My oldest had a birthday. Part of his gift was going to a baseball game, which has become his birthday tradition. He loves going, even though he still hasn’t learned all the lingo or who even all the players are. Something about going to a game is exciting. I can relate.

I thought it was sweet because he wanted to take his brother G.

Another thing was he finally {after asking everyday for months} received a Lego Pirates of the Carribean Black Pearl Ship.

He put it together in less than 1.5 hours flat. It was ah-mazing to witness.

Oh and…

He is now 9.

Nine

9

Nine

Yeah no matter how I write it he is getting older.  And while Mike & I are loving seeing him grow into a handsome, bright, loving young man.

DID I mention he IS already 9?! That means we are half-way to 18!

Hold me.

We like to have egg bakes in our meal rotation. Everyone in the family enjoys them making meal time a happier occasion.  And I especially like them because they are easy to put together. Another reason an egg bake is great is because I can prep it the night before and bake it the next morning, or have it for dinner and then leftovers are ready the next day.  Also, I can easily change up the add-ins depending on the mood that strikes me.  This time the mood that struck me was one of our favorites a simple but absolutely delish spinach, feta, and ham egg bake.

What You Need:

11 Eggs

2 Cups Diced Ham {optional}

3/4 Cup of Crumbled Feta

1/2 Cup of Almond Milk

1o 0z  Package of Frozen Chopped Spinach {thawed & well drained}

1 Clove of Minced Garlic

1/2 Small Onion {diced}

Pepper

Dash of Nutmeg

How To Put It Together:

Beat eggs together with almond milk with pepper & nutmeg in a large bowl. Mix into your eggs the feta, ham, garlic, onion & spinach.

Pour into 9 x 13 baking dish. Cook at 350 for 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked fully.

Caveats: You can always leave out the ham & make it vegetarian.

Serve for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

This week Baby Girl attempted to let go of the furniture she has been holding on to while cruising around and take a step. She tried to walk. All on her own. However, as is often the case with trying to walk, she has not yet succeeded.

No, instead she bumped her cheek. When it happened I picked her up, hugged her, wiped her tears and comforted her. Once she was ready I then helped her try again.

As I did this all the kids were worried. They rushed over and wanted to make sure she never fall again. They asked “Can’t we make it so she doesn’t fall ever again?” They wanted to protect her, to care for her, and part of that is desire is wanting to make her world one with as little discomfort as possible.

While, I would love as a parent to have the ability to know she or they would never fall I could not tell them that it wouldn’t happen ever again. Because the reality is we all have falls in life. We get bumps both real and metaphorical. But we have to get back up, accept help up when we need it, then try again and be ready to work toward our goals.

Baby Girl will walk all on her own. She will grow big & strong like her brothers & sister, she will also face other challenges in life like they will. There will be bumps, big and small, in the journey of life. And when they happen we will all be there for each other, comforting, guiding, helping back up & cheering each other on until steps we take become ones we have worn through.

We have been working on our garden. A new garden bed has been built and this weekend we spent some time getting our veggies planted. The kids helped dig in the dirt, plant the starter plants and the seeds. They will also help weed and harvest once the food grows, which I am sure will consist of them pulling a weed and picking a cucumber but hey it is a start. As for myself, I cannot wait for fresh produce!

Do you garden?

This is Lizzie Velasquez.

When she was in high school someone put up a YouTube clip about her.

It called her the Ugliest Woman on YouTube and apparently the world.

Read what she shares.

Know your words & actions have meaning.

You can cause pain & despair.

You can cause joy & love.

Choose what you say and how you walk through this world with care

And if you have been hurt, bullied, picked on or abused don’t give up.

You matter, you have meaning, you are loved.

Be beautiful, Be you

The kids have been very interested in learning more about nature and the animal kingdom. One of the shows we watched recently that perked their interest had a section in it about bears.  Bear cubs to be more precise where the target of the episode.  How bear cubs survive, the dangers they face and how the momma bear is a fierce protector of her cubs.

While watching Mamacita looks at Mr. G and says “Aww…look at the babies they are so cute.”

He looked back at her.  His face became serious and with a somber tone he said:

“Yes, they are cute. They are adorable killing machines.”

She looked surprised by his response and asked him: “Are you sure?”

“I am sure. They would eat you if you made them angry. Like I said: adorable killing machines.”

To which we all tried not to laugh.

Because really he wasn’t joking.

He meant it. Every word.  Adorable killing machines.

Mike shared this with me on the fourth. Because if you didn’t know that was Star Wars Day.

It is great. I am constantly amazed by the talent people have and express in their work. It puts a smile on my face.

I wish getting fit was this easy. Imagine just having the machine shake you into shape. All while you look fabulous!

But really in life there are no short cuts to weight loss.

None.

Real Life Experience:

This past week I lost 2.5 pounds. And I’m telling everyone. Even my mailman. Why? Because I earned them.

I was not seeing any movement on the days I weighed myself and was feeling all “DAMN!! What the freakity freak?!?!” Even though I am trying not live by numbers or watch my scale I do check in on it from time to time. I like knowing there is some progress, the scale is one small indicator. Others are: measurements {I have lost inches consistently}, how clothes fit AND most importantly how I feel. By the way I feel pretty darn good. No, make that: DAMN GOOD!

Still I have a good amount of extra body fat to lose so at some point if the scale is staying the same then something is off.

Three Reasons Why Change Finally Happened!

1) Reminding myself plateaus happen & they have to be worked through. Much like finishing my degree I had to keep at it and not give up when I didn’t feel like I was seeing progress. This about healing me it not a diet plan I am trying on only to discard when I hit a goal weight. Lifestyles are day to day efforts that take in the big picture.

2) Remembering muscle weighs the same amount as fat but is more dense, hence takes up less space than fat. My body has been building more muscle mass. The result was I had a couple weeks of beginning to fit into clothes better & lost inches even while the scale was not moving. I had to focus on the fact that my body was getting healthier even if I didn’t see a weight change. Inches lost are a good thing!

Those first two reasons matter.

Why? Because I believe that without focusing on the overall big picture many people give up making time for themselves. This is about me doing that for myself. Making myself & my health a priority. Healing from the impact that stress, depression and hormone imbalances had on my body & my overall health.

And the third reason is…

3) I started tracking what I eat again. Good news is I saw that I do I eat fairly well and have a good balance of foods to fuel my body. Bad news portion sizes of some items were throwing me off. I did not realize it until I saw the little extras add up and then I was like WHOA! {and feel free to read that whoa! in either a Joey Lawrence or Keanu Reeves voice}. I did not need to cut any of them out, just reduce the size I was having.  I am using the My Fitness Pal App to track. It is a good basic app to get a feel for what is going on and allows me to track food, water & exercise. It also tells me if I am eating too much but also if I am eating too little, which is important because I am breastfeeding Baby Girl and do not want to negatively impact my milk supply.  I lost more this past week than I normally would, I doubt I will have that continue but I will be mindful of it as being able to continue a healthy breastfeeding relationship while losing weight is important to me.

I am trying to heal myself. I know this is not an overnight process. I know my body and my health took some hard hits.  Healing takes time. But in the mean time I will celebrate every small move in the right direction.

I took this while heading into a Tigers game last month. It was a random single wall.

Standing.

All alone.

A stalwart against the forces that had come to destroy it both from outside and within.

But still standing.

Not going down with out a fight.

You know the drill. I admit it seemed like a good metaphor for the city I love.

And it seemed like a good metaphor for all of us who struggle but don’t give up.

We stand.

Recently, I received the opportunity to review Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets from BlogHer and have a $100 Target gift card giveaway!

I have turned down several other review/giveaway offers because I did not feel they would be good fit. However, with this offer I jumped at the chance to review the new tablets because as you might remember I have a teething tyrant in my house.

Err, I mean I have an absolutely adorable, sweet, angelic baby who happens to be teething right now, and teething makes her a tad cranky. OK, it makes her an adorable teething tyrant.

I also love Target {or as we call it around here Tar-gay} and figured many of you might feel the same.

As a mom of 5, Baby Girl is my 5th teething baby! And as a result of having done this momma of a teething tyrant gig before I do have lots of tricks up my sleeve to help soothe her–from cold teething rings to frozen washcloths to wooden teethers and so on.

But in my quest to add to my bag of tricks, I thought it would be a good to review this product. I could get some real-time, real, hands-on experience with Baby Girl and share with other parents.

Baby Orajel Naturals Tablets is the first and only homeopathic offering from the #1 teething brand, Baby Orajel.

Breaking down the details…

I like that Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets are homeopathic teething tablets. I prefer to try to use natural elements with my kids, especially my babies.

Another plus for me is that the tables have chamomilla as one of the key ingredients for soothing a teething baby. From my own experience chamomilla is a calming agent for all ages. For example, we use chamomile tea before bed to help relax on days when everyone is all revved up and have even used chamomile tea as a treatment for colic.

Also, Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Tablets are belladonna-free, benzocaine-free, dye-free, alcohol-free and paraben-free. The focus on removing these elements from their tablets speaks to the crunchy momma wanna-be in me!

The tablets were very easy to place under Baby Girl

In use…

And yes before I go any further…I truly did use them with her! And not only I did I use them with Baby Girl, Mike also gave some to her on two different evenings when I was lecturing.

Because trust me, she was having a rough one. If you have ever been around a teething baby you know those rough ones are the days/evenings/middle of the nights when you are up walking back and forth across the floor with your little sweetheart, who is anything but sweet and is very fussy, and you are trying to do anything you can to soothe your baby.

These teething tablets turned out to be a wonderful addition to help with those rough ones.

Another great benefit of these tablets is not only was it easy to get them in her mouth, under her tongue, but the tablets feature a quick-dissolve rate of about 10 seconds. Meaning no worrying about them falling out right after you pop them in, and her not getting the relief she needs. It also made it harder for her to spit them out before they dissolved; instead they dissolved before she could try this little trick {and oh how babies will try}. So BAM! Score one for the parents!

Love these moments, she cracks me up with the faces she makes!

Now for the big answer did they work?

Both Mike and I concur that yes, yes they did actually work. I was glad to have Mike’s feedback to see how she reacted when I wasn’t around because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just my perception.

Nope, it was not just me.

The truth is she seemed so much calmer and soothed after receiving them on the days when her teething was out of control. She was then able to gnaw on her teething ring or a frozen washcloth with glee.

My favorite part was seeing my sweet, smiling Baby Girl after she was soothed. And to see the two teeth she is now sporting {Yes, TWO teeth!!}. I love these moments as a momma.

Well, I don’t love the teething tyrant part {because man that part, um, SUCKS!} but I do love seeing the squirrely faces she makes and her brand new two-tooth smile as she is chomping away on her morning snack.

I also love getting to know the beautiful little person my Baby Girl is becoming!

And now that I have shared my review and one of my favorite moments as a momma how about you…

What was your favorite moment as a new mom? Or maybe you are, like me, a seasoned mom with a new baby? Share your moment in the comment section to be entered for a chance to win a $100 Target Gift Card, courtesy of BlogHer and Baby Orajel Naturals!!

Rules For Entry:No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/1 – 5/31/2012.

Be sure to visit the Baby Orajel page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win.

Orajel® is a registered trademark of Church & Dwight.