Jet Obsessed

Carson is totally obsessed with our dog, Jet. Everything Jet does is hilarious and everywhere Jet goes is the place to be. If Jet goes to the door... Carson goes to the door. If Jet is drinking water... well, Carson tries to drink water too. I only wish he hadn't spilled the entire bowl of water all over him in the process.

Carson is also obsessed with dog toys, and best of all, the kennel! This probably sounds terrible, but whenever Carson gets fussy, I'll take him to our room and set him in front of the dog kennel... endless enjoyment!

Ooooooh.....



Ahhhhhh....



If I could just get in here...





I give up, where's Jet?



Oh, Jet, your tail is the best. thing. ever.



No more pictures, please Mom. I'm busy eating this dog's tail.



Alright, just one more, if you must.

iPhone Pictures

Yes... I'm just as obsessed with my iPhone as my husband is. I finally admit it. Moving on...

Today I had Sean help me remove the thousands of pictures I've taken on my iPhone (literally thousands. And yes, I need his help. I'm obsessed with my phone, but I have no real tech knowledge.) and I have just vowed to myself the following:

I will take more pictures on our actual camera and not so many on my phone. The picture quality is terrible. My son is much cuter when not fuzzy and blurry.


But, I do feel the need to share a few of my iPhone favorites... fuzzy and blurry as they may be...


How could this not be one of my favorites? Only minutes after this precious angel entered my life. I tear up each and every time I look at it. Life is amazing, isn't it?




Funny little guy... was he ever really this small?



Love his smile in this one... it was one of his first real "he knows he's smiling at me" smiles.



Precious sleeping face.



Man how I wish he still loved this toy... he would jump his little hiney off! Those days are gone!



Love watching him play.



Oh, man, those bananas were nasty!



Sweet, sleepy baby.



It used it crack me up to watch him take every single toy out of the basket. Used to.



Best Friends. LOVE!



Shopping. I love this picture! I love shopping with him too... he's such a good sport! I'm sure that won't last forever, so I guess I should do as much shopping as possible right away!



He's such a little stinker! His ability to get around is getting ridiculous! He's ALL over the place! I pretty much get nothing done while he's awake.



This pumpkin suit was not going to stop him!




Blurry, but fun little pictures, right? There are about a thousand more.

First Spaghetti

Last Tuesday, at Carson's nine month check-up, I was made to feel like a terrible mother because I wasn't feeding my baby mostly table food. (Not really. Dr. Pielop is awesome, but he did tell me to lay off the baby food and bottles and feed this boy the real deal.) So, I've been diligently feeding Carson exactly what we've been eating... plus a few extra fruits and veggies (like most mothers, I feed Carson much better than I feed myself).

Tonight I served my men spaghetti and turkey meatballs... and they both loved it.








It was absolutely adorable watching him completely cover himself in spaghetti sauce. It almost made me forget that he screamed the entire time I was cooking. I guess he's training us to eat earlier than we used to. (BTW- at Carson's nine month appointment, I asked Dr. Pielop about why Carson is all of a sudden way fussier than he used to be... his answer... "Their personalities start showing around nine months." Great! My kid's personality is awesome!)

I was impressed that he ate all the onions and garlic... I wonder when kids start deciding they hate things? A battle for another day, I guess. Thank God they don't all come at once!

Before his bath we let his spaghetti-lusty dog have a go...






I just posted pictures of my dog eating spaghetti off my baby. Someone nominate me for mother of the year.

Mission: Fit into Dress continued

Day 3

Weight- 133.6 lbs. No kidding!! I lost over 2 pounds!

Breakfast- a HUGE omelet with veggies and cheese, quickly devoured and then washed down with some coffee that would have been so much better with some sugar in it.

Lunch- Leftover grilled pork and veggies.

Snack- trail mix!! Yea for chocolate chips!

Dinner- Roast chicken, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. It actually turned out perfectly and was pretty darn good.

Celebrations- I guess this is working... in a way. I am losing weight. I feel thinner to be sure. Not nearly as bloated. I didn't have to suck in at all today.


and right on to Day 4

Weight- 132.4 I am not making this up. Dead serious here. I have lost 4 pounds in 4 days.

Breakfast- eggs. AGAIN. I am so stinking sick of eggs. What other low-carb breakfast options are there? I can't keep eating eggs everyday. BORING.

Snack- a couple spoonfuls of almond butter with some dark chocolate chips. YUM.

Lunch- a hell of a lot of chicken salad. Double YUM.

Dinner- grilled shrimp and veggies, by Sean. Very, very good. And I just couldn't help myself- a glass of red wine. It's supposed to be good for you, right?

Celebrations- this good-for-me food is actually staring to taste good. This is not my first ride on the hippy-dippy eating train... I've just been off track for a while now, so getting back on has been HARD. This is a good sign! I am no longer sugar's bitch.


Well... I tried on my dresses today. I got into them, but it wasn't pretty. I think they will look better once I've lost a few more. But, the good news is I do have a couple other dresses that will work and they both look even better now that I'm not sucking in a fat gut the entire time. This is starting to seem less tortuous and more like just being a responsible adult. Plus, I like myself so much better when I don't hate how I look.

Mission: Fit into Dress continued...

Day 2 (Or, more appropriately, HELL.)

Weight- 136.0 lb. Are you KIDDING me? I've tortured myself for a day and all I lose is 0.4 of a pound!!! Total BS.

Breakfast- scrambled eggs and a tomato sliced. Oh, and some coffee. With cream, but no sugar.

Lunch- Chicken salad salad with avocado and tomato.

Snack- trail mix (admittedly, with chocolate chips in it. It was HEAVEN.)

Dinner- pork tenderloin and grilled asparagus, peppers, and onions.

Celebrations- I didn't punch anyone in the face today.


THIS SUCKS!!!!! I know I need to be an adult and have some self discipline and not whine like a baby (OMG, baby whining was intollerable) but I absolutely could not control myself today. I feel like poo! I am DIZZY and have a headache and I'm so irritable that anyone in my path is liable to be physically assulted. I feel so flipping angry that I'm NOT eating a cupcake right NOW! I honestly lusted over Carson's banana/pineapple/orange blend baby food (it smells so good) and his teething biscuit (it's the closest thing to a cookie I've seen today). I think I'm seriously going through SUGAR WITHDRAWL. I hate it. I hate it so much.

Here's to hoping Day 3 will be better... because I'm not quitting! In the name of science, I must know if crash low-carb dieting will get me back into this dress by Saturday night!

Mission: Fit into Dress

Sean is in a wedding this coming weekend, and that means I've got a rehearsal dinner and a wedding to dress for. About a month ago this wouldn't have been a problem at all and I actually would be looking forward to it, but now... no so much. I have gained at least 5 pounds in the last few weeks, maybe even close to 10. (It SO sucks to type that.) I have two beautiful dresses that I love and really want to wear, but at this point, I do not fit in them. Period. (I also don't seem to fit into a lot of my clothes, and rather than wear my maternity clothes again, I need to harden up and lose a few pounds. Sigh.)

So, my goal in the next 5 days is to lose just enough weight so as to squeeze into my dresses this weekend and not have to spend money on two new outfits. Is it impossible? Instead of just giving up and going shopping for something that actually fits me, I figure I can survive anything for 5 days so I'm going to be extremely serious about this and see if I can actually lose enough weight. If not, I'll head my happy, fat self over to Target and try to find something on the cheap. So let the experiment begin... and let me be clear right now: some people might be annoyed to hear me talking about losing weight since I'm technically not overweight but I don't care. If you have any comments about why "you would love to be my size" or "stop complaining you skinny bitch" please keep them to yourselves. This is an experiment people, and I'm simply documenting it here. I think the internet world has a right to know if I can actually accomplish this, or if it truly is impossible. Here goes nothing.

Day 1

Weight- 136.4 lb. Terrible. Horrible. Am HUGE cow who can only wear one pair of jeans in closet. Have to do something. Now.

Breakfast- scrambled eggs, avocado, and salsa... and a little cheese. Not bad, but not a doughnut.

Lunch- leftover hamburger from yesterday's football grill-out, guacamole and salsa. Yes- two meals with avocado and salsa, but right now options are limited until trip to grocery store. Oh, and a Lara Bar.

I haven't made it to dinner yet... will update later.

Goal: No grains, no sugar (follow Sean's caveman diet- www.marksdailyapple.com). Go on walk with hubby and baby. Do some sort of exercising with weights... I'm not a cardio-a-holic and I will not be aiming to run five miles, people, even if I am signed up to run a half-marathon in January (I know I'm ridiculous, let's just save that for another post).

Celebrations: Threw away tons of left-over buttercream icing and did not eat any of it. Super hard. Had to put it directly into trash can, cover it with other trash, and promptly take it out to the curb. Feel like this must be what a crack addict goes through when they stop smoking crack. Maybe on a slightly lesser scale.

Feeling motivated by the wedding cake I will be awarding myself if I actually do make it until Saturday.

Guilt Trip to HEB

Today was a pretty busy day. Carson and I went grocery shopping and that always wears us out. There's nothing quite like pushing around a heavy cart and carrying a 20 pound baby who's "talking," kicking, and trying to grab everything he can reach.

So tonight, all I wanted to do was veg out on the couch and watch trash TV but I decided to tackle one of the items on my list of ways to be a good wife and mother... I would cook a healthy dinner. Sean wasn't feeling very good so he didn't have a lot of patience for Carson's evening fussies. At one point I found myself chopping veggies while pots were sizzling on the stove, making lunches for tomorrow at the same time as I was shoving banana flavored puffs into my child's mouth to keep him happy (he hasn't quite figured out how to do this for himself... that will be a glorious day). After Sean and I took turns eating and holding Carson, I started to clean the kitchen. When bedtime came, I took Carson from Sean, nursed him and put him to bed, then picked right back up with the laundry, sweeping the floor, picking up baby toys, and sorting the mail. I accomplished nearly everything I had on my list today, and yet I just can't ignore this nagging voice in the back of my head that's saying I didn't do enough.

I'm not so worried about all the housework I could have fit in during Carson's nap time if I hadn't desperately needed a nap myself after our grocery store trip. I feel really, really worried that I didn't show Carson enough love today. I was so busy... does he feel neglected? Does he feel loved? Is he happy? How do I know for sure? Maybe I'm doing a terrible job at helping him grow and learn. I mean, there are probably babies out there who are speaking fluent sign language at Carson's age, and according to many TV infomercials he should be able to read any day now. What if his evening fussies are a sign that he's depressed? Can babies be depressed? What if I am finding things to worry about when there's nothing to worry about? What if I should be worried about something and I don't know what it is... yet?

I felt a sudden urge to search the Internet for all the things a good mother should be doing with her 7 month old... but I'm way too scared of how inadequate that will make me feel. I already feel guilty enough!

Is this just what it means to be a mom? Constant guilt? Guilt for what you do, and guilt for what you don't? Does anyone ever feel like they're a good enough mom?

I hope and pray that Carson feels even a fraction of how much I love him... and I pray that it's enough.

New top item on my list of ways to be a good wife and mother: love my baby and love my husband as much as I can every day. You know what? I think that's the only thing on the list. Does this mean I can stop cooking dinner and doing laundry?