10 month update: Booger baby

Baby Ri Ri is 10 months old (as of January 27th). I know people always say "time flies" but it seems like it flies sooooo much faster when you have kids. I remember this time last year is about the time when I started to become extremely uncomfortable, swollen, fat, grumpy, exhausted, and anxious. Good stuff. A year later, I am comfortable, not swollen, not as fat, pretty happy, still exhausted, but so happy with motherhood! I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rilyn is the BEST surprise and gift I've ever gotten. Love her. Here is a little update for her 10 month birthday:


Baby Ri's likes:

• Playing peek-a-boo. She will hold anything (blankets, balls, clothes, etc.) up to her face and pull them down when I saw peek-a-boo. Cutest thing ever!
• Being tickled. Okay no one really LIKES to be tickled but she's suuuuuuper ticklish and makes the cutest sounds whenever she gets tickled.
• FOOD! In the last few months, Ri has become such a good eater and is eating more of a variety of foods. Her faves lately have been the maple & brown sugar puffs and macaroni & cheese with vegetables.
• Books! She likes big books & she cannot lie. Seriously though. Books always  make her smile. Melts my heart.
• Still loves playing with and watching her cousins.
• Empty water bottles.
• Picking random stuff up off the floor.

Baby Ri's dislikes:

• Taking naps. I always say that she's fixing to be an only child. I used to be the type of person who couldn't function with several naps throughout the day. Boy did this change when I had Ri! I seriously want to have another kid JUST to see if it will be as awful of a sleeper as Rilyn. Call me crazy.
• Having her nose picked or wiped. It's truly the end of her universe.
• Being left alone. She's a bit needy/spoiled. I blame it on her childcare provider. (ma maw)
• When Amaya cries. She has started throwing a fit whenever her cousin Amaya cries (which is a lot). I put Amaya in time out the other day and Rilyn was SOOOOOO upset. :(
• Strangers. She will just stare and stare at new people. No expression. Just stare.
• Being sick-- which she is right now. Sad day. :(

Accomplishments:

• CRAWLING! She's not a fluent crawler, but I think it's pretty official. She's slow but she does it!
• Holding her own bottle. It took her forever to be able to do this.
• Getting 2 bottom teeth.
• Eating more food and less formula.
• Dribbling balls. She has no idea what she's doing, but I'm going to go with "dribbling."

Okay so here are some Halloween pictures that I wanted to share. She was only 7 months old when these were taken, but they were way too cute not to share. If you know what Rilyn's dad looks like, you'll understand that they are seriously twins. Are we sure this child is mine? I don't see it. Haha.

WILW: Chocolate cake in a MUG!

Okay originally, before I went to the gym, I started this SUPER lame WILW post. Came home. Got on Pinterest and Instagram (the usual) and started getting a really bad sweet tooth. I follow some fit chicks on Instagram and one of them posted a picture and a recipe for a HEALTHY (that's right, I said healthy) chocolate cake in a mug recipe. I literally sprinted into the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards to find the ingredients. Five minutes later, I was stuffing my face with chocolate cake.... in a mug. Amazing.

So for those of you interested in fitness and/or healthy eating or want to try something new, delicious, and healthy, here is the recipe:

2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. protein powder (I used the chocolate prime beef protein powder, but whey would probably work great as well)
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tbsp. splenda, truvia, or whatever kind of sweetener you like (I used Splenda)
1 egg
1/4 cup water

*Mix together with a spoon and microwave for 2 minutes and BOOM! Chocolate cake in a mug.
I have to mention that I was eating PB Crave as I was waiting the long two minutes for my cake, so I decided to top my cake with some Cookie Nookie PB crave. For those of you who have never been to Heaven, please put PB Crave on your next grocery list. It's peanut butter with honey, chocolate chips, and cookie dough flavoring. I go through a jar a week. I truly need an intervention. Haha. 

Weekend Recap

Alright folks, here we are! My SECOND blog this week. Whoop whoop. Told ya I'd get better. :) Nothing super, duper exciting but Rilyn and I had a pretty "blog-worthy" weekend, in my opinion.

Friday evening Ri and I went to C of I to watch our favorite basketball player, Sienna. Ri usually does pretty well at basketball games for the most part. Up until the end. That's about when she starts acting like a little devil child. I suck at taking pictures though so there are none to post from this fun little event. :/


Saturday Rilyn had a day date with her daddy. They went to Applebees and hung out for a few hours. She tried ketchup AND macaroni and cheese for the first time. I usually don't give her "big people" food but dad thought she needed to broaden her horizons. She loved it, but her tummy didn't. :( Once she got home, she was pretty exhausted and grumpy from all the excitement. She stayed home and relaxed with her ma maw and I had a nice little date with my best friend from college, Katelyn. We went to dinner at Red Robin (yuuuuuum), got Starbucks,and then FINALLY saw Frozen. By far, the best movie I have seen in a long time. I will definitely be buying it when it comes out on DVD.  


Sunday Ri and I spent the day lounging, watching football, playing with Xavier and Amaya, and doing laundry (kind of). She tried some new flavors of her puff snacks and she loves them! Like I mentioned before, I suck at taking pictures but here are a few to hold you over. :)
 


Ri and her bff, Daisy. These two are troublemakers!

 

 Seriously, Daisy is SO jealous of all the attention I give Rilyn. She has to sit in my lap any time I sit on the floor to play with Ri.

 

 

 Trying her new Apple-Cinnamon puffs. She approves!

 

 

Xavier said, "Here, take a picture of me & Captain America." Haha. 

Mom of the Year Award?

Okay, so I know I have been TERRIBLE about blogging about Rilyn over the months and I feel quite bad about it. However, I now have wifi at my house so I am going to TRY to be a lot better about it. Let's call this one her 9.5 month/Christmas re-cap.

With everything that has happened in the last 9 months, it was really hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit. With all of my friends married with kids, engaged, or in serious relationships, I spent a lot of time (unfortunately) feeling sorry for myself. What a loser right? Despite feeling like a big, fat failure I was pretty excited about Ri's first Christmas, even though she has no idea what's going on. She loved the wrapping paper more than anything else. I seriously wish I would've just wrapped a bunch of empty water bottles and Daisy's nasty little toys because that's all she seems to play with.

Christmas Eve, my brother and his cute little fam came over for a yummy dinner and a gift exchange. Christmas Day was literally spent in pajamas. Ri and I just hung out, watched movies, and played with her new toys. I think I enjoyed them more than she did. I started a "Christmas Eve box" tradition (as many of you have seen on Pinterest). So on Christmas Eve she opened up her adorable little PJs and Despicable Me 2. All in all, it was a really relaxing first Christmas together. :)

Here are some of the pictures we took for the Christmas card. (obvi only a few made the cut but I still thought these were adorable!) Also, a big shout out to my sister in law, Samantha for taking these photos! Since I don't have a significant other, my poor brother has to stand in for pictures. Hahahaha. He's a good sport. Love him.

 Look at Ri's tongue in this one. Hahahaha.

 

 

 

 These little monkeys have my heart.

 

 

 Cousin love.

 

Do we look alike? haha.

Now for her 9.5 month recap:


Likes: 

• Playing with Daisy and all of Daisy's dirty, smelly little babies ( I am constantly taking them from her). Playing with Daisy consists of pulling her curly little tail and giving her BIG, open-mouthed kisses and then laughing hysterically.
• Playing with her cousins, Amaya and Xavier. She LOVES to watch them. She could stare at them for hours.
• Humming/singing (it's so adorable)
• Bath time in the big girl tub
• Finding any little piece of anything on the carpet and picking it up
• Riding in the car
• Veggies & snacks
• Being upside down
• Sucking on her tongue

Dislikes:

• Going to sleep
• Being left alone (she will SCREAM at the top of her lungs if she is left alone)
• When her cousin Amaya cries-- she will start crying too even though she has no idea why she's crying. Not all the time, but she has done this a few times.
• Getting dressed or undressed. It's seriously like trying to wrestle a Grizzly Bear.
• Loud noises
• Having her nose touched. I am that mom that tries to pick every booger. My mom says I will probably be that mom trying to clean her ears and nose out before a date. Haha.

Accomplishments:

• Scooting around. She's not quite crawling yet, but she gets by.
• Opening her mouth when I feed her. Sounds silly, but for a while she would just stick her little tongue out and slurp it up.
• Eating a mixture of fruits and veggies. She still prefers veggies but she will finally eat fruit occasionally.
• Making LOTS of silly sounds. da-da-da-da-da-da constantly.
• Broadening her horizons and eating some yogurt snacks and cracker puffs.
• Spending more time on her tummy. She used to HATE it and now she will tolerate it for a while.
• Getting 2 bottom teeth! (finally)