Is this what a chubby baby looks like??

One with tummy and one without. In the first one, he's saying, "What? Are you saying I shouldn't have had that last bottle?"

I love his cheeks in the second one!

I think I did it. I think I have a chubby baby!! (It really took some work to get under all his chin rolls! I know he has a neck in there somewhere cause I love to kiss it!) At his two month check up he weighed in at 12 lbs 13 oz, which is 75th percentile. Kate couldn't reach the 75th percentile in weight to save her life! He was also 75th percentile for height. And, of course, his noggin got a whopping 90th percentile nod. That's my boy!

Fun with the Fam

Cute Christian -- excuse the man hands...(I cropped them as much as I could)

Angie with the Little Buddy

AHHH!!!

The past few days have been so fun! My brother, Paul, came to visit us on his way to San Francisco (where he is moving). He got to meet Christian, but I just realized I didn't take any pictures of them together! Oh no! He stayed with us two nights, and then visited my other siblings in Salt Lake. Then yesterday we all got together for lunch at my brother Mark's house. So fun!

The GOAL

Okay. It's time to get serious. One month from today, September 27th, I have an appointment with a photographer (who was advertising a good deal on craigslist) for family pictures. We have NEVER had a professional family picture taken (in seven years...), and if we follow this pattern ... it will be a LONG time before we take another one. The reason I made the appointment -- besides wanting a family picture -- is that I wanted motivation to exercise and lose weight. Because there is nothing worse than seeing a picture of yourself and having the ugly truth staring back at you. I knew if I said to myself, "Self, work out and get in shape so you can take family pictures this fall" that it wouldn't get done. That's why there is an appointment -- a deadline -- looming.

So...this is my goal. One month from today I will weigh 16 pounds less than I do now. A 16 pound loss will put me just BARELY in the normal weight range (instead of overweight). The work will not be over, but I will be closer to my ultimate goal weight. 16 pounds is a pretty lofty goal for me, but I've been watching the show "Losing it with Jillian" (which I really like) online and the people on that show lose a lot of weight in just six weeks -- doing it on their own from home. I will keep you updated, of course.

Tonight I did my first P90X exercise (chest and back) and my arms are barely able to hold themselves up enough to even type this. Andrew and I are taking turns watching the kids every other night, so the other can work out. It's gonna be rough, but I really want this. So here we go!!

Ah-CHOO!!

Hehehehe. Okay, that's it for tonight.

Because Andrew is gone camping, and I can post pics and type with one hand.

"Oh Christian, it's okay." Pat, pat.

"Oh, you're right, Mother. It was silly of me to worry."

All smiles now!

Well, Christian must have gotten the message from yesterday's blog post. Ever since I posted it, he has been all smiles. It was just the motivation he needed, I guess. :) Of course, capturing said smiles has proven to be difficult. He likes to move around a lot while smiling, so many of the smiling pics are blurry. Or the smiles are so quick, I can't catch them. Or they're so cute, I just want to enjoy them and not worry about photographing them. These are the two best ones I could come up with.

I swear this kid has doubled his cuteness this past week. He's way more alert, makes cute little sounds, and the smiles are helping too. Now if he would just sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time, I would be in heaven!

I can hear it already. (Partly because I DO hear it already.)

"I'm not squishing him!"

"What? I'm NOT pulling her hair!"

Someone's being stingy with the smiles

Christian had his first official smile around the 6-week mark (he's 8 weeks yesterday), and he's had about THREE since then. No, there's probably been more than that...but this baby's proving to be a tough crowd for Mommy! He'll often look excited, but then stop just short of a smile. Where's the love?? Kate was showing us the gums and her dimples in all their glory at 3 weeks and on demand ever since! But I'm not comparing...

And as an unrelated side note -- the shirt in this picture lasted approximately .5 seconds. Oh, and Mommy's, too.

Ha -- and just before I went to post this Christian spit up on me, and THEN gave me a big smile. Funny guy. :)

Transforming

The last year or so has been full of emotional ups and downs for me. But no time was quite as traumatic (and dramatic) as after Christian was born. I felt crazy, to be honest, and extremely overwhelmed. I have always been an emotional person -- flinging myself on the kitchen floor, wailing and carrying on as my mom calmly stepped over and around me to cook dinner (I was a teenager, not a toddler...). But for the past several years I have felt more emotional and less in control over my life and the way I reacted to things. I'd let circumstances become my ruler. I think I underwent a personality shift without even realizing it.

I was flooded with deep thoughts about my life and where I wanted it to go and who I wanted to be as I shopped at Old Navy (for Kate) last week. I had revelation after revelation come to me as I drove home, and I have felt completely different since! I decided that it's time to change my personality -- you can do that, right? I know it's kind of late in the game to pull another personality from the bench, but I'm going to do it. I don't want to feel depressed or offended or angry or scared anymore. It's no way to live, and I'm sure it's no fun to live with.

I want to be patient, kind, loving, willing, and forgiving. I want to get excited about life and live it up! I want to exercise for no one else but ME. I want to be healthy, but never give up chocolate (come on, I can't be a different person). I want a clean house. I want to be spiritual.

I'm not saying any one of these things will just happen overnight. I know they won't. But for the first time, I have a vision in my head of who I am -- who I really am -- and I know I'm going to get there.

The other day I felt motivated enough to exercise. I was still feeling a little sick, so I probably should have waited, but oh well. (I'm going to give it a few more days before I do it again.) I haven't exercised in MONTHS because of the pregnancy. So I popped in a Biggest Loser workout and went to it. Kate joined in, too. There came a part that I always fast forward because I don't like it. It came to that point, and I said out loud, sweat dripping off me, "Ugh. No way. This is too hard." I started to reach for the remote, but then stopped myself as I heard Kate parrot me, "Yeah. It's too hard."

My heart sank. I glanced back at the TV and saw everyone moving to the ground. I turned to her and said, "No. It's not too hard. We can do it." She looked up at me, smiled, and nodded. "Yeah!" And together we walked down on our hands to the floor and got into the push-up position.

Kid Kate

We have called Kate "Baby Kate" since she was born, and for a long, long time after. Eventually we realized she wasn't a baby anymore and we trimmed it to just Kate. Sometimes I'll call her "Baby Kate" jokingly, and then call her "Toddler Kate" or "Kid Kate." It's like I never realized how old and how big she really was until we had Christian. Kate suddenly seemed like she weighed a hundred pounds instead of the 32 that she's been FOREVER. I realized how much she understands and how much she can say. She can pretty much say whatever she wants to now -- more or less.

The other day, she was sitting quietly, then started counting, "100, 101, 102..." etc. We had never taught her to count over 100; she just figured out what came next on her own. Maybe that's a normal kid thing to do, but to us it signaled "GENIUS." ;) Today, I was reading something, and she was sitting by me just staring into space. I asked her what she was thinking about. She smiled, a little embarrassed, and said that she was thinking about counting. She then started counting from 100 again.

She is officially potty-trained, and I'm not afraid to say it this time. She goes poo and pee in the potty every day. The other day she told me she had to go pee, but I told her to try going on her own because I was laying down. She came back a minute later with wet pants. She didn't make it in time. I was like, "Ohhh, you wet your pants?" She said, "Yes, but I got the towels down to dry it up!" There was a little wet spot on the bathroom floor that she had put a towel on to soak it up. I was amazed and sorry that I hadn't gotten up to help her get her pants off.

I think she has totally adjusted to Christian. It was touch and go there for a while. She would act out/whine, hit us (and hit the back of his head once), and generally be irritable. That has mostly faded away, and she is our normal, pleasant child again. There was one time in the car I asked her to check his head -- it always flops onto his chest. She had helped push it back in its spot before. So I asked her, and I looked at her in the mirror as I drove. She looked out the window in the opposite direction of Christian. She didn't say anything. I asked her repeatedly until she finally said (not checking), "He's fine."

She never asks to hold Christian, but she likes being around him (and getting in his face) and talking to him. She has me pretend to be Christian, and we carry out conversations that way.

She is the best helper I've ever met. She will get anything and everything that I ask her to. She even climbed up in the fridge to get me a bottled water because I said I was thirsty.

She likes to ask how my food tastes and if I like it. In the morning she'll ask me if I got enough rest. If I'm sick she'll ask my sick status all the time. She often will say (unprompted), "Thanks for dinner, Mommy." SO thoughtful.

She figured out how to dress her little mini princesses finally (I always had to do it before), and it has kept her occupied for hours. Now she likes to pretend she IS the mini princess getting dressed, and talks out (while acting out) the process.

She just started swimming lessons today (pics will be coming) and LOVED it. She starts pre-school next month, and then I may as well hand her the car keys. Hope I can handle it!!