Ten things from Thursday

1. Amelia and I have crossed the country and made it to Florida!  I was incredibly nervous about traveling with her (typical), but she did great (also typical).  We used a ticket that my mom had and were able to fly first class!  Amelia was happy about this:

 

So, was I.  This was my dinner.  And yes, that's cheesecake at the top left of the tray.

2.  Brandon is very sad that we're not around, but he's got a lot of studying to do.  He pulled an all nighter a few days after we left.  I'm glad we skipped out on that!  He has requested lots of pictures to stay up to date.  Here she is the morning after we flew.  Well rested and happy! 

3.   Grandma got Amelia some boots with the fur. 

 4.  Uncle Braden came to visit.  

5.  Amelia finally got to wear her sunglasses.  On her way to the old person's home to play bridge.  

6.  She had a Ray Charles moment. 

 

 7.  Amelia is eating lots of solid food, everyday.  Her poop smells now.

8. She's also saying (gurgling) "mamamama" and "dadada".  She has no idea what it means, but I love it.  I'm pretty sure she said "Hi!" too, but no one else is convinced. 

9.  She loves the water. Before we flew to Florida I took her to the pool at our gym and she learned how to splash.  Now that she is sitting up on her own she also loves to take baths.  

10. Grandma got her a bouncer too.  She loves it. 

Hair loss and what they don't tell you...

I cannot believe the amount of hair I've lost post-partum.  Just like many other seemingly strange things that accompany pregnancy and mommyhood, this is normal.  While it might be nothing to worry about, it's very disconcerting.

Check this out:

Um, yeah.  My brother has got nothing on me.  Look at that receding hairline!  Thankfully, it's growing back.  See all the little new ones?  Grow fast little ones, grow fast.

Another thing I didn't know about?  Many women have tailbone issues during/after labor.  Some break their tailbone during labor and others just have pain and discomfort post-partum.  Thankfully, I didn't break mine.  Unfortunately, it's not in the same place it used to be which is painful at times.  Here's me waiting for my x-ray.  

It's been a rough road to recovery after Amelia's birth.  My pregnancy was fantastic, but since my delivery, things have proven to be difficult.   I was told after my delivery that it probably would have been better/easier to have had a c-section.  I was told not to walk for 3 to 4 weeks and was in a lot of pain. 

I have had tailbone pain for months, been to the doctor twice, and am now going to try physical therapy. 

I went through all of this to say, I hope my hair beats the odds the same way the rest of my body has.  Grow fast little ones, grow fast.  

Best smoothie ever

Our gym has a peanut butter banana smoothie that totally rocks.  It is light, peanut-y and just the right amount of sweet.  It's perfect.  Except for the fact that it costs $3.50 (for a small!).

After some trial and error, I've created my own (pretty darn good) version.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1.5 frozen bananas
3T vanilla yogurt
1/2 c milk (I use whole)
1/3 c peanut butter
1/2 t honey

Put all ingredients in blender and let it do all the work.  Pour and enjoy!

Amelia update, and the week in review

We have had a great week.  Nothing particularly special, but lots of fun and time spent together.  There are so many pictures and things that I want to share.  Let's do a week in review:

I made a delicious thai peanut noodle dinner.  So good that it made Brandon dance.

Amelia wore her new 6-9 month adorable pajamas.

She also wore another adorable outfit...one that she wore to Brandon's school for a surprise visit. 

Can you see her two bottom teeth?

She likes her teeth.  She plays with them a lot by tucking her bottom lip in and rubbing her gums.

See?  This was her 2nd Halloween costume.  She was a flower.  We went to a new Mom's group Halloween party that was really neat.  All homemade decorations with creative games in an old schoolhouse.  I wasn't able to meet anyone new, and Brandon was in school, but we still had a good time.  

This game was, "can you throw the duct taped paper towel roll through the toilet seat?"  

There were even clowns.

We also went for a long walk in the beautiful fall weather.  I'm trying to soak it all in before the rain comes to stay.  

These are the trees outside of our house. 

This tree was so pretty that I thought we'd stop and take a few pictures.  Of Amelia.  Sitting up by herself!  Well, she'll sit up for 30 seconds or so and then slump down like this:

I think she still has fun though :) 

Speaking of lovely photos, we got a few sneak peeks of our professional session a few weeks back...and LOVE them.

And we got a new swing, in hopes of having a few more "hands free" moments. 

And took a few more naps :) 

Hope you had a great week!

A randomly boring weekend

I had all sorts of plans for this weekend.  Finally, I was going to have lots of lots of help with Amelia! We were going to go to the museum, or maybe the zoo!  I was going to cook delicious meals, because I finally decided to let some meat back into our house!

Come to find out, Brandon had a paper that was due at noon on Sunday.  But, it looked fairly easy and probably wouldn't take long....12 hours later....

So, that's not random.  I'd say that's more along the lines of boring.  Definitely boring.  And tiring (for me w/ Amelia and him w/ the computer).  Here's the random part.  This is what I came home to on Saturday:

If you're wondering what this is and why it's on our front porch, you're not alone. It's a dirty razor scooter.  

Then I went to the bathroom and found this:

A dirty cooler.  In our bathtub.

What in the world happened while I was at the gym?!  Apparently, Brandon got distracted on his bike ride to study and went dumpster diving.  Not that I'm complaining.  He found some good stuff.  Random stuff.

His best find?

A grill!  For those of you who know Brandon, you know that he likes to clean.  Before we could even discuss what activities we could do today, he was out on the porch scrubbing the crap out of the "new" grill. That was over an hour ago.  

My plans for delicious dinners?  Out the window.  Brandon had a bag-o-salad from Albertson's where he was studying.  Here was my dinner date:

Amelia didn't see that box of macaroni and cheese, but not to worry, she made up for it today.  

I heard a laugh from the kitchen.  I'm guessing it was because of this:

Apparently, she chewed a hole through the box.  Great.  

I'm looking forward to our next adventure....outside of the house! And, on a random note, I'm SO getting that peanut butter banana smoothie at the gym tonight.  After this kind of a weekend, who am I to say no? 

The day we forgot the stroller. and the wrap. and the baby bjorn.

Last weekend was Brandon's guard weekend, meaning he worked Saturday and Sunday on base (next to the Portland airport).  Saturday was his first day, and also happened to be family day. He had to be at work at 7am, which is really early when you have a 5 month old who goes to sleep between 11pm and 1am.  So, in short, he took the car.  Then came to pick us up and take us to family day.

The last time he took the car, we forgot to take the stroller and wrap out so I could have something to do while he was gone (we have 1 vehicle).  There was no way we were going to make that mistake again.

Wrong.

We took the stroller out, but forgot to put it back in.

So, that meant a day of holding Amelia.  All day.  Meet and greet with new co-workers?  Holding Amelia.   Walking around base in knee high boots because I was tired of these "old" moms showing me up?  Holding Amelia.  You get the idea.

We definitely took turns, but it still was tiring.  On the way home we stopped to get some work out shorts for Brandon and somehow made our way into an ice cream shop.  I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Tired mommy.

Oh, that's cute. Kind of.

Not cute.

And....it's your turn. 

I really hope we learn from our mistakes.

Oregon Zoo!

A few weeks ago we went to the Oregon Zoo and had a great time! We ended up getting year round passes and Amelia and I have already been back.  It's a pretty nice zoo, especially when you compare it to the Alaska Zoo :) It always makes me feel sad to see all of the animals caged up, but from what I understand, most of the animals at the Oregon Zoo are rehabilitated and wouldn't be able to survive in the wild in their current condition.

Here I am with a zebra:

And here Amelia is, driving a tractor:

The tractor was next to this garden, which reminded us of Dad and Ruth's house...and, of course, her fabulous garden.  

Here's Brandon in this dome thing that is meant for kids to climb under.  He's got Amelia in the baby bjorn, so that counts....right? (he's on his knees in this picture)

And the rest of my family in front of those heat sensor cameras.  Looks like Amelia's hat was doing it's job!

And last but not least, one picture that sums up our relationship.

Haha.  So typical.  We had a great time, and look forward to going back again zoo-n!