Baby Items I love- Round 2

Since Cor.ben is now older, I thought it was time to do another 'Baby Items I Love' post.

1. The Super Baby Food book. I'm going to be making my own baby food and this is the best book that I've found that gives me all of the information I need. I'm so excited!



2. Carter's Classic Wood Reclining High Chair. I'm in love with this high chair. It's classy looking and it doesn't take up a ton of space. The top tray is removable for easy cleaning and the seat reclines back in two positions, which will come in handy with our next baby (God willing) and allow him/her to join us at the dinner table before sitting up is possible. Cor.ben loves it!
3. Sassy Sensation Station. Cor.ben loves toys that spin and he loves music. This toy is a ton of fun and has a suction cup base that I can put on his highchair tray.
4. Bright Starts Sunshine Carrier Toy Bar. For the same reason as above (C's love of spinning toys and music) this has provided us with lots of entertainment while we're on the go.
5. Vtech Crawl Ball. Lights + music + movement= AWESOME!
6. Fisher-Price Learning Puppy.This guy is so much fun. He sings fun songs and is educational. Cor.ben absolutely loves him.
7. Chan Pie Gnon Teether. Much to my disappointment Cor.ben wanted nothing to do with the Sophie. This is made by the same company and he want crazy over it. He loves the squeaking noises that it makes and he loves to chew on it.8. Koala Baby Musical Elephant. This elephant has been a life saver. With Cor.ben's new found teething crankiness this fella really soothes him and helps him fall asleep. Cor.ben seriously lights up with joy when he sees him.



9. Baby Einstein Around the World Discovery Center. No explanation needed! So fun!

10. Safe Fit Day and Night Musical Mirror. I really like being able to look back at Cor.ben when I'm driving. This is the coolest of all mirrors because it's big, has a light for nighttime viewing, and has really soothing music. It makes me calm being able to see him and the music keeps him calm when he's had it with the car. The light and music turn on and off with a remote that you can clip to your visor. Awesome!

11. Gumdrop Pacifiers. These are great! They are made by the same company as Soothies (the paci's you get in the hospital). They conform to the face and stay in better, are soft and easy to clean, and you can get them in vanilla scent. You also can't beat the price!



12. California Baby. I love all of the California Baby bath and skin care products. They are safe and healthy, and they work great on my baby's sensitive skin and cleared up his eczema. My favorite is the tea tree oil shampoo/body wash and the calendula lotion.

13. Babyganics. I love their entire line of cleaning products. I'm always on the hunt for safe, natural, and environmentally friendly cleaning products that work and I found it with BabyGanics. Mmm and I love their lavender scented options. I also love the foundation of their company... a Mom and Dad who just wanted safe products for their children.

I know that a lot of my favs were toys, but Cor.ben is now at that stage where he wants to be entertained, stimulated, and is really starting to get joy from toys. We're having a blast! I would LOVE to hear what your favorite things are. Oh...psst... ladies I'm on the hunt for an awesome bra that isn't going to break the bank... any suggestions?

Toys, toys, toys!

Our Baby Ein.stein Aro.und the Wo.rld Disco.very Center FINALLY got delivered and I'm sooo happy! Cor.ben absolutely loves it! It's so cute to see him excited and discovering all of the new things he that can play with. He also loves being able to stand up and spin around to play with things. My house has officially been taken over by baby contraptions, but I love seeing Cor.ben so happy... especially now that he's teething and having lots of not so happy moments. Yikes!

Another First

Cor.ben's 1st time in the snow!

Getting ready to go outside! This should be fun!

Well, this seems okay.

I like the snow on my face.

Me & Mommy... yup... cool!

Touching the snow for the 1st time.
This is where things went downhill. Tears were involved.

Maybe next time?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. I pray that your day is blessed and full of joy.

Come on in!

I had a great day with my Mommy! Here are a few highlights...


Not much is better than getting to chomp on my pretzel! Yum!




I love hanging out with my dog Admiral! He loves toys just as much as I do :)



Hanging out on my play mat is always so much fun. Especially when I get to explore uncharted territory!



This was just some of my day. I hope that you enjoyed sharing it with me!

Christmas Card

I wasn't going to do Christmas cards this year since my husband isn't here to be in the photos, but being that I'm making an effort to make this holiday season the best it can possibly be, I've decided to go ahead with the cards and just use a picture of Cor.ben. I'm so happy that I decided to do this and I'm so excited to send them out! I'm feeling a little bit better about Christmas each time I give myself something to look forward to.

Accountability Day & Exciting News

Starting weight of challenge: 135

Starting weight this week: 130
Ending weight: 126
Weight loss this week: 4 lbs
Weight to lose: 11 lbs

I really am proud of myself. This accountability thing really does work! I'm getting really excited at the prospect of reaching my goal. This week I continued with a healthy diet and smaller portions and I also did a lot of walking. I don't know if you can really tell a difference in the pictures, but IRL I definitely feel less bloated and pudgy and I know that my stomach isn't sticking out as much.

For the exciting news.......... COR.BEN ROLLED OVER THIS MORNING!!!! He did it with no effort and like it was no big deal at all. I told you he's being holding out on me ;). He's probably been practicing after I go to bed. I'm such a proud Momma!

Cuteness & Other Random Ramblings

How cute are these little booties! Cor.ben is not quite sure what he thinks about them, but they are perfect for keeping his tootsies warm after all of the snow that has gotten dumped on us lately! Brrr! I'm pretty sure that I've given up on socks. Short of using duct tape I don't think anything is going to keep those suckers on! He was wearing the cutest pants, but I took them off so that you could fully see his cutie booties!



Cor.ben is SO close to rolling over. If he would relax and just go with it I know gravity would take him the rest of the way over. I certainly know he has the strength to do it. I think he just likes toying with me ;). Well... he did technically roll over the other day, but I'm not really counting it. He rolled from his back to his side, hung out there for a minute, and then rolled to his stomach and pulled his arm out. At his 4 month WCC his doctor said that it takes awhile for the "big babies" to be able to roll over.


I'm getting a little a lot sad at the thought of Christmas coming up. I don't want to feel like this because Christmas isn't about anything other than Christ and I should be focused on that, but I can't seem to snap out of it. C and I are spending the holidays alone this year :(. I know that the day is going to seem pretty lonely and dreary and I just want to get it over with. I wish Cor.ben's first Christmas was awesome! It doesn't really matter though because he won't remember it. I'm trying to be positive! To help sprinkle some cheer back in the day I bought Cor.ben some really cute Christmas outfits and I really am looking forward to seeing him in them.

Also, my anniversary is this month. While it stinks that I don't get to spend my anniversary actually with my husband I'm still really excited to have another year under our belt. I love that man!

You know you love our outfits :)

I will leave you with a video of my Mom and Cor.ben during our visit to see her. She didn't want to actually be visible in the video, that's why she's cut out. I need to get an updated video to put up here.

Getting Back To What Matters

I'm really missing my husband. I'm over this deployment.

Accountability Day!

The day of accountability for my weight loss goals has arrived! I decided that I'm going to do this post every Friday. I am proud to report that I have lost weight!

Starting weight: 135 lbs
Ending weight: 130 lbs! I lost 5 lbs, yay!

I didn't get in any exercise because this was finals week and I was busy getting my study on! I'm so incredibly happy to have this semester over with! However, I have been eating much healthier. I have cut my portions down by eating slower and enjoying my food rather than inhaling 2-3 servings, ha! I cut out all obviously unhealthy things, such as soda. I've been drinking water with my meals instead. For my sweets craving I ate some 100 calorie chocolate bars that I had from my Mom. Yeah, I'm going to have to find some more of those. They were delicious! I've been having a big vegetable craving lately (weird huh) and I've actually been eating them for breakfast.

What has been so amazing and that I think is really going to help me is this app I just downloaded on my iPhone. It's called Fooducate. You can scan the bar code of a food item in question and it will tell you what's good about it, what's bad, give you a letter grading (A for the best, etc). You can even have it suggest healthier alternatives for you or you can compare it to another product to see which is better. So cool! I was about to get some tortillas to make wraps with and I selected some that were "whole grain" and for "healthy living". Upon scanning them I found out that they weren't hardly whole grain at all and had the worst rating for their group!

I'm just so happy to see progress the first week, especially without getting some exercise in. It has really made me feel so motivated! I decided to not post any pictures because they will just look the same as last week, but I will next time for sure. Have a great weekend everyone!

Prayer Request For Samuel

It breaks my heart to see anyone suffering, but it's especially painful to me when it's a baby. Please read this story of Samuel. Lets get on our knees and see what the amazing power of prayer can do! This is one wonderful baby and we know that our God is awesome!

http://lothblogs.wordpress.com/

Solids already?!

At our 4 month doctors appointment yesterday she said that C is ready to start solids. She said to start with rice cereal and if he does well with that we can add in baby food at one new food every three days. This totally freaked me out at first. My baby is growing up so fast! But now I'm just a little excited. I just need to do some more reading and find out how this will change how many bottles he gets, how this will change how often he eats, and how many bottle feedings I do vs solid food feedings. I know that for the first little while I'll just do one rice cereal feeding a day, but I'm all about research and trying to be as informed as possible ahead of time. WOW! I thought I had 2 more months before I had to worry about this stuff! He had his 1st rice cereal feeding tonight and he did so much better than I thought he would. He actually opened his mouth for the spoon and ate a good portion of the cereal. He still obviously needs to get the hang of it as he did spit some of it out of his mouth. It was funny though, on some of the feedings he would hold it in his mouth for a few seconds to decide what he wanted to do with it. This is crazy!

Here we go!

"Hmm I don't know what I think about this."
"Okay, I think I might like it."
"Yup, I do like it!"
"I really, really do!"

Post-Baby Body

There's no need to beat around the bush. Despite my fear of saying it out loud, I'm going to just jump right in... I'm disgusted with my post-baby body. My entire life I have been a very thin person. In fact I have had problems with being UNDER-weight and had to fight to keep the pounds on. It really became a self-esteem issue for me as I got made fun of a lot and people called a lot of attention to my weight. No one wants to feel like they stick out from the crowd for any reason. The past few years I finally got to my ideal weight and I was so happy! I really thought that after I had my baby that I wouldn't have any problem getting back down to my normal size. However, the past few months I have been absolutely stuck at my current weight. I know that I don't look horrible and I don't think I could be called overweight, but I definitely need to "tighten up". Most of all, I just really want to feel good about myself and not have to do things to conceal the belly (to be able to leave the house without feeling like a self-conscious mess I wear a spanx like garment and loose shirts). I really can't complain too much because as miserable as I feel I haven't been exercising and I've been eating horribly. To give myself a tiny excuse, with my current lupus flare I can't do intense exercise, but then again I haven't been doing anything!

So I've finally decided that I've had enough! I'm going to start eating healthy and exercising! I've been saying this in my head for awhile and then I don't do anything about it, so I decided what I need to do is call myself out and put myself on the spot. So, here I am! I'm exposing myself and making a public commitment to better myself. Once again I would like to reiterate I realize that I don't look awful. I'm just doing this to be healthy and to feel good about myself again. I'm going to post a pre-pregnancy picture, and pictures of me in my wanna-be spanx, and without anything. My pre-pregnancy weight was 110 and I'm now 135. I'm thinking that I would like to get down to about 115- 120. So, I would like to lose around 10-15 lbs. I'm going to weigh myself once a week and post my progress. If anyone would like to join me I would love the support!

"Spanx"
*Pardon the under-eye circles I was up late studying*

No "Spanx"

Pre-pregnancy

One more. Just because I miss my old self so much.

Okay, okay... since you asked for it... one more. Haha!