Mara Goes Grocery Shopping

Mara decided she was going to make dinner for her daddy and me, so we headed to the store. (Lol!) 

She grabbed a cart... 

And we're off! 

"First we need some papaya spears...."

"...and an assortment of leafy greens.."

"....and now we need some onions.."

"..aaaaaaand some crustaceans."

Child, what are you cooking??

(In reality we were killing time til Corky was off work so we could go out to dinner! Lol.) 

Mara's 1st Birthday (and Picture Dump)!

Well, it finally happened.  My sweet little baby became my sweet little toddler!  How is that possible??  Where did the time go?  How do I not have an infant anymore?

Oh, but I am so in love with my girl.  She is spunky, stubborn, smart as a whip (no, I'm not biased or anything!), beautiful and sweet.  I have never known a love like the love I have for my kid!

Her actual birthday was Monday, the 23rd, but we celebrated the day before so that all her grandparents and aunt and uncle could come.  We didn't have a huge party, just a little family shindig, but she got some awesome presents!  (Mom-fail though, I didn't get a picture of all the gifts!  Bummer!  Oh well, I'm still new at this whole mom thing, so maybe next year I'll have my sh*t together! Haha.)

But first, I want to share these 2 pictures.  

The day before her party, we went to a baby shower for my longtime friend.  It was a tea party theme, so cute!  So we dressed up for the occasion and Mara just looked so beautiful I had to take photos.

How cute is she??  Seriously! I can't handle it!

Okay, these next pictures are from Mara's birthday party, pre-cake.

She stuck a whole melon ball in her mouth!  It was hilarious!  Of course I jumped up and got it out before she could choke on it, but it was so funny because normally she is so wary of food that isn't bread-like. Funny girl.

Mommy hanging out in Mara's new play tent.  LOL!

Don't judge!  I was tired! Haha.

Mara investigating her new tricycle from my parents.

Okay, now for the cake pictures.

Eyes on the prize!

Yeah, she went straight into the bathtub after this! 

The birthday collage I put on my Facebook.  Love my little bug!

I can't believe she's ONE!  I can't believe she was ever as tiny as she was

in the upper right picture! Lol.  Seems like a dream, but she was!

Now for a few random pictures that weren't numerous enough to make their own post about, so they're being tacked onto the end of this one. :)

On Mara's actual birthday, November 23rd, we went to take a piece of her birthday cake to our favorite lactation nurse.  Seriously, this woman is an angel.  If it wasn't for her, I'm certain I wouldn't still be nursing today.  She is the kindest, most compassionate person.  Thank goodness for her!  Anyway, Mara loves her (as you can see) and she was teaching Mara the importance of always matching your nail polish to your outfit.  Love her!

Here are some random pictures of my sweet girl.

(We were out for a walk with her new trike and her hands were cold, 

so I gave her my gloves LOL!)

And, last but not least, a few pictures that aren't of Mara.

Favorite outfit at the moment.

I'm just gonna leave this here....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING USA!!!! :)

I Have Something To Say

I think......

I think....... it might be time.

It might be time for me to give up this eating disorder.  Time to give up trying to hang onto it AND have a life AND be a mom AND be healthy.  The 3 latter things go together, the first does not.

And it's not healthy for my daughter to see it.  I may have the best of intentions to keep my mouth shut and not hate on myself in front of her but you know what?  It's going to slip out, I fear. 

It may just be time to say goodbye to it.

Somewhat Better

Okay..... I think I may be starting to come out the other side of that latest funk.  I did weigh myself yesterday... the number was fine.  Not as low as ED would like but you know what?  The mirror looks okay to me so I'll just go with that.

Check out my other blog, FitMinute, just for the hell of it.

www.fitminute.blogspot.com

Struggles

Having such a hard time with body image, food, etc.  UGH I just hate it.  I don't know what else to write, I just wanted to document that.  

Just To Write..

I haven't written just to write in a while.  Usually I'm making a point or documenting some event.  So I think, today, I'm just going to take a little while and just... write.  Let you in my head, if you care to see.

Things are going pretty well.  I've hit a creative streak recently and been making decorations out of construction paper and taping them to the windows.  I made a bunch for Halloween and now for Thanksgiving.  For Halloween my mom and I made: jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, candy corns, a haunted house with a fence and pumpkins in front, glaring eyeballs, a spiderweb and several words (including "spooky" "Boo!" "Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween").  For Thanksgiving, so far, I've made 4 turkeys, a bunch of leaves, a sign that says "Give Thanks" and a bunch of words (listing what I'm thankful for, including but not limited to: family, health, friends, jobs, home, love and bulldogs.  Not necessarily in that order!)  I plan to try to make a big cornucopia to finish off the windows.

I can't believe Mara is almost 1!   She started walking the other day.  It's really cute!  She's still pretty wobbly but she can walk about 5 feet before falling down.  It usually works better if you have something she can walk to, such as a phone or a book or a sharpie.  She experienced her first stomach bug the other day (Tuesday.)  Between her and one of the bulldogs, I was cleaning up puke all day.  Pretty gross!  I felt really bad for her... but there wasn't much I could do except rub her back and tell her she'd be okay.

I'm still teaching Zumba and Aqua Fit.  I feel like I'm kind of burning out though.  Part of the problem is that my commute is SO BAD!  This morning, 217 was LITERALLY bumper to bumper and the travel time sign said it would take 40 minutes to get to Interstate 5 from where I was... and class started in exactly 40 minutes.  Uh oh!  So I got off the freeway and tried to go through Beaverton... but that didn't work out so well either.  Portland is just really overcrowded.  Anyway, long story short, I got there at 8:33am (3 minutes late.)  Not too bad.  Still a really discombobulating way to start the day.

Corky and I have a friendly rivalry going in the game of Tetris on the xfinity.  I currently hold the record in all 3 modes.  I cleared 40 lines in 2:28:10!  The record was 3:06:06 for the longest time (that was Corky's) and then I beat it by nearly 20 seconds one day.  It was all downhill after that for him, poor Corky.  I also hold the record in the 2 minute challenge, at 8,390.  I hold the record for the endurance one but I can't remember what it is.  71,000 or something.  I got to level 10.  It was awful. LOL!

Mara is down for a nap now, so I think I'm going to make another cup of coffee and finish watching a show I started yesterday while I fold laundry.  Then I have to clean.  My house resembles New Orleans after Katrina blew through.  (No disrespect intended to New Orleans on that... it makes sense for a city to be in shambles after a disastrous hurricane.  Not sure what my excuse is..... Hurricane Mara I guess!)

Halloween 2015

It was a great day! 

The day started with me subbing an Aqua Fit class dressed like this. 

Then my mom came over and we dressed Mara in her Batgirl costume for a photo op.  That Trick or Treat basket was mine when I was little - my grandma made it for me! 

Then Mara went down for a nap and we got to work carving pumpkins! 

(No I did not use a stencil for my scary Jack o' lantern.  Best one I've ever done freehand!)

When Mara woke up I had to take some more pictures of her.  She's just so cute!! 

The weather was HORRIBLE.  Cold and absolutely pouring rain.  So Mara and I picked up some cupcakes and went over to my friend's house.  Her son is a month older than Mara.  The babies played, we hung out and had dinner.  Then around 7:30 Mara and I headed home.  When she went to bed, I lit my pumpkin on the porch.  So creepy!!! Such a good Halloween :)