Weak Sauce & Other Random Tidbits

First, I did not get to complete Round #1 of my diet :( I was so sick I could hardly move last week. Steve took Kalea out and about for a few days and left me home with Brynlee- which was so fun for her- but there was one day where I quite literally could barely lift her out of her crib and ended up practically sliding down the stairs because I had about zero energy to walk down them. She laughed the whole way down. Good times. Anyways, the weight is staying off and it feels good to be eating more normal foods, although definitely not in the portions I was before. So we can call that a success I guess.
Second, Steve and I are venturing out to start our Bikram yoga this week. Yes that's the "hot" yoga. I think I am going to like it, if only for the fact that it will mean I get a regularly scheduled shower after each class :)
Third, Kalea told me that she loved me, unprompted for the very first time the other day. This was before she absolutely destroyed the basement and got in mega trouble, but I'll take it. She said it so happily, and made sure to yell "MOM" at the end. I even cried when I told Steve about it because some days I just feel like nothing is getting into her head, but I guess it is! Success again!
Fourth, Brynlee is so stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it. She is definitely a lovey dovey sap and loves to walk over to me and just put her head down on my lap. She is my cuddly girl and if I'm sitting on the floor, she is usually sitting with me. Bryn loves books and hearing her own voice, she quite frequently takes a book that I've just finished reading and will "read" it back to me in her own jibberish.
Fifth, Steve bought me a Christmas tree last week and we put Christmas up. I love it and it made me forget about being sick for a little bit. Christmas decorations are just so cheerful and the girls absolutely love all the lights and decorations, it makes me never want to take them down! I thought the sooner we got everything up, the sooner they'd get used to it and leave the ornaments alone, etc... It has worked! Once a day both girls have a moment of "ooh the tree" and shake a few ornaments/branches, but that's it. I just explain what it is and to only touch and then they get bored and move along. Thank goodness!

Tradition? I guess if you do it twice...

Brynlee finally joined Kalea's exclusive "Ears pierced" club yesterday. I really should've gotten a picture of Kalea watching, she was very concerned about the whole thing. All day she said things like "Nee nee kay?" or "Nee nee hurt?" and we'd have to assure her that, yes Brynlee is okay, and no she isn't hurt. In fact, she cried way LESS than Kalea did when she had hers done and hasn't touched her ears since. Prior to the piercing of her ears, Brynlee was able to meet Santa at the mall, she loved "oooo-ing" at all the fun decorations that they have along the pathway to greet Santa. I feel like she's the smartest one year old on the planet, today I showed her the picture we have of her and Santa and I asked her who's in the picture and she very happily said "San ta!" So clearly she wasn't too emotionally traumatized by the events of the day, she can't even name the females with the earring guns... LOL Oh and I think the closest Kalea came to Santa was glancing at him from behind the photographer, on the bright side, she wasn't afraid of Mrs.Claus, who quite frankly I found a wee bit frightening :S

I Do Mom Stuff...

So today whilst going about my daily routines I realized something that maybe I should've noticed a while ago, but I was probably in denial... I do mom stuff!?!? No seriously, let me explain. I have weird little routines/rituals that I do every day, that in my mind, help me get through the day relatively unscathed. Case in point, I heard Brynlee get up from her morning nap, so I get her sippy ready, run upstairs, bypass her bedroom for a quick potty break of my own, then retrieve her from her bed come downstairs, give her the sippy and voila, happiness abounds. Later in the routine of things I realize it's going to be naptime soon, so I run upstairs first to Kalea's room to fix her blankets, then to the bathroom- yes I pee'd twice today(!) then to Brynlee's room to fix her blankets and turn on the heater so her room is toasty warm for her afternoon nap. I even do dishes in a specific order now because I find grease sticks to plastic kid dishes, so I do the kids stuff separate from the big people dishes! Isn't that funny? I think it's so hilarious, because I'm really not this person, I swear!!! When did I become this person?! And as I sit here writing this I find myself wondering, what was my routine like before kids? What little routines did I have then... Oh right, none... BORING! Today I am realizing that not only have these kids brought a lot of craziness to my life, but they've kind've MADE my life. Good for them! Yay kids!

The Age of No & Go Away

Oh parenting...sigh...
Kalea is using her words a lot more these days. She's a slow talker, but we'll attribute that to her attachment to her soother. She is learning to take it out when she needs to talk. Although I'm not sure it was such a good idea to teach her that because now we have entered scary territory. I don't know if it's just because she's been stuck inside with me all week or what, but it feels like it's her "time of the month" or something! Talk about attitude! If I ask her any question she answers "No", and if I ask her a question like "Kalea are you hungry, would you like some dinner?" she responds, "No! Sure!" "Kalea do you want to watch a show?" "No, ya sure!" Maybe she's just confused about how to answer in the affirmative without the negative? As if... She's also telling me to "Go Away!" at least 2-3 times a day. Which I can totally relate to, because, quite frankly I wish I could tell her that sometimes. But what I don't understand is why she will yell my name forever, I'll respond and after about 2 minutes she's telling me to go away... UGH!
Moving right along... She has made a little potty progress this week. As in she has made a concerted effort to let me know she has gone in her diaper and needs it changed, and she's even gone to the potty a few times. She's starting to not want to wear her diaper anymore, either, so hopefully this time she's actually "ready". We'll see. It would be awesome to have her out of diapers in the new year...
In other news... I have been SO sick for a few days. It seems like since I've been married I don't just get sick I get REALLY sick. It is so strange and so annoying. I thought my head was going to explode yesterday, literally. But it seems like I get this once a year now, same symptoms and everything. I wonder what it is?

Who Knew?

Minced garlic in a jar? I have no idea why I didn't discover this sooner, but it is saving my life right now! Yay for delicious sauteed mushroom shrimp salad! Small things...
In other news, I feel like doing something nice for somebody today... random... But I've been thinking about it for more than a few days and I hope they don't think I'm totally weird...
More random, I decided to introduce Kalea to the movie Cool Runnings today... She yelled at me for dancing to the music at the beginning of it and when she finally got my attention she pointed upstairs and said "Go"... I really dunno what to make of that...

Diet Insanity

I do believe I had no idea what I signed up for when I started this ridiculous diet. A lot of people think it's crazy... quite frankly it kind of is for a normal single person, for a wife/mom it's kind of the perfect solution for my lack of ability to actually leave the "nest" for more than a late night grocery run. So, I said I would never "put a pregnancy hormone into my body if I wasn't pregnant" but I'm a total sell-out and a friend and I decided to do the hCG diet... I won't get into too many details, but let's just say no carbs/sugar/fat, lots of lettuce/protein, crazy under the tongue drops that make your mouth tingle, very specific menu items & a whole lot of water. I have no idea why I thought it would be easy! I don't generally have a lot of will power when it comes to denying myself something tasty, and I'm not even talking about real junk, I'm talking "Boy I sure could use/enjoy a jugo juice". Seriously. Maybe I'm more mad because I thought after the first week of losing quite quickly that every week following would be just as fruitful, not so. Frustration I guess is where I'm at. But on the bright side my "goal weight" isn't as far away and doesn't seem that unattainable anymore. I am definitely losing inches and my face is starting to have angles again! LOL I am also finding that I have more energy and less of a desire to take an afternoon nap. I feel better, which is probably more important than anything else. Steve has been my biggest foe- well not really, he's super supportive, but he has literally pressed a caramilk to my lips to tempt me. He told me that if I was going to cheat on the diet he would rather be the reason I did it. Thanks babe. I'm getting much more excited for this diet to be over so I can start Bikram yoga in December. I was really scared to do it before, but now I'm feeling a bit more confident that I'll have the energy to handle it. Oh yeah, no intense working out on this diet, short walks and crunches are my favorite anyways :) Another bonus of this diet, I'm becoming a lot more conscious of labels and how many calories are in things, blah blah blah... The fact that I am writing about dieting is actually pretty amusing to me, because I never ever had this problem before I had kids so it's all new to me. Seriously, I gained 10lbs from my high school weight to just after I got married, and I swore I would never diet, I'd just go to the gym. HA HA HA Oh the innocence of youth... So all this to say that if I never have to go to this extreme again, I definitely won't, but it's been full of lessons so I'm grateful that I'm doing it...

Um...

Kalea came home from nursery today with NO DIAPER... Go ahead and laugh, we sure did!

Brynlee's First Birthday!

Party Day Pictures

We had a really fun first birthday at our house this week! We made chocolate chip waffles and had, as Steve likes to call it "terrorist dinner"- they were "mummy dogs" and Brynlee enjoyed them! LOL

Bryn's First Year(kinda missing a few)

Steve and I still can't believe a whole year went by so fast, it's hard to remember "baby" Brynlee. She is definitely a great addition to our little family and we couldn't be happier to be her parents. Some of her favorite things right now include food, saying "wow" and walking! She's growing up way too fast!