Some Serious Milestones

My dear sweet little Andie hit two major milestones all in one day!

Today was her first taste of rice cereal!  She did so wonderful!  First she looked so CUTE sitting up in the high chair! (With the help of the 3-point buckle)  She looked so incredibly tiny in that gargantuan seat! Second, the first bite was so funny.  She opened her sweet little mouth when I put the spoon up to it and just held it open, so I put the food on her tongue and of course she began to move it around in her mouth and inevitably it all came running out!  By the end of the feeding she was getting pretty good at the idea of closing her mouth on the spoon and doing a very good job of keeping most of the cereal in her mouth!  She would get so excited when she could see the spoon coming toward her mouth, her chubby little legs would start pumping and her arms flailing all over the place.  The are the moments I live for!

My favorite thing about being a mom, next to the unconditional love of a child is hearing their first giggle.  There is something about this that can bring tears to my eyes.  The innocence and excitement in a baby's first laugh is magical, and today I heard my Andie's first real giggle. She was probably sick of seeing my goo goo-gah gah face by mid afternoon. Once I heard that sweet little noise I was pestering her all day to do it again! With some seriously goofy faces and noises I managed to get a few more out of her. I just love it so much! There is a build up that adds to the excitement, the soft coo's as she gets closer and closer to the real thing. I get butterflies just thinking about it!

So there you have it, my sweet little baby is 13 weeks old today (Tuesday) and it's showing.  If only we could slow down time for the precious moments in life.

Friendship (Warning: A little bit sappy...)

Today I've been thinking a lot about friendship. What is true friendship?  How can I be a better friend?  A good, true, lifelong friend posted this as their Facebook status yesterday:

They say everlasting friends can go for long periods of time without speaking and never questioning their friendship. These types of friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has
been or how far away they live, and they don't hold grudges. They understand 'that life is busy', but you will ALWAYS love them.

  After thinking about it quite a bit today, and reflecting on this little saying, I've really thought about friendship seriously for the first time in my life.  Friends should lift you up-even when you are as high and you think you can go.  Friends should be there to comfort you when you hit rock bottom, and everywhere in between.  Friends should be like family, and family like friends.  So what about the friends that don't meet these requirements?  The only answer is to be the friend you want to be and to love them regardless if they reciprocate. 

So now what? I'm not perfect to think things and to live them are entirely different.

There is a person in my life who is fiercely competitive. A person who claims to be my friend.  I tell myself that I will not get wrapped up in the drama, that I will not let this person's passive aggressive attempts to get me down, get to me.  But I do.  I find myself thinking about what they would think about some of the things I do.  I find myself pushing myself harder to "be better" than them.  Sadly, today is the first day I've realized this and, I find it disgusting. So, NO MORE!

Today I feel like I've come to a new place, a more peaceful place.  Regardless of what I've told myself in the past, today I feel the power of being true to yourself.  I feel excited about letting go of all that garbage and focusing on BEING a better friend, instead of wanting some of my so called "friends" to be better to me.  It's as simple as the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

Feeling a little lost...

I know I've said it in nearly every blog post, but I need some serious time management lessons. Everyday I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. This week has been a rough one for me. I've been fighting a cold, dealing with midterms at school, and of course trying to manage being a mommy to two young kiddos (who have also been sick) with out ripping my hair out. I think that I am setting my standards too high each day and getting mighty discouraged when I don't finish every task I've put on my list. Today I tried something a little bit different and it seemed to work for me. I just started doing. No to do list, nothing to check off as "done" (normally I'm a total list kinda girl.) I still came no where near getting as much done as I would have put on my list but I accomplished more than usual. It was SO amazing to feel productive!

♥

I've had a lot on my mind lately regarding my personal life, and I know it's been taking a toll on my weight loss. I've always been so proud to say that I have tremendous will power when it comes to avoiding emotional eating, but these past few weeks I have lost it. I'm picking up crappy food left and right and poppin' it right in my mouth! The most horrible part is, I think about what I'm doing but still do it! I don't want to go into the dirty details, but I know exactly why I'm feeling down. I really hate the spot I'm in right now and I wish with every fiber of my being I knew how to fix it. When did life become so complicated? When did I become a person that couldn't say how I was feeling? How did I become so comfortably numb?

I'm Baaaaaaack

Ok, I've been away for far to long. I've been swamped with school work and other projects. I think I'm finally getting a routine down between homework and taking care of a new baby!

My weight loss has been going fantastic! I've been doing Zumba on a daily basis and sticking with a healthy diet. I've been able to come pretty close to meeting my goal of 2.5lbs a week so far. Even with the gain I had my second week, my large loss the following week made up for it. I will admit I haven't been tracking as diligently as I should be. I'm really afraid that it's going to show at tomorrows weigh in. I guess we'll see!! I have had a lot on my mind this week and I can totally tell my emotions have played a part in my "hunger." I've been bored eating, and sad eating, and mad eating lol... I've been trying to reach for healthy things, really I have.

My beautiful daughter turned 3 years old today :) In some ways I can't believe it's been that long, however; I don't remember what life was like with out her and that makes it feel like forever. She fills my heart with light and laughter. I'm working on a letter to her that I'll probably post here shortly. We had her party on Saturday and all the little girls came dresses as princesses! There was good food, some yummy cupcakes, face painting and family and friends! It was a success with out the stress.

My goals for this week are 1.) to track my points using my ipod touch so I can track right on the WW app. and 2.) to tackle my emotions with other methods than stuffing my face. and 3.) get school work done early to avoid all the stress at the end of the week.

Thanks again to every one of my followers, I promise I will be more present here on my blog! I've missed blabbering!