Wednesdays are for Walker

Walker had his first official booboo that warranted a band aid yesterday. It is a pretty major owie for an 18 month old. We were in the front yard playing with all of his bouncy balls and the excitement got the best of him. He started running as fast as his little feet would let him and then he tripped. On the driveway. He put his little hands out to catch him and the brunt of the fall happened on his knees. Oh, his poor little knees. He did get a little scrape on his upper lip so he is rocking a little scraped up mustache right now too. We hugged and hugged and hugged in the middle of the driveway until he let me look at his first real battle wounds.


We came inside to clean him up, apply some medicine and then I had to search for a band aid. I can't tell you the last time I bought a box of band aids. I dug around the closets and drawers until I finally found one that probably came in the first aid kit that I took to college. So my baby's first booboo is being protected by a lame brown band aid. It's a good thing he thought it was a sticker which is he absolutely obsessed with right now.

And I don't even know if I want to confess to how we bandaged his knee up last night before he went to bed. We had no gauze or medical tape but I was able to dig up some panty liners and scotch tape. He needed a little padding on it, okay? We had to improvise. It worked. That's all I'm saying.


You better believe Mama is going to find him some super cool band aids today because every kid deserves to be bandaged up in style. I mean, what's the point in scraping your knees if you can't cover it up with something awesome, right?

Girlfriends

Last September I reconnected with two of my favorite girlfriends. We were never really out of touch but we definitely weren't keeping up with one another the way we should have been. We were college roommates and have shared lots of tears and laughs together. The three of us decided that we didn't see enough of each other and since then we have made it a point to meet up for brunch once a month.

Roomies!

And we have actually kept this going every single month! I think it's safe to say we have a little tradition going on.

Ellen, Tara, and myself



We love to mix it up and try new restaurants while we catch up with one another's busy lives. We always have so much fun together.

We had lunch at a new place yesterday called Cowfish and it was delicious. They serve burgers and sushi (the best of both worlds!) so you can't really go wrong. I had to give the sushi a try and it was so good. It's a little on the pricey side when it comes to burgers and sushi it's a great place to go for special occasions. You know, like lunch with friends!

My yummy lunch

I'm already looking forward to March. I love knowing that I have a day each month to look forward to when I can unwind with my girlfriends with a little trash talking, a lot of laughter and some delicious food.

Wednesdays are for Walker

Ya'll, I don't have a baby anymore. I've been in denial but it's time to face the facts.

My little guy is amazing. I figured I would use today to write out all of the words he says. He picks up probably one or two new words each week and I get so excited when I hear him say them. He is a major smartypants.


Mama
Dada
Papa
Gigi
Deah (Auntie Leah)
Pop
Memaw
Chase
Cole
ouiouioui (Louie)
Mil (milk)
dog
heraff (giraffe)
fish
GoGo (Cat in the Hat)
yes
no (Isn't this a fun one? ugh - I get this is word form, head shakes, running away, etc)
Elmo
Cookie (Cookie Monster)
cookie cookie cookie (for an actual cookie)
sun
ball
car


My kid is so smart he even does animal sounds (I know, many do at this age). He is obsessed with animals so Andrew and I are going to be planning another zoo trip this Spring. He is going to love it!
dog
cat
goat (his first official animal sound)
sheep
duck
horse
cow
bird
monkey

I am so amazed how his language has developed so much within the past few months. I love to hear him use inflection like we do because I can tell he is trying to say certain phrases like, "There it is!" or "I did it!"

Thanks for letting me be one of those annoying braggy moms. I just can't help myself.

Won't you take me to ...

Healthytown?? Or Funkytown. I need to stop by both.
I am excited to get back in the swing of things. I was doing great for a hot minute and then I found a few excuses and quit. It's so frustrating. I swear, I can gain 20 pounds over night but it's going to take forever to lose it. And I have much more than 20 pounds to shed. More like an adult human being. Seriously. Okay, maybe a small child.
Regardless, I have some mega weight to lose so I need to get my crap together. I mean, c'mon!

I'm going to take pictures along the way and once I get to a place with my body that I am starting to be proud of I will start posting the pictures here. I just can't to that right now. My mind isn't ready to share all of that with you yet.
So until then, I will share this. I found the idea here. Each marble represents a pound that needs to be lost.

It may not look like a lot but I bought some pretty big vases to make myself feel better about the situation. I almost cried counting the pebbles out.

Update to my morning workout - It was awesome!! And the song Back That Ass Up came on. Oh, the irony.

Curing the Monday Blues

I've got the case of the blues today. It all started when I woke up at 5 am with the mother of all headaches. I ended up watching a bit of the morning news before I drifted off around 7 ... then my personal alarm clock (W) went off at 7:30. Yep. Awesome.

It's just not the way to start a day. But I took it in stride and made sure to be productive enough so it didn't look like I sat around most of the day. Which I did.

Mondays are so blah sometimes.

But this is making it all better tonight.

Broccoli Cheese Soup



Oh yeah. That's my dinner. And I made it.

Word.

You can find the recipe here. Just a few notes though. I doubled the broccoli and cheese like someone mentioned doing in one of the reviews. But next time I make it I will only do 1.5lb of the cheese. Coming from a lady who loves her cheese, it could have been toned down a bit. And I wouldn't do the full tablespoon of garlic powder ... probably half.

And the sourdough bread bowl? Perfection.

I'm entering the world of mega healthytown tomorrow.

Pray for me. And for Walker because he has to go back to the childcare room which he hates. But we will both be better for it in the end.

I get skinny.

He gets new friends.

It's a win-win.

photo friday

Signs of Spring

Way too soon

Wednesdays are for Walker ... and just a tad bit more sweetness

Check out these sweet little hands.

Walker (and I) made these for his Valentine's cards to send to all of the special people in his life. I got the idea from Pinterest. And you better believe we made one for us to keep too.


Walker was a sweet Valentine to have yesterday and he absolutely loves his Valentine present from us.

I made cupcakes again for Andrew's work. His employees kind of anticipate the deliciousness of my super duper homemade (bahahaha) treats around holidays. Aren't they sweet?

And they are so easy to make. Make you favorite cupcake, ice it, place any type of stencil over the top and sprinkle with sugar. TADA!!! Super easy cuteness.


Andrew and I had a nice Valentine's Day together. The boy knows me well. He bought us tickets to see Come Fly Away. It's not until May but it will be nice Spring weather and we are taking full advantage of having date night. A nice, fancy dinner, the show and then maybe a cocktail afterwards. He also got us seats in one of the side boxes. We've been to a few shows before and have always talked about getting the box seats. What can I say? He did good. Real good.
I got Andrew a variety pack of North Carolina beers, some golf balls and Swedish Fish. He told me last night that he loves that he is my Valentine. Ha. I think it's because I go for the man gifts and don't get too cheesy.


Here was our dinner -

Maple soy salmon, scallops, cauliflower, rice noodles, and a cupcake for dessert. And don't forget the champagne!

Who so loves, believes the impossible.

                      -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love is All You Need

Well, people, it's that time of year again. Valentine's Day. This is one of those holidays you either love or hate. I've always enjoyed it. Ever since I was a little girl I was so excited to pick out Valentines cards to put in my classmates handmade mailboxes. Sure, there were those who I didn't want to give them to because they were 'yucky' or maybe even a 'mean girl' but we had to give them to everyone. Well, at least I think we did. Maybe I was being taught some kind of life lesson then.

It's paid off. Everyone deserves a Valentine. Whether it be romantically, a parent, a best friend, a child or a pet. Love is everywhere and it should be felt so strongly that your heart may burst. And I hate to brag (not really), but I've got a lot of Valentines this year. And not in the trampy kind of way. My family pretty much rocks and they fill my heart with so much love. I am extremely grateful to my husband, son, parents and sister. I honestly don't know what I would do without them in my life. Now, if that doesn't mean they should be Valentine, then what does?

Here is my sweetest Valentine ...

Couldn't you kiss that face all day? I could. And probably will.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Spread the love.

Let's talk breastfeeding ...

In public.

Yay or nay?
My son is 18 months and we have been long over breastfeeding. We made it to almost five months. I am proud of that. I wouldn't have minded if I could have nursed him longer but it made me so extremely exhausted and frustrated the majority of the time and I hated not knowing if my son was getting enough to eat. His weight was more than enough proof that he was just fine but I really hated the not knowing exactly how much he was getting. And there were times I felt like he was attached to me all day.

I even nursed in public a few times. I was never good at it so more often than not, I would have to excuse myself to nurse privately. It made me much more comfortable to nurse privately because I would have hated for one of the ladies to put on a show. And honestly, I was all over the place when it came to nursing and so was my son. He hated being covered up and would often flail his arms and legs to move the nursing cover away from his face. He also made lots of slurping sounds. Yea, that's not really a way I wanted to get attention. I applaud mommies and their babies who are able to nurse publicly.

I am on a rampage about this right now because of a blogger I follow. Jessica of The Mom Creative ran into this problem yesterday. You can read about it here. I have problems with how this situation turned out. I know people get uncomfortable seeing women nurse their babies. BUT, if they are completely covered and you cannot see a single thing, please tell me what the issue is because it really confuses me. Seriously, people probably wouldn't even know what was going on if it weren't for cute little baby feet hanging out of the side of the nursing cover.

Now, I am not a fan of someone just whipping it out and not even trying to be remotely discreet. For example, I worked in retail as a college student. The company I worked for sold children's furniture (beds, dressers etc). I had a customer come in with her baby, plop down on a bed and just whip it out. No joke. She made herself at home that's for sure.  She made no attempt to cover herself or face a part of the store where she could be a bit more private. She even started up a conversation with me. I was very uncomfortable but only because she let it all hang out. Luckily, we didn't have any other customers in the store. I'm not really sure what I would have done if we did. She turned out to be one of my favorite customers ... but I saw a little too much of her than I wanted.

I do think there is an acceptable and appropriate way to nurse in public. And I wish everyone would quit getting their panties bunched up over this. A baby has to eat just as much (in fact more) as me and you do.

So, what's your stance? Do you have a problem with nursing in public?

Boobie Beanie

Grammy Recap

I'm going to bullet point this is hopes I don't ramble too much. There were some AMAZING performances by some very talented artists. And then there were those performances that made my eyes roll to the back of my head.

• Bruno Mars. I love this guy. His CD is amazing and his performance was top notch. Straight up awesome. I felt like I should have been in the front row screaming and crying in hysterics like all the girls did for Elvis. I probably would have if I was there.
• Chris Brown. Okay, dude ... you are not Michael Jackson. Yes, you can dance, but where was the singing? OH, and PS - it's not cool to beat up your girlfriend. Yeah, we all still remember. Your time is up and I am ashamed by the number of people giving you a second chance.
• Adele. I love her. She is classy. She has a gorgeous voice. She loves and skin she is in. I was so incredibly excited to see her back on stage even though she had to announce she had snot running out of her nose. I'll chalk that that up to nerves.
• The Civil Wars. The sixty seconds I saw of their performance was fantastic! I wish they could have performed in place of Taylor Swift. They are my next album purchase.
• Speaking of Taylor. Okay, she is alright. She has definitely been hyped up for way too long in my opinion. And her "oh my gosh, you really like me" face and reaction is getting old. We see it every.single.time after a performance or a win. Someone tell her to stop it already. All I can think of when she makes that face is Susan Lucci finally winning an Emmy for her role as Erica Kane in All My Children.
• The Foo Fighters had the best acceptance speech I've heard in a long time.
• The Grammys really make me want to listen to country music more. I really need to give it more of a chance. Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, The Band Perry ... I really need to buy some of their music.
• Mumford and Sons. It's a shame they didn't win anything tonight. My husband and I have them on repeat on the Ipod.
• Nikki Minaj creeped me out. Period.
• Coldplay. Love them. Period.
• Okay, I'm going to say it. I wasn't thrilled with JHud tonight. I know she was so overwhelmed with Whitney Houston's passing. But I don't think anyone will ever be able sing "I Will Always Love You" like Whitney. She looked amazing though.
• Justin Beiber wasn't there tonight. I need to know who to write and thank for that decision.
• The tributes to The Beach Boys and Glen Campbell were pretty cool. Don't we all want to be a Rhinestone Cowboy?
• Sir Paul McCartney. Meh, okay.

Overall I really enjoyed the Grammy Awards tonight and I felt like all of the awards were well deserved. Except for Chris Brown. Go hop back on your jet ski and don't come back.

Photo Friday

Lots of boogies.

Lots of coffee.

TGIF

Hi. Me Again ... with a recipe

I know, I know. I am surprising myself here with another post. And it's a food post. A delicious food post.

I found this little gem on Pinterest. If you are on the Internet at all you should know what Pinterest is. And if you don't, you will soon. It's an addiction. Sometimes it can be healthy but lately it's gotten the best of me and my brain can't seem to handle it all. But I keep going back. See? Addiction.

Pinterest is a whole other post though.

Check out these yummy breakfast bars.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares

(photo and recipe courtesy of gingerbreadbagels)

 

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and ground cinnamon.
Add in the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix the ingredients together.
Then add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all of the ingredients.
Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 8 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Cut into squares and enjoy!

Seriously, go make these.

Right now.

And don't mess with a good thing. These oatmeal squares don't need anything added or taken away from them.

You will not be disappointed. My whole family loved these.

wednesdays are for walker

oh, snap. two blog posts in one day. and one with pictures.

don't get used to it.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack.

Yea, we'll see how long this little run lasts. I am a terrible blogger. In fact, I'm not that great on following through with extracurricular activities these days. Blogging, crafting, couponing ... I blame my toddler for that. But then I see all of these other mother blogs (read that how you see fit) and they do so much. How do they do it? I mean, do they lock their kid in their rooms or something? Hire a nanny? Make the dog watch them? Someone please tell me how you do it. I consider it a pretty good day when my son gets all of his needs met, I throw a load of clothes in the washer that don't make it to the dryer, dinner is at least thought about and I get to take a shower.  And let's be honest ... my boy is hands on all.day.long. And I mean ALL.DAY.LONG. Unless GoGo (Cat in the Hat) is on. That's when I am allowed to use the bathroom or sneak in a bite to eat.


Just wanted to let the blogging world know that I am back. Somewhere.


Now if you will excuse me ... GoGo is over.


Let the madness of Wednesday begin!