2 Outfits and A Ton of Jibber Jabber

Today was another busy day.  I'm cleaning out my studio, making room for the new baby.  I have a tendency to hoard things or scoop them up and save them in case I need whatever it is.  I had a ton of these tiny seed beads sitting around taking up room.  I was starting to throw them away and felt bad about it.  I know I'm never going to use them but it seems so wasteful to toss them.  So I boxed them all up and posted on a garage sale site that they were available for free.  They were spoken for in 20 minutes.  I met the lady this morning for the drop off.  I think I might have to start selling these kind of things.  Even if it's only $5.  Haha.  We met this lady near a donut shop (coincidence?) so we stopped in for a bagel before our mom's group at the hospital.  I might have bought a bunch of donut holes too.  For the other moms. 

Silas is transitioning from two naps to one.  It's been a little hard on all of us.  So I'm trying a new tactic and today it worked very well.  We were busy all morning and I was trying to get home before he fell asleep in the car.  He fell asleep anyway but he was so tired he barely stirred when I carried him inside.  He looked so darn cute I almost put him in bed with me.  I miss snuggling with him since we moved him to his crib.  He slept for two and a half hours and was a happy camper the rest of the day.  Totally awesome.  We spent a lot of the afternoon outside running around.  The weather was cool, in the 50's.  Perfect for fall.  He walked the whole way around our block.  Our block is bigger and oddly shaped, it takes me about 10 minutes to go around.  It took us about 45.  He loved being able to roam freely though, so it was worth it. 

He's got one of his favorite things here, a big stick! 

On with the outfits!  I wore this dress over the weekend and I absolutely love it.  My friend picked it up for me at a garage sale (thanks Heather!).  It's so comfy and the material is heavy enough that I can see myself using it through the fall.  Put on a scarf, some boots, a jacket and you're set!  

 

This is Liz Lange from Target.  I'm pretty sure this is the same dress but this one is similar and on clearance for 12 bucks and change. 

 I have no idea where to look when I'm taking a selfie.  I wore this outfit this morning.  The jeans are the same ones I talked about in this post.  When I was pregnant with Silas I didn't like the full panel on my pants, I had a pair of jeans that was elastic in the back and had the tiniest fly I've ever seen in the front.  I think the zipper had 10 teeth.  And it never stayed up.  But I couldn't find the same pair this time and every pair I get that are low rise aren't flattering or are uncomfortable.  These are working great for me.  The top my older sister bought for me from the Goodwill for $4 last pregnancy and I found the skinny belt at JC Penney for a couple bucks.  It was a 2 pack, one black belt, one brown.  There are deals out there for maternity clothes! 

I feel like this post has gone on and on so I'm going to end it here.  I have a little announcement coming by the end of the week, so watch out for that! 

It's fall!

The first day of fall was yesterday.  And it's starting to feel like it.  When we walk around the neighborhood the trees are just beginning to change colors.  There's one maple in the neighborhood that is still green, but in 2 spots it has bright red leaves.  It's gorgeous.  It's been in the 70's lately which is much easier to tolerate.  I've been able to turn my oven on again and I love that. 

We went to the gym today for the first time this week.  I mentioned before I'm starting over with the program in The New Rules of Lifting for Women.  Right now the workouts are calling for 2 sets of 15 reps and that's pretty good for me.  I'm not sure how I'm going to modify as this first part goes along.  It gradually bumps up to more sets, heavier weights, and fewer reps.  I won't be doing that, so I think I'll just wing it. 

I'm having a hard time coming up with meals and snacks everyday for Silas.  I want to give him a nice variety of good food but sometimes I can't think about it.  I do try to feed him what I'm eating so I don't have to make 2 separate things every time we eat, but you never know what they will like and eat.  He won't eat cheese anymore (who's kid is this?).  I made these chicken and egg muffins and he couldn't get enough, for a couple days.  He will almost always eat sweet potatoes and bread.  (There I am).  I make eggs almost every morning and he usually eats those.  I've started making both of us huge green smoothies everyday with a TON of spinach and he drinks that down happily.  We usually have oatmeal, chia seed pudding and yogurt in rotation.  I still feel like I could be doing better.  So, I've been trying to get us all to eat more vegetables.  We grew butternut squash in our garden this year and that's been tasty and easy to prepare.  And today I made roasted golden beets and carrots for dinner.  Silas ate both.  I cut up the carrots and peeled and cut the beets into half moons, tossed with a little olive oil and salt and roasted them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, flipped them over and roasted for another 15 minutes.  I love roasted vegetables.  Almost any vegetable is good roasted.  Sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, even cabbage.  Look how beautiful the beets are! 

What kind of foods does your kiddo love?  What won't they eat?  Silas has never been crazy about bananas!  What kid doesn't like bananas? 

3rd Trimester Update!!

Well today started out really good.  My mom had spent the night with us and she prepped an overnight French toast for breakfast.  When we woke up we popped that in the oven and had breakfast in no time.  It was really good.  It's a Paula Dean recipe, cleaned up.  I'm going to make it again and I'll post the recipe.  After Silas's morning nap we decided to check out the Aurora Farmer's Market.  I've driven by it on my way to the flea market and it looked like a nice, big one.  Unfortunately, Aurora is a bit of a hike and Silas isn't a big fan of car rides and he wasn't too happy to be stuck in the stroller once we arrived.  But he persevered.  We walked around for a little bit.  They have a nice variety at this market.  We got a delicious scone, some empanadas and tamales, and 3 cutie little gourds for Silas.  We decided to stop by a park on the way home.  I'm not super familiar with the area so when we spotted Red Oak Nature Center in Batavia, we pulled right over.  This place was really cute.  They have nice trails and an awesome nature center.  We took a short walk.  Silas walked the whole way, sometimes leading and sometimes doubling back to check out a stick or the signs along the trails.

These overalls kill me.  They're that tiny "train conductor" blue and white stripe. 

 

I think he thought all the signs along the trail were touch screens.  He kept going back to touch them.  

We made our way back to the nature center and they had a very cool set up inside.  They have some snakes, turtles, frogs and fish on display and a play area with a fake log you can crawl through.  Silas loved it, but we were dangerously close to nap time and a bit too far from home.  So we left and as soon as we got in the door I changed him and laid him down for a nap.  After a short story he was settling down.  My mom left and I got into bed myself.  Within a half an hour he was up and crying.  I tried to wait and see if he might go back to sleep, but he did not.  So we got up, had a snack and I decided it would be a good idea to go to Target.  This is where things went downhill (aside from being woken up early from my nap, haha).  We were out of all our essentials, so it really could not wait any longer and I wanted to see what they might have in kid's Halloween costumes.  We barely made it through the grocery section.  He didn't want to sit in the cart, didn't want me to push the cart, didn't want the keys or anything I tried to give him to play with.  And when we went to the check out, I swear I have never seen that many people in our Target.  While waiting in the line I handed Silas a small container of mints to shake.  He liked that.  We paid, I even remembered to use the stupid Cartwheel app, and we were almost out!  Then Silas dropped the mints and of course they break open and mints go everywhere and my cart gets all hung up on mints.  And I'm sure everyone (at least one person) was staring.  I was embarrassed.  But we finally made it out of the store.  I get Silas in the car seat and start the car.  On a whim I had grabbed some stupid cereal bars and I wanted one right away but, they aren't in my bags!  I almost left with out them, but they were chocolate cereal bars and I needed them.  So we went back into Target and explain myself and I get my bars.  We finally go home.  He was fussy the rest of the day and he had to go to bed early tonight but he fell asleep right away so I'm sure tomorrow will be better.  Le sigh. 

Do we want to do the 28 Week/Officially in the 3rd Trimester Update?  Sure!  Why not?  I'm going to skip some of the more redundant questions since we can all probably imagine that yes, I am still wearing maternity clothes and the baby is still going to be a boy.  Onward!

BIG BELLY!!  Silly face.  I'm probably telling my mom how to work the camera.  And I was trying to get Silas in the shot with me otherwise I would not be squatting down like that!  But you can really see the bump. 

 

How far along: 27 weeks.

Size of Baby: A coconut!  Two and a quarter pounds, and about 15 inches.  Who picks these comparisons?  Isn't 15 inches a HUGE coconut?  Or am I getting only the small Illinois coconuts?  Where's my ruler? 

Weight Gain:  12 pounds, probably more now.

Nursery:  Still nothing.

Movement:  I've decided this baby's movement persona is like an octopus.  He's hitting hard all over the place.  If I didn't know any better I'd swear there were 2 of them in there.  I don't know how he's positioned to move like that.

Cravings:  Donuts.  I indulged that one a little too much on Tuesday...

What I Miss:  Wine!  Especially after today!

Looking Forward To:  Now that I'm in the 3rd trimester I'll be going to my midwife every 2 weeks for a while.  Then it's every week, then towards the very end, every couple days.  This is going to sound silly, but I love my midwife so much and I always look forward to seeing her.  So I'm looking forward to seeing more of her!  I should probably have a bumper sticker that says "I love my midwife so much it should make her uncomfortable." or "Ask me about my midwife."

So, how do you handle hard days with your littles?   Do you like your doctor/midwife, perhaps a little too much?   

Today's Events

We had another eventful day.  I wanted to take Silas to do something but I didn't know what.  My friend had told me about this website called Go West Young Mom, http://gowestyoungmom.com/ and it's been such a great resource for me.  Every time I look at it I find something new.  There's a calendar section that is so easy to glance at and decide what you want to do that day.  I love that she lists such a variety of things like free farmer's markets to open gyms and bowling.  The first time I checked it out I discovered the Kline Creek Farm forest preserve.  I don't mind spending a little money to get in somewhere, or a little to eat once we're there, but I'd prefer to save my cash.  So I LOVE this site.  She makes it so easy! 

This morning after our nap I popped on to see what might look fun and I see she has listed the Elgin Farmer's Market.  I'm ashamed I've never been.  I love walking through a farmer's market.  I packed some cheese and an apple and thought maybe we could grab something at the market and have a picnic.  The market is just the right size and they have a lot of variety.  We grabbed a blueberry muffin for a dollar.  The market also happens to be across from the library.  We love the library and we don't go near as often as we should.  The last time we went Silas was only crawling.  So we scrapped the picnic and went into the library.  They have an awesome kids section with all kinds of toys and a wooden jungle gym.  Silas had so much fun.  He climbed up and down the stairs of that thing so many times.  Poor guy did fall off once and hit his face but he bounced back after a little drink of milk.  We played there for about 40 minutes and decided it was time to go home to have some lunch.  Thankfully Silas didn't throw a fit.  I had the great idea to distract him by holding him up to the fish tank while I slipped him into the sling.  Another drink of milk and we were out the door. 

 Does your community have a website like this?  Does your community have an awesome library?  What kind of free things do you like to do with your kids? 

Busy, busy!

We've been busy lately.  We made it back to the gym and our mom's group.  I finally finished the program in The New Rules of Lifting for Women on Monday, so today I started over again at the beginning.  I'm lifting a lot lighter than ever and sticking to walking around the neighborhood with the baby instead of doing the prescribed cardio.  

I have a couple things to share today.  A short weekend recap, one outfit and one recipe. 

This past Saturday I was selling my jewelry at the Louche Puce Market in the area.  This is the 3rd time I've done it and thankfully, it was better than the second time.  The first one was the best, the second one was horrible, no sales and terribly hot, this time was just right.  My partner in crime was unable to make it so my parents came up and spent the day with me.  That was really nice, I don't think I could have pulled it off without them.  It's miserable to spend a whole day alone in a booth, and it's even worse pregnant.  Here's a shot of my tables.

This is an outfit I wore Tuesday to my mom's group.  A certain someone splashed me with yogurt at group.  I tried to be clean and presentable.  It lasted about an hour. 

The leggings are from Target and they're not maternity.  They could be more comfortable, but I'm cheap and haven't found any maternity leggings I want to spend money on.  I'm done trying to buy maternity stuff online.  The dress is Motherhood Maternity.  I couldn't find anything similar on their website.  I bought this at a garage sale.  It's sleeveless and it's got a cute floral detail around the collar.  The cardigan is from Kohl's.  My mommy and sister set me up with a lot of clothes when I was pregnant with Silas.  This one is not maternity, but that's the beautiful thing about cardigans, you can button just one button or leave it open.  I tried this outfit on with taller, leather boots, and that looked really cute too.  I wore these low, flat boots because I was going to my group at the hospital and we like to walk around the lake so I didn't want to be clomping around in heels.  I've started doing the side braid as my go-to hairstyle because I'd been defaulting to the sloppy bun and on me, it looks just that, sloppy.  It's not as cute as I see it on other ladies.  Maybe it's because my hair is so long and fine, but it looks pretty bad.  So I do an easy braid and it looks a little more polished.  

I made a pretty tasty dish in the crock pot this past week too.  I had pinned this recipe and wanted to make it, but of course I modified it.  I sliced a half an onion and put that on the bottom of the crock pot, did the slits in the pork loin as described, filled with apples, and sprinkled with cinnamon.  I skipped the honey becuase I don't need the extra sugar.  It was so good.  

I used a Honey Crisp I bought at a farm stand.  Those are my favorite apple ever.  

This is the little Mr.'s plate.  He had a couple bites of meat, but he's really more of a sweet potato man.  The sweet potatoes I had baked earlier, I like to keep them on hand for any of us.    

I'm not sure what looks grosser, raw pork or cooked pork.  At least in the raw photo the apples are pretty.  I cooked this on low in the crock pot for a very long time.  I think 6 hours would have been sufficient. 

OK.  That's enough for tonight. 

27 Week Update

Today we hit major gold at a garage sale.  My friend mentioned yesterday she found a sale with a lot of nice maternity clothes.  She sent me some pictures and I had her grab me a few things.  Today I went there to see what was left and I'm so glad I did!  There was some good maternity stuff but there was even better baby clothes!  Most of the things they were selling looked like they had never been used and they were selling many things for a dime or a quarter a piece!  Priced to move!  I grabbed tons.  Then after nap time we went to Target and I finally got my pumpkin spice latte.  I think I love them less and less each year.  I won't need another one until next September.   

I'm working on a couple recipes for the blog and I hope to have them posted this week.  I'll be trying to photograph my outfits too.  Now that I've got a couple new, fun things and I can wear something more than a sun dress, it will be fun to talk about.  Probably just for me.  OK!  27 week update! 

How far along:  27 weeks.

Size of Baby:   About the size of a head of cauliflower.  Almost 2 pounds and 14 1/2 inches long. 

Gender:  Boy

Weight Gain:  I'm up about 12 pounds. 

Maternity Clothes:  This question.  Actually, now with the weather getting cooler I'm having more fun getting dressed.

Nursery:  Still nothing.  I did go through Silas's drawers to pull out things he's outgrown and get them ready to go into BBS#2's dresser.  The dresser still needs to be emptied of our old things and moved upstairs to the nursery.  But we still have 12 weeks or so.  Right?  Right!  

Movement:  Kicking hard!  I felt like Silas was a soccer player in there or a tap dancer.  I haven't decided on this baby's kicking persona yet.  But he feels like trouble. 

Symptoms:  Hip and round ligament pain.  Heartburn, as usual and we're running low on Tums. 

Cravings:  Pork, of all things, and apples.  I stopped at a farm stand today and got one of each one they sell and two honey crisps.  SO GOOD.  

What I Miss:  Have I said getting comfortable easily in bed?  I need 3 or 4 pillows.  One of my lovely friends just gave me a pregnancy pillow.  I took a nap hard in that the other day, looking forward to getting to know that pillow better. 

Looking Forward To:  Louche Puce Market this Saturday!  I will strive to take some pictures of that and hopefully sell a lot more things than last time!  

Does anyone else find these romanesco cauliflowers to be a little bit creepy?  Look at this vegetable and tell me that it looks trustworthy.  I feel like if I eat that thing I'm going to start hallucinating.  

What We Did Today and What We Wore

Today was a great day.  I got to see a few friends I haven't seen in a long time.  It's so fun to get together and see how much all the kids are growing.  It's also refreshing to hang out with other moms who are going through the same thing you are.  My lovely friend Heather brought refrigerator pickles.  I ate most of them.  They were delicious.  I'm going to ask her for the recipe and if it's not an old family secret, I'll share it here.  Oh and the weather feels like fall!  I got to put on jeans, a tee shirt, a jacket and boots.  It was awesome.  My ears got cold on my walks.  I love fall.  

I'm going to try to do a few posts on pregnancy style.  Not that I have the greatest sense of style, but I feel a lot better if I'm dressed and have a little make up on.  I've always been a jeans and tee shirt kind of girl, and when I was working I wore slacks, blouses and sweaters.  Business casual like.  I had a hard time for a few months after Silas was born (that's a whole different post) and I was at a mom's group when one of the girls took some pictures.  Seeing myself practically in pajamas, no make up, with dirty hair made me feel pretty awful, and I didn't need any help in the feeling awful department.  I figured the outside didn't have to match the inside and if I looked a little better I might feel a little better.  It works for me.  I'm not into spending a ton of money on maternity clothes, so I've been trying to use what I've got and buy things at Goodwill or garage sales.  Luckily my family gave me some nice things last time around and I still have those pieces.  So combine all that and we're doing pretty good!  Unless it's hot.  All bets are off if it's hot.  Dressing nicer doesn't have to cost a fortune!  So here's today's outfit!

 Bathroom selfies.  Note to self: remove toilet paper from shot next time.  Note to reader: the toilet paper roll is on the sink because someone likes to unroll it all over the house. 

  My lovely friends took some good pictures of me.  Boots: hand me downs. Jeans: Target Liz Lang Here Tee Shirt: non maternity, American Apparel.  Jacket: another hand me down, Nine West, doesn't zip.  Lipstick: Tarte Blushing Bride.  

Does dressing up or putting on makeup make you feel a little better?   How do you feel about spending money on maternity clothes and why do they cost so much?  I think it's a conspiracy, but that's what I think about everything. 

26 Week Update

Today we went to the Scandinavian Day Festival.  I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but I forgot.  Typical.  I was mostly interested in the food.  We got a big platter of fried herring, potatoes, sausages, sharp cheddar, cucumber salad, bread, sour cream and green onions.   My mother in law got the Swedish Meatballs with egg noodles.  It was all so delicious.  I meant to take a picture but only remembered about 3/4 of the way through my food.  I'm 6 months pregnant, food doesn't last very long around me.  

How far along:  26 weeks.

Size of Baby:   A scallion?  These food comparisons are really annoying.  1 2/3 pounds, 14 inches long. 

Gender:  Boy

Weight Gain:  We shall see on Monday! 

Maternity Clothes:  Nope, I'm back in my skinny jeans already.  Oh wait, what?

Nursery:  This is starting to make me nervous.

Movement:  Going strong, Aaron got to feel him kick very hard the other day and I think he was surprised by the strength of the baby already.

Symptoms:  Having some hip pain that has me limping around or maybe it's more of a waddle.  In either case, I want to get back to the gym.  Most of my aches and pains can be gently exercised away. 

Cravings:  Stupid sugar. 

What I Miss:  Bending down easily.  Haha.

Looking Forward To:  On the first day it's cold enough, I'm getting myself a pumpkin spice latte.  I only drink one a year and I'm waiting until the moment is right.  

Okay.  Long weekend.  I'm going to bed! 

I'm That Mom

Have you had your "Oh I'm that Mom!" epiphany?  Maybe it's something you said you'd never do, or a thing you never thought you would do or something happens to you and then you find yourself saying "Wait a minute..."

I'm the mom that doesn't have a clean diaper.  Yeah.  That mom.  I go to a play date or to a mom's group, Silas needs changed and I don't have a diaper.  I have to beg one off of someone.  Alternatively, I have a diaper, a blow out, and no wipes.  I guess this shouldn't surprise me, I've always been a little disorganized, and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person.  However, I must work on this.

Today I took Silas to the grocery store and they have these cool grocery carts with the little car in the front.  I wasn't sure if he would like to ride in it, but we tried and he LOVED it.  So I found myself taking pictures of him in the cart.  He looked so cute and I thought about the time I was reading someone's blog and she had posted a picture with the caption "Baby's first time in the shopping cart."  I rolled my eyes.  OH!  What a milestone!  Riding in the shopping cart!  And yet, there I was, taking pictures of my baby riding in the cart (how cool are these carts though?).  And honestly, I remember taking a picture of Silas's first time in a regular shopping cart.  He was very excited.  I had to capture that moment.   There I was thinking, I'm not going to bust out the camera for every little thing, but I can't help myself.  I guess until you're a parent you don't know how those moments will hit you.  Or you don't know that a particular moment could be so cute.  

 Case in point: 

He's grinning from ear to ear.  He was bouncing up and down and baby-shouting at everyone who looked his way.  It was adorable.

So what's yours?  Please tell me I'm not the only one who had left the house with out clean diapers?