Weekend!

HAPPY MONDAY! Did you have a good weekend? I did! 

Friday night I took Bailey to a Trick or Treat event in our downtown area. It was her first Trick or Treat!!! 

Seriously, though. Tell me she's not the cutest monkey ever in life, ever. 

Even the Hubs got off a little early from work so he could make it out to the event. It was actually not the world's most fun event... lots of just standing in 1 giant line waiting to go from shop to shop to get 1 piece of candy. But, we went with my Mom's Club, so we had friends to keep each other company and chit chat. Win, win. 

After Trick or Treat-ing we met a friend who was in from out of town for dinner. First pumpkin beer of the season AND amazing conversation with a great friend? Another win, win.

Saturday we were supposed to take our family pictures and Bailey's 1 year pictures, but it was raining so they were postponed. BOO! But, we had a good day anyway. We went shopping to get the Hubs a new coat, lunch at Chipotle, and picked up a *FREE!!* new toy for Bailey from one of the other mom's in my Mom's Club (love the use and reuse philosophy of the moms in my group... I've gotten SO MUCH free hand me downs and plan to give them to someone else after we're done... SO SMART! And, FREE!!). 

We spend the rest of the day playing with her new toy. She's OBSESSED and looooves it. It's amazing how quickly she got the hang of it and figured out how to get up and down successfully. Smart little peanut. 

Sunday I went for a RUN! Yep!! Me! RUN! 5 miles!! It felt AMAZING and I loved every, single step. I finished in 49:30, so not the fastest, but I did get progressively faster each mile, with the last mile sub 9:00. WOAH! ME! It felt really nice to be out there and I hope to continue this Sunday morning tradition for a while. Famous last words, right?

After cleaning up, I went to hear a friend give a sermon at a local church and she rocked it. It was about bacon. Yep. Bacon. How could it not have been amazing? Then, the Hubs and I took Bailey and Sadie for a long walk. Love our Sunday walks. 

After the walk, we took Bailey downtown for a Chili Cook Off event.

Girl LOVED every bite! People looked at us like we were crazy for giving her chili, but she looooved it. It was a lot of fun, even if the Hubs and I couldn't agree on which chili we liked the best. 

 

And, that was that. Perfect, low-key, family-filled weekend. Love, love, love.  

WIAW: Sick Baby Day

Poor BaileyBug had a sick week last week. Luckily, she's back to her normal, go-go-go, smiley self now. However, last week was not pretty. There were days when she wouldn't let me put her down long enough to pee without crying. Fun times, let me tell you. Anyway, below are my eats from last Wednesday, one of B's sick days. She napped OK, which helped me get OK meals, but I also didn't have a TON of time because I never knew when she was going to wake up or need to be held. Poor girl! Broke my heart!! Anyway-- let's do this, WIAW. 

 

Breakfast:   

Tuesday night after B went to bed I made pumpkin spice muffins for a Mom's Club event the next morning. Sadly, we never made it to the event because B was diagnosed with HFM and was contagious still. Poor me-- I had to eat the muffins myself. Don't be fooled by the pic-- I ate 2 more after that 1. Yuuuum. With a big, giant side of coffee.

 

 

Snack:

Several handfuls of these. Healthiest choice? Nope. So did not matter.

 

 

Lunch:

 Luckily, Bailey took a good afternoon nap, so I had time to make SUCH A GOOD (& quick!) LUNCH!! Grilled deli turkey and cheese sandwich on one of those healthy wrap things. Pretzel sticks and grapes and an unpictured Diet Pepsi. So good.

 

 

Dinner:

The Hubs had to work late and B was incredibly clingy. I had ZERO time to cook anything before the Hubs got home, so I fed B some leftovers and called it good. However, earlier that day I took some local bison meat (that I bought after touring the same farm that bison was raised at on a Mom's Club tour with B-- so fun!!) that was in the freezer out to thaw and I chopped up 2 sweet potatoes. Thank goodness for planning ahead! The Hubs got home just before B went to bed, so I tossed the sweet potatoes in some extra virgin olive oil & salt and pepper and threw them in the oven at 400* and formed the bison burgers while he was playing with her. Then, I nursed B while the Hubs grilled the burgers on the George Foreman. When I finished, the fries and burgers were done and we ended up having a really great (though late) dinner.

 

 

Dessert:

SO MANY spoonful's of this ice cream. Seriously, so good.  

Grocery Shopping

I have a confession. I LOVE to grocery shop. The Hubs and I used to do it together on Friday nights (we're so cool) and I was sorta MEH on it. It was a Friday night, I was exhausted after a long week of working, and the Hubs is an in & out, stick to the list kinda guy, which is one of the things I love about him, but does not make for a very fun grocery shopping trip.

But, now that I'm staying home with Bailey, she and I go every other Monday after her first nap. And, I love it. We can take our time. I talk to her and tell her everything I'm picking up. I can walk up and down the aisles and browse. I still *try* to stick to the list, but it's fun to look and perhaps find a good deal on something or a cool new thing to try. Plus, the little old ladies who also grocery shop on Monday mornings simply adore Bailey and she gets tons of attention and "she's so cute"'s, which is fun too. :)

Anyway- like I mentioned, we grocery shop every other week for our "big" trip. This is where we have a list and get things for the next 2 weeks worth of meals, lunches, toiletries, etc. We always start at Aldi (love that freaking place!) and then go to either Wal-Mart (booooo, but sometimes it just has to work) or a local grocery store chain like Stack and Van Til or Town and Country. Generally, it takes us close to 2 hours door to door.

Grocery cart in the check out lane at Aldi during one of our big weeks.

On the off weeks, we still do a small grocery run-- usually just for produce and deli meat.

We don't have a "budget" per say, rather we simply try to keep things as cheap as possible. I look at the ads before shopping to see what's on sale and such. Simply shopping at Aldi helps SO MUCH. It is so much cheaper!! I might change a meal plan once at a store if a different meat or item is on sale. I also don't get TOO much of things like produce, just to have it go bad. That sounds so simple, but you'd be amazed. Generally we spend about $100 on our big trip and about $20-30 on the off weeks. Sometimes significantly more, sometimes significantly less, but I'd say that's about the average.

We eat home a lot. Generally, unless there's a special circumstance or something, the Hubs goes out to lunch (usually Subway) once a week and we go out to dinner once a week together. Sometimes Bailey and I will also go out for a lunch during the work week, too. Luckily, the Hubs is a creature of habit and doesn't mind eating the same thing for lunch and/or dinner all week. Left overs area a staple in our house, especially for the Hubs. Me being home for lunches during the week is really nice too. I eat eggs for lunch ALL THE TIME, which is cheap and yuuuumy.

So, what do we get? Lots. We have some staples, that we get every big trip:

Apples

Pears (or some other fruit like grapes or blueberries, if on sale)

Bananas

Fresh Veggies (depends what's on sale)

Greek Yogurt

Pretzels

Ice Cream

Bread (wheat, rye, and cinnamon raisin)

Deli Meat

Cheese (shredded, sliced, and string... the Hubs goes through a lot of cheese!)

Eggs

Milk

Frozen Waffles

Frozen and Canned Veggies

Chicken and/or some other Meat

Canned Beans

Pasta

Coffee/Creamer

Apple Sauce (for Bailey)

Baby Food Treat/Snacks like Puffs or Yogurt Melts (for Bailey)

Diet Pepsi

Bottled, Sparkly, Flavored Water

Granola Bars

Cookies

Almonds

 

 

Some things that aren't every-shopping-trip kinda things:

Diapers/Wipes

Toliet Paper

Paper Towels

Toiletries (shampoo, mascara, etc.)

Pantry staples (spices, flour, pasta sauce, PB, etc.)

Dog Food

Laundry/Dishwasher Detergent

 

 

Of course there are other things that randomly come up and such, but that's pretty much our usual grocery shopping! Now.... when do I get to go again? :)



WIAW: Mostly Wordless

 

 

Breakfast:

Toast with butter and jelly, cantaloupe, coffee

 

Snack: Unpictured pretzels

 

Lunch: 

2-egg omlette with low-fat mozzarella cheese, pretzels, and a diet pepsi

 

Dinner:
Turned this--

Into this--

 Spicy sriracha zucchini and shrimp (from this recipe). YUM.

 

Dessert:  

x 10



WIAW

 

Forgot what WIAW is? Check out this blog to learn more.

 

Without any further ado, let's just get right to it...

 

 

Breakfast @ 7am

Coffee with creamer and truvia, cinnamon raisin toast with spray butter (so healthy) and a leftover cookie 

Snack @ 10am

2 bites of this KIND bar.... it was an impulse purchase and I did not like it.  

 

 

Lunch @ 2pm

2 egg omelet with low-fat mozzarella cheese and avocado chunks (leftover from Bailey's lunch, thankyouverymuch), cantaloupe and a Diet Pepsi

 

 

Dinner @ 6pm

Avocado Chicken Burger (using this recipe) and green beans and a big glass of ice water

 

 

Dessert @ 8pm

 
Chocolate covered vanilla ice cream pop



Oh, and there was some (unpictured) air-popped popcorn at some point in the evening after dinner, too.

 

WIAW: SAHMing It

You guessed it! It's been a while, so I figured it was time for another fun round of WIAW!!   Need a refresher on what WIAW is? Check out this blog to learn more.
Breakfast: 7am

 

 

Coffee (duh) with creamer and stevia, cinnamon raisin English muffin and a side of watermelon. OK, more than a side. Like, a fourth of a watermelon.

 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Bailey had watermelon and zucchini. Breakfast of baby champions.

 

 

 

Snack: 10am:  

 

Hunger hit again pretty quickly after breakfast, so I snacked on a Kashi bar. And an pictured Diet Pepsi. Yep. Diet Pepsi at 10am. I'm awesome. 

 

 

Lunch: 2pm

I don't eat lunch until I put Bailey down for her afternoon nap, so thank goodness for that morning snack! Lunch was a 1-egg + 2-egg white omelette with low-fat mozzarella cheese and lots and lots and lots of chips and salsa. A BIG perk of being home is that I can MAKE a lunch and not have to have it be something pack-able. LOVE eggs for lunch! 

 

 

Snack: 4pm

Unpictured pretzels and peanut butter. I could eat this snack everyday. Who am I kidding-- I do eat this snack everyday. Mmmmm.... PEANUT BUTTER.

 

 

 Dinner: 6pm

Pioneer Woman's Lasagna Roll-Ups with a side of green beans and a flavored water. YUM.

 

 

 

Then I stopped taking pictures, but better believe there was ice cream later that night. Duh.

10 Thing Friday

1. This is a special edition of 15 Thing Friday called 10 Thing Friday because there's no way I'll be able to come up with 15 things. Blogging at its finest right here.


2. I have to get my wedding and engagement rings inspected every 6-months as part of the lifetime warranty. So, I took mine this week and they told me it needs to be replated or whatever. All I know is I am now ringless for approximately 3 weeks and it is WEIRD.

I keep freaking out when I'm washing my hands thinking they slipped off and are now down the drain. Wonder how weird it will feel when they're back on after being off for so long?


3. I got a shirt from Old Navy for $2.47. Score. But, how does this even happen? Like, this is a cute shirt, right? Why would it be so cheap? I'm suspicious.

4. I'm obsessed with Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi right now. So much better than regular Diet Pepsi. It just screams summer to me for some reason. Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, watermelon and the smells of grass and sunscreen = summer. I'm weird.


5. Speaking of watermelon, Bailey and I have eaten an entire watermelon by ourselves in 5 days. And by Bailey and I, I really mean me as B eats like 1 small piece a day.

Zucchini and watermelon. Lunch of champions.

 

 

6. Apparently it's the World Cup. I only know this because of Facebook. Apparently everyone I know are suddenly HUGE soccer fans. Who knew?

 

 

7. I'm semi-crunchy about some stuff. I had a natural birth. We delayed cord cutting. We baby wear. I breastfeed. However, I'm not SUPER crunchy. No homebirth. No placenta eating. No cloth diapers. Anyway- regardless-- this shit is funny.  



8. Aw, crap. I didn't even make it to 10 things. Oh well. Happy Weekend!!

Starting Solids: Baby Led Weaning (Sorta)

Now that Bailey is 6 months old (Say whaaaaaat??? When did that happen?!?!), we got the green light from the Doc and have officially started solids!

We waited til 6 months for a variety of reasons (like this article, this article , this article and this article explain better than I ever would be able to). As I've said and won't babble too long about again, I think every family has to do what's best for them and this was what was best for us. We also wanted to do Baby-Led Weaning (read more about it here). According to that site:

• Baby Led Weaning, quite simply, means letting your child feed themselves from the very start of weaning.
• The distinct advantage of weaning at around six months is that by then, our children are developmentally capable of feeding themselves proper food, in other words – no more mush!
• You just hand them the food in a suitably-sized piece and if they like it they eat it and if they don’t they won’t. 
• That’s the essence of Baby Led Weaning. No purees, no ice cube trays, no food processor, no potato masher, no baby rice, no weird fruit and veg combos… just you and your child, eating food that you enjoy with you and your family. 

So, I read lots of websites, books, and watched several YouTube videos and felt pretty good. The Hubs and I brushed up on our baby CPR, just in case, and we were ready to go!

I knew we weren't going to go 100% with BLW, but wanted to go mainly with its philosophy of real foods and Bailey feeding herself. I'd say we're about 60% BLW so far. We do almost all real foods, but also do baby cereal and I definitely wouldn't say Bailey has the whole feeding herself thing down. She's working on it though. She'll get there.

Anyway--- we wanted to try solids for the first time in the morning, just in case she had some sort of reaction. Of course, the Hubs also wanted to be there for B's first food, so we waited til the  Saturday morning after her 6-month check up. We gave her slices of avocado, some with the skin still on to her help grip it and some with no skin. Girl wanted nothing to do with it. Everything, and I mean everything, else you put in front of her, she picks up and puts straight in her mouth. This-- she wouldn't even touch. Weirdo girl.

I didn't worry much. I'm trying to embrace the "food before one is just for fun!" mentality. I decided we'd try again Sunday and if she still didn't like it, we'd wait a few days and then try again. I didn't want to try a different food, as I wanted to try the no-new-food-every-3-day rule.

Sunday morning came and we did the same thing. This time she'd kinda pick it up, but didn't put it to her mouth. I tried to put some in her mouth and she just did not like it. Meanwhile, the Hubs is eating a frozen waffle next to her and he said she kept eyeing his waffle. So, I said - welp, let's give her some of that! So, I made a new non-syruped waffle and cut off a finger sized strip and gave it to her (clearly sending that whole no no-new-food-every-3-day rule to the wind). Girl LOVED it. Devoured it. Apparently waffles trump avocado and just like that her first food was officially WAFFLE. Am I thrilled about that being her first food? Meh. What can ya do! She loved it!

The next day we tried baby cereal and another solid (softened apple, I think?). Clearly, we're not doing exclusively BLW, as we're doing baby cereal. I also picked up a few jars of baby food to try out too. I want to be flexible and go with the flow about this whole food thing. I know... ME. Who would've thought.

Since the avocado/waffle incident, we've tried the following foods, generally sticking to the same food for 2 days-ish before trying a new one:

-Avocado

-Waffle

-Baby Cereal (mixed with pumped breastmilk)

-Apple

-Peach

-Toast

-Banana

-Sweet Potato

-Green Pepper

-Cantaloupe
-Watermelon
-Broccoli

-Baby Jar Puree: Prunes, Mixed Veggie, Squash

-Baby Puffs and Mums

 

 

So far, she's a decent eater. She LOVES sweet potatoes  and banana and goes to town when those are in front of her. She just sorta sucked the juice from the apple, peach, and cantaloupe and only when I would hold the chunk in her mouth. She HATED the babyfood squash, was just sorta OK with the mixed veggie and prunes. She definitely seems to prefer actual food over the jarred purees.

 

And, just like that- Bailey's eating real food! We started with 1 "meal" a day and after about 2 1/2 weeks, adding a second. We also do solids right after nursing so she isn't frustrated or grumpy from being hungry. Like I said early, food before one is just for fun. She still gets 99% of her nutrition from nursing. We're still nursing the same amount of times as before. Now, we just eat solids after the 6:30am and 12:30pm nursing sessions. In another few weeks we'll add a 3rd solids session between the 3:30pm and 6:30pm nursing sessions so we can have dinner as a family! 

 

I'm really looking forward to Bailey continuing to try new foods. It's so fun seeing her expression as she picks up and puts the food in her mouth ("Is this for me??? I'm ALLOWED to put this in my mouth?? WAIT! This isn't a toy! This tastes funny!!"). I think we're going to slowly wen out the jarred food and cereal and go solely BLW. She seems to prefer it and, honestly, it's much easier and it's barely any bigger of a mess than jarred food (yet).

 

So, that's that! In the blink of an eye Bailey has gone from a teeny, tiny little premature baby to practically a toddler eating a banana. While I miss her little baby stage, each and every day is so much fun and I love each new stage more and more. Bring on the food!  

 

15 Thing Friday

1. Our AC was broken when we moved into our new apartment. The maintenance guy has now been out 4 times and each time swears it's fixed. Nope. Still not fixed. I can't be mad though because the guy was like "each time I see you called in an issue I come to you first because I know you have this adorable little baby." Awwwww. Ok. Fine. I don't need working AC in 85*+ temps. (Edited to add: I started this post last week and never got around to adding enough to post it. The AC has since been fixed. THANK GOD.)


2. We started solids with Bailey. I won't go into much detail (on this post) but let me just say OMG the poop totally changes. Can we get the old poop back? Never thought I'd ever say a sentence like that.

3. It was the Hubs birthday yesterday. We're having his family bday dinner this weekend. I'm in charge of the dessert and when I asked him what he wanted he said an ice cream sundae bar. Who is he? Cake? Brownies? Cookies? Pie? Nah. I'm 100% cool with it and love ice cream, but I just find it so random. Maybe I'm the freak and it's totally normal?


4. Because of said dessert request, B and I have a mission today to find all things ice cream. Wish us luck.

(source)

5. Speaking of the Hubs birthday... he now works in an office where people celebrate birthdays and such (you know, instead of the 3 person office he used to work in). So, people bring donuts in for their birthdays to celebrate. 2 things about this... (see #6 & #7)

 

 

6. Why would the person whose birthday it is bring in donuts? Shouldn't the boss bring in donuts to celebrate their employees birthday or a co-worker or something? Just seems weird to me.

 

 

7. He didn't save me a donut. Epic fail. This calls for a Dunkin' expedition for me today. Totally justified.

 

 

8. #7 is pretty fitting as today is National Donut Day! Why are there and who invented all these random National Whatever Days? Don't we have enough holidays? Not that I'm complaining today. Hello. Donuts. Enough said.

 

 

9. Random fact of the day: There are twice as many kangaroos in Australia as there are people. The kangaroo population is estimated at about 40 million. (source)

 

10. I'm not one to get political or controversial via blog, but I kinda love this

(source)

11. Since I'm already going there, can I please tell you how freaking ANGRY it makes me that the world is OK with essentially naked pictures of Rihanna, but pictures of a mother breastfeeding her baby are controversial?

(source)

Why, world? Why? Baby's gotta eat. Rihanna's just naked. Which is fine. Be naked. Totally up to you. But, why are pics of this on FB ok, but pics of a mother breastfeeding are flagged as PORN? Seriously. I just don't get the world sometimes.


12. And, PS- I don't think her dress is "one of the most powerful feminist statements the pop world has made to date". I think it's a dress and she was trying to cause a stir and she did. End of story. Feminism is about a whole lot more than being mostly naked.


13. It's FRIDAY! Which doesn't mean a whole in the SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) world, but it DOES mean the Hubs is home all weekend which makes for a happy Meagan. I sorta like him still.

 

 

14. I'm ending with 14 because Bailey is battling naps because of a little terror named teething. UGH. I'm out. 

Day in the Life: 6 months and SAHMing It

5:30am: The Hubs alarm goes off and we both kinda grumble, but get up. He has to be at work at 7am and has a bit of a commute, so it's a much earlier wake up call than we had at our old jobs, but it's not so bad. Afterall, during marathon training, I had a 5am wake up call everyday. WOAH. I was hella crazy, huh? Anyway- we both get up. He takes Sadie out and gets ready and off to work. I usually do a workout DVD-- either Jillian or 8-minute abs/arms.

Bailey's wake-time is SUPPOSED to be 6:30am. Sometimes she makes it. Sometimes she starts squaking at about 5:45-6am. Either way, I don't get her out of bed til 6:30am.


6:30am: Wake up (or go get her if she's already up) Bailey! Getting her in the morning is the best. I legit miss her when she's sleeping! I'm a freak, I know. We nurse and diaper change right when she gets up.


7am: Bailey plays in her jumperoo thing and I make and eat breakfast (lately coffee and lactation muffins {aka- muffins with brewers yeast and ground flax seed added}). Before we started solids, I'd eat my breakfast while reading blogs, but now that we're starting solids I eat my breakfast while Bailey "eats" (aka- knaws and kinda plays in it) her breakfast (note: I'll do a fuller post later on starting solids, baby led weaning, baby food, etc.)

 

After we eat, Bailey plays in her jumperoo thing while I pump. Bleah.

7:30-9:30am: Walk! I loooove our morning walks and get SO BUMMED when it's raining and we can't go. Usually B will nap from about 8-9am during our walk.

9:30am: Nurse and diaper. Then, we either play or run errands. If we play, we'll play with toys on the floor, dance, look in the mirror, sit in the bumbo, read books, etc. Sometimes we'll also go to a local mom's group I joined's playdate or event during this time too. Just depends on the day.

11:30-12:30pm: Naptime. I usually do some cleaning or dinner prep during this nap.

12:30pm: Nurse and diaper, then more play time! Sometimes I also eat lunch (turkey sandwich, apple and carrots today) during this stretch, sometimes I wait til she goes down for her next nap. Just depends on the day.

1:30-3:30pm: NAPTIME! This is B's longest nap, by far. And, she's really consistent and goes down super easily (most of the time). I watch some TV (currently watching Orange is the New Black in Netflix. LOVE it, even though it is F-ed up!), clean up, and prep dinner.

3:30pm: Wake up B and nurse/diaper. Then, it's more play time  and dinner prep til the Hubs gets home, when we finish up making dinner and he gets some quality daddy/daughter playtime in.

5:30pm-ish: Dinner (this night was Italian beef sandwiches ala the amazing crock pot) and more play.

6:15pm: Give Bailey a bath, jammies, and then the Hubs reads her a book.

6:30pm: Then, it's my favorite time of the day. Our night nurse session. I'm obsessed with her and just love these moments so much. Her smell, her little noises, when she tries to hold my hand. Love every second.  

7pm: Put Bailey down for the night. Lately, she's been going down so easily. It's been AMAZING.

7-9pm: Clean up after dinner, watch some TV with the Hubs, pump again (booooooooooooo).

9pm: BEDTIME for me. Yes, I go to bed at 9pm. I know. I'm lame.

10pm-ish: Hubs gives Bailey a bottle of pumped milk while I'm snoozing away.

2/3am: Bailey wakes up and we nurse. I KNOW she doesn't NEED this feed and I really want to try to get rid of it and get her to sleep through the night, but we're just not there yet. Soon.... I hope. :/