On will power… and whether or not I have any

I’ve decide, on a whim really, to give up a few things for the month of March to see if it makes a difference or not in my physical/mental wellbeing. If I was smart, I would have done this during February when there are only 28 days. Oh hindsight.

So… the list isn’t quite complete yet, but the big cuts are sugar, especially in the form of candy. I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t have some sort of chocolate or super sugary treat, so this is going to be a hard one. Included in this is soda, which should be less hard since I haven’t been drinking it very often.

I should give up caffeine, but haven’t yet decided whether or not to do that, but since this is the last day of February should probably make that call.  I suppose it would save me some extra cash since it’s sort of become a Monday routine to stop for local coffee. Ooh, this could be tricky. I didn’t even completely give up caffeine while I was pregnant. Maybe I’ll just switch to tea since that has a lot less caffeine.

I’m also going to go without booze for the month, which should be easy since I did that while I was pregnant.

It probably sounds really easy to give up things like sugar for a month, but I’m already dreading it, especially since Dove came out with these amazing Cocount Creme eggs.

I am hoping I’ll experience some good changes, though, as I’ve just been tired and blah lately, and while I’ve added some good things to my diet, it doesn’t mean they counteract all the sugar and crap I also put into my body on a daily basis. I’m really just curious to see if I actually notice anything different in my mood and energy by doing away with extra sugar and caffeine, so we’ll see what we see!

10 Months Old

Another month gone by and today the wee man is 10 months old. I won’t ask where the time went because at this point… if I haven’t figured it out yet, I never will.

The boy is thriving and continues to make us laugh on a daily basis, even when he’s having a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde kind of day.  It’s frightening how one minute he can be the happiest of babies and then the next have a meltdown of epic proportions full of head on the floor kind of drama.

I suppose that’s what happens when you’re learning all kinds of new things and trying not to get frustrated when things don’t go the way you know they should.

This whole learning to walk thing can be tedious, you know?  Plus the poor man is teething, so that doesn’t help matters.  All in all, though, he’s a joy to have around and I love watching him figure things out. Like cupboards.  We now are in need of childproof cabinet locks. Blast.

I’m hoping that he’ll be satisfied with one cupboard until we can manage to get locks installed.  Thankfully, it’s not like we have too many cupboards and only a few are hiding potential death behind their doors.

As far as other things go, he’s as talkative as ever and is making new sounds, though walking is still first and foremost on his mind.  He’s also eating more and trying new things as often as we can give them to him. It’s fun to see him experiment, and it means I have to get more creative with meals so he doesn’t get bored (and he does).  I could easily eat the same few things over and over, but Enzo disagrees.

In just two months an entire year will have passed. It really is true that they grow up so fast and a year really can pass by in an instant.  My life was so incomplete without this little man. While it isn’t always easy, each day I seem to learn something new about him and myself. Motherhood is such a gift.

Familia

After a rough January, I decided I needed to see some family, and since I haven’t seen my mom or sister since Enzo’s birth, it seemed like a good idea to visit one of them… so both my mom and I flew to Colorado Springs to stay with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.  As a bonus, my brother and his wife drove up from Durango.

Enzo was super excited to meet his cousins, and he and Dustin were immediately smitten and buddies.  Aubrey warmed up pretty quickly to Enzo and they all got along pretty well considering the age differences.  It was funny to see Aubrey treat Enzo like one of her baby dolls and Dustin was like a big brother showing him all kinds of fun stuff.

Because of the nice weather (I miss Colorado weather and warm winter days) we were able to go to the zoo.  You can tell how excited Enzo is about his first trip to the zoo. :p

I think he had fun and he’d look curiously at a lot of the animals, like the giraffes.  I think he was also just busy taking in all of the people as well.  It was fun, though, and we got to see a baby giraffe as well as a baby gorilla!  So cute!

Their tiger exhibit was also really neat – she was really close to the fence at one point and came right up to see everyone. So close that people had to move because she was… er… spraying everything.  A lady she’s not.

As for the flight getting there… it wasn’t nearly as bad as I though it would be even though we were one of the last to board because we arrived a bit later then we meant to.  Enzo was a little squirmy and then dozed off for the entire flight.  The flight back?  That was a different story.  The wee man is teething and refused to nap… if you ever want to know what it’s like to fly with The Hulk in baby form, this was pretty close.  Would it have been different had Josh been there?  Maybe not, but it might have been easier to handle with two.

Maybe the little man was just sad to have left his buddies behind, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a pretty social kiddo, and considering how much he likes his friends at day care, it’s no wonder he was thrilled to have friends to play with that he didn’t have to leave at the end of the day.

We’re getting a little back on schedule now, though teething is still making him a little cranky and he isn’t napping much. Plus, he may have gotten used to sharing a room with me as ever since we’ve come home he’s woken up in the middle of the night and not wanted to go to sleep… until we bring him to bed with us and he almost immediately passed out.  Yeah, probably not a good habit to get into, but… it’s only temporary? :p

On our toes

We just got back from vacation on Monday, but before I recap how that went, I figured I should get caught up on what we (or Enzo rather) has been up to since he’s about to turn 10 months old in a week.

The boy keeps us on our toes pretty much from the second he wakes up to the second he falls asleep.  Granted, he doesn’t always wake up easy…

But once he does, he’s all smiles and is ready for play time.  Right now the biggest thing he is working on is walking.  He’s getting really good at standing and pulling himself up on things, but isn’t quite ready to take those first steps alone – not that I’m complaining.  I’m not ready for him to start running all over the place yet. :p

Otherwise, he seems to enjoy his books even if we don’t always finish them.  I’m just glad he likes to pull them out and already seems to have his favorites.

While he isn’t big on stacking cups or anything by himself, he likes to watch Josh build them up so he can knock them down.

This boy is a handful, but I love his sense of humor and personality.  I have a feeling we’re in trouble once he really gets moving!

Munchkin Meals: 9 Months

The internet is so helpful in terms of finding food ideas that work for our entire family.  I hadn’t realized just how often Josh and I used to eat processed foods or take out and a lot of that was not stuff I’d want Enzo to eat.  Thankfully I’ve found blogs like A Healthy Slice of Life and I’m linking up with her for her Munchkin Series.

Enzo really isn’t a big eater, so we try not to give him too much solid food since he still gets most of his nutrients from formula.

Because Enzo is at day care 5 days a week, he usually eats Breakfast there.  Generally I’ll pick something fast and easy and often combine it with something we made over the weekend or more often he’ll eat oatmeal combined with fruit – he’s gotten so good with feeding himself with a spoon, though he still needs someone to load it for him. 😉  His latest favorite is grapes for breakfast, and bluberries, and we often do a banana when I’m in a hurry.  He’s also still a big fan of kiwi and mango.  As far as other go-to breakfast foods right now, omelets are a good one as well as whole wheat blueberry pancakes and toast with a little cream cheese or pureed fruit spread.

Lunch is often harder for me to get creative with, so a lot of the time it’s some leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.  He still enjoys broccoli, green beans, and sweet potato fries, and he’s been enjoying black beans and rice (we did burritos the other night).  Pasta is also a great go-to tossed with olive oil and some parmesan cheese and a veggie.  His favorite meat seemed to be chicken… that is until last night.

For dinner we try to do a balanced meal with a veggie or two and some protein.  We’ve been doing a lot of chicken since that’s my favorite and was Enzo’s.  Josh also made burgers the other night, and cooked up some mini patties for Enzo to eat. Last night, however, we made salmon and had some mixed veggies (corn, carrots, and green beans).  We started him out with a small serving, not sure how it would go, but the kid scarfed down the salmon!  He LOVED it.  I waited to give him more until he had some veggies because as soon as we dropped more salmon on his tray, he’d drop whatever veggie was in his hand and immediately go for the fish. I’ve never seen the kid eat so much before in one sitting!  It was awesome to see him enjoy it so much.

Time to step it up a notch since apparently we’ve been boring him!