Cameron is 22 months old.

This boy is certainly growing up way too fast. 2 more months and he will be two. It just doesn't seem possible. He is getting smarter by the day which is both good and bad at the same time.

What is he up to?

He has developed what is probably an unhealthy obsession with Toy Story, well, Buzz Lightyear to be exact. This has been a love a few months in the making. Buzz has evolved from "Buh" to "Buzz" in that time. He is still a little confused by the movies though, seeing that he thinks Buzz says "Yee-Haw," not Woody ("Dee-Dee" if you ask Cameron). Each and every night, Cameron is tucked into his bed under a sheet and a soft, cozy Toy Story blanket. He cuddles up to his stuffed Buzz and Woody dolls and falls asleep for the night.

He is getting much faster on his feet. This is not surprising at all to us, seeing that the kid practically ran the day after he learned how to walk. If he is out of the cart at a store and sees something that looks interesting, he is gone. He has been trying to jump, and is getting better at it by the day.

He still loves the same foods that he has always loved. Chicken nuggets, fish sticks, corn dogs, waffles, applesauce, green beans and his beloved kiwi-strawberry juice. He still drinks whole milk in the morning and before bed and says "nom nom" while he gulps it down. M&Ms are still his favorite treat and he dances around saying "nem nem" when he sees a bag.

Cameron is a great big brother. He loves to hold Hannah's bottle while she eats and put her pacifier in her mouth when she cries. He will hold his arms out and say "Nana! Nana!" when he wants to hold her (which is quite often). He loves to show her his toys and tries to share his food with her.

His vocabulary is also growing. He doesn't say too terribly much, but he is a chatter box when he wants to be. Latest words include "backpack" (thanks to Dora), the aforementioned "Buzz"and "knee". He can also show you where most of his body parts are and tell you the name of them. Maybe he will be a doctor one day. He has also picked up a bad word (ass), but hasn't repeated it since the day he heard it and repeated me almost instantly.

I love this boy.

McFatty Monday - week two

Here I am. Checking in for week two. I am proud to say that I have started Weight Watchers and started a little bit of light exercise (still waiting for the okay from my OB for more), and I am down 6.5 pounds. I know that is a good number for my first week, seeing that I quit drinking Coke and eating fast food cold turkey. There have been a couple of days that my weight fluctuated a little bit, but that is to be expected as I am getting used to the plan.

So as it stands right now, I am down 6.5 pounds with about 53.5 pounds to go. I am excited to get back to the old me again, and I am well on my way!

Hannah is one month old.

Time has been flying by. Of course, it doesn't feel that way on a daily basis, while I am busy trying to balance a CRAZY busy toddler, a fussy baby and housework. But somehow our little baby girl has already been with us for a month.

There's our girl this morning. It is still pretty hard to get a great shot of her, but the ones I got were pretty good. Speaking of hard to get a good shot, take a look at the pictures I took of Hannah and Cameron together this morning. What a challenge!

Cameron would not sit still for anything!

Exciting news will be blogged about tomorrow with the weekly McFatty Monday check in. I am really excited to share this with you all! See you then.

McFatty Monday - week one

Well, the time has finally come. I am more than ready to lose these 50+ pounds I have been dragging along with me for the past couple of years. I struggled for the past couple of days trying to decide just how honest I want to be. To say that I am ashamed of myself for getting to where I am is an understatement. I am 24 years old and I have 55 pounds to lose. It seems unreal. Are you asking yourself "well, how did she get there?" Well, let me tell you!

All throughout high school, I was in pretty good shape. I wouldn't ever say I was skinny, but I didn't call myself fat either. I fit comfortably into a size 11 pant and a size 29 in my favorite jeans (Silver brand). My shirts were usually a size large, but that is because I have quite a bit up top, if you know what I mean. Graduation came, and the next couple of years passed by without noticing any change in my body. Then 2006 rolled around.

Josh and I started dating in November of 2005. Things between us got pretty serious really fast. This is good, seeing that in the spring of 2006, my parents told me that my mom had accepted a job and would be moving across the country to Arizona after my brother graduated. I was conflicted. Did I stay with my parents, who I had known for 20 years and move across the country, or did I take a chance with a newer relationship that wasn't guaranteed to last? Needless to say, I stayed in Michigan with Josh and haven't looked back. Let's fast forward a couple of months. Of course, I am sad that my parents aren't around anymore. Yes, I talked to them on the phone pretty frequently, but that just isn't the same. I started into a depression. I ate all the time, that was the only way I felt better. One day, I started to notice that the food was catching up with me. My favorite jeans started to feel tighter. I chalked it up to the fact that I had been drying them in the dryer after I washed them instead of hanging them up to dry. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening. It all happened so fast. One day, I weighed 155-160 pounds. I loved that. In a matter of a couple of months, I was above 200. I couldn't believe it. But did I do anything about it? Absolutely not, not at first, anyways.

Now I can't remember exactly when I started it, but after our wedding (what do you know? We made it last!), I knew I needed to do something. I started up on Weight Watchers, and it also helped that I had a job that required me to be on my feet at least 7 1/2 hours a day. I know that I lost about 20 pounds, and then started to give up when the weight wasn't coming off as easily. Soon after my meltdown, I discovered that I was pregnant. I started off that pregnancy somewhere around 180 pounds. By the time the 40 weeks had passed, I was back up into the 200s, only this time, I had hit the 220s. After Cameron was born and the weight started coming off, I plateaued once again and sat (un)comfortably in the low 200s for the next year. A couple of weeks after Cameron's first birthday, I learned that I was once again pregnant. I had my first doctor's appointment in December, where the nurse not so kindly told me that I needed to be tested for Gestational Diabetes (at 8 weeks?!) because I was on the heavy side. That is when I realized that I really need to do something.

The beginning of the pregnancy was awful. I always felt nauseous and hardly ever ate, and that resulted in me losing 10 pounds. Once I started to feel better though, the weight came right back on. By the time those 40 weeks were over, I was up about 35 pounds, so somewhere around 240. I feel sick typing that. Well, Hannah is now almost 4 weeks old, and I am proud to say that I have already ditched 30 of those pounds I gained while pregnant.

I am starting this journey at a weight of 210 pounds. In my over-critical opinion of myself, that is just terrible. I never should have let myself get here. I have learned a lot since the summer of 2006, number 1 lesson being that I don't need to stuff my face to feel better. There are healthier things to do. I am hoping to end this journey at a weight of 155-160 pounds. So that is 50-55 pounds I need to lose. I am being pretty realistic and assuming that I will lose 2 pounds a week between my diet and the exercise I will be doing as soon as I get the clear from my OB. I am giving myself a goal of 30 weeks, which ends up being March 7th. Lose 55 pounds by March 7th. Wouldn't that be a fantastic birthday gift to myself to feel better again? I am thinking yes.

bad, bad blogger

I'm sure I can be forgiven, but finding the time to blog just doesn't come as easily as it used to. I (foolishly) thought that adding one more kid to the mix wouldn't be so difficult. Boy, was I mistaken. It has been quite challenging so far. Cameron is cutting two of his eye teeth and has been a nightmare. I am hoping that once the teeth finally come through he will be in a better mood. Hannah is a typical newborn - eat, poop, sleep. Repeat x 8. I love the cuddle time with her though. I am sure that once both of these kids are on some kind of schedule (that is the same), things will be worlds better. I can usually get them both to nap at the same time in the morning, but the afternoon is a different story. Cameron will sleep from 2:30-4:30, and Hannah will not. She will fuss and just want to be held until 4, and then finally falls asleep. By the time 4 rolls around, I am so ready for a nap, and I take the half an hour I get.

My recovery has been really great. I am feeling really good, just the occasional twinge of pain. My biggest issue has come with drying up my breast milk, but I won't go into too much detail about that. I decided to quit using the breast pump when I realized that sitting down for 20 minutes and pumping, then taking another 20 minutes to feed a bottle to Hannah all while Cameron is running around like a crazy person and Hannah starts crying every 3 hours is just not realistic (for me at least).

I am starting up a new series with this blog tomorrow, and I am SO excited about it.




There it is, folks. I am starting up a SERIOUS diet tomorrow. I still have about 5 pounds to lose to be back to my pre-pregnant with Hannah weight, and another 25 after that to be where I was before I got pregnant with Cameron. I would like to lose another 25 on top of that, so I have about 55 pounds to lose. It hurts me to type that, but I will write up a nice, long post about how I got to where I am and where I want to be tomorrow.