Six@Six

Six Months... marked by 6 Things I don't want to forget:

1. I recently was re-reading my birth story, and all of a sudden remembered that while in the hospital for those blurry three nights that bled into each other, just strips of sun and then night time, and sun and nighttime - there was a show on fx every night around 11pm, 2-3 episodes in a row, that I would watch.  I would doze for just a few minutes at a time all night, with an itty-bitty-baby dozing on my chest, and I would open my eyes to catch Kevin Bacon and Diane Kreuger (I think that's who it was...) solving murders and mysteries... I can't remember the TV show's name...

2. For his first few months, when Ben ate his bottle, he self-soothed while sipping - his little hand would rub his head, just above his ear, in a back and forth motion - back to front, front to back, his little fingers and his blond baby-fuzz-hair.. He only occasionally does it not when he's really tired and having a bottle...

3. When my mom went home after her two-week housekeeper stint when Ben was born, I dropped her off at Newark Airport, walked back to the car, sat in the passenger side and nursed Ben in the short-term lot, wondering if anyone would dare approach me, or stare...

4. Ben can spot his bottle from a mile away.  There is no preparing it on the DL.  Once he sees it, it's target-lock and he will flip upside down to keep it in his sights!

5. The dogs fascinate Ben.  He loves to watch them playfight and giggles when either E or I yell at/or scold them...

6. He is a yogi-in-training! He loves to grab his feet during his diaper changes.  It makes it verrrry hard to get his diaper off, and when we jokingly express frustration, he laughs at us...

 

There's a reason they call /\ this /\ Happy Baby Pose!

Buggy List Returns!

First, to get it off my chest - I HATE MONDAYS.

That is all.


In other news today - I did it! E would have bet money that I never would, but I sure showed him! and I did it while slightly inebriated last night (after spending the day with friends, drinking and watching NHL's Winter Classic Stadium Series where the NY Rangers kicked some Devil butt!)

What did I do?

I made NINE slow-cooker-freezer meals!

I have never done any of this Betty Crocker stuff - I barely cook a regular meal...
Me making dinner usually consists of pasta and a pre-made frozen vegetable side being microwaved. (Hence E thinking I would never fulfill this BuggyList item)

I did not make ALL of the recipes, but the ones I made I got from here and here.

So we went yesterday morning to the food store with the combined shopping lists with all the meats, produce, seasonings etc (16 lbs of meat!)
While it was a hefty grocery bill (over $200) when broken down per meal, we're saving a lot (versus eating out, for example):
9 slow cooker meals = 6-8 servings each
Even with the lower end of 6 servings per meal, that's a minimum of 54 servings - which makes each meal (servings for 2) $ SEVEN DOLLARS $

On the site where I got the recipes, the blogger claimed she prepped everything in just over an hour - well, it took me about two hours, but that's probably because I stopped to pour a few glasses of wine, kept spilling (and having to clean up) stuff, and had to help E tend to a sick baby (poor Ben has his first cold/cough, so Daddy ran a hot steamy shower and sat with him in the bathroom for awhile...).

(Spilled ground beef - I went to pour it into the bag and it went all over the counter... so this bag just might have some stray dog hair. lol)

So, I basically went recipe-by-recipe (except for the first recipe, Black Bean Soup, where the ground beef and onions had to be browned and then cooled so it was started first, and then bagged last.)

 The 8 lbs of chicken we got was all split up (we bought it family style, around 4 lbs per package) into some awesome recipes I'm excited to try:
 Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
 Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken
 BBQ Cranberry Chicken
 Sweet Teriyaki Chicken*
and Cilantro Lime Chicken (the prettiest in the bag for now!)

We also made a number of beef and pork recipes:
   Beef & Mushrooms (for over rice)*
   French Dip Sandwiches (made with beef chuck roast)*
   Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes

*overall, we were mostly without incident (except the spilled ground beef, and the wine running out) but we forgot a few things somehow from our shopping list, so these three recipes are waiting for a few crucial ingredients that I'll pick up tonight to finish up  (like soy sauce (which E insisted we had, when I asked four times while shopping, "Yea but do we have a full CUP?!"))

After a kitchen clean up, our spare freezer looks pretty good! Now we just have to remember to move the bags from the freezer to the fridge for 24 hours before we can get the slow-cooker going...

(There's also three containers of frozen red sauce from July... ha.  Wonder if it's still good...)

Now hopefully these meals don't get in the way of my other ongoing Buggy List item of working out and dropping lbs...
I skipped a workout Saturday morning, and probably negated Sunday's by drinking and eating my calories, but I'm down 2 lbs! (We'll see how long that lasts... tomorrow I might be back up a lb...)


AND - AF returned yesterday!!!! I had to remember to buy tampons and such while out yesterday - it's been so long!

need a laugh?

Check off two things from the "What To Expect After You've Expected" ...

1. So Tuesday I put on a cardigan, and was on my way out of the house for work when I noticed a shoulder full of dried spit-up...

2. Today, I am rocking a maternity dress. 
Because it's really comfortable. 
And I can pretend the bloat (from too much wine, too much being sick and loading up on salty chicken stock, and too much over-eating - Don't forget, you're not BFing anymore! no more extra calories!) is a little bump, so when the lady in DD's is all, "aw when are you due?"
I give a little smile and say "June" and order my two breakfast sandwiches, donut and coffee, SKIM MILK, of course...

This lead me to a little Buggy List action - I'm not listing starting or goal weight (so whoever's reading will not feel worse (or better!) about themselves) but I'd like to lose the last 5 lbs of baby weight that has crept back on, as well as an extra 5 lbs that seemed to crop up the last few years - you know, you get married and all of a sudden you just don't watch how many beers you have during the football/hockey season!

I've got a bikini-trip coming up with girlfriends as well as a 3K tough-mudder to train for, so with the proper motivation, let's see if we can get that scale to move!

Got a nice jump start this morning - literally (gotta love those 5 minute workouts all over Pinterest!):
          30 jumping jacks
          5 Pushups **did the girly from-your-knees kinds
          25 High Knees **did 20...  I'll get there!
          7 Burpees **(I think I only did 5... .lol)
          10 Crunches **I did 15 for this!
          7 Squats
          5 Pushups (girly kind)
          10 Crunches (again did 15!)
          5 Pushups (girly kind)
          7 Squats **skipped this set, will work it in as I get stronger...
          30 Jumping Jacks (hair was flopping ALL OVER at this point.... lol)
          1 Minute Wall Sit *ha - after the squats, I only managed 30 seconds...
          5 more Girl Pushups
         
           aaaaaand I threw on 30 seconds of plank pose to finish it off!

I'm going to aim for a Pinterest-5-minute workout each morning, as well as a minimum of 10 minutes on the elliptical at night (plus any additional weight-training I feel like doing)

Here We Go!
1/23/2014 starting weight : XX5 lbs

The post that begins with Alanis Morrissette...

She IS the one that sang "Jealousy" right?!

So, jealousy...

My friend Dee (who I had asked for thoughts for a great NT scan - which she got!) she called me today at work probably two weeks ago, which is when I first started writing this post.... oops...

And she told me she JUST found out they're having a boy!

SQUEEEE!!! We're halfway to a hocky team!


and then the green monster comes back...

No, no - not THAT green monster!

They were the same feelings that plagued me before Ben came along...
And when I got off the phone with Danielle, it took me awhile to process and recognize it...
Underneath all the giddiness of her being pregnant and having a boy as well who will be just 1 year younger than Ben...

 I feel jealous. 

WHY?!
I ask myself, why the hell do I feel jealous?!

It's not that I'm jealous that she's pregnant and I'm not (though - oh I do miss my maternity clothes, they were so cute... and I still have dreams of feeling a baby kick and squirm... OMFG don't tell me I have baby fever already!!)

Ultimately, I think I'm jealous that she's just cruising through. I'm jealous that she gets to have no real worry (or experience) of an appointment filled with terror and fear that there will be no heartbeat, again.
(and I'm sure, because of what I went through and she witnessed, she was concerned at her first ultrasound; but I think there's nothing like the true fear that only comes from having experienced a heart-breaking appointment..)

And it's not just her - I think I'm jealous of anyone that didn't have to go through what I went through.

BUT - 

Being jealous of someone having a million dollars does not mean that I wish everyone was poor...
if that makes sense... (i.e. Just because I'm jealous that she is coasting along, does not mean that I wish she had to go through what I did... I would NEVER wish that on anyone, especially my Dee, for whom I worried and fretted as much as when I was pregnant and anticipating big doctor visits and dopplers...)

But anyways - the cool thing? She called me first to tell me her awesome news. =)
(Ok she obviouly called her husband FIRST first, but I was next!)
Which felt awesome. I can't wait to go shopping with her for our boys =)
And sit and drink wine while they play in the next room...
And worry when they fall silent and then respond with an innocent "nothing" that causes eyebrows to raise, when we ask what they're up to...

And speaking of busy boys - this guy is SIX MONTHS OLD!

  Trying on newborn hats for fun...

We went to his first birthday party (for a friend's son who turned 6) - a Safari themed party, with all kinds of animals!

He loves his doggies, and he LOVES to eat! 
People/family ask - what is his favorite food?
We answer:
"Anything in a bottle or on a spoon!"
EXCEPT for whatever this was (I think plain cereal):

 

And my big boy - he's able to feed himself!
We're still working on the spoon (he ended up with sweet potatoes up his nose last attempt!)
But he's got the bottle mastered...

He has the softest, fuzziest wispy blond hair...

 

My little monkey!

And one of my absolute favorite things that he still does:

Check out those hands behind his head - this kid knows how to kick back in the crib!


Next Time on The Buggy List -  getting back to The List!!
I got the idea (and the motivation when I saw how easy it was!) from a fabulous (and beautifully pregnant!) blogger that I follow -  Slow Cooker Freezer Meals!

Stay tuned!

Kate and the No Good, Horrible....

...Terrible, Mondays-Suck, Poopy Suck-ass, %#&@*$ piece of @*$*% Day.

or something like that...

first, my garage door broke last night, and so I had to park in the driveway - when you're spoiled with a heated (dettached) 2.5 car garage, this is a Big Deal. Thankfully it was warm (40s!) and did not snow last night!

second, my 2nd babysitter for today (#1 does 8-1:30 and #2 comes to relieve her until E gets home from work...)
well she cancelled at 6am this morning. So I had to take a half day from work - on probably what should have been the busiest day for the next six months - I would rather have been there because now tomorrow is going to be that much worse...

THEN, only after I've gone to the bathroom and tried every light switch on the second floor, I slowly realize that we have no power!
LOVED getting dressed in the dark even more than trying to get makeup on evenly without lights...

My receptionist usually gets a few of us coffee every morning - she thought I wasn't coming in today, so no coffee...

after crapping its brains last week, my computer still hadn't arrived from our IT company this morning.

and the state screwed up payment for a large number of claims I billed to them last week.

So I was on another work station, using our webmail and running a bunch of web-based programs when internet epxplorer decided to go all belly-up and closed all my open windows, incuding a long email I was in the middle of composing...

I finally get home (5 minutes late) and the babysitter rushed out to her afternoon classes, and I realized I never asked when Ben's last nap was... or his last bottle/food (he's on his own schedule, which is a loose 3.5 hour cycle of Bottle, Play, Nap, Play, Food, Play - Rinse & Repeat (and throw some spitup and poops in there!)
So after a great, giggly 10 minutes, he begins to rub his eyes (sleepy sign #1) but when I laid him down, proceeded to scream his ever-lovin' head off...
He was this charming self for over an hour...
After some food and some rock/walking, I'm finally able to get him to sleep (and stay asleep during The Transfer - it's like diffusing a bomb!) when - just TWENTY FOUR MINUTES later - guess who's awake?!?!?!

Aaaaaand there goes any work I had planned on doing this afternoon...

Monday decided she* wasn't done with me yet...
*(because who could be this cruel but a conniving female??)
A cocktail was in my very near future, and I could almost taste the alcohol relief as I reached for, and shook, a bottle of cran-pomegranate juice.

A BOTTLE THAT DID NOT HAVE THE LID ON ALL THE WAY.

W - I - N - N - I - N - G !!!!!

The day wasn't complete until we had no less than 3 poopsplosions (in under 2 hours), 2 spit-up sessions (that made it all over his sleeve, my sleeve, my pantlegs from hip to knee, and my fuzzy purple slippers), and 1 large pile of toys that - "dammit, should be all over the floor! NOT on my highchair!! How many times must I toss them aside?!"

Daddy decided to cancel his doctor's appointment after work, and now I'm sitting here with a vodka cranberry - with the damn lid screwed back on properly! - trying to focus on all the work I didn't get done this afternoon...