Da Da Da Da Da Da

You are in for a treat with this blog! I figured out how to upload a video from my blackberry!! I think Brian is manipulating our child while I am gone to kickboxing. I came back from kickboxing last night and all she said over and over and over again was da da da da da da. It's her new favorite word...or sound really bc she has no idea what it means. However, Brian thinks I should write in her baby book first word, Dada on April 26th! Now me on the other hand, I believe the first word has to be intentional and she has to know the meaning. Help us decide here....should I write it down as her first word??!!

Here is a video today still saying her new favorite word...

My mom recently gave Maggie the best chew toy. Its a Vulli Sophie giraffe! Its made of all natural rubber or something and totally safe for her to chew on all day...which she does. It must feel so good to her sore little gums. Supposedly the company is out of Paris and all the movie stars are buying these for their babies. My mom is just so hip. ha! I had never heard of it. You all probably have several of them!

We are still going strong with the cereal every night before bathtime!!

and in the next week or so will add this...

We are home sick today with yet another ear infection. This one makes 4 so far! The doctor explained it well today. There are over 200 common cold viruses and we as adults are immune to most of them by now. But babies catch every little virus they can, especially when they start to crawl and put things in their mouth. Multiply that times being a daycare baby and its no wonder we are sick every other week!! Good news is...summer is coming up and not the season for cold viruses and her immunity is building up. The colds are what causes her ear infections, so its a vicious cycle we are in right now!! However...I am loving being home today and cuddling and rocking her as much as possible. She is SOOOO sweet today!

Target is quite possibly my favorite place. If it had groceries, which some do, then it would be the only place I ever went!! Do not be afraid of the Archer Farms brands at Target. Everything I have ever gotten is SO good! Their granola bars are awesome. This is my latest discovery...parfait granola bites. The lemon raspberry is by far my favorite but there are many other flavors. Pop these things in the microwave for 5 seconds and its a little piece of heaven. Only 1 point for you weight watcher gals out there.

Another recipe...I made these last night and they were too good not to share. Thanks Lyndsey for the recipe!!

Cheesy Salsa Mini Meatloaves- 2 Pts for muffin for WW people

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 egg

1/2 c. finely crushed crackers(I used whole wheat ritz, 2 servings)

1 1/2 c. weight watchers mexican cheese

1 c. chunky salsa

I added some mexican chili powder and cumin to spice it up but it was not in the recipe!

Heat oven to 400. Mix the first 4 ingredients and 1/2 cup of the salsa, and 1 cup of cheese. Spoon into 12 muffin cups sprayed with pam. Use back of spoon to make indention in each muffin mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Then top with remaining salsa and cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Could serve with mexican corn or black beans. Enjoy!!!

Operation 5K

So Amanda wanted to run in a 5K in Laurel this coming weekend. I figured she needed some moral support, so I told her to sign me up too! Now let me explain...I have never ran a 5K. I can hop on an elliptical for 30 minutes all day long, or do an hour of cardio kickboxing no problem. But the open road with me and my tennis shoes...well that just plain scares me. I am so not a runner. I think its bc it is all in your head. I know I am probably physically fit enough to run a few miles, but my head tells me something different every time! I think it intimidates me or something. So anyway... I decided a week in advance to do this with her, so no real training here. Just a big ol prayer to the man upstairs to just get me through it...somehow.

This weekend was SO relaxing and wonderful! Brian had a work thing Friday night so Mags and I hung around the house and played all sorts of fun things! Saturday we slept late and did absolutely nothing while the supposedly bad weather came and went. We went to Heather's crawfish boil that afternoon, even though Maggie had a fever by then. We had a great time and especially enjoyed the company. Maggie kept a fever through today. Not sure what is wrong. Might be ears...she is very congested. Prolly head to doctor tomorrow if nothing changes. No pics to post from the weekend. Sorry!

I did have a few new discoveries I wanted to share...

1) Chocolate Cheerios are tha BOMB!!!

2) Parenthood, the new TV show after Biggest Loser on Tuesday night is SOOO good

3) Comcast On Demand has a kids section...with all sorts of shows for little ones to watch. Can't believe I am just now finding this out!

4) and last but not least...Target just got in the CUTEST clothes

Ok...night night blog people.

Separation Anxiety

So we are going through some difficult times right now, for both of us. Maggie is having separation issues really bad. She used to be so happy and would go to anyone and everyone, and now she cries when someone else holds her. Needless to say, she has not been getting good reports at school lately. They called twice last week to let me know that she had been crying non stop and that they thought something might be wrong with her. I left work early to pick her up and she was happy-go-lucky Maggie all afternoon with me. This has been going on for about 3 weeks now, and she just isn't acting like she used to around other people. She is crying more and more, and that is the last thing I want to hear when I pick her up from school. It makes it SOOOO hard to drop her off there everyday, and SOOO hard to concentrate on my work when all I can think about is Maggie. We got a great report at her check up last week, so I know nothing is bothering her. She may be getting more teeth in, but she isn't crying like that with me or Brian, so we figure it is separation issues. Either we are going to get past this stage quickly or I will soon be a stay at home mom. It is killing me. It also makes me SUPER nervous to leave her overnight. Brian and I have a New Orleans trip planned in May(1 night), and a St. Louis trip in June(2 nights). I hope we have this issue worked out by then, otherwise both grandmothers won't be getting much sleep when they babysit!!!

On a higher note, we did her 6 month pictures with my sister this past weekend. My sister does photography on the side when she is not working her 9-5. She is even doing some weddings now and her pictures are fantastic! Here are a few of my favorites!

This past weekend Brian and I worked hard in the yard. We dug up some old bushes and planted new ones. We planted Pink Fermosas(azaleas), Indian Hawthorn, Japanese Boxwood, and a Japanese Magnolia(my favorite). We also got all the flower pots looking good with some spring flowers! It was so nice to have a weekend where we had no plans and we could relax and get some things done around the house. I also am very excited to have an herb garden. Well more like 3 herb pots. I am growing rosemary, lemon basil, sweet basil, dill, thyme, greek oregano, chocolate mint, and parsley. I have already used several of them and they taste amazing. But the smell is what I really LOVE!

I love me some Dr. Oz. He occasionally has some really good recipes on there. My mom tried this one and told me it was really good. So we decided to make it last week and have made it twice since then. Its easy, tasty, and very healthy!!

Lemon Asparagus Chicken

Ingredients

4 (4-oz each) skinless, boneless, chicken breasts

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 red bell pepper, stem removed, seeded, and diced

1/2 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 cups cooked brown rice

Directions

Rinse the chicken under cold water. Season the chicken with the poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.

In a large, non-stick skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken to the skillet. Cook the chicken about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Stir in the garlic and the red pepper. Add the asparagus and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the zest and the chicken broth and turn the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Serve immediately over hot rice.

Milestones

Man oh man is it hard to find time to blog. I really really enjoy it and yet, it always seems to get put at the end of my "to do" list.

TONS has happened since my last blog. We are crawling, sitting up, and eating cereal!! Yes, that's right. Our first taste of something other than milk in 6 months!! She LOVES the cereal. She grabs for the spoon and shoves it in her mouth. Then she gets a big grin on her face after she takes a bite, like she is so proud of herself.

We have also started sitting up now! She doesn't have the best of balance, and face plants every once in a while, but she is sitting up pretty good!

And last but certainly not least, she is crawling. She isn't the fastest yet, but she has more determination than anyone I have ever seen. She can get where she needs to go and that is terrifying!!! I guess its time to baby proof our house, and remove all cleaning supplies from under the sink, and all breakable items out of her reach, etc. etc!!! This is scary...I mean really scary. I have to watch her EVERY second now. No more sitting her on the bed and going to get my coffee, or going to brush my teeth. She would go right to the edge and take a little dive off off. LORD help me!

Some other things happening around the Moore household...

Maggie is working on some more teeth! She is teething like crazy so it is Drool Fest 2010 at my house! We finally got over our double ear infection and are all stopped again. I call it the daycare crud. She seems to just keep it every other week for now. I am hoping soon she will build up her little immunity! She is also talking up a storm! Her favorite word is Ah-Bah! She loves her B's. And G's, and D's. Still waiting on an M...I know I know...I said 5 months was my favorite age but 6 months is definitely. Do you see a repeating pattern here?!

Just for my records...we had her 6 month check up this week. She is weighing in at a whopping 16 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long!

First Easter!

First of all, let me just note...We have had zero luck getting her to sleep in her crib. Well really...we haven't tried all that hard. But this is what happens when I lie her down in there. She rolls over, sits up, looks at me like "what in the world are you trying to pull mamma?"

and then she just plays...NOT sleeps

Mags had a big Easter weekend. Friday night we went over to Heather's house for some egg dying and pizza! We had a blast. It is so much fun now to get together with friends and let our kids play together. This is Maggie getting ready for the party!

The Easter Bunny was extra good since she has been sick. She got some new clothes(none of which she needed but its still fun), some new rattles and chew toys(yes, i call them chew toys instead of teething rings. I have had a dog way too long!) but her favorite present was her new pink laptop. It lights up and sings all kinds of songs.

We made it to church today, thank goodness. Maggie is finally acting like she is feeling better. We tried her in the nursery today for the FIRST time. The nursery workers said she did great! And I must admit...church was so much better with her in the nursery. I could actually listen to the sermon without stressing about Maggie making too much noise or starting to cry or needing her diaper changed, etc. After church we went to YaYa and Pops for some yummy food!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with family and good food and most importantly took time out of their day to thank God for giving us eternal life through his son!

Poor Ears and I don't mean the Easter Bunny's

Well we are on Day 5 of Maggie being sick. We went to the doctor on Monday, who told us she had an upper respiratory infection and it would have to run its course. But her fever and cough kept getting worse, so we went back to the doctor last night. She now has an ear infection in both ears. She is just pitiful, and has been so sweet and cuddly. 3 nights of no sleep and a sick baby can make for a cranky mamma and wife though!

For just a split second at the doctors office, she forgot she was sick as soon as she saw the noisy white paper that she can crinkle.

My little sick bunny. I told her the Easter Bunny was going to be extra special to her this Sunday. I only hope she will be well enough to go to church!

So Maggie is right at 5 1/2 months now. I know I said 4 months was my favorite age, but now 5 1/2 is! She is just into everything and making me smile every second. Her new thing is reaching her arms out to me when she wants me to pick her up. I love that! She is also making many more noises now. Brian and I swear she can say "hey" but its really just her little noise that she makes when she is excited. When we do tummy time, she pushes herself up right into the crawling position. She can inch backwards, but she hasn't mastered going forward yet. I think its coming though! She sat up by herself about three times so far, but its not an everyday thing and it doesn't last but for about 5 seconds. She is completely spoiled rotten and I wouldn't have it any other way!

No Fear!!!

So I haven't updated you on our kickboxing lately! This is us with our "mean" face on. My mom is going to kill me for posting this. And yes...we have to wear our WHITE martial arts pants. NOT slimming at all, but it wasn't our choice on color. The "first timers" have to start with white pants, and once we complete one boot camp, we get to move up to Black! Its kind of like karate belts but you get pants. ha! So black will be much more slimming the next go round. Its going really well. We are getting more fit and stronger everytime. We are also learning some self defense, so don't mess with me! I am absolutely loving the class!

So on to Maggie! We had a fun weekend. Had some friends over for dinner Friday night. Saturday we took Maggie to Hubfest and strolled around. She loved looking at all the people. Daddy was worried about her the whole time. Whether she had enough clothes on, whether she was getting hot, whether the music was too loud, whether she was getting sunburned. You get my drift...the funny thing was, when we got home he was the only one sunburned! We got to hear Cary Hudson who I haven't heard in a few years, so that was fun stuff. Sunday we went to church and the little anglepie slept in my arms through the whole church service!

In our new outfit from Heather!

Sunday afternoon we did some yardwork. We picked weeds out of our beds for SEVERAL hours. It had gotten really bad. This coming weekend we look forward to planting some new things, including the hydrangea that I bought for Maggie's baptism weekend. We brought Maggie's exersaucer outside and she had a blast watching us work!

The cutest bottom on the block!

Maggie got her first 2 teeth in this week. She got her bottom left one on Tuesday, and then her right bottom one came in on Saturday. She didn't fuss much at all, and it was a smooth transition. My little baby isn't a baby anymore! The Easter Bunny is bringing her cereal so we are excited about trying that next weekend too!!

So weight watchers is going really good. I am learning some good tips and recipes at my meetings. My new favorite tip is how to make a lowfat cake. Did you know you can take a can of diet coke or diet sprite and mix with one box of cake mix and you have a delicious cake! You use diet coke for a dark cake, and diet sprite for a light cake. So here's my latest try on this.

Guilt Free Strawberry Cake

1 box strawberry cake mix

1 can diet sprite(I used sprite zero)

1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk

1 carton fat free cool whip

Mix cake and diet sprite and bake according to package instructions. Then poke holes in cake with a straw and drizzle condensed milk all over it. Let cool, then ice with fat free cool whip. It was delicious!!! It was one of those cakes I had to throw out because I wanted to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For all you weight watchers people out there, 3 pts a piece. No matter what kind of cake you make! You could put fresh strawberries on top but I didn't have any!