Trip to VA Beach

Days around here can get a little monotonous with Eric working so much and Samuel not being able to talk or anything yet. So we (I) decided to break up the monotony by taking a quick trip to visit our friends the McClains who are in the Virginia Beach area for residency.

I was pretty worried about traveling alone for 5 hours with a 5 month old. I was totally amazed at how well Samuel did, though! We left right at nap time, so he slept for the first hour and a half. He had about 20 fussy minutes around lunch time and again around his early afternoon feeding time, but all in all, he was a champ! (I also figured out that, since he gets distracted REALLY easily, I could roll down his window and he would just stare in awe for at least 3 minutes before he remembered he was angry. Nice).

We had lots of fun just hanging out (Samuel got to see his little girlfriend, Clara, again, though I'm pretty sure he was equally entertained by her older sister) and visiting fun places like the outlet mall in Williamsburg and (of course) the beach!

Okay, we were only at the beach for like 30 minutes, but it felt like a lot longer.. haha. Samuel didn't really know what to think of the water. When I put his feet in the sand and let the waves crash on him, he just started shaking... I think he was pretty freaked out. He never cried, but just had this blank stare most of the time we were there.

We also set our towels, etc. up on an incline, so Samuel was able to sit for, well, pretty much the whole time we were there! Turns out sitting's a lot easier when you practically can't fall backwards!

We also got to go visit our other friends, the Cohens, one afternoon. It was super nice to get away for a little while and to visit with (awesome!) adults. I miss our med school friends (except the ones that are still here -- we love that you're still around!!)!

We were glad to come home and see Eric, though. Trips just aren't the same without him!

Salud.

So the thought of vegetarianism has never appealed to me. Neither has the idea of giving up sugar (chocolate?!?), or fat, or dairy, or carbs.

 I like food. No, let me correct that, I love food. When I had Samuel, a lot of people gave me the advice, "Remember to eat!" Like I could forget. No, no, no forgetting to eat here. I definitely have a love affair with food.

Luckily, I also have a (small) obsession with health. I may eat 5-6 times a day (Don't judge -- I'm still nursing!), but I definitely don't forget to exercise either. And I can definitely tell by my energy level when my eating habits get a little too junky.

That's why I love it when people find ways to make un-healthy things that I love to eat a little less detrimental to my body. I've been googling and pinteresting (do you love that those words actually make sense to you?) healthy alternatives to things I use/make often and trying them out. In fact, one of them is in the crockpot right now (my inspiration for this post)! 

I don't think I'll ever be 100% into the Paleo thing, but I love the idea of only using a few ingredients and making sure those ingredients are natural. God made food for us. We should use it. The more I read about the effects of dyes and chemicals in foods (did you know a lot food coloring and preservatives we use here are banned in other countries?), the more I'm convinced that it's probably better to just stick with what God gave us.

Am I still going to have a pop tart every now and then? You can pretty much count on it. But I'm making strides, and hopefully we'll end up healthier for it in the long run!

So here's what I've made (am making) so far:

Zucchini Brownies - These were surprisingly good! You can tell they're not regular brownies, but I was shocked at how good they tasted for something with no flour or sugar!

Cream of Chicken Soup substitute - There is SO much salt in canned foods! I never realized how ridiculous it was until I checked it out one day and realized I would get more than half my daily salt intake from one can of soup. Yikes! I'm using this sub in my dinner tonight... Just butter, flour, milk, and chicken broth. We'll see how it goes!

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake - Okay, admittedly, this probably isn't that healthy or clean since it uses a boxed pudding mix. I also just bought a graham cracker crust instead of making the fancy one. Still, it tasted really good, and definitely had more protein and less fat than a regular cheesecake.

Baked "Fried" Chicken - This beats shake and bake by leaps and bounds! Chicken + Yogurt + Breadcrumbs + Parmesan cheese. Simple and soooo good!

I also attempted to make an avocado pasta sauce. It was NOT a winner. So we'll leave that one off. :-)

What are your favorite healthy/clean foods?

The Art of Staying

Well, it happened. Yesterday I met someone who asked me what I did. I said I was a stay at home mom (that still sounds weird to me!!), and they gave me that look that says "Oh.. so you're not doing anything with your life" and followed it up with, "That's nice" and didn't say much to me after that. Lovely.

A few years ago, shortly after we moved to Winston-Salem, one of my sweet sweet co-workers at Wesleyan told me, "Christie, I hope you get the chance to stay at home with your kids. It's the best thing I ever did!"

I smiled politely. Kids were not on my agenda then, and I had gone without working for a couple of months and knew that I get bored out of my mind easily. VERY easily.

Staying at home was never something I pictured myself doing. I like working. I like learning. I like being busy. I like a mental challenge.

I struggle with this even now. I miss school and work (though not the job I had - just work in general). I used to think I would go back to school after Eric finished med school. I still want to do that, but now that he's a resident, I've realized we would still have to take out more loans for that to happen (because after 21 years of school and getting a doctorate, he gets paid ~$10/hr. Seems reasonable, right?). If I wait a few years, we should be able to just pay for it without accruing more debt.

I also know that I want more kids as long as God allows that to happen. SO I could go back to school now, but then what? I would get another degree and... have another baby.

Being a woman makes these decisions hard.

I am a seriously restless girl, more so than I can really explain (think adult ADD). Thankfully, though, I have a peace about this whole staying-at-home thing, despite the fact that it drives me a little crazy. I know that babies are only babies for so long. That becomes more apparent every day as I watch Samuel grow.

So every time I get bored or feel like an under-achiever for not having amassed a wall full of degrees and a job that requires me to work my hinie off 60 hours a week (which I would probably love in any other situation), I think about what I would miss: those sweet smiles, crazy squeals, fun milestones and snuggly nap times. Hopefully I'll have many, many more years to go back to school/work, but my baby won't be a baby forever. I just can't see myself at the end of my life looking back and wishing I would have traded time with him.

I still would like to find a part-time job sometime in the next few months if it's something that will work into our schedule. Leaving Samuel isn't the problem. I actually think it's good for us both have some apart-time (thus the reason we go to the gym every day!!) I just don't want work to consume my life to the point that he spends more time with someone else than with me. Does that make sense?

In the meantime, I'm trying to find projects and books to occupy my time, preferably things that challenge my thinking a bit. I've found some fun stuff to make on Pinterest, and read a lot of interesting articles about ways to help Samuel with sensory development activities, etc. I've also made a point to try and think of keeping up the house, having dinner ready, grocery shopping, etc., as my job. It may be menial, but it's still work, and it definitely makes for a happier home when there is food to eat and plates to eat it on! Haha. (We'll see if I can keep that up once Samuel starts eating real food, crawling, etc. I'm sure I won't be nearly as bored then!)

One interesting thing I've found is that MIT offers a lot of their courses via video online for FREE (Check it out here). I've only gotten to watch one lecture so far, but I think that's a really fun way to refresh my memory on topics I'm already familiar with and maybe even expand into new, less familiar areas. (Am I a total nerd that I want to watch finance classes online?)

I'm attempting to read more too. Granted, reading often gets interrupted. But now that nap times are pretty established, I think I should be able to get in a solid 30-45 minutes post-chores in the mornings if I make a point to do it... and if I don't fall asleep. :-)

And, of course, I'm visiting with people and getting out as much as possible. I'm really really bad at just staying at home.

If anyone has any other suggestions on ways to stay active as a stay-at-home mom, I'm all ears!

Only 51 Weeks to Go...

So we survived the first week of Eric's intern year!

Really, it hasn't been that bad. It has definitely been a big adjustment for all of us though.

I've been super spoiled to have Eric at home a LOT since Samuel's been born. Until last week, I've pretty much been able to go where ever I want and leave Samuel with him, only having to worry about being back for feedings. That's a pretty big difference from pretty much being his sole caretaker. Now Eric only gets to see him for about 20 minutes before bedtime. Bummer.

Eric's had the luxury of sleeping in and basically hanging out and doing a few chores with me every day for the last few months. Now he has to wake up at 5 and work 13-14 hours days. Every. Day. That part stinks.

The good things are:
1) Eric likes what he is doing. It's a LOT of work, but he's busy, and he's making a difference. That's why he went into medicine, right?
2) I love my sweet boy to pieces, and am pretty good at keeping myself busy. We've been to the gym every day and usually have done at least one other outing to go shopping or hang out with someone.
3) I like to cook and have dinner ready, which gives me something to do in the evenings and, of course, works out great for Eric!

I'm sure the long hours are going to wear on both of us this year. Luckily, we think this rotation is about as hard as it's going to get, so we should be pleasantly surprised once he has a clinic month in September.

Anyway, on a related but separate note, in my effort to keep myself busy, I've been trying to do so with things that will improve myself and my little world around me rather than just watch tv or play games. Other than a couple of months when I was job-less, I've never really purposely stayed at home before. It's pretty weird for me.

I've never been really great at stuff like keeping the house tidy or deep-cleaning. We've always just been "pick up a couple of things at night and do a good (30-minute) cleaning on Saturday" people. Now I can actually do stuff like vacuum more than once or twice a month and wash my windows and water my hanging baskets (oh, wait, forgot to do that. Whoops!).

I'm also trying to expand my horizons workout-wise. I consider myself a runner, but I realized I need to try some new things to work different muscle groups and to keep myself engaged. So I'm trying as many new classes at the gym as I can. It's a little intimidating, but it's been fun, and I've found a few I really like!

I'm also trying to do a better job of buying healthy food that we'll eat. In fact, I've decided that for July, I'm going to try my whole veggie every day challenge again. Granted, I should be doing this anyway. I definitely eat a lot more veggies than I used to, so hopefully it won't be too hard. We'll see!

And of course, I'm trying to find more engaging activities for Samuel. That's a little more challenging since he's still pretty little, but I try to do fun sensory-based activities with him where I can, and I'm hoping to make some cute DIY sensory boards for him soon. I've already found it's really easy to just give him toys because he likes them, and, while there's definitely nothing wrong with that, I don't want to end up living in a toy-crazed home. I'd much rather him have a little less and have to use his imagination to make use of it.

So, all in all, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about intern year. I think I have reasonable expectations. We'll see if that's still the same a month from now!

My Crazy 5-Month Old

Oh, how I love this sweet, crazy little guy!

At 5 months, Samuel weighs approximately 16 1/2 lbs, and is around 27" long (my measurements, so who knows how accurate they are!!)

He loves to play in his exersaucer (great secondhand purchase!), to roll everywhere, and to yell for fun.
He grabs everything he wants, including FACES (yikes!).
He smiles and laughs when we sing to him, tickle his neck, make him "fly," or hold him upside down.
He's learning how to sit by himself, though he hasn't quite mastered the art yet.

He's generally a happy, content baby. Every time we leave him ANYWHERE (church, the Y, friends houses, etc.), we are told how fun and sweet he is. If I take him to the store, he smiles and flirts with everyone. He loves people and loves attention!

Samuel definitely has had some struggles the last month sleep-wise. He's doing a lot better, though. He's still waking up a little at night, but is contentedly talking to himself until he falls back asleep instead of crying for us. Now if he would only do the same at nap time! (He's also learned the fine art of reaching his arms up and poking his lip out with a single tear rolling down his cheek... try closing the door on that sad face!)

He is also starting to get a lot more hair on top. It's kind of hard to tell since a lot of it is blondish, but he's got a little mohawk-type thing going on right now. It's pretty stinkin' cute.

Unfortunately, Samuel is still spitting up a lot, though I think it may be getting a little better. That may just be me being overly optimistic though. Because of his crazy amount of spit up, we've decided to hold off another month on letting Samuel try solid foods (and because we like the fact that he only poops twice a week. Not looking forward to THAT changing!)

It's kind of hard as he is SUPER interested in food now. He watches really intently when we eat and makes chewing motions, and occasionally reaches for our food. In fact, last night he grabbed a big handful of my paella when I wasn't looking... Thankfully, Eric caught him in time! So it might be a fun month. I think it's the right decision though. Eric is off on his 6 month birthday, so we thought that would be a good time to start. I feel like once he starts eating and crawling, my life will REALLY never be the same!

Here's a few weekly photos from this last month and a few others I like, including some that I didn't want to post on facebook because he's in his diaper (and Eric is pretty anti-diaper pictures. But let's face it - he's super adorbs!!) <3 p="">

  

My birthday present.

So I have mentioned before that I've never really had one specific place that I have thought of as "home." We moved a lot as a kid, and my parents have now moved twice since I left for college. Eric and I have joked about my life as a vagabond (he says I'm like cranial nerve 10 - the wandering nerve. Nerd).

Maybe rather than saying I don't have a home, it's better to say that I have several. But whatever the case, Winston-Salem is as much my home as anywhere else I've lived.

And the house we were renting was as homey as I'd felt in a long time. I was going to be sad to leave it when we moved away. It had its issues, and I had a nice long list of things I wanted in a new house if possible. But when we found out we were staying in Winston-Salem for residency, we pretty much just decided to settle in a little more where we were.

Then we found out about the nice physician's mortgage one of the local banks offer. Super low rates, no down payment, and no mortgage insurance. We realized we could get a pretty good-sized loan and pay quite a bit less per month than what we'd been paying in rent.

Still, we liked where we were. We explored several neighborhoods with nice, big houses for sale in our price range. We agreed pretty quickly that, even though the houses were bigger and newer, we LOVED living in our current neighborhood, Ardmore. It's SUPER close to everything, including the hospital. We're within 2 miles of great shopping, restaurants, grocery stores, and the gym. It's got lots of sidewalks and connecting roads for running. The homes are old, but (usually) charming. And the side of the neighborhood we live on is relatively safe compared to other areas of town.

Of course, updated older homes in a resident's price range are pretty few and far between. Especially ones with same-level laundry, a working fireplace, lots of closet space, and a deck. Those were my requirements.

SO we agreed to look online and just see if anything looked like something we might be interested in. And if not, we'd just stay where we were. We didn't think we'd actually find what we were looking for, but we wanted to at least be able to say we looked.

I searched the MLS website daily. I found lots of things I loved, but they were all WAY over our budget. And everything in our budget was NOT up to par. I was being picky. Extremely picky.

Finally I saw two houses that interested me. They were the only two we looked at. And one of them had everything on my list. A pretty new kitchen. A huge walk-in closet. A laundry room. A deck. A fireplace that worked. It had a few things I wish were different -- only 1 1/2 baths instead of 2, and an upstairs whose ceilings are lower than normal. But, overall, it was by FAR the best things we'd found for the price.

After talking with a mortgage lender and looking at amortization charts (Now I'm the nerd. So fun!), we found out it would be about $200 less per month than what we had been paying in rent, and, after 3 years, we should have about $10,000 in equity. So even if we were to sell at $5-7K less than what we bought it for, including realtor fees, we should still come out a little ahead. And we would get to live in a house that had everything we'd been looking for.

So on my birthday, April 10, we spent the whole day debating about whether or not this was the right choice. It wasn't the most exciting birthday ever, since I spent the whole day distracted. BUT, by that afternoon, we'd called our realtor to put in an offer!

It took a couple of days of offers and counter offers and signing documents via our iPhones. But by Friday, April 12, we finally reached an agreement. While we were traveling down to Charleston for our vacation, we signed all of our documents electronically and bought a house. Happy birthday to me!

We spent a lot of the next month doing inspections and going back and the forth with the sellers about them fixing a few minor problems (electrical outlets and such). It was weird to kind of have a house, but not really.  More than a month later, on May 23, we finally closed. Then, keys in hand, we took off to Arkansas. :-)

Since coming back, we've finally got moved in, and we're slowly getting settled. We've updated Samuel's room with new paint, a new closet door handle and a new light fixture (for which we had to call an electrician because someone seriously ghetto-rigged the previous one). I've just about finished converting our weird back room into a mud room (and it's super cute! Can't wait to show off the finished product)! We've gotten a new dining set, ordered patio furniture that's coming Thursday, and we're getting a security system installed Thursday too. We've bought a new lawnmower and desk for Eric. And we're having the exterior painted soon too.
It's a work in progress, but it's coming along!

It's so funny to me that we really had no intentions of getting a place, yet here we are. I feel beyond blessed that God worked it out so that we could get a place we loved. I hope we continue to love it... because we're here for a while! :-)

Oh sleep, how I love thee.

And how I have NOT been getting any.

Okay, that's not completely true. In actuality, I've been getting 7 hours a night, it's just been broken up thanks to Samuel's sleep regression, which is a REAL THING for anyone who was wondering.

My sweet little sleep-through-the-night-at-2-months-old child suddenly started waking up multiple times a night. Not cool. At first I thought it was because he learned to roll from front to back and couldn't get back. That was part of it. But even after learning to roll the other way, the nighttime wakings have continued. :/ Not to mention that he has been uber-fussy during the day, waking up SCREAMING from naps, and just generally not his normal, happy self. Not a great time to start stay-at-home-mommying!

I did some research, though, and from what I've read, it looks like this is the time when infant sleep becomes more like adult sleep. Circadian rhythms get established, and babies have more periods of deep sleep as to opposed to constant REM cycles. And when they come out of deep sleep, it can scare the living daylights out of them, thus the waking up and freaking out.

Paired with that, a lot of babies (Samuel included) have a growth spurt of sorts at the same time. They not only grow really quickly, but learn a lot of new skills like rolling all over the place, picking objects up off the floor and moving objects from hand to hand, all of which Samuel has learned in the last two weeks. I guess it's probably hard learning that many gross motor skills all at once.

Anyway, long story short, it's been a rough week or so with him. Last night was a lot better (only one wake-up around 4:30) and he's in a much better mood today. Perhaps the growth spurt is coming to an end??

On another note (once again, for my own memory's sake), I also didn't realize that 4 months would mean a lot of changes for me too. In the last two weeks I've suddenly started losing all my hair (a lot of people told me that happened to them around 2 months postpartum, so I thought maybe I'd just skipped it), and also losing the rest of my baby weight (yay!). I haven't even really been working out much since we've been moving, but I've magically dropped 6 pounds while eating pretty un-healthily. Can't complain about that one! I've also had a few days where I felt so crazy hormonal I didn't know what to do with myself. In fact, I actually took a pregnancy test one day to make sure I wasn't pregnant again (I'm not!!)! I thought I was pretty much back to "normal," but apparently my body wasn't quite done with the changes yet.

Anyway, things seem to be stabilizing, and I'm oh-so glad. Next time around (assuming there's a next time!) I'll know what to expect. For now... I think I'll go take a nap. :-)