Getting Personal

I am going to get personal with you and tell you something. I have a personal trainer coming this weekend. My husband's response: how much? She is the parent of one of my students and I was asking her a couple of questions about how to work out different parts. She said she wanted to come over and show me personally. I am actually excited about it. My own trainer. Even if it is for just one day.

Preparations

We are getting ready for the big event. Getting things cleaned, organized, and moved. Crawling. It's coming, I just know it. We have rearranged our furniture to eliminate lots of free crawling room (try to contain her). Brian is currently child proofing by covering the light sockets and putting locks on the kitchen cabinets.
For you parents: did you baby proof all your cabinets in the kitchen or just under the sink where the cleaning stuff is?
Today we get ready for her. Now, we just wait.

Losing It

A long time back I began to blog about weight loss after a baby. One side note before I begin: when I was pregnant, I was told to eat all the time. I don't hear that anymore. Ok. Back to weight loss. I joined a group of Biggest Losers at school and over 10 weeks lost 9.5 pounds and since then, have lost more. I will tell you what has helped the most. I do a daily log on Sparkpeople of my food and it keeps track of my calories and my calories burned in working out. Plus you can set tons of goals etc on it. Another thing is working out. Yes, what they say is true. My biggest help has been Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansome. She is a christian lady who does walking videos. Pop in the video and walk in your own home. Plus she does some upper body work too. All in one in 15 minutes!
If you are trying to be healthy, these two things have been a huge part. Another, has been prayer that I could have some self-control when it comes to food and not letting it control me. I have added another prayer and that is a super-natural change of my tastebuds to like veggies and eat more of them and to not enjoy the fast-food, fried food type of life style I enjoy. With healthy eating (staying within my alloted calories) and exercise, it works!!

Table Cover

As I have mentioned, Abbie is beginning to rock which means crawling is coming. I know she will begin to pull up on stuff including the coffee table. That will lead to her banging, drooling, and throwing things on it. I created a table cover to prevent that. I bought one of the flannel backed table covers (used for outdoors), cut it in half and sewed it together. Then I bought this really cute yellow print fabric with bugs on it and sewed it over the table cover and added little ties on the corners to tie it around the legs. Now she will be able to bang and nothing gets messed up and we can take it off when company comes. I like the idea!

Sad Times

I am entering a time of sadness. Spring break is over and I have to go back to work. I thought that being home with Abbie would be fun then I would get bored and like to go back to work. Nope. I have just loved being home with her. I say it all the time, but she is just so much fun! She is beginning to push up and rock on her hands and knees. I think crawling is coming soon.
So, to you stay at home moms, praise God daily that you get to see it all. Every smile, every tear, every temper-tantrum-calgon-take-me-away-I-want-to-go-back-to-work moment is so worth it.
I need to find the blessing in that I have 10 weeks left till summer!!

Good Girl

Today we went to Freebirds in Addison to eat and then over to the Uptown area to look around. Our little Abbie did such a fantastic job. She ate her lunch when we did, took a brief nap in the car, and hung out in her stroller as we walked around the uptown area and shopped. She laughed, looked around, and never once got fussy. She is such a good baby. She is easy to take care of and I don't have to worry too much about going out in public with her. If she does begin to fret, she is easy to calm down (or distract). We have been completely blessed with her. God answered my prayer before she was born: allow us to have a content baby. Thank you God for answering my prayer.

What We Do

As parents we do things to our children that we think are so cute but one day, your child will grow up, look at the picture and ask you, "Why?" Stay with me here. I am working on some sewing stuff and I took a piece of material and tied it around her head as she was playing with her wooden spoon. She was none other than Rambo. Well, she kinda looked like Aunt Jemima too. You take your pick. I thought it was cute and took a picture of her and laughed and laughed. I think one day I will get the why question from her. My repsonse, "You just looked so cute!"

Abacus

Brian has been working a lot at work and his boss noticed that. He told Brian to take me out on a date and he would pay for it. OK. His boss recommended we go to Abacus in Dallas. So, off we went and since his boss was paying I thought I would try some new things.
First off, I am a hot dogs and spaghetti kind of girl and don't like anything new or any of my food touching. I went out on a limb and tried a lobster shooter. Of course, I will exaggerate but, that was the biggest piece of lobster I have ever had to chew. I took a bite of my husbands buffalo. Yes, I thought they were endangered or something, but apparently not. I ordered some Australian fish. It was ok. I just kept telling myself it was healthy and had Omega-3 and -6 in it. To top it off, the mashed potatoes were wonderful. To my surprise, they turned out to be purity cauliflower. I am shocked too.
This was a night of firsts and lasts. Next time, I will stick with wontons and order a salad to go with it.
If you are looking for a great date night though, I can't completely knock Abacus. It has a pleasant atmosphere and the waiters are really nice and don't make you feel dumb for not knowing what half the stuff is. (ps. shortbreads aren't bread at all...pancreas! ewwwww!)
Go, have fun, and enjoy!

Shiny White

Little monster is getting a tooth. Well, I don't actually know how long it takes to "get" the tooth, but there is a shiny, little white dot beginning to show through. It's on top and cute. I am going to miss her little gummy smile though because she flashes us the biggest, cutest, grins you can imagine. Oh, what a joy she is!

Balanced Literacy

I went to a conference today and an Aussie taught it (ahhh...Australia!) It was pretty good. His whole thing was over guided reading, which I already do, but not good enough. He focused on the different types of learning for a student and how you have to meet the student where they are, then move them up. You have to develop strategies that work for them, don't fit the kid into a strategy that does not work. You need to set expectations that are high, but obtainable. It made me think-I need to focus on asking more questions, getting my students to think, process, and learn for themselves. I hope to get that going by next week.

Computer Genius

My daughter is a computer genius. She knows how to type (baby language of course). She knows how to open files and programs. I am not sure though if Brian would agree since I let her use the laptop for whatever reason she desires. He might not like it if she does something that can't be fixed. Until the computer breaks, I will continue to let her pound on the keys and open programs. Who knows, I might have the next Bill Gates in training!