In 2 short years....

.....this happens.

Enjoy the moments, people. They go quickly.

I'm cherishing every moment CD and I have together while he still thinks I'm cool to hang out with. 
It's pretty hard to me to resist - "Mama. Sit, play, please."

and a couple more because he's so goofy.

My boy

All of these faces appeared in about a 30 minute period. To say the kid is expressive is an understatement.

10 fun facts about CD:

1. Every night before bed, he has to run up and down the hall like Buzz Lightyear, which includes crashing frequently and stopping to push the button on his chest to open his wings. Oh, and daddy MUST video it on his phone.
2. As mommy's belly gets bigger he points to it and says, "awww... baby!..."
3. Daddy is a way better tooth brusher than mommy
4. He likes to count like this, "One, two, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" and say ABC's "A,B,C,D,A,B,C,A,B,C,D,A,B,C...."
5. His favorite food is toast, cheese or bananas.
6. He can spot Buzz or Elmo from a mile away. There will be a tiny little Elmo logo on a diaper box across the store and he says, "Elmo!!! Elmo!!!"
7. His favorite song, right now, is "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas. He likes to dance to it and sing along.
8. When we get out of the car he always says, "Mommy. Parking Lot. Hand" [meaning he has to hold my hand because we're in the parking lot :)]
9. When he gets excited he says "Woop, woop!" and raises the roof with one hand. lol. Cracks me up every time.
10. He loves to remind us to pray before our meals, if we forget. He folds his hands and closes his eyes and always says "AaaaaaaaaaaaMEN!"

Probably my favorite recipe ever.

I have mentioned this recipe in my blog previously, but I love it so much I thought it was worth mentioning again. I never get tired of eating it!


Mexican Meatloaf

1 spray(s) cooking spray
1/2 pound(s) raw extra lean ground beef
1/2 pound(s) lean ground turkey, breast
2 large egg white(s)
2 oz cornbread stuffing dry mix, (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion(s), chopped
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 oz canned green chili peppers, diced
8 oz canned enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a broiler pan with cooking spray.


In a large bowl, mix beef, turkey, egg whites, stuffing mix, onion, chili powder, cumin, chilies and half of enchilada sauce together. Shape into an oval with your hands and place on prepared broiler pan.


Cook for 1 hour, top with remaining enchilada sauce and bake for 5 minutes more. Slice into 6 pieces and serve. 3 points per serving (old WW points, not points plus)

And I just had to share this picture of CD eating broccoli. I was so happy with him! I didn't have to bribe him to eat it or anything ;)

Du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu ...... BATMAN!

I found myself in Baby Gap this week. Most stores have the cute girl clothes, but Baby Gap has the cutest boy clothes. I was going in to find sales and get some free jeans when CD spotted the "nu-nu-nu" (aka- Batman) shirt. It was not on sale... but we got it anyway. It was worth it. He loves flying around the yard with the cape on (which is removable) pretending to fly. I love having a baby boy, so much imagination and dirt (notice the jeans in some of these pics).

Road Trip!

Last week, CD and I drove down to Atoka to Abby and baby J. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, so CD and I stayed all day and played. Here are some pictures from our day! (( I didn't get one of me and Cooper or the 4 of us :( 'tis the story of my life ))

 

When I woke up this morning to snow, I knew it would be a great day to get some outside snow pictures with CD. It wasn't unbearably cold and the snow was coming straight down in big flakes. I realized my camera was in my car (which was with H) so I left CD with my mom to brave the roads to go get the camera. When I got to my mom's, CD was NOT cooperating. He did not want to put his snow boots on and was throwing a hissy fit. I was basically forcing him to... because I really wanted to get some pictures. Mom of the year, eh? I knew he'd have fun once he got out in the snow. After about 30 minutes of whining, time outs, crying, ripping socks and boots on and off, we got him ready to go out into the snow. I was so excited because he was finally enjoying the snow and big juicy flakes were falling from the sky.... perfect for pictures. I clicked my camera on, and ....


the battery was dead. And I had no spare battery :( Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.


I did have my handy-dandy iPhone though... so at least I was able to capture the fun, even if it wasn't like I was hoping.

Finally happy after the series of meltdowns before coming outside.

Chillin' with his little snowman we made. The snowman was his little buddy. He squatted there by him for quite a while and they chatted it up. I looked down and CD held up 2 fingers to the snowman and said - "Two." I said, "Did he ask how old you are?" CD said, "Yeah!" lol.

"Two" is his automatic response to any question from a stranger.

What's your name? Two.

How are you? Two.

How old are you? Two.

Two outta three.

And a close up of the little ugly snowman. We were limited on resources for his mouth. He looks skeptical.








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First pregnancy update

Well bloggers - this mama is pregnant with #2!


Pregnancy: 15 weeks 2 days

Weight Gain: +4lbs as of 12 weeks. I have my 16 week appointment next Wednesday and I'm a little afraid to step on the scale, not gunna lie.

Sleep: I've been sleeping wonderfully. It's not as comfortable to sleep on my belly anymore

Gender: Don't know and won't find out! At first I was thinking boy... but now I'm thinking girl. I'm sticking with girl for a while.

Name: I like a lot of names, but we haven't been able to agree on too many yet.

Feeling: Great! No more nausea, still somewhat energetic.

Health: I could be exercising more.... but I'm in overall good health and so is baby. It's been my goal to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, which has been attainable so far.

Heartbeat: 145-150bpm (from 171bpm at 10 weeks)

Movement: I've been feeling little flutters for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I'm not sure if it's baby moving or just gas... but there have been a handful of times I know for certain it's baby. :)


I think, since we're not finding out the sex, this baby needs a nickname so I don't have to keep calling it "it" and "baby." Any ideas?

We've been telling Cooper there is a baby in mommy's belly. At night when he prays with daddy he prays for baby too. It's so sweet. When I use the doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat he always points to my belly and says, "Baby! Baby!" We'll see if he's still so excited once he/she actually gets here :)


Here is my most recent "belly bump" or lack thereof. I didn't start showing with Cooper until around 25 weeks... so we'll see if it takes that long with #2.

Here is a short video of the baby's heartbeat. I first found the HB with my doppler at home at 9w2d. It used to take 15-20 minutes to find it because it was so small. It's crazy how big the baby has gotten since then! It took me all of 5 seconds to find the baby's HB this time around.

And of course there is some of Cooper in the video too. :) He was dancing to the sound of the HB like it was music.

Yogurt Cereal Bars

Healthy eating for me translates into healthy eating for Cooper. As I try to cut out processed foods in my own diet, I'm also trying to cut them out in his.

He loves NutriGrain bars. He would eat NutriGrain bars and bananas and nothing else if I let him. There is soooo much sugar in those bars (and all sorts of other crap). So, I found this recipe on Wholesome Toddler Food as a substitution.

Yogurt Cereal Bars

2 cups corn flakes (I crunched up the flakes a little, otherwise I thought they were too big)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I didn't use this)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flavoured yogurt (I used "YoBaby" Mixed Berry)
1 egg slightly beaten
2 tablespoons flour


Combine cereal, 3/4 cup flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Cut in butter or margarine until coarse crumbs form.

I had a little helper making them for the first time tonight :)

 Press 3/4 the mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 8inch square pan.

Mix yogurt, egg and 2 tablespoons flour in another small bowl.

Spread over cereal mixture in pan and then sprinkle the remaining cereal mixture on top

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown; cut into bars when cooled.

These were super easy to make. It would be simple to make a giant batch at once to freeze. I tasted one, and they were pretty good. They would probably be better with the brown sugar, like the recipe says. My little taste tester had to go to bed before they were cooled, so the final test will be to see what he thinks.

Day 6 - NO SODA

It is Day 6 of no soda. It's been relatively easy, actually. There was one day where I REALLY wanted a Cherry, Vanilla, Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic. You know what stopped me? Knowing I would have to come to my blog and report my failure. So thank you to all of you reading this. You're helping me keep my goals!  Drinking 64 - 80oz of water a day has been pretty easy too. The first 2 days I was running to the bathroom every 30 minutes, but now my body has adjusted. I actually enjoy drinking water. I used to drink the Crystal Light mix-ins with every bottle, but I hardly ever use them anymore. I'm not sure why, I'm just not liking the way they taste anymore. Too fake. Too chemically. To much after taste. Just good ol' water does the trick!


With my past few weight gains, I've been reflecting on my tracker (WW term for food journal). My WW leader was perplexed by my lack of weight loss, so she asked me to email it to her. Before I sent it, I was reading over it.

I didn't send it to her. I didn't need to. I saw the problems myself. I had 2 entire days with nothing written in them. Days with little or NO vegetables eaten. Days where I ate out for lunch and dinner. Writing down my food has become so important. If I didn't write things down, I would never know where I went wrong. Now I can easily look at my mistakes, and fix them! Meal planning is also huge. When I have groceries in my house, and ideas how to fix them I am much less likely to eat bad things.

Tuesday is my 2 month/60 day CrossFit anniversary, pictures coming soon!

Until then, here is my little man helping with chores today :)

50 Things About Cooper

50 things about Cooper (revisited from last March, my how things have changed!)

1. He wears a size 6W shoe
2. He hates having his diaper changed
3. He gives air kisses and says "MUAH"
4. Everything is "dada" except for me, "mama"
5. He loves remotes
6. and cell phones
7. He is very gentle with Daisy
8. He loves to press mommy's computer's buttons
9. He also likes to unplug the computer charger then try to plug it back in himself
10. He still loves tags.
11. He will lay in his crib in the mornings and play with the tag on his worm for 20 minutes sometimes
12. He always wants to go outside
13. He's getting really good at this walking thing!
14. He is really ticklish under his arms
15. He loves to eat bananas
16. He likes to play in his crib, even when it's not bed time
17. We read Goodnight Moon and Pat the Bunny every night before bed
18. Every morning we read his bible verse before we get up (Jeremiah 29:11- "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'")
19. He likes to brush his own teeth with his electric pikachu tooth brush.
20. He says "aaaaaaaaaaah" the whole time he's brushing
21. He understands almost everything I'm saying (or so it seems)....especially any words that have to do with food (eat, hungry, snack, dinner, lunch, eat, more)
22. He looooves to be upside down
23. He gives lots of hugs when he knows he's about to get into trouble
24. He likes to burp and fart.
25. Then he tries to force out another burp because he knows it will make you laugh
26. He shrugs his shoulders when we say, "I don't know!"
27. Anytime we say something stinks or to smell something, he scrunches up his nose and blows in and out really fast
28. He loves his Meme, Geeps, Oma and Opa.
29. We can't say any of their names without him running to the door to look for them
30. He growls when Daisy growls
31. He loves to go "ahhh" and stick his tongue out when we ask, "All gone?"
32. Since 12 months old, he recognizes the doctor's office and bursts into tears the moment we walk in
33. He has nicer clothes and shoes than I do
34. He lets you know he doesn't like something by making an adorable frowning face
35. You cannot eat in front of him without sharing
36. He loves swimming
37. He ALWAYS wants to go outside at Meme and Geeps' house to be by the pool
38. He loves Elmo and Sesame Street
39. He dances like a white boy by putting one arm up and nodding his head to the beat
40. Sometimes I catch him dancing to the beat with his hips, so cute
41. He has 12 teeth
42. He loves taking baths and splashing in the water
43. He gets rocked to sleep by me every night (most every night)
44. He sleeps from 8-8 with a 2 hour nap. Aaaaah. blissful sleep.
45. He makes me want to be a better person. I've always heard people say that, and now I understand.
46. He is a good singer, I hear him from the driver's seat singing along all the time
47. He is already 16 months old
48. He doesn't know how much I love him!
49. He gets a family hug from me and daddy every night before we rock to sleep
50. I thought it would be difficult to write 50 things about him. I couldn't stop typing.

Wendy Plan results....

.....down 1.4lbs this week! Not bad. I was secretly hoping for 2 pounds, but I can't complain :)

And, week 1 of the C25k challenge is done. It was surprisingly easy. I cannot imagine running 3 solid miles at this point, but I know I will get there. Week 2, here I come!

Here is a yummy recipe I made last night:

Caramel Apple Salad - 1c=2pts
3 Apples (cut into bite size pieces)
1 package of sugar free butterscotch pudding (just the powder)
1 can pineapple chunks (don't drain)
8 oz fat free cool whip

Mix it all together. It's such a yummy dessert, and counts as a fruit serving!

In Cooper news- my poor baby is still not feeling well. We think it's just allergies and/or a cold. I called the nurse, and she said there wasn't much she could do for him. We've been trying to keep his nose clean, propped his mattress up and keep the humidifier on at night. I wish this weather would make up its effing mind and quit messing with my kid!

Cooper is walking! Thursday he really started becoming daring and trying to walk on his own. Up until now, he's primarily been "crusing" and would occasionally take 2-3 steps on his own and then sit down. Thursday and Friday he really started walking on his own really well. Every day he walks more and more!



He has also been babbling like crazy. More than usual. The word explosion is coming... and I'm scared. This kid is going to be talking non stop.

His new thing is smelling everything. He crinkles up his nose and blows in and out really fast. It's so cute.

Along with the cute things he's doing, comes the crazy toddler things he's doing. He has this new thing about smacking us in the face. I've been giving him timeouts for it, and it seemed to be working... but he's at it again. When he does it, he's just wanting my attention. I wonder if it would just be best to ignore it... ? It's REALLY hard for me to just get smacked in the face and ignore it. He needs to be punished... right? What do you think?

We had a fun family day at the park on Friday. I was really windy, so we didn't stay long. Cooper's favorite thing was crawling UP the slide.

A day in the life.

I woke up feeling creative this morning. I decided I would take pictures of our normal day-to-day routines and activities and blog about it. Why not, right? It might be fun to look back and remember too.

In the mornings, after Cooper wakes up we have a bottle. Then we usually watch "The Price is Right" (depending on what time he wakes up) and we roll around on the floor and play with Daisy. We're still trying hard to crawl!


Daisy can still run away from him.... for now.

Time for a diaper change! Lately Cooper haaaates having his clothes taken off or put on. I don't know what it is. He seems pretty happy there though....

I started feeling "artsy" and I realized I haven't taken any pictures of Cooper's nursery with my new camera. A few seconds went buy and I look over to see this....
Ah!!! Ok, Cooper has figured out how to roll off the side of the changing table. *noted* I'm just glad he didn't fall!

Last but not least, the eye drops. He doesn't like the eye drops either, but he does pretty well with them. He doesn't cry or fuss about it like he used to.


Cooper wasn't taking a very good nap in the afternoon, so we decided to grab some lunch with daddy. I forgot my camera :( So, no pictures of that. When we got home from lunch Cooper decided to take a loooooong nap (2 1/2 hours). While Cooper was napping.... daddy came home from work!

Then it was dinner time for Cooper...

I caught that picture JUST as Cooper grabbed the spoon and got carrots all over his hands. haha.

Daddy helped me after that! He doesn't keep Cooper's face as clean as I try to... haha. Cooper doesn't care though. Nom nom nom nom.....

Daisy was patiently waiting for her turn to have some carrots.


We decided to 'hit the town' (<-- lol) as a family tonight so we went to BRU and the mall. Whoot. :-P

Is it time to think about Halloween already?! They had cute little costumes out at BRU. I found an adorable bumble bee for Cooper...
Philip said, "No - he needs to be something manly like a fire fighter!" (They had a fire fighter costume there too) hahaha. Cooper looks so tiny in that giant basket!

Then we headed out to the mall. I saw on TV Macy's was having a sale on their single-serving coffee makers. I've used this certain kind several times and I wanted to go buy one while they were on sale (I also have a gift card for $30!) I thought they might be like $50 or $60.... no. They were $169 ON SALE. Regularly $229 or something. Ridiculous. I was bummed, but oh well.


We were hungry, but knew Cooper wouldn't last in a restaurant... so we went to the food court and got chinese.

Cooper was getting frustrated that we were eating and he wasn't. I broke his puffs in half and put them on his stroller tray for him to pick up and eat. Well, he hasn't really gotten all that down yet. He spent the whole time while we were eating either attempting to get them into his mouth (and failing) or pushing them on the floor. lol


We were walked around the mall and passed the new LEGO store. Philip was has been dying to go inside... so we did :) Philip loved lego's as a kid and wanted to show Cooper around the store. Philip and I talked about how much fun it's going to be when Cooper is a little older and can really enjoy stuff like that. We're excited to take him fun places.




We got home just in time for Cooper's bedtime! He's getting so good at going to bed when it's time.





That was a day in our life ;-)