Happy 3 Months Anniston Ruth

My precious Anniston Ruth,

I can't believe how time is flying by.  You are no longer my little newborn baby who just eats, sleeps, and poops all day.  You have developed into a little person, complete with your own personality.  It is so much fun to play with you now.  You laugh and smile so much and it melts my heart each time you do.  I love the mornings with you because that is when you are the happiest.  We have our morning talks and I make funny noises and faces so you will smile at me.  I feel that you can recognize me now.  Sometimes you can just look at me and smile.  Your eyes will follow me in and out of a room.  It warms my heart to think that you know who your Mommy is and that you love me as much as I love you- if that's even possible.

You love to eat.  Right now, you are taking 4 oz of formula about every 2-3 hours.  Sometimes we have to distract you to make you last a little longer in between feedings.  You were in the 95th percentile when we went for your 2 month shots, so we've had to try to space out your feedings a little more. You are in mostly 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  At your last doctor's visit (about a week ago) you were a little over 14 lbs.  Your weight gain has slowed down a little since we've been working on your feedings.  Your gas and acid reflux is well under control now.  You've had 2 ear infections by now and I pray this is not something we will battle often.

You are sleeping so well at night.  We've transitioned to the nursery and you usually sleep from about 7-8 pm until 4-6 am!  Somtimes you wake at 2 and need a bottle but for the most part you can go long stretches at night.

You still won't take the pacifier.  You have just started to suck on your fists- and do it all the time.  I have gone through 4 different pacifiers but you just spit each one of them out.  You seem to like your fist so much better.  Oh well...

You absolutely LOVE your Nursery Rhyme DVD.  When you get fussy and want to eat we try to distract you by watching and singling along with it.  You will just stare at it in amazement.  You love it when Mommy and Daddy sing along with it.  You don't like it if we sit down to watch it, though.  You like to for us to stand up and bounce with you.  It gets very tiring after awhile.  Daddy says you are getting spoiled but whatev- we just won't listen to him!!

I cannot believe how much our lives have changed since you have arrived.  You are the center of our worlds.  I often say to Daddy- "How in the heck did we get so lucky?"  You amaze me everyday and I can't imagine my life without you.  I love you so much!

Happy 3 months baby girl!

Love,
Mommy:)

Yay! My first tag!

I was so excited when my friend Sarah at Moske Monkey Business tagged me to play along in this fun post.  I'm still new to the blogging world so I'm thrilled to be able to join the fun.  Thanks Sarah!

The Rules

1. You must post the rules.

2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post,

and then create 11 new questions for the people you tagged.

4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.   (I still don't know that many people in the blogging world so I'm just going to tag the few that I do know!)

5. Let them know you've tagged them!

Facts About Me

1.  I MUST have a diet coke ASAP in the mornings before I can even begin to start my day.

2.  I can recite every line in every episode to FRIENDS.  I love that show.

3.  I used to be a really good tap dancer- I might still have a few good moves left in me:)

4.  I love having a glass of wine and taking a bubble bath- pure bliss!

5.  I sometimes really miss school- crazy, I know.  I was a student for 8 long years and loved organizing all my notebooks and getting good grades on tests.  I'm a dork, I know.

6.  The only meats I eat are ground beef and sausage- and I don't eat them all that much.  I do not (nor have EVER) eaten any other forms of meat.  I'm weird.

7.  I still really miss my Humpty Dumpty and Care Bears that had to be thrown away when I was in kindergarten because I got head lice.  I still think about them and it makes me sad:(

8.  I've met the guys on the the TV show "Pawn Stars" that comes on the History Channel.  B and I were actually extras on the episode "Phoning it in."  Only my arm made the cut.  Brandon, however, was a lot of shots "pretending" to shop in the store.

9.  I hate roller coasters- I get motion sick and will throw up afterwards.

10.  My favorite time periods are the 1920's and the 1950's.  I've always thought it would be a cool time to live in.

11.  B and I love to watch all the house shows on HGTV.  House Hunters and Property Virgins are our favorites.  I've always wanted to be on there when we look to buy another house!

Questions from Sarah

1.  What is your all time favorite movie?

Dirty Dancing.  "Nobody puts Baby in the corner"  Love it!

2.  If I come to your city, what's the one thing that I MUST do?

Graceland, baby!  I love Elvis and it's so neat that he used to live about 20 minutes from my house!

3.  What kind of car do you drive?

GMC Envoy- my first SUV......and I love it.  I will never go back to a car.

4.  What is your favorite place to shop?

J Crew!  Cute, classic, and a little bit trendy- perfect!

5.  What is the best place you have ever been?

Boston, MA.  I could SO live there.  It is a big city but so quaint at the same time.  I love all the history associated with it.  I want to go back the first chance we get!

Us at Fenway Park in Boston

6.  Would you ever get plastic surgery?

Probably not.  I'm too scared something will go wrong.  Plus, God made us the way we are and I don't think we should alter that.

7.  What is your favorite chain restaurant?

Olive Garden!  Salad, breadsticks, and CARBS!  Yum yum.

8.  Do you like your job?

Yes- I love it.  I love getting to know my patients and feeling like I can make a difference in their health.  I love it when I can give people medical advice and they tell me that it really helped them.

9.  Do you watch the Bachelor?  If so...who do you like/not like?

I haven't watched the show in years...

10.  Beach or Mountains?

Beach!  I'm not really the outdoor/nature type of girl...

Brandon and I in Mexico on our honeymoon!

11.  If you could go back...would you do things differently?

Maybe...but I feel you learn through the choices you make and experiences you've had.  Each one makes you the person you are today.

Tag!

Tami @ Little Moments Like This

Andrea @ Life in Dawleywood

Allie @ Allie + Brandon

Natalie @ Corporate to Domestic

My Questions for you guys:

1.  If you could meet one famous person to sit down and have a conversation with, who would it be and why?

2.  If you had a day off with nothing that you HAD to do- how would you spend it?

3.  What is your favorite fashion item that you own?

4.  If you were to paint your nails today, what color would you paint them?

5.  What was your favorite cartoon growing up?

6.  If you were given $500 how would you spend it?

7.  What is your least favorite chore to do?

8.  What is your favorite website to visit?

9.  Do you prefer lipstick or lipgloss?

10.  What is your best childhood memory?

11.  Where are you going to vacation this year?

Hope you play along!

Ready, Set, RUN

From last Sunday to today (Saturday), I have been able to fit in 4 runs!!!  Yay me!  I cannot tell you how great it feels to be able to get back out in the open air and work up a little sweat.  I did not work out much during my pregnancy, so it has been a LONG time since I've had any exercise.

During pharmacy school, I was what some might call a "gym rat."  I was at the gym at least 4-5 days out of the week.  I LOVED lifting weights and running on the treadmill.  This was really when I got into running.  I ran outside some, but couldn't go as far or as fast as I could on the treadmill, so I mainly stuck to running on it.  I was in the best shape of my life.  Here are some pics from my "skinny days."  Sigh.....

 It was a little hard to keep this up once I got married and started a full time job- but I did fairly well.  Then I got pregnant....enough said.  I totally gave up all forms of working out for the entire 9 months I was pregnant.  Shame on me.  I told myself it was just going to make starting it up again that much harder, but I took the easy way out anyways.  Now it's go time!

I really want to try to do the St. Jude Half Marathon this year.  I will be ecstatic if I finish in around 2:30.  That's really pushing it but I will still be happy with a time of 2:45-ish.  Truthfully, I should really just be happy if I finish.  It's going to be hard.  Really hard.  I start back to work next week and Brandon travels so much that it will be just me and Anniston some weeks.  I know it will be impossible to run every time I want to.  Hopefully, I can make good use of the times I do have an opportunity to run and be happy with that.

Allie and I ran 3 miles today.  This was only my 4th time running this week.  I really don't know how I managed to pull 3 miles out of my rear-end but, hey, I'll take it.  It's amazing what your body remembers.  Afterwards, I was riding the biggest high I've had in quite awhile.  It was a sense of accomplishment that I really needed right then.

I want to run for this sense of accomplishment.  I want to run to have something to call my own.  I want to run to GET FIT AGAIN.  I've got about 10-12 lbs to go before I'm at my "good" weight; 20 to fit into my "super-duper skinny jeans" that I have saved to motivate me.  I will be happy with the 10 lbs.  I know my body will never again look like the picture above because, really- I SO don't have the time to dedicate to it anymore (and it took A LOT of work.)  And that's ok.  But I do want to get fit again.  And I want to run.  So here we go....ready, set, RUN!!

Battle of the Ears

After a night of fussiness and crying on Tuesday, I took Anniston in to the pediatrician yesterday.  As expected, she has another ear infection.  This will be the second one in 3 weeks:(  I'm so glad I didn't hesitate to take her in.  She never has run a fever with the infections, so sometimes I feel like it's just a guessing game.  By now, I know my baby and I know when she is acting abnormal.  Crying uncontrollably for several hours is just not like her so I knew something was wrong- I just didn't know what.  She cried the entire time we were waiting on the doctor.  I was tired, frustrated, and feeling so helpless that when our doctor finally walked in I turned to her and said "HELP!"  She loaded her up with meds- which I am very thankful for.  We got a little Tylenol with codeine, ear drops with benzocaine, and a shot of Rocephin.  I was so glad she offered to do the antibiotic shot.  Since this infection happened so close to her last one, I knew she needed something in addition to the Amoxicillin we got last time.

That being said, it sure was hard to watch them give her the shot.  I made it ok through her 2 month vaccinations but this one was definitely worse.  Probably because she wasn't feeling good to start with.  She screamed so bad that she started choking.  My heart just broke in half.  I started crying and the nurses had to go get me tissues.  I scooped her up the second they were done to console her.  She stopped crying pretty quickly.  I think she was so worn out and it wasn't long before she was asleep on my shoulder.  I felt so bad for her.  She did pretty good the rest of the day, but I could tell she still didn't feel good.  Normally she is happy and kicking and playing but yesterday she was content to just sit around and look pitiful.  She was very "chill."  I hope this isn't a sign of problems we are going to have in the future.  I never wanted to be one of those parents whose kids are on antibiotics every other week.  I see so many of those at work and I never wanted that to me my kid.  I have to keep reminding myself that there are worse things that could be wrong with her and I'm very lucky that this is at least treatable.  Overall, God has been so good to us!

Here is my precious baby- smiling even though she didn't feel good!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

ONE

My TV shows are about to start back up!

 Vampire Diaries gets me the most excited these days!!

I do love me some American Idol.  I have watched every season!  It does take a lot of time to keep up with it so we will see this year- might be a little hard with work and Anniston.

I love award shows and this one is a lot of fun to watch.  It comes on next Wednesday.  B will be out of town, so I've asked Allie if she wants to come over and watch it with me and Anniston:)

TWO

I just ordered this Fisher Price Rainforest Jumparoo for Anniston.  It got great reviews and I found it at a good price on Amazon.  I'm hoping she will have a lot of fun in there while I get ready for work in the mornings!

THREE

Memphis TIGERS!  B and I are going to the UT/Memphis basketball game tonight!  Yay!  I also get really excited about eating the food- pretzels, hotdogs- all things bad for me basically!

FOUR

My new diaper bag I purchased at Itty Bitty Bella.  I already have 2 great ones but I love this one for when I'm out running errands with A because it has backpack straps in addition to the shoulder straps.  SUPER easy to carry and hands-free!

FIVE

I love Katie Holmes' hairstyle in this pic.  I took this pic in to my stylist yesterday to see if she could do this one me.  Of course, it didn't come out looking quite like this but I think I like it ok- at least for a little while.  I really wanted something super easy to fix in the mornings once I return to work so I have more time to play with Anniston.  I'll post a pic of my hair soon!

New Year's and Running

We had a very low key New Year's this year.  Anniston spent the night at Mom & Dad's so I could get a few of my "projects" around the house done before I start back to work. New Year's night Brandon and I went to grab a quick bite to eat and came back to the house to watch some of the coverage of Times Square in NYC.  This was the first time I've actually been able to watch it in a couple of years.  Most of the time I end up working NYE.  We got in our pj's and lounged around- it was so nice.  We didn't make it to midnight but we did get a full night of sleep!

We spent New Year's day hanging around the house and playing with Anniston.  We played on her activity mat trying to get her roll over again.  Did I mention that she rolled over for the FIRST TIME last Thursday?Brandon, Allie, and I were all sitting around while she was having some tummy time and she just rolled on over to her back.  I almost did a double take because it happened so fast!  Then we all started screaming with excitement and she started crying:(  I think we scared her!  Anyways, she hasn't done it again since but I'm happy she even did it once- at not even 3 months old!  We also watched her nursery rhyme DVD so many times that now I find myself singing "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" in my head all the time!  She loves this DVD- it can entertain her for quite awhile!

I was also able to get out and run for the first time in quite awhile.  I ran 2 miles and was very proud of myself.  I also ran again on Monday and was able to go 2.6 miles AND had a faster pace than the day before! I did so good running consistently last fall and was able to run the St. Jude 5K with a decent time.  I didn't run once during my pregnancy though- and I wish I had!  I got out and ran a couple of times soon after I had Anniston but then couldn't find the energy to keep it up for more than 2 weeks.  Now that she is a little older and easier I really want to try again. I'm aiming for the St. Jude Half Marathon in December!  Honestly, if I am truly able to run this (or mostly run it) I will be SO PROUD of myself- especially since I have a little one and I'm going to be working full time.  I'm starting early and realize that I may not be able to run as much some weeks (like when B is out of town) but I am optimistic I can make this work!  I can't wait for spring when I can get Anniston out there with me in the BOB!

Overall, we have had a great start to the New Year and I'm so excited to see what this year brings us!

Project Update

I thought I would share the finished picture of my photo tray that I finally finished this weekend.  It really didn't take me too long and I LOVE the way it turned out!

 Here is the completed tray- complete with Anniston's footprints from the hospital and her hospital bracelet (bottom right corner)