Visiting Family

On Friday, I headed to Weight Watchers before work (Woohoo! I lost 2.4 and got my 5%) and went out for breakfast with Dev.  Looking at this picture, you can see how many tries it takes to get a picture of him where he looks legitimately happy.

  I dropped him off at school and headed into work.  I had a half day because we were going to Iowa after Raj got off work and I wanted to get us ready.  Once I got home, I did my Planksgiving, my challenge workout and took the dog for a walk.   I didn't have a ton of time to walk, but I did hit this trail.

I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has loads of trails and nearly all of them are as lovely as this shot.  If you look closely, you can see that there are a couple of apples on the ground near where I took this picture.  I wish you could smell the area.  It smells like an orchard even though there's just the one apple tree.

I need to get a picture of Conner on a walk sometime.  He smiles the whole time.  In a few weeks, Conner will turn 3.  I am here to tell you that the older he gets, the more pleasant it is to have him as a pet.  Now, you can sometimes pet him without him assuming that you want to play.  He's still busy, probably always will be, but he becomes more and more a faithful companion with each passing year.

It was too dark for the drive to Iowa for me to get much knitting done, but I was able to finish Deven's mittens while we were in Iowa.  I snapped this shot of me knitting in the car.  I'd just started the thumbs.

Once you get to the thumbs, you just have a few minutes of knitting left.  Less than an hour later, I snapped this shot of Deven wearing the finished product.

Dev couldn't be bothered to look at the camera or smile properly.  He was far too busy watching a DVD in the car. 

So, we got home and I got started on the laundry.  Dev had gotten his sneakers FILTHY at school, so those needed to be washed and dried before Monday.  We ran out, got some groceries and collapsed in a heap on the couch.

We've almost got our lives back together.  Today is the last day of the first week of the Holiday Hustle. I owe 10 minutes each for strength and cardio.  Obviously this won't be a problem at all.  I'll do my requirements and finish up the 10 minutes by running stairs.  My strength- I will do the daily challenge and finish up with crunches and push ups.

I'm off to scour Ravelry.  I need to find the perfect mittens to make for Dev's teacher and for a volunteer that is working with Deven.  We feel so lucky that Dev's school is working so hard to keep him challenged.  Dev reads above grade level-so they did an assessment and are utilizing a retired teacher to work with him at his level.  He reads books that are a little challenging for him and after she has him write a few sentences about what he's read.  It's easy enough to look at a kid and say 'he already reads, so phonics will be a good review.' I'm so pleased that his school didn't do that.

Anyway, I'm grateful for Dev's wonderful kindergarten teacher and his volunteer, so I really want to make some special mittens.

Be well, everyone!

Fall Challenge, New Blog Feature and Looking Towards the Holidays

I'm towards the end of the final week of my Fall Challenge with my trainer.  It's been a good challenge, tough and eye opening.  As always, when working with Rebecca,  I learn a lot about myself, push myself to do things that I wouldn't otherwise attempt, and even if I don't lose a pound, I bring myself to a healthier place overall.

This challenge I learned the following things about myself.

• I can't handle sugar.  I just cant.  I can go forever without eating sugar, but as soon as I have it I need to eat all the sugar in the world.
  
• I can totally handle a longer wall-sit than I feel like I can.  This challenge, I went from an all time longest wall-sit of 2:38 to a 4:11  wall-sit.

• I have more mental toughness than I give myself credit for.  I did 2 10ks without the fitness to run them.  Granted, they both sucked the joy out of my life, but I am proud of this. 

I'm going to be adding a new blog feature later today.  It's "Stuff I Never Thought I Would Say"  Mostly dedicated to my son, but sometimes my dog or my occasionally strange husband.

Looking towards the holidays, I have some minor goals.  I want to leave this year lighter than I started it.  Currently I am about 6 lbs lighter than I was on 1 January 2013.  I want to keep losing, building strength and creating pride in myself.  I don't have some big, sweeping goal, but I want to do strength training of some kind 3 times per week, do yoga nearly daily and be diligent with walking the dog.  I'm taking a break from running, as I don't want to injure myself and sidetrack things. That being said, it's so good for the dog to run, so I might start couch to 5k again from the beginning.  Let's be honest, guys.  I don't particularly like to run, so I should probably get fit another way.

Stay tuned.  Later today, I will be in with a post or 4 of things that I never thought I'd hear myself saying. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

My week

So this week kicked off with a bang and a whimper. The bang was a shitload of jumping jacks. Like really really a lot of jumping jacks. Sunday was 300 and everyday added or stayed the same. Today's was 800. The whimper was me whining about the jacks.

The next bang was me committing to three six-mile runs this week. The whimper came from my poor, sad, blistered toes.  For some reason I decided that I needed to do that distance for the first time  three times. But I said it. And so I did it. Sunday morning crazy Conner and I went out and knocked that out. Slowly. I'm not a fast runner y'all. I planned to knock it out consecutive but Monday was a big no can do. I went for a four mile walk instead with friends Becky and Cooper. We had a lovely time taking notice of the day. Tuesday was OMG first day of kindergarten so sad old mom took the day off and ran with my friend Sara. She had no schedule or agenda and was just there for me. It was perfect. Six miles and one to go.  Wednesday was guilt day but more on that later. Thursday after work was my day. Hydrated all day and home long enough to put on my sports bra and my sneakers. I start off slowly and stay that way but meander my way around the neighborhood ticking off miles little by little. It was a pleasure although some of the actual miles felt rough. By the end of mile six my aforementioned blistered toes were voting to secede from their union with my body. But I did it. Goal met. Five points for me!

Guilt day. Dev had a fever. Dev had a cough. We treated symptoms but didn't really worry because he was acting fine. Not remotely like a sick person. Saturday morning we all did Color Me Rad. We get home. Whoa. Biiig fever. Give my little busy some Motrin and on with our day. Not acting sick. Sunday sick off and on. Monday same. Tuesday no fever so off to kindergarten we go. Mention to the teacher that he's not feeling perfect. Get a call from the nurse that he was in but not acting sick so she sent him back to class. We pick him up and take him to urgent care. Oh, have we met? Worst mom ever. My kid has pneumonia. Ten seconds after his first dose of his antibiotics and he's so much better.
I'm going to feel better about this in about a dozen years.

Moving into next week. My goal for this week is active recovery. Run our walk with Conner six days. Happy mom, happy dog.

Keep moving forward everyone.

Day 1

So I am just going to count down the days of eating properly.

Yesterday, I was within my calorie range and drank a good amount of water and I lost 4 water weight pounds from my vacation.

I have a great plan for today and hope to be down a few more pounds.  The weather is getting too dark to do much proper exercise outside, which I prefer, so I need to do a DVD tonight.  Plus some good stretching. 

If I can do that, I will be very satisfied with my progress this week.

My son is also recovering from being on vacation.  He's a whiney entitled mess.  That's what happens when you take him somewhere that he can do no wrong for 6 days.   Two time outs yesterday and he is feeling a little more compliant today.  Hopefully that carries through work, because I want to watch Charlie Brown Christmas with him tonight.

So how are you?  What are your staying on track during the holiday strategies?

A bit of a hangover, actually

I didn't manage myself well this weekend at all.  I drank FAR too much, ATE far too much and the wrong things, but we had so much fun.

When I got up Saturday morning, I cleaned the kitchen and made pumpkin bread for breakfast.  I also baked some cupcakes. I took the dog on a 4 mile walk.  We got showered up and

We went to Treinen Farms.  We did a corn maze

Deven really enjoyed climbing on this tire maze

The boys did some pumpkin chucking

Deven lassoed this...cow?

Deven played in a huge vat of corn

Climbed a mountain of tires

and of course picked our pumpkins.  Once we were done picking our pumpkins, we took a horse-drawn hayride

It was chilly, but we had a really wonderful time.  I love doing these kinds of things with my family.

Once we got home from the farm, we went to a friend's house to visit and play with their new baby.  We stayed for a while and went out for Mexican food and came home and drank entirely too much Pumpkin Beer.

On Sunday, we did some shopping, some laundry, some other housekeeping.  I took the dog for a five mile walk.

Then we carved our pumpkins.

All in all, a really great weekend. How was your weekend?

Parent's Night

Last night we went to Deven's daycare to see what the kids have been doing all year so far.  This is kind of  redundant to me because I am always asking what Deven has been up to and specifically about anything I don't agree with or that he mentions that he is outraged about.

We didn't really talk to the teachers, instead we talked to other parents, in particular,  Deven's friend Violet's mom.  We've become pretty good friends in our own right, so it's great when our kids pick someplace to go on a playdate.

They were also having a bookfair, so we bought two books for Deven.

And

When we got home, we read some of the Clifford stories and the Splat book.

I was quite over in calories.  I had a miscalculation at Taco Bell (Cantina Bowl ONLY not Chips and Guac, please!)  ALSO, cookies.   Because of Parent's Night, I couldn't exercise yesterday (no time) so overall, I was quite over.

Back on track, today.

Thursday

Oh God. This week has been eternal.  It's Thursday finally, so we are wrapping it up.  The problems with blog.com  have created a gigantic pain in the ass, but at least I have something to focus on.

  I've been moving and backdating posts manually.  Some things, like FMM might ultimately be deleted.  It's all kind of a pain.  There are over 300 posts to move from my other blog and none of the import/export tools work.  I ultimately want to take down that blog, so I want it all saved over here.  Plus maybe using this one will remind me to do the monthly updates on my son.  I haven't done any since he was about 3 and he's about 5 now, but he's awesome and notable and deserving of his own posts.

Today is Parent's Night at Dev's daycare.  So we will come home, I will take the dog for a walk (he needs it, that dog is caaarazy) and we will hit Subway, eat fresh, then go find out that our kid is good but whiny, smart but needs to work on his social skills.  You know, stuff we already know but don't know how to fix.

Since I had lunch out with Raj yesterday, I was able to keep my whole lunch at work, so I have some great choices there.  It's all healthy and delicious.

I hope you all have a great day!

Emotional Eating 101

I was doing GREAT yesterday.  I went for a 3 mile run/walk.  I was happy. I made a great, healthy breakfast and had a fun plan for the day.  I got the house all cleaned up. It looked great!

We got showered up and headed for Eugster's Farm Market- Fall Festival.  While we were there, we saw some animals.

Raj and Deven were excited to get to the petting zoo portion.

Deven milked a fake cow.

We bottlefed a goat.

Dev rode a trike

Raj and Deven played with a kitten.  This boy was so sweet I wanted to bring him home with us.

Had some apple cider donuts and fresh cold pressed apple cider

and went on a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch

That's where it all fell apart. Deven mentioned again that my shape is ROUND. Like a ball.  My heart broke a little. A lot, actually.  I didn't make good choices the rest of the day.  I started poorly this morning, but I made myself stop and examine my behavior and am turning it around.  Just because he said I am round like a ball, doesn't mean I have to make sure it's true.

Running with my kid

So, every other day, I am taking Deven out for a very short run.  With each run, he gets a little whinier and more distracted.  I don't think this is because he can't run or even doesn't like to run,   I think it's because he'd much rather play video games. I do know that as we get further into each run, he becomes more focused on the world outside and less focused on what he'd rather be doing, so it seems like bringing him along even if he complains is a good plan for now.

I don't want to force him to do this, but I want to encourage him, certainly.

For me, sitting around playing video games, messing around on the tablet and watching TV are not appropriate past times for your average almost five year old.  I want to encourage him to do things when they feel hard, do things even though he doesn't feel like doing them, and want to do things with me.  I am frustrated that the culture of lethargy starts so early.

I am fiercely protective of my son.  I don't want him to have the same struggles I do.  I don't want his self worth to be defined by the number on the scale, by the size of his jeans.    I don't want him to have to fight his way to fitness.  I want to instill a love of exercise in my son that lasts a lifetime.  I don't know how to go about changing his mindset without him feeling like he is being punished.  And I most especially don't want him to become a lazy and entitled child.

He's certainly someone that wants to take the path of least resistance right now.  I want to instill fight in him.,  Fight will keep him on top even when things are hard. 

I want to keep running with him. I want it to be fun.  I want it to be our thing.

Does anyone have any ideas?

A Perfect Day, Really.

I got up this morning and anxiously checked the forecast.  It was supposed to be raining really hard all day and I was doing Color Me Rad this morning.  I was determined to run rain or shine, but there was threat of lightening.  We'd get pulled off the course if it was lightening, plus, well, you know, risk of death.

It was cold.  It was about 45 and it was absolutely pissing down.  MISERABLE.  No biggie, I'm running. That's my plan.  it's time to leave the house, it was chilly with a light drizzle.  No bigs.  I can do that.  We get to the course and it's not raining at all. THANK GOODNESS.  Then it starts just downpouring.  I've got Raj and Deven with me.  It's freezing, raining hard and my teammate hasn't arrived with my number.  They won't let me run with it.   A friend text that she was at the course but was heading out, too cold for her.  Finally Heather arrived with my number and we went to the corral to wait for the next wave.

They start tossing color packs and we get lightly colored.  It's still raining quite a bit, but less.  It's crazy cold.  The line starts moving and we get going. Slowly.  I strongly dislike the steerage portion of races.  I sat with my team for a while, but I was cold and I wanted to get the show on the road, so I broke away into a run and made my way to the first color station.  I did a combination of running and walking because I didn't do a good job of monitoring my breathing.  Additionally, it wasn't a timed race and to keep running, you really had to pass people and I am not about that, especially when you have to veer off the course to do it.

It was cold and miserable, but it was a lot of fun.

Here's me at the end of the race.


When I finished, I was so cold, all I wanted was to get my wet clothes off.  Normally, I am very shy about my body, but in this case, I stripped my shirt off in the parking lot and threw a different shirt on over my soaking wet sports bra.  I took my shoes and socks off, pulled my pants off, put on different pants and we headed to buy some hot coffee and hot chocolate and did some shopping.  We then headed over to get some dinner at my favorite pizza place

Then we went to the Fitchburg Fire Department Open House.

Deven loved seeing the ambulance.


and the fire truck


We came home and showered.  My skin was very alarmingly tie dyed and it took a lot of scrubbing.  I still have plenty of dye in a lot of places :)

We went out, did some more shopping and came home and made some dinner (potato soup!)

Dev threw some tantrums so we sent him to his room/to bed and we watched 'My Idiot Brother"  A charming movie, actually. I LOOOOVE Paul Rudd.

What did you all do with your Saturday?

25 Minutes and Then Some

So last night it was my night to do C25k.  It's week 7, so warm up- run 25 minutes, cool down.  I don't want to say it was easy, necessarily, but I kept my head in the game and I did it without much difficulty.  I need to start pushing myself on the hill front more.  I've never met a race yet that didn't have at least one very substantial hill.  I don't want to be defeated by some little hill, you know? 

When I got home, I did something I've been thinking about doing for months.  Deven keeps mentioning that he wants to run with me. But 4 is too little, right?  Well, I decided that when I finished my 'big' run, I would take him out on a 'little' run.  So I queued up the week 1 podcast and off we went.  We talked and talked while we did our warm up walk.  We discussed fall, Halloween decorations and the neighborhood.  Soon enough, it was time for our first 60 second run.  Mind you, I just got back from about a 2.5 mile run, so I was kind of beat, actually. 

He did great.  I kept reminding him that we had a lot of running ahead of us, so don't go too fast.  He REALLY wanted to turn on the afterburners, but he listened to me and settled into a nice pace.  Soon enough, it was time to walk again.  He started complaining that he was tired.  I told him that you get the best results if you keep working when things get hard.  I could see that rolling around in his little four year old mind and he seemed to like that, because he just kept plugging.  If he'd said "Mom, I am really tired" we'd have headed home, but I want to squash the thing inside him that wants to quit when things get hard.  I want him to be someone who pushes through things and does what he needs to do, whether in school, in fitness, in life.   My tiredness evaporated as we ran, and I could have gone on like that for hours.  We did 8 total one minute runs and we really had a fun time. I'd go so far to say it is the most fun run I've ever had.

We got home, my husband gave Deven a bath while I finished up dinner. An easy meal night- packaged Indian food over brown basmati rice.  As a special treat, I made some pudding for Deven and thawed some frozen blueberries and cherries  and had half a serving of vanilla pudding for dessert.  He was in such a great mood.  I don't know if it was the special time with mom, the endorphins from running or both, but it was really great.

When I tucked Deven in bed last night, I asked him, as I often do, what his favorite part of they day was.  He said it was running with me, seeing the Halloween Decorations through the neighborhood and seeing a gargoyle on the trail we ran on.  I told him that running with him was my favorite part of the day, too. 

He gave me a big hug and settled in for a good night's sleep.

All in all, I feel like I am on track for where I need to be, weight loss wise.  I'm trying to change my mindset where I need to lose 2 lbs every single week. I don't. I just need to live healthfully, burn more than I eat and keep notching it down., little by little.

I feel like I am in a pretty healthy place.

How are you all?

*this post was moved over from my old blog.  All comments are lost.

Weigh in and Weight Watchers in General

So today at weigh in, I was down 1.6  lbs.  I told my leader that I was leaving Weight Watchers because my pounds lost per dollar ratio is too low, that something in the mechanics of Weight Watchers right now is demotivating to me. 

She and I sat down and are working on a way I might be able to stay in a losing mode with Weight Watchers. I know that it's a program that works for a lot of people, but for me, I have an intensely difficult time staying ON program. This hasn't always been the case.  In 2003, I lost weight very quickly and very easily with Weight Watchers.  I was never not on program.  I excelled at making the program fit my life and making my life fit the program. I'd get to the end of my point range and just stop. It was like an invisible line.

I ended most weeks with more than 30 points in the bank because of activity.  I lost more than 60 lbs from February to October, when I made lifetime.

Now, I've lost 3 lbs in almost a year. 

I need to do something.  My son, lately, has been making remarks about my size.  He mentioned today that I am 'very round'  My feelings are hurt by this.  I mean he's only four and I am trying to teach him that it isn't nice to comment on people's sizes, but he hasn't figured it out yet.  I'd really wanted to have this weight problem resolved before he got to the Fat Mom noticing stage and I am just unbearably sad.  I feel like a failure.  I know that Aimee is going to have something to say about that :).  I just need to get the hurt and sad and channel it into a positive change for me.

My resolve is strong.

Peck's Farm Market

After the Farmer's Market, we went to a farm market.  I took a few pictures in the beginning and then forgot my phone was in my purse.

I'm so awesome. 

Pecks has a petting zoo.  We got to pet Llamas.  I love llamas.


We fed some goats.  LOTS of goats.




Deven put some corn in the cup and used the wheel to send it over to the goats.


This goat couldn't get on top of this rock fast enough to get the corn we were offering.


I wished I'd taken pictures of the other Pecks. They have several deer and I was able to hand feed them and some lambs.  Everyone was so sweet and soft.  Can't I just move to the country and take care of wildlife all of the time?

Farmer's Market

Today is a beautiful fall day.  Raj, Deven and I got in to the car and went downtown.  Once there, we bought some cheesebread and sat in the sun, enjoying every bite.

I thought I would share some of the images from this morning.  I love my life.

This tree is just starting to turn.

The sun is filtering through the trees. Also, I am totally chewing here.


My loves.

Deven is obviously tougher than me.

After some lunch, we are heading to a farm market.  Great day planned.

Preparing for the weekend

The coming weekend is busy in a very pleasant way.   We usually go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings.  We might still do that.  We are planning to go to Pecks Farm Market, pet some animals, feed some other animals, just hang out and absorb nature. I am going to try to get some pictures of myself and my family.  If I get any that aren't horrific, I will share them.

 I will also be taking the dog for a run at some point on Saturday. It's Couch to Five K week 6 day 1.   My recollection of this run previously is that it is deceptively hard.  I know I can do it, though. I am tooooough.

We need to clean the house desperately.  Raj is getting my cold, it seems, so we might be low key.  Deven and I will be doing at least one baking project.    We will be planning our meals around stuff that is on hand, so all really really need to buy is veggies and some milk. I am trying to step down my (insanely high) fruit sugar consumption, so I will be doing more snacks like celery with laughing cow (YUM) and carrots with peanut butter.  More eggs for breakfast for the protein punch without the relatively high calories in Overnight Oats.

On Sunday, I have Weight Watchers- I have about 4 meetings left until my paid subscription expires.  I am not working WW right now, just my fitness pal, but I am still going to weigh in at meetings until my subscription runs out.   After that, I am going to be taking the dog for a very long walk (at least 4-5 miles) and listen to podcats and make note of the day.  I also want to take Deven to the movies- the cheap theater has Ice Age and I want him to be more used to being at the movies and relaxing and watching quietly.

Anyway, the whole time, I will be logging my calories with My Fitness Pal and staying on track and blogging here.  Clawing my way back on track, taking one more step to being the best possible version of me.  To setting a positive example for my son.  To fitting in all of my cute, prepregnancy clothes.

I've got this.

Today's Weigh In Day.

I don't anticipate a great weigh in.  I did everything right, but that's how it shakes out sometimes.

It's most likely going to be either a small gain or a maintain.  I will just keep doing what I am supposed to do and I will get there.

Great day yesterday.  I did the Dirty Girl Mudrun yesterday and had a riot.


Today, we are planning on taking Deven to a small amusement park.

I love this life.

Weigh In, Weekend and maybe another W

I don't know that there will be another W.  We will see.

I will start with the business end of this post.  I was down .4.  Too bad I have 13 lbs of regain before I can start getting to real celebrations again,  I'm not going to wallow in this, I am just going to celebrate the small victories.

First of all, I earned my rewards.  I am going to let the LUSH bath ride because of my extra purchases of base coat and a nail polish. I LOVE the nail polish I selected.  China Glaze's Ruby Pumps.  It's stunning, glittery.  I feel extravagantly fancy having it on my nails.

That brings me to the point,  I haven't felt good about me forever.  I admire girls that are girly, but I am not one of them.  So I've started encouraging myself to be more girly.  Nail polish rewards, doing my hair properly.  A birchbox subscription.  It's time that I felt happy about how I look.  I am working on the weight loss, but I can't speed it up, so I am going to appreciate the me I have today, damn it.

I had a great on-the-go weekend.  We did Dirty Girl.  Here are a couple of pictures.

This is the first Muddy Obstacle.   I'm second from the right.




This is towards the end of the race. I started to notice that my FREE BEER was coming off my bib. I stopped belly crawling because OMG SAVE THE FREE BEER.



5K later, I am tired, Dirty, triumphant.

I love this picture of me.  I'm not the thinnest girl in the race,  I'm not the most confident, but I am loving the way I felt at the end, so I went ahead and registered for Color Me Rad 5k.

Today we did some tidying and then went out for lunch. I logged my Taco Loco and my chips and salsa.  My family and I headed off to the amusement park for some fun and came home and watched "We Bought a Zoo"

Now I am relaxing and enjoying my evening with my family,  I didn't work out today, but I have great plans for this week.  I am going to restart Couch to 5K on week 3 tomorrow.  I'm going to do sparkpeople strength training plans, too. Three days a week.

There you have it. Two more "w"s.  Workouts and "We Bought a Zoo"

Friend Making Monday- Quick Questions

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!


FMM: Quick Questions



1. What are your plans for Independence Day?  Maybe a BBQ.  Otherwise, we will probably stay inside most of the day and avoid the 96 degree forecast

2. What is the last thing interesting thing you drank? Kefir.  YUM

3. Share on of your favorite quotes. "if you say it can't be done, don't interrupt me while I am doing it"

4. Name someone or something that makes you smile. Deven.  My son is a never ending source of awesome.

5. What will you/did you eat for lunch today? A burrito with corn salsa and guacamole

6. What's the last movie that you watched and enjoyed? We watched Back to the Future recently.  Lovely

7. Share something sweet and unexpected that someone did for you recently. My husband and son came home with flowers when I was feeling really down.

8. If you could spend ten days on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go? London.

9. What are you currently reading? 30 Day Vegan Challenge.  I don't think I will be taking the challenge, but I am going to make some of her recipes my own.

10. Share at least one thing that you're looking forward to this week.  I'm looking forward to continued healing, a day off mid-week and Fireworks on Tuesday night!


Now it's your turn to answer the questions on your blog.  Don't forget to come back and link up in the comments!  Happy Monday!

18 Months

Dear Deven,
This month has been wonderful but challenging. At first, you had a hard time getting used to the new house. You have adjusted nicely and are really enjoying your new space. It's a lot more baby friendly around here and you have a lot of fun in your room and play room.

You started with a lot of biting and hitting, mostly mama and daddy- thankfully, you seem to be settling down with this recently.

Your verbal skills are really picking up. You seem to pick up a new word or two every day.

You absolutely love to swing in your swingset in the back yard. You also love to blow bubbles but you aren't too good at that yet.

You love to run around behind your bubble mower. You use this in the house and we think you might be pretending to vacuum.

Just recently, you seem to have stuck up friendship with Sam the cat, you do a really good job petting him nicely and he is finally tolerating this really well.

As always, you are a sweet, loving little man. If I say "Deven, give me a squeeze" you run over and give the best hug.

You really are the best kid most of the time and we are lucky to have you.

OMG One year

Dear Deven,
On Sunday, you turned one year old. The week leading up to your birthday was a tough one. You ran fevers, I was sick, it felt like I was swallowing glass every time I tried to swallow anything at all, you started to get that special teething brand of crabby.

On Wednesday, I finally gave up and went to the Dr. Diagnosis was strep throat. Then Friday, I had you at the doctors office after your fever spiked to a fear inducing 103. They tell me, "Oh, his ears look good, his throat doesn't look inflammed, probably just one of those bugs."

Your fever breaks on Saturday- so Sunday we took you to Ella's Deli to celebrate your birthday. We all have a great day together. We get home. You feel too warm. Fever is back. On Monday, Daddy took you back to the doctor. Ear infection.

Now Daddy has strep throat, too. Our house has the plague.

Other than this one crappy week, the past month has been absolutely wonderful. You are such a great kid. You laugh, you run around smiling at people, snuggle, make up your own jokes and games.

You really like to play the drum, play with balls and hug stuffed animals. Your favorite time of day is story time.

We could not be more blessed. We love you so much.

Thanks for being such a great kid.
Love,
Mama