Operation: Lose Baby Weight

If you're a follower on Twitter, or a friend on Facebook, you already know that I'm on a mission to lose the baby weight. All those damn Sausage McMuffins need to be freed from my belly! Stupid pregnancy cravings.

My cousin, Keli, inspired me to do this program called Couch to 5K, and it's a running program that slowly eases those couch potatoes (me) from the sitting position to an all-out run in 9 weeks. If you know me, you know I hate running. I hate it. Passionately. The people who say, "Oh running is so refreshing to me, it really lets me think" gross me out and I don't understand them. This is probably one of the top reasons I started to run, because I want to know what all the hype is about.

I'm in my second week of running and I'm already faster and stronger. Woohoo! But do I love running yet? Absolutely not. It's a tedious chore for me to get on the treadmill and run. And believe me, I hate every second of it. My favorite part of it is when it's over. I love that part. But if I was being honest, I would have to say that I'm enjoying the fact that everyday, or sometimes every other day, I am being very active. This is new for me.

I want to lose the baby weight so that I can be an active parent. I was finding myself on the couch or the floor with Nyla for 8+ hours a day! That's when I decided that enough was enough; time to do something with my day! I want to be the parent who can actually go play on the playground with Nyla instead of watching from the park bench.

My other inspiration for doing this is none other than The Rock. Yes, the Samoan WWE wrestler. Ridiculous, I know, but he has this group of followers that he encourages and pumps up everyday. They're called Team Bring It. It's not an official group or anything, but following The Rock on Twitter, he daily reaffirms to his followers to be the best they can be that day. Not the day before, not tomorrow, but staying in the today. I feel like that spoke to me. Isn't that funny? The Rock spoke to me through Twitter.

I want to earn a Team Bring It shirt. Yeah, I could go to Hot Topic and buy one and wear it, but I'd feel like such a fraud wearing it. "Oh I'm on Team Bring It and I watch TV for 8 hours a day." That doesn't make sense. So I'm doing this running program, and when December comes around and I'm in week 6, I will feel like I'm ready for that TBI shirt. I might even have to buy a bunch of them to wear during workouts.

The Pumpkin Patch

Oh the pumpkin patch! I woke up with a severe determination to get Paul and Nyla to the farm so we could take pictures of her in her Halloween costume amongst the pumpkins. I'm glad I did because she was the hit of the pumpkin patch! People were cooing and ooh-ing over her. And I only had eyes for my Nylabelle. She looked so adorable in her monkey costume! She was fascinated with looking around at everything, and when we put her down with the pumpkins, she had her mind set on crawling all over them. I can honestly say that the mere 30 minutes we spent at the farm are close to the best 30 minutes of my life! It was so great! My Big Bear was a good sport too, so all is well in the Ellis household.  

Below are pictures from our little adventure.

Hi guys. 

Believe me, she loves being carried like this.

Getting Past The Fear

I was thinking this morning about the last 7.5 months with Nyla and how much our life has changed. I had to laugh because I realized that in the beginning, Paul and I had no idea what we were doing. I mean, NO IDEA. Everything with Nylabelle was so foreign to us; it was like seeing an alien every time she moved or made a squeak. "Oooh Paul, she moved her finger!" And we were clueless about how to take care and raise a baby.

This is not to say that we're total experts now, because that is so far from the truth. But I feel, after living in fear for 30-odd weeks, Paul and I are finally hitting our stride with this petite human. Whew! We can tell Nyla's moods, we've got her on (somewhat) of a schedule, we almost always know what's up when she's having a fit, and we're figuring out this whole "we have a baby" thing.

Things that still freak us out:
1. Nyla throwing a fit while changing a diaper
2. Giving her a bath in the big tub
3. Her changing poops (gross)
4. Her slamming her head on anything...this is my number one fear right now since she has become so mobile.

All in all, we're learning to be parents. Wish it would have kicked in a little sooner, maybe more around the 3-week age, but whatever. Nyla's no worse for wear and she won't ever know that her mommy and daddy were total morons when she was born.

Baby In A Restaurant

If you are a child-less person or couple (or a Mom and Dad out on a date alone), one of the worst places to go is a family-friendly restaurant. Not like Olive Garden because, really, OG is not a place for babies and kids--too many breakables everywhere. Nothing kills a good dinner like thirty-eight screaming kids throwing their food and running into your chair.

But take Famous Dave's BBQ, which happens to be where we went last night. This place is the epitome of a family-friendly establishment. It has huge long tables, stacks upon stacks of high chairs, and balloons at the entrance. The place screams "We Love Kids! Bring Them!" And so last night, we brought our child to a restaurant. Now this isn't the first time at a restaurant, but this is the first time at an all out, child-infested...errr child-filled restaurant.

Where does the hostess seat us when she sees that we have a baby? In the back room that is already occupied with 22 people, 11 of whom are children. Great. So in we squeezed to our table and the deafening noise of kids yelling consumes my ears. Who decides to join in on it? Nyla. She squealed and squawked the whole time. And to add to her enjoyment, she kept throwing anything she had in her hands onto the floor. I just love spending my dinner evening bending down and picking up toys every three seconds. Really gives me a chance to enjoy my food.

Of course with a baby in a restaurant, that means we have to eat at lightning speed because homegirl has a time limit as to how long she will behave until the banshee monster comes out. For Nyla, she's pretty well maintained until about 34 minutes or so; that's about the time where she squirms uncontrollably until someone is designated to walk around the restaurant with her.

Delicious rice cracker.

To be honest, Nylabear is pretty dang good in public. She laughs at all the people and *knockonwood* doesn't cry. She likes being with everyone and all in the mix. Hopefully Paul and I will become more comfortable in family-friendly restaurants. Chuck-E-Cheese is out forever though. Nothing grosses me out more than the ball pit. All those germs...

She's Gone Country!

It's official: we have a country baby. This past weekend, Nyla went through her first rite of passage being a country baby; Nyla rode a 4-wheeler with her daddy. Paul secured her right in front of him and took her for a slow ride around his parents' property. While she was riding, Nyla had on her standard "I don't care" face. But when they finished their ride and stopped, she giggled so loud and was all smiles! She loved it! Of course, I stood in the drive having a mini-panic attack. What if she screamed? What if she hated it? What if an eagle swoops down and picks her up from the 4-wheeler? Yes, my worries were getting ridiculous. But alas, my lovely girl came back happy and in one piece! Hooray!

We also had time to go to the pumpkin patch and take pictures. Here come the holidays, which means here come ridiculous looking outfits for Nyla!

Family time at the pumpkin patch. I had straw stuck in my pants all day. 

I can't even look when Paul does this.

All giggles after her ride with daddy.

Coming back from the ride.

All smiles in her swing at Grammie and Papa's house!

She may not look amused, but she loved it.

Laughing at her cousin.

The three grandchildren!

Whoa, Nyla.

I thought we were past the stage of blowing poop out the diaper. Apparently not. We should know by now that silence equals smelly. About an hour ago, our girl was so quiet, you could hear crickets. This should have been a sign that something fierce was coming our way.

Boy did she produce.

I have never actually seen that amount of poo come from one little 20-pound baby. Homegirl pooped out her diaper, on her legs, up her back, in her knee creases, and moved it up into her armpits. Lovely. Here's the most precious part: when I had to take off her shirt, we forgot that there was a massive amount on her clothes, so when we pulled up her shirt, we dragged some of the poop IN HER HAIR. Bleh.

When I started to change her diaper, I pulled out four or five wipes because I knew that it was something wicked. But when I realized that it was massive, I just yelled, "Paul! Start the bath!" Poor monkey-girl had it all over her, so we had to bathe her. :)

Now she's all clean, smells delicious, and is happily enjoying a bottle. Maybe having a small prune juice bottle plus prunes and apples lunch was too much. Note to Mommy: lay off the prunes. Homegirl is regular now.

Baby Food

You know what's disgusting? Baby food. Looky here:

I mean, seriously?! Who wants to eat that food? Those delicious concoctions above are chicken and apples, sweet corn casserole, and rice cereal. Absolutely heinous. In the first picture, Nyla has for her appetite the most heinous, King of Heinous-osity, pureed peas. Bleh.

Judging by the pictures below, I'm not sure she's amused by the food either.

Getting ready to taste

And we begin! The food goes in, no problem.

Here's the moment of realization that, yes, it's disgusting.

Cautiously going back for more. 

Still disgusting.

"Please no, Dad."

She's basically just choking it down now.

The look of refusal.

I'm thinking she's about to barf.

I can't wait until she is eating real food. You know, textured food. Food that doesn't look like multi-colored mush. Bleh. Nylabear, I'm sorry you're eating disgusting food. One day food will be delicious, I promise.