July

Where to even begin!  Emmett will be ONE next month, we moved into our house, Aiden refuses to go potty on the toilet, and I survived another half marathon.  HA! Seriously though, it’s been the busiest couple months Of. My. Life.

First up: Emmett! When I last blogged he was 6 months and just sitting up, weighing in at around 19 pounds, and not quite sleeping through the night.  Fast forward to now and he’s almost walking! A couple of weeks ago (Fathers Day, actually) I got out the walker toy and he just took right off with it. I was worried he’d go too fast on the wood floor but he caught on really quickly, and Aiden loves to walk beside him and help him!  He’s now standing on his own and once in a while will take a step. He’s a super fast crawler too and loves to do that all the time.

He’s still extremely clingy to me… I can’t have him on the floor in the living room and walk 10 feet to the kitchen without him going hysterical and crawling after me with tears streaming down his face.  It’s so sad but geez it gets annoying haha.  The first few nights in our house he was up often, then for a good week or two he’d wake up once at night, now he’s consistently sleeping through the night which is SO NICE!

As for his weight gain, he’s losing all of his rolls and has been looking too skinny for my liking lately. I was looking back on pictures and noticed the changes so I took him in for a weight check last week and he’s still only 19 something pounds, which is below the growth curve.  I suspected because I’m losing my milk supply and have been struggling to keep it up for a few months now, eating lactation cookies like crazy, taking supplements, drinking water ‘till I’m sick. But I just think the stress of moving/money/working/family drama/life in general has taken a toll on me and my supply has suffered because of it.  He LOVES to eat, and eats like a piggy, but they suggested I supplement an extra bottle of formula a day or he’s close enough to being 1 that they’re ok with me giving him whole milk.  I have been just giving him a bottle of formula at night before I nurse him and I’m hoping it works! He absolutely will not drink it during the day, so I’m just trying to give him lots of good healthy food throughout the day.  I’m going to take him back in in another week or so to check the progress, since we still have just over a month before his one year checkup. 

He is such a sweet sweet baby, I just love him!  I know I’m biased but he’s so darling.  He just loves to giggle, grunt, smile, and is so sensitive at the same time, ha ha! If he’s getting into something and I have to say “no!” He gives his sad face, pauses, and just starts bawling.  It’s so sad but so hilarious, I need to try getting it on camera.  He loves to copy me when I stick my tongue out at him, play hide and seek, and anything in water he loves.  We get out the water activity table a few times a week and he would be out there with Aiden all day if I let him.  We go on nightly walks to get the mail and he loves to be in his little trike too.  He kicks his legs when he’s happy or excited about something, and he still loves me the most ha ha!

Emmett and Jackson are almost the same size! 6 months apart

As for Aiden.  The terrible two’s have got nothing on the monstrous threes.. Goodness gracious that kid can be a little turd!  He did so good with potty training for a month then just stopped and absolutely refuses to go on the toilet, I don’t even know what to do at this point!  Sometimes he’ll randomly go but I can’t get him to do it consistently.  It’s hard with me working during the week too, but I’ve been building up a good stockpile of prizes in a bin, and I need to just commit to starting it on a Friday, then make him go naked until I work again Tuesday.  He just doesn’t want to stop when he’s playing or outside which I get, but man I’m tired of changing his big stinky man poops!  Ugh. 

He LOVES to be outside,  I’ve noticed when he’s starting to get extra naughty it’s because he’s been cooped up inside all day and he’s a totally different kid after he’s had some time to roam around by himself.  He loves to ride his power wheels in the yard, follow Grandpa around outside and go on tractor rides/ hang out in the garage or house with him, going over to Kate’s to play with cousins, bike rides to get the mail nightly, and play in the water or dirt outside. He can be such a sweetheart when he wants to be, and it just melts my heart.  Kale has a joke with Emma where he will say “Emma guess what?” she’ll say what, and he will say “I love you!” So we got it going with Aiden and Its sooo cute! Sometimes He’ll say “Mama I need to tell you a secret!” and he’ll whisper it in my ear.  I love it when he plays with Emmett nicely, there is nothing that makes me happier! He’s not always nice though and doesn’t often share, but he’s better than he was so I guess I should be grateful for that. 

A few weeks ago Preston got out his boxes of Legos out from our storage pile and Aiden has pretty much played with them nonstop since then. He absolutely LOVES playing with them, the determination on his face to fix them when something breaks off is so darling, and just watching his imagination as he plays is one of my favorite things.  He says multiple times a day “Mom I just want to go downstairs” and he will play down there for hours.

4th of July at Grandma's house! 

We signed him up for swimming lessons at the Tippets which starts and I was SO excited to take him, but she has some health problems and he was only able to come for a few lessons and I'm super bummed out about it. He's definitely a natural and I can't wait to get him into somewhere where he can really learn! 

I’ve been hanging in there, honestly it’s been a rough few months for me personally.  I want to lose weight so badly, but I’m such a stress eater and that’s my middle name lately with everything going on.  I’ve been trying to get our basement gym room done, but I just don’t have the time to work on it and when I do the sander isn’t in there, or the mud is out and the rest is upstairs… by the time I get my crap together Emmett is awake or fussing and I lose my chance.  It’s so close, I just need to finish taping and mudding the ceiling (worst part!) and the upper corners, then we have to texture the ceiling, sand it all really good, and paint.. then it will be done!  Electrical is all ran, and I bought  the mat flooring forever ago. I bought a gym membership at Vasa but I never could go, I hate that I wasted the money on it, and I really wanted to go, but my only options were early mornings before Preston went to work, or late at night after the kids were in bed.  I guess if I was dedicated enough those would be possible, but working Tuesday-Thursday limits me greatly and I’m already so tired as it is!  I need to make it a goal to go running with the boys at least 3-4 times a week and do shorter workouts in the basement until it’s done. 

I wanted to do a “cut” program through an instagrammer that I’ve followed since before I was pregnant with Emmett, but I had to wait until I didn’t need to nurse Emmett anymore, but lately I have been disappointed in her programs because she seems to judge winners solely on their before/afters and to me that isn’t fair.  If you only want to tone up or have 10 pounds to lose, than it is great! But for someone like me who has 50 ish pounds to lose, I’m not going to completely change everything in 30 days, but I will try really hard and I may lose several inches/pounds.  To each their own I guess, I’m just over it when it’s all about appearance and looks.  I struggle enough with that as it is. 

Anyways, there’s a lady who sells cookbooks with macros already figured into each meal and a few times a year she does challenges, which only require buying the book to enter.  I wish I would’ve found out about her Summer challenge weeks ago because it’s a dang good prize, but there’s no way I’ll win.  I’m not in it for the prize or the money (although it’d be sweet!) but I am LOVING the cookbook so far. It has meal plans with snacks included, a grocery list for each week, and all of the recipes have been SO GOOD!  There’s a few that I made thinking they didn’t look at all impressive or good and was just shocked.  Preston committed to eating healthier with me and even he has been impressed!  I’ve had a hard time staying focused because (emotional eater for life!) but I feel like nutrition is the first step and main key into losing weight and being healthier, so once I can get a good, consistent system down, hopefully the gym will be done and I can start incorporating working out religiously too!

Preston has been doing good, he got some more things on his Jeep done and it’s aligned so he can drive it on the road and not be swerving around haha!  He has a never ending wish list of parts and upgrades he wants to buy for it, but I told him the next purchase he needed was a back seat so we can all go for a ride in it (not that I really want to but… you make sacrifices for the ones you love haha!).  He sold an old part and ordered the seat, it’s sure narrow but I’m pretty sure we could get two carseats on it ha!  He’s taken Aiden for a few rides and he just gets so excited about it, it’s darling. 

He said he wanted to try eating healthier with me, and he’s definitely drank less soda and has been willing to try the new things I cook, I hope he can stick with it because he really does feel better and seem happier when he’s not eating junk all of the time.  I’ve made it part of our nightly routine to walk down the street to get our mail, and on days when it’s not so hot I want to walk around more of the neighborhood.  Preston got our bikes tuned up for the year and I want to go biking more often too, I really love it and it’s fun to get out and do something different once in a while.

We went to Draper overnight to play at cowabunga bay, the aquarium, and to go to IKEA.  We were supposed to stay two nights but the boys slept terrible and I didn't want to stay, so we came home the next day.  It was fun though and they absolutely love the pool! 

Preston and mom built and hung the barn door for our bedroom, and I love how it turned out! To buy the same style unfinished at Home Depot was like $300!  Dad also built us this awesome storage system for our canned foods in the cold storage room, I showed him a picture on pinterest and he made it come to life!  It's not perfect and it's not pretty (yet, I'll eventually paint it all white) but I LOVE it. The original picture had two rows of cans, but he had the idea to just do one row and have some shelves on the bottom which I'm glad we did because I put my toiletry and soap stockpile down there and misc. cans that we don't need enough of to fill a row.  He also made shelves on the other part of the storage room to hold totes. I love being organized and I'm so happy it's all done! Eventually I'll color coordinate the totes by shelf because yes, I'm that OCD haha!

We went boating and it was fun to take Emmett! The last time we took him he was in my belly for 5 more days ;) He quite liked going on the tube and so did Aiden.  I love going out and wished we had more time to do it this year, next year I'm going to make it a point to go more!  I want to learn how to wakeboard but I'm a baby and it's always scared me, I'm actually terrified of water and drowning, ha!