Happy 6 Month Birthday Ian!

Yesterday my baby turned 6 months old. I can't even believe it. I feel like I was just in the hospital yesterday...and here it is a whole half-year later. He's gone from this...

to this.....

in what seems like the blink of an eye. I am so excited for all the new things he does and discovers each day, but part of me is just sad. He had his 6 mo. check up and the doctor said he's doing great and gave me instructions on how to start baby food (I've exclusively BF so far so I have no clue!) and even suggested I get a sippy cup for him to try. A sippy cup!! Oh my gosh, the tears welled with that...he's not supposed to have a sippy cup yet! He's still my baby...an infant...and there is no way he's ready for all this! Of course I know he is, but if I could I would freeze time for a bit...it's just going too fast. I can't soak all the joy in each day...I feel like I'm missing some of it because it's flying by too quickly. And as if I needed another sign that day that he is growing up, he sat up all by himself for his pictures. All alone! No wall or couch behind him, no support from mom. Such a big little boy, and he just smiled at me from ear to ear like "hey mom, look what I can do now!". Oh boy, I'm not ready for this!

The trip to Detroit was fantastic. The ride up was great, Ian slept almost the entire way and when he did wake up he was happy and babbling to himself so it was a really pleasant ride. The way back he slept a bit but when he woke he was pretty fussy, especially after the semi next to us had a tire blow RIGHT next to our car. The rubber even flew up and hit our windshield...if you've never had this happen I can tell you the sound is like a gun being shot from INSIDE your car. It was such a fright I nearly drove off the road. After that Ian was not a happy guy. But overall the car time was bearable.

Mostly Karen (and Ian) and I just spent our time hanging out and relaxing. We went shopping (I did get a couple new shirts- yay me!) and Ian got his picture with the Easter Bunny (yes I am one of THOSE moms). We went to the park to feed the ducks (I will have to post a pic of this soon...there were SO MANY- it was hysterical! Too bad Ian was asleep the entire time or he would have gotten a kick out of it!). We watched a couple of movies...which BTW, Fargo- totally overrated. And we went out to eat a couple of times, including to this awesome restaurant called "Mind, Body and Spirits". It is SO awesome...they have tons of vegan and vegetarian food, and the place is almost entirely green. They recycle everything they use (including the napkins, food waste, etc. that all goes into this big machine that creates fertilizer for their plants...in the greenhouse they have where they grow all their own herbs, etc.! Kind of like a compost heap but you can put more stuff in it then just food). They save the rainwater and snow melt to water their greenhouse plants, and nearly all their building materials are green. They use special light bulbs, their floors are bamboo and recycled tires, etc.. It was so great and the food was amazing too! If anyone is ever in the Rochester Hills area, you MUST go here. It's too bad there aren't more places like it! (I may add that to my life list...start an animal shelter, a bakery (I decorate cakes), and a green vegetarian restaurant! :)

Ok, now for the weight info. Saturday morning I was at...........232! That's another 3.4 pounds down:) Woo hoo!!!! 11 whole pounds gone! So I hit Karen's goal for me but didn't quite make the 13 I wanted, but that is ok. I am proud of myself and how hard I've been working at this. I tried last night to create a chart to post here to show my progress but being the blog novice that I am I couldn't get it right. I'll keep trying and hopefully have a progress link soon. But so far so good!

The only negative is that I did not eat perfectly in Detroit...and unfortunately I have not yet been able to get back on track. I was actually not that upset with myself in Detroit; I was allowing myself to use my extra points (which until then I had never used ANY of) and really, compared to what I COULD have had, I didn't do too bad. I am more disappointed with myself and how I have eaten once I came home. I always have this problem...once I begin to see good results I give myself a tiny break and it cascades into a downward spiral. I guess that's my lesson, huh? No tiny breaks- at least ones where I don't journal my points:) Karen has a new challenge for me...to be down 5 more pounds by Easter. Don't know if I'll get there because I'm not sure where I'm at right now (I'm scared to look!) but I am going to try my hardest! Ian is sleeping so well now I plan to get up and get my butt on the treadmill in the mornings next week so that will help too. I just need to focus and get off this "all or nothing" mentality. This is a journey, not a race ;)