Month: May 2011

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Happy birthday to me!

Well, it was yesterday, but I was too tired by the time I went to bed to hop on here and tell you all about my day. 🙂

Amazingly enough, I survived turning 32 without the sky falling or the world ending, so I guess it’s not that bad. And I had an absolutely wonderful day, just what I wanted. It started off with R getting up with D so I could sleep in until 8:15. Ahh, that was heavenly. He surprised me with pancakes for breakfast, which were warmly waiting in the oven. Delish! A sweet card and gift were on the dining room table, too. R had a beautiful wooden picture frame made that reads “Happy First Mother’s Day” across the top and “Jocelyn and Della Jolee, May 8, 2011” across the bottom. I love it! We took a really cute picture of me and D to put in it yesterday, so I can’t wait to display it on my desk at work. D went down for her morning nap shortly after 9:30, so we made it family nap time. R put some nice chill Allman Brothers music on the speakers in the living room, perfect sleeping tunes, and we both dozed for a while to take advantage of D’s nap time.

The sun was shining and it was relatively warm, so we walked up to the little grocery store in our neighborhood around noon once we were all up and dressed. R humored me and we took the long way, so we got some nice exercise in for the day too. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with D, R smoking ribs for dinner (ribs aren’t usually my favorite meal because i hate messing with the bones, but he made these so fantastically that the bones pulled right out with not an ounce of meat left on them. i’ve never had ribs that good before!), and pretty much just hanging around to enjoy a lazy Sunday.

After dinner came the best part. Last week R said he’d make me a cake for my birthday, even a multi-layer one, so I requested red velvet and funfetti with chocolate icing. He is such a doll! It turned out splendidly, as does everything he makes, so that was just the perfect ending to a perfect day.

It was so special having my very first Mother’s Day on my birthday. And celebrating with my little family was the most magnificent way to spend it. Thank you, R and D, I love you!

 

Happy birthday, Mommy!

 

All my gifts

 

Yum, cake!

 

 

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Thank you

I just read a post on another blog about someone’s personal struggles, and it made me utterly thankful for everything in my life. I mean, I’m always thankful for what I have and try to never take it for granted, but this post just struck a deep chord with me for some reason and spurred me to action.

Thank you for my health

Thank you for my family, especially the wonder that is my husband R

Thank you for my friends

Thank you for my home

Thank you for my job (no matter how many times I may curse it)

Thank you for my relative lack of indebtedness (save the mortgage on that home)

Thank you for all of you who have found and read this little blog of mine

Thank you for my happiness, which is pretty much the sum total of everything listed here

Thank you most especially for this:

Happy girl

 

Who am I thanking above? I’m not really sure. But damn, am I one lucky girl.

 

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FF

Yay, it’s Friday again!! I don’t know about you, but I am VERY ready for this week to be over.

We’ve got dinner tonight with R’s parents, then the rest of the weekend is MINE. Why, you ask? Because Sunday is my birthday, so I just like to claim the whole weekend as my own. Because I want to and I can. 🙂

How old are you going to be, SM? Well, I would love to say I’ll be about 28. So I’ll just say I’m turning 28 + 4. Blech, 32. That sounds old and gross to me. I know 32 is not old by any stretch of the imagination, but I still don’t like my age not starting with a 2. You’d think after 3 non-2-starting birthdays I’d be over it and used to it by now, but no, I don’t think I really am. I liked being in my 20s. No, I loved being in my 20s. 30s just doesn’t have the same nice ring to it. Ah well, nothing I can do to stop that gravy train of aging.

I like to treat myself to something each year for my birthday, usually something spa-related, and I’m not stopping this year. Tomorrow I’m working out with my trainer first thing in the morning, then getting a pedicure in the afternoon. Ahh… my toes haven’t seen paint since sometime last year, so this is loooong overdue. I hate painting my own toenails, so pedis delight me beyond belief. I have nothing planned for my actual birthday itself. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so I can sit outside in some sunshine, see the wonderfully-mulched gardens blooming (finally!), maybe take the babe for a walk, and enjoy some nice warm fresh air.

This birthday is special for one reason though, and that’s what I have today for the FF. My very first Mother’s Day as a mom is on my birthday! How cool is that? I am very much looking forward to spending the day doing not much of anything except enjoying the best Mother’s Day present I could have ever asked for – D.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers and mothers-to-be out there!

 

 

 

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I ran

They slept

Rain stopped

Freshly wet

Warm(ish) air

Spring’s coming

Just me

Adele 21

Eyes forward

Shoulders up

Heels high

Just me

Legs pounding

Heart thumping

Chest burning

Arms pumping

Mind wandering

Head clearing

Just me

Rain started

 

**run stats = 1.44 miles, 12:49, 8:54 pace. don’t get excited about the increasing pace – i think i was just running off today. 😉

 

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Why

Do you think I can read your mind?

I can’t, so it’s not fair for you to get mad at me when you get an answer you don’t like because you thought I was going to say something different because you thought I knew exactly what you wanted or how you felt but I didn’t because as I’ve told you before I can’t read your mind.

The.end.

 

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9 month stats

Buenos dias. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Anyone start the day off with a festive cocktail? Yeah, me neither. 😉

 

 

Lil’ Miss D had her 9 month well baby appointment yesterday, so I thought I’d run through where our big girl stands:

  • 29 in. (90th %)
  • 18 lbs. 1.5 oz. (25-50th %)
  • I don’t know what her exact head circumference was but it was in the 50th %

Tricks she can do:

  • clapping
  • scooting all over the place on her butt (almost gets over to actually crawl, but then pulls her legs back around to the front to scoot)
  • talking (lots of da-da-das, na-na-nas, dis-dis, dat-dat, and her new favorite – high-pitched squeaks and squeals. i call it her “singing” 🙂 . no real words yet)
  • arms up in the air to show she’s “So Big!”
  • been sitting up unassisted since about 4 months old
  • pulling herself up and then standing there by herself holding on or playing with a toy
  • VERY active – rarely sits still, which the doctor thought was hilarious. she practically squirmed off my lap at one point so i stood her up to play with that baby in the mirror to distract her

Besides the fact that she has another ear infection, it was a great check-up. Her pediatrician said she’s right on track with her growth and development, and even a little ahead of schedule. I think she was just trying to downplay it, but I’ll take that to mean my baby’s a genius!! 😉

Here’s a further glimpse into the life of our little sweet pea. We’ll start with her likes:

  • all of her tricks mentioned above
  • playing with her toys – especially anything that lights up and/or makes sounds, and any two objects she can bang together to make noise. so i guess pretty much everything
  • eating paper
  • sweet potatoes
  • bananas
  • peas
  • beans
  • apples and pears
  • cereal
  • digging into your shoulder to give you a huge hug (the best!)
  • trying to stick her fingers in outlets (fortunately we have the kind where you can’t stick anything in them, but still. we need to break her of that habit since not every place has those)
  • trying to pull anything within reach toward her and her ever-open mouth
  • showing off her 6 teeth
  • yogurt
  • Cheese Puffs
  • playing in her playpen and jumperoo
  • walks in her stroller

Now for some dislikes:

  • meats
  • having her nose wiped
  • putting on/changing clothes
  • getting strapped into her car seat
  • hmm… that’s honestly about it. she really is a very happy little girl

Seriously, how can you not love this face??

 

I'm so proud of myself!

 

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I think I’m addicted

To caffeine.

I’ve never been a coffee drinker, nor have I ever needed my daily caffeine fix. Until D was born. Then it all went steamrolling downhill. While I was pregnant I was very good about not consuming more than the recommended 200mg of caffeine per day. In fact, I rarely even came close to that if I had any at all.

But once that little bundle of joy arrived, I became hooked on iced hazelnut coffee drinks that R would make for us at home. Not because I needed them after all the nights of broken sleep, but because they were so sweetly delicious (and we use skim milk and sugar-free syrup so they’re actually not all that bad for us, either). With just the right amount of hazelnut I could barely even taste the coffee. 😉

Then I discovered that walking up to the Starbucks at the end of our street and down a block and back was the perfect route with which to return to the outside world once I was cleared for physical activity again 6 weeks postpartum. There I would get an iced venti nonfat light-ice chai as my treat for being a new mom. Hey, I just had a baby, why not celebrate with a tasty afternoon delight?

You are my sunshine...

I ordered so many of those iced chai concoctions that I finally bought one of their reusable cold drink cups, and it has been my right-hand man ever since.

When I went back to work I knew there was no way I could spend $4.05 daily on my addiction, so I bought a palette of the Tazo chai concentrate at Costco (yes, a palette. i told you i was addicted) and just made my own at home each morning. That was in January, and I just finished my last box of chai last week. Wth am I going to do without my daily dose??

I decided I should probably kick this habit and not have R’s mom take us back to Costco so I could get another round (we don’t actually belong there ourselves, so we have to mooch visits off of her when we need something in bulk). I need to go back to actually eating breakfast instead of drinking it. So I’ve been trying. But damn, is it hard some days. I’ve slipped a couple hazelnut coffees in there, but they’re just not the same.

Then today, after having some lovely (read: boring!) oatmeal for breakfast, I started getting a headache. Just a slight twinge at first that steadily grew to feel like I had a small nail or other such device stuck in the back of my head. Hmm, I think I need some caffeine! For you see, you really can get addicted to caffeine, and you really can get withdrawal headaches. And no, I didn’t just make that up to make myself feel better. 😉

Sure as shit, my headache magically disappeared a few sips into that heavenly can of Pepsi Max. Ahh… relief. Guess I’ll just have to try again tomorrow. How dumb that I got myself hooked on caffeine. But hey, at least I’m not saying now where did I put my crack pipe…