2015 - Year in Review

I kind of weirdly love reading posts like these and I had no intentions to do one, but something you just have to do it because everyone else is. I actually got inspired reading Heather's post, and, um, mine is a little different. You know you're solidly in boring mom life territory when you're struggling to think of even one major event from the past year that didn't involve your kid. And really, the first thing that came to mind was my niece's birth, so, not even solidly in another category. But I love my boring mom life, so I'm posting anyway.

In no particular order, some stuff that happened in 2015 that was cool/fun/kind of a big deal.

1. I went back to work and Dalton started daycare.

Technically this began in 2014 (the work part) but it was only 2 days and on one of them, he came with me. This would fall more into the "kind of a big deal" category than the fun one. Life as a working mom hasn't been easy, in news that's a surprise to no one. Except, I guess, the people who write those things on Facebook about how being a SAHM is harder because all working moms do is take breaks and drink coffee, eat long relaxing lunches, and stand around talking with their coworkers. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite panned out like that, but I'm proud of the example that we're setting for our son that mom and dad work as a team to pay the bills and run the household. Plus, he loves daycare and we finally have something to do with all that pesky extra money that kept stacking up.

2. We bought a house and became adults.



Kind of a big deal. Just a bit. Let's talk about how much I miss hauling a car seat (plus all my crap) up to a third floor apartment after work. SO MUCH. It was worth the pain of moving with a six month old.

3. My boob almost exploded, but then it didn't. Then it almost exploded again, and I found out there was boob PT for these types of problems. Who knew? Live and learn. And yet, I still want to breastfeed #2.

4. My baby turned one.

He also learned to crawl, walk, eat real foods, give kisses, and do a million other things that every single baby does and yet are fascinating when your own child does it. Really, I could make a huge list of tiny little mundane moments that we've experienced with Dalton, because those really are the best parts of the year. But I guess that's really what this whole blog is.

5. Finding out my running buddy is getting married, and even better (for me), she's moving only 4 miles away from us! Although, my running is pretty sub par lately, so we've been forced to just do normal things like get together for food and drinks.

Just a typical December morning run. 

6. Running the Baltimore Ten Miler. Certainly not a triumphant return to ultra running or triathlons or anything like that. That's really not in the cards any time soon. However, this was a the longest race I've done since my 2013 50 miler, and kind of a big deal for me to train for. Also, it was fun. In a hot, sweaty way.

I seriously wear this jacket ALL. THE. TIME. See below.

Edited to add: just realized I'm wearing the exact same outfit in the last two pictures, even though they were taking six months apart. I'm awesome. 

7. My niece Sloane was born! And now she's going to be six months old soon. HOW??

OMG how was she even this tiny??

8. Finding out we will become a family of four in May! Obviously, one of the best, most exciting things to happen this year for us. At least Eric and me. Dalton is blissfully clueless.

Classy. 

Due to #8, I'm freaking exhausted, so I'm calling it a night. Stay tuned for New Year's Resolutions (other than have a baby).

Best/worst parts of 2015? My worst was probably #3, the horrendous boob incident.

Christmas plague strikes again

Bad news: If you planned to rob us during that trip to NY to see my family that I've been so excited for, the trip is off. The Christmas illness curse strikes again.

In 2011, it was bronchitis for me and vertigo for my sister (which turned out to be pregnancy). In 2014, we were staying at my mom's house and stomach flu slowly took everyone down, one by one, Except, luckily, Dalton since he was barely 3 months old.

And here we go again, 2015. Sinus infection. I'm going to complain about that a lot, so let's back up to a time when everything was healthy and happy.

Tuesday, I got the #1 Christmas gift on my list. A clean bill of health for the baby at our 20 week ultrasound.

It's one thing to say I'm not finding out the sex while I'm just chilling on my couch writing blog posts. I mean, it's not like I could if I wanted to right then anyway. (Full disclosure - Eric wants to find out, but I'm carrying and birthing the baby, so, I won. He'll thank me later.) At the ultrasound, I really had to put my money where my mouth was. It was kind of crazy to be like WAIT. This lady could tell us RIGHT NOW. I'll admit I was tempted for a second, but I'm really excited to be surprised at the birth, so it was a fleeting thought. She had us look away at one point, but then said the baby was being shy anyway, and didn't indicate that she even knew what the sex was. And now it's done! If we even need any more ultrasounds, they won't be for quite awhile, so the baby's sex will stay a secret. No going back!

However, it did make the ultrasound a little scarier. The first time around I was so focused on finding out the sex, it was all that was on my mind. This time, I was a lot more concerned that we would find out something was wrong. Luckily, we got all good news. 

That night, we had a roommate reunion. The three of us were good friends in college and then we got really close when we moved to Baltimore together and embarked on this crazy teaching adventure. Ten years ago we were living together in a rowhouse downtown, trying to get through our first year of teaching. Now we all have husbands and kids and houses and grown up stuff.

My child had to pose with a measuring cup in his mouth, naturally.

Dalton woke up with a low grade fever Wednesday and a little congested, but we didn't think anything of it since he seemed fine and he'd had two vaccinations the previous day. Everyone went to work or daycare.

Just a little cold, no big deal.

Christmas Eve morning, the running store I used to work at hosted a holiday run, since....why not? It was nearly 70 degrees. I had a great time catching up with some old coworkers and running in shorts. I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but the whole east coast is all messed up because of the wild weather, so I figured it was nothing to worry about. 

As procrastinators do, we spent Christmas Eve shopping. We even went to the mall. With a toddler. Of course, he loves anything where there are sights and smells and things to touch, so he had a great time. That night, we tried to continue the tradition of drinking hot chocolate, watching the Santa tracker, and opening our Christmas pjs.

My best picture of Christmas pjs in front of the tree.

It was hilarious. This just in: strong willed toddlers do not give a crap about traditions. While he was ok with his hot chocolate in his sippy cup, he was pretty pissed off that opening gifts interrupted his busy schedule of climbing on all the furniture.

"I DO NOT WANT THAT."

This was Christmas morning, but same idea.

The most interest he could muster.

He's his own man and I seriously just love how much his little personality already shows through. He knows what he wants!

Christmas morning, I made sure I was the first one up to stuff the stockings and get everything ready.

But I shouldn't have rushed.

Then I waited. Until NINE THIRTY. Yes, that was when my child (and husband) woke up. It was insane. My Facebook feed was all filled with people who had opened all the gifts, and my toddler was still sleeping. He'd stayed up a little late Christmas Eve, but nothing crazy (like, 8pm bedtime instead of 7pm). He is definitely fighting something.

Once everyone was up, we opened gifts. Dalton was fascinated and couldn't get enough.

Kidding, He literally couldn't care less.

After a delicious Christmas breakfast, I was starting to feel really sick. I'd kind of been suspecting it wasn't just a cold, but I was in denial. After spending the rest of the day in bed, hacking and going through box after box of tissues, I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection. 

Some really fun sinus infection while pregnant facts:

• You can't take anything and are stuck with worthless "natural remedies".
• Coughing and sneezing brings on horrible round ligament pain.
• I won't spell it out, but I'm sure my mom and mom-to-be readers know what else coughing and sneezing while pregnant causes. 

Since 2011's bout of bronchitis started with an innocent little sinus infection, I wasn't thrilled. Strangely enough, this one came with severe nausea. 

I enjoyed a Christmas dinner of saltines in bed. 

Then I threw them all up shortly after. I've never vomited with a sinus infection, nor due to pregnancy, so it was strange. Around this time, I realized I needed to start facing facts, and accept that a 400 mile road trip first thing in the morning wasn't necessarily in the cards. 

In the morning, the only trip I took was to Urgent Care. Luckily, they hooked me up with a Zpack. After another day in my bed, which had now become a den of tissues, Vicks, and Netflix, I had high hopes that I would feel completely better by Sunday and we could make the trip then. 

Not the case. Sunday morning, walking down the stairs still seemed exhausting. Dalton was also still sleeping super late and has a cough. I wouldn't say he's sick, but he's not at 100%. Sunday afternoon, I finally got my appetite back, and ate a real meal for lunch. Amazing how food gives me energy. Definitely a lot more than Saturday's diet, which was exclusively Cheez-Its and Gatorade (nothing against magical Cheez-Its). I finally was able to actually use my break as intended, and play with my child. 

He got this awesome scooter from my MIL for Christmas. He doesn't quite get the hang of it yet.

We tried to show him, but he's just not there yet. Once he figures it out, he's going to go nuts.

Overall - not my greatest Christmas. But Dalton mainly had fun, and there's always next year. I'm really disappointed we couldn't take our trip, but there's not much I can do about that. Either way, it's Sunday night and I don't have to say goodbye to my little man tomorrow morning - I get a whole week of playing with him!

If you celebrate a winter holiday, what was your best gift? Eric got me an owl mug that I really love (I love owls and I love mugs). We kept gifts pretty low key this year, babies being expensive and all.

Christmas week and I couldn't be less prepared

Just taking a little break from ordering all my gifts with express shipping since I suck at life. No time like December 20 to buy Christmas presents. I am so far from ready. I even skipped my nap today, but I still have cookie dough to make and gifts to wrap. And cleaning. Always with the cleaning.

Friday night, we went to Eric's coworker's holiday party. Dalton was clearly the life of the party. The two of us left early for bedtime, and this amazing thing happened.

Snuggling. He even fell asleep on me. A true rarity in toddler world.

We had no intention of doing the Santa thing this year (or last year, for that matter). From my understanding, it would entail waiting in line and spending an exorbitant fee for an experience my child would hate. Seemed pretty pointless when we could spend what precious little time and money we have on fun for the whole family. Don't get me wrong. If I even wasn't sure how my kid would react, I may have gone for it. But there was no doubt in my mind, Santa would bring on tears. Immediately. Anyone who knows Dalton gets it, I'm sure.

However, Carolyn invited us to go to a train garden with her and Nathan Saturday morning. We really had no idea what a train garden was, but it was free, so you can't go wrong. 

When we walked in, Santa was just chilling all by himself and told us to put Dalton in his lap. So, why not?

Eric got the camera ready, we handed him over, and just as predicted, he freaked out.

And Santa wasn't thrilled either.

He was only in the lap for about 3 seconds, and immediately cheered up when I took him back. So he's probably not traumatized for life. 

Turns out a train garden is a giant train table, in this case, with crazy intricate scenes of 1950s Baltimore created with tiny little people.

Not the greatest picture but the good ones are on Eric's phone and he's sleeping and I can't use Droids.

Dalton enjoyed it, but Eric really had the most fun.

I met them there right after running with friends, and foolishly only brought my running jacket. It was the one cold day we've had so far this winter. Luckily I had crazy pregnancy hormones keeping me warm.

To make up for his trauma, we took him out to lunch at Towson Hot Bagels, and treated him to a latte afterwards. 

Never too young to appreciate the good stuff. 

The rest of the weekend was mainly hanging out and playing. We did manage to find a few stocking stuffers.

I stole my friend Jessy's idea and decided to have Dalton "help" me cook. He's always really interested when Eric holds him up to the stove and he loves to see what I'm making. 

During lunch, he mainly just stole pieces of bread from the sandwiches I was about to grill and ate them. 

"Why cook it when I could just eat it right now?"

He started helping me mix biscuits for dinner. That mission was aborted when Eric came home with pizza, but he still had fun and looked cute doing it.

He alternated between the whisk and the fork. 

My plan was to have Dalton help me make cookie dough for Christmas cookies, but somehow we didn't get to that. Where do these weekend days go?

Workouts still continue to decrease. This week I did 3 runs, and one Jillian Michaels DVD. A wise friend told me to just do what I can do, it doesn't have to be every day, or even every other day. Just get in what I can. That's my plan.

3 more school days and a zillion more Christmas preparation tasks, and then it's Christmas break! It can't come soon enough. We have a pretty amazing schedule.

Dec 22: Our friends from NC are visiting, and we have our anatomy scan! (Technically this is not part of break, it's a work day.)

Christmas Eve/Christmas: Just the three of us, at home. We decided that when we had kids, we would celebrate Christmas morning in our own place. This is our first year celebrating in our house! Makes it feel like we're truly our own family now. 

Dec 26-31: Visiting my family in NY. CANNOT WAIT to squeeze my niece's little baby chub. (And if you will be in Rochester and I like you, let's hang out!)

New Year's Eve: Wild party with our friends in Syracuse. And by wild party, I mean they have a 2 month old, we have a toddler, and I'm pregnant. If last year was anything to go by, no adults are going to be intentionally up at midnight. I'm thinking we can just do the countdown at like 8pm, I'm sure it will be midnight somewhere. 

Who's ready for the holidays, and who's a bit more in my position? What's everyone doing December 25? 

My life these days

1. Dalton got his first Christmas gift from our friend Casi. He could not have been less interested. I'm still excited for Christmas morning, though.

2. It had been too long since a good theme party was in our lives. Our friends recently refinished their basement and got a ping pong table and a pilates machine, so we had a PPPP party. Pilates, ping pong, pajamas, pizza. And other foods that began with P. 

He wasn't pleased with the photo timing.

3. The great crib transition 2015. Nope, not to a bed. In case you were under any impression that my intelligence was on the high side, for some reason, Dalton slept in a mini crib up until this past weekend. Most people don't even know those exist, but, they do. I had no idea, we got the crib we registered for as a gift, and I was blissfully ignorant until he was many months old. I would seriously go to friend's houses and be like "their crib looks so much bigger! Must just be how the room is set up.". Can I blame sleep deprivation? Except I wasn't sleep deprived when I was pregnant and we registered for it, received it, and set it up. 

Now it lives on the guest bed.

In our original plan of children 3-4 years apart, this would have been a problem. On the #impulsebaby plan, it's not. We got a normal sized crib, which is now Dalton's. The baby will take the mini crib, and by the time he or she is too big, Dalton will have figured out his crib escape tactics and we will have been forced to provide him with a bed. Plus, now Dalton is psyched about all the room he has for activities and thinks life is awesome. I would show a picture of it but I forgot and he's asleep now.

4. Sick baby

We had big plans to go to the DC zoo Sunday afternoon to see their amazing Christmas lights. Had is the key word there. When I got Dalton up from his nap, he was burning up, and his temperature was 103.3. I know it was probably the hormones, but that's way too close to the "it's time for the ER" level and I was pretty freaked out. We got it down, but it was still 103 Monday morning and Eric took him to the doctor.

Word.

Of course, it's a virus. Don't we all hate that? Just give me MEDS to FIX THIS. I stayed home with him today, and his fever was down to 101.8 when he woke up this morning. 

He was not too sick to learn to climb on the couch.

This kid is a TROOPER. He was still laughing and giggling and of course his appetite was only mildly affected. He was extra clingy and cuddly, and I can't say I minded. He's also been sleeping a ton. 

Helping me cook dinner.

5. Blue Apron

I've never lumped myself into the group of "too busy to grocery shop". Don't get me wrong, it's a legitimate group, I'm just saying I'm not a part of it. Too tired? Maybe. But not too busy.

I've seen Blue Apron on a million blogs and on Facebook, and always thought it seemed overpriced and kind of pointless. My friend sent me a 50% off code though, which made it $30 for 3 meals for 2, which didn't seem to be terribly different from grocery shopping. We decided to try it for a week. 

We've made two out of three meals. 

Shrimp Banh Mi

Caramelized Meyer Lemon Spaghetti 

So far, the verdict is: overpriced and kind of pointless. The first dinner was just...fine. Nothing special, nothing crazy delicious. When I told Eric that would have normally cost $20, he almost fell out of his chair, and he's not one to pinch pennies. And at least that was shrimp, which is pricey. The second dinner was delicious, but even at half price, $10 for spaghetti? Normally TWENTY? I think not, especially since many of the pre packaged ingredients were things I normally have on hand anyway - butter, lemon, parmesan, garlic, breadcrumbs. I can get takeout delivered ready to eat for less than $20 a person, and while the meals vary, it's not like straight up spaghetti is such a healthy meal. 

I will say, I would consider making that recipe again, but I would just hit up the grocery story. We probably won't try recipe #3 until this weekend because we're so OMG busy. 

Let's all pray this stupid fever is gone tomorrow. 

Who else has tried one of those subscription meal services? Anyone have a good use for them? I totally get it for actually busy people, like doctors or police officers or single parents, etc, but for someone working typical hours with one kid, in a big city with tons of grocery stores...I don't get it. 

Confessions from my toddler mom pregnant life

Right now, I'm 18 weeks pregnant with a 14 month old. It can be tiring.

1. I gave my kid animal crackers to keep him quiet so I could get seconds of dinner. He was done, I wasn't.

2. I tell my husband to clean the kitchen while I sit on my ass and do nothing. Nothing, but build a human, that is.

3. I am desperate for screen time before two. Not because I don't allow it, because my baby is too little to be interested, and I wish I could just put on a video and lie down for a minute. I tried to get him to watch Elmo on my phone for 30 seconds to cut his nails. NOPE.

4. I count down till bedtime. I used to dread bedtime because it came so quickly after daycare pickup and then I missed Dalton. It's not that I get sick of him now, it's just that his bedtime is my bedtime, and it would probably be earlier if this was my first pregnancy. I'm just so tired. 

5. With Dalton, I took weekly bump pictures to remember this special journey. With Baby #2, we occasionally take belly pictures when I remember. 

Last one we took. I'm 18 weeks and huge now. 

6. I have choked down coffee. Last time, as soon as I developed an aversion, I gave it up. This time, sometimes it disgusted me but I NEEDED IT. 

7. My kitchen is filled with packages of random foods that I HAD to have in the grocery store, ate 1-2 servings of, and then never wanted to see again. Examples: pumpkin spice oreos, pumpkin ice cream, salt and vinegar chips. Not directly related to a toddler, but I never experienced this last pregnancy.

8. I want a minivan. Almost the first thing Eric said when I told him I was pregnant again was "so do we need to get a minivan?". The answer is yes. I'm well aware they are associated with being a lame soccer mom. Which matters to me because...I have such a cool image to maintain? I've never been cool. Not in elementary school, not in high school, not now. But you know what I have been? Someone who doesn't like to do extra work when I don't have to. So why would I open a car door while trying to juggle two kids and groceries when I could push a button and have it SLIDE OPEN? Even if it did make people think I was less cool for driving a van (not possible), the circle of people who I actually care about their opinion of me is an ever dwindling list. If you're not my relative or an extremely close friend, you probably aren't on it. Sorry not sorry. 

For now, my civic will fit two babies just fine (ok, a baby and a toddler, if I must admit my baby isn't a baby), but it's already ten years old. Eventually, it will need to be replaced, those babies will get bigger, and that's when the minivan will enter my life. Have a car payment again will be lame, but driving in silence while two kids watch DVDs with tons of room will be beautiful. 

Someone this post became an ode to a minivan. I haven't even driven one since I learned to drive my mom's when I was 16, so literally half my lifetime ago. 

9. Nursery preparation is pretty much the last thing on my to do list, down there under dentist and oil change. First of all, it cracks me up when people ask if we're going to move Dalton to the other room (currently the guest room, so come visit now before that's gone) and move the baby into the nursery. Um, he'll be 19 months when his brother or sister arrives. We will just have two nurseries, at least if the definition of a nursery is a room that contains a crib and diapers. 

Sure, pinning cute nursery ideas is fun. But you know what's even more fun? SLEEPING. On the weekends, I really need my nap during Dalton's nap time, at least one weekend day. Babies don't care what the nursery looks like, it's for the parents. And this parent would rather take a nap. We have a crib in there, my sister gave me some newborn diapers that were leftover from my niece. I'll get the box of newborn clothes that we keep passing back and forth from her when we visit for Christmas and probably put them in the dresser that's in there, which is left over from Eric's old bachelor apartment. It will be ugly, mismatched, and perfectly functional for a baby. Once people see the minivan outside, they won't have high expectations anyway. 

It would be nice to round this post out with a tenth item, but Dalton is napping, so it's time for my weekend nap. 

Give me all the dessert (and none of the exercise)

Freaking What to Expect has the nerve to tell me not to eat dessert, then asks me if I'm satisfied with the app. Um, NO. Just tell me whatever fruit my baby looks like this week and keep your judgmental opinions to yourself.

Don't judge me.

I'll eat dessert whenever I damn well please. That was the method I went with the first time around and look how well that turned out.

Perfection.

Although, with that guy, I exercised. This time around, exercise and pregnancy aren't mixing so well. This is honestly the first time in my adult life I have just gone days without it, other than being sick, injured, recovering from childbirth, etc. I ran 3 miles with my friend Katharine and our kiddos Saturday morning and since then...nada. I'm just TIRED. Not the soul crushing exhaustion of the first trimester, but I'm still freaking tired. The only time I can really work out is if I get up at 5am before work. I need about ten hours of sleep to even feel human these days, which would mean going to bed at 7pm. I'm fine with that, except I need to actually do things like clean up from dinner, pack lunch, work nonsense, play on Facebook, etc. So I sleep from around 8:30pm to 6:30am and still wake up exhausted. Good times.

On the weekends, we wake up and take selfies.

Probably my biggest accomplishment this weekend was staying up until nearly 11pm at Girls Night In with some BFFs. We ordered food and watched Magic Mike XXL. I hadn't seen the original, but somehow I managed to catch on. My favorite part was Michael Strahan's striptease. Seriously the best thing to ever happen to me was watching Kelly and Michael daily on maternity leave. I literally cannot wait to snuggle up with that new baby and those two talk show hosts.

Instead of wine, I had this.



Quite delicious and even sort of looked like wine when poured in to a wine glass!

Sunday was the first day of Hanukkah. We celebrated both holidays growing up, my dad is Jewish and my mom is Christian, so we are continuing the tradition with our kids (and my sister is with my niece and nephew).

First, we put our Hanukkah gift from my dad to good use - annual passes to the zoo!

Checking out the actual Baltimore ravens.

Even a non - animal lover such as myself enjoyed a good zoo trip growing up. Although not all the animals were out in December, Dalton didn't care and had the time of his life. I think he just loved being outdoors with wide open spaces to run around.

Add caption

Despite the lack of smiling pictures, he really did have fun.

I'm really excited because we now have annual passes to the zoo, Port Discovery, and teachers can go to the science center for free and all these places should only get more fun as Dalton gets older. Annual passes are really the perfect gift for one year olds (probably older kids too, stand by on that) because really, we do NOT need any more toys although they are certainly appreciated. I see all sorts of moms at these places with toddlers and little babies, so this leads me to believe I can do this too.

Of course, for Hanukkah dinner, we had latkes.

Smelled like childhood.

Dalton couldn't get enough, much like with every food.

Dinner by menorah.

I could have gone for a run when Dalton CRASHED for a long nap after the zoo, but I decided to follow his lead and took an amazing nap myself. My body truly does not allow me to nap (like I literally cannot fall asleep if it's light out) unless I'm pregnant, then I can take ALL THE NAPS.

It hasn't been at all consistent but I've felt a few baby movements here and there! I'm more and more sure it's a boy. Once I really have a big baby belly I'm going to do all the old wives tales like the ring on a string and everything. Chinese gender predictor says girl. It was right for Dalton, so we will see!

Have you ever gone through an anti-exercise phase? I'm ok with it while I'm pregnant (#sleepnowwhileyoucan), but my concern is that having two kids won't be a cure for this problem.

Black Friday probz

Anyone else have the issue of intending to  do Black Friday shopping to get their Christmas shopping out of the way and then end up just buying stuff for yourself? Or just me?

Apparently the whole stand in line at 4am thing is done so I just had some coffee when I woke up and went to oldnavy.com in my pajamas. I actually didn't get anything for myself there (because...what's the point), I just filled my cart with ridiculously adorable baby girl clothes for my niece. I mean seriously, I love Dalton's outfits but how does anyone with a daughter still have a roof over their head? It's not even right. (For the record, Dalton and my nephew don't currently need any clothes and I got one thing for Eric, and we also got a monitor for the new baby.)

After that I went out to my former place of employment, Charm City Run. Previous model + ugly colors = $40 brand new running shoes. YES. (I specified brand new because pretty much every new thing in this house is actually previously used these days.)




Then I decided it might be time for a new sports bra, since I've had all the same ones since before I was even pregnant the first time (aka 2013). I overheard a lady talking about a sports bra she wore during breastfeeding so of course I  butted in to ask questions and then got into a conversation with her and the saleslady about it. They assumed this was my first pregnancy (since I didn't have any kids with me) and started to let me know just what was coming down the pike for me. I certainly appreciated the advice, but I had to stop them and let them know I was fully aware of the madness this little baby is about to inflict on my body. So. Aware.

Long story short I got a new sports bra with all sorts of fancy adjustable parts and it's going to be wonderful. Then I went to Kohl's and got...more clothes for my niece. I just don't have any ideas for anyone else and the little bows and ruffles suck me right in every time.

When I came home, we put up the tree!

He loved helping with the ornaments.

Tree decorating + Elf - family tradition

We are all done with every holiday being a first for Dalton, but I still feel like they are all exciting for a new reason. This year he was old enough to eat with us at Thanksgiving, walk, and basically notice things and not just sleep all the time as newborns do, even if he still doesn't have a clue what's going on.

We didn't forget the Jewish holidays!

You know what's even better than a weekend? A weekend after you've already had two days off. Lazy mornings with this guy are just the best.

I bribe him with food to sit in my lap. 

Saturday, we played, napped, then went to the playground and did a stroller run. After bedtime, I had a big night out.

I braided my hair for this.

It was epic. For real, I didn't pee during the entire movie. That's the longest I've gone without peeing since it was just me in this body. It was that good. And that was even with a giant soda (that I spent $5 on at the theater, ugh) because my first trimester nausea returned with a vengeance after Thanksgiving. Seriously, LOVED IT. As predicted, I needed a boatload of tissues for the ending on pregnancy hormones. Sorry, that's kind of a spoiler, but the book came out like 6 years ago.

Sunday I woke up with some sort of cold/chest congestion thing and basically took a sick day from life and stayed in bed. The hormones came back again and I felt horribly guilty for wasting one of my precious days off from work with Dalton, but there wasn't really much I could do, other than occasionally lay on the couch and creepily watch him. In addition to a day of napping, I slept 7:30pm-6:30am and actually felt much better Monday morning. 

It's always sad to return to real life after a long weekend, but I still had something to look forward to. My OB appointment was Monday afternoon. Hearing the baby's heart beat always puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

Dalton and I celebrated at Storyville. #obsessed

I scheduled my anatomy scan (the ultrasound at the halfway point of the pregnancy where the baby's organs, spine, etc are all measured to make sure everything is developing properly). It's the same day as Dalton's 15 month checkup, which is just three weeks from today. It's blowing my mind that I'm almost halfway there and Dalton is going to be 15 months - HOW? I swear he was just in my belly. It's a cliche because it's true. A clean bill of health for the baby (hopefully) just in time for Christmas is just that perfect.

Who got a good "Black Friday" deal? I saw a lot of the #optoutside on instagram, but I did a 4 mile run with Lily AND got cheap running shoes.

Who else saw (and loved) Mockingjay? I'm so sad the series is done now! I really need some good YA novel suggestions, I'm trying to make a list in advance because they are perfect for middle of the night nursing entertainment.