Tis the Season!

Tis the season.... to celebrate summer!  If you know me at all, you know I love the summer time.  When we were kids, it meant no school, watermelon, trips to the library to rent 25 books at a time, going to the zoo, barbecues in the backyard, catching fireflies, swimming all day long only to take breaks for kool-aid and chips and salsa by the pool, and the best of all- 4th of July!!! I can't explain it, but the 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday.  Besides the fact that we are celebrating America's birthday and remembering those who fought for our freedom, there's so much more from my childhood that has made the holiday so special.  Maybe it's because when I was little, we used to have my whole family come over for a backyard barbecue while the cousins swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, and played hide and seek in the dark.  Man, those were the days.  Then we got to finish the evening off with fireworks and popsicles.  To this day, I have fond memories of the holiday, so it remains my favorite.

Speaking of the holidays, patriotic colors are THE BEST!  I have been dressing Eva up in red, white and blue since Memorial Day.  She is the cutest thing.  I can't get enough of her.  As I mentioned in my previous post, she is now walking... and boy is she ever!  She won't stay still!  She's my little wiggle worm.  She has begun to enter a needy, clingy, yet independent stage.  It's hard to explain.  She wants to be around you and always in her sight, but she wants to do everything herself.  She is definitely becoming her own little person, and I adore her.  I look forward to my days off more than ever now, not because I don't have to go to school or work, but because I get to do something fun and exciting with her!  I love taking her on mommy-daughter dates and outings.

Yesterday we did her cake smash photo shoot.  I can't wait to see the finished images and share them!  It was so fun because my talented mother-in-law took the pictures, so they are even more special.  Plus, I made my own chalkboard sign, which took up most of my Saturday afternoon, so I am pretty proud of that :)  Pictures to come soon!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a very safe and patriotic 4th of July! Here are some summery pics of our life lately!

Tuesday Update

Our 14 days clean eating challenge is over, but it was seriously amazing!  I lost 2 pounds and my body felt so good!  When I eat like I normally do, it's not like I feel gross.  But when I started eating clean, this may be TMI, but my digestive tract never felt so clean!  It was crazy.  I will admit, I was actually more tired than usual, but it might've been because I wasn't getting enough snacks in.  Or maybe, it was my body adjusting to the lack of sugar.  Who knows.  It was hard to find quick snacks that went along with our diet.  I will have to do a little bit more grocery shopping and meal planning next time.  Anyway, I was really looking forward to our cheat day, because it was also a welcome home dinner planned for Andy's younger brother, Sammy.  Last year, Sammy joined the Air Force, and we hadn't seen him since like October!  He finished basic training and his job training, so he got to pay us all a visit before he left for his base in Vegas! We are so proud of him and happy for him! 

Back to eating, we kinda both fell off the clean eating wagon the past couple weeks.  To be honest, I only cooked about twice in the past two weeks.  Andy was gone on his 2 week AT for the military in Wyoming, so I was struggling to keep my head above water playing the role of both parents while working and going to school.  I salute you single parents.  You win.  Seriously... omg.  Actually, Eva did really well.  I could tell she missed her dah-dah because the day he left, she started acting really clingy around me.  Every time I put her down or leave the room, she would shriek.  This is very abnormal for her too, because normally she can entertain herself for a long time!  Maybe she's teething also.  Who knows.  Anyway, I think I cooked 2 clean meals for us the whole time he was gone, but luckily when there's only one adult eating, meals tend to last a bit longer.  Luckily, my parents and Andy's parents fed me and sent me home with leftovers, so I only ended up eating out one time when Eva and I went on a mommy-daughter date one afternoon.  

Unfortunately, I was also unable to make it to the gym the past 2 weeks since Andy was gone.  I improvised by going for runs with the jogging stroller and doing a few at home workouts in our basement.  But honestly, I just didn't find as much time to workout as often as I'm used to.  The whole single parent thing seriously kicked my butt!  To be fair, our days were pretty busy.  We ran a few errands, went to the park A LOT, went to the pool, and played at home.  But between school, work, homework, and entertaining Eva, I was too exhausted to workout at the end of the day like I normally do.  Needless to say, I am so glad Andy is finally home!  

We have a little cleaning out of the refrigerator to do, but as soon as the food is all gone, it's back to another clean eating challenge!  I should admit, the food that we have isn't that unhealthy.  In fact, last night I made a chicken and veggie lo-mein using quinoa noodles, but the noodles also have corn in them and they are processed, so that's not on our diet.  Just need to make a few small adjustments, like getting rid of the lunch meat, whole wheat bread, and ice cream that may or may not have made its way in my shopping cart the other day.  

Lastly, an Eva update:  she's officially walking as of last week!  No more baby steps for this little girl.  She's a full on walking machine! 

11 Months!

I'm finally heartbroken watching my baby get so big.  Before, it was such a joy watching her grow and learn new things.  Don't get me wrong, the older she gets the more fun she gets as well.  I never thought I could have so much fun with an 11 month old.  But now that we're only a month away from turning the big ONE, I am so sad.  The time has gone entirely too fast.  Some days are long, but the weeks just fly by.  Where did my baby go?  I can't believe I'm about to be a mom of a toddler! Ahhhh!!!

I have started getting busy planning her birthday party.  Invitations are ordered and recipes have been bookmarked.  It's just going to be a small affair, but I wanted invitations and some cute pictures to celebrate her first birthday and put in the final pages of her baby book.  We're not going too over the top on her first birthday, but I couldn't let this landmark go by unnoticed!  I can't wait to share pictures as things come together.

Eva has sure been busy this past month!  She isn't solely walking yet, but she is taking steps!  Her preferred method of mobility is still crawling, but she lights up every time we cheer her on for taking steps.  I think the most she has taken at a time has been 9.  It's so darling.  She still only has 2 teeth, but I can tell she is working on a few more.  She has constantly been chewing on her finger, and also been a little extra clingy lately.  She can now go all the way up our stairs in the blink of an eye.  She is so fast!  Still taking 2 naps a day, and the mommy breaks are much needed.  She is a little energy sapper!  I am looking forward to the transition to just one nap though.  We will be able to spend much more time hanging out with friends! 

One of Eva's favorite things to do now is to read books.  Sometimes she crawls over to her bin of books and pulls one out and brings it to me to read to her.  How can I say no to that?  Her favorite books are the ones with little flaps to look behind or ones with animals in it.  She likes to point to an animal and I tell her what noise it makes.  It's a fun little game we play.  She's actually getting pretty good at saying animal sounds herself!  She can do a snake, dog, owl, cow, and an osprey.  I know an osprey is kinda random, but while we were on vacation, there was an osprey nest right outside the window that she started imitating.  She's pretty good at imitating things.  She will try to make the noise you are making whenever she can!  She now says ma, dada, hi, hey, and poop on command.  Her newest word is "thank you" but she only gets the "tha-" part so far.  It comes out more of a "tha-na".  She also is working on "no," but mostly she shakes her head.

This past month she was entirely too sweet!  She loves to give short cuddles (like 1/2 second cuddles).  She will crawl over to you, climb in your lap, give you a snuggle, and then turn right back around and go back to what she was doing.  It's so sweet.  If only she would sit still for more than 5 seconds! Her kisses are adorable too.  She opens her mouth really wide and says "ahhhhhhh!!!" when she wants a kiss.  She then will proceed to say "ahhh" as she lays one right on your face... or anywhere for that matter.  I've had her open mouth kiss our dog's leg before.  Ugh, I just keep telling myself she's strengthening her immune system.

Since the weather has been so nice lately, we've been going to the park A LOT.  It's great because I can get my run in for the day as well.  We drive down to the river, put her in the jogger, and we run to the park!  Then I get her out and push her in the swing for a while.  Eva could swing all day if we let her.  Then we run back to the car and drive home.  It's the best little outing ever!  We both get to do the things that we love.  The other day, we went on our very first mommy and baby date!  We took a cheat day from our clean eating and went to the mall.  We did a little bit of Father's Day shopping and Eva wardrobe shopping, and then we stopped at the food court for a snack.  We shared some Japanese Hibachi grill and shared a smoothie from Orange Julius.  I was in heaven, and I'm pretty sure she was too.  I can't wait for more days just like that.  It was seriously one of the most fun things ever!  

That pretty much sums up our month!  Now that I've started classes again, it's hard to find time to do fun stuff together as a family.  But the days that we do get to do a fun outing are so much sweeter.  Cheers to summer days.... the best season of all! 

7 Days of Clean

We've made it through our first 7 days of clean eating.  We had a few hiccups along the way, such as the wedding I went to on Saturday and then family dinner on Sunday, but overall it's been great so far!  I feel mentally and physically stronger, less bloated, and simply better about myself.  I'm not weighing myself until the end of our challenge, but I can tell I've lost a couple pounds. I've decided to extend our 10 day challenge because of the slight cheats we had over the weekend.  Andy and I both have enjoyed the experience and want to make it more of a lifestyle.  Sure we will eat bread and pasta and sweets every once in a while, but those cheats are going to be few and far between.  Possibly just on date night and family dinner nights when we can't control the menu as much.

The best part of this challenge has been experimenting with so many new delicious recipes!!! Who knew clean eating could be so freakin yummy?!  Here are a few of the recipes (old and new) that I've tried during our clean eating challenge:

*** Disclaimer - I pretty much never measure things unless it seems important, so please bear with me while I attempt to replicate my recipes***

1.  Kale chips:  these have become a staple for our snack cravings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash and pat dry kale leaves

Tear of chip sized pieces of kale from stem

Spray with cooking spray or toss lightly in olive oil

Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or other seasonings such as garlic powder)

Bake 10-12 minutes, and VOILA! 

2.  Flourless Pancakes topped with Greek yogurt and strawberries

Ingredients:

2 Cups of dry steel cut or rolled oats

1 ripe banana

Dash of salt

Dash of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of Honey

1 1/4 cups of vanilla (I used plain) Coconut milk or Almond milk

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 egg

**it also called for baking powder, but I did not add any**

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except the egg in blender.  Blend until smooth. 

Add the egg and pulse until blended

Heat a skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Pour about 1/4 cup sized amounts onto hot skillet and brown on both sides.

Top with all natural maple syrup or greek yogurt and fruit! 

3.  Baked sweet potato fries!

Slice sweet potato lengthwise into 1/4 inch wide strips

Toss lightly in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes

** I also put them under the broiler for about a minute as well to crisp them up a bit**

4.  Chicken and veggie stir fry served with steamed brown rice, topped with homemade soy sauce!!!

Seriously the home made soy sauce was amazing, and I couldn't tell the difference! I am so happy to have found a soy sauce alternative that is clean, and soy free! 

Stir Fry

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped broccoli florets

1 cup halved baby carrots

1 chopped onion

1 cup snow peas

1 bunch of green onions

2 raw chicken breasts diced

2 tsp of garlic

Directions:

Heat skillet on medium high

Spray with nonstick cooking oil

Add broccoli first, cook until slightly dark green

Next add carrots, cook until not quite soft

Then add the onion and snow peas

Cook until onion is almost soft

Lastly add the chicken, green onions, and garlic

Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked through

Top with Homemade Soy Sauce, which is seriously amazing! It sounds weird, but it's not!

Homemade Soy Sauce Recipe:

Ingredients:

4 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp unsulphured molasses (I didn't have any so I used honey)

1/4 tsp ground ginger (I don't like ginger, so I didn't add any)

Pinch of pepper

Pinch of garlic powder

1 1/2 cups of beef broth or chicken broth (I used my homemade chicken stock)

Salt to taste (I added some because my stock had no salt)

Directions:

Stir together all ingredients and cook in a sauce pan over medium heat

Bring to a boil and boil gently for about 10-15 minutes.

Add salt to taste.

Can be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Lastly, tonight I made a recipe that one of my high school friends posted on her blog recently.  It was Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai.  It was amazing!! The only difference I made was I used my homemade soy sauce instead of store bought, and I used PB2 instead of peanut butter!  Check it out here!

Feel free to suggest any other recipes that you have found to be good clean eating options.  Breakfasts and snacks are the biggest challenge right now.  Thanks in advance!  

Fit Friday

Andy and I started a clean eating challenge this week.  While we almost always eat healthy, we don't always eat clean.  So I did a little research, recipe planning, and grocery shopping to come up with a 10 day (maybe longer) clean eating challenge with hopes to make a few permanent lifestyle changes.  There are probably going to be some bumps along the way, such as the wedding I'm attending this weekend and our weekly family dinners (I'm not going to request a special meal be prepared for us) but we are just going with the flow and will make the best choices with what's available.  There are so many variations of clean eating, but we are keeping it fairly simple and maybe slightly modified from some.  Our rules:

1.  No bread or pasta
2.  No processed foods
3.  Limit dairy, if not eliminate it.  (we are eating some greek yogurt and cheese, but only the block form) I'm not a milk drinker as it is, but I switched to coconut milk for a snack, cooking, and Andy's coffee creamer
4.  No chips or crackers
5.  No cereal (we are eating whole oatmeal, brown rice or quinoa though)
6.  No sugar except fruits or naturally occurring

Basically, our diet is going to be comprised of lean, unprocessed meats (chicken, fish, grassfed buffalo, and maybe some steak or shrimp here and there) , lots of fruits, brown and wild rice, greek yogurt, oatmeal, coconut milk, kale chips, veggie sticks, spaghetti squash, PB2 (a bit of a cheat, it has some added sugar), grilled or baked veggies, eggs, salads with homemade dressing, and soup from my homemade chicken stock.  It's not too different from our normal diet, but I will admit that we sometimes have tacos, burgers, pastas, etc that have a few processed ingredients.  We always have our lean meats and veggies, but I'm attempting to eliminate the sugar and processed foods from our normal diet as much as possible.  I will try to post pictures and recipes as I go, but I already am a little behind on my blogging as it is, so we will see!


Motivation behind this lifestyle change?

1.  To create healthy habits for my daughter
2.  To increase Andy and I's over all health
3.  Eating healthier just feels good
4.  Prevent diseases in the future.  Since I am adopted, I don't know what my family medical history is.  I'd like to do my part and be as healthy as possible, so I'll have no regrets.
5.  Finally, to feel GOOD about myself in a bikini.  Although I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I feel like my body isn't quite as lean as it was before.  I'm attempting to shed a few pounds in hopes to have a leaner, stronger, less jiggly physique.  I'm happy with my body and proud of how far I've come since pregnancy, but I feel like I still have room to improve.

First dinner:

- Baked salmon with lemon, garlic, parsley and pepper for seasoning (the white stuff is the fat that   cooked out when I baked it)
- Steamed broccoli
-  Brown rice pilaf:   brown rice, homemade chicken stock, pepper, frozen peas and shallots, dash of cumin

First dessert:

Greek yogurt and diced nectarine! 

Baby's First Vacation!

Last week, my entire family went to Captiva Island, Florida.  My parents rented this lovely house right on the bay.  Right across the street was the beach, and the house even had its own pool, fishing dock, bicycles, and kayaks.  The weather was beautiful... warm and sunny - my favorite!

As you all know, I was just slightly freaking out about the 2.5 hour plane ride with the little one.  For anyone who knows her, Eva will NOT SIT STILL for one second.  She squirms, arches her back, and cries to get down when she doesn't want to be held.  So being couped up on an airplane for close to 3 hours including boarding and take off, I was prepared for the worst.  Luckily, it was matched up perfectly with her nap time, so we all prayed that she wouldn't be too stimulated by all the new sights and could just fall asleep.

We brought her Halo Swaddle-Sack and favorite movie and plenty of snacks.  None of the toys we brought ended up being interesting enough for her for the ride there.  But lo and behold, the little fart fell asleep for a little over an hour on the way there.  It was a miracle!  The rest of the time was spent entertaining her with food, books, and Baby Einstein.  I was so proud of her, but mentally and emotionally exhausted by the time we got there.  I don't think I fully recovered before it was time to come home.

Her first palm tree!

The week flew by faster than normal.  The whole trip was exhausting and the opposite of relaxing, but we all had a great time.  It was so nice to have a whole week to spend with Andy also, since we've both been constantly on the go the past few months.  There were so many fun activities to do, and we definitely kept busy!  We got to go kayaking, paddle boarding, biking, have ping pong tournaments, play board games, see dolphins and an alligator, and make and eat delicious food.  Best of all, my mom, sister, and I got to have a spa afternoon where we got lunch and facials.  It was amazing!  Unfortunately, Eva did not like being thrown off her routine in a new and scary place, thus her nap schedule was a complete mess.  She was so tired most of the trip, but too stimulated and cranky to sleep.  It made for a stressed out and tired mama.  I tried to make things similar to home, but she wasn't being fooled.  Luckily, I had a lot of help... but even when someone else would relieve me for a bit so I could go for a run or go swimming, I felt guilty leaving her with them in case she were to get super crabby again.

Eva got to go swimming for the very first time as well!  We never took her last year, as we both felt she was a little too young for the chlorinated water.  But this year she was ready... and boy, did she love it! She kicked and splashed and jumped into our arms over and over.  It was seriously the best thing ever to watch her experience the pool for the first time.

The return trip went well also.  We barely made our flight in time, but Eva was content to read books, play with toys, and eat snacks.  I'd call this vacation a success.  A little more work than I would have preferred, but a nice get away in a lovely place.

    

10 Months of Craziness

We've sure been busy around here!  Andy finishes up his Spring semester classes, and we prepare for taking Eva on a much needed vacation.  It will be our first time traveling with Eva, so it is definitely going to be a challenge and an adventure.  If anyone has any tips for plane rides with 10 month old squirmy babies, they'd be much appreciated! I might already be having anxiety dreams about this.

Easter was busy, but a lot of fun this year.  Eva was too little to participate in the festivities, but I took her to see the Easter bunny at the mall to get her picture taken.  I was worried she might cry, but she ended up having a lot of fun.  When I sat her down on the bunny's lap, she turned her head up so she could see who was holding her, and then she turned back and started smiling for the camera!  Then she started clapping... my heart melted a little when she did this.  The most exciting part of Easter for her was probably her 5 outfit changes.  Between her blueberry mess, peeing through an outfit, and getting chocolate on another outfit, she pretty much gave everyone a fashion show.  Somehow, she had grabbed a chocolate kiss from the table and shoved the entire thing, foil and all, in her mouth.  I didn't even realize she had done this until chocolate goo started oozing from her mouth.  Mommy fail award.

Family Easter picture

This past month, we transitioned from 3 naps to 2.  It's seriously so amazing!  I feel like we can actually go run errands and get things accomplished without worrying about her being really fussy and due for a nap while we are out.  The best thing about this transition is the fact that she did it all on her own.  One week after she turned 9 months, she just decided to start napping longer and having longer awake periods.  There were 2 days where we tried to lay her down for her 3rd nap and she just wasn't having it.  Then we were sure she was ready!  She still wakes up around 6:30-7 am, but her first nap doesn't start until around 9:30 now, and she will sleep until 11.  Then she has a long awake period until about 3 where we can get a lot of things done, or just play together for hours :)  Her next nap usually lasts until 4-5, and then she is up until bedtime at 8:30.  We started moving her bedtime slightly earlier, and so far it hasn't affected her wake up time in the morning.  We tried doing this a few months ago, but it just didn't work.  I simply couldn't wake up at 5 am with her and still function like a normal person.

Little nugget still army crawls everywhere!  She did figure out how to crawl on all fours the other day, but she is sticking with belly slithering as her go to.  We actually caught her bear-crawling outside on the concrete one night because she didn't want to scrape her legs!  She stuck her little hiney up and inched forward on her hands and tippy toes. I was so impressed that she figured out how to do that all on her own too.  Ironically, she took her first 3 steps that same day.  She's not walking yet, they were accidental steps.  She didn't realize I wasn't holding her hands, and she just decided to take off!  When she finally realized no one was holding her she plopped down on her little bottom.  Now she clings to my leg when she thinks I am going to let go of her hands and try to make her walk by herself.  Such a little stinker!  We finally put the baby gate up because she learned how to crawl up the one stair on our main floor to get to the landing in our foyer which leads to our upstairs.  I caught her attempting to crawl up the big stairs the other night when I was cooking dinner.  Little stinker made it up 2 stairs!

Snack time is still our favorite time of the day around here.  Followed closely by bath time.  Eva finally found a movie she liked, and unfortunately it's not a Disney or Pixar movie like I was hoping.  She is now briefly entertained by this Baby Einstein movie called "Baby Macdonald: A Day on the Farm."  It was given to me by my cousin and her daughter, and Eva absolutely loves it!  Her favorite books are all the animal noise books and she loves when we make animal sounds at her, so I guess it's fitting.  She still prefers reading books over watching movie clips, but I'm glad of this.  I never want to be the mom that just lets their kids waste away in front of a tv all day, but sometimes it's nice to have her distracted when I'm trying to get us ready to leave the house or cook dinner before Andy gets home.  

 

This is how our Target trips go.  Eva houdinis her way out of the front of the cart... seatbelt and all, and ends up in the front. Captain Eva manning the ship

We also started rubberbanding our cabinets shut this month.  Eva learned how to open them up and get inside!

Pulling up on everything!

Giving kisses to Apollo

Tiny, chubby feet!

Did I mention that 2 teeth started to poke through this month?  May 1st, the first one came through, and then a couple days later the 2nd one!  Still not all the way in, but they are sharp!

Lastly, her monthly chalkboard photo. Time flies when you're having fun!