22 Months + 9 days

It's time for a little man update. 

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Lukas will be TWO in less than two months.  I don't know how this happened.  It seems like yesterday that he was unable to do more than lay still and stare at me.  Now he is a non-stop ball of energy that I am so totally in love with. 

So what's he up to at 22 months and 9 days?

Teeth: All of them but his two year molars.  (Momma's not real excited for those to make an appearance.)

Hair: Blond with a touch of curl.  Like his daddy.

Eyes: Grayish green.  They look more like his daddy's eyes than his momma's.

Weight: I'd guess 27ish pounds.  We'll find out at his 2 year doctor appointment in November.

Diapers: Size 4

Clothes: All over the board.  He can still fit in some 12 month pants/shorts!  He's mostly in size 18-24 month shirts and PJs though.  He's tall but skinny!  He wears a size 5.5 shoe, but I think they're too small already!

Eating:  Most anything.  He loves waffles in the morning and asks for goldfish and cookies for snacks. He drinks a lot of (whole) milk and water but refuses to drink any sort of juice, which I suppose is not a bad thing.  He loves cheese and tomatoes.  All bread products.  Most berries.  Sausage, bacon and chicken.  Occasionally pork or fish.  Our new trick is to all act like dinosaurs at the dinner table - it makes for a very interesting dinner, but Lukas ends up eating his whole plate of food!  (So if you come to eat with us soon, be prepared to act like a T-Rex!)

Sleeping: 11-12 hours every night!  1.5-3 hour nap (1.5 hours at school and over 3 on the weekends!).  We try to put Lukas to bed around 7:30 every night and bedtime takes about 30 minutes.  Many mornings we have to wake him up for school - the kid loves his sleep!  He is still sleeping in his crib with bunny and his blanket.

Friends:
@ Primrose: He is still "missing Rome" everyday when you ask who he played with at school.  And he misses Nate but gets excited whenever we see him (They are in a class next to each other now).  He talks about Owen and Vera the most, so I suppose those are his two current buddies in EPS2. (And Owen still bites according to Lukas....)
- He is in love with Elise (our friends Lauren & Eugene's little girl) - we see her often and Lukas just follows her around.  She tells him what to do and bless his little heart, he does it!  He calls her "Lisey".
- He talks about "Baby Oliver" often, even if it's been a few days since we've seen Chris, Emily & Oliver, so I think he likes him and is excited to have a guy friend to play with one day on the weekends!

Favorite Books:  (there's a few...)
- The Little Engine that Could (I'm really ready for that phase to end.  Luckily, he is more interested in finding the farmer and his sheep than actually reading the book.  Last night he had to kiss the farmer good night!)
- Goodnight Moon (Every. Single. Night. Multiple. Times. Sigh.)
- "Wocket Pocket" (i.e. There's a Wocket in My Pocket) or "Cat Hat" (i.e. The Cat in the Hat) - he really likes Dr. Seuss right now
- Just Like My Mum (It's a really cute book if you've never read it or are looking for a baby shower gift! And Lukas knows most of the story so he "reads" along with me.)

Favorite songs:
- The Thomas and Friends theme song - he tries his best to sing along and gets SO EXCITED when he hears it.  My favorite part is when he sings about Thomas as the "cheeky one"...I'll try to get a video soon!
- The Mickey Mouse Club house song & Hot Dog song - perhaps he's been watching a little M-I-C-K-E-Y m-o-u-s-e....
- Electric Car by They Might be Giants - Lukas knows all the words.  And loves "leclec car". (The CD is another great kid gift!)

Favorite toys:
- Dinosaur flash cards and his dinosaur figurines.
- Toy kitchen
- Thomas the Train & Thomas puzzle

Lukas is a really happy, sweet boy.  He gives hugs and kisses and likes to snuggle.  But he also likes to be independent.  He doesn't walk, he RUNS everywhere.  He loves to dance and sing and play.  The only time we have real tears is at bedtime.  Lukas would rather stay up and play or read books than go to bed, but once he goes down, he's out for the night.  Mr. Cob has a better handle on the bedtime routine than me...perhaps because I give in to Lukas' "requests" even though I know he is simply stalling.

I love this age.  He can more or less always tell us what he wants or what is bothering him.  And he is just so fun to be around.  He reminds me to smile and have fun with life!

Clean Insanity

So my last health update was about my mental health.  I am happy to report that things are continuing to look up in that arena.  I stopped taking the antidepressant (with my therapist's approval and advice) a few weeks ago. I was nervous that the depressed feelings would swoop down on me again, but so far they have not. I do think the depression was largely hormonal and now that I'm about 4 months post-weaning the hormones seem to have leveled out. The therapist also helped me get a grip on the non-hormonal aspects of the depression. I probably would've stayed on the pills longer, but to be honest, thanks to therapy I realized I really do want another baby soon-ish and I didn't want to take anything while pregnant. (I'm not pregnant though, for anyone wondering.) I just want to have some time where my body is hormone and drug free before getting all hormonal again.

I also wanted some time to get my body in shape and healthy.  I lost all the baby weight within a year of having Lukas, but I never got into a solid workout routine.  I never regained all the lost muscle or definition and I haven't felt "good" about how I look in a long time.  I felt OK, but not good.  So before going and getting all baby-big again I decided I wanted to slim down and get healthy first.  It may seem backwards, but I have the goal of losing about 13 pounds before getting pregnant and gaining them all back.  I figured that if I could get in a good workout routine NOW and eat healthy NOW, then I'd have a better shot of only gaining the 25-35 recommended pounds the next time around.

So, I've been hitting this from two sides wholeheartedly: workout and eat clean.  And I couldn't be happier with the results!

I'm am currently in week 7 of a 9 week program called Insanity. I love it. I work out 6 days a week for between 30 to 60 minutes per day. (I wake up early or fit my workout in after dinner.  This is a big time  commitment, but it is me time that I need and that is important!)  The program is seriously insane.  I still cannot get through an entire DVD without having to stop and rest at some point.  It is hardcore.  And I LOVE IT!  If you're looking for a new workout program, this is worth every penny!  I took pictures at the half way point and can't wait to compare them to my after pictures in two more weeks.  I am gaining muscle, toning my body, shrinking my stomach and feeling all around amazing.  I honestly haven't felt this good about the way I look in at least two to three years.  Maybe longer.

The other part of my little health revolution has been clean eating.  I touched on clean eating a couple weeks back when I first started.  I'm now 5 weeks in and feel great.  My trusty old blender turned out to be not so trusty, so I'm now the proud owner of a Vitamix and LOVE IT!  This morning I drank a kale, spinach, swiss chard, celery, cucumber, pineapple, mango, banana smoothie for breakfast.  Delicious.  Mr. Cob and Lukas have also been clean eating and they both are actually eating the food...because the food TASTES GOOD! It's simply real, minimally processed foods.  I've been cooking recipes from the Clean Eating Magazine nightly and most everything has been great.  Clean eating does require forethought and planning, but it is completely do-able.  If I can do it, you can do it!  I plan to write a detailed post soon simply about clean eating and some "how tos" for the busy mom.  But for now the simplest tip is this: Don't buy/eat any food that has an ingredient that you cannot pronounce or do not know!

All around I feel good.  I'm happy.  And the scale is moving.  I'm down almost 8 pounds in 5 weeks.  This may not seem like much, but on my 5'4 frame, it is to me.

Mr. Cob and I are going on vacation in October and I'm actually looking forward to going bathing suit shopping in a few weeks.  I'm excited to continue on this health journey and make it a part of my entire family's life.  It's not a diet.  It is a lifestyle.  (Luckily, I've deemed red wine to be a "clean food".  I mean, wine is made from grapes.  Grapes = clean.  Logical, right?)

So that's what's been going on in my world.  Healthy, clean and insane!

Working Mom Tips

Please head over to Dr.ZandFriends to check out my latest post on Trying to Do it All!

http://drzandfriends.com/2012/09/you%e2%80%99re-not-alone-trying-to-do-it-all-%e2%80%93-working-mom/

Giveaway winner!

The lucky winner of the frog backpack, as selected be random.org, is #2 - Katie!! Congratulations!

Nest Changes

There have been a lot of changes going on at Casa de Swan lately.  Here's a sneak peak...I hope to take some "real pictures" (with my camera instead of my phone) once we're finished, but I thought I'd show some "in-progress" pictures for now!

Thanks to Pinterest for the inspiration and Mr. Cob for the handiwork

Where do you think this guy will show up?

Refinished floors!



Laundry room - new paint and floor



Who doesn't want a hanging ironing board?  Don't mind the ugly blue ironing board...



Blog Giveway: La-La-La Leash

It's time for a BLOG GIVEAWAY!!!!  Get excited.

So if you're friends with me on facebook, you know that I ended up with two backpack harnesses last week after leaving Lukas' black backpack at my parent's house and fearing a trip to the airport with Lukas without it.  Mr. Cob sprung to action to buy me a replacement, but our only option was the Eddie Bauer Frog Backpack Harness.

Ain't he cute?!?

Well, Lukas wasn't a fan of Mr. Frog and refused to wear him.  So froggie enjoyed the scenic view to Boston and back on my arm instead of Lukas' back and I carried Lukas in my other arm.  It was a great arm workout.

So here's where you come in: we do not need to own TWO backpack harnesses.  I mean, really.  So I'm giving the frog backpack away to one lucky winner!

To enter, simply leave a comment!  Added bonus if you tell me where you'd like to travel with your kiddo and the froggie harness!  The giveaway will end at midnight on Friday, September 7, EST, so be sure to enter before then, at which point I'll select a winner at random!

Note for all you leash hating parents: the backpack can be used sans leash as just a cute backpack!

My Solemn Vow: 4 Years Later

Mr. Cob and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary this past week.  It is possible that I deserted him on our actual day while in Boston visiting an old friend.  The day came and went with little fanfare this year - we didn't even exchange cards. Mr. Cob wished me happy anniversary over my voicemail.  Our gift to each other is a week long vacation sans the kiddo in October.

Even though we weren't physically together on our anniversary this year, my heart still smiled. I love August 31st each year because it's the date I committed myself to another person. Four years ago on August 31 Mr. Cob and I looked in each other's eyes and said "lets do this!"  And each August 31st is a reminder to me of those vows I took and a time to recommit myself to our life together.  We're in this for the long haul.  There is no out.  We're clear on that point.

But it's not always easy, this marriage thing.  There are moments we don't like each other.  There have been whole days we don't want to talk to one another.  There are weeks we are tense around the house.  And I'm sure in the future there will be rough months and perhaps even years.  Sometimes we need a reminder that we love each other.  We need to remember what it was that made us fall in love with one another.  We need to recall those feelings we had when our love was still fresh and new.

Which is why I love August 31st.  It brings me back to Pine Mountain, Georgia where I cried and stuttered my way through vows that I wrote myself.  It reminds me that I promised to cherish this man.  I promised to love him.  I promised to support him.  I promised to listen to him.  For all the days of my life.

And he promised to make me laugh.  He promised a whole bunch of other things too, but this promise is the one that I cling to.  The one that ensures me that we can get through any rough patch.  The promise that will be there once beauty and youth fades. 

He has held tight to this promise and he has delivered.  I am a lucky woman to be married to this man who makes me laugh.  I am a lucky woman to be married to this man who approaches fatherhood with laughter (and the joy that cannot help but accompany laughter).  I am a lucky woman who laughs often.  I am a lucky woman.