20 pounds

Did I mention I lost weight? I had been very slowly losing weight since having Ryland but in March I decided to actually start trying to lose weight and be healthy. Since mid- March I'm down 20lbs! yup.. 20 pounds. Its insane. I am halfway to my goal and I'm so proud of myself. It took a ton of work but I feel so much better. Here are some pictures

This was me last 4th of July with my mom. When someone gave me this picture I actually hid it away so I wouldn't have to see myself.

This was me mid-march. I was 175 lbs

This was me a few weeks ago (ignore the folded clothing on my side table please)

Only 18.5 more pounds to go!

There are times when I look over at Ryland and I still see him as my little baby and then there are times like yesterday when I realized he's completely a toddler now with his own personality and decision making skills. 

He woke up from a nap starving, I think he may be growing again because right before his nap he had a banana and a yogurt and for breakfast he had 2 bowls of oatmeal but this is beside the point, he woke up starving. I was planning on making chicken fingers for lunch but apparently the 10 minutes it would take to re-heat them was too long and we were having a mini meltdown so I thought on my toes and made 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich for him. He was thrilled and started hopping and dancing in the kitchen and while eating (I make a mean peanut butter sandwich). Sometime between handing him the sandwich and the 5 minutes it took for me to start chopping veggies he had opened the sandwich and gotten PB all over his fingers and face. He walked over to me looked at his hand, looked at my pants, looked at his hand again and then WIPED HIS HANDS ON MY PANTS and then gave me a smile and hopped away!  He's a stinker isn't he?

Meal Planning Monday Week of June 22

Last week the big hit meal was the tandoori chicken, it was sooooo good we made it twice in the week, I don't think I've ever seen Mark enjoy chicken more (he's more of a beef guy). Mark is gone this week until Weds night (hopefully) so I tried making tonight and tomorrow and easy as I could. I'm excited I finally get to have salad for dinner! Mark would never eat something like a chickpea salad so I'm enjoying being able to eat vegetarian while he's gone. It was insanely hot here in Springfield last week and it looks like it'll stay hot this week too so most of my menu for this week is grilled food. No need to heat up the kitchen by turning on the oven right?.. oh, did I mention everything is healthy and low cal?

Monday- Lemon pepper Chicken kebabs (lawry's lemon pepper marinade, bell pepper and onion easy peasy)  

Tuesday- Chickpea and spinach salad with yogurt dressing( recipe here) 

Wednesday- Grilled chicken & corn on the cob, salad ( Another lawry's marinade, corn on the cob was 3 for $1) 

Thursday- home made whole wheat veggie pizza 

Friday-Creamy chicken pasta toss with veggies (recipe here) 

Saturday- Clean out the fridge! aka Leftovers

Sunday-Moroccan Chicken kebabs (recipe here)

Meal Planning Monday

On my birth board I've been sharing our weekly menu on a WFD thread and recently I found orgjunkie.com where she hosts a meal planning monday where tons of bloggers can share their weekly menus with whomever decides to pop over and read so in an attempt to be a better blogger I figured I'd join in. 

Monday-Island chicken with pineapple salsa and mashed sweet potatoes

Tuesday- grilled tandoori chicken with tzaziki sauce

Wednesday- It must go! Leftover night!

Thursday-  Balsamic grilled chicken breasts and raw baby carrots and fruit

Friday- home-made whole wheat veggie pizza

Saturday- Chicken and green bean casserole

Sunday- I was going to do a leftover night but then realized its father's day so I'm not sure what we'll do.

Dancing to the wiggles

Yesterday I put the wiggles dvd on and Ryland was dancing up a storm. I thought it was hilarious and adorable so I thought I'd post. We're so excited we're going to see them in August hopefully he has the same reaction.

Its been forever

I have to say I'm probably the worst blogger in the world.

 So lets see, what's new? I'm down 19.5 lbs since the beginning of March and it feels wonderful. I have about 20 more until I'm happy with my weight but i'm just so proud of myself for finally sticking to a healthy routine. We're going to start trying for baby #2 in the late fall/winter so I want to be as healthy as I can for the next pregnancy. 

Ryland is doing amazing, he's keeping me busy as always and its great. Our summer music classes started yesterday and it was so wonderful, even though he's 2 months shy of being able to be in the toddler class I asked the owner if I could put him in it instead of the infant one (which we attended this spring) and she let us, he thrived in it. He had such a great time dancing with all the kids and playing the instruments. It is so much fun seeing him grow into a toddler and discovering everything. He has this new understanding of how things are supposed to be done and its amazing to watch him figure things out. Lately he's been obsessed with talking on the phone and helping me take dishes out of the dishwasher.  

I have a couple of pictures from the other day when Ryland helped me to clean out the car. He had such a great time. 

I'm a terrible blogger

I've been so busy that I just haven't had the time or the will to write. Here are some recent pictures of the little man. No one warned me that at 13 months you officially have a toddler. Ryland is getting into everything. He's figured out how to push chairs to climb onto the counter and he's also discovered how much fun throwing everything into the toilet is. Let's just say its been a fun couple of months! haha.

1 year stats

We saw Ryland's cardiologist today and we got his 1 year stats.

Birth- 7 lbs 10 oz 21 inches

Today: 26.5 lbs 34 inches. I couldn't believe how tall Ryland is!


Our appointment went amazing with his cardiologist, he said Ryland will definitely need surgery but since he's doing so well he probably won't need it until hes 5 or 6 and the bigger he is the more successful the surgery will go, so yay! He doesn't need to see him again for an entire year!

Birthday Photos

We celebrated Ryland's birthday this last Saturday at my mother-in-law's house. It was a small family celebration but we had a lot of fun together. Ryland enjoyed his cake but didn't get as messy as I expected, in hindsight he would have been thrilled with a cupcake!

My baby is 1

Ryland will be 1 tomorrow and I can't believe it has already been a year.. where did the time go? As usual i'm limited on typing time so I'll just post a few pictures. In the beginning he had a rough start and we didn't know what the year would bring for him and his health but here we are with a strong healthy amazing little boy. I can't imagine my life without him. Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Quick little quote

I saw this on MDC and I loved it. I had never thought of this as an argument before. What do you think?

"Being offended by seeing a breast while a child is breastfeeding is equivalent to being offended by seeing a person's tongue when they are eating, as both can be sexual organs, yet the main function of both is for the nourishment of the human body"