Wed. 8

1- Homemade baby food. Sure, it’s been time consuming, but it just feels so nice to feed baby something that I made, just for her, with love. And I think that, now that she is getting older, it will be easier for me to make her nutritious meals instead of grabbing something prepackaged or frozen, since I am already in the habit!

2- Our apartment. Best. Move. Ever. We live below Kamie and Alex in a nice house. Although we are still renting, it feels like I am able to take more ownership in this place. Plus, I have my best friend 10 steps away! I cannot even begin to relate how grateful I am to have my babysitter just up stairs. No car seats at 6:00 am for me!

3- Breaks from the norm. Whenever Jer and I are feeling completely stressed out or overwhelmed, instead of tackling the problem head on (like we should), we blow off the world and just head out the door. Tonight we went to Wingers and then did some Christmas shopping even though Jer has 7 more projects/tests to do for finals before Wednesday! I think Jer and I kinda have this philosophy that when life gets hard, you show it your passive-aggressive side and say “What? You think this is hard? I’ll show you! I’ll get all of this stuff done and spend a night having fun!”

4- Blogs. To quote my sister, “what did we do before??? Scrapbook? Pah!! ;)”

5- Water. Yum.

6- The Biggest Loser. Lame that I am grateful for a T.V. show? Maybe. But I really am! I had never really watched the show before, but in Australia they had their own Biggest Loser and, since we didn’t really have anything else to do, we started watching it. I really do attribute my ability to lose over 30 pounds in 5 months to this show. It gave me the daily (in Australia it was on for 30 min ever day!) motivation to continue doing those things that were good for me. Although I don’t love the American version quite as much, it has been a nice weekly reminder to keep pushing. It has been hard for me to get back to where I was right after Australia, and I still have 15 more pounds to go until I get to that point (I don’t even want to discuss how far away I am from my real goal!), but I know that week by week, if these people can do it, then so can I. I just wish that they has a “medium loser” competition for those of us that need to lose 30-50 pounds!

7- Babies in hats . . .

8- Homemade baby blankets. See that stash of blankies in the pic above? Kaiah has about double that! From a blessing blanket bought at the Festival of Trees, to ones from aunts and co-workers, to amazing quilts made by my mommy (who I don’t think had ever touched any kind of needle except the kinds that give shots before I got pregnant!), to Jer’s baby blanket that his Grandma Payne made for him when he was a baby. Kaiah has all the blankets she could ever want, and they were all made with love!