Sofia loves having me write down recipes and grocery lists. Today she explained to me how to make a Buttermilk Sandiwhich. Somebody test it out and let me know how it turns out.
-Corn
-Soup
-Bananas
-Pickles
-Olives
(Heat these up)
Next add-
-Leaves
-Beans
-Cereal
-Angel Cookie
(Toast everything)
Next... this is the important part of what you do with the ingredients
"Paint it."
"Hug it"
"Squish it into a squishy Pile."
And there you have it, a delicious Buttermilk Sandwich.
It has been too long since I have posted.. so I will just ramble.
-I am thinking about attempting to do cloth diapers part time with Gabe. My rock star friend Marianne said that she would help me make some pocket diapers. I will let you all know how it goes.
-I think that I am too social. I need to have more days at home with the kids just chilling. The only problem with being at home is that I am starting to slowly wean Gabe and when we are hanging out at home, I am constantly trying to distract him so he forgets about nursing.
-Chris is a crazy man. School, Masters, Photography, Counselor in the Young Mens', and Family. He is stressed. I love this dude and so appreciate what he does for his family.
Here are some Sofia updates:
-She insists that her name is Annabelle and that Gabe is Chucky Sue.
-I don't think Sofia is going to be a super girly girl. When we showed up at the park the other day, she enthusiastically yelled out, "Everybody, let's get dirty.' And she did.
-She loves sneaking out of her room a million times lately after we put her to bed. The other day she yelled out "Mom, I love you more than ice cream." From one ice cream lover to another, I took that as a sweet compliment :).
This was our 6th visit to the aquarium in 5 months :). On this trip, we went with our bilingual playgroup. It was fun, and the kids never get sick of going.
Ahh.. nothing bonds siblings like some good old fashioned tv watching. Okay not really, but I did think that the hand holding was cute.
I never know if Gabe is going to nap when I work all day on Tuesday. When we got home, he literally sat on the couch and fell asleep within 1 minute.
More Gabe news:
-I mentioned the whole stitches saga in the last post.
-Gabe is seriously a climbing monkey. That is why I am surprised that he hurt himself simply stumbling and tripping.... he does many daring things at home that scare me to death.
-Gabe is saying soooo many words. Every time he talks it cracks me up.
-Gabe loves to give kisses and to push. He is a passionate little man. 
This is Gabe and I enjoying a lazy morning. Little did we know that just 2 hours later we would end up in immediate care with stitches :(
We made our annual visit to the OSU sheep barn to see the sweet new lambs and the mamas in labor. We were standing with a group of people all watching a Ewe about to deliver her baby, and Sofia was quite entertaining with her comments: "Mama, when you had a baby, were you a sheep?" I on the other hand was having a hard time watching another being suffer to bring life into the world. Call me sentimental.. but there is something beautiful about birth.... even with sheep!
We had a Crazy day Monday! I was at Sunnyside up with a few friends... and all you mamas know the drill. Chat with girlfriends, chase toddler, pick up where your conservation left off, chase toddler... and then repeat. Gabe smiles and starts running away from me, trips, and bangs his head into the corner of a chair. I am actually from behind not worried as this looks like one of the 10 tumbles he takes a day. I hear panic in my friend Alyssa's voice as she says "Kara, he is bleeding." Gabe was bleeding like crazy (I never knew the whole thing about the head bleeding so much). He has blooding pouring down all over both of us as customers look on. My poor Gabey Baby. My friends took over keeping Sofia away, but I had to yell for someone to help me with Gabe as he is still bleeding as we are both becoming drenched in blood. Chris says I always know how to drag a story out forever.. so the gist. Gabe and I in immediate care for over 2 hours, a straight jacket, 4 adults holding Gabe down, 5 stitches, and a mama that was almost fainting and trying to keep it together. It sucked. I went from being a laid back mama to one of those hovering mamas you see in the park who is gasping at everything their kid does.I am sure that I will chill out more when he is healed up. More out of the ordinary things happened with the next 24 hours that I am too tired to write about :). I am glad that is all over. There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain. Nothing.
Gabe enjoying his sympathy Jamba Juice.
This is my year. I have a goal to establish healthy habits in my life this year that I can carry throughout my life. When I told Chris that I made Tonya take these pictures, he carefully asked "Are these the before or after pictures." They are my before pictures I guess.... but the truth is, this is much better than I looked a year ago... so maybe they are my middle pictures?
I tried to look extra serious, worn, and without any makeup, so that even if I my body doesn't change, I may still look more dazzling in the after pictures :).
Holding in my love handles to visualize what I would look like without them
So, let me explain more about why this is going to be my year. First of all, I have to say that I don't think that I look horrible... in fact... I think that I look fine for having two kids. Yes, I have some nice love handles and jiggly thighs, but I don't really have a super poor self image. Mamas need a little bit of padding to snuggle up with.
This is the problem. I have established some poor habits that I want to get rid of. I actually am a pretty health conscious gal, but I have one habit that I can not break, and that is...drumroll please.....over eating. It all started in high school when I had an extremely high metabolism, and I got teased for being able to eat anything without gaining weight. Well, when I started college, it slowly became obvious that if I kept eating a lot, I would no longer maintain but put on weight. I have never really been able to break my habit of eating too much. Baked goods are the worse. I am not lying when I say that if I totally lose control, I could eat a small loaf of banana bread by myself in one day or 5 freshly baked cookies. This is actually kind of embarrassing to admit that I eat like a hungry lumberman. I realized how bad my bread/food addiction was when after Christmas when I actually felt sick of baked goods and stopped making them, I dropped 4 pounds immediately. Not to get all Oprah on you all, but I really am trying to figure out why I am overeating. Is it habit? Is it boredom sometimes? Is it a comfort? Maybe a combination of all of these things. I really want to gain control of this, so I can establish life long healthy eating for myself and my family. I would love to have help if any of you ladies would like to support each other.
Being a woman, I have had dozens of dieting/weight loss/post mama body conversations with women, and I am starting to wonder if we are all making this too complicated. We do not need fancy diets. There is no easy way about it. We all just need to figure out what amount of calories our bodies can handle (with the right healthy foods) and stick to that to maintain... or cut down a little bit to lose. Add consistent exercise to that and walah.... I know that it is not that simple for some women who have health complications, but for me, I feel like I need to stop making excuses so much and try harder. I actually feel like I am getting in much better physical shape as I am training for a half marathon, but I really have to get control of the overeating!
So to you my dear friends, I ask:"What is keeping you from being the healthiest you can be?"
I want to lead a long and healthy life and continue to have energy for my family.... so it is time for me to gain control while I am young. Do any of you have tips that help keep you from overeating??
Margaret, I dedicate this post to you since I am still laughing about your post on funny song lyrics. Doesn't this picture of Fergie just make you laugh? She is so ridiculous, but somehow I found myself cracking up on the way home from running tonight ,when I caught myself whole heartedly singing these lyrics by Fergie:
I hope you know, I hope you know
That this has nothing to do with you
It's personal, myself and I
We've got some straightenin' out to do
And I'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket
But I've got to get a move on with my life
It's time to be a big girl now
And big girls don't cry
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry
Okay, I realize that most of you may not find this funny, but it is so funny to realize that the lyrics of most "Pop" songs are so dumb. Don't even get me going on "My Humps"
Another song that made me laugh when it came on the on the other day by Brian McKnight singing (and this also brought me funny memories of college Margaret):
1 you're like a dream come true
2 just wanna be with you
3 girl its plain to see that you're the only one for me and...
4 repeat steps one through 3
5 make you fall in love with me
If ever i belive My work is done So i start back at one\
These lyrics make no sense and are just silly. And finally, the one that made me laugh the hardest from Margaret's blog was by the lovely faith hill singing:
If I could grant you one wish
I wish you could see the way you kiss
Of all of the wishes in the world that she could wish.... she wished that her man could see the way he kisses? Chris, if you read this.... please know that if you ever could grant one wish.. I don't want to see the way I kiss you :).
Okay sorry.. that's it. Please do share your funny pop lyrics with me so I can laugh for another 6 months (I am easily amused ).
