15 months

This is my 200th post!! So of course I will be writing about my most favorite thing in the world... Griffin Blaine!

Griffin turned 15 months old two days ago. He is absolutely hysterical. 

He says:

Bath time!

Down please (when he is done eating) 

All gone (when his drink is gone or his plate is empty)

What is that? (His favorite phrase since 11 months old)

No no no no (while shaking his head)

Bye bye (while waving)

Amen (after we say our prayers)

Hi

Shoes (when trying to put them on)

Momma

Dada

Nana

Papa (Nana and Papa are pretty rare though) 

He has said many other words, but those are his regulars. 

He can feed himself with a spoon and/or fork. He can drink from a regular cup, but only supervised. Otherwise he can get crazy at the end of his meal. 

Griffin can follow simple commands which has made our lives much easier! We can tell him to go get something such as a book of a ball, and he actually does it. We especially like it when he is able to find his drink or snack all by himself. 

He can find his nose, ears, and knows that a cow goes Moo. We are still working on a dog. 

He loves to pretend to read and count. When he builds a tower of blocks, he counts to three before knocking it over. But only we know that he's counting. Lol The number one is always pronounced as "so" for some reason. I'm not sure how to spell his pronunciation for the other numbers. He def has his own way of speaking at this stage!

He is down to an hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes he just takes one nap, but he usually NEEDS two. He only gets his paci while in his crib. At the babysitter's house, he doesn't take one at all. He still sleeps 7-7 at night. I love his schedule!

Griffin is very into climbing. He loves to climb up onto everything. He climbed onto the ottoman the other day and was playing peek a boo with the curtain. He tumbled down and smacked his head on his wicker toy basket. Poor baby... I love how fast babies heal though! Their bruises, cuts, and scrapes only last a day or two. 

G loves being outside! We found out he's allergic to grass though. 😳 We have learned to always keep Benadryl close by. 

He is a great eater. He loves fruit, especially strawberries. 

He's getting so big! I love this stage, but he wears me out. He's a wild man! 

Watching Monsters Inc on the way to Nana's. That iPad is my saving grace on long car rides!

I also spent $3.99 on an app that turned my iPhone and iPad into a video baby monitor. It is SO cool! I love that I spent $4 on a video monitor instead of $300! Score!! I can play lullabies through it, turn on a night light, and even talk to G through the microphone. It's pretty awesome! 

Only four school days left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

iPhone Dump

What we've been up to lately...

Only six more days of school!!!! I'm so excited I can barely stand it!!!!

Thursday’s Top Five–iPhone/iPad Apps

Today I am writing about my favorite iPhone and iPad apps on my personal devices. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a pilot group that field tested iPads in the classroom, so I will have to do another post about apps my students used on a regular basis.

1. Calendar on the iPhone and Cloud Calendar on the iPad

Seriously, where would my life be without my calendar!?! For some reason on my iPad, I could not get the Calendar app to sync with my school Gmail account. However, it managed to put ALL of my Facebook friends’ birthdays in there. So annoying. I bought the app Cloud Calendar for my iPad, and it is synced with my Gmail account. Love it!

2. Social Media Apps – Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest

Do I need to say more? I’m really loving Instagram these days! And Pinterest is making me want to be a stay-at-home momma! Only 12 more days until summer vaca!

3. Picstitch

Sometimes, I have like five photos I want to post. Turns out, people get really annoyed by clogging up their newsfeed with pointless pictures of your kid no matter how cute you think they are! ha! Picstitch is a wonderful and easy app to help me combine those photos into a collage.

4. Runkeeper

I LOVE this app! It keeps up with all my workouts, times, and routes all while letting me listen to my music.

5. MyFitnessPal

I need to be using this consistently, but I’m kinda hit and miss. I’m really good for a few days, then I’m really not so great. I love how it keeps me on track though when I am diligent!

Transformation Monday

Wow! Look at my fat face this time last year! It is so nice to see a difference. I can't wait to see what I will look like when I lose the next 20 lbs! 

I finally went to the doctor to get my injury checked out. My ankle has been swollen for over a month now. I can get it to go down, but I can never get the fluid completely out. Sunday after the race, i could barely walk. It was SO tender. She did an X-ray and thank goodness, she did not see any fractures!! The radiologist will look at it tomorrow, but as of now, I'm just icing, wrapping, and resting. I need it to heal so I can get back to running! I feel like I'm falling behind! 

WCR 5K

I did it. I ran my first 5k. Like actually ran the whole freaking thing. I'm so proud of myself!

Thursday’s Top Five

Now that Griffin is officially a toddler, I thought I would post my top five toddler items!

1. Squeezable fruit and veggie pouches

When I first saw these, I thought the whole concept was gross. However, after trying them, they are a MUST HAVE! G loves them! I always toss some in his diaper bag when we are on the go. They’re quick, easy, and you just toss the pouch away when he’s done eating. I love that I don’t have to haul and back home and wash it. It’s also an easy way to squeeze in some veggies for a little boy who still has some texture issues.

 

2. Separate tees and bottoms

Griffin has outgrown onesies! They are just too big of a hassle now. He mainly wears separates.

 

3. Munchkin Straw Sippy

We still are in love with these cups. You can read my full post about it here.

 

4. Cozy Coupe

This has provided hours of entertainment for our little guy!

 

5. Spoons

This has saved meal times! Griffin is very independent. He wants to do everything himself, and that includes feeding himself. He’s actually getting pretty good at maneuvering his spoon. But if he has one in his hand, he usually won’t swat at the one I’m using to feed him.

 

It’s funny how little babies seem to “need” so many things. Now that Griffin is older, he’s content just walking around the house with his sippy and playing with a few favorite toys. He just needs some loving and play time with his parents, and he’s good. No extra equipment required. 

Women Can Run

I’ve always been an athlete. I’ve played some type of sport ever since I can remember. Softball, soccer, tae-kwon-do, basketball. In college, I played intramurals. However, once I started teaching, all physical exercise stopped. I gained about 10 pounds throughout my college career. But since I’ve been married, I gained 15 more. So that’s 25 extra pounds that I put on since high school. Gag.

HAHA! Can you find me?

Then, Griffin was conceived. I lost a few pounds in my first trimester, but once I hit about 20 weeks, the swelling started. And my appetite grew. The day I delivered baby G, I had gained 50 pounds. I mean really…. That’s just unacceptable.

39 weeks

Two weeks after G was born, I finally lost the water weight. 30 pounds. Poof! That was nice. However, everything was different… and squishy! After I stopped breast feeding and went back to work, I dropped another 10 pounds.

But those last 10 pounds were hanging around… I started to watch what I ate, and I dropped a few pounds, but it quickly came back. I was stuck.

12 weeks after G was born. FAT FACE!

Enter…. WOMEN CAN RUN Clinic 2013. 8 weeks ago I began this journey. But first, you must know I’ve never been a runner. An athlete, yes. A runner, no way. I was allergic to running. Seriously. It caused me to break out into horrible, itchy, unbearable hives. It was awful. But with some compression pants and hydrocortisone cream, I could make it through a 30 minute session at the clinic.

900 women signed up for the clinic including myself and my running buddy, Leslie. If it wasn’t for her, I never would have stuck with it this long. The clinic consisted of two sessions with a homework assignment each week. We started off easy… running 15 seconds and walking 3 minutes. The first month, our increments jumped by only 15 seconds. Easy Peasy.

Then the next two weeks, our running intervals jumped by 30 seconds. The final two weeks, it jumped by an entire minute! We are currently running 4.5 minutes and walking 1.

At our mock 5k on 4-27-2013
Still have a very fat face!

Yesterday, I ran my first mile without stopping or walking. It took me 12 long minutes, but I did it. I’ve never been more proud of myself!

We did it!!

I’ve come a long way. A really long way.  I look forward to running and beating my time now. I look forward to getting rid of some of the every day stress by pounding it out. I look forward to being able to wear that bikini again.

Oh yeah, I’m only 2 pounds away from being back to my pre pregnancy size. But what’s better than that, my “squishy-ness” is starting to go away. I can even fit into some of my pre pregnancy pants now. I can’t wait until they’re too big!!

My goal is to loose 25 more pounds after I loose these last two. That will put me back at the weight I was when I graduated high school.

A few other goals:

• Run a 5k without stopping (Saturday is my chance to try!)
• Run a half marathon next year
• Wear a cute swimsuit before summer is over!

Last time in a bikini when Griffin was the size of an apple seed!
Hawaii 2011 - Still 25 lbs heavier than I should be!

And this post was entirely too personal. I think I like writing about my little boy much more, but I want to look back on this to see how far I’ve come. I’m also hoping that by plastering this on the internet, I won’t be a quitter! ha! I’ll try to share my progress along the way!