Words of the Moment

I want to write down some of Malia's favorite words in hopes that someday she can look at this list and have half as much as fun as we do listening to what words are important to her. The list below is in the order that she began saying these words to the best of my recollection.

Mama-need I say more
Cat-any animal with 4 legs and Elmo
Dada- she squeal this in delight every time the garage door opens
Light- She points at the lights and waits for us to turn the lights on and off
Dapdap-clap, clap, clap your hands, clap your hands with me. She will come up to me and push my hands together and say dap dap until I sing this song
Buuk-She loves to flip through buuks as she calls them
Uhuh-her attempt at up please
Nana-She uses this for grandma b. and banannas which earned grandma the nickname NanaBananna
This-she loves to share toys, food...she will toddle to us with a toy in hand saying this this
Uh-Oh- I didn't realize I said uh-oh when she dropped food off the high chair until she copied me one day and now she has transferred the word to every time she drops something. Soo cute!
Ei-ei-o- Nana sings Old MacDonald with her and she sings along this portion of the song
Ball-loves to throw the ball to Daddy
Bye-She has picked up on the concept of a purse, she likes to put paper bags on her shoulder, wave, say bye and walk away.
Nu-nu-nu-no,no,no. A few weeks ago she was touching the socket plugs and I said no-no-no, I didn't realize I was pointing my finger at the socket until she said no-no-no back to me and shook her finger at me. Yikes, they really do soak in everything.
Nissse-She loves animals, stuffed animals and dolls but sometimes in her excitement she will start smacking whatever she is loving so we taught her to gently pet animals and her dolls while saying nice apparently, and now when she wants to show love she will stroke our faces or the dolls and say nice, nice.
Moor- when she wants more food
Eyez-Lately she loves to show you that she knows where your eyez are by poking them
Moo- one of her favorite buuks has a cow and now when she sees a cow she loves to moo

Battle of the Bulge

Warning: this is a boring entry I just needed to write my frustrations out. :)

This battle has been going on for almost a year and it is time to take charge and march to victory. I am not going to blame this extra poundage on the baby, because truthfully nursing Malia helped me lose weight fast. Six weeks after having Malia I was 10 pounds thinner than I was when little Malia came to be. Losing weight was the only positive thing that happened in regards to nursing. I would rather deliver an 8lb13oz baby and go through the recovery than nurse again, breastfeeding was not so pleasant. But that is neither here nor there, and for those of you who care...yes I am going to give nursing another shot if we are blessed with another baby. When Malia was about 3 months I made the very emotional decision (as much as I hated it I knew that it was good for Malia) to stop nursing for my sanity and per the pediatrician's orders. I tell you this because, yikes, here we go...I put on 15 pounds in the 6 weeks after I stopped nursing. I am partly to blame because I didn't reduce my caloric intake, but my goodness 15 pounds. Well fast forward to August, Stephen and I joined the gym, we were working out daily, and following the South Beach Diet he lost 15 pounds (which he has kept off, Go Babe) and I lost 3 after surving on celery, salad and lean meat for 3 weeks. Needless to say I was discouraged. I fell off the wagon in November and December (too many sweets and Malia was sick a few times so the gym was not a priority) but managed to hold steady and keep off those 3 pounds I lost in August. Well like the other half of the U.S. I hit the gym hard and was really watching my diet the first few weeks of January and I lost 1 pound. Discouraged again. Well during my physical for our foster app my bloodwork showed that I had
borderline hypothyroidism. Interesting sidenote: my dr. thinks this might be why I don't ovulate and menstruate so in an effort to help me menstruate my dr. put me on medicine, which I was very hesitant about taking. The idea of taking medicine every day for the rest of my life was a downer, the pharmacy called me 3 times to remind me my prescription was waiting before I went to pick it up. But I was hoping it would get my body in gear, because we would like to have another munchkin. The interesting thing was I didn't feel like I was tired which is one of the common symptoms. Well now that I have been on the medicine for a few weeks I am already noticing that I have more energy. I must have just gotten used to my previous energy level, for example working out, caring for Malia and maybe making one errand (groceries) was about all I was up to in a single day. In the past week I would say I have felt like doing more than I had in a month before I started the medicine. The reason I share this story is that I have lost 2 pounds since I started the medicine. I have also made a commitment to stop baking unless I have a very good reason (guests/birthday...) which I know is my biggest downfall. It is encouraging for me to think that those times I was working so hard and only lost 3 pounds that there may have been a reason. I am hoping that we are on the upswing and by watching my portions, working out and getting my thyroid going I can finally ditch this extra fat. 2008 was full of sickness, 2009 is going to be the year of health!

First Kiss

I had a special moment with Malia last night that I have to share, she gave me her first kiss! Previously, every time you would go in for a smooch on the cheek she would turn her head away. Although she pretends she hates kisses, she giggles every time Stephen and I smooch, it has recently become a game for Stephen and I to give a quick peck and watch Malia erupt in laughter. Last night while Stephen was with the High School Boys, I was feeding Malia and whispering I love you in her ear when she looks right at me, leans in and smooches me right on the lip. I am a bit slow (in part due to her previous aversion to hugs and kisses) and didn't understand what she was doing until she did it a second and third time. Parenting often tries my patience, wears me out and makes me yearn for time alone but I also have never experienced so much joy, it seems like every day a new connection is made, a bit more of her personality comes out, or a sweet gesture like a simple kiss makes me stop and praise the Lord for a healthy little girl.

So Many Firsts

Going down the slide with Dad Hamburger

Fingerpainting