From the Week

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday, everyone! Tyler has the day off because of Easter (already?!!) so we’ll be doing some familyish things 🙂 This past week seems a blur- lots of ups and downs, ins and outs. Backtracking..

Monday: Wes slept in longer than I anticipated, so I started the day by baking a cake! More specifically, a cereal bowl cake. Of course if I placed the photo of mine next to the one from the site I followed it from, then it would look like a total Pinterest fail. The good news? It still tasted fantastic. (even if it was loaded with way too much shortening and butter for my liking and I have been bloaty as hell all week from eating it!)

Afterwards, I made my To Do list for the day. And almost immediately, one of them was crossed off: quitting my job.

I was scheduled to return to work on April 17th but submitted my resignation letter making it final! I could make this a really long story, but to cut it down: I had been in talks with HR about possibly working part time and/or from home…blah blah blah…since I was the best performer in my position that my head boss had seen in 16 years it might be an option…blah blah blah….a quick (and less than friendly) phonecall later, I was told no.

That’s all I needed to really solidify my decision to stay home, so I quickly typed up the letter and POOF I’m a SAHM. I’m still looking for part-time work, but I’m finding that to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I know everything will work out in the end, but it’s still giving me lots of wishy-washy feelings. And lots of sleepless nights.

Back on the happy track..

We got a package delivered that happened to be some goodies I won for Wes. Yay!

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to Chestermere to pick up a Bob stroller. We already have one, but this one is a bit newer and was a steal! Now if only I can sell our existing, it’ll be a wash.

The trip there and back took longer than expected and Wes turned into a Grump McDump in the car. Once we were home, a bottle and lots of snacks did the trick. And by the time dinner came around, I was able to enjoy chicken fajitas while Wes was a happy baby in the tub.

Tuesday: Wes is getting a lot more mobile and loves to hoist himself up on the couches. Especially when Reggie is napping. So far, Reggie doesn’t seem to mind, but I don’t trust that beagle at all! I make sure to be close by whenever Wes tried to get playful. And we’re also very interested in taking all the workout videos off the shelf.

We bundled up and headed out for our inaugural ride in the new (to us) Bob. So nice! Wes loves sitting more upright, so it was a pleasant walk.

Eats for the day included cake (duh) and BBQ pulled pork quesadillas for dinner. Wes is slowly starting to love squishing bananas rather than eating them. Good thing for us: he’ll actually eat the then squished banana.

I wish I remember more from Tuesday. But……nope.

Wednesday: I always wait for Wes to go down for his morning nap before diving into my workout for the day, but I’m thinking that might have to change. He’s been protesting naps which has been keeping us in the house longer than I’d like to be. And then I don’t get my workouts done until later in the day when he finally does go down. Maybe *that’s* why I’ve been in a funk all week? I’d like to think so. I’m going to change up the ‘schedule’ next week and see if that helps!

Once the nap was had and lunch was eaten, we got dressed and ran a couple of errands before heading down the street to the park. PS: Apparently our community is getting rid of this one park and replacing it with a sport court. (Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds). I got pretty ticked when I heard about it, so I wrote a VERY opinionated letter to the board. Fingers crossed the park stays as is! I remember living across the street from a park growing up and I would go there every evening after dinner with my parents. I want to be able to do the same with Wes!

Poor boy was crawling up into his bin of toys the night before and fell face first into the TV console. I am DYING over the gash on his lip and have been putting cream on it in hopes it’ll heal ASAP.

Once Tyler got home, I ran out real quick to drop resumes off at some local businesses. I got quickly rejected so THAT was a huge kick in the face.

We had leftover pork for dinner. Nothing fancy!

Thursday: I wish I could say Thursday started off nice, but it didn’t. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before and was in the worst fog. I think it’s the combination of my hormones levelling out + anxiety from quitting my job (aka no more money coming from me) + feeling dejected from applying to other part time opportunities. Grrr.

The good news is that after a good cry and a quick soak in the tub, I was able to take Wes out for a nice long walk. I knew the fresh air and stretching my legs would help me get a different perspective. And it did.

Until the babe decided to fight his nap again. Then I felt let down again. (Maybe it’s too much one on one time with Wes and I need more adult interaction? Probably. But that requires pants. Too hard.)

Once he passed out, I got my workout done and BOOM the better mood returned!

He’s so sweet I can’t even stand it.

The nap didn’t last long, and fortunately for me, neither did the rest of the afternoon. We headed out to get an Easter outfit for him, came home for tacos, then he was out! I took the evening to enjoy a LONG bath.

And just like that, the week is over.

Shop Small- Bubbles & Balms

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy hump day! I’ve got a great small shop to share with you today- Bubbles & Balms.

bublogo

About the shop: All Bubbles & Balms products are 100% natural, which we define as organic and inorganic materials derived from nature without the addition of synthetics. We hand make all our products at our store in Claresholm, AB. We [Justin and Judith] are partners in business, but also in life and love. We opened our doors in December of 2014 and greatly enjoy meeting new people who are passionate about living life as naturally as they can.

I first came across Bubbles & Balms at the Spruce Meadows Christmas market this past year. Wes was getting antsy so I didn’t have much time to browse, but I did manage to snag a few bars of their soaps. I’m glad I did, because they’ve been the best soaps I’ve ever purchased (no joke). Even after showering, applying lotion and sometimes even walking the dogs, I can still smell the scent of whichever bar I’ve used lingering on my skin. It’s not overwhelming, but just gentle enough to remind me I’m clean (and cinnamon-y…depending on the bar).

Recently, B&B created their own website so you can have access to their products no matter where you are! I saw the launch online and got really excited. Not only because I have enjoyed the soaps so much, but also because they’re local!

In addition to soaps, they offer an extension of bath, body, baby, aromatherapy and men’s products. There’s even workshops you can attend and other DIY stuff! So basically, lots.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with Justin & Judith (basically praising their soaps and cheersing the new site) and before I knew it, a package of the entire baby line was on my doorstep!

Wes is a lucky little boy to be able to try these out…but he’s not the only one! I’ve also used some of the bath oil and I gotta say, it’s super soothing and leaves our skin nice and soft. I *almost* don’t need to put lotion on afterwards, but do out of habit. I really liked how the scent was extremely gentle so it went unnoticed by Wes, but I still felt indulgent during my own baths (now if only it came in bubble form, I’m sure Wes would lose his mind with glee!)

I’m not one to use baby powder (something about babies inhaling it?) but I tried this stuff out- you know, being all-natural and all- and I really loved how good of a job it did on diffusing the dirtiest of diaper smells. Ew, I know. It was nice as a little moisture absorber as well when I try to get him dressed as quickly as possible after a bath when he’s all shivery!

He’s also been pretty good in the butt department lately, so I almost thought I wouldn’t need to use the butt butter. But, (see what I did there?) he did have a reddish hiney last week so I broke some out! I was pleasantly surprised how quickly the solid turned into a creamy, smooth texture once it was applied to his skin.

I think he liked it, too.

Last up, the skin spray. We’ve still not used it, but it smells amazing! It’s good for not only diaper rash, but for sunburn relief so I will keep it handy if ever we get a bit too much sun 🙂

I’ve been really enjoying using these products because I know they’re not harmful on Wes’s skin and they smell so darn good! I’ll often just soak up the second-hand effects of it by sniffing on his head after bath time I love it so much. PS: It’s not weird to always sniff your kid, right??

Big thank you to Justin & Judith! Be sure to check out their site, visit their Facebook page, and follow them on Instagram too.. I’m sure you’ll find something that tickles your fancy 🙂

Weekender

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey guys, happy Monday. I’m in need of a GIANT cuppa joe today (thank God I jumped back on the coffee wagon. PHEW). I managed to get 8+ hours of sleep each night, but all the fresh air from the weekend has me wiped. Not many eventful things happened with us, so here’s some highlights.

Friday: Wes and I walked over to the library to pick up the current book for Brie’s book club. After we grabbed it, we continued to walk around the neighbourhood for an additional 45 minutes or so. There was still a bit of snow on the ground from the day before, but it was sunny and quickly warming up as we were outside!

We had a quick and easy sausage dinner then Tyler played video games with his brother (do they ever grow out of that? Seriously!) while I watched Room then hit the sack.

Saturday: Tyler brought all our empties to the bottle return just as Wes went down for his morning nap. He brought me back a Nutella donut from Tims so I was a happy lady! Later in the day, we went to Costco0 – the usual. One of the most exciting purchases? Stemless wineglasses.

I helped Tyler with some of our en suite demo before quickly getting bored of it and opting to take the dogs for their walk instead.

We ended the day with some pizza and watched The Hateful Eight. Holy hell was that a long and boring movie. Waste of a Saturday night in my opinion!

Sunday: Morning play time is getting a bit more fun with Wes crawling around. Although, I do have to be super careful to keep on eye on him and what he gets into.

He had some leftover pb toast from breakfast and kept having ‘drive-by” snacks. (a bite each time we lapped around the table).

We headed over to Glenbow Ranch for a nice walk after lunch. Turns out, mister Wes was still hungry from not eating most of his food, so he was a bit of a grump. Luckily, I was able to hold off the whining with some snacks I packed. That, and he just didn’t want to sit in the stroller.

Wes enjoyed some leftover pizza for dinner. He is his father’s son and loves the pie! And I am just about finished the book club book already. Enjoyed with a beer of course 😉

I think I have to blame my lack of pictures on my latest love for snapchat. Are you on it? Add me!

How was your weekend?

From the Week

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday, guys! It’s weird, because all week felt like either a Thursday or Friday, and now here we are and it somehow feels like the beginning of the week. It’s been a relatively low key week over on our end. I sort of love these weeks because it’s a lot more one on one time with Wes. Backing it up…

Monday: I made a batch of these Baked Breakfast Cookies on Sunday night in hopes of enjoying them for a couple of breakfasts throughout the week. So I had a couple on Monday morning, and….eh. I wasn’t super impressed by them at all. But it didn’t hurt to try, and I already had all the ingredients on hand.

Once Wes was up and had his breakfast, I bundled him up and we walked down to the grocery store. I love doing some grocery shopping on weekday mornings, but I do NOT love the female cashiers that want to grab my son’s hands and give him germs on weekday mornings. There’s an etiquette for that, people! after some play and lunch, we bundled up again and walked down the street to the swings. Wes loved it per usual but the wind picked up and we headed home shortly after.

For dinner, I made a super quick and easy chicken fried rice. I’m pretty impressed with the turnout considering I made the entire dish while holding Wes! (Tyler was downstairs working out and Wes decided he didn’t want to sit in his high chair any more. Pff) I recommend making fried rice from scratch rather than ordering takeout any day!

And my latest purchase arrived in the mail: 22 Minute Hard Corps! I am so excited to get started on this, but I just have to get through a couple more weeks of T25 Beta first.

FullSizeRender

Tuesday: I attempted to take photos of Wes for his 11 month birthday. The kid is a speedy little guy!

wesleyarlo11months

After the whole ‘ordeal’ I gave him a bath (with a new aromatherapy oil I received) and he napped for almost 3 hours! We were afraid this would totally screw us come bedtime, but it didn’t! WINNING.

I intended on making loaded baked potatoes for our dinner, but I opted to chop up my sweet potato and eat it deconstructed instead. Delicious choice.

Wednesday: I tried to make pancakes for breakfast, but only had one egg left. FAIL. I whipped up a batch of avocado protein pancakes and they tastes SO GOOD but the consistency is still a bit off. I’m hoping to play around with this a bit more because avocado and pancakes? Yes please.

The big outing for the day was a trip to Superstore. I really only needed to get a veggie to include with dinner, but we ended up browsing the store for over an hour. Wes loves being in the cart and the store is so dang big that we didn’t look too crazy going up and down every aisle. Plus, the ladies love him 😉

His face is so funny in that pic!

Dinner was some tortellini and zucchini. Boring, but it hit the spot.

Thursday: I broke my 39 day anti-coffee streak. THANK GOD I DID. I initially gave it up because I was having a bit too much and was having a hard time sleeping. Now, I’m drinking it again because I’m still no longer sleeping AND I was a huge unhappy beast. Coffee saves relationships people.

I also reintroduced my favorite Shakeology into my daily routine. Coffee + Shakeology + Fizzy water = the best triple threat ever.

I feel better already. PHEW.

We dressed in green and played with some random green things around the house to celebrate St. Patty’s day. AND GUESS WHO DECIDED TO START CRAWLING?! I have a few videos on my phone of it, but they’re super long and probably 100% boring to anyone besides me and Tyler.

I met up with my friend Jen once Tyler got home. She moved to Vancouver a while back and I hadn’t seen her in forever! We went to an Irish pub (duh) but there was a wait for a table and we ended up sitting outside with drinks for TWO HOURS before deciding to relocate for dinner. It was an early evening and timing worked in my favor because I caught a train/bus home without having a single minute to wait for either!

And here we are at Friday! Forecast for this family? Lots of together time. And a Costco trip, obviously.

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;) )

wesleyarlo11months

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.