Wednesday, July 27, 2011

WW Wednesday...

Just a quick update weight-wise. Since I have reached my goal weight, WW has now put me on "maintenance" which gives me more daily points. It's nice and they say that you should use maintenance to stay within 2lbs of your goal weight. I managed to lose another .4 today  which now puts me at 2lbs under. I like knowing that I have a buffer and I'm really happy with my success.:-)

In other news, today has been quite the stressful day. There's really a lot of things that sort of all went bad ay once so I'll spare you the deets, but suffice it to say I can't wait to get home to my hubby and cute little munchkin who always seems to be able to brighten my darkest moods with her toothy little grin.
Just finishing up with summer semester. I have one paper to write for my CJ class and then I'm done. I have considerably more for math, but as of August 5th I'll be finished. I'm looking forward to my couple of weeks off. I just wish I had off work as well.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

8-month Survey


Monthly Survey
  1. How old is baby? 8 months (8 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
  2. Stats:
    1. Weight: 21 lbs! (with clothes & diaper on)
    2. Height:
    3. Clothes size: 9-12 month mostly. Definitely 12 mos for pants.
    4. Diaper size: Still 3's, but might be moving up to 4's before the end of next month.
    5. Hair color: Turning blonde!
    6. Eye color: Still a beautiful blue like her Momma's.
    7. Anything else?
  3. Milestones:
    1. Teething: Has 2 teeth. One top front is coming through as we speak. Working on 2-3 more.
    2. Talking: All.the.time. Seriously, the only time she's quiet is if she's sleeping or getting into trouble. J
    3. Rolling: Both ways.
    4. Walking: Not on her own, but she holds onto things and walks around them.
    5. Crawling: Everywhere, and quickly! Especially after the dog's toys.
    6. Anything else? She's really into self-feeding right now. We've been trying to give her more finger foods. Still not much success with a sippy.
  4. Things she likes:
    1. Toys: Her Leapfrog activity table, books, her paci…a lot of things that aren't hers like the dog's toys, the remote control, our cell phones, Adam's hat/sunglasses, shoes, etc. LOL
    2. Books: Likes her Baby Einstein animals book, also the color one. Need to get more board books.
    3. Songs: Whatever Daddy sings to her when she's upset. She quiets right down when he sings to her.
    4. Other activities: She loves going outside. She also loves her swimming classes, going to either of the grandmas' houses, going shopping with Mommy & Daddy, and playing with Scooter.
  5. Things she dislikes: Sitting still in a chair/car seat. Being told she can't stand up in the tub (first real temper tantrum the other night).
  6. Sleeping: Much better! Sleeps through the night most nights…until 7-8am. Naps still aren't real great. She fights a lot but finally goes down. Sometimes she'll take a longer one in the morning and a real short one in the afternoon.
  7. Eating: She's into self-feeding. We've been giving her puffs & canned vegetables that are finger-sized along with her purees. The goal is to get her mostly to feed herself, but we're still struggling with taste/texture issue. Raspberries were a big fail the other day but the carrots & peas went well.
  8. Nicknames: No new ones. Still calling her the same ones, though Muffin (at least for me) has made a reappearance after a brief hiatus.
  9. Things we're looking forward to next month: Her 9-month well-baby check-up is at the end of August. Hoping to make another foray to the zoo, we've just been waiting for the temps to come down a bit! It's been really hot here lately! Daddy & I will both be off of school for the month of August so we'll have more time to spend as a family. We'll have to find some fun things to do.
  10. How I like motherhood:
    1. Likes: I love love love seeing her personality emerging more and more every day. She's so much more interactive than she had been. My favorite is when she's laughing and wrinkles her nose way up. It's so cute! I also love to watch her explore new things.
Dislikes: That she's growing up too fast! I often wonder who that little person in my living room is that is playing with my baby's toys!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Late WW Wednesday and new project

I know, it's Friday. I'm late again, but we were having such a wonderful time at home on my days off that I didn't want to spend time on the computer.

So first of all, I'm down 1.8 from last week, which puts me UNDER my goal weight! I'm really excited. I hope I can maintain this weight loss. :) I've been doing really well keeping my snacking to a minimum and I've also tried to not snack before bed. Sometimes I can't help it, but for the most part once I eat dinner I'm done eating for the night. Woohoo!

Secondly, my project. I was cruising around TheBump.com and found a post on these little bags you can make up to take along for your kids that have things like toys, games, and books in them. They're great for Dr. visits, car trips, etc. I think I'm going to work on making some age-appropriate items for our own bags. The blogger who originally posted it used soft pencil cases with clear fronts. I think this is a good way to go because they're durable but thin and handy for throwing into a diaper bag, etc. Here's the original post: they're called busy bags. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Wal-mart next weekend!

Speaking of next weekend, it's our first wedding anniversary!! I can't believe how quickly the first year  has flown by. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised since I was pregnant for half of it and then our baby took up the rest, but we're definitely happy. :) We're looking at spending our first anniversary getting tattooed. I'm excited about that, too. We're also looking into planning some date time every week, just the 2 of us. It's going to be really important that we not lose sight of each other, especially once Adam gets into Bellin in January. Our schedules are going to be rather frantic. We'll make the best of it, and we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm going to be working on Clara's 8-month survey post and getting a good picture of her for it, too! I know, she's almost 9 months (lol) but I'll be doing her 9-month survey towards the end of the month when she goes to her 9-month well baby check-up.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Randomness...

I had some free time today so I thought I'd just post about some randoms stuff. And it's Tuesday, not Wednesday, so I'll be doing another post tomorrow!

I've posted before about my disgruntled-ness with my old camera. Don't get me wrong, it's a great camera, I'm just not happy with some of the pictures it  has taken. I entertained ideas of getting a DSLR, but after looking into it, they seem to be more work than I'm willing to take on. So after asking my friend Katie for ideas, she pointed me towards the Sony line of Cybershots. After doing a little more searching I found this option:

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX100 16.2 MP Exmor R CMOS Digital Still Camera with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 30x Optical Zoom Lens, 3D Sweep Panorama and Full HD 1080 Video


It gives a lot of the same options as a DSLR, but in more of a point & shoot platform. It's actually considered a "bridge" camera, bridging the gap between a point & shoot and a DSLR. I think this will be the perfect camera for me and it got really great reviews. I'm *hoping* to get it for Christmas *hint hint*. Or maybe an early Christmas present so I can use it for Clara's first birthday party. :)

Speaking of Clara's first birthday party, after careful review we've decided to do 2 parties: one for my family and one for Adam's...mostly because my parents are going to be in HAWAII for her actual birthday. :) I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off a "theme" for her birthday if I have 2 parties, but there's really no reason that we can't do the same theme for both. In the pictures it'll actually look like everyone was at the same party then! lol We're going with a polka-dot cupcake theme. I found some really cute invitations but haven't narrowed it down yet. Here's some ideas:
First Birthday Cupcake Girl Die-cut InvitationGirl Cupcake InvitationOne-derful Girl Invitation

I also thought instead of doing a cake, we'd do cupcakes. Then we don't have to worry about making a separate smaller "smash" cake for Clara. She can just have her own cupcake with a candle and we can also accommodate the gluten allergy issues that we have in our family.

And as a parting gift, here's a couple pictures of my little person. :)


Mama, give me that camera!





Who is this little person playing in my living room???


Thursday, July 14, 2011

Weight Watchers...Thursday?

Ugh! I know it's terrible that I keep missing Wednesday! lol

So for my quick WW update this week, I'm once again down. I know only have .2lbs left to lose to hit my goal! Yay me! I've been doing really well at not eating when I'm just bored, which is a huge deal for me. I used to be able to do it all the time, but not so much anymore. I'd also like to try to get my midsection back into shape. I have a lot of extra skin/fat hanging out from when I was pregnant. It doesn't make me feel real fantastic about how I look, but I DID get into a size 4 pair of jeans this week, and even  had a little room to spare!

I found a really delish recipe last week that I've been dying to try. Ok, well we tried the onions on our beef tenderloin last week. They were to die for! We're already thinking of other ways to use them! Here's the recipe. It's also from the Weight Watcher's website.

Flank Steak with Triple-Grilled Onions
NA
3 Tbsp unpacked brown sugar


4 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

3 medium onion(s), yellow, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1 large vidalia onion(s), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

2 medium red onion(s), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1 tsp table salt, divided

1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

1 1/4 pound(s) raw lean flank steak



Instructions

Preheat grill to medium.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and vinegar; brush over onions and then sprinkle onions with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Either skewer onions on metal skewers or place in a grill basket; grill onions until soft and caramelized, turning occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Sprinkle steak with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper; place on grill 30 minutes after onions. Cook 15 minutes, turning once, until medium rare, or longer for desired degree of doneness. Let steak rest for 10 minutes before thinly slicing against the grain. Yields about 4 ounces of steak and 2/3 cup of onions per serving.
Each serving is only 7 points so pair this with some delicious seasonal vegetables and you've got yourself a healthy dinner!

It's been a little nuts around the Mueller household lately, but I do plan on gathering all the information for Clara's 8-month survey soon. That's right, she's 8 months old already! My how time flies. We're starting to think about ideas for her 1st birthday. I've already found some really cute invitations. We just need to sit down with a calendar and figure out some dates and locations. I also really need to get some recent pictures of her. I've been so bad about it, mostly because she's crawling now and into EVERYTHING (ok, and I hate my camera, lol).

Just a couple more weeks and I'll be done with school. Fall semester starts in September and goes until Christmas. After that I'll be done with school for a couple years. I need to be available to help out around the house more once Adam starts at Bellin in January and can't count on getting my school work done while I'm at work. I just don't always have the time and don't deserve to just rush through it and get barely passing grades just to graduate sooner.

I'm looking forward to seeing Harry Potter this weekend. Adam and I are going to have a sushi date and then see the last Harry Potter movie while Clara hangs out with Grandma. :) I know they'll both have a good time. Our first anniversary is also coming up in 2 weeks!! We're planning (right now anyway) on getting our tattoos done finally! We're both getting something for Clara, but thought it would be fun to go together as an anniversary thing. We'll see what happens. :)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Weight Watchers Wednesday....and other stuff.

Ok, well I'm sad to say I'm up around a pound, but that's pretty good considering I wasn't tracking any of my foods over our vacation weekend.

Speaking of our vacation weekend, we left for parts of southern Wisconsin on Friday morning...around an hour later than we wanted, but it was fine. It was our first long trip on the motorcycle. At the end of the weekend we realized we needed more butt training!! We were sore! But the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery was gorgeous and it was really nice to be alone with just my husband for a day or two. :) We found a couple towns that we'd like to further explore, too! I'm glad that we have a lot of time before we need to seriously think about moving so we can explore some more. :)

We got back Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday evening we packed up and went to our friends The Simons' for our annual 3rd of July picnic. The food was great, the company was great, but we opted to skip the fireworks this year. It would have been really late for Clara to stay up to see them and she probably wouldn't like them anyway. Maybe next year. :)

Anyway, Clara's screaming from her crib so I've got to cut this short this week. For anyone interested, you can now follow me on twitter! You can find me under @angiemueller81