Andrew: 7 Months

Happy 7 Month Birthday Andrew!

Your biggest change this month was all the food you've been eating. In addition to fruits and veggies you have tried some meats and yogurt. I keep meaning to give you avocado but I forget. You don't seem to love purees, but you have a lot of fun with finger foods like cheerios and shredded cheese. Your big sister was the same way.

I also introduced you to the sippy cup this month. I have been giving you prune juice in your cup to help move things along in your diaper. I'm not sure if you are constipated, but things have slowed WAY down in that department since you started eating solids.

You are getting better about just sitting and playing, although you still tend to get bored or upset pretty quickly.

You much prefer to be held!

Your first tooth finally cut through this month! You have been my worst teether by far. I can just tell your mouth is hurting you and you put anything in your mouth that you can get your hands on. (Including a lego last week. That was scary) One tooth down, many more to come!

You are SO close to crawling! You get up on your hands and knees, rock back and forth, and then faceplant and start crying. You can kind of scoot around the room. You will go from a sitting position to a crawling position, and then kind of move around a bit before you just get frustrated.

 You babble more now, and sometimes it sounds like you are saying DADADADADA.

My sweet little Andrew, I just adore everything about you. From your fluffy blond hair, to your big smiling drooling mouth, to your sweaty little feet. You are so precious and I love you so much!

Just for fun, here are you and your siblings at 7 months of age.

RYAN:

LUCAS:

 JENNA:

ANDREW:

I've decided that if your two brothers had a child, it would be you!

Weighty Wednesday: Strength and Cholesterol

I finally lost another pound! Over the past few weeks I have been doing pretty well at finding that middle ground I talked about last time. Eating healthy foods most of the time, but leaving some room for treats and special occasions. I have also started to run/walk on the treadmill for about 1 to 2 miles a few days a week, as well as an occasional 21 day fix workout.

Lbs Lost So Far: 18
Lbs Left To Lose: 9

I have been chatting with my old Beachbody coach (We did the 21 Day Fix here!) and she had a great suggestion for me. She said I should add in some strength training to my workouts. I guess strength training isn't something that immediately comes to mind when I am trying to burn calories and lose weight. I know it is important, especially as we get older and start to lose muscle mass. But my mindset has been just do cardio and burn as many calories as possible. But after talking to LeAnn I was reminded of the many benefits that strength training can have when trying to lose weight. So I'm looking for an easy guide to something I can do at home. I know how to do things like crunches, pushups, tri-cep dips, planks,  bicep curls, squats, and lunges. And I have a set of weights but they probably aren't heavy enough. I'm looking for something easy and quick that I could do, possibly after doing my jogs on the treadmill. I'm realistic and I know I won't find the time to do this every day, but every little bit helps.

When talking about my weight, it was brought to my attention that thyroid problems run in my family. So I went and got some bloodwork done yesterday. Good news is that thyroid is perfectly normal! (Can't blame my weight on that!) I also got my cholesterol checked because it hasn't been checked in many years. Here is a little chart I found that shows the ranges.

And here are my numbers:

Total Cholesterol: 177

LDL Cholesterol: 103

HDL Cholesterol: 67

Triglyceride: 37

It was a bit higher than I was expecting, but overall pretty good. I bet I could lower the LDL even more if I lose these last 9 pounds and start exercising more.

Learning To Crawl

Ok I think I've got this whole crawling thing figured out. 

I just get up on my hands and knees.

And then I kind of rock back and forth.

And I keep rocking.....

I feel like I've crawled really far!

Wait a second, I'm not going anywhere.

Mommy why aren't you helping me?!

 I give up.

Turn Back To Praise

I received this book in the mail today, written by our very own pastor! (I read his first book and wrote about my own experience with panic disorder here: http://nullybabyblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/my-story-of-panic-and-anxiety.html)

This new book is all about how our thoughts control us and determine who we are. "The Master's Mind shows just how much God wants to strengthen our minds and enable us to rise above the noise that seeks to overwhelm us." Obviously I haven't read the book yet, but I have a feeling it will be great!

I know how easy it is to let negative thoughts overwhelm us. How we interpret our circumstances can have a huge effect on our mood. Taking care of my family every day can be very rewarding but also very demanding. If I let myself, I could easily begin to see everything as a negative. By tweaking my thoughts just a little bit I can turn anything back into a praise for God. It's like that song "Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise". I've had that song stuck in my head all week!

Jenna spilled peanut butter pretzel crumbs all over the floor that I just cleaned.

Thank you Lord that my children do not have life-threatening peanut allergies.

3 loads of laundry done and the hamper is already full again!

Thank you Lord that we have the means to fill our closets with clothes.

I hate cleaning behind the toilet!

Thank you Lord that I am physically able to get on my hands and knees to clean for my family.

This summer was TOO hot!

Thank you Lord for the comfort of air conditioning inside, and the benefits of Vitamin D outside.

Our house is so loud I'm going to go deaf.

Thank you Lord that my children are healthy and full of energy.

These are just very small examples. But I bet if we practice this way of thinking with the small things, it will eventually become a habit and spill over into the big things.

I'll let you know how the book is!

Day In The Life 9/13/17

6am: My alarm goes off and wakes up Andrew. I nurse him back to sleep while I think about what a rough night it was. Jenna woke up scared and spent a couple hours tossing and turning in our bed. Lucas was coughing a lot and I was worried about him. And Andrew was up about every 30 minutes. I need Adam to build the crib ASAP!

6:15: Andrew is back asleep so I creep out of bed and throw on some workout clothes. Adam has already left for work in the Bay Area and the kids are asleep, so I start my workout.

After about 15 minutes I have to stop and wake up the boys. Then I finish packing Lucas' lunch. Today he gets an applesauce pouch, yogurt tube, triscuits, and 3 mini homemade carrot applesauce muffins.

7:05 - The boys still haven't come downstairs. I go up to investigate and find them playing in their pajamas.

7:15 - I finally drag the boys downstairs. I found some organic Annie's poptarts at Grocery Outlet and bought them for fun. My kids have never had poptarts but at this point, I'm happy whenever they try something new, even if it isn't super healthy. The boys both took a bite. Lucas liked it and Ryan gave it a sideways thumb. Neither boy ate more than 1 bite.

 Luckily Jenna is a little garbage disposal and she will often eat their leftovers!

Andrew woke up just before my Dad arrived to take the boys to school. Now that my parents live up here he helps out with school drop off and pick up, and it is such a big help,

8:00 - I eat a quick breakfast of cottage cheese and fresh pineapple. Then I do the last 10 minutes of my leg workout. Next I let Jenna watch Paw Patrol while I head upstairs with Andrew. I nurse him, change him, and then start on cleaning the bedrooms. I start on the master bedroom, then pick up Jenna's room, the boys' room, and the playroom. I'm not doing a super deep cleaning, but just making beds and picking stuff up off the floors. Between the rooms I discover 6 dirty sippy cups and 2 bowls. Andrew sits and watches.

9:00 - My legs are SO sore from Monday's workout, and today's only made it worse. I decide a little walk might help, so I put Jenna and Andrew in the double stroller. I discover a pair of baby shoes that Jenna picked up at Marshall's last week. I didn't realize she put them in the stroller and caused us to steal them. Oops! Guess we'll be making a trip back to Marshall's. They're pretty cute but I'm not paying $30 for baby shoes!

Our walk is nice and leisurely today. I chat with out neighbors and they offer me a free push tricycle! We see Lucas out on his playground at recess. I love being close enough to spy on my boys like this. Looks like his friend is doing all the hard work while Lucas sits in the back wagon!

10:00 - Back at home I put Andrew is his swing for a nap. I get to work on the dishes and picking up toys downstairs. I made cheezit dough the night before, so I roll it out and put it in the oven. I use this recipe but use whole wheat flour. https://www.browneyedbaker.com/homemade-cheez-its/

10:30 - Andrew is awake and mad! I distract him with some cheerios while I finish up a few things.

11:00 - My sister stops by with her two youngest girls. I take a quick shower while she holds Andrew. The girls do lots of little girl things.

After my shower I apply my new primal pit paste. I've been reading a lot of bad things about normal deodorant so I decided to try this out. So far it works great!

 We pack up lunches for the little girls....

And meet my nephew Josh and niece Samantha for lunch! I am treating Samantha to a birthday lunch and we ended up making it a whole family affair. We go to Zest, a vegan restaurant in Rocklin. I order the Chipotle Tacos and Mint Limeade and it is great!

 A couple hours later the boys come home from school and get a little playtime with the cousins.

3:00 - Everyone leaves and I take Andrew upstairs to nurse him. I let Jenna watch TV while the boys play school games on the computer. A box arrives on my doorstep and I open it up after feeding the baby.

I know, I know...another clothing subscription service! I heard about Trendsend recently from a friend and decided to give it a try. Why? Because there is no styling fee! You are literally charged $1 to have 2-3 complete outfits sent to you. The company is geared towards Moms and there are all sorts of cute Mom quotes on the packaging.

You have 5 days to decide what you are keeping. Like Stitch Fix, you have a prepaid bag to ship everything else back in. Easy peasy!

Here are my 3 outfits. Everything was very much my style, so I'll have to consider the fit and prices to decide if I'm keeping anything.

I throw on one outfit really quickly. Have you ever tried Trendsend?
https://www.trendsend.com/?referral=9rp5Zr4WgES

4:00 - Back downstairs it is time to start homework while Andrew takes a 30-minute nap.

We manage to get through homework with only one thrown object and one broken pencil. Jenna wants ALL my attention at this point but I need to help the boys. She gets really upset.

Next it is time to read the boys' library books. We read this book called Knuffle Bunny and the boys literally make me read this page 10 times. They are cracking up at the weird words!

 5:00 - We spend a little time playing in the backyard. It is nice and breezy!

 Andrew gets his first turn in the swing! He doesn't really like it.

6:00 - Dinnertime! We all have an assortment of leftovers. Jenna and I eat leftover spaghetti and broccoli. Ryan eats a leftover hamburger and kale chips. Lucas eats kale chips. Andrew eats mushy green beans mixed with brown rice.

After dinner Jenna needs a serious bath. This girl does NOT know how to eat spaghetti without making an enormous mess. I get brave (dumb) and let the boys join her. It does not end well. Lucas flips out and drenches our bathroom. I ended up having to lock myself and the other kids in Jenna's room until he calms down.

While all this was happening, Andrew pretty much does this. If I'm not holding him, he is crying. After everyone has on their jammies we read books in Jenna's room. She is really tired and falls asleep easily.

Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the boys. They are nuts. Especially Lucas. I put them in their beds at around 7:45pm but they are way too riled up to sleep. Let's just say there is a lot of yelling and taking away of privileges. I apologize if you walked by our windows last night! Poor Andrew just wants to nurse and go to sleep, but it is impossible with the way the boys are behaving.

8:45 - Hallelujah, Adam is home! I get Andrew to sleep and then head downstairs to clean up dinner, pack lunches, blog, and watch part of Big Brother, in between Andrew's wake-ups. Good Night!