Charlie Mac update

When you have little kids, it feels like things change dramatically every 2 months (or less). In the last two months, Charlie Mac has learned to sit up and army crawl. He now crawls all over the house and of course, puts all gross things into his mouth (I don’t know where he finds these gross things because my floors are super clean). He’s eating like a champ and can even feed himself small chunks of food. These self feeds usually require a bath, a high chair spray down and a floor mopping! He is still an absolute doll, the happiest baby we’ve had. He has started sleeping through the night! Woot Woot! I am finally feeling like a normal person again. It’s fantastic. 8 months in and we are getting into the groove of being a family of 6. I always forget how long it takes to really adapt to having another life in your family. And some days it still feels like we aren’t there yet.

January and February

Luke’s job is a little bit feast or famine. We save all spring/summer/fall to make it through the slow winter months. This January we resolved to eat as cheaply as possible and I’m still amazed at how well we did with this task. We spent less than $500 for the month which is probably about half of what we normally spend. We were largely able to do this by eating all the food in the cabinet that has been sitting there for a year. I found about 6 bags of half eaten rice for example. We ate a lot of rice and beans with a veggie and very little meat. We also cut back on our alcohol consumption which probably needed to happen after the holidays. This was my first holiday being home and let’s just say that I really celebrated . . . a lot. I think that big Luke lost about 10 lbs on this “diet” so he went from thin to extremely thin and I, of course, lost no weight. Erg. However . . .

Now that the baby is old enough to be able to attend the childcare at the gym, I’ve been able to go several days a week. Even though I haven’t lost any weight, I am having NSV’s (non-scale victories – I just learned this term and love it because I get so caught up in what the scale says sometimes) that I’m really proud of. All of my clothes fit for one! The best NSV is my energy level – I feel fantastic. While I’m happy with my progress, I am also amazed at how much harder it is to “lose the baby weight” this go round.

I’m trying to maintain focus on gratitude that my body can do all it can and the fact that I get to go exercise for an hour by myself.

Love this quote posted by Christa Black Gifford on instagram. I recommend following her if your into strong, inspirational, empowering women.

Books

As I mentioned on my New Years resolution post, I have big reading goals this year. So far, I’ve read

• Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott
• Dance of the Dissidant Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd – I didn’t finish this one, it got a little slow toward the middle.
• Rising Strong by Brene Brown
• The Handmaids Tale by Maragret Atwood

I’ve discovered that the library has an app (Overdrive) where you can listen to audio books. I’ve listened to a couple of the above books while at the gym. The only problem is that they don’t have that many available. I’d really love some recommendations for some lighter, more fun reading. Send them my way!

I ordered this journal from Amazon the other day. Danielle LaPorte is the author of a book called The Desire Map. It’s about creating goals around the way you want to feel rather than specific outcomes or tangible achievements. I’ve only read a few chapters of her book but so far am loving this journal. It has exactly the kind of prompts that I need to help me have the best days possible. Here is a sample of what it looks like:

Podcast Recommendation- S-Town by Brian Reid from This American Life is a murder mystery style podcast. I normally listen to “self-help” or spirituality style podcasts so this was different and really interesting.

Elle – 2 yo

Elle is in a big girl bed! AH! She is so excited – uncontrollable giggling with happiness. So far, so good. Let’s just hope she will stay in it because otherwise, it’s back to the crib she goes. We are hoping to move the baby into the crib once he starts sleeping a little later in the mornings.

Laughs

Fleet (7yo) is studying Leonardo Davinci in school. He saw a picture of the “Gift of the Magi” the other day and asked if Leonardo copied it. He said, “It looks like something I drew.” Our own little Leonardo.

Big Luke went to hug Elle the other day, she stuck her hand out- holding him at bay and said, “I know you loves me.” Like, no need for hugs right now, I’m busy. I know, I know, you love me. Got it.

Luke (6yo) was talking about his wiggly tooth the other day and Elle says that she also has a “giggle tooth.”

GET OUT

I have been making big efforts since January to try to get out at night with friends about three times a month for dinner, desert or drinks, whatever! It’s can be tricky to coordinate with Luke, kids, friends, their spouses and kids but it has been SO worth it. I’ve had some really wonderful, meaningful times over the last couple of months. I highly encourage all you mama’s to get out and do this. And to my friends, I LOVE YOU.

Summertime . . . yep, it’s almost here!

I’m on the hunt for a bathing suit for summer. Does anyone have any good recommendations? I’m looking for a fuller coverage one-piece or tankini style. I tried Zaful two summers ago and it was awful. Nothing fit and returns were a huge pain.