Walking!

We have officially taken our first few steps! Cristopher is 9.5 months old and took his first two steps the day before his daddys birthday! 😀 I have a video but can’t post it here.. Follow me on Instagram @marileegrace If you’d like to see ❤

9 months old!

I have been SO bad about updating on here. Life has been so busy & exciting and I just haven’t taken the time I should to sit down and write an update. 

Little nugget is not-so little anymore and is 9 months old! (WHERE has the time gone?! GEEZ) He’s a super fast crawler, loves trying to eat Coffee’s dog food, loves climbing on Coffee 😛 , has two teeth and another is starting to come in (less sleep for me again -_- ). He had been sleeping SO well until said tooth began its decent…He is close to walking but not quite there yet and he loves pretty much ALL foods. His favorites are apple slices and corn on the cob to gnaw on, applesauce, sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash, rice, mashed black beans, and yogurt. We went to the park yesterday and took his 9 month pictures. They turned out so well that we’re going to get a few of them framed today 😀 (Prepare for TONS of pictures)..

 

 

Pre-Pregnancy Weight

I am SO proud to announce that after 6 months (my son turned 6 months old two days ago 🙂 ) I am BACK TO MY PRE-PREGGO WEIGHT! and I’m actually a little smaller than I was even then!

At first I was just jogging and doing the paleo diet, then I kind of strayed a little bit from Paleo. I still ate healthy, but wasn’t as strict as I had been. Then a month ago, my friend told me about this nutritional cleanse she had been doing and had lost a ton of inches and weight from it and also gained some lean muscle. She showed me her before and afters and looked AMAZING. I was hesitant because I was still breast feeding and I knew cleanses were not OK since the toxins that get released go into the milk. But she said that there were 2 parts to the system, the cleanse part and the nutrition part and that I could just do the nutrition part and even though it wouldn’t be as fast results (most people lose 5-11lbs of fat in the first 2 weeks), I would still start to lean out and lose weight. Its also not a diet!

So I tried it! all I did was replace two meals with their nutrition shakes and continue eating normally besides that. When I was hungry, I ate something. No calorie restrictions which was awesome! Results: My stomach is noticeably flatter, I’ve lost 4 inches, and 5 lbs! I’ve also gotten way more energy (I don’t hate my life when my son wakes up at 7:30am anymore 😛 ) and just feel good.

I love it!! 😀

(long overdue) Vacation to Gatlinburg

WARNING: This post is going to have a TON of pictures in it….. just a heads up

This past week was our vacation week! Last summer while at the beach with my family, we won a week stay at any Wyndham hotel for listening to their timeshare shpeal. 2 hours of my life for a week’s worth of free lodging? uh, YES. The only catch is that you can only book a month in advance and you kind of get the “leftover” hotel rooms. You can pick what state and area you want to go to and there may or may not be a hotel with dates available. Initially we wanted to go to the beach (duh), but the only beach hotels were 9+ hours away and I was (am) not ready to drive that far with a teething baby. So we went to Gatlinburg! I had never been, so I was excited to go to Ripley’s Aquarium and Wonderworks and just shop and see the mountains. Which is exactly what we did.

We started off the week in Gatlinburg and rode the sky lift first,

and did quite a bit of window shopping and walking around. The next day was Mother’s Day and we went to the Aquarium. They were doing a mother’s day special and since I am now a mother, I got in free! cha-chingg. It was awesome. I can’t remember the last time I went to an aquarium so I had a lot of fun seeing huge, crazy-looking fish, sharks, weird crabs, seahorses, tiny and huge jellyfish, eels, lion fish, penguins (what?!), and tons more. — Oh, and I think the boys had fun too 😉

The next few days were spent relaxing, shopping (Cristian bought me two necklaces (one was from Cristopher) and a beautiful turquoise ring for Mother’s Day), taking Cristopher swimming for the very first time! He absolutely loved it and didn’t cry ONCE. Even when I dipped almost his entire head under water, aaaaand enjoying the jacuzzi tub we had in our apartment/room…I NEED a jacuzzi/soaker tub in my life!

The last two days in Gatlinburg we went to Wonderworks museum which was really cool and interesting and also had a Magic show, and then we went hiking in the National Park (after I got us lost for almost an hour…. luckily it was a beautiful day and we were lost in a scenic park) and lastly, did a little bit more walking around in the “Old Mill” district

My grandparents live a little southwest of Gatlinburg and for the last two days of vacation we went down to see them! We arrived at lunchtime on Thursday and since it was raining, we spent awhile just catching up (it had been over 5 years since I had been to their house last) and playing with Cristopher. I had mentioned to Grandad that I had never shot a gun and had always wanted to, so after it stopped raining, Grandad took Cristian and I in the back yard and let us do some target practice! We shot a (I know I’m going to describe these wrong) 22 rifle, an old 22 handgun, and a 38 revolver. We shot at a cow feed bag about 30-40 ft away and I didn’t miss any 😀 Granted, they were all over the bag, but for my first time, I was pretty proud. We also went down to see and learn about their cows and chickens and bee hives (It was a very educational couple days for me). My aunt and cousins live down the road from my grandparents and they were able to come over for a little while that night to meet Cristopher!

That night was rough….Cristopher is definitely teething and has been waking up almost every hour through the night 😦 I feel so bad for him and REALLY hope he cuts his teeth soon so he won’t be in so much pain anymore. Needless to say, I wide awake at 7:30. and went down to help Happy and Grandad pick strawberries in their garden. We had a delicious breakfast and then we were on our way home.

trying banana for the first time and loving it!

All in all, it was a goooood vacation and we all had a lot of fun even though we missed our lovely dog, Coffee 😉

Back to reality!……

5 months old

yes, I know its more like 5.5 again… what can I say? Life gets away from me and writing a blog post is further down on my list of priorities.

Since I don’t work mornings, I’ve been reallyyyy bad about making myself get up at a decent hour in the mornings and establishing a morning routine for Cristopher and I. To add on to that, Cristopher hasn’t been falling asleep until midnight every night due to (again) lack of routine..It’s a vicious cycle and one that I’m now trying to get out of. Recently he’s been waking up 2-3 times a night between the hours of 12 and 7am (no REM sleep for mom 😦 )

I was talking to a new-mom friend who said her 6mo old has finally started sleeping from 630pm tip 530am with only waking up once around 2 to eat. I WANT THAT. She suggested to me the book she had used to help her structure her nights and mornings. Ideally I’d love for him to go to sleep around 730-8pm and wake up around 7am, but that means I’ll have to get up at 7am every morning. kill me. — but honestly, I’d rather be killed by waking up early than a baby who won’t sleep through the night.

SO I started trying all this two nights ago. The first night he screamed bloody murder every time his face touched his sheets for a good, solid hour. I would lay him down, try to soothe him, sing to him, talk to him, pat his back, rub his head, etc…. nothing. just screaming. After over an hour of that, I brought him in bed with me to sleep (I’m so weak, I know) and he still screamed the. whole. night. The next day, I went to a MUCH needed hot yoga class while a friend watched Cristopher (of course, he didn’t cry once while there. yay! but what a stinker). He fell asleep on the ride home afterwards and once I got home I took him out of his car seat to lay him in his bed and he was immediately WIDE AWAKE AND SCREAMING. how/WHY does he do that?! ah. It took me another hour to get him to fall asleep but once he did he (and I) slept for almost 2 hours. and they were glorious. I went to work that night and I was nervous for Cristian to put him to bed because I told him he needed to go down around 8 instead of letting him stay awake until I got home around 10:30, and he hates hearing him scream so I didn’t know if he’d “stay strong” so to speak in putting him to bed. I got a text around 9:30 saying he was asleep after not toooo much fussing and crying! YAY. and he was still asleep when I got home at 11, and still asleep when we started getting ready for bed around 1:30. He woke up around 2, was pretty fussy so I fed him and brought him to lay down next to me. Woke up again at 3:30 and I put him back in his bed where he stayed asleep until 7am!

AH. You probably didn’t want to hear a whole play-by-play of my last 2 days, but I was just so happy. It was such a good nights sleep for me even though I woke up twice. and I’m sure while we’re in Gatlinburg this week (vacation, woooo), his/our schedule will get a little messed up, but hopefully once we get back it’ll start to get better again.

Anyways, here’s his 5 month picture! plus a couple other recent ones. He’s getting so big and starting to sit up on his own now. uh-dorable.

A few weekends ago we went hiking off the Natchez Trace. It was such beautiful weather and so much fun! We were hiking for about an hour and on our way back somebody (not a boy) got us lost and we didn’t end up getting back to the car for another hour haha… oops! and then Monday was Cristopher’s first time going swimming! I want to start getting him used to the pool ASAP and learning to swim. He’s gonna be a little fish like his mom. The water was still a little cold, but he got his legs under and was splashing a little big 🙂

Teething is from the devil!

Little man is almost 5 months old! He’s starting to teethe and it’s making my nights much shorter 😦 Poor guy wakes up every 2-3 hours at night and its much harder for him to fall asleep once he wakes up. I’m praying that he cuts his teeth soon because I’ve heard that once the teeth come through the skin, most of the pain goes away and they sleep much better, which we both need. Besides teething, he’s been rolling over like a rollie polie and pushing himself all the way up on his arms. I made a little sensory bag out of a ziplock bag and corn kernels, (don’t worry, I always keep an eye on him while he’s playing with it) which he loves! I got him a new outfit the other day to match how I was feeling…my little monster.. but such a cute little monster.    I can get so frustrated sometimes (especially in the middle of the night…ugh) but once he gives me a little smirk or smile, I can’t stay mad at him. he’s just too adorable.

His favorite pass time is to look at himself in the mirror. He loves himself! He’ll catch his reflection and squeal and look the opposite direction really quickly almost like he’s saying “ooohhohhoh, is that me?! nawwwww, really??” He’s also found his thumb recently and also has started to love sitting on daddy’s shoulders (with lots of support. He can’t sit up by himself, yet) and playing in his hair.

Coffee loves Cristopher. Anytime he’s playing on the floor or laying on the bed within her reach, she is ALWAYS licking him. Literally. When I can finally get her to stop licking, she still won’t leave his side. I’m convinced she thinks that he’s her baby.

She even gives him lessons on bone-chewing 😉

and lastly, the blanket I started knitting before he was born has finally been finished! Not by me though haha. One of my bar regulars and friends is an incredible knitter and she said she would finish the last bit of my blanket for me since it had just been sitting in my house since he was born. It was super sweet of her and now its done. YAY!

She also knitted that adorable little stuffed mouse and gave it to us at our baby shower..so cute  🙂 He’s not into the stuffed animal phase yet, but once he is, Mr Mouse will be waiting!

4 (.25) months!

Yes, yes, I’m late for his 4 month update but here’s his picture!

He’s getting so so big! He can officially roll over both ways and loves to talk. He is starting to develop his “sitting up” muscles even though he still needs quite a bit of support. I think he’s starting his teething phase because he’s been significantly more clingy and hungry recently.. but it comes and goes to we get a few normal days in-between 😉
His mini push-ups are getting further and further off the ground and he loves to get as tall as he can and look at everything.

I love my little man!

We’re mobile!

Over 3 months has passed since Cristopher was born and we just bought his stroller today! 😁

I wanted to get a jogger stroller instead of the 4-wheeled kind because I want to have the option to take it on rougher terrain if I wanted to (off-roading! Woo!) and I also think they’re sleeker and smaller which I like. The one we bought has a very large basket on the bottom, a tray and cup holders for his seat once he gets big enough to use it, two cup holders and a phone holder, a little secret compartment underneath the phone spot for secret things 😏, and can fold up in 2 seconds using only one hand! We didn’t really have a need to buy it before now since it’s been so cold out. I wouldn’t want to expose his face (or the rest of his body) to the cold for an extended period of time. But it’s starting to warm up!! hopefully it’ll gradually continue to get warmer and warmer instead of dipping back into winter again. Fingers crossed!

Baby giggles

My little boy laughed for the first time this morning!! I’ve been anxiously awaiting his first laugh because I think baby laughs are damn near the cutest thing a baby can do. I was really worried that I wouldn’t be with him for his first laugh now that I’m working 4 nights a week, but it just so happens that today was a Sunday! Which means my husband and I were both off work and snuggling with Cristopher in bed. My husband started playing with him and he let out the most adorable squeal/giggle I’ve ever heard in my life. I kiiiinda freaked out…
took a bunch of videos…
watched them about a hundred times afterwards…

Yesterday marked his 3 month “birthday”! I can’t believe time has gone by so quickly. I was googling 3 month old milestones and was happy to find that Cristopher is on track with everything! He smiles, laughs (yay!), recognizes mine and my husbands faces and voices, grabs with his hands (and occasionally will grab and hold a toy), follows objects with his eyes and turns his head, does mini push-ups, tries to support himself on his legs and makes cooing sounds. The only thing he hasn’t done is roll over yet, but not for lack of trying. He gets over to his side while lying on his back, just hasn’t quite gone all the way yet ☺️

Here’s his 3 month old picture!

And a few other photos from recently ❤️💙

(he looooves his giraffe!!)

Thanks for reading!
LOVE to you all ❤️

More Paleo

I think the urge to challenge myself to make all those DIY Pinterest projects during my pregnancy have now changed to challenging myself to stick to this paleo diet and to not feel like I’m on a diet. I hate diets. I’ve done them multiple times before, but I’ve hated every minute and couldn’t wait til I was finished with it.
Once I had Cristopher I had to decide on a diet to lose the baby weight. I’m one of those people who if they say they’ll eat healthier without making actual rules, I’ll only end up doing it for a couple weeks tops.
I need to have rules. I need the structure in order to stick to it. So i wanted to cut out the obvious bread/pasta/wheat in general, refined sugar, and most dairy (I love Greek yogurt). But instead of just saying I won’t eat those specific things, I decided to start the Paleo diet to give myself structure.
And let me say, I’ve been having so much fun finding ways to make it feel like I’m not on a diet. At first it was pretty hard not eating grains and dairy since the majority of what I ate during pregnancy was cheese, yogurt, and sandwiches. But before getting pregnant I rarely ate bread or pasta so once I got past the first week-ish, I don’t really crave bread anymore. Still eat cheese on some things, but not often.
So I’ve been making sweet paleo treats. My last post I mentioned that I made pumpkin chocolate coconut muffins which taste like cake. Last night I made a coconut creme pie!
Almond flour, honey, & coconut oil crust, chocolate layer, coconut milk custard, topped with coconut milk whipped cream.

Recipe here: coconut creme pie

My husband even liked it and that’s saying something. It took a lot of separate steps to make so I may not make the whole pie again for awhile, but I definitely want to make the coconut pudding/custard filling on its own. I could eat a whole bowl of it!