I'm 'Fessin' Up!

I'm allowing myself junk food for one meal today, and today only! We ended up with unexpected babysitters for the afternoon. Michel's parents asked us earlier this week if they could come hang out since they haven't seen us (and by "us", I really mean "Audrey"!) since Christmas. They told us that they would be more than happy to watch her for us if we wanted to go out and celebrate Valentine's Day, so we are taking them up on that offer. Starting at 3 p.m., Texas Roadhouse (I think we're addicted since we seem to eat there so much) is offering a special of an appetizer and 2 entrees for $34.99 that we're going to enjoy. Then we'll be going out for dessert. I am eating rolls, an appetizer, and a dessert tonight, guilt-free!

On a separate note, this week I have had a sinus infection, and stomach bug. For 24 hours, I only ate toast and crackers. Yet, I stepped on the scale mid-week (I do this sometimes) and I gained 3.6 pounds!! Michel thinks it's the antibiotic I'm taking for my sinus infection that's causing me to retain water because my jeans were really tight yesterday. I hope it's the antibiotic. It took me 4 weeks to lose that much, and the week that I really watched my diet, cut down on coffee and Diet Coke, and had a stomach bug, I gained weight. :( I'll still weigh in tomorrow, but I already know the scale is up, and I'll be eating some yummy food tonight, I'm sure tomorrow's weigh-in will not be what I'm hoping for. However, my sister and I are starting a super clean-eating challenge tomorrow, and it will last 10 days, so hopefully I see good results from that :)

Look Whooo Is 5 Months Old!

We're a day late on her monthly pictures. Oops! I've been battling cold-like symptoms since Thursday. On Sunday, they were getting worse and worse, so on Monday Michel told me I should go to Legacy ER (where he works part-time) to make sure it wasn't anything serious; plus, since he's an employee we don't have to pay our co-pay, so it was free. So I went yesterday and it turns out I have a sinus infection (I get these all the time). I got a prescription for that, and then around lunch time yesterday, my stomach started feeling weird. It was some kind of weird 24 hour stomach bug. I ate lunch, but a lot smaller than normal, and for dinner I had toast and crackers. I had the same meal for breakfast today, but by lunch time I was feeling back to myself. It's been a weird 36 hours! So, all that to say, that's why I'm late in posting this. Now on to the cute baby!

First, how is it possible that this sweet baby is already 5 months old??? In one way I feel like we just brought her home from the hospital, but in another way I feel like she's been in our lives so long that I don't even remember what life was like without her!

This girl is soooo much fun! I thoroughly enjoy staying home with her. We sing lots of songs because every time I do she gets a huge smile on her face! This month has been my favorite so far because I've seen so many new skills develop! Her already-social personality has become even more social, and I just love her to pieces!

Weight: Don't know exact #s, but I would guess she weighs around 14 1/2 pounds.

Length: Again, don't know for sure, but I would guess around 25-26 inches.

Head circumference: No clue :)

Sleep: She now only takes 3 naps a day: a morning nap, an afternoon nap, and a short late-evening nap. Either her morning nap or afternoon nap will be about 2 1/2 hours long. The other nap will be about an hour and a half, and her late evening nap is 30 minutes to an hour long. She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30, and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 a.m.!

Eating: We finally have a good eater on our hands again! We figured out she just wasn't hungry enough to want to eat 5 times a day, so we cut it back to 4 times a day. I feed her at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and usually 7-7:30 in the evening. She eats anywhere from 4-8oz at a time, but her overall intake for the day is generally about 24-27oz. She's chunking up quite nicely :)

Clothes: We're all over the place in clothes. Most of her 0-3 month outfits still fit, so she still wears them, but can also wear a size 3M, and most 3-6 month clothes fit her, too. Some are still a bit big on her.

New Achievements this month:
1. She's adding new sounds into her babbling! We have heard /b/, bwah, blah, and one time I heard a /d/, but I've only heard it once so I don't know if it was an accident or not.
2. She started imitating body movements. Sometimes when we're on the floor playing during tummy time, I'll tell her "Mommy's going night night" and I'll lay my head down and make a snoring sound, and then pop my head up and say, "I'm awake!" (she thinks it's funny). One time I was doing it and I noticed when I put my head down, she put her head down; when my head was up, her head was up. She was doing it so well and I got my camera out to record, but of course, then she stopped doing it. Stinker.
3. She can roll from her tummy to her back. Michel and I haven't actually witnessed it, but I looked at her on the baby monitor one morning when she was making noise and she was on her back (she had been sleeping on her tummy). She doesn't do this often.
4. She knows how to blow raspberries
5. I'm 99% sure she understands what the word and sign "finish" mean. I tell her we're "finished" or "all done" at the end of books, bath time, eating, etc, and I also sign it. One day when I was suctioning snot out of her nose, she was crying, and I told her "We're finished" and I signed it, and she smiled!
6. How to splash her arms and legs in the tub - and what fun splashing can be!

I'm sure I'm forgetting so much! I need to start writing these things down when I see them in the moment. I can just really tell she's starting to understand her world around her :)

Things she likes:
1. She still likes talking
2. Blowing raspberries
3. Her own sneezes - they make her smile every time :)
4. Her daddy! I really think she's a Daddy's girl. She seems to really show a preference for him over me when we're at home
5. The exersaucer - I think it's become her new favorite toy
6. Long car rides
7. People - we went to the Deaf Ed Show on Saturday (talent show put on by Plano Deaf Ed program), and I got to see a lot of my former students, co-workers,  and parents, and Audrey did so good! We were there for an hour and a half, and she had no problem letting strangers hold her, smiling at everyone who talked to her, and staying fairly quiet while we watched the show. I was so proud of her!
8. Sucking her thumb
9. Trying to get both fists in her mouth at the same time
10. Ninja - she talks to him anytime she sees him. He's still slightly scared of her. He'll get really close, but if she moves at all, he'll run, or at least back away quickly!
11. Tummy sleeping
12. Big girl baths - I used to bathe her in the sink until after Christmas. I tried giving her a bath on a little chair handed down to me from my sister and Audrey HATED it! She didn't feel secure on it, and felt like she was going to fall off. We bought her an actual baby bathtub that goes inside of our bathtub and she loves it! 

Things she doesn't like:
1. Men with facial hair - it still makes her cry
2. Strangers talking to her when she's just woken up - when we went to the Deaf Ed show, I was greeted by a parent and she was talking to Audrey, and Audrey started crying! Luckily those were the only tears shed the entire performance, and Audrey warmed up to the mom quickly, and eventually showed her what a cute smile she has. Also, on Sunday when we were walking into church, we were greeted by an older man, and she started crying at him, too. He had no facial hair, so all I can come up with is that new faces are a bit overwhelming to her when she just woke up.
3. Not getting the bottle in her mouth fast enough! Especially during the first feeding of the day. As soon as I put her in my lap and start putting her bib on, she's fussing....a pitiful fuss like she's just beyond famished. It's really cute/funny in my opinion.

She's a drama queen sometimes, but her daddy and I love her!

Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down!

I went down 1.4 pounds this week! This seems to be my magic number...it's the most I've ever lost in one week since starting my journey. Oh well...I'll take it! I'm especially pleased with this because I haven't been doing so well with the working out! I worked out really hard on Monday and Tuesday, but on Tuesday I pulled a muscle in my upper thigh. I purposely didn't work out on Wednesday, and my leg was so much better. I worked out again on Thursday, and yesterday we got our new treadmill, and I planned on running once it got set up. Once Michel set it up, we found out it doesn't work. :( The motor in it is defective, so a service tech is coming out to replace it on Tuesday. Then I was going to work out this morning, and developed a bad cold last night. I didn't sleep well, so I didn't want to do it this morning. However, after being up for awhile and getting rid of the majority of the drainage, I feel MUCH better, and hope to work out once Audrey goes down for a nap this morning.

This Week's Successes:
1. We went to a Super Bowl party last Sunday. I took food that I knew I would allow myself to eat, and that I would want to eat - including my favorite healthy(more like healthier) brownies!

Picture Overload!

I have been so bad at posting pictures on my blog, and on Facebook. When I say "pictures," I mean pictures of Audrey! I've been "reprimanded" for it by pretty much all of our family who can't get enough. Who can blame them, though? We do have a cutie on our hands! I didn't have enough pictures of any one event to make new albums on Facebook, or a post for each event on my blog, so I'm just doing a big picture dump.

Audrey loves her swing! It almost always puts her to sleep. Isn't a sleeping baby just the cutest thing ever?

I attempted to bling out her band! They didn't stick well, but I'm not giving up yet!

We've just recently put her in this thing (I don't even know what it's called, lol). She likes it pretty well, but mainly just likes to eat the things that are on it. She especially likes gnawing on this dinosaur puppet. 

This picture was taken either at the end of December/beginning of January before she got her helmet. My parents bought this outfit for her as a Christmas present, and I just think it's the cutest thing ever! I especially love the tights!

My mom's best friend bought this outfit for her. So sassy!

Last Sunday, some friends in our Sunday School class invited anybody who wanted to come over to watch the Super Bowl. I didn't watch any part of the game, but I had a blast hanging out with my other mom friends and their sweet babies!

Audrey Z. with her friend, Aubrey Z.! Originally, Alicia (Aubrey's mom) had her down on the floor tickling her, and Aubrey was laughing a super sweet big girl laugh. I was sitting right next to them with Audrey in my lap, and Audrey started laughing! She wasn't being tickled or anything; she was just watching Aubrey and Alicia play together and thought it was funny! Then I put her on the floor with Aubrey and Alicia, and she got tickled, too. Then we had two seriously adorable babies laughing the cutest baby laughs ever!

Finally, another swing picture that was just too cute not to include!

I did take a couple of pictures today of Audrey's first "snow" day, but for some reason they're not loading correctly, so I'll save those for another day.

I hope that everybody enjoyed my picture overload of this super-cutie! I'll try to not let so much time go by before posting pictures again!

January/February Goals

I wanted to do a recap on how I did on my January goals, and reiterate February's goals: 

January:
Personal goal: Do not eat any junk food! I am proud to say that I have held to this! I have refrained from eating chips before a meal, rolls, etc. I have ordered turkey burgers instead of hamburgers and passed on fries. I eat Weight Watchers candies and desserts (seriously, they are delicious), and I have had some dark chocolate chips when I really want some real chocolate (they have antioxidants, right...that = healthy :) 
Fitness goal: Run/walk a total of 70 miles. I'm sad to say this was an utter failure! I ran/walked 51.12 miles...about 20 miles shy of my goal. Without having a treadmill, or access to a gym, and doing it in January when the weather outside was iffy was dumb on my part. There were days where Michel was at work (both jobs) for over 36 hours, and I had to take Audrey with me, but some of those days I wasn't willing to take her out because it was too cold, too cold for me to go out, blah, blah, blah. Oh well...what can you do?
Spiritual goal: Spend at least 10 minutes a day in personal quiet time. Did it!! Love it! I have thoroughly enjoyed this part of my New Year's resolutions :)

February: 
Personal goal: Continue refraining from eating any junk food until 2/26/14....when I become an old woman! :)
Fitness goal: Do this entire workout once a week, every week for the entire month! Yes...it may kill me...but in a good way! :) 
Spiritual goal:  Do the Beth Moore study of the book of James in the Bible.

Stay tuned to see how February goes for me!  

Monthly Measurements

I know that I normally do my monthly measurements on the 2nd of each month, but tomorrow we'll be at church in the morning and a Super Bowl party in the evening, so I knew that I wouldn't have time to do this tomorrow. I still feel like I'm seeing the most difference when looking at the side view, but I can see a small difference from the front and back. I'm so ready to get rid of my "baby belly." It's cute when there's a baby in there; when there's no baby and there's still a "baby belly", it's not so cute!

Since January 2nd, I have lost:
Waist: -1/2 inch
Hips: 0
Thigh: -1/2 inch
Chest: - 1 1/2 inches (really, this is the place that's losing the quickest?!)
Bicep: -1/2 inch
Calf: 0

Urrrggghhh....slow and steady wins the race, right?? Since starting in November, I've lost 10 pounds and 5 inches all over. The great news is that Michel and I bought a treadmill that will be here next weekend! I can run no matter what the weather is outside now :)

Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down!

I went down 0.6 pounds this week!

For anyone reading this who might be thinking, "She's given up junk food, yet losing a minimal amount of weight, and is happy about it?" Yes, I am! I have always lost weight very slowly, but the upside to that is I gain weight slowly, too. Also, I'm losing weight in a way that truly is a lifestyle change, and not a diet. I have tried doing the newest fad of "clean eating." I just can't commit to it. I need to find a way to lose weight while drinking more coffee than I should, more diet Coke than I should, and eating some processed foods (I know it sounds weird, but I do love Hamburger Helper!). I'm almost 30 (eeek! That's tough to say), I'm a mom, and a wife, and I have to find a way to not feel deprived while taking care of my child, the house, my husband, and myself. Plus, since starting my journey, I have yet to actually gain anything. I take it back, I might have gained weight one week in the beginning. But still, I'm not yo-yoing up and down...it's coming off consistently every week, but slowly.

This Week's Successes:
1. We went to On the Border for dinner one evening. I had 0 chips, and ordered corn tortillas instead of flour (corn is better for you), and only ate half my dinner quesadillas and saved the rest for lunch the next day.
2. I ran 3 miles one day this week, and held a steady 11-minute-mile pace the entire time! This shaved 30 seconds to a minute off my normal average pace! Pre-pregnancy I could run 4-5 miles and hold a pace of 10 minutes per mile, so I'm trying to get back to that. Again, slow and steady wins the race!
3. I worked out hard core this week! I love waking up the next morning, and still being a bit sore, so that I know I did something good for myself :)