Tale of a naptime

This picture was taken at the end of our Sunday morning walk. Allie was so exhasted she fell asleep in the stroller even while Doug and I were talking, we were going over bumps and whatnot. It was past her naptime. So we thought we'd take her out of the stroller and straight upstairs where she'd nap for a few hours. Well, she had other thoughts on this. She proceeded to stay awake alternating crying and playing in her crib. She did this for one hour and we didn't go get her because surely she'd fall asleep. She did... an hour later. And she only slept for one hour. Naps are definitely hit or miss these days!

Indian summer

This weekend we got the sunscreen out because its summer again! And we've taken advantage of Indian summer too. We've had two walks and one trip to the playground this weekend, with more outdoor time tomorrow. I have a furlough day, so dada is taking the day off too and I'm sure enjoying the beautiful weather is on our list of things to do.

In comparison, last weekend we bought Allie a stocking cap to wear when we went to my race. What a difference!

Through the window

Looking back

Allie was only a week old here. I remember that day well. Grandma and Grandpa Durso and Aunt Julie came for the weekend and we went for a walk by Lake Monona. It wasn't that cold but we thought we had to bundle her up! She was sleeping, as she did for most of her first three months of life. She could have been asleep in her crib for all she knew. I loved this little ducky outfit because the ducks were cute. The pants had feet so we didn't have to mess with socks and the sleeves could be closed over her hands so we didn't have to mess with mittens!

I'm going to blog something every day for the rest of the month as I reflect on the past year. I can't believe Allie's first birthday is just three weeks away.

We've come a long way baby! As this first year draws to a close, I've enjoyed looking back at blog entries and photos from when she was small. Its mind boggling that I refer to "when she was small." Wow.

Home to work and back again

I need to post more often but truthfully, there's not a whole lot going on. We're plenty busy getting from home to work and back again, then making dinner and putting Allie to bed. Its exhausting!

Allie looks so grown up. We're starting to give her more and more non-pureed food. The newest additions are raisins, graham crackers and bananas. The funny thing about the bananas is that she didn't really care for a mashed banana, but cut up finger food bananas are a big hit.

I've been taking on the challenge the last few weeks of cooking a real meal for dinner every night. For the last few weeks I've either cooked dinner or we've had leftovers. And I've been trying a lot of new recipes. We're not going out as often as we used to and we haven't had dessert all week! This week I made moroccan-style ziti with chicken, tacos, lemon chicken (in the crock pot, so good) and overstuffed calzones. All those recipes are in cookbooks or else I'd link them. We've loved them all.

The efforts are paying off because over the last month I've lost 6 pounds. Hopefully more than that though, as I do my weigh-in on Friday mornings. So hopefully I'll add to that pounds lost category! TGIF!

Bundled up

I ran a post-partum PR in the Literacy Network 5K yesterday. For the report, see My Marathon Journey!

It was chilly this weekend. In preparation for going to the race and spending time outdoors in that chill, we got Allie this hat! It came with matching thumbless mittens. Talk about cute!

She kept it on her head, until she discovered that she could take it off. That made for a fun time for dada as they waited for momma to finish the race!

She's all bundled up and ready to go outside. She needed all that bundling, but it was hard to keep her covered!

Another example of how things change

This is an entertaining example of how our lives have changed in the last three years:

First anniversary, Sept. 29, 2008: Doug and I went out to the Tornado Steak House, the place we went to the night he proposed. We also went to a movie, but I don't remember what we saw. It was a Monday and I had the night off from work.

Second anniversary, Sept. 29, 2009: Unemployed and 8 months pregnant, we didn't have money to have a real anniversary date. It was a Tuesday and for our celebration we went to Babies 'R' Us and bought Allie's car seat and just happened to catch a seminar on car seats while we were there. Then we went home and made steaks for dinner.

Third anniversary, Sept. 29, 2010: It was a Wednesday and we went home from work, fed Allie and gave her a bath and our anniversary dinner was cajun red beans and rice because I didn't have to thaw anything out to make it! After putting Allie to bed, we watched something off the DVR, House, I think. Then on Friday Allie stayed at daycare and we went to an early movie where we pigged out on popcorn and were stuffed by time we got to dinner. We took home half our dinner from Benvenutos and had it for dinner Saturday with wine! The highlight of the extended celebration was that I didn't have to cook!

It keeps going downhill, I wonder what next year will be like?