Movies and Music

A Must:


I read this book to Alyssa every week at least once. (I'd read it more, but she's not yet 9 months old, and seeing as how it's not too colorful or chew-able as her board books are, she doesn't care to read it more often than that.) I must say though, that I think it's messed up how mean Max is to the Wild Things when he's king. Like he treats them the way he's been treated even though he didn't like it, himself. What the heck is that about?? Alyssa and I usually discuss this upon finishing the book...and then she'll end the discussion with a toot or a giggle. I love her.

Another must: I love Michael Cera...every time I see him I just want to squeeze him...



This looks like a cute movie. One that'll put a smile on my face.

And finally, I've been on a Beirut kick again lately. I really really enjoy Zach Codon and his musical stylings:





Today, watching Alyssa at play, seeing her look up at me and laugh a nice hearty laugh just because I was hacking a bit, then leaning back to give me a kiss, I thought how nice it will be to play with her in more elaborate scenes as she gets older. Hopefully it'll be as nice as I'm thinking it'll be. It'll be nice for me as long as she enjoys hanging out with me.
I have plans for building a time machine with her...we'll be time traveling cool kids. Yeah...

Sicky-pants McGee

I am terribly sick. Sore throat, feeling worn out, every muscle in my body is aching and feeling tired.

Alyssa had a slight fever a couple of days ago, a runny nose, and was quite irritable for a few days leading up to that. We figured she was teething. Now I think she was teething and sick, poor little baba ghanoush.
Today she seems to be back to her usual, happy, energetic self. Aaaaaand, she is getting her very first tooth in. You can officially see and feel the top of a little tooth on the bottom right-hand side of her mouth. I am so happy for her. Who knew that a tooth could make me so excited and happy? She's growing up. So quickly, I might add.

Every passing day she surprises me with something new- she'll turn the page now for me when we're reading (board books only, not thin pages- she tries, but can't get only one with those!). She mimics noises form time to time, and is curious about how handles work, among other things. These are so mundane, I know, but I enjoy seeing her make connections. I enjoy just about everything she does.

She is exhausting, but she is so much fun. My family visisted us today for a couple of hours, and when my mom, dad, and Alyssa were dancing and laughing, I asked my mum if my brother and I were as much fun as Alyssa is, and she was like, "no. no way." And she was totally serious! Haha! I guess I should have expected that, maybe? My brother was a serious little kid, and I was mostly quiet and observant. This is what I've been told about us, and I believe it- It's mostly how we are now.

I had pictures taken on my phone of my little family engaged in various activities, that I was going to upload, but for whatever reason, they have been erased by my husband while he tried to update the firmware on my phone.

So only two pics this time:

My snack tonight:

Reading to Alyssa: (You can see the pots and pans that we were banging around with, in the background)

She is such a sweet little potato. I love her.


Ugh. I need some Ricola cough drops...
Going to get a drink and then curl up with my book in bed.

Lovers

So, I have grown up with carbohydrates at every meal.
Breakfast always had toast or was some sort of bready-food item. A pastry or an english muffin, pancakes, muffins....mmm...or homefries. Yum!!! Breakfast was my favorite meal.
Lunch always had a sandwich or a wrap or pasta somewhere in it.
Dinner always had rice and some other starch- plantains cooked in various ways, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, or whatever.
I love eating. Always have. And carbs/starches have been a favorite of mine. I love them.
Sugar is another love of mine, but more than sugar, it's the carbs.
My mother made all the carbs brown (whole wheat, brown rice, etc), and she cooked really healthy stuff, but since I've been on my own, I've been eating like crap. Especially since I hate cooking. There's been a lot of canned and boxed stuff and lots and lots of eating out. Feel free to gag, reading that last sentence.

Diabetes runs in my family. My mothers' side is made up of string-bean skinny people. I think my mom is the "biggest" at a size 6. My fathers' side however, is mostly overweight and diabetic.
It is a well-accepted fact around the house, that my tastes and eating habits mirror those of my father and his side of the family. Ha!

I don't want diabetes or high cholesterol (of which I've already been told I have a high level for someone my age). I would like to have healthy eating habits.
So, after an acquaintance told me about the specific carbohydrate diet, I looked into it.
In short, it's a diet primarily for people who cannot eat grains or gluten, and most dairy.
I'm not following it for a couple of reasons, one being that I must eat wheat (gluten) if I am going to eat anything with flour in it at all (allergic to the alternative almond flour), but it has so many delicious recipes.

So here it is: I am going to try to eat carbs at only 1 or 2 meals a day. I have been eating them at breakfast and lunch, but not snacking on them, and not at dinner. Or, like today, I had a burger and a salad for dinner, so I skipped out on the carbs at lunch anticipating the roll I'd eat with dinner. And I still had pancakes and eggs for breakfast. So it's not like I'm drastically re-working my diet. Just trimming it and trying new, healthier recipes.

Anyways, I don't think it's too much to cut out. I still eat it everyday, I've just cut out at least half of it. Instead of fruit or veggies, I always snacked on carb. Now, I eat fruits and veggies as a snack instead. I still don't like fruit or veggies all that much, but I am learning to like them. Ugh.
(I'm not adventerous in my eating either...but I'm trying)...

Wish me luck in eating healthier!!

I'll be making my own yogurt when I get my YoGourmet ingredient in the mail. Curious how that'll end up! :p

Volunteer

So, I signed up for Volunteer Broward over a year ago, attended orientation, and then never did anything because the more pregnant I got, the more tired I got. And then once Aly was born, I didn't really know how to both raise a child AND continue occasionally living a life outside of her.

So fast forward to now, and I am finally going to commit to volunteering somewhere. I am on a mission darnit. Just one weekend a month. That's not too much to ask for, is it? There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to meet that small goal? Is there?

Ok. Well, tomorrow, my mother is watching Aly and I'll be cleaning our home/cooking while Michael clears out the rest of what remains at our old house.

Maybe some grilled mahi mahi? I had telapia tonight so maybe not more fish...
We'll see!

Surprise

Sometimes I am surprised to see my initial reaction/decisions about things. Sometimes I am proud of myself and happy about the road I was first compelled to take, and others, an initial decision horrifies me and I wonder if I really am a terrible person. Terrible person as in petty and mean-spirited.

I fight it. I don't go with the petty and mean route (not usually at least), but I am still surprised and a saddened to see that side of me. Has anyone noticed this kind of occasional meanness in themselves? There I was, watching a movie tonight, and bam, something happened that made me scream inside that I would not have done what one of the main characters had done. I got to thinking about how I would have reacted in the character's case, and there she was- that mean, petty, unforgiving person. Jealous and ready to turn someone in need away for so many stupid reasons. I really hope I'm not really a mean person trying to be a nice one. :(

No dangit, I'm not. I'm a nice person. Aren't I?

In other news, we are trying to convince Alyssa to sleep in the crib. It's not going so well.
Additionally, she's been such a cranky-pants. She hasn't been her wonderful, pleasant self, these past two days. Additionally, she's hardly eating. Michael thinks she may be teething, but I told him that if she isn't back to herself in another day, we're taking her to see the pediatrician.

Ok. Off to bed.

Note to self: pick up a copy of The Secret Garden tomorrow and read it to my little miss.

Struggling a bit lately...

There are moments in my life where I find myself so carefree and content that I stop whatever I'm doing and begin to reflect on the possible reasons why I have such an easy life. And then I imagine less-fortunate, exploited, and/or painfully uneducated and forgotten people (i.e. Appalachian area) who must not have these moments, and I start to feel a bit guilty and down about the state of those peoples' lives. So...other than the things you can control, why do bad things, sometimes befall good people, and good things. sometimes happen to bad people? And how did I luck out with my life? Is it just that- luck? A random lottery draw?

I wonder if I'll get these answers upon my death. ? Morbid thought, but really, I wonder if I'll ever know the answers to these questions.

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Today, my family and I made the trek to South Beach. We are not wild about Miami, though I will say that if you have to live in South Florida in general, it's probably the best place you can be.
Anyways, we made the trek because my brother likes a German bar down there and wanted to take my husband to drink some beer and eat some meat there. (Consuming these two foods is unquestionably one of my brother's favorite pastimes). "My mother and I will go to the Seaquarium," I think to myself. Well, then I see online that it's mostly outdoors, not like an Aquarium which is generally an indoor affair. So I let my brother and my hubby know that they can go without me; I don't want to have Alyssa out for a few hours in the sun. "Go to the Lincoln Road mall!" my brother suggests. I picture an indoor mall, as malls generally are indoor establishments.

We arrive, and of course, the "mall" is less like an indoor mall, and more of an outdoor shopping district.
So, the end result is still me and my sweaty, miserable 8-month old hanging out in this 90+ degree weather without shade, save a few tiny awnings sprinkled here and there. It wasn't even shaded like I can say the Las Olas shopping district is shaded. ::sigh::

For two hours we walked around. Alyssa was so hot and sweaty that she basically just sat limp in my arms or in her stroller with her head down, looking at the floor or her stroller straps. Such a sad sight. We kept her hydrated and moving and took her into some over-priced yuck stores every now and then to cool off. Ugh! My parents and I eventually met up with my brother and husband at said bar/restaurant, and we hung out there for another hour or so. Alyssa perked up in the A/C, but was still sticky with dried sweat, and in need of a diaper change.
The thing about this restaurant and with the others we stopped at in that area- no changing table, and nowhere in the tiny bathrooms to even use as a makeshift one. Awesome. All in all, I'd say that that area is great to bring your baby to. What was my brother thinking???
I know that area can be fun, but not with a baby in tow, especially during the hottest part of the day, during what is arguably one of the hottest months of the year in South Florida...with cloth diapers. After three hours of this, we had to make another three stops: one at a pizza place, one at an empanada place, and one at an establishment offering 200 different kinds of beer.

Alyssa screamed on the way home, eventually passing out for a bit. When we arrived home, I fed her dinner, played with her, gave her a bath, and helped her pass out around 10:30. So here I am in bed finally, writing this.

What a day!

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will insist that Michael and I go to the pool with Alyssa and possibly to a used bookstore I spotted over on Oakland.

Tuesday night, Michael, Alyssa, my mother in law, and I will all be driving up at 4am to Tampa, and then back down around 9:00pm to avoid a hotel stay. Whew! Another day I'm kind of concerned about surviving. Mainly because of the babe.

And finally, we were hit with a surprise $1500 fee by our association that should have been payed at the time of closing, but wasn't. So, we're scrambling to pull that out of our already-thin budget and in an effort to cut back and cover part of that, I doubt I'm going with Michael to Portland. Michael will probably fly up early on the 8th and fly back down that same night to once again, avoid hotel costs.

Can I win the lottery anytime soon, please? lol :)

Okay, off to cuddle with my baby!!! Hubby is still downstairs killing zombies, but I'll cuddle with him too when he finally makes it back up here! :p

Finally!

I was able to pick up my contact lenses today. What a good feeling! I really prefer them for the day to day stuff than my glasses that perpetually fall off my face.

These past two days have been busy busy busy again.
Though Alyssa, Michael, and I did make time to play in water, and to watch bubbles cannibalize each other before we popped them in their collectively large state. Alyssa has a look of concentration whenever she reaches for them. She's so cute. I am enamored of everything she does. Well, almost everything. Letting me sleep well, and accepting the fact that we'd like her to sleep in her crib at night (right next to our bed, c'mon!) would be great.

I have no pictures to post tonight, as I have not taken any in a few days.
Tomorrow, my friends. Tomorrow.

Watched Benny and Joon tonight. Cute movie. Am I the only one who thought that Johnny Depp reminded them of Spike, Snoopy's brother. Something about the way that he looked in that movie just makes me think that...




Eh? Eh?

Okay off to brush my teeth and get to bed!

Familia

My family has been in rotation here. My aunt from London came to visit, then my cousin and her children have been visiting from Las Vegas for a bit now. My aunt from New Jersey stopped in briefly, and this past week, my cousin from Texas came down for a quick visit. He'll be in Ft. Lauderdale until Thursday.

I really love my family, and though we are scattered, i am so happy we see each other.
I am going to make a serious effort to go visit them as well. London, Texas, Las Vegas, and New Jersey...

I have been hanging out with them most days, lately, and as such, our home remains fairly untouched. We still haven't settled. i cannot wait to have everything calm down enough to get back into making progress with our home.

Other news: This month, i think I'll be able to sign up for classes starting in August. Woohoo!
Michael, Alyssa, and I will all be in Portland, Oregon in August for a wedding.
We saw Transformers 2 today. Awesome. We then discussed other giant-robot franchises that we have enjoyed over the years...what a bunch of nerds...

Tomorrow, we're all meeting up again, and hopefully somewhere in there, I will squeeze in some chores. But let's be honest- i probably won't.

Off to bed!

Bake, Bake, Bake, panic

I've been in the mood to bake lately.
Two nights ago, I made blueberry muffins from scratch. I had a mini-bite of one because I'm too scared to eat it. I hear they're good though.

Tonight, Michael and I picked up some freshly ground peanut butter from Whole Foods, and are making flour-less peanut butter cookies. Yum! I am having a panic-attack as we speak because I just ate one and am terrified that my mouth will swell and that I'll have to go to the hospital, or worse, that my throat will close. This panic and fear has a grip on me even though I just double-checked my tests and I am NOT allergic to peanuts. Nonetheless, thus is the life of someone who already has an anxiety/panic disorder. Seriously, my heart feels liek it may just beat right through my chest cavity right now. Slight hyperventilation. Ugh. Nice, Megan.

Two pics. More manana.
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Now let me check my test sheets again...