Small Success (Vol 4)

Oh hello blog readers, here you thought I might be getting back into the habit of blogging, what with a couple posts last week and all, then lo and behold another week goes by with nothing. Sigh, such is life. I've been hoarding pictures of the boys because I thought they would make great blog posts. So, this week's small success post is going to be picture heavy.



 
It's important that moms realize that the little things add up, that what we are doing is making a difference, that's why CatholicMom.com uses Thursdays for moms to talk about our successes of the week.

1) I've been working more on less screen time and more time of one on one play to help with Christopher's speech as well as helping Dominic with his conversational speech. So this week I made a conscious effort to plan our days a bit better and I got some craft stuff for the boys to try out.

We also worked on reading together, and put together a puzzle.

I took the boys to see the local "dinosaur train", and we walked around the Enchanted Forest.

2) On top of the increased one on one time, I've managed to keep the house mostly up too, but I'm trying to take my focus away from dishes, laundry, and vacuuming. Somehow, by taking my focus away from that and onto the boys, I've still managed to get everything done. It even seems easier. I'm sure it's a fluke.

3) I've cooked mostly healthy meals all week, and the boys are even trying them. Christopher is tasting more foods every day and I consider any day that I don't have to resort to PB&J a complete win!

Head on over to CatholicMom and see everyone else's successes as well as sharing your!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 13)

--- 1 ---

This has been a rough week of workouts. I haven't managed to get up at 5AM to go to the gym most days to get in my cardio. I'm bumped up to 60 minutes daily and she wants me to split that morning and evening, which we thought would be perfect. I could do 1/2 hour on the elliptical in the gym in the morning, then we could do a long bike ride in the evenings. Well, we've managed to do 60 minute bike rides this week anyway.

--- 2 ---

For Christopher's speech therapy appointment on Tuesday the Speech Therapist was here to kind of check in. His normal appointments are with a developmental aide (I think that's what her title is) and then the SLP would come ever 6 visits or something. So, this week she came, and he really seemed to open up. We got several new sounds and he played with her. Today we had our normal appointment but it was early and we hadn't had breakfast yet, so needless to say, he didn't participate that well with her today. I'm hopeful though because it does seem like he is starting to respond and trying to make new sounds more frequently.

--- 3 ---

I know so many people who are pregnant or just had babies. I love it because I love babies, but I'm noticing a little catch, a little bit of pain with every announcement and that is fairly new for me. It's weird, it doesn't diminish my happiness for the couple, or happiness to see that new life...it's almost like a longing. I'm still trying to think less about GETTING pregnant this month so that it is not in my head every day, but it's hard when you want something so bad to not think about it.

--- 4 ---

Jason and I played Cribbage last night and I missed skunking him by like 6 points. It was simultaneously the best hands I've ever had in Cribbage while he had the worst he's ever had. It was a great night! ;-) We used to play a card game almost every night but we've gotten out of the habit, and it's been fun. 

--- 5 ---

Our town has 2 parks locally and one of them is really nice, but the other has seen better days. Well, our town got a grant to get some new, better playground equipment and we are so excited! They will have volunteers putting it together, which kind of makes it more exciting and more "ours". This is the equipment that was chosen.

--- 6 ---

I'm in a food slump. Since my diet is so strict, I'm struggling to find things that I can eat that I want to eat. Mostly I'm eating veggies and meat. The real problem is that I'm not a big veggie fan. Suggestions are welcome!

--- 7 ---

Since we signed up with the state and the city and are now an official business, we needed to organize things a bit better. So we set up a scheduling calendar using Google Apps, and let's just say, it was insane to get it so that I could set up the appointments from my phone and Jason would get a notification on his phone. We got it...but it was not easy!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Theme Thursday - Food

I'm linking up with Cari over at the Clan because she's awesome and I can.

So, food, what a great link-up as anyone who knows me knows that I love food. I'm trying not to hate it right now that I can't eat all the things, but sometimes it's a struggle. I don't know why, it's not too different than how we usually eat, except that I usually don't think twice about baking up some brownies, granola bars, or cookies for snacks. Instead I'm eating raw, unsalted almonds or protein bars and shakes.

Anyway, this is what lunch looked like in the Spano house today.

I did not eat the dish soap honest!

Dominic eating the only thing he ever eats with a spoon, Snail Cheese

Lunch: 1 PB sandwich cut properly and 2 bananas

7 Quick Takes (vol 8)

--- 1 ---

Someone hacked my blog. I mean...I can't imagine WHY, but being married to an IT guy made it so I could figure out how. Apparently some of the WordPress themes can sometimes contain malicious software. Oftentimes Google would catch this, but the last time I updated my themes I was on my phone and or my tablet. On the WordPress app. Needless to say I won't be doing that again.

--- 2 ---

If you follow me on Twitter you may have caught my rant the other day. I ran into a family member at Walmart when I was trying to let Dominic walk with me. He's used to doing that with daddy, who is able to shop, hold Christopher and chase him down. I am not that awesome. So Dominic's walk with me was interspersed with giggles and "look! momma!" and mild-large tantrums when I tried to direct him. I don't think I was even angry, a few times I was firm because, hey, even though we live in a small town, I don't desire to lose my kid in a store. I have a loud voice, it carries and this is the only thing I can attribute to this family member saying she could hear me screaming at Dominic. This was after she called me a bad mom. :( I always have had issues with this family member, and this shouldn't have surprised me but for some reason it still surprised and hurt me.

--- 3 ---

I found this at Walmart last night. Ohhhhmygosh this is so, so good! I've eaten it on bananas so far but think it would be great on graham crackers or just toast. Oh yum!

--- 4 ---

I don't know if you follow Caitlin's blog, but seriously the way she shared her news with her readers and her family is so cute! You should totally check it out!

--- 5 ---

Christopher is a little delayed in his speech. As in, he's not speaking. When we were first worried the ENT told us that after he got tubes in his ears that should help him start speaking. But that was done in January and still nothing. I bit the bullet and got him evaluated for the early intervention program. Right now they agree that he needs services but we don't know for sure if he has any hearing problems. He will not allow us to do his hearing test. We tried two different ones, but still nothing. The auditory specialist wants to suggest something where they put him under to check his ears. We aren't sure what we should do yet.

--- 6 ---

We've been doing the Insanity workout which has been going pretty well. I mean it's crazy hard, but I've stuck to it. That is until the last week or so. We moved up to the max intensity and my knees are killing me all. the. time. I've ordered 10 minute trainer from beachbody so hopefully it comes soon and I can get back to my workouts.

--- 7 ---

I'm asking for prayers for an extremely special (to me anyway ;-)) intention.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

 

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 1)

--- 1 ---

We were spoiled with Dominic's sleeping habits. OK, I was spoiled. With both Dominic's sleeping habits and the fact that since I was pumping and not breastfeeding Jason could (and did!) get up and help with nighttime feedings. It is hard to be the person who does that. Alone. For every mom that is the sole taker-carer of children at night you deserve a hug. And chocolate. Loooooots of chocolate.

--- 2 ---

I mention the chocolate because I want some. I am calorie counting dieting so I have had some chocolate don't get me wrong. But what I really want to do is bake a batch of homemade brownies with Reese's PB chips in it and eat the whole pan. But I won't.

--- 3 ---

Also, I want chips and salsa and guacamole and I don't want to measure it out.

--- 4 ---

Food is on my mind for sure, it always is when dieting right? I should not think of this as dieting, I am trying really hard to make a complete change in myself. So that in a year or two I can have a brownie and know that it's OK. I just won't eat the whole thing.

Probably.

--- 5 ---

Our tax information is slowly starting to come in. I'm excited. Obviously because I want all that money that the government is sure to give me (haha!) but also because I'm a nerd and I like doing the taxes. (do you still like me??)

--- 6 ---

Did you know that in Canada the government PAYS you to have babies??? I have it on good authority from a good friend that they do. Come on US, if we're going to try to copy their healthcare, can we at least copy that as well??

--- 7 ---

This Winter has been really mild. I mean it's Colorado so you never know what's going to happen, it could blizzard and May or we might not get any more snow until next year. Oh, they're getting snow in some parts (mountains, foothills) of Colorado, but us on the plains? Nope. (Secretly you thought that all of Colorado was in the mountains or foothills didn't you?)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Small Successes

This week, it seems like a struggle to think of just one success for me, so I thought it would be important to do this week's Small Successes and focus on some of the things that I've done this week.

1) I have kept the house relatively picked up, this is a big deal to me because lately I've been really struggling with the daily routine and figuring out how to do it and still use the time when Dominic is not napping to spend with him. So, this week I'm proud of myself for the doing the dishes more than once, and even doing the laundry!

2) Cooked something new, and it didn't completely suck! I roasted a whole chicken for the first time ever on Tuesday. It was kind of a pain, and as Jason said, not sure the difficulty involved was worth the meal, but it was cool that I did it and it tasted good. I'd really like to try cooking something new every week, we'll see how Jason goes for that! ;-)

3) Dominic rolled over for the first time!OK, so it's not *my* success per se, but it was so wonderful that I decided to put it here. I guess in a way it is our success as parents as we have been better about giving Dominic the time he needs on the floor. We love holding him, so we spend a lot of time playing with him in our arms, and I think it sort of hindered that instinct a bit. So, we've made a more conscious effort to leave him on the floor playing a bit more.

So, what are your small successes this week?

2010...What a Ride

Wow, 2010 was an amazing year for us! The first quarter of the year we spent "living" away from each other as I worked in Garden City and Jason was here at home. In April, after realizing the difficult pregnancy and just the sadness that goes along with missing out on each other and that special time together during the pregnancy, Jason bought out my contract and brought me home! I worked on being a stay-at-home wife, and worked minimally as a PTA.

We spent a good chunk of the year waiting for the arrival of our kumquat, which he finally made on August 1st. He was a week "overdue" but seemed just right to us! :) We had a scary bout that first week home with problems nursing and Dominic losing too much weight and being dehydrated...that ended in a hospital stay for us and him.

Since his birth, our lives have revolved around our little kumquat and we couldn't be happier! He is such a joy and a blessing; it is so amazing to watch him learn and grow. Every day brings something new for us and we are always excited to see what's next. His giggling and smiles can light up the room, and he's already developing quite a personality.

Resolutions for the new year?! To enjoy our family as much as we can. To spend meaningful time together including making daily family prayer a priority, dinners together, and playing games and having fun. My resolution for the year is to be the best wife and mom that I can be. For me this includes this blog as it has a tendency to hold me somewhat accountable. It also includes widening my cooking abilities and baking. Learning to help us to have a balanced, healthy diet. With sides of ice cream and chocolate occasionally. ;-)

What were some of your 2010 highlights and what are your resolutions for the year to come?

Halloween Weekend

So, Jason won the single best costume for the hospital. It's pretty lame, as you can see in this picture, he is posing with the dish he plans to run away with. ;-)

[caption id="attachment_355" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="They are not poised to run just yet..."][/caption]

It was pretty funny though, here are some of the others.

[caption id="attachment_358" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is Jason's coworker, Brandi, she made an awesome cow!"][/caption]

So, Hey Diddle Diddle was lived out...it was pretty cute! Personally, I think Pharmacy had the best costumes. They were each medicine. It was very cool.

We spent the weekend in Pueblo, for my first weekend working for WSi at Parkview Medical Center. It was pretty great actually. The hospital is awesome, and I'm going to get a chance to work with some diagnoses that I probably would never have gotten the chance to if I wasn't working there. Jason got some much desired one on one time with the kumquat! They had tons of fun playing in the park and wandering all around town.

[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="234" caption="Dominic's new fall hat! :)"][/caption]

On Sunday we got home later than we had planned, so trick or treating was pretty lame. We had hoped to go to a few friends' houses to show off our little monkey, but they were out with their kids or otherwise didn't have their lights on. So, we stopped at just a few houses and showed him off. We are so excited for next year to really get to trick or treat with him!

[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="He almost looks happy. We waited until he was tired of the outfit to take pictures, of course!"][/caption]

When we got home we turned on the outside light and prepared for trick or treaters. And then we waited. And waited. And, oh yeah, then we got 2 groups of kids. Then we waited. And then we got one more group. And then it was 10PM and we shut the light off. This is why we opted to purchase candy we like, we haven't gotten many trick or treaters the last couple of years. So, tootsie rolls and peanut butter kisses are all ours. Mwhahaha...ahem, yeah, I don't really do that whole evil laugh thing very well. But, at any rate, we are enjoying the benefits of having babies at Halloween time! ;-)

Life at Home

Well, two weeks down as a stay at home wife, and I'd say that we're adjusting well. :) It has been so awesome to get to be home for good! I've got something of a routine down for house cleaning and cooking, so I'm really hoping that when the kumquat arrives, we'll have things pretty much figured out. Except for that whole parenting thing ;-) we have time to learn that right?

Last week was Jason's birthday as well as the mom's and my nephew Kaden! Sheesh! That's a lot! Since Kaden is far away, we didn't do anything for him, but I was definitely thinking of him on his special day! :) Jason's birthday fell on Thursday and I had big plans to have a sour cherry pie and dinner ready when he got home. But the swelling cankles had different plans. :( Because the night before I had been so swollen that my poor toes could hardly move, Jason put me on bed rest. No cooking, cleaning, or baking. I was pretty sad, but the day off my feet definitely helped the swelling go down. He got his pie on Friday though! ;-)

The weekend was nice, we spent Saturday hanging out while Jason finished up his parents' computer and then we went to Las Animas for Mass as I had to read that night. I spoke with the priest about baptism for the kumquat and we've got a plan for that too, so it was really nice. We had dinner at Carmen's with the mom, dad, and Jonnie, and even went back to play games for a bit! On Sunday we celebrated both the mom and Jason's birthday with stew and cake, and we played Chinese Checkers. Really, I just don't see the fun. :-p Maybe it has to do with my inability to strategize?! After hanging out there for a bit, we stopped by my parents' house to hang out for a little while. My mom filled us full of snack foods! :) And a tamale yummy!!! She had some pepper jack cheese that was too hot for her and dad so Jason and I munched on it along with some veggies. Mom pointed out that they were snacking a bit more but on healthier things because she's finally QUIT SMOKING!!!! Hooray! What an awesome thing, and I'm so proud of her! They spent the weekend cleaning and trying to get the house free of the smoke smell, but I think she'll end up having to paint! Sorry Mom! ;-) Jason then had to go into work for a little while to get some stuff ready for the week as we were out of town Mon-Weds and Brandi had to man the IT department on her own!

Jason had a conference in Denver Monday-Wednesday and since I now have no job, I got to go with him! :-D We saw the grandma on Monday morning and that was nice to get to visit with her and Bob, they are very excited about the kumquat too! Then we went to pick up some stuff for the baby that we'd been waiting on getting. Bottles and a breast pump, along with a carrier for Jason to wear to carry the baby! :) So exciting! We had a nice lunch at Macaroni Grill and then hung out in our hotel room playing Canasta. I should say, "we hung out in the hotel room while Jason SLAUGHTERED me at Canasta", but either way, it was a lot of fun! Then the chunky, pregnant girl got hungry so we went to find some dinner. We settled on hot wings (of course! ;-)) and Jason ordered some that were even too hot for him! It was kind of fun to watch him eat them! :) OK, that's mean, he did struggle, the Atomic wings were REALLY on fire!  On Tuesday the mom and the dad came up as well, but we were sad that Jonnie wasn't feeling well enough to come with them! :( I spent the late morning and early afternoon with them and we hung out with Jason's godmother, Eileen along with her daughter, Jenny (sp?) and granddaughter Savannah. We had a yummy lunch at El Tapatio, but  you can't go wrong with Mexican. All this while Jason was at a conference, but he did say that he really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it so that's good! When Jason was done with his meeting he and I were going to head over to shop some and meet up with the mom and the dad later for dinner, but they were ready early, so we had dinner at Red Robin! Ate waaaaaaaaaaaay too much food that day for sure! But it was yummy! Then we checked out a mall and finally a Babies-R-Us. Awesome! We got more baby stuff, like diaper covers and pins and all the health stuff like the nose-sucker! ;-) We decided not to buy any baby clothes until the baby is here. We have some stuff that has been given to us, and we'll have that with us to bring the baby home from the hospital and then we'll go shopping for more gender-specific clothes. But, for the first few weeks of life, onesies will probably be just fine! It will be the end of July afterall! Wednesday I stayed in the hotel and relaxed as I was horribly swollen and really tired. Jason had his last day of the conference and was done around 3PM. We went to check out another mall before leaving and then, awesome husband that he is, Jason drove ALL the way BACK across town just so he could go through Colorado Springs to feed his wife again! :) We stopped at Olive Garden. Yummy!

Yesterday brought us back to reality, I had laundry to do and picking up to do. Jason had work and getting caught back up there. The week is over already and onto another great weekend together. Being home every night together is so great, even when we don't do anything but talk, or work on separate things, being together is so awesome. :-D And as our little family grows, I can only anticipate that it'll get even better!

First Day on the Job!

Well, today was my first official day as housewife! :) Technically you could say it was Saturday, but since I didn't really do anything....we aren't going to count that day!! ;-) We had such a nice weekend, wouldn't have wanted to add to it by adding work or something!

Well, this morning Jason let me sleep in until 6AM (I know it's so hard for him!) and we were able to get up and say morning prayer together before heading off to Mass. Oh how I've missed daily Mass! I've said it before and I'll say it again: when you CAN'T go to daily Mass it makes you feel even sorrier for all of the times that you chose not to go out of laziness/fatigue/just not feeling like it! It's such a blessing, and even more of a blessing to go as a family! :-D After Mass we had a little breakfast and Jason headed off to work. I finished my breakfast and waited for a bit to make some calls and change appointments. Then a little after 8AM I headed off for my errands of the day. They included getting my tire fixed (hooray for Deloaches!), going to the grocery store, and dropping off some bills as another aspect of my job--Spano Computer Services secretary! ;-) Once home I worked on getting our bedroom nice and clean...I've decided that it will be good for me to really clean one room a day for now to get in the groove plus to give myself time to prop my feet. I had lunch ready for Jason at noon too! :) I finished our room and did the dishes and was pretty tuckered out! I rested for the last couple hours in the afternoon before Jason got home and headed to his meeting for Relay For Life.

Dinner is simmering now, and will definitely be ready by the time Jason gets home! I am so excited and so blessed to be able to be home and to be starting my life as a stay at home wife. I know that it will really be a blessing for us and definitely for our kids! :)

Survived The Weekend!

It's early Monday morning and I just saw Jeanine off to work, and probably won't see her again until Friday. :(  The bright side is she won't have to do this for very much longer. April 9th will bring her back home for good! :-D  We both got up around 4:30am this morning.  While she got ready, I loaded her car and heated up some leftovers for her breakfast.

Since I'm up, I thought I would let you know how the weekend went.  Saturday we lounged around since I didn't have to teach at the college.  Jeanine made me stay in bed until 7:30am! :-o  We pretty much goofed off for most of the day.  Early afternoon we headed over to Jeanine's parents' house and hung out with them for a while.  We picked up a blanket that her mom had made for the baby.  It's very cute! That just made us even more excited for July 24th!  Jeanine had to read at Mass in Las Animas, so we left from there and headed down to get to Church in time to prepare ourselves for Mass.  After Mass, we headed out to my parents' house where my sister had turned her bedroom into "Hotel Spano". We even found mints on the pillows!  We spent the night down there since my parents and sister were going to Denver with us in the morning, and Jeanine likes to sleep in as much as possible. :)


We had a fairly uneventful trip to Denver despite all the bathroom breaks. ;-)  My grandma sounds better than she has, but she seemed pretty shaky and she was having trouble with her left side.  She has been experiencing mini-strokes off and on due to the large mass pushing on her brain.  We all met for breakfast and visited for quite a while.  Both of my dad's brothers were able to come over for a little bit too.

The Mother Cabrini Shrine had a lot of snow which made the going up (and especially the coming down) difficult.  Jeanine ran out of energy due to the little kumquat who is now the size of a spaghetti squash.  She made it most of the way up the 373 steps though.  When we got back down to the gift center I took Jeanine's pulse and it was over 200! :-o  After sitting and some cold water, she was fine.

We didn't have any luck getting a hold of Eileen (my mom's friend from school) the entire time we were up there, and had decided to leave.  But shortly after heading out of town, Eileen called so we turned around to go visit with her.  I saw Eileen's brother Jim who I hadn't seen in a very long time.  As well as three of her four children, two of which I haven't seen for over 20 years.  I think my mom had a good time visiting with Eileen.  As we were leaving my dad got into a snow ball fight with a 13 year old grandson of Eileen.  I think he got his workout for the day after that!

When we started home, we decided to go down through the Springs so we could eat at Zio's Italian Kitchen.  The food was very good!  We shared an Italian Nacho appetizer, and I had the Pepperoni Chicken.

After we made it back to Las Animas, we dropped my parents and sister off and headed back to Lamar.  I'm not sure what time we got home, but Jeanine was ready for bed.

All in all we had a great weekend and are thankful for all the family who helped make that possible! :-D

You're Still Eating?!

Well, that's what I keep telling myself this week. :-o I have been super hungry every night this week. Not so much during the day, but in the evenings for sure! I eat something, and then I wait a little while...then I'm hungry and eat again! I haven't been eating that well, so I'm thinking if I add some protein I will feel much better. Thank goodness peanut butter=protein! :-D I'm thinking the kumquat might be growing a lot this week so I'm getting extra hungry. That's who I'm blaming it on anyway! ;-)