Jackson's 7 months old...wait make that 8.

Oh, Jackson. Things have been super busy lately hence the late posting and combined 7 and 8 month catchup. So much has happened, but the main change is the crawling. Wow, are you mobile kid! I was terrified to have a second child on the move. I thought I was happy with things just the way they were, but mobility...it's so much better! You keep yourself very entertained toodling around the house. I've had to do some deeper cleaning and keep my eyes out for tiny little big brother toys, but other than that, the crawling has kept us both very happy.

I have to say your big brother unknowingly ruined some of your potential fun. I remember letting him drag everything out of the pantry and play in the dishwasher and drag out all the tupperware...sorry kid...mommy got smarter...and a little lazier. I do pull out pots and pans for you every now and then, but you mostly you find your fun going behind your big bro's back to play with his toys. 

Your personality is starting to spill out. Although you are mostly made up of sweetness, smiles and happy faces, you have a sneakiness about you. You know the exact moment to make your move to grab the coveted big boy trucks or Ethan's favorite guitar. You will throw a sly glance back my way with the biggest grin. I love it. I was once worried that your spirited big brother would push you around and possibly overshadow you, but you are showing signs of being able to hold your own. You will be quiet but fierce. I no longer fear that you will be overcome by your big brother, but I think you both will be able to stand your ground in different ways. Things will more than likely get interesting between the two of you as you grow up.

You still only have two teeth at the moment, but I see lots of tooth buds popping up so I just know you will have a mouth full soon. You so badly want to eat like everyone else, but have not been able to figure out how to chew until just a few weeks ago. We are now starting on some puff and I hope to move you on to soft bits of fruits and veggies soon. You love your purees. You eat 4-6oz in the morning, 8 oz for lunch, and between 8-12 oz at night. We said goodbye to breastfeeding at the end of 6 months and you are currently drinking four 6oz bottles a day of formula. We also started on a sippy cup of water soon after we consistently found you stealing your brothers. You haven't quite figured it out yet, but you are just happy to have one. 

You are weighing in at 18lbs 6oz and measuring 27in. You are mostly wearing 9 month or 12 month clothes and still no shoes. As for sleeping you are now completely sleeping through the night (Hallelujah!). You take two naps during the day, usually about an hour long and your favorite time of the day is bath time.

I love you my sweet boy and am excited for all the fun things to come. You are growing too fast, but we are making sure to take it all in. 

And for those who didn't see it yesterday...

Post by My Thoughts - Uninterrupted.

Disney's Planes might need a bit of pre-screening

This past weekend my mother-in-law and I took Ethan to see the movie Planes. It was Ethan's second movie theater experience and it went slightly more rocky than the first. We aren't quite ready for full on movie watching just yet, but that really isn't the point. Needless to say I didn't get to see the whole movie, but I got the main gist of it. While there were plenty of kid friendly animations, sounds and characters I have to say I was surprised at just how much of the movie played to adults.

The main plot revolves around a small underdog plane racing other more well qualified planes on an around the world adventure. There was name calling, bullies and overly stereotyped characters, but the real kicker for me was at some of the check-in points there would clearly be a bar scene in which all the planes were having a drink either to celebrate or drown their sorrows. Sure, they were drinking motor oil, but a bar scene it was for sure. (Edited to add: you can view one of these scenes here.)

I found myself getting angry every time they showed it. I know I should be more worried about the name calling and the bullying that my almost 3 year old can actually understand, but I was mortified by the completely unnecessary scenes of drinking. 

I admit, I drink. I've even drank a glass of wine in front of my child, but zero attention was drawn to it. I'm comfortable with him seeing me responsibly drink a glass of wine at dinner, not so comfortable with him seeing Dora (or some other favorite character) crack open a bottle of beer because she's sad that Swiper stole her bracelet.

I appreciate the sly adult humor that kid movies place in the script from time to time just to keep us old folks entertained, but I really don't need adult like scenes that make me feel squirm-ish to watch with my toddler. I want to feel good about taking my kids to the movies. I'm prepared to talk to him about name calling and bullying because those are things that he could potentially have to deal with very soon, but I am not prepared to talk about bar scenes. 

I know, I know...my kid is only almost 3, but what if he had been 6? I'm fairly certain that scene might not have been so lost on him. 

I'd like to be mad at Disney for not taking the necessary precautions to shield my child from such influences, but really I am more mad at myself. I think I've gotten so use to flipping on the always dependable PBS or Nick Jr. (although they do have that Mom's After Dark program that I also find unnecessary...a whole different topic to itself.) that I've become lax in pre-screening. Or maybe it's just that up until now....I didn't feel like Ethan was so influential about things, but we are there folks. We have favorite characters and we want to be just like them....mommy and daddy are not the sole influences anymore and that is just downright scary.

Want to see more of our day to day? Hit the "Like" button and get special Facebook updates...

Parenting Fail: Little White Lies

Every now and then, we might tell Ethan a little white lie. Ok, not that often...only when it counts. Please tell me we aren't the only ones that make this tiny little, itsy-bitsy parenting fail?

Can't see the video? Click here

Ok, for real. Tell me your thoughts on v-logging. Do you like it? Would you rather just read it? I feel like reading is faster... 

Wanna see a v-log again here in the future? Every month? Twice a year? Never?

Team v-logging or team blogging? You tell me.

You won't hurt my feelings if you say no to v-logging. Pinky promise.

The true test would be to find out how many of you left as soon as you saw a video...tell the truth.

If this blog is awesome and you know it hit the "Like" button to follow us via FB...

Dr. Oz's 3 Day Detox Cleanse Review

***This post has been receiving quite a bit of Pinterest traffic and I wanted to take a second to say hello! Be sure to look around especially at the "Our Story" tab above and the "Recently Popular" section on the side bar. You can follow my other Pinterest boards here. ***

In order to kick off Operation Get Fit I decided to begin with a cleanse. Prior to this cleanse, I had never done one nor did I know much about them. My initial thoughts were that a cleanse would help me give up a lot of bad habits and hopefully help me restart my system so I could begin a healthier lifestyle. 

I took to Pinterest to scout out some choices and happened upon a couple of options of Dr. Oz's who seemed like a reputable choice. I had seen several cleanses that involved purchasing different drink mixes or what not, but that just isn't my style. I really wanted to do something a bit more natural and familiar. The first Dr. Oz option I saw had a meal plan complete with recipes and the second was just shakes. I know the first one sounds more appealing, but I really thought I would cheat if I went that route. I did not want to starve myself, but I didn't want to open myself to possibly cheating either. For me it is all or nothing. So in lieu of complete fasting, the shakes won out. 

The plan consisted of 4 shakes a day, green tea, vitamins and a detox bath. It promised a cost of $16 a day. I convinced my oh so supportive, but reluctant husband into joining me so I doubled everything. I ended up spending around $100 in groceries (no vitamins included there and I did not buy organic) which totaled out to around $17 a day so pretty spot on. Dr. Oz does not include the snack shake in the ingredients list. I think I had to buy an extra can of pineapple and pint of blueberries to account for this, but mostly I just used a hodge podge of left over ingredients instead of following a true suggested recipe.

source

Prepping

I definitely suggest prepping everything ahead of time. I don't know about you but being hungry makes me lazy and then I hit up a drive thru. Obviously that doesn't jive with a cleanse or a goal of a new healthy lifestyle so I decided to assemble all of my ingredients the day before the cleanse began. 

These shakes are all best when very cold. Since you will not be adding ice I do suggest freezing as many of the ingredients as possible. I went ahead and chopped what I could for each shake and placed the freezable ingredients into mason jars. It seemed pretty time consuming. In fact it took me a good part of the afternoon to assemble everything granted I was doing it for two and had a very distracting toddler and baby on my hands.

Here is what I deemed freezable for each shake:

Breakfast Shake Jar: Raspberries, chopped banana and spinach

Lunch Shake Jar: Chopped cucumber, kale and chopped green apple (I pureed the celery in the food processor and froze it in mini muffin tins)

Dinner Shake Jar: Mangoes, blueberries and kale (I pureed the avocado in the food processor and froze it in ice cube trays.)

Overall Experience:

Day one went perfectly smoothly. It was all new and exciting. I didn't feel like I was starving or deprived. In fact, if you follow the instructions, I don't think you will feel hungry throughout the entire process. Around the afternoon of Day 2 I started to get a headache which continued through part of Day 3. I skipped the snack shake on Day 2 and Day three was a total wash. I grew tired of making shakes for two and planned poorly on Day 3. We went to church then I had to go straight to the store after dropping kids off for a nap so I missed breakfast and lunch. I did the snack shake that late afternoon and then my husband talked me into eating a real meal for dinner that night. I'm pretty sure it was the best decision to eat dinner that night instead of doing breakfast as a first meal the next day. I really think I would have binged if I had waited instead I kept that dinner very sensible and kicked off my new venture of calorie counting on My Fitness Pal (click the link to follow me if you do that sort of thing...motivation and support is always appreciated.). Day 2 and Day 3 were very lazy days for us. I would definitely pick a time to do this when you have nothing else going on as it sucks the energy out of you.

Results:

I lost 4 pounds and 11 inches overall. I was sure I would gain every last bit of this back. It was not my intent to do quick weight loss with this cleanse. I was simply hoping to start a healthier lifestyle with a clean slate, but surprisingly I have been able to maintain the weight loss. 

Verdict:

Although I wouldn't be nearly as excited the second time around, I do think I could do this again. Honestly, I think I would just do Day one and then do some sort of a more fasting type cleanse for the other 2 days. It banished my cravings and stopped my bad habits. It was perfect for someone like me who tends to lack a little self control.

The husband hated this whole process. I don't think he was fully on board with the goals. He did not have extra weight he needed to lose so the motivation wasn't there either. He really missed chewing. Instead of banishing cravings, it made him crave bad foods even more. I'm not sure if any cleanse would be his cup of tea, but I do think that he would have done better if we had chosen the meal plan version. He typically tends to have more self control than I do when it comes to food.

Tips:

• The breakfast shake is hands down the best shake of all. The lunch shake has a funky texture. I recommend food processing the celery as much as possible and adding more pineapple. I love the taste of celery and cucumber so I didn't mind this shake, but my husband hated it. The coconut oil adds a waxy feel as well. The dinner shake was my least favorite. The cayenne pepper does add a lot of spice and I just am not a fan of mangoes, but it's doable. 


• If you start getting hungry before it's time for another shake drink more water. Drinking water really does make you feel fuller. 


• The green tea had waaaaay to much stevia for me. In fact, I'm not a fan of stevia in general. I typically only take half a pack of sugar in my coffee and half a pack of stevia was even too sweet for me. 


• If you go the mason jar route like I did for freezing ingredients make sure to set out your next shake the meal before. It is a pain in the rear to try and get things out of the jar if it is still rock hard. 


• Lots of people gave terrible reviews of the lunch shake. I do think the key is to puree the celery. Also, the ingredients list states one whole cucumber which is kind of vague. I used a third of an English cucumber. I cut it down the middle and scraped out the center seeds/pulp which I think helped with taste.

See the side bar for other popular posts --------------------------->

If you like what you read, click the "Like" button...

A status update

Tomorrow is the official first day of school. Ethan did a summer camp program, so it probably shouldn't even feel like a new season to us, but yet it does. We had a two week break between summer camp and the fall program and during that time we've been wrapping summer up and gearing up for the end of the year rush.

Things have been good, but busy. I feel like I'm in one of those seasons where everyone needs something from me but there just isn't enough of me to go around. Oh wait....that is the definition of motherhood isn't it? I think the difference this go around is that I'm feeling that I need a lot of me right now as well and it just isn't jiving with everything else going on.

My mind consistently goes a million miles an hour and my emotions are on a crazy swinging pendulum. I know this season in life will soon get its self straightened out, but for now I'm feeling very unfulfilled in many ways while at the same time I feel extremely grateful if that makes any sense.

I recently read somewhere that instead of saying "I don't have time." You should say "It's not a priority.". I feel like I go round and round with this. When I succeed in one thing, I fail somewhere else. When I meet someone else's need, I forgo my own and when I make myself a priority, I fail someone else. Guilt ensues, I shift priorities and so on and so on. Round and round it goes. 

As I was explaining this to my husband, he asked me what we could do to make it better. He's all about a plan of action on these sorts of things. My suggestion was that we need the kids to be 6. And in school. Full time. Then...then things will right themselves. He suggested a more realistic and timely plan would be to "set aside x amount of time for x activities.". I laughed, because anyone knows with children things never go as planned. 

I have so many things I want to write about from an operation get fit update, to the detox details, Jackson's 7 (and 8) month updates among some other completed Pintrest projects, but for now I just don't feel like knocking out that task list, but in time, hopefully all of those things will be appearing here. It's just that teensy problem of finding time (or shifting priorities I should say)...I'm sure you all are familiar with that little situation. I assure you I will get to it before the kids are 6. 

That's a pinky promise.