Emma: 9 Months

Nine Months

weight: 21 lbs 12 oz (89th percentile)

height: 28.2 inches (72nd percentile)

diaper size: 4

clothes: 12 month

Milestones: This past month you started to sit up and move around with more confidence, starting crawling, standing up next to items much better, gained 3 more teeth, really getting the hang of table food eating, clapping and what seems like so much more!

Likes: blueberry waffles, when I sing "the wheels on the bus" to you, pulling on every cord you can find, pulling up on the fireplace, blueberries, just about every food I've given you, and babbling constantly. 

Dislikes: bows on your head (really sad about this one but I keep trying), eating when you have an ear infection (boo for getting another one this month), mom taking your toys in the bath to get you out for bed, and when mom leaves you during the hours of 5-7pm. 

This past month you have grown up so much. I love watching you explore and discover new things. Seeing the lightbulb go off is such an amazing thing to watch. You are my best gift. I am so lucky that god chose me to be your momma. This past month I've been told by so many people that you are really looking like me which is so crazy because you came out looking so much like your daddy. We love you to the moon and back sweet Emma. I can't believe how fast the past nine months have gone and I savor every minute of every day being your mom. You keep us laughing and we can't wait to see what happens next. 

9 month photo dump

The smile that melts our hearts 

Weight Watchers

At the beginning of January I decided that I wanted to really get a grip of my weight. I decided to go back on weight watchers (I did it in college and had good success) and so I joined on January 5th. So far I have lost a total of 9.5 pounds. With breastfeeding you are allotted more points than if not (which is a good thing because I feel like I'm always hungry). Some of my favorite things about the program now is that all fruits and veggies are 0 points. 

I go to meetings on Saturday mornings at a church in Dunwoody. I skipped the meeting the week of my birthday (because birthdays you just indulge and I didn't want to get weighed in. I know not the purpose of the program) but other than that I've been good about going to my weekly meetings and logging all of my food. 

It's really eye opening when you start looking on what items have what point values.

One of my favorite breakfasts that seems to keep me full for a long time is avocado toast (sometimes with a fried egg on top) or a piece of toast with a little bit of peanut butter and banana slices on them. The other key is water, water, water which I was doing well with anyway because of nursing. 

My goal is to lose atleast 25 pounds which as my mom said I am well on my way to. I don't think this goal is too lofty and I know I will feel so much better once I hit that and if I feel like it's not where I want to be I will keep trying to lose more. 

The WW app is so helpful and so easy to use. Just about every restaurant I go to is on there as well so I can look ahead at what I can eat before going to a restaurant (we are trying to just eat at home mostly but going out happens) which helps me from making a bad choice. 

The goal is to feel more comfortable in my own skin and for my clothes to fit better. Looking forward to seeing what more progress I can make on the program. It's a marathon not a sprint!

I will do random updates on this "journey" but lastly wanted to share where I find my best recipes. I have blogged about Skinny Taste before but all her online recipes say the weight watchers points and all her recipes in her cookbooks have the nutrition facts so I can calculate the WW points myself. This takes all the guess work out of it and really has been so helpful. My mom gave me her slow cooker cookbook for Christmas and it's been great!

and because what's a post without an Emma pic ;)

Birthday Celebrations

Mine and Tommy's birthday was Wednesday (the 25th) so we stretched out the celebrations! 

On Wednesday night we met Tom and Courtney (Tommy's parents) for dinner at Happy Sumo in Dunwoody for Hibachi. We were there early so we basically had the whole restaurant to ourselves (#babyproblems) and the chef at our Hibachi table to ourselves. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and each others company. Emma is not her best from 5-7pm so she needs lots of snacks and always ends up sitting with me. Especially on days of daycare because she doesn't nap as well. I know everyone struggles with that time of day with their little ones but it's tough when they won't go to anyone but mom. Overall though she was really well behaved in the restaurant. 

Thursday (the 26th) I went to dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate. We tried out Cooks and Soldiers. I had been really wanting to try this place out after I heard they opened and were owned by the same group that owns Iberian Pig which is delicious. We had a great night. The food was fantastic and the company was even better! The grilled cheese was to die for! Thanks to these ladies for coming to celebrate with me!

Friday night we went to dinner with my family. We tried out the new Mexican resturant in Town Brookhaven called Jefe's. It was good! The twins even came back from UGA to join us which was a real treat. I really appreciate them coming home to celebrate with us especially when it's their last semester in college. The food was good and the kiddos did great! 

Tommy and I sure felt loved and celebrated last week for our birthdays. I think 28 and 29 are going to be good years for us. Looking forward to seeing what all we have in store the next year. 

Thanks for all the love from our friends and family. We are truly blessed!

Weekend Recap- Aquarium Edition

So this weekend was a WET one with all the rain we got! Friday night we went to Vintage Pizza for dinner and then came home and watched "Girl on the Train". To say Tommy was traumatized after is an understatement. First off he hates scary movies and even more he hates creepy movies. I read the book a LONG time ago and sort of forgot just how extreme it was. Next time I don't get to pick the movie! Oops 

Saturday was 100% chance of rain so Friday night we decided since he couldn't do his golf day for his birthday we would go to the aquarium. My parents gifted us memberships for Christmas for this exact reason. On rainy days we would have something to do! We went right when they opened in order to beat the crowds. Emma loved it and so did we! I have a very strong feeling on those extremely HOT Summer days or rainy days over the Summer she and I will be frequenting the aquarium. 

Saturday afternoon we played and she tried figuring out crawling. Once Emma woke up from her nap we met the Mitchlers and Reynolds at Kaleidoscope for an early dinner. We ended the night with a few episodes of Homeland before calling it a day. Great Saturday in my books!

 so much drool....oh the joys of teething!

Sunday morning we made it to the 8:45am service. I had planned on taking Emma to the nursery for the first time but she still woke up with a cough and a runny nose so I didn't want to get anyone else's kid sick so I brought her in with us to the sanctuary. Definitely not doing that again. She is such a wriggle worm these days and definitely didn't want to be seated with me during the service. You live and learn. (just a little pre-church photo shoot)

(wearing a cardigan that my mom's grandmother so Emma's great-great-grandmother made...also don't mind the mess that is our dining room table behind her)

Once we got home I did our weekly grocery shopping before making some appetizers for the Falcons game. We went to the Stellings for the game and WOO Go Falcons. Can't believe we are SUPERBOWL bound! I'm not a big NFL fan (prefer my college football games) but when your city hasn't made it to the Superbowl in a LONG time you root them on! Tommy was happy his tennis match got canceled due to the rain so he was able to watch the game from start to finish. 

I went to bed at 8:15 last night because #mommawastired. Looking forward to this week celebrating mine and Tommy's birthday. 

Friday Favorites

I'm linking up with Andrea, Narci and Erika today for Friday Favorites! It's been awhile and after my post yesterday I thought I should do a light-hearted post today! I usually do my blogging when I'm pumping at work to make the time pass!

1. I bought these new shoes for walking because I wanted to leave my old pair at the beach so it would be one less thing I would need to pack each week. I love them! So light and comfortable and let's be real I'm not a runner so they are perfect for walking Cooper and Emma in the neighborhood!

and these are my go-to Friday shoes to wear with jeans for work with LF spirit wear. Also a Target find and so comfortable!

2. I just started this book and I'm loving it so far! I LOVE Lauren Graham (especially LOVE Gilmore Girls and Parenthood) and I enjoy audiobooks these days because by the time I'm ready to go to bed I'm ready to go to bed so I don't read. This way I can listen in the car, on my walks, when I'm feeding Emma and cooking. Works for me during this season of my life! I'm only part way through but she talks about the beginning of her career and how Gilmore Girls came about. I'm hooked!

3. Along with audiobooks I also enjoy a good podcast on a crime investigation. Right now I'm listening weekly to Up and Vanished which is about a missing persons crime here in Georgia. It's very similar type to Serial if you liked that or Undisclosed. A friend recommended this to me and it's now on my rotation. I'm not as much of a podcast listener as my husband but we both have enjoyed this series!

 4. When I get a free moment once Emma has gone to bed and I'm on my own I like to watch The Crown on Netflix. I've always been fascinated by the British Monarchy (I studied it on my study abroad in college) and I know it's a fictional show but I still enjoy it!

5. So we are on borrowed time before Emma is moving all over my house at a rapid pace! Right now her playroom is kinda a catch-all room (China Cabinet, her toys, my monogramming table, printer, etc.) so we really need somewhere I can pack away my monogramming things because needles/babies don't mesh well. Since it's Tommy and my birthday next week we decided we would get a desk for in there so we could put most of it away and a drawer or cabinet that we can keep baby-proofed. I am trying to decided between these two here! Opinions appreciated! I can't decide if I need a hutch or not is my dilemma. 

6. The Falcons have made it to the NFC Championship which will be their last home game in the Dome so Atlanta is pretty excited. I can't say I'm a huge professional football fan but I do enjoy an excuse to get together with friends over a football game. Let's go Falcons! 

7. So I really wanted a new camera and so with Christmas money and birthday I decided to invest in the Canon Rebel. I am in LOVE! I love that I can send the pictures over wifi to my phone and get some good quality photos of Emma. I am having fun playing with it and it's definitely my Favorite "toy" right now to play with! 

8.  And lastly I'm excited to spend the weekend with these two of mine! They are always my FAVORITES! (and their Daddy but I don't have a recent picture of him...probably should work on not only taking pictures of the baby and dog!)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! I know I will!

Being a mom is tough

This has been in my drafts for a few days and after seeing another post from someone I used to work with about something similar I decided to post (she also posted THIS)

Just sitting here after putting Emma to sleep and just had some thoughts going on that I wanted to write down. Being a mom is TOUGH no matter what type of situation you are in. 

Working moms: its tough passing your greatest gift off to someone else to watch all day while you are working. You come home from work and want to pour your tired self into your baby because you only have so long with them that day before they go to bed. By the time they go to sleep and you've made their bottles/food/lunch for the next day you are emotionally and physically wiped. It's TOUGH. Many days that child you've been longing to spend time with all day comes home cranky or upset and you spend your precious time feeling defeated. 

Stay at home moms: you are with your children all day. You don't get to take a "break" when you are home all day. It's TOUGH being the emotional stability of your children every minute of the day, the keeper of the house, answering all their questions, making/cleaning all their food, and you are "on" 24 hours a day. Staying home is not easy and easy task!

 I had a hard day today after having an extra day home with Emma yesterday. I just missed her simple as that. This afternoon I also had a doctors appointment so I didn't get home til 5pm. I came home and she was fussy and didn't want me to put her down to play. She made me feel all the feels this afternoon because nearing bath time she usually starts to get delirious and tired so I sat her down with me on her glider and she snuggled up on my shoulder for me to rub her back and sing to her (even with my terrible voice she still likes it) and she just held on tight. So tight. Tommy came in and said her face looked so calm and tranquil. She needed me at that moment as much as I needed her. I couldn't help but cry because it's those little moments that remind me why being a mom is the best "job" anyone could have. Even on the hard days I wouldn't trade this "job" for anything else in the world. It's a tough one but it's totally worth all the sacrifices you make of yourself for those little people who love you no matter what. 

And two pictures to finish it off because I can't believe how fast she is growing up!