Monday, March 25, 2013

Time Well Wasted

 Sometimes at dinner, I'll show Dustin a new way to make Elijah laugh, he'll respond back with "Is this what you do all day?!".  And, I must admit, sometimes I spend half the day figuring out new ways to make Eli laugh.  I know that I'll never look back and say "I really regret all that time I spent playing with Elijah instead of cleaning the house".  Some days, cleaning the house can wait!  I love spending time with this little guy:

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Catch Up!

I'm not sure how it got to be March 19th already...I'm not even sure where the time went between Elijah being 8 months to being 9 months two days from now.  So...this post isn't anything too interesting, just a  little of what we've been up to.

Wisdom Teeth
It was almost a year ago at this time that I had a tooth pulled while being pregnant.  It was at that time that the oral surgeon stressed how important it was to have my wisdom teeth out; they were getting hard to keep clean and one was impacted.  So, I had been dreading having them removed for over a year now, but I also knew that if we ever want to have more kids, I would need to get them out (wouldn't want them to act up during pregnancy).

The procedure was a piece of cake; I do remember waking up in the middle of it and talking to the surgeon, but other than that...no pain, very minimal swelling.  After the first 2 days of no pain, I thought this was one of the easiest things ever.  Well, I spoke too soon.  After being in pain for 10 days straight, I finally went back in to find out I had a dry socket.  I was given the choice to bear with it or come in every day to have a new packing put into the socket to help alleviate the pain.  I wasn't about to drive all the way to the office each day, so I'm happy to report, after 2 weeks of pain, I'm finally feeling better!  And, a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders because I no longer have to worry about it!

Elijah
I feel like I just took his 8 month photo!  Eli will be 9 months in two days.  He is the most laid back, silly and content little guy!  Some new things he's doing these days:
*Whistling!  I don't think I've ever heard a baby whistle, but he knows how!  Dustin and I were shocked the first time we heard him doing this, but sure enough, he's been doing it every day!  He purses his lips together and blows out, which of course makes a whistling sound.
*Stranger Danger: Elijah has become very aware of people that are strangers.  This was not a good thing when grandma and grandpa arrived last week, but he soon warmed up to them.  I'm grateful that he has this instinct and that he definitely knows who his Mom and Dad are (as he'll stop crying if he is with us versus a "stranger".).
*He recently started stretching his arms up when he wants to be held.
*Once in awhile, Elijah is able to get up on both his hands and knees and rock a little bit.  I get so excited when I see this, but at the same time, I wouldn't mind if he holds off on the crawling thing for a little while longer!
*He's become a little more clingy, not wanting to be left alone in a room, including when falling asleep.  So, we're back to rocking him to sleep, or rubbing his back for awhile until he settles down.
* He initiates peek-a-boo.

My almost 9 month old!





Grandma & Grandpa's Visit
I had this vision of us getting to the airport and Elijah screaming his head off when Grandma/Grandpa said "hi" to him.  Sure enough, my vision came true.  To make matters worse, he screamed all the way home from the airport, as my Dad was sitting in the back seat with him.  He also had to get reacquainted with them the following morning.  After that, he warmed up and had a ball entertaining them.

It was sooooo good having them in Tucson for 6 days!  We didn't really do anything out of the ordinary, it was just nice to relax and have them here with us.  We had fun shopping, cooking dinner, pulling out dead bushes, going to the "lake" and playing trivial pursuit each night.  My Mom also helped me get some sewing projects done!

It's always a little depressing when they leave.  The house is quiet again and it's always hard getting back into the swing of things. We miss them!

Staying at Home
I've officially been a stay at home Mom for almost two months!  I LOVE it, but it can be really exhausting!  Dustin leaves for work around 7:30 each morning and gets home by 5:30, so it's 10 hours of just me and Elijah each day.  We still haven't fallen into an every day routine, besides his eating/napping schedule, but I'm sure that will come with time.  I am so happy I don't have to go to "work" each day and I'm grateful Dustin happily works to support our family.

Surprisingly, my etsy sales have tripled from January to February and have tripled again from February to March, and March isn't even over yet!  : )  At the beginning of March, my shop ended up on the front page of the Kids/Baby section and I got a lot of views from that.  I look back at my first sale and realize I've already come far from that and have improved on my sewing skills and the rate at which I'm able to get orders out.  I've really come to enjoy this! 

Looking Ahead
Things we are looking forward to:
*My sister, brother-in-law and nephew will be in Tucson at the end of April!
*Easter!
*Planning Elijah's first birthday party (sock monkey themed), which will take place in Wisconsin.
*Seeing the rest of my family this summer who I haven't seen in 2 years, including my younger brother, sister in law, a nephew, niece and meeting my newest niece for the first time!


I think that's all for now! Unfortunately, my March Fitness Challenge has gone down the toilet, as I didn't expect my wisdom tooth recovery to take 2 weeks.  On the positive side, it helped me the lose a few of those last pounds from pregnancy..hopefully, I can keep them off!




Friday, March 1, 2013

57.64 miles, 30 more days!

After I wrote my post this morning, I had to get out and start logging miles.  We (Eli and myself) ended up walking 2.36 miles. 

One of my hiking coaches from Team in Training always talked about two kind of people: those who try to be the first to finish a hike and those who enjoy their time and actually look at their surroundings as they're hiking.  He was the type of guy who really looked at his surroundings.  So, I tried to enjoy my walk today, instead of viewing it as something I had to do.

These are my favorite views from my walk:

I couldn't get over this:

Every time I would look down into the stroller, I would just see the top of Elijah's head and his sock monkey, Socks.  Too cute!

This picture isn't anything great; it just means that spring has arrived in Southern Arizona!  Wildflowers are starting to pop up everywhere and the temperatures are already reaching 80 degrees!

30 more days, 57.64 more miles to go!  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

March Fitness Challenge

I'm learning to let go of the fact that my fitness routine is not what it used to be and probably won't be that way for awhile.  Pre-baby, I went to the gym nearly everyday and worked out for at least an hour.  Once I got pregnant again (after miscarriage), I was told not to work out for the first trimester; I think that's where things started going downhill.  When you're told not to work out for 3 months, it's hard to get back into the swing of things, especially when you're pregnant.  Then, you have a baby and you're even more tired and less motivated to work out.

We no longer have a gym membership, but we do own a treadmill, so that's what I've been using since Elijah's birth.  But, I slack.  30 minutes is the most I do...maybe 4 or 5 times a week.  I get bored easily of doing the same thing every day, hence why I've decided on this first day of March to do a "fitness challenge".  

While perusing blogs this morning, I came across one girl's challenge to run/walk 30 miles in 30 days.  Well, I knew I could easily do that, so I've decided to take it up a notch.  My challenge for the month of March is 60 miles of running/walking.  I know there are some people reading this blog and scoffing at 60 miles (probably my sister who runs about 10 miles a day), but for me, it will be a challenge.  I've taken into consideration that my parents will be visiting for a week, I'll be having wisdom teeth taken out and Easter is right around the corner.

Would you like to join me?  I thought it would be fun to have a community of people join in monthly challenges..share experiences, pictures, encouragement. Let me know if this is something that interests you!

Looking forward to Elijah waking up so we can go for a nice, long walk on this sunny, 75 degree day!
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