another day in the month of may....

We've got this lovely expensive camera and yet we still can't manage to get a photo in focus! I don't know if that's because the girl is always moving or we are just really bad at taking photos with an auto-focus camera. (How can you be bad when the camera focuses for you?)

Anyhow, this was E heading to school last week. We put on the new coat but she put on the hat. Now that she can put them on herself, she likes to wear them. We had to laugh because she looks like an old British lady. ;)

The irish contingent are upstairs while I am working. E is with them and I can hear the irish music and E dancing away. She gets this look of concentration on her face when she's dancing (since it involves doing a circle) but she loves it. She is hilarious. Needless to say, the endless clapping for her isn't hurting her ego one bit! She should be fun to be around when her grandparents head home in a month! NOT!

I debated mentioning this or not because I've gone down the weight loss path before on the blog only to quit once I started to make some good headway. (Beware, posting poundage can be hazardous to your health). Anyway, last January I started watching what I was eating and cutting out alcohol. By the end of March (February), I had lost 15 pounds (from 195 to 180). Because that was my pre-baby weight, I guess I thought it was an okay benchmark, in which to adjust my eating and went back to a normal sort of eating pattern. For the last 2 months I have held steady at 180 with workouts and limited drinking, not snacking too much. Two weeks ago I decided to join We1ght Watcher$. I had been debating for a long time about what the best course of action would be for someone having a problem with how much food she eats, rather than WHAT she eats. I have been too comfortable for too long with this number on the scale... telling myself that I still look fine... that I hadn't weighed what the guidelines suggest I weigh for years.... but I also knew that if I kept going the way I have been going, I'd be 200 pounds before you know it. It used to be that 180 was my upper limit but 200 became the upper limit when I was pregnant. See how easy you can move the bar up?! Anyhow, my 10% goal, which WW uses as the first benchmark regardless of what you need to lose, will take me to 162. I haven't weighed 162 since I don't know when. My head can't even wrap around the number 162! I have to change that line of thinking because we all know the power of positive thinking. I WILL BE 162! And possibly less than that. Who knows? I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. And besides the work, I have to think of it as a change of lifestyle, which has always been the hard part... but should not be impossible! Wish me luck!

And by the way, I probably won't be mentioning the weight loss but will put a little calendar at the bottom of each post to record it for myself. :)

5/14 180.4
5/21 176.4

Can you say 'hair afire?'

Martin's parents and sister arrive today. If we thought our house was small before, imagine the next month or so. Pray for us! :)

Needless to say, I don't have time to write and I have some really cute photos of the girl. This one of all of us will have to suffice for now. Ciao!

Weekends are good times

This photo wasn't exactly from the weekend but Thursday night. We took a walk with a friend and her dog, down by the water. Emer loves her Bella, even when Bella is whapping her in the face with her tail. And Bella will wait so peacefully while Emer does her version of 'petting' her which usually involves a harder-than-petting slap. I know that because she's gotten into this phase of 'putting the baby to sleep' (usually me or her dad but sippy cups or her stuff animal Ted work too) and we have to lay down on the floor and she proceeds to cover us with a blanket and pat us (hard) on the head, arm, back. There's really no chance of falling asleep when she's 'putting you to sleep' - it's more like time to go to the hospital! Just kidding, she's not that strong yet. ;)

The other day M went downstairs while E was having dinner. I was sitting with her and she said something and my mind slowly realized that she said "mama go". Now, she hasn't been getting our roles right for a month or so and I realized she was saying that M went! A sentence. Of sorts. She says it all the time now when one of us 'goes'. God, it's cool. It's so cool. There are definitely more words happening now-some only I can understand. She's got bye-bye and HI down pat.

We went to the grocery store yesterday and they have these neat little carts for the kids. She loves that thing and was pushing it around and saying HI to everyone. It was hilarious.

Besides that, we have exactly 2 weeks until M's parents and sister arrives. We are hurriedly trying to finish our two upstairs bedrooms for them to stay in. Basically we move the piles of clothes, toys, diapers, etc from room to room. This morning was definitely a melting point for us - just makes us want to cry that we have no storage. I sooo wish that M would get some help, he doesn't need to waste his time painting when he could be finishing the closet inserts, etc. I guess I could be helping instead of blogging but I try to stay at my computer for when issues come in (it's been slow lately) so that I have a job in the future. It's a great job to have but it's hard to prove your worth when people aren't having computer problems!

I didn't actually say anything about the weekend, did I? The weather was crappy on Saturday which kept 3 outdoor people cooped up for far too long (we finally ventured out and went to the library). Sunday was beautiful and we went to the zoo (with 500 other people - we have the zoo pass so we go for a couple hours and hang out) and then we went looking at neighborhoods and to open houses. We saw a huge house that was brand new and all I can think is, can we move now?
(Don't worry, M feels the same way!)