My Newest and best Love

My Newest and best Love

Thursday, August 18, 2011

3 Freaking Months Already????

I can't believe that Claire has turned three months old already!!!!!  The time has just FLOWN by!!  It is so fun watching her grow though! I watch her now, as she cooes, laughs, smiles and plays with toys how much she really has changed from my tiny 6 pound newborn!  Her new thing to do is stare at me and then talk to me.  She moves her mouth around so much and all these little sounds come out like she is really trying to tell a story!! We recorded it the other day because its so darn cute!  I wish I knew how much she weighed and all those stats right now, but her doctor appt isnt until September 19 (4 months).  I think she is around 14 pounds thought, according to my scale. 

This week was a crazy busy one!!!  Last Friday, I went back home to Milwaukee for my baby shower with the family.  It was great for Claire to get to meet everyone and to see all my extended family.  It was so gorgeous out which made it wonderful!!!  All the little cousins got to play on a slip n' slide and sprinkler.  Also, a little tradition in the family started for Claire.  My grandparents have a wall down in their basement where they would measure their children (my dad and aunt) heights, then they did my siblings and me (their grandchildren) and now Claire (their only great-grandchild right now)!! I took a picture of it because she looked so little yet so big standing against that wall!! 

Then Sunday, my best friend since I was 12 came to visit us!  This was actually her first time meeting Claire!!  She lives about 2 hours away, which isnt too far, but she is going through a divorce right now and had to move and re-locate jobs which made it difficult for her to come down and see Claire.  Jess (my bf) is now selling Park Lane Jewelry.  So, I hosted a jewelry party to help her out and surprisingly I made out pretty fantasticly!!  I think I earned about 400 in FREE jewelry!!!  It is sooo much fun picking out things I dont have to pay for!!  Jess and I also went out, just the two of us, for some drinks.  I never before left Claire to do something like this.  In Fact, the only time I left her is to go to the gym for an hour and its always with ther dad.  I really only felt comfortable going out because I put her to bed for the night so she would just be sleeping when I was gone!!  I will admit,though, it was fun to go out, have a few and RELAX!!!!

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, and the have the butterfly exhibit right now!! So I am going to take a MILLION pictures of Claires first time seeing all these amazing animals!!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

RUN RUN RUN!!

So today was such a successful day:)  I had to watch my two nephews for a couple hours after their summer school. I took them to Mcdonalds and met up with my Sister-n-law (jess) who brought my other niece and nephew so they all got to play together.  Then, Jess watched Claire for me so I got to get my run in!  I had started the couch to 5k progam about 2 months ago primarily running on the treadmill.  It was going great, I was reaching my goals and felt great about it!! I was running 3-5 days a week and doing an easy 20 min on the treadmill (which is a HUGE accomplishment considering i never ran before in my life).  So since i was doing good, I decided I should sign up for a 5K in town on Aug 20.  WELL- I started running on the track (NOT TREADMILL) to get me used to running on real ground.  IT WAS SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT!  I felt like I could barely run (literally I wasnt even able to do a freaking 3 min!!)

It was actually super depressing that I could do so great on the treadmil and not on real ground. I dont know what it was, but it was sooo difficult. Well today was such an accomplishment!! The past week I kind of started over with the couch to 5K program running on the track to get my body used to it and my mind! HA  Well today I was FINALLY able to run a mile straight, then I walked for 4 min and ran another 3/4 of a mile.  It felt GREAT to get a solid run in.  To a regular runner, these numbers may not be that impressive.  However, starting from NEVER running to getting to this point makes me feel so fabulous!  So the 5K I am running in 2 weeks doesnt seem so impossible;)

Now, if I just stick to this routine and reach my goal of an 8k in april, I can get my DREAM running shoes--Asics:) For now its my Nikes...

Sunday, August 7, 2011

WOAH..time to catch up!!

I guess if I am going to have a blog, I need to keep up with it!! HAHA

So its been almost 2 months since my last post and wow have things been busy!  First of all, Claire is doing AMAZING. She has been sleeping through the night, about 10 hours since 6 weeks old!! I am so fortunate for this:)  Her weight at 2 months was 11 pounds 11 oz (my little chunk she is getting to be!!).  Her 2 months shots went ok. It made me so sad to see her cry like that! I chose to wait on the HEP B shot at birth, so she ended up having to have an extra shot that day. She was actually fussy that day!!!  She has never just cried for no reason, so to have her that way was odd to me.  She did get a slight fever, but by the next day or so she was completely back to normal. 

We did our first overnight stay (all 3 of us) on July 2. We were in MN visiting, and stayed  at a hotel.  I am pleased that she slept normal!  I normally cloth diaper, but when we go away, I use disposables.  It would be just the same to use cloth, but I have a hard time with the idea of carrying around urinated and poop filled diapers around! HA  She is smiling so much, especially when I get her up in the mornings!  She loves her daddy and smiles sooo big when he comes home.  The only difficult time Claire has is when I make her do tummy time.  She does better if I prop her up on her boppy, so we do that more often now. This past weekend we were in MN again and I carried her around in the MOBY wrap, and Claire just LOVES it!!  I also found her sunglasses at this baby boutique called Baby Clementine! They are so adorable on her!!! 

For me personally things have been fantastic!! I love being a mother so much, Claire is my everything.  She is a huge motivation for me.  I have been continuing with my training to run an 8k.  I started off running on a treadmill, which was a huge mistake for me!!!  Now I am running solely on a track or outside, and basically i had to start my training all over bc its such a different feeling!!!  But I love doing it and will be running a 5k in TWO WEEKS!!!    The other dilemma i am having is that my grandparents have offered to pay for me to go back to school to become a dental hygienist.  Up until Claire was born, I was a dental assistant; but once I had her i chose to quit my job.  Its been hard deciding if I want to go back, even part time.  I love being with her and I can never get myself to leave her--except when I do my workouts.  I just feel like I would miss out on something. Its something I think I will have to work on.....



Here are some updated pics of my gorgeous daughter...NEARLY 3 MONTHS OLD!!!!!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

First Blog INTRO

This is my first blog post EVER. I decided to start one because now, being a stay at home mom I feel its almost necessary to express whats on my mind and whats gone on in my day for my sanity! HA

A little information about me:  I was born in Germany, as my Dad was in the Air Force.  We moved back to teh US before I was two, and since then I have always lived in WI.  Primarily I grew up in Milwaukee area, but I did live in Green Bay for 8 years.  Roughly 3 years ago I moved to Dodgeville, WI when I married my husband Josh.  We bought our first home in August of 2009!!  Its an older home that we have been remodeling--a work in progress but its a lot of fun.  As a housewarming present we bought ourselves the cutest little dog!! She is a toy rat terrier and is about 6 pounds full grown!! She has been our baby and has been spoiled to death for the last two years. 

However, we now welcomed the most amazing little girl into our lives!!!  Our daughter, Claire Elizabeth,
was born on May 17, 2011.  I am proud to say that I had a natural birth with NO pain medication!  It was an amazing experience and am soo blessed to be able to have gone through it.  As a new mom, there are a lot of emotions and thoughts run throught my mind every day! I want the best for my daughter, and I want her to know she is part of a family that loves her and would do anything for her.  I want her to grow up and be very healthy, and for me the best start to that was to exclusively breast feed.  I am SO fortunate that she latched on PERFECTLY right away and I have not had any issues (yet).  I know for a lot of moms, they run into so many difficulties that makes it hard for them to breast feed, so I know I am blessed to have it easy.  Also, I am a cloth diapering mama!!  I prefer to use One Size diapers and One Size covers.  I am primarily sticking with Bum Genius, Fuzzibunz, and Grovia brands.   I also will be using Imaginiff prefolds.  My life revolves around my daughter now, so i am sure a lot of my blogs will be about my day with her:)

The love of my Life:) Claire Elizabeth!!