Things About Adelyn

I was at a baby shower last night and we were talking about writing things down about our children. I really haven't been good at that and it makes me feel bad. Here are somethings I want to remember about Adelyn so I can tell her when she's older. She's about to turn 18 months old in a few days.

*She started walking right around 13 months old. I unfortunately don't remember the actual date anymore but I think it was March 23. We were baby sitting for our friend's daughter, Ivy. Adelyn had been taking a few steps here and there but she was nervous to really go. Joseph was sitting by the couch and I was across the room infront of the TV stand (a good distance apart). She was able to go back and forth between us. We realized she was really walking when she turned the corner around the couch to go to Sammy's kennel. She was so proud of herself!

*She loves wearing bracelets and shoes! The bracelets are little connector rings that we used to hang toys from her car seat. She used to put 6 or more on each arm. We've since lost some of them so now she usually just wears what she can find. She used to need to wear them to go to bed, but she has lost interest in that for now. Shoes make her really excited though! Sometimes whens he doesn't want me to get her dressed I ask her if she wants to wear her shoes and sock so she'll calm down and let me dress her. Mostly when she was really young, I would put one sock on and she would twirl her foot around admiring her sock. Then she would give me the other foot so I could put the next sock on and she would do the same thing. I loved watching that.

*At Christmas, I received a snow globe in a cylinder box. The box was silver and sparkly. Adelyn really liked it so I put it in her toy box. We started playing around and I put the lid on her head and told her it was a hat. 8 months later, and she still picks it up and puts it on her head and calls it her "ahht".

*We went to Joseph's parent's house over the 4th of July. They had bought this small bike that was similar to a power wheels. She quickly learned to press the button and ride it. Joseph's dad came and spent the night when he had a meeting out here a few weeks ago and he brought the bike. Adelyn likes to ride it up and down the hallway.

*After our trip to Joseph's parents house, whenever Adelyn sees a man with a white beard she thinks it's her Papa. So she starts saying Papa, Rara (Nana).

*I bought her a little shopping cart that has a Flintstones car on the front of it. She so badly wants to fit inside that car. I think she finally learned she's too big. But she loves putting her toys in the car and the cart and pushing it around the house. I bought it for $1 at a yard sale. Great buy!

*Another great buy from a yard sale was a Curious George stuffed animal. 25 cents! I washed it and sterilized it. Then when we gave it to her she gasped, giggled, grabbed the monkey and did the sign for thank you. It was so cute! She still loves bringing that monkey to bed.

*Before she was born, I made a couple of receiving blankets with lady bugs on them. She now LOVES those blankets and needs one to go to bed. If there are any other blankets around in her room, she will want those in her bed as well. When I go to get her in the morning she hands me everything in her bed one at a time. For each blanket she says "bah" and hands one to me. Then when she gets to her monkey and says "ah-ah". We love that!

*When something has a double S sound, she calls them "fff-fff". Just making the f sound. She does it for princess, horsey, and Jesus. For things with a single s sound she just says fff. She does that for cheese, socks, and shoes.

*Her first words were hi and bye but they came out haa and baa. She sounded like a little southern bell. She would even do a limp wrist waive while saying baaa. It was so funny! Now she is starting to really say bye and hi.

*One time she and I were at HEB and Adelyn said hi to an older gentleman in the canned fruit aisle. He came over to her and said he gives all babies a dollar. So he gave her a dollar and we put it in her piggy bank when we got home.

*When Adelyn says yeah it's "AHHH!" Sometimes when she gets really excited she opens her mouth in shock and says "Ahhh!!" Our couch is a sectional. She likes to sit on the couch when I'm in the kitchen and play peak-a-boo with me. She loves it!

*At 18 months she started saying Go when we were watching Baby Einsteins. They were saying stop.... go....stop... go. Now she is saying Go :)

*At story time she is always given a name tag. The librarian has a big felt board where she puts felt shapes up there and we sing a song to it. Adelyn always thinks it's time for her to run up there and put her name tag on the board.

*She LOVES collecting acorns! She's been doing this for at least 9-10 months now. It's so funny! There is almost always a neat and organized pile of acorns on my front step.

*She loves going to the zoo and seeing the monkeys. Right now her favorite animals are tigers, monkeys, and lions.

*Her favorite movie right now is Rio (It used to be Lady and the Tramp but now she's bored with it). Her favorite TV show is Little Einstein's. She calls it pat pat pat while patting her lap. In the show they pat their laps to help their rocket take off.

*We went on the train at the zoo a couple of weeks ago and she really enjoyed it.

*She loves going in the quarter rides outside of stores. Mostly the cars. She loves driving cars and spining steering wheels. There are always steering wheels at the playground that she loves to use. We went to a little Kiddie amusement park. There was a car ride that she liked and looked so cute driving the car by herself.

*Sometimes we go to the splash pad on the Ft. Sam Houston Base. She is starting to like the water but she's still nervous around it. She loves the playground there as well.

*I emptied the cabinet below our bathroom sink because we never got around to getting locks for it. Now she puts all of her toys in there. She has a huge pink ball that she tries to put in there but it's too big, so she just bounces back.

*Whenever Adelyn takes a bite of something or a sip of something or sees yummy food on tv she says "Mmm" in a high pitched voice. It's SOOO CUTE! It's hard to remain reverent during the sacrament when she says "mmm" after the bread and the water.

Eating In and Meal Plans

I joined a Biggest Loser Weight Loss competition that starts tomorrow! If you would like to join here is the FB link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hmbl11/?fref=ts

Around March Joseph and I went over our spending habits and we realized we spend WAY too much money eating out! And I had no budget for grocery shopping so I was just spending money willy-nilly. We set a grocery budget that I could stick to without feeling super restricted and also set the goal to only eat out a couple times a week vs. every day. We did great! I'm doing great with my budget. But I want to save even MORE money to get out of debt. I set the goal for our family to eat in as much as possible. I don't want to eat out at all unless we are traveling or in an extreme circumstance.

Last night I made my first meal plan and I'm pretty excited about it! I'll be trying a couple of new recipes as well as some of my go to recipes. My question for you is what are your go-to recipes? Do you have a favorite meal that you like to make?

Pooch to 5K

Joseph and I were doing really well losing weight, and we've kind of come to a stand still. Mostly because I've allowed a lot more sweets back into my diet and consequently Joseph's diet. The good news is that we have both maintained our weight loss so far. 

I've been looking for motivation and I came across this blog on pinterest: http://www.runsforcookies.com/ She lost 125 pounds and found a love for running! Her blog is really motivational. I used to run/jog quite a bit when I lived in Utah. I found it relaxing after a while. That was a long time ago though. I heard about this Couch to 5K program but put it on the back burner. Then I decided I was going to run a 5K. The next day I saw the add for this in my Facebook newsfeed: http://www.thecolorvibe.com/sanantonio.php. The Color Vibe 5K. It looks like so much fun. I wasn't confident enough to ask people to do it with me yet, so I just shared it to my timeline so I wouldn't forget about it. Less than an hour later 2 people commented saying they wanted to do it with me. It seems like a run that you need to do with friends for it to be fun. I'm getting excited!

So after I made the decision to do the Color Vibe run, I went on the Couch to 5K website and found one called Pooch to 5K. It is designed by a veterinarian to help you and your dog run a 5K. Instead of completing the program in 9 weeks it takes 12 weeks. I'm ok with that, and I really want to help Sammy get into shape. We finished our first workout tonight! Poor pup! He was so tired at the end that he couldn't walk in a straight line! Luckily I don't have time to run again until Friday, so he has some time to rest up. This is going to be really good for us!

After our first workout. Sammy likes to hold onto the leash. 

The Little Organizer

Adelyn LOVES to organize things. She puts her toys in a pile, and then moves the pile some place else. She did this the other day when she moved my 3 pound weights from under the TV, put them on the couch, and them put them in the bottom drawer of my bedroom nightstand. It was so funny to watch.

Yesterday we were all hanging out in Adelyn's bedroom and we were able to record her organizing things. The video is pretty long, but she is just so excited about it.

Birthdays When You're a Mom

Growing up, being single, or even married without kids birthdays are generally AWESOME! Cupcakes at school, a billion facebook posts from people you thought completely forgot who you were, presents and nice dinners with the hubby or even a day off of work. 

Even though I have a baby, I think I still thought my birthday would be as carefree as they were before Adelyn. Yesterday was my realization that work doesn't stop when you have a child. I'm not complaining. I love Adelyn so much. Just getting down what I thought was a comically rough birthday.

Starting out- when it's your birthday without a child you get to sleep in. Adelyn didn't get the memo and decided to get up even earlier than normal. 5:45 am. Awesome. It's okay, I can do this. Sadly  my poor baby is having a rough time with teething. So there was lots of crying involved. That means lots of running around, trying to find different things to keep her mind off of her teeth, and getting bit (hard) when when I put the teething gel in her mouth. Not my ideal situation for my birthday. Please know that I am sympathetic to my sweet little girl when she's teething. I try everything possible to help her.

But, despite the rough morning we had, I put on my make-up, altered my new shirt to be "Mormon modest" (sewing up the sleeves a little bit to make it have cap sleeves), and got dressed for the day. I tried to look nice. I was proud that I was able to alter my shirt! I even dressed Adelyn in a cute outfit. After getting dressed she was in a bad mood so I put on Lady and the Tramp. Sometimes it's the only thing that will calm her down.

My new shirt. Please excuse the mess :)

Calming her down

I decided that what I wanted for my birthday was to not cook a single meal. I picked up Joseph at work and we all went to Subway for lunch. I was trying not to completely kill my diet because I wanted fajitas for dinner. My poor baby's mouth hurt so bad when she bit into a goldfish cracker that she put her head down on the table and cried. Joseph was awesome and took her outside and showed her a video of the fish and hippos from when we went to the zoo. She loved it and calmed down enough that we could give her yogurt. She was really hungry on top of her mouth hurting. Poor girl.

Adelyn and I went to this bakery that I found online that only sells cookies. I LOVE cookies. I would much rather have a good cookie than a cake for my birthday. So we went over there to pick some up. She was in a surprisingly good mood. Especially when I let her try one of the cookies. Joseph doesn't like chocolate chip so I was able to get him some lemon cookies and sugar cookies. They were all really good! Then I saw this jumbo chocolate chip cookie, dipped in dark chocolate, and had M&M's and sprinkles. That's what I wanted! I bought the cookies and we went home. Adelyn fell asleep in the car so I waited for her to wake up. Luckily she woke up in a good mood.

It was the cookie on the left. This is the picture from the website. 

                                                           

But then about 30 minutes later she threw a fit! Not from teething, just because she wanted to throw one. So we went outside for a walk. She's our nature baby. She likes collecting acorns and organizing them into piles.  Joseph calls them her treasures because that's how much she loves them. I took her for a walk around the block. She wanted to play with the ants so I had to pick her up. She HATED that. I ended up having to carry her while she was flat out on her stomach. She kicked the whole way back home. It was also 90 degrees with 86% humidity.

I changed her out of the skirt and put her in little shorts because I liked it better.

Organizing her acorns

Hunting for acorns

The rest of the day that she was awake went about like that. Luckily she goes to bed around 7. We ordered dinner from one of our favorite Mexican places and picked up Les Miserables from Redbox. We ate dinner, loved the movie, and enjoyed our cookies. By the time the movie was over my stomach was hurting. I thought I had just ate too much. No biggie, I'll sleep it off. I hate throwing up so I wouldn't just do it to relieve the pain. But my body said, you better get in that bathroom quick! Adelyn's bed is behind our thin wall to the bathroom. I apparently woke her up. One good thing we learned is that she'll allow Joseph to go in and comfort her back to sleep. She was up almost as much as I was. I felt so bad. After a while we realized that she was also probably teething so we gave her some medicine and she fell right back to sleep. Luckily everyone was able to go to sleep around 12:30. Then around 1 am there was a big storm! Of course. So grateful that Adelyn slept through it. And then she got up at 5:25 am. Awesome. It's okay, I did it.

Although being child free usually equals having a way less tiring and stressful birthday, I love being a mom. There are so many more moments to enjoy. I love cuddling with her, I love her laugh, and her smile. I'm sure having multiple children makes your birthday even harder to enjoy. But once my children are grown up, my birthdays can be awesome again. Like when Joseph takes me to Italy for my birthday in 2037. The whole day wasn't at a loss though. I did have fun eating dinner with Joseph and watching Les Mis. Next year I will have better expectations :)

Zoo

I'm really excited because we bought an annual pass to the zoo! Adelyn LOVES the zoo! She loves birds, fish, and the big animals (especially elephants and rhinos). The zoo is only about 15-20 minutes from our house so we can really go whenever we have time. I brought Adelyn yesterday and she had so much fun. It's so cute seeing her get so excited to see the animals. 

Once I took her out of her stroller to look at an animal she did not want to go back in. My bad. I had to carry  her the majority of the way. The only way I could get her to go back was to give her some goldfish crackers. She needs to walk! LOL

She is taking steps here and there but I think she's still too nervous to fully walk. Just yesterday she started taking steps without me prompting her to do so. It was really cute. I'm thinking in a week or two she'll be walking for real.

We had a great time with her birthday. I need to write a post about that. I still can't believe I have a 1 year old little girl!

Tomorrow we are going to SeaWorld (we have passes there too that Jospeh's family gave us.)  I'm researching a few signs (dolphin, fish, whale, etc) to show her when we get there. She has already mastered milk, more, and all done. 

That's all for now!

Lots of Months

So I feel horrible that I haven't posted anything for such a long time. It's mostly a journal to remember Adelyn. I guess I have the pictures.

Don't worry, it's stuck to her nose not in her nose

Reading with Daddy

She loves this book! Sesame Street Bubbles Bubbles

She was excited when she found Sammy's kennel

Best Friends

Sweet Baby Girl Face

Lots of teeth and I love this smile!

Minnie Mouse ears I made for her first birthday party

Christmas was a lot of fun. We went to Houston with the Odom side of the family. All of Joseph's cousins were there but Kacey, her family and Chelsey were up in Utah. For Adelyn's first Christmas she received a shape sorter, books, 2 baby dolls, clothes, a fisher price vanity set that sings to her, and a xylophone. Her favorite things are the xylophone mallet and the powder puff that came with the vanity set. She also loves kissing her baby dolls.

Adelyn will turn 11 months old tomorrow. She is teething like crazy! Poor little girl :( Her top two teeth finally came in last week. She had 2 days of rest and now more top teeth are coming in.

She is moving around the house and is so fast! She has a push toy that she crawls over to and walks that wherever she wants to go. Yesterday we were walking around the house while I held her hands and when we came close to the couch she let go, took one step and flung herself at the couch!


She is definitely not a vegetarian  She loves ground beef and turkey burgers! She is mostly on solid foods now. Except for the rare occasion when I just can't decide what to give her for dinner. Then I giver her baby food.

Yummy Taco Soup

Up!

She loves trying to feed me

                                   
She now says "Hi" unprompted when we see someone new. Today we went to visit Joseph at work and she was waiving to everyone as we walked around. I felt like I was the float and she was in a parade. LOL. She really is the sweetest little girl. If I sit on the floor with her she'll do her thing and play but every few minutes she comes back to me and puts her head in my lap or gives me a hug and then goes back to playing. I love those moments!

She has separation anxiety now. I've tried bringing her to the daycare at the YMCA while I work out but she usually cries so much that they have to come and get me. Now she has started crying when Joseph leaves for work. And today when we were going back home after lunch she cried when Joseph walked away.

She loves the music from the movie Tangled. If we're in the car and she starts crying all I have to do is put that CD on and she'll stop to listen.

I seriously cannot believe she'll be a year old next month! Where did this year go? It seems so long ago when she was a tiny baby. We love this little girl so much.

For her 1st Birthday Party we are doing a combined birthday party with her cousin Lilly who is only 3 days older than her. We will also be celebrating her cousin Aiden's birthday, uncle Chris and Papa. I'm so excited!