My Little Impressionist

Reagan LOVES to ca-ca. That's color for all of you non-Reaganese speaking folk.

Once she discovered real markers she's not into the color wonder so much anymore.

She's very picky about the colors she wants. You must give her choices and if you don't have anything she wants she'll say, "Noooo," and wait for you to bring her more.

I think she is an art prodigy. Just check out this picture she drew for me!

Doesn't it look like a flower?! It reminds me of the Impressionist paintings.

I think she's going to be in museums one day. ;)

Weight Watching

I mentioned in my last post that I have started Weight Watchers. I'm the type of person who needs to have something or someone to be accountable to. I'm not good at making myself do it. I need a coach. But not my husband as my coach or I get mad at him. :) I started the program on January 9. I took advantage of the free sign up when you pay for 3 months in advance. I think this offer goes for another week if you're thinking about doing it, by the way. It's around $19 a month. Paying for it makes me feel like I have to stay on it or I'm just wasting money. That's a good motivator for me. Who likes to waste money? It's a good program. You don't have to completely deprive yourself. In fact, they actually give you extra points in addition to your daily points to use over the week however you want. There are some days, though, when I wish I could drink a whole 2 liter of Dr. Pepper, eat a whole chocolate cake,

and not have it count. The points are based on fat, carbs, protein, and fiber. I've also been working out. I've done some toning/light weights, some walking (when it's been warm enough), and some Zumba. I ordered the videos with b-day money and it is definitely a workout!

So I guess you'd like to know how it's all going. In the first two weeks I lost 6 pounds, then another pound the third week. The next three weeks I didn't loose any, but I was definitely getting smaller and could feel a lot more muscle than before. It was pretty discouraging to do all this work and not see the scale move. This week I finally lost more weight, a little over 3 pounds. So far I've lost a little over 10 pounds and several inches. I've got 17 pounds more to meet my goal. If I can keep up my motivation I know I'll get there, eventually.

I didn't take an official before picture but here's one from Halloween. You can't see all of me but you can see from this one and the next that my middle is definitely getting smaller.

This was taken the other night. I couldn't wear this shirt before because it stuck to my "back fat." :)

This is from the summer of 08. I want to look like this again!

Weight Watchers and working out is definitely working. I wish I could just make it work faster! :)

Doctor, DMV, and a question for Mommies

Yesterday we took Reagan for her 18 month check up. There was a little drama with them having us scheduled for today instead of yesterday, but they worked us in. She absolutely hated being stripped down to her diaper but finally got over it. I wish I'd had a video camera with me in the exam room because she was hilarious. There was a mural on the wall behind the table. She kept standing up and moving her hands all over it and talking like she was critiquing it or something. She is soooo silly. She is now 21.4 pounds and 31 3/4 inches. She's still a little thing but her length has caught up to the 50th percentile. Her weight is still between the 5th and10th and she still has a big head in the 70's. Hahaha. At her 12 month and 15 month appointments she had low iron and has been taking a supplement so we had to get that checked out. They drew blood so they could check for anemia and get iron studies done. Needless to say, she did not appreciate that. Thankfully though she only needed one shot to be caught up. Everything is fine with her iron. She doesn't have anemia and her iron levels were fine so we can stop the supplement. Yay! Here she is with her little bandage. She hated it and kept trying to pull it off.

She also appears to have banana face in this picture. lol

We also went to the DMV and finally got our TN drivers licenses. By the time we waited at the Dr.'s office, ate lunch, then went to the DMV she was ready for her nap so that was an exercise in patience and trying not to drive the whole place crazy with her whining. But overall it was a productive day because we checked a couple of things off our to do list.

Now for the question. Reagan still gets her paci at nap and bed times and occasionally during church when I can't get her to be quiet. I know it's time to start weening her from it. For you ladies with experience, what is your opinion on the best way to do this. I tried just not giving it to her at nap time today. When I left the room she kept saying, "Oh no," and then cried for a good 15 minutes before I went in and gave it to her. What strategies have worked for y'all?

A Day at the Park

Ok, so I know I haven't posted since October and some of you aren't too happy about that. :) I get stressed pretty easily and kept feeling like I HAD to post all the time and it got me all worked up so I dropped it for a while. I think things have finally normalized enough after the move that I'm ready to get back to it. We are good and settled here in Ripley and are in a routine and everything now. Lots of things have been happening. I'm on Weight Watchers, Reagan just turned 18 months, we had lots of holidays, we moved...but you've probably still kept up with us on Facebook.

Friday we took Reagan on her first trip to the park. She had so much fun. We took lunch with us. She would barely eat because she was so excited looking at everything around her.

They have the cutest Cinderella carriage there!

She loved climbing on everything.

Taking a ride on a frog. :)

She loves her dada!

They both enjoyed the park. :)

"Weeeee."

And this is how she thinks you are meant to get to the top of the slide.

Riding on the merry-go-round.

She didn't want to leave. When I told her it was time to go she said, "No. Peeeee (please). Nooooo." We'll be visiting the park a lot this spring and summer. Apparently it wore her out. She stayed with Grammy Friday night and didn't get up until 9:30 Saturday morning. Hmmm...maybe we should go every day! :)