4-month pedi checkup

I took Eli in for his 4 month checkup today. Here are the stats:

Weight: 11 lbs 2 oz (3rd percentile)
Height: 24'' (15th percentile)

I actually expected him to weigh a little more than that, but the doctor seemed really pleased with his growth and said he's catching up more quickly than he expected. His percentile numbers are for his real age instead of his preemie-adjusted age, so I'm just really excited that he's on the charts. Our boy is doing great!

Friday fess-up...

Wow - I'm seriously shocked this week.

I'm down .6 lb for a total of 3 lbs.

This is shocking to me because off the bandwagon have I been. Seriously... I drank sweet tea, got seconds at meals, and generally broke all the dieting rules. So, this is a lucky loss. I'm saying this out loud because I know how my brain works. When this happens I start to believe that the pounds will magically melt away without me having to work at it and then I begin to slip into really bad habits. So, I'm going to revisit this post each day this week to try to remind myself that it doesn't work that way..... Don't y'all just love being inside my head?

P.S. - For those of you who may wonder how I get it down to a tenth of a pound (I got a little sass from my F-I-L about this :)), it's called a digital scale. It's probably not the most accurate scale in the world, but I report what it reports.

First Laughs!

Last night we got our first real laughs out of Eli. It was so adorable! So what do I do? Run to get the camera of course! What does Eli do once the camera is on? Well, you'll see... (Please excuse the poor lighting.)

Why is it that babies know when the camera is on and then do the opposite of what you want them to do? Oh well, perhaps I'll have better luck "capturing the moment" next time.

Would you please pass the jelly?

Hhhmmmm..... I love homemade jellies and preserves. And lucky me - I have a mother-in-law who picks fruit from her fruit trees and then spends hours peeling, grating, cooking and jarring the the yummy stuff. And it is delicious. I would say that it's worth all the work but I'm quite positive that I'll never be quite that domestic. So, I'm just really thankful that she finds it to be worth it and is willing to share :). That being said, I usually eat it pretty sparingly so that I can make it last awhile. It's always a sad day when I run out and realize that I'll have to go back to the store-bought stuff or beg for more.

Every time we meet with our small group, one of the couples prepares a dinner and the other couples bring sides/drinks/dessert. Last night the theme was "breakfast for dinner" and our friends John and Jessica made a delicious breakfast casserole, and J.C. and I volunteered to take biscuits and jelly. Hmm. Delimma. Shall I take my treasured homemade jellies or stick 'em with store-bought? They may not appreciate the homemade stuff as much as I do, right? And if they do, then they might eat it all. And that would be sad. So, being the only child that I am and thus having issues with sharing, I had decided to take store-bought. It was the good store-bought brand (not the Publix off-brand stuff), so that's not too selfish, right? Wrong.

As we were leaving, J.C. asked me if I had packed my beloved homemade jellies to take (which he loves, too). I ashamedly told him I had not... Then he gently reminded me that we should always share our best with friends and that we needed to make sure that we taught Eli this important lesson. Oh, I felt baaaddd. He's so right. If my MIL had the same attitude that I had last night, then we would never have gotten the jellies in the first place.

So, thank you, honey, for reminding me of this last night. And thank you, MIL, for generously sharing your delicious treats. They were a hit!

Friday fess-up....

The verdict this week is....

Down 1 lb. for a total loss of 2.4 lbs.

I guess this is going to be a marathon and not a race. Goals for this week: no sweet tea...

This really IS hard....

No one ever said parenthood was going to be easy. And I never assumed it would be. And yet, somehow I find myself surprised by the fact that it really is difficult. At this point, Eli is starting to become a pure joy. He's mostly sleeping through the night, he's smiling all the time, and is generally a happy little guy with limited amounts of fussiness. He's not the problem - I am. I've discussed how I'm trying to overcome my selfishness in terms of having less quality time with J.C.. Another thing that I'm struggling with now is trying to learn how to sacrifice my bad habits in order to raise my child the way I know is best.

I am a TV addict. I am basically an only child and I grew up with the television as my constant companion. When I'm home, regardless of whether I'm sitting down to watch it (which I really don't do too much), I like for it to be on. I feel like the house is too quiet without it. And now that I'm home full time this means that our TV rarely gets a break. Poor thing... Do I think this is healthy? No. Do I want my kids growing up to be TV addicts and watching all the unhealthy things that are on all the time these days? Definitely not.

Before I had Eli, I told myself (and J.C.) that I was going to try to break this habit and learn how to be at home without having the TV on. I've felt for a long time that I needed to do this and somehow thought that having a child would automatically give me the motivation I needed to overcome it. How naive.... When we first brought Eli home from the hospital, I justified having it on because I was feeding him (or pumping) almost constantly, and what else was I going to do all day? Look at the walls? And besides, how much could he really be absorbing as a newborn? It's not like I'm watching anything "bad" like talk shows and soap operas. I'm watching things like HGTV and Baby Story on TLC. No biggie, right? Excuses, excuses.... I could come up with a ton of them because I really don't want to break my addiction. I really like TV. And unfortunately, having a child hasn't taken away this affection and magically transformed me into the parent I aspire to be.

Ridding myself of this bad habit isn't only good for Eli, but good for me. I've been reminded in several ways recently that I need to focus on the things that are important and have eternal significance and not spend my time and mental energy on the silly and potentially harmful things like TV. So, I guess I'll do what I should have done in the beginning - realize that it's not by my strength that I will overcome my shortcomings, and turn this one over to the Lord every day.

And on an unrelated note, here's the latest pic of my little cutie pie.

Bring it on Big Daddy!

Oh yes, we have found it. The best bar-b-que in the state of Alabama and perhaps beyond. J.C. went to this place a few weeks ago with his coworkers after it won the gold medal in the Birmingham News' Best Ribs contest (beating out Dreamland!). After hearing J.C.'s account of how good it was almost daily since he went, I decided that I must partake ASAP. And, since it's a little out of town, we decided it would make a great motorcycle trip. So, J.C. took the day off from work today and we left the munchkin with Gramamma and Pop to hit the road for our little adventure.

Man, the food was amazing! They have the whole package - good ribs, good pork, good side dishes like fried corn on the cob and turnip greens, and of course good sweet tea (a must for any bar-b-que joint). This one was a real winner. I highly recommend it.

Here I am with Big Daddy himself. Please excuse the helmet-head hair I've got goin' on here.

After lunch we decided to ride around for awhile and ended up going to Swann Bridge - one of the few remaining wooden covered bridges in the state. I had such a wonderful day hangin' out with the best hubby in the world!

Beautiful scenery!

Ah, the motorcycle. We love it so.

And of course, I can't post pics on my blog without at least one of them including the little guy, so here he is hangin out with his Gram.

Friday fess-up

As promised in my post last week, I have to fess up about my weight progress. So.... (drumroll).......

I lost 1.4 lbs this week.

eh...

It's a loss, so I'm not devastated, but I definitely could have done better (especially for week 1). I pretty much blew it yesterday by eating every delicious bite on my plate at the Greek Festival and then eating Chick-Fil-A (with sweet tea...) for dinner. I'm going to purposefully blow it again today because J.C. took the day off from work and we have been planning for weeks to make a trek out to Warrior to this really good BBQ place he found. Oh well. I'll have six days to make up for it before my next fess-up. Happy Friday everyone!

Baby awkwardness

I've observed that there are generally two types of people when it comes to babies. Those who love them and just must hold them. All of them. Even those belonging to strangers. And those who give the customary "oh how cute" schpeal to the parents but are perfectly fine with letting the kid be. They're just not "baby people". I myself fall into the latter category. I do think babies are cute and absolutely adore the one that belongs to me, but have no pressing desire to hold random babies just for the sake of holding them. It doesn't bother me to hold them, especially if it has a purpose like helping the mom out if she needs both hands for something, and I certainly want to hold the babies of my close friends and relatives. But, I would never in a million years ask to hold the child of a casual acquaintance or stranger. That's just me.

That being said, there are also generally two types of parents in this world. Those who are very uneasy with their children being passed around and would prefer people to keep their hands off, and those who have no problem handing them off to eager "baby holders". In this area, I'm also the latter. I really have no problem with people holding Eli. I completely understand why some parents are hesitant to pass their babies around, but I'm pretty easy going about it. Mind you, I would never hand him over to a random stranger or a sick person, but if it's a healthy friend or family member, or even an acquaintance, I really don't mind if people hold him. I want him to become accustomed to being held by people other than J.C. and me and I actually want him (gasp) to be exposed to some germs to help develop his immune system (this spoken by a woman who's child hasn't gotten sick yet...).

So, being that there are these types of people out there in varying degrees (on both sides), this can bring about what I call the baby awkwardness. Here's the scenario:

Person approaches parent and baby with "goo goo' look on their face. They say all the customary stuff like "He looks so great!" , "How adorable!", etc... My personal favorite is "He looks like a normal baby now" (in a tone of great surprise). This statement doesn't really offend me - I know Eli looked like a shrivelled up alien when he was born, but I do find it pretty funny that people would be shocked that he looks so "normal" now. Anyway, I digress from the topic.

So, person approaches and it seems like they want to ask me if they can hold him, but are nervous to ask because they don't know if I'm one of the moms who's paranoid about this sort of thing. I think about offering, but hesitate because I don't want to be one of those people who just assumes that everyone wants to hold him and then shove my kid on someone who's just being nice. This situation can be a little awkward.

So, assuming I know you, you are welcome to ask me to hold Eli if you wish. I really won't mind. Pick your moments. Please don't ask me to hold him while he's screaming and I'm trying to calm him down (as one lady recently did) and, unless you're a very close friend or relative, please give him back within a reasonable amount of time so that we don't have another awkward situation of me having to ask for my child back.

Think I might over-analyze things a bit?

Anyway, here are a couple of cute pics from our day of tailgating on Saturday.

Dieting Day 1

Today marks the start of my new "lifestyle" with food. After the weigh-in this morning I need to lose 18.4 pounds to reach my goal. If all goes according to my nicely spreadsheeted out plan, then I hope to reach this goal by 12/12. That's doable, right? 18.4 lbs in 14 weeks? We shall see.... Check back next Friday morning to see if I've stuck with it. I'm hoping me posting this online will help to keep me motivated. Wish me luck!

The time has come...

Well, the time has come for me to actually attempt to lose the "baby weight". Sadly, I gained about 40 lbs in my short 7 month pregnancy and am still carrying about 20 of it. So.... I guess I need to do something about it since I don't think it's going to melt away while I pig out as I had hoped it would... :(

I joined Weight Watchers about two years ago and lost almost 40 lbs in 8 months. While I'm not going to officially join again, I'm going to try my gosh-darndest to follow the plan. It'll be tough to do it without having to go to the meetings for my "moment of truth". So instead, I am going to post my weekly gains/losses on here every Friday morning starting next Friday. I will not post my actual weight (what woman would!), but will post how many pounds I lost or gained that week. I need accountability!

ugh... Let the dieting begin.

pics from the weekend

Yesterday we went to J.C.'s parent's for a family cookout and had a blast! Here are some pics from the day (although mine are a little biased, too. Sorry! :)).

Eli hangin' out with Gramamma

Ali holding Eli. What a big girl!
Ali very much enjoyed her dessert.
Eli hangin' out with his Pop

We were trying to get Ali to give Eli a kiss. Almost....

but no. Ear pulling is so much more fun! Parker and Sophie showing off their "makeup".

Layla stealing Fin's ball.

... and his drink. Poor little guy :).