On my plate

Here's what I've been making over an over again lately:

For lunch (when I am at home), I love Swistle's simple salad recipe.
1/3 of a turkey kielbasa, cut into half moons and warmed in frying pan
1/2 bag of spring green mix
Yellow pepper rings and yellow pepper ring brine, to taste
I also add olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste
Just mix it all together and enjoy. So fast, so filling!

I have been making the Spicy Roasted Broccolini Quinoa Salad from Design Sponge at least once a week for the last six months. Seriously, guys. You have to try it. The only bad part is I can never find the quinoa or broccolini at Target, so I always have to make a side trip to Kowalski's.

 Photo courtesy of Design Sponge

For a fun treat, I recently made these Avocado and Pear Pops I spied on Pinterest. They were super easy to make and Agatha nommed the whole thing down in minutes. What an awesome way to get her some much needed healthy fats and soothe her sore baby gums.

Photo courtesy of The Spunky Coconut

What have you been eating lately?

a little of this

The summer has just been flying by. I guess that is what happens when you work full time and have a child. I don't know how those suckers with more than one kid do it.

We have got to do a lot of fun things so far this summer. We went up to the lake place once or twice, and down to Omaha for our annual 4th of July vacation at Chris' parents' house. I love going there. It's all donuts, pool time, Fernando's and relaxation. Maybe a little less relaxation this year than in the past, since I had to make sure Agatha didn't crawl into the pool, but still. Fun was had. I even got to reconnect with an old friend while I was down there. She had a baby boy just a few months after me and came over to have some baby pool time. And I am sorry to say, she was in a bikini. And looked awesome. I was ashamed of my pale, doughy sad sack body.

But that experience has pushed me to start actually working out again. I am running, and took a kettlebells class that I think I will start attending regularly. I do enjoy exercising,I just lack the motivation to do it. And since I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I never really thought I needed to. But the reality is, my pre-pregnancy weight is still about 20 pounds over my wedding weight, and about 13 pounds over my "ideal" weight. So, on the elliptical machine it is.

Another fun thing we did in Omaha was go to the Henry Doorly zoo. I hadn't been for a few years, and it was obviously Agatha's first time. I don't know how much she got out of it, although she did pet a goat and eat some animal crackers. The big thing she enjoyed was riding the carousel. Pure joy.

Speaking of Agatha, she is turning ONE in THREE days. I can't believe it. I am so glad I have been keeping a paper journal of the past year for her, because the days have gone so quickly. Every day we are amazed at what an awesome daughter we were blessed with and every day she somehow gets better and better. Oh!

Party planning is under way. I will hopefully post some pictures after the big shindig this weekend. I admittedly am going a little crazy with decorations. It is a family and a few friends, so I don't know who I think I am going to impress.  

Happy Mother's Day

Being a mom is the best gift I have ever received.

Miscellany

Life with a baby certainly leaves you with little to no spare time. Especially if said baby does not like to go to sleep until 11:00 PM. (Or if new parents are too tired to recognize that baby is ALSO tired and would like to be PUT TO BED now, Please.)

Luckily, we have recently overcome that problem and now everyone is getting more sleep. Thank you.

I am excited for Agatha's First Plane Ride at the end of March, also, I am nervous. In general, she is a very calm, easy baby ,but recently she has been a little grumpy and harder to please. I keep saying I think she is teething, but no teeth have appeared. So I hope she is well behaved on the flight. I will be sure to pack my magic boobs to calm her. (They're just my regular boobs. Heh, boobs.)

In ADULT news, Chris got a new job (Yay!) and is no longer a record store employee. His level of stress has been greatly reduced and our household level of happiness has greatly increased.

I got a promotion at work, and things are going good there. I still spend a seemingly large portion of my day walking back and forth to the mothers' room to pump, but it is important to me, so I don't mind. I have pumped over 1000 ounces to date.

Now that Agatha is almost 8 months old, we have started to talk about having another baby. I am so so so so in love with Agatha and I know I would love another baby just as much, but it is a hard decision. Well, not really a hard decision, because I am sure we will try. But it is a scary decision because one kid is a lot of work - is TWO kids TWICE as much work? I hope not.

A lot of my friends have recently bought houses and I am very jealous. I love our house, I just wish we would have bought our forever home, instead of a started home. If we do have two kids, they will have to share a tiny room for several years. Then I assume we would try to sell our house, but if that didn't work, we would have to figure something else out. Why am I stressing out about a possible scenario YEARS in the future? Because that is what I do. For now, I just window shop houses online.

TMI

This weekend blew.

We were supposed to drive up north to have our car fixed but the parts hadn't come in yet. So we got an unexpected relaxing weekend at home, right? RIGHT??

Not exactly. I THINK Chris worked for a bit on Saturday and I did stuff? It's hard to recall. I honestly don't remember - it must have been very exciting whatever it was. Saturday night we took Agatha to the Mall of America (apparently I am one of THOSE people now) and bought her some new clothes. Man, I wanted to buy everything. We were good though and only bought stuff that was on sale. SO CUTE!! On the way home we stopped at Arby's.

Next thing I know I am laying in bed at midnight, shivering, with my robe on. I fell asleep and woke up at 3 am. I spent the next SEVEN hours literally laying on the bathroom floor because was too weak to run to the bathroom every twenty minutes. It. Was. Horrible. I will not be eating at Arby's anytime in the future (not that I eat there with any frequency currently).

Finally, around 10 am, I felt okay enough to lay in my own bed again. I was sick all day Sunday as well, but with more of a fever and less of The Exorcist. Chris caught it around 3 in the afternoon. We both stayed home today. Baby seems fine, thank goodness.

How was YOUR weekend?

Eh?

I am home today. I was home yesterday as well. We have been having what I hope is a temporary hiccup in Agatha's sleep schedule. Last night she did not go to sleep until 3 am! I am supposed to get up for work at 5:30, obviously THAT did not happen. My boss was very understanding, also I don't have any work to do.

I am home but Agatha is at daycare. I feel kind of like a bad mom for bringing her to daycare still, but it is really nice to have a day (or two) to myself, although I am still obliged to pump throughout the day. But I can sit around and read and watch tv and take naps and it is kind of wonderful. But I miss her, too. SHE'S SOOOO CUTE!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. I called him and then proceeded to have an argument about how old he is. For the record, he is 72 (born in 1939) but was insisting that he is 73. I had to walk through the math with him but I don't think he believed me. I hope I live long enough that I forget how old I am.

We are supposed to get our car fixed this weekend but apparently all the parts are not in. We were going to drive up to my hometown and have my brother-in-law fix it for us. Then we would get a chance to see the rest of my family as well. I guess if it doesn't happen this weekend, we will go up next weekend, so it will happen, but I was looking forward to seeing everyone THIS weekend.

AMK is in town and I need to shower and get dressed (and pump) before I meet her for lunch. Also, I don't have anything else to say.

Milestones!

We've been hitting lots of milestones lately...let's begin:

Today marked my fourth week back at work. So far it has been pretty easy. My dedicated job duties were taken away from me and I was instructed to just help my team mates as needed, so my work load has been pretty light. That, combined with pumping, has made the transition easy. I think some good changes will be happening at work soon, so I am also excited for that. The best part of my day is still picking Agatha up at day care after work and spending a nice hour or so just the two of us. My second favorite part of the day is lunch because nom nom nom I am so HUNGRY all the time!

November 5th marked one year since I quit smoking. I quit smoking the day I found out I was pregnant. I always said I would quit smoking when I turned 30 or got pregnant. It just so happened those things coincided. I turned 30 on October 5 and cut back on smoking and was only smoking one or two a day until we found out I was pregnant. I haven't had a single puff since that day and I am really happy about it and super proud of myself. When I first found out I was pregnant, I would have dreams that I was smoking and I would wake up feeling SO GUILTY. Luckily, they were just dreams. There are days I think I still want a cigarette, but the feeling goes away quickly, and I don't think I ever would have one. I really liked smoking when I drank, and since I hardly drink any more, the temptation is not there.

Agatha turned 100 days old on October 27. I think that is such a cool milestone. She is 16 weeks old today and is so fun to be around. She smiles and laughs and sits up with support. She likes to blow raspberries and thinks it is funny if you tell her she has a stinky butt. She's discovering new things all the time, and is developing right on track, even if I worry about how little she is. The last 112 days have definitely been the best days of my life and I am so so so so so happy to have her in my life.

And our last little fun milestone just happened today. Agatha rolled over for the first time at daycare. I knew it was going to happen soon because she had really been trying the last few days. When we got home I got out the camera to see if she would do it again. I laid her down on her stomach and turned to pick up the camera, and when I turned back she had already rolled onto her back! What a little sneak.