Update

I have not written on my blog nearly as often as I wanted to. I have been overwhelmed with parenting an active and fussy little one as well as everyday life, working and all other life's attempts. We have survived Hail's first birthday, Halloween and now we are approaching Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what we are going to do for the holiday but I'm sure that it is gonna be a little rough.

Some of the challenges we are experiencing include; separation anxiety, "mommy neediness," not walking, not really talking, not using sippy cups or making huge attempts to hold his own bottle (he's starting to work on it but gets pissy because he hasn't figured out that he has to tip his head back), not wanting to eat table food or feed himself,and not sleeping well at night or nap-time. He throws a huge fit each time it is time to sleep and he wants to go to bed at 6PM, which means he is getting up around 3AM. I have tried and fought him to stay up longer and the couple times I succeeded, he still woke up that 3AM :/

Other than all that, things have been going well. We got our own place in Portland. We live with an awesome guy who loves us, and all the bills are getting paid. What more can you ask for right? Here's a recent picture of the little one on Halloween.

Summertime

Well, summer hasn't been all that I hoped that it would be this year. It has been largely in part to my horrible work schedule as well as the fact that the weather here has been less than summery. It seems that it can't decide what it wants to do- one day it will be sultry and nearly 90 degrees and the next it's overcast and looks like it's going to rain.
"Dear Mother Nature,
Make up your mind.
Thanks!"
I guess it's a good thing that Hail is still too young to really understand or enjoy the summertime. Hopefully he does once he gets a little older- maybe next year. I find it funny when he wrinkles his little nose when the sun is in his face and he crinkles his forehead when rain falls on it. I sure do hope that he learns to walk before the height of fall. I want to teach him to "leaf crunch".

Here are a couple photos from the highlights of our summer so far.

In the first photo, he was swimming in his first swimming pool.
In the second photo, we were playing with circus animals on the floor on a cloudy day.
In the third picture, he is enjoying his first river trip, squishing sand between his fingers.

I love Summer

I love the summer time. It's the only time that you can go out and do all those fun things in the outdoors that you weren't able to do in the winter and fall months. Things like slap your friends on the back and claim it was a mosquito, eat fresh watermelon that doesn't cost a million dollars, go to the county fair, camping, swimming and just play outside in the sunshine!! Sadly, with my new work schedule, I don't have the time to do most of those things most of the time. I have the money to but not necessarily the time. Working 5 days a week 15 miles away from home is taxing. Because I work across the bridge, depending on when I have to be there, I sometimes have to leave for work over an hour early for a 20 minute car ride. I'm hoping to have a long weekend soon so that I can go play in the sunshine with my baby boy!! You're never too young to go camping!

4th of July

Never before have I been so excited for the 4th. This is going to be Hail's first one and although I have to work, we are gonna celebrate it early. I figured, since he doesn't really like loud noises that I would get some of the more kid friendly fireworks and let him see those so that he won't be so overwhelmed by the loud bangs and booms, dogs barking, car alarms and other loud noises that the night brings. Hopefully he will enjoy it as much as I plan to.

It's Been Awhile

So it has been awhile since I have posted on my blog. Life has been hectic and crazy. for those of you that are wondering, here's what's been going on.

I finished my fitness challenge. In total I lost 60 lbs and 5 inches. WOOHOO! I'm not anywhere near where I want to be but I'm getting closer everyday.

Hail is growing like the speed of light. He is nearly 3 feet tall and weighs a ton. He's so cute (I"m not biased at all)!! He has 4 teeth now and knows a few words. Dada is his favorite which I'm really trying to break him of, but he also knows no-no (because of Auntie No-No), Nigh-Night, mama, baba, papa and Momo. He has started crawling and pulling himself up to things as well. He gets around fast too! He sits up a little bit but falls over just as quickly. I think it's because he's so tall-- it throws off his equilibrium.

My divorce was made final in April and now I have the most amazing boyfriend that is the sweetest guy in the world. Not only do we love him to death, but he loves us to death too. Here's a picture of him and Hail when we went to the zoo.

Other than that, life has been work, work, work :)

Awesome!

Recently, I agreed to do a fitness challenge with my roommate Megan. We joined LA Fitness and we currently have a 6 day gym schedule. Since I started going to the gym, I feel AWESOME! I lost 7 pounds in the first three days. We meet with a personal trainer twice a week and we have been trying all kinds of classes like cardio kickboxing, cycling class, and tonight it is Aqua fit and Latin Heat. It's gonna be great. Although I hurt in many places that I didn't know existed, it's a hurt so good kind of pain.

Since going to the gym, I have noticed that my thighs are shrinking (!!) and I have a lot more energy. In the same beat, however, I find myself to be ravenously hungry all the time because my metabolism is increasing and my muscles need some food. I have learned that I am becoming more flexible, I sleep better and I can do things longer that I was previously able to. All around I feel great. I really like the set up of the gym too. It is a lot easier to go to the gym when you like the gym you are going to. I had a membership at 24 Hour Fitness once and that was not the gym for me. I hated their layout and they had huge membership and cancellation fees that I do not have at LA Fitness.

I was never able to justify spending the money on a gym membership previously. Going for myself was never a good enough reason for me to get my ever widening butt in the gym. Now that I have a little one, I realize that I am now doing this for the both of us. I want to watch him grow and become old. If I am overweight, can hardly breath, suffer from arthritis, have face cancer- whatever, I am not going to be able to be the type of parent that I want to be to him. Hail is more than enough justification now to be willing to paying the membership so that I can spend a longer, healthier life with him. After seeing how easy it was to lose the first ten lbs, I have set myself a very specific, realistic goal and hopefully kickboxing and latin heat will help me get there. Ole!

Move Out!

Lately, Hail has been waking up early in the morning. Sometimes as early as 4 AM. Since moving, we have been sharing a bedroom and although he currently has his own dungeon bedroom in my spacious walk in closet, he still wakes up way too early. Only this morning did I realize the source of this problem, me.

I am not one to really toss and turn much but every time I do roll over or move, my mattress springs creak a little underneath me and Hail wakes up and thinks it's time to play. After picking him up and putting him in bed with me in the wee hours of the morning in hopes of him falling asleep again to no avail, I got up to go brush my teeth and start the coffee. When I opened the bedroom door to bring him to the front room with me, I realized that he was almost asleep again!

So, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for him to move out. He is going to go to the kids' room and hopefully he will not be woken up by Serena nor him wake her up. I really hope that this works out because this momma could use some sleep!