Wesley Arlo- 11 Months

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Holy h-e-double hockey sticks. I can’t believe how fast time has FLOWN by with this little man. Just to think that this time last year I was already off work on short term disability and laying on the couch all day watching Scandal on Netflix, eating Nutella, and waiting for my baby boy to get here. (I guess life is pretty much the same with regards to the couch sitting, Netflix watching and Nutella eating;) )

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So here’s where we’re at: the kid is a blast. Like, I’m pretty sure there is no better kid out there.

He’s still in size 5 diapers, 24mo clothes, sleeps 12 hours through the night, and eats just about anything that’s given to him.

See? The best.

He now has five teeth and loves to eat crunchy snacks. Most notably: MY goldfish crackers. Guess it’s time I learn to share. (Except I did just buy him some Annie’s bunnies only because they’re slightly healthier for him. Plus, no sharing required.) He sucks down smoothies like a champ, loves fruits and veggies and those GD puffs. He’s still not a huge fan of meat, but will tolerate some turkey meatballs or pulled pork now and again. Eggs are still having him make a yucky face, but he’ll eat a few pieces before moving on to more delicious foods.

He’s no longer breastfeeding. February 24 was his last feeding, and on the morning of the 25th, he just didn’t want it anymore. I am super sad about it, but it’s nice to know it was his choice. (Don’t get me started on how crazy my hormones/metabolism has been since then. ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE). He’ll have a bottle in the morning, one in the late afternoon and one before bed and we’re slowly integrating some milk into the formula.

He’s successfully mastered getting up on all fours, but no forward-crawling yet. Most of his ‘travel’ is an up-on-all-fours-twist-around-and-repeat motion. And he even more recently started using the couch or the fireplace to get up on his knees! Which means we really have to get our butts in gear and buy some gates and baby-proofing stuff.

Plus, this whole almost-crawling business makes it darn near impossible to get any non-blurry photos of him! I need to learn how to use my fancy camera better so I can avoid this! (ps: anyone have any tips or tricks on how I can achieve that?)

He’s down to one nap a day most of the time. This transition was a bit harder for me because it meant less of a mental break during some of those long days. But less napping means earlier bed time, so no real complaints from these parents 😉

I’ve started to stress a lot less about getting out of the house with him as well. Before, I wanted to always make sure we were home for nap time and for meals. But then something in my head clicked and I realized this little man is going to have to start learning to roll with the punches..plus, it just takes a bit of planning with packing food! We’ve gone out for some pretty long stretched of time and it has been SO nice.

Leggings: Little D Threads; Multi-use clip: KEWE Clothing; bibdana: Mawdsley Loves

Oh wait, this is a Wes update. Not a me update. Moving on..

It has been a lot of fun watching him develop! He now stacks toys, intentionally groups them, and throws all the balls. (I stepped on my first toy last week. It was a triangle shaped wooden toy and it hurt like a SOB..and even left a large bruise!) He’ll also hand us things and then take them back. I say I think it’s fun now, but I’m guessing it’ll get old really quick as I expect this will be an ongoing trend for the next few years. Oy!

This month, he has really hated being put on the changing table and will cling to us like an upside down sloth as we try to lay him down. How appropriate his 11 month outfit include sloth pants.

And he has had a few fits when Tyler picks him up..mostly because it makes him think it’s bed time!

But then all we have to do is throw him in the blue car and he starts screeching with excitement. Now if only he would stop snagging all the dishtowels from the stove when he drives through the kitchen…

As far as dogs go, he still loves them. More obsessed with Layla because she’s on the floor more then His Highness Reggie who is always on the couch. Lots of snuggles and kisses and fistfuls of hair.

I’m still working on having him say mama…At first it was a bunch of dadadadada’s, but now its evolved to rarararara so I’d say there’s progress. He’ll also mimic certain noises we make to him which is entirely too entertaining!

And the smiles. I love all the smiles. Even if they rarely happen for the camera.

I can’t believe the next update will be for his FIRST BIRTHDAY.

In case you missed it:

Weekender

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well that went by fast! Faster than usual actually. I blame daylight savings?? And Happy Pi Day! Backing it up from the weekend:

Friday: While Wes was down for his morning nap, I did a quick T25 Beta workout then whipped up a batch of Easter M&M cookies. (balance, right?)

Afterwards, we headed to the mall in hopes of exchanging some socks my parents sent to Wes for a larger size. They didn’t have any, so I’ll just have to hold on to them until we make it to a different location! We did a quick lap around the mall then headed home.

It was a pretty uneventful day, and we didn’t do much except hang around the house for the remainder of the afternoon.

Dinner was a quick meal of chicken burrito bowls (we forgot to put CHEESE on them. WHO DOES THAT!) then Susie came over for a girls night beer tasting. We each contributed 3 beers, but we only opened 3….and didn’t even finish them! I feel like such an old lady sometimes.

Saturday: Here’s some exciting news- I spent the morning doing laundry! Actually, I took a nice bath first then got some laundry done. And Wes helped us make the bed 🙂

After lunch we headed out to check out some flooring options to redo the main level of the house. We think we’ve narrowed it down to a particular one, but it might not get done RIGHT away. That’s ok, it was nice to get out of the house and Wes loved sitting in all the different shopping carts! And snacks. Snacks are always fun.

Oh, and I was dead set on getting a nutella donut from Tims while we were out. Mmm, so good! I haven’t had one of those since the day Wes was born- aka: the day I most deserved a donut.

We ordered pizza for dinner and watched The Other Guy and Concussion before going to bed.

Sunday: After my beloved BAE breakfast, I took Wes for a nice long morning walk. It was early enough that there was still a nip in the air, so he got nice and cozy before we headed out.

He managed to fall asleep while we were out and I successfully got him in the entryway of the house (in the stroller!) and he stayed asleep for about 45 minutes.

A little afternoon play time to be had:

Then we decided to try to go to a nearby provincial park for a long walk. Once we got there though it was way too windy, so we tried heading to another park. Same problem…WIND! Almost immediately after we strapped Wes back into the car he passed out and we ended up driving out to Airdrie to check out some show homes. There were some really nice ones, but then there were also a lot of overpriced homes that didn’t even have nice finishes. Womp.

Wes was a trooper for the FOUR HOURS we were out, and even stayed all smiles for the rest of the evening! He ate a humungous dinner, splashed the heck out of us during his bath, then easily went down at 7:40pm.

Unfortunately for me, since we were out so long during the day and Wes didn’t have a proper nap in his crib, I still had to take the doggies out for a long walk and do my workout afterwards. I hate to admit it but I think I’m becoming a morning worker-outer! Nothing better than just getting it done first thing.

Speaking of workouts, I just wanted to share a photo I posted on Instagram. I really have to attribute a lot of my post-baby body success to my two favorite programs: T25 and 21 day fix EXTREME . Both programs enabled me to get in great workouts in under 30 minutes and there is no better feeling than the feeling of accomplishment- especially when I can see these results AND I feel like a million bucks.

If you’re interested in learning more about these or any other programs, please feel free to email me! jennifer(dot)l(dot)linton(at)gmail(dot)com

Before heading to bed, I whipped up a batch of baked breakfast protein cookies. I’m really hoping they turned out..and if they do, I’ll make sure to share the recipe!

How was your weekend??

From the Week

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Woohoo for Friday! Forecast for this weekend: chores and sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. Some stuff that happened this week:

Monday: We started off the day nice and early with a stroll to the library. Gotta love nice weather that allows for us to get some fresh air! We picked a little corner and got some books and just hung out for a while. There were some other kiddos there too, but they sounded a bit destructive otherwise I would have had Wes try to mingle.

We left a while later with a ton of new books to enjoy at home. I even checked one out for myself!

Then I got a huge surprise in the mail. Tyler ordered me a professional light tent set! I am entirely too excited to use this (and it’s WAY better than the light box I constructed myself. I know a few of you were asking how I made it, but it was so crappy that you’re now spared the instructions. haha).

I already have it set up on a table in the basement and it’s just waiting for its first victim! 🙂

The weather was all too sunny, so I decided to take Wes for another stroll around the neighborhood. This time in the wagon! He just sat there pretty content and checking everything out.

We had leftovers for dinner and spent the remainder of the evening just hanging out. This guy is really starting to enjoy his bath time and gets super giggly throwing all of this toys out of his basket over and over again.

Tuesday: I checked the monitor before getting out of bed to get Wes and he was sitting up! Oh man, he’s just minutes away from crawling and I am just not ready for that yet!

We met up with Alison and her kiddos at the zoo. Just my luck Wes fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there. And of course he woke up when I tried to transfer him into the Bob. There was no one at the zoo and we whizzed through almost the entire park in about an hour before heading home. Then, Wes fell asleep AGAIN five minutes before we got home. Same thing happened and he woke up when I took him out.

I attempted getting him down for a nap a couple of times before he FINALLY fell asleep around 2pm. He slept for 2 hours, but he was so out of whack that he woke up SUPER grumpy and stayed that way until bed time. Boo.

The only thing keeping him somewhat entertained was trying to pull himself up on the step. Or maybe he was doing a yoga pose? Who knows. Babies are weird.

The grump took a lot of my time and energy that dinner was easy peasy: chicken, cous cous, and spicy roasted potatoes.

Wednesday: After a yummy pancake breakfast, Wes and I walked to Safeway for a grocery run then browsed around a few other stores in the shopping center before heading home. The early morning air + an exciting WesOnWheels session tuckered him out for a good, long nap!

I seriously love taking advantage of this crazy good weather, so we headed over to a different shopping center after lunch and walked around for a bit. (Picking up a few necessities, of course. Dang it, even going for walks causes me to spend money!) Before heading home, I ran the car through the car wash and Wes was amazed.

Oh- and we had a delicious dinner! I made Crockpot Minestrone Soup (+ added chicken). I also made a cake. The cake is already gone. Never leave me home alone with a cake. Full disclosure: Tyler did help eat it.

It’s funny that the day after Wes has a ‘grump day’ he tends to be extremely happy. Case in point:

All smiles the whole day! His lack of afternoon naps lately have caused him to zone out pretty early which has been a pretty nice treat for me and Tyler.

Thursday: No morning outing for us. It was entirely too windy to go for a walk, so we played with EVERY toy in the house and hopped from room to room to keep it interesting. After lunch, I tried to take some photos of Wes with Layla (wearing some of his latest goodies from our Wee Nation box) but it was a HUGE no go. Mr Grump did not want to wear his hat. Or sit still. I was seriously considering a glass of wine at that point.

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Even his non smiley photos are adorable!

We got out of the house and went to the dollar store, Walmart (strictly to stockpile on Easter candy before it sells out), and Michaels. I just realized that I’ve been on the same tank of gas for 3 weeks now. Woohoo!

When we got home, Wes pulled out his personalized plank (A gift from his aunt, uncle and cousin for Christmas) and was mesmerized by it for almost 2 hours. Seriously, a piece of wood is that interesting.

We had naked dinner (Ok, just Wes. Tyler and I kept our clothes on) and bedtime came early once again.

Workouts from the week: Week 1 of Beta from Focus T25 and a 45 minute walk the the doggies each night.

Phew, I am exhausted! But I am so happy with the amount of out-of-the-house time Wes and I had this week. Here’s to hoping the weekend is just as nice!

PS: *Shoutout to all you readers that never comment* I’d love to hear from ya! That said, I dare you to comment below! You can tell me a joke or something random from your week or a new recipe you’ve come across that you think I should try!

Three Things on Thursday

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi, friends! Happy Thursday. SO CLOSE to the weekend I can almost taste it. I’ve got three totally random things I’d like to share with you today:

Eco Chic Movement. Last month, Dr. Alexis from Eco Chic Movement reached out and asked if I’d like to try some baby products from her all-natural line. I of course said yes because I’m always on the lookout for safe products to use on Wes. We received the baby basics travel set which includes baby lotion, massage oil, diaper cream, baby face cream, baby skin conditions cream, and shampoo & body wash.

All of the products are 100% natural and made in Ottawa by Dr. Alexis who is a chemical engineer, toxicologist, and naturopathic doctor. The shampoo & body wash came in a foam pump and I had to pump it quite a bit to get enough to lather onto Wes’s head and body, but I could tell it was nice and gentle on his skin. His hair was light and fluffy after his bath too!

The baby lotion had a very thick consistency which also made it a bit harder to dispense, but it was nice and creamy on his skin. I don’t usually use a separate cream for his face, but we tested this out as well and again was very clean and gentle on his skin. I’ve yet to use the other products, but have them on hand when needed!

I also received a couple of trial sizes for creams and lotions for myself and my favorite is the peppermint foot cream. I used this after a night time shower and put socks on afterwards and my feet stayed nice and moisturized (which is quite the feet in this dry altitude!)

Pros: 100% all-natural products; made in Canada; safe for baby!

Cons: The containers my samples were sent in got opened in the mail and they were hard to pump when I wanted to use. Not sure if shipping is to blame for that?

Thanks again, Eco Chic!

2. Checkout 51– This is one of my latest favorite apps. Every Thursday, they load new list of offers (grocery items, office supplies, BOOZE, pet supplies..etc). You simply pick the ones you’d like, purchase them from any store, upload the receipt, and when your account hits $20, they send you a check. Basically, coupons without the physical coupons.

I’ve already redeemed quite a bit through them. And my favorite part is that you can redeem the offer even if you already have a coupon and/or the product is on sale at a given store. Pampers Baby Dry diapers were on there this week, so I looked for where they were on sale in my area, used a $3 off coupon I already had, then uploaded the receipt for an additional dollar off. Boom, I’m a penny saving genius.

PS: US friends, this is available to you too!

3. Homemade Protein Bars. I decided I needed to let go of my beloved Quest Bars (I’ve had one EVERY SINGLE DAY since Wes was born) because they are just too dang $$$. I looked up recipes on SIMPLE homemade protein bars and came across Lindsay’s No-Bake Protein Bars.

Here’s what I used to make them:

1.5 c oat flour
1.5 c Vega Proteins & Greens protein powder in Vanilla
1.5 c Rice Chex cereal
3 T chia seeds
3/4 all natural peanut butter
1/2 c unsweetened almond milk
1/3 c honey
3 T water

Instructions:

In a bowl combine flour, cereal, protein powder and chia seeds.
In another bowl combine peanut butter, milk and honey.
Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.
Add water as necessary to make sure the ‘dough’ is moistened. (it will be crumbly)
Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper and press dough into pan.
Freeze for roughly 20 minutes.
Cut into bars.

If you click over to Lindsay’s original recipe, you’ll see mine turned out completely different than hers. Mine were super tasty, but I think I can improve on them a bit. Next time, I might try almond butter, rice krispies and omit the chia. I mean, if I HAVE to keep making them, I GUESS I’ll just have to suffer through eating all of them, right? 😉

Do you prefer locally made/natural items for your/your baby’s skin care? What do you use?

Do you have a great homemade protein bar recipe I could try??

[Fitness] Talk

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi guys! So I thought I should elaborate a little bit on this whole Beachbody Coach thing I told you about last Friday that I’m now doing. Sorry in advance, it’s wordy!

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not gonna lie, I’m pretty stoked about these abs. Especially since they’re better now than they were pre-baby!

Here’s a bit of my fitness backstory: I grew up playing sports years round. Soccer, basketball, horseback riding, karate, track… you name it, I did it. I was always active. If it was organized sports then I was swimming in our pool or playing street hockey out front. I was fortunate enough to be recruited to play volleyball in college which started off great, but with a change in coaching, quickly spiralled down and out of control. I soon became the most inactive I had ever been (also partially blaming college parties/studying/blah blah blah) and broke my foot during my Junior year season which launched me up to nearly 200 pounds. WHAAAT. It’s hard to even think about it now because I was in such a crap place in life.

I made it through college and immediately moved into my own apartment just outside of Boston. A new working-girl lifestyle left me pretty exhausted, but I started spending my free time at the apartment complex gym. In fact, I preferred going there to unwind and would often forego social engagements so that I could watch the Real Housewives of Orange County on the treadmill.

After a year, I moved to a different apartment and joined the YMCA that was down the road. I started attending various classes after work and quickly became addicted to making sure I went every single day. I loved it! (and it was starting to show in my clothes too) One of my favorite instructors? Athena!

Before I knew it, I was taking classes to become a fitness instructor myself. I was so excited to be able to share my love of fitness with others! And then I took the ACSM cPT exam and was a certified personal trainer. Ahh, so exciting. I was looking forward to potentially making this a career rather than a part-time job (outside of my finance full-time job).

But then, I met Tyler. And within 6 months I moved to Canada to marry him. I applied for my permanent residency and couldn’t work for the duration of my application being processed. I tried volunteering at the YMCA’s here in Calgary, but there were so many obstacles that I just couldn’t get over (given my legal status), so it really through my hopes of getting into fitness full-time for a loop.

I wound up getting another financial position once my residency was approved, and was only a member of a local gym- I was so bored with it. SO BORED. I was randomly introduced to Beachbody through a work challenge and bought Focus T25. I fell in love with the change up + I loved that they were only 25 minute workouts that were kicking my butt!

About a month after I bought the program, I found out I was pregnant and continued to do modified workouts from T25 (plus a variety of other prenatal workouts). Four weeks post partum I jumped back into T25. Since Wes was born in April 2015, I have tried 21 day fix, 21 day fix EXTREME, and Insanity.

I came to realize that I had fallen in love with Beahbody programs. Not only because they were quick, but because they could be done at home with the baby (or anywhere), and they were EFFECTIVE. [please refer to above photo]

And unlike before, I was pushing myself to properly complete these workouts. I only have so much time while Wes naps to squeeze in a workout, so I better do it RIGHT. My health isn’t just for me, it’s for him. He’s a big boy, and I need to stay on top of my game if I want to carry him around all the time 😉

I’m now in the best shape of my life. I don’t think the scale properly reflects ‘fitness’ but I am 60ish pounds lighter than my heaviest weight. I am more mindful of what I eat. (I still drink beer and eat cake). And I am the happiest I’ve ever been. This just reminded me of a time in college I went to the mall with friends and we went into a jeans store. They were all trying on jeans and I realized I couldn’t even fit into the largest size. Insert huge crying emoji and a bottle of vodka.

Then there’s the Shakeology. It came with the first challenge pack I bought and I fell in love with it. I found it to be so worth it to keep my energy up, curb my crazy chocolate cravings, and to keep me satisfied. I was breastfeeding Wes when I first tried Shakeology and it really helped in so many ways (that’s a whole other novel to tell!)

It only made sense for me to become a Beachbody coach so that I could help motivate others. I’m still pretty active outside of these programs- walking, hiking, hot yoga, spin, etc.- but I have Beachbody to thank for allowing me to be this fit. Sound corny? Yeah, kinda. But it’s actually pretty darn true.

I am really looking forward to the opportunity to work with people (maybe even you?!! wink wink) because I know how hard it can be to be in a fitness rut. I will be your buddy from day 1 and help you get to your happy place 🙂

If you have any questions or want more info, please feel free to email me at jennifer(dot)l(dot)linton(at)gmail(dot)com

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