Wednesday, February 29, 2012

One More Week

I have one more week till I go back to work. My maternity leave actually seemed a bit longer than last time but all in all it has gone by fast.

I really have enjoyed getting to spend the last 10 weeks home with Annika. This is the most time I've spent with her since she was born! She's learned so much in the last 10 weeks.

~She can now help make cookies (very important!)

~She can count to 4 and then she sort of goes off on her own..8, 7, 5, 2, 4, 5...

~She can also begin her A,B,C's. She makes it to about D or E before she goes off again on her own little song.

~She probably has tripled her vocabulary. This child can talk. She even speaks in full sentences that make sense.

I only wish I could have gotten her potty trained though! That will have to be tried again soon! So far today she's taken her diaper off 3 times on her own because it had pee in it. I wish she'd realize she had to pee BEFORE doing it in the diaper!

Of course, I've also enjoyed spending time with our sweet Annabel. She's really turning into a good baby now that I have her sleeping anywhere from 6-8 hours at night. I love her little smiles too. She has such a different personality than her sister.





I can tell that Annabel will probably be our shy and quiet baby. Annika is outgoing and LOUD. It's going to be fun seeing them grow up.

I am looking forward to going back to work though. I am not the "stay at home mom" type of person at all. I'm going stir crazy. I'm tired of having someone follow me into the bathroom asking me "poop momma? You go poop?" I'm tired of watching Annika's new favorite DVD "Blue's Clues". I look forward to work, making money (I only get 66% of my pay while on leave) and adult conversation! I do not, however, look forward to seeing all the people I work with, the gossipers, the backstabbers and such but whatever. It's life and it's work!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Comparing the Girls: Newborn




I love that they have the same "cry mouth". They look so much a like even though Annika was 9 pounds and Annabel was 7 pounds 3 ounces. Annabel was only an inch shorter.

It's amazing but they really don't look like they weigh that much different.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Annabel: 2 month check up

Annabel had her 2 month check up today:

23 1/4 inches long (95th percentile)
10 pounds 3 1/2 ounces (75th percentile)
head is 15 1/4 inches (90th percentile)

Looks like we have another big girl!

Even though she was quite a bit smaller than Annika at birth she's totally catching up. At 2 months old Annika's stats were:

23 1/2 inches long
11 pounds 7 ounces
head was 16 1/4 inches

The doctor was very impressed that Annabel gained over 3 pounds and grew almost 3 inches within a month and a half since we were there last! She's a growing and healthy girl. We really love our pediatrician too. He doesn't just look over the girls and then hand them back. He talked to Annabel, cuddled with her for a few minutes, then looked her over, cuddled her and talked to her a little more and then handed her back. Every time we go there he tells us how special little red heads are. We were also very impressed with him when we were at the hospital when Annabel was born that he remembered Annika's name (I guess he could have cheated though and looked in our chart but he seemed to just know it) since he's one of the most popular doctors in the area and I'm sure he has a ton of other patients.

And here's are little special red head:

Thursday, February 23, 2012

5 Years

It's hard to believe that 5 years ago today Josh and I got married.



This is our "offical" wedding picture. We got married at the courthouse wearing jeans. Afterwards we went to our favorite restaurant down the street and had martinis. Then we drove up to Tampa for a wonderful meal at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and stayed the night so that the next morning we could go to Busch Gardens!

I wouldn't change a thing. Josh has grown in the last 5 years more than I could imagine. He's a wonderful father and husband and I couldn't be happier.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Big 3-0

In a little less than 3 weeks I will be celebrating my last birthday in my twenties. That's right, I'll be 29.

Long ago I wanted to make a list of things to do before I turn 30 but since I've really waited to the last minute I want to make a small list of things to do before I turn 35. That way I have 6 years to get them all done!

So before I turn 35 I want to:

~Run a marathon.

~Run a half marathon in under 2 hours (my current best is 2 hours and 27 minutes).

~Make memories with the girls and Josh by going on a vacation someplace.

~Buy a house.

~Pay off our car so we can go back to living debt free (I'd like to do this faster than the 6 year loan we have.)

I'm currently working on building my running back up so I can train for another half marathon now. Luckily for me my speed was not affected too badly by being pregnant with Annabel and not running all those months! I just need to build up my miles again. I'd LOVE to do a marathon though, especially if it's the one at Disney because you get to run through all the Disney parks. I think it would be way more exciting to run 26.2 miles through theme parks than down some boring old roads.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Our Weekend in Venice

We decided to go out and do something this weekend, besides going to Target. We drove down in our new car to Venice to walk out on the jetty there.

Annika loved it. We're pretty horrible because we've only taken Annika to the beach once and we live 20 minutes from it. It was too cool out (to us from Florida) to go into the water or even wear bathing suits so we stuck to just walking around. Of course, there were some crazy tourists in the water which I think was around 65 degrees.

Here I am with Annika. It is clear that I am in desperate need of a tan, luckily Annika is pretty white so I don't look too bad...



Josh and Annika looking at a bird.



My sweethearts.

The view of Venice from the jetty. I believe the condo to the far right is the one my uncle lives in.
And Annabel, well, she did her usual thing, slept. There's just something about her car seat that makes her pass out.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

FB Timeline and New Car

So most people hate Facebook's new timeline but now I kind of like it! Thanks to it I was able to view status updates I had after Annika was born and I realized that 10 weeks after she was born I posted that I could get my size 6 pants on but they were tight. Then at 13 weeks I could get my size 6 jeans on and wear them in public. Makes me feel sooo much better because here I am 8 weeks after having Annabel and I'm freaking out because nothing fits me yet!! It's normal because it didn't fit last time either, thank goodness. I'm still working out just about everyday (cardio and strength training), running at least 3 times a week and trying to cut out junk food, carbs and eat lots of protein.

We bought ourselves a new car Tuesday for Valentine's Day! We traded in my Scion TC which was a little sad. That was my first new car that I bought and paid for all on my own.

So we went from this:



To this:



It's a black 2011 Toyota Venza and we are IN LOVE. Josh said it best, we are officially grown ups. We bought a safe 4 door small SUV/station wagon-ish vehicle.

Let me tell you, after dealing with Annika for the past 2 years in a 2 door car and then Annika and Annabel the last 2 months in our 2 cars with 2 doors (our other car is a 2005 Honda Accord 2 door) it was AMAZING to put both the girls into the car, a car with FOUR doors!!! A door for EACH of us! It was so freaking easy.

And we got a great deal. My Scion was paid off so we used it as a trade in. I expected to get around $5,000 for it, tops. It had a lot of issues with the paint since that poor car was a magnet for people to hit in parking lots. Plus Annika had pretty much trashed the inside with her animal crackers and Goldfish recently.

First they offered us $6,000 for the Scion but wanted us to put down $1,500. We were able to talk down the price of the Venza from $29,000 to around $27,000. We told them we didn't have anything to put down and we couldn't pay the $440 monthly payment they came up with.

Then the sales guy got nervous because I stood up, like I was leaving. So he talked to the manager and gave us $6,500 for the Scion, lowered the price of the Venza again and gave us $390 for monthly payments. Josh told him $350 a month, tops.

Again they got nervous, offered us $7,500 for the Scion making our monthly payments $350ish. Then I told them we would "borrow" $1,000 to put down. So we got our payments is $343. I had the $1,000 the entire time so I like to think we really played that out well.

In the end we opted for an extended warrenty bumper to bumper for 7 years or 100,000 miles and our monthly payment is a nice $370 which is perfect. All maintenance on the car is also included during those 7 years, even better.

Now though we'll be making payments until Annika is 8 years old (that's the way I like to look at it). The salesperson asked us how long we expected to keep the car. I told him when I was 2 years old (same age as Annika) my parents bought a brand new 1985 Volkswagen Golf. That became my car when I was 16. Not even joking, this Venza will be Annika's in 2024. :-)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

She Said What?



I was trying to teach Annika how to say "fox" the other day but it ended up sounding like a totally different (and bad!) word!

Lets just say that we are not going to be speaking about a fox anytime soon, especially in public...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day Gift via Pinterest

I love Pinterest. Who doesn't??

I got a great idea for a Valentine's Day gift for Josh. We usually don't do anything at all for it but I decided to make him a gift. I did the 52 Things I Love About You deck of cards.

Here are the 52 things I did, some of which are inside jokes:

1. You make me laugh.
2. When I say something dumb and you brush my face with your hand and say "you're pretty"
3. The look you make while putting Annika's hair clip in.
4. That you quit your higher paying night job to get a day job so we could be together more.
5. That I can't get really mad at you about anything because you make me laugh.
6. You miss my parents.
7. You call my family for me when mom died and again when dad died.
8. You change baby diapers, even ones with poops.
9. You care and love your family.
10. You can joke about anything.
11. That you think "you know how I know your gay" jokes are funny too.
12. I can be myself with you.
13. I can do something silly in front of you without being embarrassed.
14. Wrestling.
15. You are the best dad ever.
16. You like girly movies.
17. You've pushed me to be a more outgoing person.
18. You've helped me to be myself.
19. You're silly.
20. You listen to my rants about the morons at work.
21. You were incredibly supportive when my parents died, I couldn't have gotten through it without you.
22. You hold my hand while you're driving.
23. You're never afraid of what other people think.
24. You watch Olivia with Annika and know the characters' names.
25. You love my family like they were your own.
26. You work nights so our girls don't have to go to daycare.
27. Our "sexy light" time.
28. You're caring.
29. That you'd do anything for me and the girls.
30. That you have to use a plastic wine glass because you've broken all our glass ones, a few times.
31. That when I moved in with you all your clothes were kept in the dryer.
32. That you have a thing for dental assistants.
33. That a perfect evening is being at home instead of going out.
34. That you taught Annika how to give Eskimo kisses.
35. That your official song is "I'm Sexy and I Know It"
36. That you taught Annika how to say "doggie" and "eye booger".
37. The way you kiss me
38. That you always kiss me good-bye.
39. When you see or hear something funny and you clap 3 times.
40. That we could talk forever about nothing at all.
41. That you don't care about what other people think.
42. That I always learn new things about you, like that you like chocolate chip cookies and milk now!
43. Your funny stories and the way you tell them, like the one with the gun and the cats.
44. You planned a surprise birthday party for me by yourself.
45. I know that you love me like I love you.
46. That you have patiently waited for me to tell you what I love about you.
47. That you stayed all the nights with me in the hospital when Annika was born.
48. That you didn't want a big wedding and that we both wore jeans when we got married.
49. That you bought the engagement ring I loved and surprised me with it.
50. You like Twilight movies.
51. You make me feel pretty.
52. We can be total goofballs together.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Junk and Memories




I guess you could say I am the opposite of a hoarder. I get into trouble for throwing away things that could have sentimental value. There are totally valid reasons for me doing this.

#1: After my parents died I spent almost 2 entire weeks cleaning out their house. I sorted what I wanted and what needed to go to Goodwill or just be thrown away. They saved EVERYTHING. My dad had bank statements from 1977 when he lived in Brooklyn and went to college. I filled up over 50 garage bags of things to donate, about 20 to throw away and I kept 2 medium size Rubbermaid containers of things I wanted. I refuse to have our house become a storage unit for things that are not needed or that someone will have to sort through sometime.

#2: I do not like clutter or things that are unorganized BUT I do not have a lot of time to organize things. I don't print out pictures anymore unless I want to frame them. I just save them all to a disc each month. I don't scrapbook anymore because I find it annoying to find a place to store the scrapbooks. I don't buy books anymore, I just buy them on my Kindle because I don't like book shelves, they always look dusty and messy. I don't want to have to organize a lot of things that we aren't ever going to look at.

#3: I don't want the girls to be materialistic. I see so many kids that have so much but don't even pay attention to the things that they have. Or they want more and are never happy. The only toys that Annika plays with are stuffed animals mostly given to her by family members on holidays or for her birthday. Once she gets some new ones I take away some of the older ones and donate them. Annika also likes to color so she has crayons, paper and her new favorite thing, stickers. She's perfectly happy with those things. She likes to play with some of my old wallets, purses, scarves and bracelets. There's no reason to get her more when she's totally happy with what she has! Plus the more toys and crap she has the more things there are for me clean up when I really don't have the time to do it anymore.

#4: I hate attaching a sentimental feeling to an object. I do have a few things that belonged to my parents' (like my dad's leather jacket and Bible and my mom's jewelry) that I refuse to get rid of. I just don't want to create a memory for every single object in our home because I feel like we're going to get overrun with THINGS. Josh gets mad because I'm always throwing away things or donating things that I'm tired of looking at. What he doesn't realize is that they are just THINGS, we don't need them to remember things!

And now here's your weekly cute picture:



Annika not only likes to undress herself but now when I'm not looking she likes to undress poor Annabel!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Comparing the Girls: 7 weeks




Amazing to see the difference. Annika was much bigger but Annabel has a lot more hair!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Running

I like to run. Yep, I probably sound insane to a lot of people but I really do like running. It's a great stress reliever for me and I get to clear my mind while I run.

I just started running again last weekend and I am impressed with myself on how I did. I haven't been running in over 9 months but I felt pretty good. I'm excited to try to improve my previous speed and get healthy (and fit into my size 2 pants again...).

Now it's time to figure out what race I want to do first. When I first started running in June of 2010 the personal trainer we have at work asked me if I wanted to do a half marathon. I think she did it more as a dare because she didn't think I'd actually do it. But I did. I did a 12 week training program and ran my ass off (literally).

I did my first half marathon in November of 2010:



This is totally motivation for me to keep running, my legs look great! They don't look anything like that now....

Locally we had a half marathon too and some more ladies from work joined in. So in March of 2011 I did my 2nd half marathon and beat my original time by 20 minutes!



(You'll notice that I have a stupid jacket tied to my waist, it was like 40 degrees when I started...it got hotter, lesson learned.)

I have never ran a 5K or 10K race though. I started out kind of big with my half marathons. So now I have my mind set on a 10K in April! I'm so excited! It actually goes through my uncle's neighborhood so hopefully he can get out of bed early enough to see me run! I doubt that Josh and the girls will be able to handle getting up before 5am to see me.

Then maybe I'll try a 5K afterwards :)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

~Random Stuff~

~I started my new birth control Saturday. It's called Beyaz. I just hope that it doesn't give me headaches. It's supposed to help with PMDD so I'm assuming my mood swings would be kept to a minimum then.

~I need to do a comparison post with pictures of Annika and Annabel at the same age. I'm making a mental note to do that soon, I'm sure I'll forget again though.

~My first day back to work will be March 7th. They don't allow more than 12 weeks to be taken at a time. When I go back it'll be almost 11 weeks. This time will be so much different than last time since there's no worrying about daycare! All I have to worry about now is Josh waking up at a decent time with the girls.

~I can't believe that I go back to work in about 4 weeks! Eeeekkk...that was fast but I am looking forward to getting back to a routine and working. Staying at home during the day makes me feel a little crazy. I could NEVER be a stay at home mom. I love the girls but I told Josh that all I'd want to do is bake and I'd double my weight in a year if I were home all day. There are way too many "Real Housewives" marathons and Kardashian shows on during the day and I'm hooked.

~I'm still addicted to Pinterest. I pin and pin and pin but really don't make much yet. I did make my own french fries in the oven and that's about it. I have a ton of ideas for Annabel's (and possibly Annika's) birthday party. I love the rainbow theme so everything can be colorful!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Oh Please Sleep!

I think I forgot how hard it is with a newborn. Annika has been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks old and it has been wonderful. We've had a few nights with nightmares and terrors but other than that she's been perfect.

Now we have Annabel. Annabel who has to be going through a growth spurt. Either that or she hates me, or she likes me, because she sure likes to see me a lot in the middle of the night. The longest stretch of time she's slept so far is 6 hours. FLUKE. It's never happened again and now the longest amount of time has been around 4 hours.

Last night it was 2. Like an itty bitty newborn. She woke up every 2 hours, took 45 minutes to finish a bottle, took 15 minutes to hiccup herself to sleep (this is some weird thing that both her and Annika did) and then she was up again. So, if you're counting, I got sleep in 1 hour increments all night.

Now I do know she's a newborn still but I hope and pray that by 10 weeks she's got this whole sleeping thing down! I don't know how I'm going to go back to work with no sleep at night! I'm like a zombie today!

But this weekend was good exercise wise. I did my first run since May of last year! I ran 2 miles in only 23 minutes on Saturday, not too bad at all! I thought I'd be awful to start with (I think when I very first started running I was around 14 minutes per mile) but I'm glad I'm not! Sunday I ran the same 2 miles again in 23 minutes. Today my legs are SORE. But it's good, because that should really help me in losing weight!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Weight Loss

I hate dieting. Hate it. I desperately want to fit into my work clothes though so now I must diet. I don't really follow actual diets because I find if I do I'm either pissed off the entire time because someone else is telling me what to eat or I gain weight!

I'm down 28 pounds since having Annabel and I need to lose about 20 more. I know that is not going to happen in the 4 1/2 weeks I have left on leave. Well, it could if I stepped it up but with taking care of a toddler and an infant there's not much time to work out!

I am doing a DVD set sort of like P90X called Supreme 90 Days and I'm actually on day 27. I have noticed I'm able to keep up better with the people on the DVD but I haven't lost a pound in 3 weeks!! Not one! The only thing I can think of (since visuially I do see a difference) is that my fat is turning to muscle and it weighs more, I hope that's what it is because some of these workouts kill me!

So next week I'm going to set my alarm, wake up early, and run before the girls wake up. I love to run and I've been looking forward to starting it up again!

I really don't want to have to buy new clothes for work!! Come on belly, butt and thighs, get smaller!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Suggestions Needed

Annabel seems to have very, very dry skin. Annika never had a dry skin issue at all. I would bathe her, put on a thin layer of lotion and she'd be fine. I only bathe Annabel once a week because of her skin. After her bath I put Johnsons & Johnsons Baby Cream on her. Then everyday I put it on her again. Her skin is still peeling and very dry especially her forehead and feet. Any suggestions on a better lotion?

Also my 6 week post partum check up is Friday! Can you believe Annabel will actually be 6 weeks old tomorrow?? Time is flying! I need to go on birth control pills since I did not get my tubes tied (my doctor hesitated to do it since I'm young and since I went in as an emergency I didn't get to sign the release he has for all patients wanting their tubes tied). Any suggestions on those? I took Lo-Loestrin FE last time and had horrible mood swings and bleeding the entire month so I'd rather not do that again. I used to take Yasmin long, long ago so I'm leaning towards that one unless there's something better. I just don't want the mood swings or headaches that I sometimes get with birth control.

And here is a picture of Annika and Annabel. Annika just loves her sister!