So the positive of being on a crazy total elimination diet? I am back to – and actually below – my pre-pregnancy weight! Not quite at my wedding weight, but I officially fit in my tiniest pair of jeans, so I’m calling it a success!

My hubs and I have a thing where we make it our goal to be within 10 lbs of our wedding weight on our anniversary. It’s something a friend told me, and I really love it. It’s a good gauge and a reminder to keep yourself in good shape for yourself (and your spouse). I’m within 5 and super proud of that fact… Especially because last anniversary I was close to 25ish weeks pregnant!

Hopefully it will last once I’m able to eat enjoyable food again 🙂

I know, I know… This is literally my 5th post today. Can you tell I’m trying to get caught up?

Well, we had such a great Thanksgiving with our sweet baby and have so much to be thankful for, I just had to dedicate a post…

We saw old friends, all the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins… Charlie got to dig into some Thanksgiving sweet potatoes… I got tons of baby snuggles… Toby went on a puppy date… We even got to see great grandpas! It was perfection.

We don’t actually celebrate Christmas religiously, but I am guilty of being a huge Christmas fan. The hype of it and the lights and the music and the tasty cookies and food… It’s just so warm and lovely.

Anyway, this year didn’t disappoint. My sweet little friend Erica played santa this morning and delivered an awesome wood growth chart ruler for sweet Charlotte. It’s unstained, so I think we will stain it and hang it in the finished basement as the “family growth chart.” It’s going to be perfect! And how sweet, huh? She signed it from Santa 🙂

Then we FINALLY made Mark’s father’s birthday gift (overdue since October). Anyway, we got one of those handprint kits forever ago and just finally did it today. It’s super cute and was fun to do!

We had to do three or four takes because as soon as we’d put Charlotte’s hand down, she’d squeeze the mold. And of course, we used the leftover supplies to make a toby print 🙂

Then, best of all, my sweet Friend Kate who moved away to Seattle is back in town. Her family is just the sweetest and always opens their doors to us. In fact, I’ve been there for Christmas or Christmas Eve for quite a few years. And this year was no exception. After Charlotte took two epic naps (3 hours each), we packed up the fam and spent an absolutely lovely evening with them.

Couldn’t have asked for a better day!

The past few nights, we have been sleep training Charlotte to sleep through the night. What does that mean you might ask… Well, when she wakes up for her mid-night snack, we let her cry it out. The first night, she woke up at 1 am, cried for an hour and then went back to sleep. The second night was similar(ish)… Although, we fell asleep and lost track of time.

And last night… Well. Let’s just say she slept through the night! Here’s what we know… The monitor volume was only at 1 (and is usually at a 3 or 4). Mark and I both had dreams that Charlotte was crying. And Charlotte slept until 7:50 am… She usually wakes up between 5:30 and 630.

So, I’m not really sure if she slept through the night or not. Which leads me to, if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?

From my family to yours…

(Sorry for the delayed wishes! Meant to post this days ago!)

Yesterday seemed absolutely crazy. At 4:45 pm, Charlotte had already slept over 14 hours. That means that she had literally been awake for less than 2 hours of the day.

During one of her super epic naps, I had brought her into work from the car asleep and put her (in her car seat) in the conference room where her work crib is. That nap lasted over 3 hours, during which time I went in there twice to check up on her. The first time I went in to check on her and was pretty sure I saw her moving. It was dark and hard to see. Then, another hour went by and I started to doubt myself. Had I seen her moving? Or was it just my eyes? Clearly, I had to go back in and check on her.

This time, I touched her sweet little face and her hand moved. Phew. But still, by 4:45 when she was still sleeping, I decided I should wake her to feed her. She had gone 16 hours with very little food… Plus, I was worried she wouldn’t sleep at night. In hindsight, I’m not sure if I should have woken her.

Anyway, I picked her up out of her car seat and started feeding her. Within minutes, she pooped (very typical Charlie). So, I put her on the changing table (aka my desk) and before I could even touch her, she very simply rolled over from back to tummy for the first time. I was totally amazed.

The amount of excited praise I gave this child was absurd, but it blew me away. I’ve never seen her practice it (besides when I would make practicing rolling over a game for her) and she just did it with such ease. Like, “duh Mom, this is just what I do!”

It was like she needed this epic sleep to cross over some big developmental hurdles. It was pretty amazing. She literally woke up a big girl. My big little girl.

Here’s our girl after her very first back to tummy roll…

Pretty amazing if you ask me. Just more confirmation that this age is just the best. It’s so fun and sweet and exciting and precious. Side story, multiple times over the past week or two, Mark and I have been talking and he’s said something like, “I just love our little family so much” or, “she really is just perfect!”

Love.

As for C, she ended up sleeping over 17 hours last night… And did an overnight stretch! 830 pm – 530 am!

My Grams passed away one week ago today in Milwaukee, WI. Her funeral was yesterday in West Palm Beach, Florida. I wasn’t able to attend my grandfather’s funeral in FL this past June because I was 40 weeks pregnant, so the last family funeral I attended was my other Grammy’s back in 2002. Needless to say, I was anxious and nervous as to how it would go. But, I honestly think everything went so well. It would have been a celebration/memorial that my Grams would have been proud of.

Family flew in from California, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin and there were friends of my grandparents from when they were kids and more recently from their “life extension” (as my uncle calls it) in Florida. People shared stories of Grams, they cried for our loss, smiled at our luck of having such an amazing woman in our lives for so long, and honored her life.

Hearing all of the stories and going through all the old photos really helped me to remember my Grams for who she was before Alzheimers. She was full of life and spunk. She had this way of saying things that was so matter of fact… it made things of such little significance to the world seem so important because they were important to her. She loved to laugh and loved to be surrounded by people. She always had a million friends. Her phone was constantly ringing with girlfriends who wanted to chat or vent or just check in. Grams was an amazing cook. She wasn’t the best at timing the food to come out at once, but it never mattered. You just kept eating and eating until the “courses” stopped coming. She was so artistic… an amazing painter, she could hem a pair of pants in no time, and dabbled in anything she had the opportunity to try, whether it was ceramics or jewelry making. Grandma was also very giving. She would literally give you the shirt off her back or, more likely, the bracelet off her wrist. It was not uncommon to hear Grams say, “You like it? Take it!” or, “You like it? Let’s get you one!” Grams was special. She was beautiful and loving and really had a full life.

Yesterday, someone referred to Grams passing as tragic. I have to say, I disagree. Tragic was the disease that stripped Grandma of her spark these past few years… but her passing, it would have been what she would have wanted. It was quick and seemingly painless. It was no-fuss. I think Grams would have approved. And more importantly, it was after an amazing life… 67 years married to SUCH a loving man, two pretty awesome kids, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

I know I mentioned this in a previous post, but Charlotte truly was a little ray of sunshine during this difficult time. She timed her smiles, coos and conversations perfectly to lift us up when things were feeling like a bit too much. And man was she a trooper. On Tuesday, she only slept 9.5 hours the entire day (including night time). This is a girl who typically sleeps 14-16 hours a day. Regardless, she was happy as a clam for the majority of the time and at her worst, just a little fussy. We couldn’t have asked for anything more from this tiny person. I will write more in another post about traveling with our little 3.5 month old babe, but for now, let’s leave it at this… I’d do it again!

Some of the family reunited… sharing stories, laughs and a good meal!

And then maybe 3 more after that! Before I got pregnant, I had gained a few pounds post-wedding. BUT, as of now, I only have 5 lbs to lose until I’m at my pre-pregnancy weight and then another 2-5 to get back to my ideal! That means I’ve lost 36 lbs in 11 weeks!

I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I’m calling it a win! Especially because I just had my first workout this past weekend. A few more of those every week and I think I could actually have my old body back… Or some motherly variation of it.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

I need to remember this when I’m craving pizza and French fries.

I think I can, I think I can…

As part of Charlotte’s year photo package (professional pictures at newborn, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months), she also gets a bonus “pumpkin patch photo”.

So naturally, I searched the internet for ideas until I found this one…

Since I found it, I’ve been trying to recreate it. So, I watched a tutorial about “scraping a pumpkin” and Mark and I got started last night.

Step one: pick a computer font you like to make your stencil. I originally did this in word, but because her name is so long, I switched to Adobe Illustrator so I could stretch the text to be taller. Once perfected print out stencil on any old paper and cut off the excess paper.

Step two: tape your stencil to your pumpkin. We used doubt sided tape on the back and then scotch tape over it. That worked really well.

Step three: use a very skinny exacto knife to trace your stencil onto the pumpkin. The best way is to poke holes until you’ve traced everything. Note: work from the inside out… The middle, the inside of a letter, everything.

Step four: peel the stencil off and reveal. Then, take flour and rub it on to make your lines pop more.

Step five: using the exacto knife, chunk out the letters. Then, use a scoop (I used the tip of our old school peeler) to smooth it out.

And… Voila!!!

We used a mixture of half water and half lemon juice soaked on a paper towel and wrapped in plastic wrap to preserve it. I’ll let you know how that works…

I also picked up this cute little onesie/pants/tutu thing from Kohls for $14:

And my friend at KiKi & Bee made me the cutest little Halloween headband! Photos to follow.

Now we just need a happy baby and we’ll be all set!

Today is baby boo’s naming ceremony, so wouldn’t you know after sleeping through the night for the past few weeks, she chooses last night to wake up every few hours.

So tired (and cranky).

Wish us luck!