My "real" life

No, I don't have a hidden occupation you aren't aware of... my "real" life is a mom. I call this my "real" life because it's not all about the smiling pictures I try and post. Let me tell you about the other night:

Monday - Mark has a major class assignment due at the end of the week so needs extra work time and I had to do a couple things at church so we decided to merge them so Mark could work late. I took the girls for a quick stop at the church office in the afternoon and then we met Mark for dinner. It went pretty well except that Sophie wanted to eat when dinner was just over (keep in mind, we've only been there for like 30 minutes at a sit-down place). I took her to the car to nurse (I could have nursed at the restaurant but that didn't seem as comfy in our tight booth with people watching, as the privacy of the car). Mark and Millie followed shortly after once they had paid.

Sophie ate, Millie played, and then we took Mark back to work. On the way home Millie started crying. I'm still not sure why. She cried the entire way home. We got home and I took Sophie out of her car seat and sat with her on the couch motioning for Millie to come sit next to us. The crying got worse and she pointed at the bouncy seat indicating she wanted me to put Sophie in there. So I did (poor kid hardly gets held it feels like). Millie proceeded to cry hysterically for the next like 30 minutes. I'm still not sure what was going on. She was upset about nothing and everything. She wanted everything and nothing.

After handling the day really well (first day back with the girls by myself after vacation), the night crashed. I called Mark in tears saying I was at the end of my rope, he left to come home.

Today, we spent 30 minutes in tears, again. This time she was super tired (having fallen asleep on the way home) and wanted her pacifier (I gave it to her when she said she wanted to nap without eating lunch), but once she had it, wanted lunch. So I told her she had to leave it in her crib if she wanted to come down for lunch. She wouldn't do it but didn't want to go into her crib for nap time... 30+ minutes later she was finally crying herself to sleep. I gave her more than enough chances and she didn't cry for too long before she fell asleep. She proceeded to take a 2.5 hour nap when she's an hour long nap kid.

That is my "real" life.

I've been spending part of Millie's nap time reading up on my parenting books and journaling. In other words, my devotional time. I figure that spending my days with a toddler means I need to be all juiced up on Jesus so I can make it through the day. I'm trying to keep a big-picture perspective and remember that this time is short compared to all of life and I'll look back on these days with wonderful memories and wish I had more patience. Today I was glad to have had more patience and kept my cool. My nap-time-Jesus-time helps I think. Although as much as I love my daughter I'm sometimes surprised at how glad I am when 8pm bedtime rolls around ;)

I'm trying to decide if I should have a chocolate pudding treat or fold laundry before Sophie wakes to eat and go to bed. Think I'll go with the pudding and see how I feel after that ;)

What a difference 2 months can make...

Tomorrow (7/6) is Sophie's 2 month birthday. Seriously can't believe how fast it has gone! The fun thing about my second child is I'm more relaxed and not so stressed out and am enjoying every stage a little more, but also looking forward to what is coming and seeing who Sophie will become ;) I find myself wanting her to grow up and not wanting it at the same time.

So... I'm in my 3rd week of trying to count calories and getting back into working out. Well, the 3rd week technically starts today. After the first week I lost 5lbs! Which was awesome since I'd had zero weight loss in about 3 weeks.

I haven't weighed myself this week because I'm not home with my usual scale. From my best guess, the weight loss is not that great. Partly because we're at Mark's Parent's place and... well... lets just say my mother-in-law knows her way around a kitchen! I'm trying my best but also being realistic and not obsessed. The good news is that I've already worked out like 4 times in the 5 days we've been here and saw improvement from my run/walk on Saturday to my run/walk on the same route on Monday. I was pretty excited about that! Now when running I don't just try and keep from dying but actually find a good pace and feel a little better.

Below I've included pictures of myself (the best I could find) from 2 months ago to today. I'm still 2o+ over where I was before getting pregnant with Millie but hoping that with the calorie awareness and workouts I'll be down there eventually, preferably sooner than later. But I do have to say that you really have to eat a stupid amount of food to be nursing, working out, chasing a toddler around AND not losing any weight ;)

5/6

7/2

Year in pics... week 5 & 6

This week we are enjoying some R&R at Mark's parent's place on Whidbey Island in WA. Mark had to return to work for a couple days but the girls and I are sticking around for a while longer.

Week 5: This picture was taken last Saturday at the local 4th of July fair. Millie's first time on any rides and she loved them!

Week 6: Today Millie played for a while with water on the back deck. SO cute!! I selected this picture because it has Jean (my mother-in-law) in the background smiling at Sophie.

Week 6 #2: Couldn't resist including this one for the week. Check out that beautiful smile! I LOVE this face!! There were like 12 pictures in this series and I had to keep pretty much all of them because I want to always remember the many faces of this adorable baby!