I laugh when the teachers at daycare do Stasa's hair

And here's why: PALM TREE!

42 Weeks Old

I see London, I see France, I see Stasa's...

Before Stasa's birthday she started the transition to her new room at school. The Threes. The transition wasn't the easiest one and I was kind of surprised because she's a pretty easy going kid in terms of going to new places and meeting new people. It took a few days (which isn't long at all, transition-wise) and now she's happy as can be in her new room. And so proud. 

The Threes are a bit more structured in their learning than The Twos are and it's like a pre-preschool. And even though most of the kids are all completely potty trained, I was still surprised when Miss Maribel said to bring Stasa in big girl underwear this week. Yesterday was her first full day without pull-ups and she only had one (and a half) accidents. The half wasn't really her fault - she just didn't pull her pants down all the way and ended up sitting on part of them. We weren't sure what to do once we got home, but then decided it might be confusing to her if we put her back in pull-ups, so we kept her in the big girl underwear and no accidents last night (although she did wear plastic covered underwear for bed and even though she went potty like 5 times before bed, she still needed those plastic ones). 

Keep your fingers crossed. I really feel like this time she's going to get it. I know I said that last time and the time before that, but really you guys, *this time* is totally different. lol

Typical toddler: chipped paint and torn tights

We have a three year old

We started the day with a small present. I knew she would ask about presents because the girl's not stupid and she loves presents (but what three year old doesn't?). So I made her a simple necklace with a little M bead on it. She came downstairs and got so excited about the decorations and then zeroed in on the present.





And then we had a special breakfast: pancakes with sprinkles, chocolate chips, and whipped cream! She picked out all of the sprinkles to eat them first.



We kept the birthday low key this year and just had immediate family over for finger foods and cake and ice cream. Stasa really loved the gift from Uncle Jeff and Holly. It was a little girl's dream: fancy tutu skirt and accessories and she wore them the entire day.



Of course there were balloons again. I wonder when the wonder of balloons will wear off? Hopefully never.


She is OBSESSED with our vacuum cleaner and always wants to use it, so we got her her very own Dyson ball toy vacuum. And it actually works! Well, it picks up the equivalent of what you'd find in three bellybuttons.


Then we sang and had cake and ice cream and other desserts.


And Stasa blew out her own candles. She was so happy it was finally her turn.


I still can't believe we have a three year old now and often have to correct myself when I'm talking about her, "our almost three year old - I mean our NOW three year old."

Happy birthday, big girl!

41 Weeks Old

40 Weeks Old

Finally, a regular doctor visit

Regular, as in, previously scheduled, as in, well baby visit. No more sick visits. What's that noise? Yeah, that's me. I'm furiously knocking on wood.

Back to the well baby visit. We went in for Lexi's 9 month check-up and all is well in Lexi-land. Let's start with her stats:

Weight: 19.6 lbs (58th percentile)
Height: 29" (85th percentile)
Head: 17.5" (57th percentile)

She ended up getting one vaccination and took it like a pro. They did a toe-stick, too, to check for anemia and apparently she's slightly anemic, which isn't too surprising since 1. I usually test as slightly anemic (and am a definite anemic when pregnant and probably while breastfeeding, too) and 2. the iron she's getting from my breastmilk usually depletes around the 9 month mark. They told me to add rice cereal to her diet and they'll retest her at her one year appointment. So, there you have it. She's healthy and won't go back until she's one. ONE!

More conversations with Stasa

First, I wanted to share some of my favorite Stasaisms:
Bernie = Ernie of Bert and Ernie fame
Krabby krabby = Krabby Patty from SpongeBob
Bob-Bob = SpongeBob Squarepants

********************************************************************************
Stasa: I want a cupcake!
Me: I want a million dollars.
Stasa: No million dollars. Just a cupcake. 
Me: But if we had a million dollars we could buy a million cupcakes.
Stasa: I don't want a million dollars and million cupcakes. I want a white cupcake.


********************************************************************************


Me: Stasa, what do you want to be when you grow up.
Stasa: Hmm, I want to be a princess!
Me: Well, you know, you could be anything. A doctor, a firefighter, a lawyer, a garbage collector, a mommy...
Stasa: No. I think I'll be a princess.
Me: Not a doctor or a mommy?
Stasa: A princess, mommy. I'll be a princess. Not a mommy.


********************************************************************************


Scene: 10:30 pm on a random weeknight, huge noise is heard from Stasa's room, Tom runs up to investigate.
Tom: Oh my God. OH. MY. GOD. Kari, come up here. Come up here RIGHT NOW.
Me (thinking what could she have possibly gotten in to?): What is it? Coming!

Note: I should preface this by explaining her room set-up. She's got a twin-sized captain's bed, with three rolling drawers under it. She's never messed with those drawers, mostly because she didn't even realize what they were so I've been storing some craft and party supplies in them...including a box of specialty party confetti. You see where this is going now?

I walk into an almost completely naked Stasa, sitting in the middle of her bed, covered and surrounded by party confetti. What. A. Mess. We have her sit on the floor so we can clean up. As Tom and I are cleaning, Little Miss Innocent decides to talk.
Stasa: Whatcha doin', Daddy?
Tom: I'm cleaning your mess.
Stasa: Oh, THANK YOU, Daddy. THANK YOU.

A part of my childhood died today

Stasa turns three on Sunday. I wanted her to be able to celebrate with her classmates today.

I loved when my mom would bake cupcakes for me to share at school. I felt extra special and important when she did. I've been waiting for the day I could do the same for my kids.

Last week I asked two different teachers if I could make cupcakes to bring in for the class and was told by both that I could, but they couldn't have peanuts in them. Done. I did a test run with a new batter recipe that weekend and they turned out pretty good, but a bit dense. I tweaked the recipe and spent last night baking and frosting two dozen cupcakes and was excited to bring them in this morning.

I woke Stasa up and told her today she could bring cupcakes to school to share for her birthday. I'm sure you can picture how excited she was.

We walked into daycare with all of our cupcakes only to be told "Oh no! You can't bring in homemade cupcakes! Only store bought!" Apparently there was a huge miscommunication and I should have double and triple-checked with the director. Lesson learned. I ran to Giant and bought two dozen mini cupcakes for the class. Really, cupcakes are cupcakes to two and three year olds.

But mostly today I'm sad. I'm mourning the loss of a piece of my childhood. It's just not the same buying cupcakes from the store, especially since the store's bakery is using the same ingredients I am. And I really love baking. I guess I'll just have to make sure I bake her one hell of a cake for her birthday this weekend.

Yet another Weight Watchers success story

After I had Stasa I had no trouble dropping the baby weight, I hadn't gained too much to begin with and I was nursing and eating relatively okay. And once I stopped nursing her, the last five or so pounds just melted off without any real work.

I (stupidly) assumed the same would happen after I had Lexi. I gained about the same as I did during my pregnancy with Stasa and I was breastfeeding again PLUS running after a very active toddler. What I failed to realize was that 1. I was literally living in sweatpants, pajamas, or leggings every day and 2. I was eating non-stop. Eating enough for an entire family of five. Loaves and loaves of homemade bread, countless McDonald's meals, ice cream and cake and cookies...it's embarrassing really. And even though I knew I was eating constantly, the mirror still lied to me and told me how fabulous I looked. Then the day came when I had to return to work and as I was squeezing my chub into my size 12 work pants, I had a come-to-Jesus talk with myself. I was not as fabulous as I thought I was. Wearing stretchy pants my entire maternity leave did me no favors. And it was time to take action. I researched all of my options and talked with friends and coworkers about what worked for them and finally made a decision.

I joined Weight Watchers online. They had a promotion - no registration fee if you joined for a three month period. I figured I only wanted to lose 10 or so pounds and that would be a cinch to do within that time period. That was back in July. I weighed in at 173 lbs. I'm 5'8". Weight Watchers suggests that your first weight goal be an easy one to reach - 5% of your current body weight, which would have been roughly 164 lbs. I wanted bigger results and set mine at 10%, to get me to roughly 155 lbs. My plan was to get to my goal and then roll off the program.

My first day on Weight Watchers was quite eye opening in terms of learning how unhealthy my food choices were. As a breastfeeding mom, I get extra daily points, with a total of 46 points a day (I would probably get somewhere around 29-30 if I wasn't breastfeeding). That morning I had packed Pop Tarts as part of my breakfast. I ate them and then logged them in my Food Tracker. ELEVEN POINTS. I walked to my coworker's office to moan and groan about how Weight Watchers was trying to starve me and my disbelief over having a mere four points left for dinner.

Over the first week my diet changed drastically. I was eating just as frequently, but what I was eating was so much healthier. I swapped all of my pre-processed snacks for fresh fruits and veggies. Instead of McDonald's I was having a giant salad with oil and vinegar for dinner. And the weight started coming off. After two weeks of just eating Weight Watcher's recipes for dinner, Tom started dropping weight faster. He joined the next week. Having him follow the same system is so helpful. He packs our breakfast and lunch each day for work and we take turns making dinner each night, and we usually try to use recipes in the Weight Watcher's system (although we definitely tweak things to add more flavor). We've even tweaked our own favorite recipes to make them healthier and half the time I don't even notice the difference.

I met my first weight loss goal (10% of my body weight) in mid-October, right before my three month anniversary. My clothes fit comfortably, I was working out here and there, but I wasn't totally happy with my body. I felt like I could easily lose just a bit more. I set a new goal for 145 lbs. Surprisingly I made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas without too much damage and in fact, I weighed in on Christmas day at just over 147 lbs. Needless to say, my clothes are a bit baggy on me and I have to wear a belt with all of my pants. Thankfully Tom got me a couple of pairs of jeans for Christmas and received a few coupons from the Express for $25 off the next purchase. I decided I should use it to get a new pair of work pants. Once at the store I grabbed a few pairs of pants in a size 10 and went to try on. They still didn't fit right and were just a bit too loose. I decided to try on a size 8 for fun, thinking I probably wouldn't even be able to get them up over my thighs. They fit. Comfortably. And then I realized I've been walking around in pants two sizes too big.

I've lost just over 25 pounds and have to credit the Weight Watcher's system. I'm two pounds from my final goal weight, but will probably stay on the program for awhile because it's nice to have a way to keep yourself in check with what you're eating.

And it feels so good to see my weight loss in chart form.

Solar system and other play things

Our planets look like they're out of order, but they're hung in a circle, surrounding the sun. They are a *bit* off in terms of how far away they are, but we had limited space. So from left to right, here's what we've got: Neptune, Jupiter (the sun spot is on the other side, and it's glorious), Earth (with one of the ten red moons Stasa insisted it should have), Mercury, Sun, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus. No Pluto.

I got a gift card to Michael's as part of my Christmas gift from Matt and Loula. I went to Michael's intent on buying scrapbooking supplies and walked out with the makings of a solar system instead. It took us a few days, and Stasa obviously had help on the painting front, but it was a fun project and it's now proudly displayed in the playroom.



Stasa started off painting the sun and got most of it covered before she spied the tiny styrofoam balls and the red paint. After that all bets were off. She insisted on painting like ten moons for Earth. All red. Since she was hell bent on using red, we had her work on Mars and some of Jupiter. After a couple of days, I finally convinced her to try white and yellow to paint Saturn. Then it was back to the moons.



I think I might make a little poster with velcro planets so she can learn their correct order, not that it's urgent she know that this very minute, but it would be an easy DIY project to make. And she loves the one I made for learning the shapes.

So far we've spent the majority of 2012 playing. Tom and I have become obsessed with Words with Friends and spend a lot of our down time playing it. Against each other. While in the same room. Really we should just break out the Scrabble board.

Lexi took her first steps right before the New Year and will occasionally take a few steps here and there, but only when my camera isn't around. She *will* stand on her own all of the time and walks with easy if she's holding on to something. Even if she has to hold that something up, like the baby doll stroller. I guess she just needs that safety blanket. I did manage to get a video of her taking few tiny steps and will upload that soon. She's shaping up to be just as headstrong as her big sister.


*********************************************************************************
Cat and mouse


Sink baths


Driving, already


Little Miss Attitude




Miss Blue Eyes


And the BrownGreenYellow Eyed Beauty


*********************************************************************************











*********************************************************************************

Of course the dollhouse is still a bit hit. And the strangest things happen in that dollhouse. For instance, check out the feast going on here.


I love seeing how imaginative she is when she plays with the house.

39 Weeks Old

SHE WALKS!

Okay, not really. But yesterday Lexi took her first steps: STEP-STEP-STEP-FALL. And she did it again this morning. I guess she just wanted to make sure we ended 2011 on a high note. I'll try to get a video of her doing it next time. I screamed when she took her first steps because Tom was in the other room and I think I scared her. Oops. Happy New Year, everyone!