From The Week

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Monday

Mondays are the best and the worst. On one hand, Tyler is back to work, on the other hand, it’s a nice little way to refresh in the just-me-and-Wes time and get my butt back in gear. (Actually, gear for what? I have no idea.) The morning started with a 5 am wakeup call from Mr. Wes- we both were back to sleep by 6am for another 90 minutes, so no biggie. After breakfast and a workout, Wes went down for a nap FOR TWO BLIPPIN HOURS. I was able to shower, dry my hair, and put makeup on. I think this helps support the ‘get back in gear’ comment referenced earlier. It felt SO good.

After a late lunch, we headed out to Walmart for a bunch of random things. I posted a photo on Instagram when we got back in the car- kid throws some MEAN shade. I like it. (follow me on Instagram please! @nutcaseinpoint)

I had a 5pm dentist appointment- just for a cleaning- but it looks like I really should have my wisdom teeth taken out. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I was avoiding that at all costs. I do NOT want to have them out. NO NO NO NO NO. Don’t tell me it won’t be that bad, I just don’t want to go through with it. UGH.

The second worst feeling of the day was having to ruin my freshly cleaned teeth by eating leftover pulled pork. Luckily, pork is on my top ten list of delicious meats, so it was worth it.

I painted my nails before heading to bed. Note: don’t paint your nails a dark color and get into bed right after. Unless you want to sleep with precariously placed hands all night. It can get awkward.

Tuesday

Another 5am wakeup. But, because I have the sweetest damn child, he went back to sleep shortly after and I was able to get in a couple more hours of shut eye. AND GUESS WHAT? I didn’t do my workout first thing in the morning. Audible gasp? Haha, no. No one cares. I decided to stretch it out and relax in the morning with my little dude.

When he did go down for his nap, I got in not only my workout but a shower, some cleaning, food prep, etc.

Later in the afternoon, we walked over to the library then continued on for a nice long walk. The temperature read pretty chilly, but with no wind and the sun shining it was pretty great! Wes took another nap because of all the fresh air.

Tyler made an AMAZING pizza for dinner and afterwards I took the dogs for another walk. In the 6 years I’ve had Layla, this was the BEST she’s walked for me. She stayed by my side the entire time. It wasn’t until we got back to our street did I notice a slight limp, so I’m wondering if that had anything to do with it. Hopefully it was just a random thing (the limp, not the good behavior).

Tyler had already put Wes down for the night by the time I got back so we watched the latest episode of Walking Dead before heading to bed.

Wednesday

Well, Wes didn’t wake us up early today. In fact, he slept almost 13 hours! But, we got the pleasure of a 5:45am wakeup call by Reggie when he decided to jump off the bed and dry heave. Lovely!

I’ll say the day officially started at 8am when I finally went in and got Wes.

I did my workout while he played. Tyler slept in because of the stat holiday. It was a pretty great (slow) morning all around! Once Wes went down for a nap, I made Tyler and I some adult morning beverages. Only problem is that it took me 5 hours to drink. Still good though!

The boy is on a seriously rolling roll this week. I blink, and he’s flipped his way across the floor! I love it. We all hung out downstairs for the afternoon- Tyler played his new video game and Wes and I read a ton of new library books. I managed to run upstairs for a bit to whip up a batch of the BEST banana bread. It really is my favorite recipe (screw the ‘healthified’ banana breads. They don’t even come close to the REAL good stuff)

Wes took a long afternoon nap so Tyler and I just chilled out for a bit (yeah, there were about 2305972305927 things I could have done, but it was nice to just sit and do NOTHING).

For dinner, Tyler made Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken with zucchini and quinoa. The chicken was SO GOOD.

Afterwards, I bundled up *headlamp and all* and took the dogs for a walk. Day two of Layla being good on the leash! Crazy.

Thursday

Kind of a boring (in a good way) day. Typical breakfast. Typical morning routine. Typical workout.

OH WAIT. Different breakfast! No picture, but I had a smoothie that consisted of vega chocolate nutritional shake, pb2, oats, frozen greek yogurt cubes and almond milk. YUMMMM this was really good and even got rid of the Vega chalky taste.

Wes had his morning nap was quickly woken up by our noisy neighbor. From what we gather, he doesn’t work so he’s always fidgeting around the house. This morning, I saw him on the roof of his shed, then SWORE he was on our roof (he did if before when we got our roof replace. I forgot why, but it was helpful for some reason).

Who is photobombing who?

Wes is obsessed with Reggie (to my dismay) but Reggie just barely tolerates him.

He was pretty resistant for his afternoon nap, but I finally got him down. And of course, the dogs barked. This is them after I scolded the absolute crap out of them.

Tyler made me an omelet for dinner. (I can’t make an omelet to save my life). Walked the fur children, showered and lights OUT.

How was your week?

Weekend Recap

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Friday

Woof. Ok, so the day was a bit to a rough start since I only got about 5 hours of sleep. Staying out late the night before absolutely did me in and I could NOT function in the morning. It was worth it, but man oh man I don’t think I could do that again for a long while.

I somehow still did my workout, even though I have no idea where I had the energy to get it done. Wes and I played a lot and read a lot of books, so it was a pretty chill day. We even had matching stripes!

We had leftover spaghetti pie for dinner and watched Trainwreck before heading to bed. The movie was a lot slower and a bit more depressing than I thought it would be. Meh.

Oh, and remember how I mentioned in my From the Week post that I went to my spin studio to pick something up? Well…..

The studio purchased new bikes so I bought one of their old ones. Best part is: the exact one I ended up with was purchased for the studio only 1.5 years ago and never even put to use! I found out when I got it home that because of that, the belt just needed some greasing so once we got that done (WD40), it was ready to go! Just have to buy a mat to put underneath it and it will be moved into our movie room so I can spin and watch TV. Because: #priorities.

Saturday

I felt 352039572039572% better after getting a full night’s sleep! I changed up my pancake breakfast a bit by adding some pumpkin pie spice to the mix and topping them with pb2 sauce. PB2 and pancakes are good on their own, but I just didn’t LOVE this combo. Maybe it’s because I have a gross addiction to pure maple syrup? Yeah, probably. Next time I’m just sticking with plain ol’ pancakes ‘n syrup.

While Wes took his morning nap, I ran to the store to pick up some more squeeze packs for him. The boy is a MONSTER and eats almost 3 a day PLUS milk PLUS oatmeal. After he woke up and ate, we headed to the Y for his pool class. This one was my turn and it was super fun because they had big float pads for the babies to sit on, and we did a lot of ‘running’ in the pool- rather than just bobbing around and dunking them.

We hit up Costco (per usual) after the class, then headed home to snack/unwind/do random shit around the house.

While Tyler ran a few errands, I whipped up a batch of Double Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies.

Yup, they’re pretty much the best. I use Sally’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies all the time (I tweak it a bit), and this slight change-up was still pretty easy to make and very tasty! I underbaked them too so they’re nice and gooey- the way all cookies should be.

For some reason, the afternoon pretty much disappeared and before I knew it, it was dinner time! Tyler made a FREAKING DELICIOUS meal of steak, caesar salad, garlicky mushrooms and roasted potatoes. I could eat this every damn day.

And of course, more Wes time.

After he went to bed, we watched Amazing Race and caught up on Walking Dead. Holy cow is this season intense or what? I had so much anxiety watching and now I’m afraid of the dark and zombies in my house.

Sunday

Tyler was on baby duty while I busted out my workout in the morning- sometimes cardio/plyo can absolutely kick my ass when I haven’t done it for a couple of days, so today’s workout left me with jell-o legs. My favorite. Then: breakfast! Also my favorite.

Since it was Sunday, that means football was on alllllll day. And I can confirm that there are now two males in my household who are obsessed.

He stares forever at the screen when football is on! He’s also been perfecting his rollovers- funny kid can roll from back to front no problem, but still hasn’t got the hang of the other way around. I’m also trying to snap as many gummy smiles as possible before the inevitable first tooth makes its appearance.

While Wes took his afternoon nap, I took the dogs for a long walk while it was still light out. Our walks during the week are always in the dark (thanks WINTER) because I have to wait for Tyler to get home. For those, I get to now rock an awesome headlamp. You know, for safety. It’s totally sexy.

Before leaving, I sliced up some apples and put them in the oven to make apple chips. Two and a half hours later, I got a beautiful bowl of chips that were devoured in approximately two and a half seconds. NOMS.

Tyler fed Wes some solids while I laid in the tub (terrible husband, right?) and watched another episode of Master of None. Is anyone watching it? I think it’s hilarious. I want to post like 235923 gifs, but I think the show is too new for any gifs to exist on the internet. Plus, I’m too lazy to make a gif myself.

We had pulled pork quesadillas for dinner. Pulled pork is one of my favorites, but what made this pork even tastier was throwing it in the crockpot with ROOT BEER instead of broth. Took it to a whole other level. So yum.

In case you were wondering, 99.9% of my meals are on the floor next to Wes. Case in point: (HAHAHA SEE WHAT I DID THERE? It’s part of my blog name. Ahhh actually, that’s lame) see similar photo with a slightly different angle..

LEG CHUB.

How was your weekend??

Weekend Recap

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Friday

The day started of with a major party foul: I changed up my pancake recipe. Gasp, I know. I didn’t have enough greek yogurt, so I played around the with ingredient list and BAM- yucky pancakes happened. I still ate all of them though because: BREAKFAST IS MY FAVORITE.

(These were a mix of oats, greek yogurt, applesauce, egg whites and vega)

We had a later morning than usual, so I decided to throw any potential outings out the window (plus, there was frost outside, EWWWWWW). There were naps, snacks, a workout, jumperooing, book reading…the usual. And Wes is trying so hard to sit on his own. PS: If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see a hilarious slow-mo video of his sitting venture.

It warmed up a bit in the afternoon, so I took Wes for a nice long walk around the neighborhood. It’s so nice to walk around when it’s sunny and quite and potentially peep into everyone’s windows. I meannnn…check out their Halloween decorations. Which reminds me, we need to buy pumpkins and candy. We’re the house that gives out full sized candy bars!! nomnomnom

I was craving grilled cheese and soup for dinner, so I had Tyler pick up a couple of the needed ingredients and we DEVOURED it all in about .4 seconds. Tip: add bacon to your grilled cheese.

After Wes went to bed, we finished Pixels and started to watch Minions, but I fell asleep. You know you’re old when you BOTH go to bed before 10pm on a Friday night.

Saturday

We finally took some family pictures! I was excited to get the three of us outside and take some photos with my fancy camera, but didn’t realized until we reached the park did I leave my memory card IN my computer. UGH. Thank goodness Tyler’s phone came to the rescue!

Most of the photos caught some of the picnic table, but I’ll be cropping those out when I get some prints done to frame.

After our impromptu photo shoot, we headed to the Y for Wes’s pool class and Tyler was the designated parent this week!

Then of course it was off to Costco. Enough said there.

Wes and I hung out in our comfies upstairs while Tyler was working on the insulation in the basement. We are getting better at tummy time! Layla included.

I tried to put him down for a nap, but he wasn’t too keen on it, so I bundled him up for a walk where he ended up getting around a half hour of shut eye.

Tyler made us an amazing steak dinner- I could eat this for every meal. And chocolate cake.

After Wes went to bed, we finished Minions then went to bed ourselves. Downside of parenthood: feeling like old people and getting to bed not long after baby. Upside of parenthood: I go to bed early and wake up sans hangover!

Sunday

Slept in until 7:23am! That’s like….unheard of.

I fed Wes and quickly scarfed a Quest bar before getting in a 21 day fix workout. While he took his morning nap, I was able to shower, do the laundry, clean up the kitchen and bake another batch of Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

Tyler also made us a DELICIOUS brunch of bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns. Oh, and a bit of Baileys in our coffee. NOMS.

I inhaled that whole plate.

Since winter is pretty much here, I needed to swap out a ton of clothes in my closet. I got rid of a LOT. It feels really good to purge some stuff that haven’t seen the light of day in ages. Plus, I found my Michael Kors bag that I so desperately wanted last year and have used about 2 times. So I’ve decided to sell it. Anyone want to buy it? Pretty please??

Seriously, I don’t think I’ll use it at all and I could really use the extra $$. Please email me if interested!

Tyler made us some delicious burritos for dinner and I ate way too much and still feel sick to my stomach.

Throughout the afternoon and evening Wes was OUT OF SORTS. He was so grumpy Tyler and I couldn’t figure out what to do for him! So we tried everything. There were some temporary solutions, but WOOF it made for quite the challenging day. He finally went to sleep at 8pm. I am really hoping this was just a one day thing because I have no idea how to tackle the day if it’s anything near the same and Tyler is at work.

At least he’s cute.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Recap

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Friday

Pancakes! Ah, I missed my Vitamix so much. The bad boys were drenched in maple syrup and I just about licked the plate.

The morning was pretty low key: workout, errands, cleaning…. booooooring. But this guy finally fit into a pair or harem pants my mom made. Is he going to be a blondie? From his eyebrows it looks like it!

After Tyler got home from work, we made a pre-Thanksgiving trip to Costco and managed to get out of there under $100. I don’t think that’s ever happened. Still: a turkey, chicken, and some veggies= $98. Jeeze.

Wes has been really loving his solid foods. I picked up a few more organic squeeze packs for him and we’ve yet to come across a flavour he doesn’t like. The kid kicks his feet and grunts if you don’t feed him fast enough. Don’t worry, I didn’t let him have any wine- although, he was pretty keen on grabbing the glass!

We’ve been practicing our tummy time and rolling a lot this week and he FINALLY did a completely unassisted flip from back to front (TWO of them!). To the non-parents, this is no biggie, but I assure you it’s the most exciting thing since sliced bread.

The pups were itching for a walk, so I caved and took them for a quick one around the block. The sunset was INSANE.

And that picture is facing east!

Wes fell asleep at 7:30 and we watched Spy before heading to bed. Tyler and I agreed it was probably the funniest movie we’ve seen in a long time.

Saturday

Wes didn’t get up until 7! That’s a lot of sleep. Good boy.

Only difficult part is that it’s still dark as hell out until around 7:30, so it still feels like the middle of the night.

We enjoyed a nice long morning before it was time to head to Wes’s first pool class at the Y! I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about it- mostly for the whole locker room part. I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage with a baby who can’t yet sit up on his own. Luckily, it went pretty smooth and the boy loved the water. He was kicking and splashing a lot, just not smiling or giggling. He was mostly interesting in staring at everyone.

After his class, we ran to Rona where we left with nothing but Girl Guide cookies. These are the BEST cookies.

Then it was to Safeway for Thanksgiving fixings and Babies R Us for Wes’s convertible carseat. We got it for a pretty sweet deal. It regularly retails for $350, was on sale for $250, and we had $200 worth of Air Miles vouchers to redeem. Ended up paying only $60! Score.

Some fuel for all the shopping:

Then it was back to a few more stores for the essentials.

Does anyone get emails from Lucie’s List? I absolutely love them- they’re so helpful with Wes’s growing stages. Anyhoo- the latest email was about solid food and there was a lot of info on rice cereal vs oatmeal for babies and I was really glad to have read it (something about glucose yadda yadda in the rice. It made me *personal decision* run out and grab some oat cereal to swap out for the rice I had been giving Wes). And beer. Muy importante.

The evening was pretty good- we played around with Wes for a long time. The kid is seriously so fun to hang out with now– he rolls and giggles and well, it’s just the best. We enjoyed a delicious steak dinner, gave Wes a bath, watched Amazing Race, and I made brownies for Sunday. Once Wes went to sleep (8pm) I headed downstairs to get in my cardio workout then we watched Southpaw.

Sunday

7am wakeup! Dare I say I’m getting used to this?

So, I think I was in denial that Wes is growing up because I’ve had him in the infant car seat in the stroller up until today. He napped while I took him for a walk and cried about him growing up.

I have the Bob Revolution as well, but still have to take the adapter out of it from the previous owners. I really lucked out and found it on Kijiji for $150 and it came with the fleece liner, snack tray and weather shield! Can’t wait to use it for long walks instead of my City Mini GT (just to extend the life of it for future kiddos).

While we were out of the house, Tyler set up the smoker for our Thanksgiving turkey.

Then he made me breakfast. #besthusband

The afternoon was pretty low key. Wes napped, I worked out, Tyler watched football. Blah blah.. Then there was the turkey dinner! It was pretty good..I ate more turkey than I have in years, but not so much of anything else. There were carrots too, so there’s a veggie. And those brownies? They’re almost history. It’s gross how much of a sweet tooth I get.

Once Wes went to sleep, I laid in the tub for a bit and was in bed by 8:30. (Asleep by 8:31).

Monday

5:30am wakeup. Thanks, Wes. He ate and slept for a bit longer (giving him about a 12 hour sleep!) but I couldn’t get any more shut eye. As hard as I tried. Gave myself a big pat on the back for falling asleep so early the night before!

I think one of my favorite things about this baby is how he can look so peaceful in his sleep and simultaneously fart louder than a vacuum.

After breakfast, we went for a nice long walk then came back for more lounging. There were some naps- and it wasn’t just by Wes. I don’t think I’ve napped in ages and it felt glorious! Post nap, I finished the brownies. You know, to get rid of temptation.

I roasted some sweet potatoes and zucchini to pair with leftover turkey for dinner then headed off to a spin class. It was a new to me instructor and I absolutely LOVED her class.

Any workout that can incorporate this song into the mix is a winner in my books:

PS: Remember how the beagle stole/ate a box of quest bars? Well, the last two have been recovered! And in vary precarious places, might I add. That means the pooch didn’t consume any of my $$$$ protein bars so I’m a happy lady.

How was your long weekend?

What’s your favorite protein bar?

Take any group ex classes lately? What was it?!!

…From the Week

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Monday was our last full day home in New York. Ugh face. But hey, I got a whole month there! Not too shabby. We tried to make the most of the last day and took a family drive to the mall. SO EXCITING, HUH?!! Ha, well I had to return some things I bought for Wes (kid doesn’t fit in 18 month jeans! What the hellllllll) Afterwards, we drove to Grant Cottage only to find out it was closed. Womp. In case you’re wondering, Grant Cottage is the cottage where General Ulysses S. Grant died. See, those are the types of attractions near home. Thrilling.

We picked up my aunt for lunch at Panera and it was delicious. Half of me NEEDS one here in Calgary and the other half of me doesn’t want it because it would take all my money. Wes ate mangoes and flirted with the entire 70+ year-old population. Small baby boomer town = lots of places filled with gray hairs. Everywhere.

Oh, and I tried that limited edition pumpkin quest bar! I thought it was gonna be yucky but it was SO GOOD. I should probably buy a box. (no jen, no. you have no money.)

I packed. And I packed. And then there was more packing. It was a tight squeeze. I’m glad I won’t be flying for a while. PHEW.

Wes was in his carseat for a good part of the day, so I put him in the Ergo and went for a long walk. I would love it if somebody would strap me to them and walk around so I could nap. Could you even imagine?

The night ended with a weenie roast! It was on the small scale. Like, micro-mini.

Tuesday. Ahhhhh Tuesday. I am SO glad Tuesday is over. Let’s bullet point Tuesday, shall we?

2:45am wake up. Except my alarm wasn’t until 3:15. Can someone say anxious?
TSA lost my laptop. I had about 3592730293 bins to go through security (camera, laptop, stroller, car seat, breastmilk, toiletries, jacket, shoes, diaper bag, backpack…..) I had a minor anxiety attack before they finally recovered it.
The first flight was pretty uneventful. I got the row of three seats to myself, so it was easier to feed and change Wes.
RAN from arrival gate to departure gate of second flight. Made it just in time. Wes starts screaming profusely as I got to our seat so I started to feed him. No sooner did that happen, the flight attendant told me I needed to move seats to be on a side that had extra of those pig-nose bag thingies that drop from the ceiling in case of emergency (who cares what they’re really called). Cue MORE SCREAMING. And there was no changing table on the flight…I’m just going to end this bullet point because: RAGE.
I unpacked everything once we got home because I wanted to make sure there were no foods in my luggage that Reggie would get into. We went to run some errands and came back to find Reggie had gotten an ENTIRE box of Quest bars from the counter. 7 were among the wreckage (unharmed), 3 were recovered from various hiding spots and 2 are MIA. PLEASE NOTE: He buried one in the pillows of the guest bed and got so ferocious with his nose-burying, that his nose bled…..ALL OVER THE WHITE DUVET. Cue more rage.
Frozen breastmilk thawed en route and leaked all over my laptop. You know the end result because I’m typing from said laptop, so that’s good.

No pictures from Tuesday because: see above.

Wednesday

This was a total get-our-lives-back-in-order day. I was stressed x infinity about the number of things that needed to get done around the house- reorganizing Wes’s stuff, laundry, cleaning the dang house, groceries…….

Wes woke up nice and early, but I didn’t mind since I actually got in a good night’s sleep! I quickly got started on the eleven thousand shows that were recorded while I was gone, while Wes went through the usual eat/poop/lay/jump morning routine. We then went to the store to get some essential groceries. There was approximately ZERO perishable items in the house and one cannot survive on boxed goods alone.

PS: notice it’s the same jumperoo as the one I bought in NY? The kid is obsessed with it, so I had to find another one!

I set up Wes’s compact high chair and he got right to it and ate SO MUCH. High five for that thing.

And some stuff I won in a giveaway arrived! Yesssss

The weather was SO NICE that I put Wes in the stroller and walked to the bank to deposit some stuff, then continued on a nice long walk. It was hilly too, which felt good since all my walks back home were completely flat. By the time we got back home, I was drenched in sweat. LOVE.

I put together a dinner of turkey burgers and roasted veggies, then took the dogs for a walk and got in my workout. It was nice to have a little me time, but I did feel bad for putting Tyler right back to serious baby-duty (Ok no, I don’t feel bad).

Also: posted my extremely in-depth review on the latest pumpkin beers. If you missed it, you can read it here.

Thursday

In the morning, I did my pilates workout while Wes was in the jumperoo. As luck would have it, he fell asleep just as I finished so I put him in the stroller and went for a nice long walk. It felt really good to get some fresh air and quiet time.

I picked up some stuff at the grocery store for dinner..mind you, it took two trips because I forgot my wallet the first time. WOMP. And somehow this pint of gloriousness made its way into my cart..

Dinner was Crock Pot Sweet Potato and Quinoa Turkey Chili (I used beef instead since we had turkey the night before). I highly recommend it, it’s SO good!

Wes had a couple of friends during/after his own dinner.

Poor Wes, the stupid eczema is back on his neck and chest. This dry weather is taking its toll and I’ve been slathering him with CeraVe every two seconds.

So that’s this week in a rather long nutshell! Back to the same-old same-old routine at home!