HEALTHY TODDLER MENU

Health for our family is really important to me and first and foremost is the food I'm putting on our table. Being a first time mom and developing a menu with a wide range of options for Penelope was a little daunting at first but it's become fun. Since she's just turned one, I feel like I have full freedom now for all food groups like shellfish and less formula.

I'm a firm believer in if you want a non-picky eater, give your child different flavors from early on and also don't give her the option to eat something else. What she has on her plate is what she will eat. With this method, sometimes she does curl up her nose and roll her food around on the plate but she always ends up eating it which is my goal.

The biggest problem I faced when Penelope wanted to pretty much only feed herself was finding healthy finger foods that were varied. After a couple of months I've got some of her favorites that are really simple to make, most of which can be made ahead and microwaved the next day for an easy lunch. Below I've listed some of Penelope's favorites separately so you can mix and match together.

Spinach ravioli, roast chicken and chickpea salad. DINNER!

Breakfast Ideas:

- Scrambled eggs w/ chopped veggies and chia seeds

- Whole wheat organic toast w/ almond butter and honey

- Oatmeal with fruit, brown sugar and cinnamon (not a finger food!)

- Any fruit - Cantaloupe, blueberries, bananas, blackberries, watermelon, honeydew, strawberries etc.

- Cheerios, bananas and almond milk in a sippy cup

Lunch Ideas:

- Baked chicken

- Avocado

- Bananas

- Grilled fish

- Stir fry - I love tofu, kale, mushrooms, bell pepper, swiss chard, spinach...anything quick

- Steamed veggies - Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots 

- Leftovers from last night!

- Sliced cucumbers

- Baked sweet potato fries

Dinner:

- Stuffed baked bell peppers

- Pasta - (Get rotinis, easier to handle for baby)

- Roasted butternut squash

- Chickpea salad w/ feta, tomatoes, celery, corn

- Ravioli

- Shellfish - Shrimp, clams, crab

- Roast - Pork or chicken

- Steamed veggies - Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top

- Stir fried eggplant

- Brown rice

- Quinoa (this is not really a finger food)

- Healthy lasagna (tofu lasagna is really good)

- Pesto pasta - Make your own pesto and add some walnuts or pine nuts

- Stir fried zucchini

- Fish - Salmon, tilapia seasoned with some lemon pepper 

- Curry - Thai yellow curry is mild or Indian curry recipes

- Black bean salad

- Stuffed mushrooms

- Lentil salad

- Veggie fried rice

Snacks:

- Raisins and walnuts

- Cut up organic apples

- Cut up organic pears

- Blueberries

- Steamed carrot sticks

- Slice of whole wheat organic toast

- Cheerios

- Dried fruit organic - Penelope loves apricots

- Hard boiled egg

- Brown rice rice cakes w/ almond butter

- Slice of cheese

- Banana

- Seedless grapes (cut in half)

Great on the go (minimal mess) snacks:

- Organic apple or pear wedges

- Steamed carrot sticks (you want the sticks to be steamed through but still firm)

- Brown rice cakes (I like Happy Munchies from Target)

- Rice crackers (Hot Kid Baby Mum Mum from Target)

- Cheerios (In a snack catcher)

- Any dried fruit

As far as milk goes, we decided to opt out of dairy and are giving her almond milk for breakfast and dinner. Totaling around two cups. Also, we haven't stopped her on formula because we still want her to get the nutrients from that. We've reduced her intake to two bottles a day and less scoops per bottle.

So far she's loving all of the food and eats like a champ. Do you have any other great finger foods I can try? Let me know!

PENELOPE'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

I had so much fun planning and putting together Penelope's birthday party. I'm so proud to be able to say that all of this came together completely by myself! We all know the first birthday parties are never really for the children and mama loves her some gold :)

I knew from the beginning of planning I wanted to really convey a crisp, uncluttered and bright setting. I was set on doing a dessert table as well and decided on doing a hot dog bar, since it was still really cute and inexpensive. We have some super amazing friends though and they cooked massive amounts of bbq steak, macaroni salad and appetizers. Truly a blessing to have people help out.

To keep costs manageable, I made myself a per month budget and purchased what I could with that. Anything that didn't fall in that budget got purchased the next month. When the time came for the party it was great because we weren't financially strained trying to get my vision to come together.

We rented the community center in my apartments which was great incase Penelope had meltdown. Also if we needed something we could just run upstairs to our apartment. For the kids, to keep costs down our entertainment was a ping pong table that came with the community center and a bunch of blown up balloons all over the floor.

Penelope had a ball and we got to celebrate with our nearest and dearest. Doing everything I possibly could DIY really kept our costs down and still allowed me to have the party I always wanted for her. 

My precious dessert table. The baby's breath flowers were super cute and frugal and I made that glitter frame. (See the DIY here) Also all the desserts were made by moi, except the cupcakes I picked up from Safeway.

Confetti is super expensive so I bought some tissue paper in metallic and rose at Micheals. I spent a few evenings and naptimes cutting a bunch of confetti myself to cut costs. I loved the idea of fun confetti sprinkles so kept with that theme for the desert.

This background was so cute. I ordered the metallic letters online here and the gold background is just some sequin fabric you can get anywhere online.

Probably my top favorite of everything was the metallic gold confetti filled balloons. When I picked them up, the girl working there said she had never seen these before, they were so pretty! With these I simply took a bunch of confetti I cut to any store that blows up ballons and asked them to fill them up with it. 

I loved the idea of having a photo chronicle of the past year for Penelope. I printed out all of her photos on my Instagram for the past year at Walgreens using their square prints for like .20 cents per photo. Purchased some mini clothes pins and gold ribbon on sale at Micheals and strung these together chronologically. I loved that it told a story.

I was really particular about cups. I didn't want ugly red cups to ruin the clean vibe, so I found these gorgeous clean plastic cups and pretty gold straws to add detail to the overall look.

I LOVE these beverage dispensers. Great reviews on Amazon and all on point. They aren't glass but still looked super chic and lent to the vibe overall. Get them here.

A closer look at my DIY glitter frames. For the print, I used a free editing program and typed up the quote. Printed it out on my computer for a pretty addition to the table.

My little family :)

The birthday girl <3

BABY GIRL TURNS 1!

I wanted to tell my birth story on this special day. Even though it was only a year ago I feel like if I don't get it down now, I will forget. I never want to forget.

I went to a routine checkup on October 29th, 2013. During the checkup the nurse looked at me strange and asked if I felt anything? No. Are you sure? She said. I was confused and scared, I said yes why? She explained that I was already 3 cm dilated and was super surprised I hadn't felt not a thing. She let me know the baby was coming very soon and sent me home with pads to wear in the car incase my water broke.

That night I couldn't sleep. There was a constant ache that I didn't feel was strong enough to be a contraction, but strong enough to keep me awake. Around 1:30am I finally started to feel something that was a constant. I knew I was in labor, but I remember the midwife telling us to wait as long as possible at home. So I quietly slipped into the bathroom letting Ornan sleep and sat in the bathtub for another hour. When I got out, I woke him up and told him I was in labor. From that time to about 11:00am he and I walked back and forth down the hallway until I felt it was time to go in.

Before they let you in to Labor and Delivery they check you to make sure your really ready. The nurses left us in the room for a long period of time because I didn't look like I was in any visible pain. Finally she came and asked a bunch of questions and looked like she was ready to tell me I needed to wait longer before I could be admitted. She decided to use the machine to measure my contractions to double check. Her eyes opened in surprise and she said "Honey! Your five centimeters you need to go in now!"

When we did get admitted that staff ask me if I was sure I wanted to do a natural delivery. That I couldn't change my mind once I reached 6 cm. I said I was sure. I wanted to be able to eat, I wanted no drugs involved with the birth and I wasn't in much pain anyway. They looked at me like I was an alien and said "Okkkayyyyy". I progressed pretty quickly from that point to 8cm. During that time I was eating sandwiches, hospital meals, ice-cream, talking to Ornan, my sister and my mom. My water still hadn't broken. I remember they all called me an alien because I was still kicking back having normal conversations with them while I was 8cm dilated. I felt proud that I was really going through with the planned natural delivery.

At 8cm the nurses came in and told me that my water still hadn't broken and that was a problem. In order for Penelope to come my water needed to break. Did I want them to break it? I asked if there could be any harm done to her if they did. They said they didn't think so, but me and Ornan went online and checked. The information mostly said there could be harm done to the baby by manual breaking so I called the nurses in and said no. They told me I would for sure be dealing with these contraction for hours, well into the next day probably, it had already been 7 hours at this point. I said I didn't care, I read the information I'll wait it out.

Two more hours went by and I barely dilated any more. The nurses pleaded with me to consider letting them do it. By now it was close to 8pm and I was determined not to have Penelope on Halloween. She would NOT have to share a day. We called our class instructor who was a very experienced midwife. She let us know that if she was already positioned with her head down it would be fine. I asked the staff to get me a machine to check. In the meantime I walked around to get her positioned correctly. It was so painful, the pressure of walking was intense.

When they came back, they checked and said her head was where it should be. I let them break my water, and right before the nurse asked me..."You can still get the epidural are you SURE you don't want it". I said absolutely not. She told me to get ready. When they broke my water, I experienced pain like nothing I've ever felt or can describe. The only way I felt I could manage it was by sitting at the end of the bed. I felt like scratching my skin off, it was excruciating. The only thing that got me through it was the kind nurse who's voice kept me in the world of sanity. My mind was black and all I felt was pain, all I could hear was her voice.

What seemed like an eternity but apparently shortly after, I was ready to push. The nurse left me and I looked wildly around because I didn't know how I was going to be able to deal with these contractions myself. She came back with the lady to deliver Penelope and after a few good pushes she was already coming out. I was squatted holding a bar and Penelope's head was already crowning, I screamed to push. The nurse was trying to tell me to stop but I didn't hear her, she screamed at me and said "ELIZABETH DARK, LISTEN TO ME NOW!!"  I immediately came to at which she told me I had to stop pushing and sit on her head. I refused to sit on her head so I held myself up backwards on my hands and feet and watched nurses run frantically in to deliver her. It was so tiring to push and one nurse said, doesn't this feel better? I said hell no. 

Then Penelope came and all the pain vanished. They laid her on my chest and I was flabbergasted that she belong to me. This was a part of me, a beautiful being that was all mine. But then I heard "She's hemorrhaging, I need this and I need this!" I couldn't focus and I started crying. I was being poked with needles and prodded inside and people were running around. I thought to myself, God please don't let me die now. Not now that I have her. I asked if I was going to be ok. The nurse said yes. And I was. Only minor complications but totally worth it to have this beauty I get to call my daughter.

Penelope really is the light at the end of the tunnel. She is beautiful inside and out. She is loving, she is caring, so intelligent, so joyful, so curious. She is life and the beauty that God blesses you with. She is the smile that's on my face and the bags that are under my eyes. I wouldn't trade it for anything. All of the stretch marks, the complications, the hard days, the exhaustion is an incredibly small price to pay for this incredible human being. Baby girl I love you to the moon and back. Happy day peanut.

CLOSING DOWN MY BOUTIQUE: WHAT I'VE LEARNED

"The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. You can't learn anything from being perfect."

Adam Osbourne

You Can't Have It All

I remember I watched an interview of Kim Kardashian saying that she thinks it's ridiculous that women feel they can't have it all. A family, a job they love, a husband, a social life, a hot body...your sanity. I see where she's going with this. But the truth of the matter is, in order to be present in anything you need to be there 100%. In that moment, that hour, that day, you will not be able to give your attention to anything else. Something always suffers.

You Can Be Pro-Active About Your Calendar Though

Write down the roles that are important to you in life. For me one week might be: Mother, Wife, Self, Business Owner, Fitness Freak, College Student. Now write down what needs to be accomplished in a week for each role. For example: Mother | Pickup ingredients for Penelope's party, schedule doctor appointment, go to park twice, cut her nails, figure out and order Halloween costume. Do this for each role and look at the week ahead, start scheduling your week accordingly. HUGE people, huge.

Business Success Is Directly Related To Perseverance

If you are an NFL fan, after you read this please don't send me hate mail. Many people who have made it professionally aren't more talented, they just persevered. Business is the same. Doors will shut. People will say no. You'll make horrendous mistakes. You'll hate certain aspects of what you do. But if you know in your hearts of hearts this is where you need to be at and what you need to be doing, then quitters never prosper.

Know When To Cut Ties

If your subconscious is screaming at you daily "I do not like any aspect of what I'm doing!!!". Listen. 

Passion Is Overrated 

I feel a little robbed here. After reading all of this material on how you need to be passionate about what you do. There's so much pressure on this word passion, that I don't think anyone pauses to tell you that it's ok to not be passionate about every aspect of what you do. Like I don't think the guy who opened up BP Oil passionately loves oil. I don't believe he wants to make out with it. But he loves business, he loves and is passionate about certain aspects. And that's realistic. It's realistic to say I love, love, love giving people beautiful things but I absolutely hate designing graphics and doing photo shoots. The success lies in knowing that is simply part of the job. Not passion.

A Goal And A Plan Are Essential

You wouldn't go on a trip without mapping your goal destination and the details of how you will get there. The same goes for business.

Take Time, Details Make Or Break You

When you have an idea that's obviously going to be successful because it's your idea and it's awesome (cue insanely biased arrogant emoji here). Pause. Check the market. Is there a need? Do you have a niche? If so, great. Now be prepared to take as much time as you need to perfect your craft. First impressions are everything. People notice things like pretty signatures, nice paper, great graphics and photography.

You Will Never Get Anywhere By Yourself

You need people. To inspire, to motivate, to broadcast, to team up with. Our planet was built on the premises of teamwork. It doesn't matter how skilled and awesome you are, other people are essential to success. Cultivate true friendships and mentorship, people know when your in it for the wrong reasons. Being interpersonal is an absolute necessity. If you don't work well with people, seriously reconsider being an entrepreneur. 

I've ran Indulgera for a little over two years now completely by myself. With my own funds and hours and hours of Googling and Youtubing. Teaching myself how to create graphics, run marketing campaigns, photography, editing, bookkeeping, negotiating...you name it, I learned it. I'm really proud of how much I accomplished with knowing zilch. The time has come to close because simply my entire heart is not in it and it's not profitable. Nothing lures me out of bed each day to do the work. I think when I realized I was dreading the things I enjoyed doing a year ago I had to look at the situation. But what valuable things this business has taught me not just about the business world, but about myself? I will be forever grateful for the people I met and the things I learned. And this is definitely not the last of me in the entrepreneur world, but I'll keep you posted on that. :)

I hope these lessons helped you and before Indulgera closes, I'm running a 50% off sale the entire store. Stock up quick, inventory is getting low!

S.A.M. GUIDE TO KEEPING A CLEAN HOME

I think any stay at home parent (S.A.M.) can attest to the fact that it seems our lives can become one big blur of cleaning. And yet somehow, our home seems to never be clean. We can blame our little buggers for this, especially when they are at the Penelope's age of rampaging every nook in our home. Add to that the dirty dishes, the messy bedrooms, the never ending loads of laundry.

I've developed a routine that works really well for me. It's quick, it's easy and it's not OCD. This means that my house isn't spotless and that's because people actually live here and enjoy ourselves. But it will be clean and visually appealing with no strange smells permeating our furniture. Cue the nose pinching emoji.

MORNING:

• After breakfast, keep an empty kitchen sink (load the dishwasher and wash your pots)
• Wipe down counters and stove
• Throw a load of laundry in the washer
• Take a minute and clear out the dining table. Loose clutter is not allowed here!

NAPTIME:

• Make the bed
• Throw clothes that need to be folded/put away on your bed
• Spend 15 minutes only picking up everything your child rampaged.

MID-AFTERNOON:

• Load any more dishes into dishwasher
• Throw washed clothes into dryer

EVENING

• Load remaining dishes and run dishwasher
• Wipe down counters
• Put away clothes on bed
• Do a 15 minute only pick up of whatever you can get to

Pick one major chore to do each day. For example:

Monday - Vacuum

Tuesday - Sweep and mop all rooms

Wednesday - Clean bathroom #1

Thursday - Organize and wipe down desk

Friday - Dust

Saturday - Wipe down microwave

Sunday - Off

The key to the 15 minute pickup is that I don't think anyone realizes how much you can actually accomplish in 15 minutes. When you are only picking up/organizing. Another great thing about this is it puts into perspective how little time you actually have to spend cleaning.

It's important for me to keep a tidy home since this is my "workplace". It's where I raise my daughter and it's also where I run my business. A messy home starts leaking into every other area of your life. With these tips you will always keep a tidy home, but still make sure that you are living and enjoying rather then constantly running around picking up after everyone.

Let me know if you tried it and how it worked for you!

UPPER BODY WORKOUT

Fitness is really important to me for obvious reasons but also because it just makes me feel better. It gives me more energy, I feel more confident, I'm doing something for myself and I can be alone in my thought for 1.5 hours.

I am currently on my second month of consistently working out. The first month I started with three days a week. This month I upped it to four. And I switch up from core and leg/butt days  to core/back/arm days. I also do 12 minutes of cardio before my workout and 12 minutes of cardio when I'm finished.

Since today was an arm day I wanted to share with you a typical workout for me and some pictures to help you out.

12 Minutes Cardio: 1 minute warm-up, 11 minute jog

Stretch

Abs/Core

Arm/Back: 10 reps and 3 sets of opposite arm superman

image via ourbodybook

Arm/Back: 10 reps and 3 sets of opposite arm extensions

image via popsugar

Core/Back/Arm: 1 minute, 3 sets of plank rows

image via popsugar

Core/Arm/Legs: 10 Reps 3 sets of 5lbs of bosu ball shoulder press

Core/Arms/Legs: 10 reps 3 sets of 5lbs of bicep curl on bosu ball

image via women's fitness

Core/Arms/Back: 10 reps 3 sets of seated row

image via womens fitness

12 minutes cardio: 11 minute elliptical, 1 minute cooldown

And that my friends is one of my arm workouts that I do. But always make sure to switch up your exercises to keep your body guessing. The reason you plateau is due to doing the same things repeatedly. Switch up your cardio workouts and also your strength training.

DIY: GLITTER FRAMES

With Penelope's first birthday party being right around the corner, I think back and I'm really glad I did things to prepare throughout previous months. This was the first project I took on and my plan is to use these frames for the sweets and hot dog table.

I am a huge fan of gold and I'm not going to lie when I say my inner five year old gleefully sprinkled glitter all over these frames. This project is super simple and super cheap.

Step 1. Doing one side at a time, paint the frame with glitter glue.
Step 2. Sprinkle loose glitter over wet glue and let sit for a minute.
Step 3. Shake it off and repeat!

In the middle of the glitter process, I used a trash bag to catch all the access.

After the frame is all dried and finished

PENELOPE 11 MONTHS!

Every Mom says over and over..."I just can't believe how fast this year has gone!" I am no different people, no different. 

This past month she's really started to show signs of new emerging personality traits. I've noticed instead of running off to go play at a daycare, now she'll cling on to me for a bit and she likes me to drop her off in the midst of all the children.

She's babbling. Full on grabbing a book and sitting content for 15 minutes pointing at pictures and "reading" her bookie. She has her three favorite books that we read to her every night before bed. She has just recently started learning again how to fall asleep on her own in her crib.

She loooves to play hide and seek. Disappear behind something and pop up with a massive smile on her face. In the morning when she wakes up I throw her on my bed and we chat and play for awhile before breakfast. Then we eat our scrambled eggs with feta and fruit together. Who am I kidding, she is obsessed with eggs and will take that over pretty much anything now. 

She has started waving hello and bye bye and giving kisses freely. Just like momma, when she gives a kiss she makes the loud mmmmm...MAH noise. The cutest. She throws away her own diapers and as it turns out is trained so well she throws away other kids diapers. *Head smack* 

She knows what turn the page of her books is and she is a dancing queen. Like no kidding. Turn on the music and instantly she's bobbing her head in her highchair. And if she's free of her highchair. She's doing something that looks like a painfully low squat and jumping back up...then falling over.

Her laughter is unreal. It's angelic and it's often. Such a blessing to hear it as much as I do. She got these adorable little nugget teeth. A whopping eight right now and she feels very responsible when I say "brush your teeth". Her look immediately turns serious and she brushes. 

Penelope has been dubbed as the bottle bandit. She believes that all baby bottles are communal and should be shared upon request. If the unfortunate baby does not want to share their bottle, she is confused and then frustrated. Hence carrying around a ridiculous back breaking amount of bottles in the diaper bag is necessary.

She's not into toys. She likes cabinets. And people and books pulling things out of drawers. When you put her on grass she immediately jets off into nowhere land. Did I mention she is jumping? Like feet leave the floor jumping. 

11 months is just one away from 12 and though it's bittersweet, I am so thankful I payed mind to all the advice I got to cherish it. I have so many beautiful memories and pictures with her. And I'm looking forward to seeing this little human she develops into.

ON GRATITUDE

There's one thing I know for sure. Gratitude is necessary and universally positive. It not only effects the people or things you show gratitude towards. It effects you on a such a monumental scale that to not have it is to be surely unhappy. And I find for my own life once I find gratitude in the simplest things like a sunny day, waking up, or a cup of coffee it shifted my entire life.

If someone said what is something I can change right now that will change my entire life for the better? I would say find your gratitude. Be thankful. 

And I'm very good at gratitude. But only because I've been working on it. I don't think it's engrained in most people to wake up and think "WOW I'm so happy I'm alive for another day, just think of all the things I can do!" It's a muscle and it has to be trained. Just like going to the gym.

But I did that. Being thankful for little things is only the beginning though. Then there's having gratitude for things that people do for you. Strangers, friends, co-workers. You just can't believe that someone paid for your toll bridge fare.

There's one HUGE area of gratitude I skipped. 

It's for my own mom. See I'm very good at finding what drives me up the wall about her. Or what she should be doing differently. But I'm not so good at having gratitude for how hard she worked to raise me, feed me, send me to school and have a roof over my head. Because I don't think about those times anymore. Hell, I don't even remember those times.

But it doesn't mean they didn't happen. It doesn't mean she wasn't up all night with me not sleeping and then going to work her three jobs. It doesn't mean she didn't have a homemade breakfast, dinner and lunch on the table for us everyday. It doesn't mean that she didn't bend over backwards to send me to a montessori school in San Francisco. It doesn't mean that just because we were dirt poor we didn't still wear fancy clothes even if everything was from Goodwill. But how easy I forget?

When I went up to my moms recently I was overwhelmed with guilt. Because here I am building my life with my own family and not even seriously thinking about if she needs anything from me. Only seeing my mom two times a year because I thought, well she never comes down to see us. But really...she's my mother and she has sacrificed enough. Couldn't I find it in my time to make that trip once a month?

And couldn't I help her out and pay a utility bill? Or hire a maid to come once a month so she doesn't have to clean? Maybe bring her groceries everytime we come up to see her? Just the smallest things to do, to let her know that I not only appreciate everything she did but that I love her dearly.

So after talking to her about what we can do to help. She decided that she would love my help on redecorating her house. Because she works 14 hours days six days a week and she doesn't have time. And it's right up my alley so I'm excited.

Have you thought about being grateful lately? Have you acted on it?

HEALTH CHALLENGE: WEEK 4

This week has been exciting! Towards the end I felt better about doing exercises so I joined a gym and have been able to use it the last few days of the week. My sister asked me why pay for one when we have a small gym in our apartment. For me it's about leaving, going to a space where tons of people have the same goal and being surrounded by that.

I've been really successful in the past with losing over 20 lbs so I wanted to share my consistent work out plan then, that I have started doing again now, with you.

Cardio - HIIT 10 min

Abs - Situps on ball, oblique crunches, leg lifts, plank (3 sets of all)
Arms - 5 lb weight lifting (3 sets of all)
Legs - Squats, lunges (2 sets of all)
Cardio - HIIT 10 min

And rather than write out a detailed diary of every item I ate, I'm going to include a sample day to keep it shorter.

Tuesday

Bfast: Eggs w/ broccoli and feta, 3 strips turkey bacon, whole grain toast with pb/j and mango
Lunch: 1/2 turkey sandwich dry on whole wheat with honeydew
Snack: Other 1/2 turkey sandwich with corn on the cob
Dinner: Roast chicken, asian veggies and roasted carrots and broccoli, cup of 100% green tea
Workout: 15 minutes treadmill 11 incline 4.0 speed and 3 sets of various strength training like above

My meals have been consistently heavy on the meat. The last two days, I have started to transition to pescetarian again and cutting out most gluten. This is what works best for my body. I know this because it's tried and true. Personally though, I do feel that as a culture we eat an insane amount of meat and it's bad for you. Watch "Fork Over Knives" or "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" for more information on that.

And let me tell you. I made the pescetarian low gluten switch two days ago...HUGE difference. Like my weight kept jumping up and down all week. When I made the switch, consistently went down...even after I ate ice cream. So I'm proud of myself for slowly but consistently losing weight.

Tip of the Week:
Go pescetarian for one week, see how you feel.

 1 lb down from last week! 

My breakfasts earlier in the week. 

My famous roasted chicken over veggies. Oh how I'll miss you!

10 MONTHS!!

I can't even begin to believe how fast time has slipped by with our baby girl. People always told me cherish it, it goes by so fast. And I really took that to heart and spent hours playing with her and taking her everywhere to see the world. I wanted Penelope to know that there was a world outside of this little space we call our home. To see what ducks looked like close up, the way a sprinkler felt on a lawn, how leaves crinkled in her fingers or how beautiful all the different flowers were.

So we did everything and more. But still I'm left with the feeling that I haven't done enough. Didn't cherish enough. And maybe that feeling is inevitable for every parent because you know those precious moments are ones you will never get back. And thats really what keeps me sane in the moments of insanity. Where she refuses to sleep, or won't let me have five seconds of alone time. I breathe and I tell myself that this moment will be one I'll never get back. I don't want to regret the way I reacted to that moment. It keeps me level and it keeps me grateful.

10 months is so momentous because it is so close to that epic FIRST year. Already I'm thinking of periods, and attitude, and high school, boys, and the big scary world ahead. How will I protect you? How will I prepare you? Can I prepare you? It's a dichotmy of emotions. On one hand how proud am I that your already running! Your eating everything under the sun! You have started to throw your own diapers away! But how sad am I that you aren't sitting comfortably, snuggling in my arms anymore. Soon you won't even need diapers and that makes me crumble.

Penelope in three words at 10 months? Joyful, resilient and intelligent

She is the only girl in our library cuddle club who leaves me to go wander alone and introduce herself to other babies. By ways of friendly kisses obviously. She finds joy in EVERYTHING. This girl is happy literally 24/7. When she falls she likes to get herself back up and she will keep doing the same the over and over and over again until she finally gets it. She loves to brush her teeth herself and sits patiently while I brush her hair. She thinks it's fascinating to watch me clip her nails and everything in our home is open for Penelope digestion. She runs to the door when Daddy's home and loves to eat eggs with feta every morning with Momma. Start playing some music, she instantly smiles and starts bouncing, swaying her head. When she's at a park her favorite things to do is to walk up to random people and start playing with them. She's babbling non stop and actually listens when we tell her no. Penelope the angel, my little peanut burglar.

Just writing this makes me emotional. It's easy for me with all of her new skills to get so caught up in the day to day that I don't take a step back and realize how wondrous this little human being really is. 

What a blessing in the form of a buddha bellied, curly fro'd, chubby toe'd, missing tooth smiles, chunky little muffin.