, i'm shocked too.

do you smell something?

that outfit is not cute, mom.

 

 

more than just a hamburger

when my friends and i get together

its normally for a play date.

which means there are lots of interrupted convos

and spelling words out.

example:

when can we get d-r-u-n-k?

hahahah - just kidding.

kind of.

so during the super bowl

while the boys were laid back upstairs

and the girls were rallying the troops downstairs,

we decided we needed a night out.

without kids

or husbands.

and what's funny is,

we ended up at the one "safe" place for any married gal.

a gay bar.

hamburger mary's

 

we needed a little bit of

liquid courage to really enjoy ourselves

because we walked into a

drag queen game show

and everything that you think might be

said or done... was.  times 20.

i might even have a picture of a guy

in his skivvies

on stage.

 

a couple of us might have graced the stage too.

all in good, clean dirty-minded fun.

lots and lots of fun.

our team name and a little tribute to shannon long.

the host of the game show.

and yes, we lost.

our team

kass and i playing paper, rock, scissors to see who had to go on stage.

i lost.

 

me and shan at the end of the night.

 

 

loved it.

thanks girls.

can't wait till next time.

 

the joys of chicken

we've been snowed in this week.

 

ronnie even had tuesday and wednesday off.

you would think that means i would have been blogging a lot.

but no.

i actually found myself watching

a lot of food network.

who else is in love with the pioneer woman?

ronnie even asked me to start recording it.

he is so jealous of their lives.

he would give his first born to own their ranch.

 

but watching the food network

is actually rubbing off on me.

i am making dinner all the time.

we branched out from from our same ol' recipe routine.

i even told ronnie that i need a lemon zester.

that's right, people.

a lemon zester.

i'm pretty much professional.

tonight made ina's lemon chicken.

 

here's the recipe:

1/4 C olive oil

3 Tbls minced garlic

1/3 C dry white wine (i used chicken stock)

1 Tbls grated lemon zest

2 Tbls lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp minced thyme

salt and pepper

4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on

2 lemons

preheat the oven to 400.

warm the olive oil over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute. turn off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 tsp salt and pour into a 9x12 dish.

place the chicken skin side up over the sauce. brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

bake for 40 minutes. sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices.

after i took this picture,
i decided to broil it for a few minutes
to make it more brown and crispy.
i think that helped make it look prettier.


snowed in, but well fed.

 

football party

we had a few friends over

for superbowl sunday.

ronnie busted out our smoker

mid-winter and made some awesome

pulled pork and ribs.

everyone brought lots of food

and we all settled in for the worst game ever.

i mean really.

so i wasn't that bummed that all the girls

and five kids made the basement our home

while the boys watched the game in peace upstairs.

we vowed to switch the roles next time.

 

 

i miss seeing my friends.

ronnie and i are way better at hosting

little get-togethers when its nice out.

we have lots of deck nights.

but in the winter we go way too long

without seeing them.

 

it was so fun to sit around and catch up.

in fact, i'm pretty sure the girls

decided to meet up again this weekend.

 

now its the boys' turn to have the kiddos.

mamma's headed out.

(wink)

 

this is cale after three pieces of chocolate cake.  i think i'm just jealous.

must have been nice.

our room was much more chaotic.

 

but more fun too.

 and cuter.

 

 

and since its thursday,

how about a throwback?

superbowl sunday 2011

 

 

weighing in

i know most people start their weight loss journey on january 1st.

(doesn't the word "journey" remind you of biggest loser?  me too.)

but i decided i was too fat a month prior to that.

look at this picture.

it was taken black friday - november 29th.

two days before my big health kick.

look at my beautiful baby girl and my hot, skinny (ain't that a bitch) husband.

and then me.  the chunk.

[insert the music]

wah. wah. wah.

 

 

i mean, i look god-damn pregnant.

cheese-us.

so i'm thrilled to report

that as of saturday morning, two months to the day after i started my diet,

i have lost seventeen pounds.

i now weigh in at 145,

back to my old self.

its been two full months of being really careful of what i eat

and i'm back on my treadmill every other day.

i started with the 21 day weight loss challenge

through twin fitness

(love those girls and their programs - - this is my third one with them.) 

this is two days after the challenge. 

 i think you can see the difference in my face.

 

 

i took a week break for christmas and new year's

and then got right back to it for another month.

 

its been hard

and easy at the same time.

the food i eat is really pretty good.

and its really quick to prepare,

which is huge for me.

but yeah, do i want some french fries and a chocolate chip cookie?

...make that a dozen...

of course!

so it's still a battle

and i'm not done,

but i just wanted to give a little update.

 

17 down,

10 to go.

 

 

say goodbye to chunk.