The Lent Experience

So this year for Lent (40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday) I decided to give up my most favorite thing ever - sugar.  I LOVE sweets.  Love love love.  Can't get enough...seriously.  It's almost like a problem, lol!  So it was the perfect thing to sacrifice for me.  It would be challenging and little did I know it would be very rewarding!

So it's started out badly.  I ended up eating cake like the first weekend.  Okay, not the end of the world of course.  Just stop, try again.  A another week goes by, slipped again.  And again.  And again.  Yes, I had a lot of slip ups.  Majority of the time on weekends or at get togethers with family and friends.  It's one thing when I am at home with nothing in the house, no temptation, more willpower.  But out of my comfort zone, surrounded by others, yeah, definitely hard.

But you know what?  It's okay.  I tried.  I failed.  I tried again.  And overall I would say I succeeded.  Over the course of this forty days something a couple things happened.

1.  I lost 10 pounds.  TEN pounds....by doing nothing!  Just NOT eating sweets.  No sugar in the coffee, no quick trips to the mall to get a smoothie, or ice cream cone through the McDonald's drive-thru.  Didn't have to lift a finger and 10 pounds of apparently "sugar weight" came tumbling off.  Awesome!

2.  I am now determined to make this a lifestyle change.  Very limited amounts of sweets for me.  A teaspoon at MOST of sugar in the coffee is fine now....especially after drinking it with NONE for that long.  I never really got used to it, but I can now enjoy it with a lot less.  No more drive through ice creams, smoothies, iced coffees, etc during the week.  We can have some fun, get a fun drink or dessert on the weekend.  It's all amount moderation right?

So it was a tough but great experience this year.  And probably the first time I actually made it through the whole season really putting the effort and thinking about it everyday.  Usually in years past I would easily just forget about it or not do anything at all.

So what will it be next year???

Just watching the time go by....

Well the little lady turned 11 months.....almost a MONTH ago!!!  Once again, I'm becoming a professional at slacking on this blog.  Ah well, better late than never!

Here is her 11 month "couch" shot!  Can't believe I actually kept up with it every month.  The pics aren't great, but it shows a nice progression.

This girl just won't smile for the camera!!

It's getting harder and harder to get these pictures taken.  You try getting a near 1 year old who is constantly on the move to sit down in one spot and NOT eat the piece of paper that sits next to her.  It's stressful!

So little miss is officially a WALKER!  She was taking a few steps as of the last post, but now she is doing more walking than she is crawling.  And just today she managed to push herself up to standing from the ground!  I don't think she realized what she was doing and probably won't do it again for another week or so, but she can do it!  And she'll figure it out soon enough and be running around this place like crazy in no time!

Birthday planning is officially in OVERDRIVE!  I have a week and half left to get everything together.  Things are coming together smoothly though.  I have some decorations made, all the plates/napkins/cups.  I am making her cake which is craziness but I'm excited.  I'm planning a two tiered fondant decorated cake for the cakes and a smaller "smash" cake for Emily to dig into.  I have made all the fondant so that is out of way.  Will be prepping more things as we get closer.  A friend of mine is supposed to come by next Friday to help me put it together.  Should be fun.

I have her birthday outfit as well.  Onesie with her name on it (also made by me) with a colorful tutu (again made by me).  Looking forward to getting lots of fun pictures of the birthday girl!

Stay tuned!  Coming up next:

The Lent Experience

Running For Lillian

Operation: Sippy Cup, First Steps and more!

So this little lady is rapidly growing right before are very eyes!  Almost 11 months old!  We've decided it's time to attempt to ditch the bottle and transition right to the sippy cup.  She has been very good for the last couple months taking water from the cup, but as soon as I put formula in it, she just scrunches her face and looks at me like "what the heck is this ma?"

So today starts "Operation: Sippy Cup."  Cutting out the bottles.  Attempting "cold turkey" today just to see how it goes.  So far, it's okay.  She took 4 oz of her normal 8 oz serving this morning.  She had a nice heaping helping of yogurt for breakfast, so she is getting a good dose of dairy and nutrients from other sources.  I will try again this afternoon with another 4 oz serving which is what she normally takes.  By evening, I will try another 8 oz before/with dinner.  If she doesn't drink much of that, I will consider putting the rest in the bottle to have her finish it up.

I sometimes complain that this girl is somewhat emotionally "high maintenance" (very needy and clingy at times.)  But when it comes to the basics of what usually mom's complain about, she is a breeze!  She has slept through the night since about 2-3 months, dropped the pacifier at 4 months, dropped the bedtime/naptime bottle around 8-9 months, doesn't need to be rocked/held to go to sleep.  Frankly, it's been pretty great!  I'll take the crazy mood swings and separation anxiety over not sleeping through the night any day!

In other news, missy miss has been taking her "first steps" for the last couple weeks now.  She is so cute!  She gets all excited and will take 2-3 steps before she ends up lunging into you.  Jim and I will prop her up and have her go back and forth in between us.  She thinks its a fun game and is getting better and better every time!  Here is a quick video I shot yesterday:


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic


Another trick she has learned is not one I am very fond of.....chewing on the crib.  I went in to get her from a nap a couple weeks ago and saw this:

nom nom nom

Not good!!!  So I rushed out to the fabric store and bought materials to make some guard rail covers.  I haven't taken any pictures of them yet, but when I do - I will be sure to post them.

Here are a few more pictures of the crazy faced rugrat:

And here is one of Emily and daddy playing their favorite game....Rocket Baby!  Jim flys her around the house making rocket ship noises.  We have got to take a video one of these days because when he sets her down, she gets all upset and starts making the rocket ship sounds because she wants daddy to do it again!  Too cute!