Confession.

In my last blog I talked about how I was going to do the detox and only eat fruits, veggies and beans for a few days to get myself all natural and feeling good. Well I have a confession...

I think I made it about 12 hours before caving!  I did go 3 days with out eating any meat or sugary foods. I mostly ate salads, drank smoothies with hemp protein fiber and lentil or bean concoctions for dinner. I caved the night I made a delicious pot of sweet potato, black bean and chili bean chili and I made it way to spicy for my, and Paxton's, taste. So I had a piece of leftover vegetable pizza from the weekend, and it was good!! =). Props to all you out there that have more will power than I do. I could never ever ever ever ever be a vegan. I have too much love for dairy products to cut it out of my life. Cheese alone is one of the most delicious treats ever.

While I am in confession mode I thought I would share a few of my weird quirks that I never really took much notice to until I met Josh who began to lovingly point out that I am a tad weird. I will thank my mother for a lot of these things.....

* I am VERY particular with weird little things about the cleanliness and order in my home. Due to having 2 big hairy dogs and 2 small dirty children I have my couch covered in decorative blankets to prevent spills/stains (we for some reason thought a grey cloth couch was a good idea??). Any who, anytime anyone sits on the couch and messes up the blanket it drives me nuts. Like seriously nuts. I sit there and wait until they get up to do something and straighten it immediately. Then I proceed to fix the pillows to go back to the spot I had them originally. 
* I cannot stand clutter. After every meal my kitchen is cleaned and all the dishes are put up. Even though I despise to unload the dishwasher for whatever reason, I absolutely cannot go with dirty dishes in, on, or around my sink. I will not sit down at night until my kitchen is cleaned, counter wiped off and all appliances put away. As if it really matters if those things are there in the morning for me to do?
* I count things as I do them. Mostly this is when I go down or up a flight of stairs. I am not sure if I did this before I had children but I am extremely paranoid about missing a step while carrying one of the kids that I count every time I go up and down the stairs. I admitted to Josh yesterday that while we were in Chicago I knew that the 3 flights of stairs going down to the river walk from our hotel were 16 steps, 14 steps, then another 16 steps. He shook his head and buried it in his hands. I then noticed H was playing with her baby doll and walking it up the stairs of her doll house and counting them as she went up... hmmmmmmm.
* When I eat ice cream I take perfect scoops off the top so that it is a level surface when I am fished. When I cut cake/brownies,bread it has to be cut with a knife and a straight line.
* I also find myself cleaning up my kids toys even while they are playing with them. When toys are strewn about all over the floor it almost makes me twitch. I know this is ridiculous but it is just the way I am.

So there it is. There are many many other things I am weird about but I won't let you all think I am a total psycho!

I am just getting to uploading our Chicago pictures too so I will share those in a few days. Happy Monday everyone, we started ours off early so we took a trip to the donut shop! =)

Going all natural...

After a weekend in Chicago filled with deep dish pizza, beer, wine, indulgent breakfasts and a fancy dinner J & I were feeling a bit gross. We had a great time and all the food and drinks were so yummy but coming home we were ready to get some fruit, veggies and goodness in our bodies. 

J decided he wanted to do a cleanse and just focus on consuming fruits, vegetables and some beans for the next week. No alcohol, no sodas, nothing artificial. Water, coconut water or green tea for drinks. I was a bit hesitant since I am still breastfeeding but after talking to a friend and doing some research I am going to jump on the bandwagon as well. This morning I made a smoothie with frozen bananas, cherries, blueberries, a fiber protein powder and some chocolate almond soy milk. It was really delicious and it has also kept me full for quite some time! Not sure what I am going to do for lunch yet but dinner will consist of a spinach salad with avocado, beans, and I will probably make a homemade vinagarette (this may break the rules but oh well!). 

As I was getting out of the shower this morning I decided I am going to take this to the next step and let my face, hair and nails take a break from make up, hot irons and polish too. That's right folks Hippie Brenda is busting out and resurfacing after all these years! Thankfully I really do not have anywhere to go this week so I will keep my scary non made up face to myself but I am actually really excited for this. My mom also told me about this face wash she has been using where she mixes caster oil and olive oil and she claims it is ah-maz-ing that I am going to try out.

So basically why I am posting about this is to get anyone elses suggestions on things to eat, if you all have done a cleanse before and how it went/how you felt after, fun healthy recipes you have eaten even if it is not cleanse related or any motivational words! I hope my excitement continues and that I feel really good after. I like the idea of only having good things in my body. Don't get me wrong I love me some greasy pizza but I also like not feeling disgusting after.

As I stated in the beginning of this post J and I had a fabulous anniversary weekend getaway in Chicago. Once I get my pictures uploaded I will write about all the fun things we did. No kids, just Josh and I, it was absolutely fantastic!!

Is it just me?

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Pax had his 6 month check-up today. I strategically had it scheduled at 3:40pm because I knew H would wake up from her nap around 3:15 and P would be up at 3:00 to eat. Therefore it would give me ample time to get them both ready, be at the doc on time, as well as make it back before I needed to put P back down for his cat nap late in the day.

Well.......

Harp decided to stay awake jumping and playing in her crib until after 2:00pm so she was still sound asleep at 3:20pm when I had to wake her up to get her ready to go. Thankfully she was in a good mood (it was a 50/50 gamble), we loaded up and were in the car by 3:25. I decided there was enough time to stop at Sonic to grab a drink before Happy Hour was over. I obviously had my priorities in order. The people in front of me at the drive thru pretty much ordered  the entire menu and I was impatiently waiting on my one drink for way too long! I got to the Dr. office just a few minutes behind and scrambled upstairs to check in. We surprisingly got called back within 5 minutes and were with the nurse to get P's weight/height/head right away. Then the wait for the Dr began. I don't know if the doctors understand that by putting us in a tiny room with two children is like a ticking time bomb until someone becomes unhappy. Also with the tile floors, it seems as if when one does decide to cry or melt down it echo's big time and everyone knows that the people in room F do not have it together.

Both of mine actually held in really well until the doc showed up and then we had P up on the table checking him out and discussing his achievements thus far. That's when H decided it was time for her to get some attention and started begging me to pick her up. When I kindly explained to her that I needed to pay attention and hold Pax she had a meltdown. I put her on the chair and gave her a book and seconds later the tears were a streamin. It is obviously a domino affect when one child cries in public, the other one thinks they need to also. A symphony of crying children, one sweaty anxious mama, and one doctor who I am sure thinking about how she can remove herself as quickly as possible from this situation. Oh and we had not even given P his shots yet. I'll let you just imagine how well the rest of the visit went.  We did end on a positive note because Harp was able to pick out a sticker from the box so at least she was happy. Pax was not so pleased because of his three shots in the leg (it never gets easier). 

To top things off we came home and he was over tired and would not take his last nap and cried until it was time to eat again.  Not awesome.

Thankfully I am sitting here in front of the computer now with a glass of wine, a sleeping baby, a happy toddler and a husband on his way home with more wine and dinner. Is it just me who gets really anxious and stressed about somewhat small things like this? I know I am uber neurotic about the sleep schedule and my kids acting out in public but geez I honestly get sweaty and anxious so quickly when it comes to my kids not being on their best behavior in public. I hope that it is one of those things that we can chalk up to "this too shall pass?" 

It's times like these I wish my mom was closer and that she could watch one child while the other has checkup's and what not. 

We did survive and J is on his way home and tomorrow we get an entire day together because he now has a job where he gets holidays off!!!!!!! Best. Thing. Ever. Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope you all have a great time celebrating America's Birthday tomorrow!! 

Six months of wonderful

As every parent says... Holy cow where has the time gone?! My little babe is 6 months old as of last Friday. Needless to say he is not so much a "little" babe, but you know what I mean. His personality is growing bigger and bigger with each day and his happy demeanor makes him so much fun! Harp has really taken a turn and is now a huge fan of her little brother and loves that he is becoming more fun to interact with.

Since I have not really done an update for myself as to what he has achieved thus far, I am going to do so. I am HORRIBLE about baby books, scrap books, any other kind of thing to document their progress other than the million photos I take.

The things P has/can do so far at 6 months:
* Talks, hollers, squeals A LOT
* Knows his name and responds when said
*Rolls over from belly to back and back to belly (sometimes)
*Officially out of the swaddle and sleeping like a big boy
*Still on Prevacid for his acid reflux (boo!)
*On a 4 hour eating schedule and taking 2 long naps and one cat nap
*Working really hard on growing out his hair =)
*Successfully shows all his emotions through his eyebrows. Love them
*Can scooch his body in circles when on his belly
*Eating rice cereal, avocado, sweet potato, bananas, applesauce, and prunes
*Loves bath time, books, Johnny Jump Up, sister, our cat Dexter, dada and mostly mama! I am hoping he will be a mamas boy =)

I have a feeling he is going to be much more outgoing and adventurous than his sister. He is already showing more ambition than she ever did. He is also going to be more of a social butterfly than H. When I take him places he is so smiley at pretty much everybody and loves being around people. I am not sure if he is easier because it is my second go around and I knew what to do when I realized he had reflux, or if he is maybe just a bit easier than his sister. Who knows!

He goes in for his 6 month check-up tomorrow so I will officially see where he stands in the rankings for his weight/height/head/physical progress/etc. The last time we went at 4 months he had dropped from being in the 99th percentile in most categories to the 75th which was good & normal!

Being a mama of two has been fun. It is really neat to see their bond forming already, especially since they are so close together. I just realized today that H's birthday is in a little over a month and I have not even thought much about how we are going to celebrate. Most likely I will do something somewhat small here in KC as well as something in Oklahoma since that is where most of her family is. I should probably start getting some plans in place, I am the queen of doing things last minute.

Happy Monday everyone! Mine was off to a rough start but is gradually improving. I am oh so excited for a mid week holiday day off to spend with J having family time and watching fireworks. It couldn't get any better than that now can it? =)