Sunday, January 27, 2013

Charlie at 15 Months

Even though I don't plan on doing this monthly, I definitely want to do periodic updates (maybe every 3 months or so) to document the growth and changes my little boy is going through these days!
His most recent stats at about 15 months were 30" tall and 20.5 lbs.

Poor thing has been really sick lately. He has had a cold which developed into a cough which developed into RSV and a double ear infection for a couple weeks now. In fact, on his 15 month "birthday" was the first day he ever threw up. We were in the car on the way back from helping our friends, the Bucks, move to Lehi. I started to try to feed him dinner and that combined with all the mucus and phlegm in his throat caused him to throw up for the first time. It was SO sad :( This has also been his first bout of ear infections too. Poor, poor baby. Here's hoping we'll be better soon! He's such a trooper and still tries to be happy even though he feels so bad.
Here are a couple things about Charlie these days:
  • Has learned to say the word "duck" pretty clearly. He has no idea what it means, but he really likes to say it, and most of the time it almost sounds like "guck". But he makes a perfect "k" sound! I'm really impressed! :) 
  • Also says "Heeeeeeeeeyyy" (in a tone as if you are confused/offended haha), uh oh, baba, mama, and "Cawww" every time he sees his little eagle stuffed animal we named Rosco. 
  • Size 4 diapers, size 5 at night time. 
  • Size 12-18 month clothes, barely fits in size 12mo anymore, and is working his way into size 18mo.
  • Understands when I ask him where his drink is, or where his stuffed animals are. He'll look around to try to find them. 
  • Favorite things are books, stuffed animals (especially his eagle Rosco), pulling my hair dryer and curling irons out of the drawer, throwing things onto the tile to hear them make fun noises, all things jewelry, eating any food (but his favorties are sweet things), going places (he gets really excited and squeals every time we walk into a store or the gym or something haha), being in his crib, and being with his Daddy. 
  • Is an excellent walker. He can basically run (walks very fast) and knows how to walk backwards if he's holding onto a push toy and pulling it backwards. 
  • I still rock him with a bottle every night before bed. I can't let go of the fact that he's not going to be a little baby much longer. 
  • Takes one nap per day, usually about 2 hours, from around 12 noon until 2pm. 
  • Two bottles per day, 6 oz each, one the morning around 10:30am (after breakfast) and one at bedtime (around 7:30pm).
  • Has developed pretty frustrating constipation issues, which I think stem from drinking whole cow's milk and the amount of solid foods he eats now. So, we give him about a third of a capful of Miralax in his nighttime bottle to help him out. I also give him half soy milk and half cow's milk to help too. 
  • He is such a sweet boy. He doesn't hit or throw things much. Loves to laugh and smile and play. He's become more cuddly, too, and will give you a hug or a kiss if you ask him to. Also loves to give hugs to his stuffed animals. 
  • He's working on learning how to wave hello. He will do it if you wave his hand for him first to help him remember how to do it. 
  • We also are learning some basic sign language to help with his language development skills :) He doesn't do any of the signs yet, but I think he understands a couple.
  • His favorite game to play is to run away when we say "I'm gonna get you!!!" and start chasing him. He loves it!!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Life As My Phone Sees It 1/1/13 - 1/16/13

1/1/13 (well, actually 12/31/12 too)... New Year's Eve! This was the extent of our party... a couple glasses of Martinelli's and a kiss shared at midnight! Then, off to bed ;)
1/2/13 - This is seriously how the weather has looked for the last couple of weeks, without much of a reprieve. Talk about never wanting to leave the house. Ever. :( So, we drown our sorrows in a delicious, wholesome grilled chicken and fresh fruit salad with a bit of poppyseed dressing! Yum!!
1/2/13 - I normally haven't given Charlie utensils to use to feed himself. I guess I just like to avoid messes. But, the other day, I decided to see if he could use a spoon to feed himself yogurt. After showing him how to do it one time, he caught on and was an instant yogurt-eating-with-a-spoon pro! If I don't watch him closely, it will quickly become a mess... but I guess that's the price you pay to let your child learn and explore! ;)
1/3/13 - Thursday - I took Charlie to Cookie Cutters in Lehi, UT to get his first big-kid haircut, as you've seen. This was my Instagram documentation of the results. :)
1/7/13 - It was a lazy Monday for Charlie while I tried to get some work done. He had a lot of fun walking and playing on the sofa. He's such a wiggle worm that it's hard to capture a non-blurry picture of him! Haha.
1/10/13 - They finished framing the basement of our new house the day before, so I drove over to the house with my realtor to check out the job they did and make sure all was going well. I'm so excited!! :) More info to come on this later!
1/11/13 - Friday - It was the last day of the second week of my gym challenge! I hadn't missed a day and have been thoroughly enjoying it! Although this day I could tell I was getting sick (again...) with a cold, so I was taking it easy. Sure enough, I still have a cold (5 days later... it's almost gone!). Missed Monday of this week due to feeling crummy, and only stayed for 15 mins on Tuesday because Charlie was having a meltdown in the daycare, but I plan on making it up big time on Saturday!! :) Trying to keep going strong despite freezing cold weather, a cold, and a child who just recently decided to be clingy. I WILL DO THIS!! :)
Second picture was of Charlie's bath time on 1/13/13. Bath time is still one of his very favorite activities :)

Monday, January 14, 2013

Recap of 2012

I love looking back on my year and making a bullet list of the important things I remember from that year! Sadly, I just realized I never did it for 2011 (the biggest year of my life so far, since that's when Charlie was born!!). Oh well, at least I'll hop back on the tradition train and do it for 2012 :)
  • Rang in the new year with 2-month-old Charlie at a couple of my parents' friends' homes in Raleigh! We were at the Berriman's house and exploded paper poppers at midnight!
  • Discovered the wonders of Instagram.
  • Finally finished decorating Charlie's nursery.
  • My Mom and Dad came to town in mid-February and were able to watch Charlie so Trev and I could go on our Valentine's Day date to Park City. It was awesome!
  • Trev started at a new full-time job in February! Yay!
  • Charlie and I visited many parks and duck ponds all year long, and we spent a lot of time at story time at the Provo library with friends.
  • I went through the very traumatic experience of having my baby fall out of my arms onto the concrete and watching him recover. Fortunately, no permanent damage done. :/
  • The Easter bunny came to visit our home for the first time! And I made a bunny cake, as usual!
  • Celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!
  • Bought a pass to Seven Peaks water park where Charlie and I frequented over the summer.
  • I ran the Dirty Dash, twice! Once in June, once in September!
  • Enjoyed the Olympics on TV, after finally purchasing a cable subscription and cancelling Netflix.
  • Had the biggest, most fun 4th-of-July WEEK full of family festivities and a bit of illness ;) Some firsts for Charlie included going to the zoo and seeing fireworks (which didn't scare him!!)
  • I turned 25 years old!
  • In August, I finally stopped pumping breast milk and it was the most freeing experience of my life!
  • Went to Jackson Hole with the Kimball family! Trev and Dave ran their first relay race from Utah up to Jackson Hole. They survived!! Then, we relaxed, played games, took pictures, and ate at Bar J!
  • My car got backed into on the way to Jackson Hole, in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. :(
  • Once home, I drove a Dodge Charger for a couple weeks while my car was getting fixed! 
  • Bought a brand new Canon Rebel T3i DSLR camera and I love it!
  • Went to NC for two weeks! (Trev just stayed for the first week and went home to work). This was Charlie's first beach experience!
  • Participated in two monthly photo-of-the-day challenges on Instagram!
  • My good friend Jenny Buck gave birth to her second child, sweet baby girl Amy.
  • Found out my friend Meghan Ballard was pregnant with her second baby! And even though he was technically born in 2013 (Jan 1st!!), we're still glad that little boy Nolan is here!
  • I was called as the Junior Primary music leader, and it's been a blast! Trevor served in the scouts this year and spent many a sleepless night in a tent on camp-outs! :)
  • Spent many hours of my Fall months searching, touring, and trying to find a house to live in! Submitted 3 offers, and finally got one accepted!
  • Charlie turned 1 year old and had a Curious George birthday party!
  • We had Halloween in Springville dressed as a little dragon, a knight, and a princess :) Gotta love family themes!
  • Attended just one wedding reception - my friend Megan Whitmore (McKarns, now) got married!
  • I voted for Romney. Alas, President Obama was re-elected. 
  • Trev turned 28!
  • Thanksgiving at the church in Heber City! Then, lots of fabulous Black Friday shopping, including my first (and, so far, only) visit to the new Outlets at Traverse Mountain! Gotta go back! :)
  • Trev was on steroids quite a bit this year for his Ulcerative Colitis. We are contemplating trying a new medicine regimen if this last attempt doesn't get him into a good remission.
  • After over 3 years, I finally quit my job as manager for Shy Property Management. It has been glorious. :)
  • Spent way too much time waiting for the builder of our home to "get a permit" to start work on the basement of our new house. 
  • Got family photos taken and sent out our 3rd annual family Christmas card.
  • Santa Claus visited us for the first time and left wonderful gifts for Charlie! Christmas was very relaxing not having to travel this year. 
  • Watched our lion's share of TV shows and movies this year, most notable TV shows include the Bachelor, Bachelorette, Walking Dead, Downton Abbey seasons 1&2, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights, Modern Family. Notable movies include Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, and Les Miserables... can't remember any others... well... I remember Breaking Dawn, Part II, but it's really not a notable movie ;) Honestly, I don't even think we got a babysitter other than my mother-in-law until close to Charlie's first birthday. Ever since then, we've been taking advantage :)
  • Charlie learned how to flip over, sit up, crawl, babble, feed himself, play, laugh, pull up, and walk! I think I'm going to be stunned how much he will learn in this coming year!
  • New Year's Eve was the lowest-key you could possibly imagine... waiting for the ball to drop on TV, then promptly going to sleep. In fact, Trev had already gone to bed, so I woke him up 5 minutes before midnight to celebrate with me with some Martinelli's. Wow. We are awesome!! ;)
It was a good year. Things to look forward to in 2013? Moving into our new home, having some sort of fun vacation(s), and maybe consider adding to our family! I guess we will see what time may bring! <3

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Charlie's First Haircut

Last Thursday, January 3rd, I finally took Charlie in for his first haircut. He really was in dire need of one, but I had become one of those silly moms who didn't want to let those baby curls go! But, it really was time as his hair had become, well, a mullet. Whoops. Thanks to advice from a handful of Facebook friends, I decided to take him to a kids-only hair salon called Cookie Cutters in Lehi, UT.

We got there and waited just a little bit, and then Charlie got to "pick" his own chair. We picked a nice, blue car for him to play in while he got his haircut! He was such a happy boy:
Soon, the hair cutting process began. Look at those sweet locks coming off! Sniffle. :( It's time for him to grow up. He did ok at first, just not really sure what the buzzing thing was on his head...
...but he soon began to get pretty wary and concerned...
...until he just couldn't hold it together anymore and just lost it, poor thing.
He really tried to be brave, but every time he'd look at me or think about what was going on...
...he'd just lose it again. It's so sad, but I couldn't help but laugh a little and tell him that he was just fine.
His pacifier came to the rescue and definitely helped to calm him down a little (sweet tears in his eyes!)...
...but he was just really ready for it all to just be over with. He didn't like that someone was holding his head still and tugging on his hair.
Things perked up a little once it was all over and he could play with the steering wheel on his really cool blue car and the nice lady gave him a sucker. He LOOOOVED the sucker, but I soon realized that little 14-month-old's don't understand the concept of "swallow what you've sucked off", so it was like a waterfall of pink, sticky drool pouring out of his mouth. The first time with the lollipop was pretty short-lived. Maybe next time I'll plan for it and just strip him down to nothing and let him go at it... right before bath time! ;)
And, last but not least, here are the before and after pictures!! Not too much of a difference in the front, but thank heavens the "party in the back" got cleaned up!
I can't believe how much of a little BOY he looked after his haircut! So handsome and grown up. I could actually see his EARS and it seemed like they stuck out a little farther, haha. I guess this is just one more step in the process of my baby becoming a toddler. Sigh. I sure do love love LOVE him, though. <3

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Gym Results - Week 1

Well my first week of going to the gym every week day has ended! I even went on Saturday! It's so weird... once you start going, it feels so good you can't help but just keep on going!

Some results/observations from this week of working out include:

  1. Charlie likes playing with the other kids at the gym while I work out, which is great! 
  2. By day 3, I was so sore I could barely move, but it was all gone by day 4! 
  3. I like zumba classes. They are crazy, and I've never felt more uncoordinated in my life, but I think I'll keep going back! It's like dancing yourself skinny! :D
  4. I'm not so sure about cycling class. There was no happiness there, and I'm not looking to burn 600-900 calories in 45 minutes, cross-train, or lose a lot of weight, soooo I may not be doing that again. Yikes. I don't have the self-motivation for that. The teacher even said I looked pale and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to pass out. Double yikes.
  5. I may or may not have lost ~1 pound. Haha!
  6. My bum already looks better (a little more "lift" back there) and I've remembered that I have muscles in my tummy! Things are looking up! :)
  7. My happiness and energy levels have skyrocketed upward, and I think this is the greatest benefit I've been getting from the gym so far! I'm more productive and it's all really, really good for my life right now.
Anyway, for all you people who didn't believe that I'd actually go to the gym every day (*cough*EVERYONE*cough*)... well... take THAT! I did it for a week, and I plan on continuing to do it because, believe it or not, I am enjoying it! And that's despite the fact that the weather only got COLDER as the week went on. I traveled to the gym in single-digit and sub-zero temperatures! Boo-yah! :P

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Christmas Brunch with Friends 12/29

I really don't know what I need to say more than I just LOVE my friends! We've started a yearly tradition of all getting together with our (growing) families for a Christmas meal (last year we did dinner, but this year was brunch!). While we're all together for probably the only time during the year, I force everyone into taking a picture to show off our gorgeous families:
Oh, and just in case you were thinking our lives actually look like ^that^... well, this much better represents the reality of our lives (hahaha craziness):
I also forced everyone to do individual family pics. Thanks for cooperating, friends! Did I mention you're the best??
Here is our little Shipp family:
The Porter family:
The Kimball family (thanks for hosting!!):
The Buck family:
The Ballard family (They added a fourth member to their family just a couple days after our brunch! Congrats on welcoming little Nolan into your family on January 1st!):
These five guys' friendship is where it all began... back in high school! Can you believe how far you've come in the last decade? You've added five wives and nine kids collectively since then. Love this candid shot of these great friends:
And now for the rest of the fun pictures that were taken that day! :) Here's Crew (Shawn & Jana's youngest):
Happy friends playing on the stairs. I'm kind of obsessed with Lily's lounging pose. Love these cuties! Luke at the top, Emma at the bottom, and Lily on the right:
Darling little Emma (Dave & Heidi's youngest):
Jenny reading the Curious George pat-a-cake book to Emma and Henry:
Another artsy shot of the Ballard family. I love how Meghan's pregnant belly is peeking out at us :)
Kate and Henry playing (aka fighting over) a puzzle with Randy, Dave (w/Emma), and Jenny (w/Amy) in the background:
And, finally, my very FAVORITE photo that I captured that day. There are no words you can use to describe the love in this photo, so just let it soak in. :)
I love my friends. I am so blessed to have them. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas celebration!! <3

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Gym Resolution - Day 1

Contrary to years prior, I have a few New Year's Resolutions that I've made this year that I really plan on keeping. One of those goals is more a goal for the month of January. I purchased a one-month pass at Gold's Gym that started today and goes until February 10th. From now until then, my goal is to visit the gym every week day! EVERY week day. I get to rest on the weekends. It's going to be intense, but it's going to be worth it! And if I can achieve it, then I'm treating myself to a much-needed massage!
Today was Day 1. Today I weigh about 119-120lbs, I have quite a bit of extra "fluffiness" around my middle and bum area that just needs to GO! I'd also like to fully restore my abs and tone my other muscles. That's the goal. Weight loss? Ehh... I'm expecting 5-10lbs most. More than anything, I just need to take the extra fat, or "bad" weight, and turn it into muscle, or "good" weight! :)
Today I went to the gym from about 10:15am until 11:25am, despite it being REALLY cold and pretty snowy outside! I set out to go to a zumba class, but there weren't classes today due to it being New Year's Day, so I changed my plan. 

Here's what I did:
  • Bike machine, 20 minutes, level 3-5, ~110 calories burned
  • Lifted free weights (biceps, triceps) for 5 mins
  • Stretched and did ab work (crunches, leg drops) for about 10-15mins
  • Lateral pull-down machine, behind my head, 5 sets of 10 reps (30lbs, 45lbs, 45, 45, 30)
  • Lunges with 5 lb weights all the way across the class workout room and back
  • Hip adducter/abducter machine, two sets of each, 10 reps - about 5 minutes
It was a lot of fun figuring out what kind of things I can do there at the gym. It was a little-bit-of-everything kind of day. 

And then tonight I decided to go to yoga as well. They were having their "108 Sun Salutations" class for the new year. Let's put it this way: in a normal yoga class, you would do maybe 10 sun salutations (each salutation is a series of 10-18 specific poses) at most before you move on to other poses, and then maybe another 10-15 of these series intermixed between poses throughout the class. I was worried about finishing this class, especially because I had worked out earlier today. 

A little over a third of the way through, maybe 40 sun salutation series in, I was convinced I was DONE and there was no way I was going to finish it. I was tired, losing energy, and it was getting to my head. But I decided just to keep doing one more and one more and just try to take it easy. I also reminded myself that if I can push a baby out of my body for 2 hours, then I can do this yoga class for 2 hours! :) I had to remind myself that I would be proud once it was over and that I'd have the bragging right to say that I did it! 

And guess what... I DID IT! Yes I did. Boo yah! 

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to move tomorrow. It's going to be interesting. But there's one thing I can promise you: I WILL be at the gym!

Any motivation is very appreciated! 

Family Photos 2012

These are the awesome family photos that Meghan Sonnenberg took for us in late November! I used a couple for my Christmas card, but I can't wait to print a couple big ones to frame!














Thank you, thank you, thank you, Meghan! Your work is absolutely gorgeous! You're the best sister-in-law a girl could have! <3