Swimming in a Sea of Cardboard

The final countdown is on and I am packing up our place. This is the time when you start to ask yourself things like "What the hell is this?" or "Why do I need 57 different kinds of tea?". I am not kidding, I just filled an 11 gallon container with all sorts of tea.

The closer our moving date gets, the more I feel a little sad about leaving our little place. This was the place we brought Isabel home for the first time, the place she learned to crawl and walk, and lots of good memories of Jeremy and I starting our life out together here. However, I am excited by the prospect of our new home and can't wait to start a new chapter there. For a while I kept saying that this new house wasn't my dream house, but a good stepping stone for us. Now I am excited about being able to have my family over for holiday dinners, having Isabel grow up in a house with a yard, the potential of her being able to learn how to ride a bike in front of the house and more time spent with my family instead of commuting. So this house IS my dream house- a place where we can make all those dreams reality!

October? Huh?

Has it really been two months since I lasted posted something? Huh?? Is Facebook replacing blogging? Possibly. But at the same time I don't really feel like I have time to blog about anything exciting!

Well, now I do! WE ARE MOVING! Jeremy and I are in the process of selling our house (by the way, it has probably been the worst experience EVER- but let's not focus on the bad stuff, shall we?) Our closing date is October 26 and we have yet to find a house. Oh well, details, right? I am very excited about finding a bigger house- we're outgrowing our condo and it will be nice to have a little more space. Isabel needs more room to run and climb and be a kid- and in our place she's constantly restricted by gates and sharp corners. Yikes.

Isabel has been growing at lightspeed- I had to go through her clothes again this week and fish out all the 18-24 month sizes and put them away. On to 2T! I tried to put some PJ's on her this week and had a hard time zipping them up. Her little feet were squished in and as Jeremy put it- she looked like a "Baby Sausage".

Hopefully we'll have more of an update soon about a new house and location- but if anyone wants to help us pack... just let me know! :)

I love her hair...

This chica has the best hair. Hands down. When she gets up in the morning, she looks like sheepdog with her messy, crazy hair. It makes me laugh everytime.

Things have been so busy lately- we've finally put our house on the market again and now we are just playing the waiting game. And cleaning a lot. I can't wait until we finally get a buyer- then I don't have to worry about keeping every single thing completely spic-n-span every day. Not that I don't love my clean house- it actually feels wonderful to not have to a lot of stuff lying around. Just tired of the constant stress of people coming through my house.

Isabel is really close to saying her first word. Well, other than MAMA and DA and KA-BOOM. (which is what she says when she wants to slide down the stairs on her tush). She says PA when I ask her to say Grandpa and G'MA when I ask her about Grandma. But she's also been using the B sounds and will say B'AH when referring to a ball or a balloon. (She LOVES balloons). She pretty much can understand everything we say to her- however there are the exceptions. Don't expect her to explain to you the theory of relativity, but I have to remember there are little ears in the room now.

One of her favorite things lately has been Curious George. Auntie Nicole bought her some George books before she was born and she finally is old enough to sit through stories with a little more meat to them. She also has a Curious George stuffed toy which she loves to cuddle with when we read about George. Let's just say I can pretty much recite the stories about George from memory we read them so much. But she loves them, so I am happy to do whatever it takes to make her sit for a story.

I can't wait for a house that is big enough for Isabel to run around in- and doesn't have so many evil stairs. Crossing my fingers that soon we'll make this dream a reality!

Mmmm Yogurt.

Eat to Live

Recently, I've been reading a book called "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Furhman and have been taking a serious look at the kind of foods I've been eating in my diet. Having a child puts a new spin on your life- it changes your priorities, your responsibilities and ultimately, your long term goals.

I've also been witnessing how a person's diet can affect their body and it is an extremely serious topic with me these days. I feel strongly that we should be aware of the kinds of things we put into bodies- I mean, we're so concerned if we're around people that smoke, take drugs or drink too much, yet we don't pay the least bit of attention as to what we put into our mouths on a daily basis. Most people don't read labels close enough nor do we get enough of the good stuff into our bodies. The most important thing we can do to ensure our good health is to make sure we're getting enough fruits and vegetables in our diets each and every day and keep the amount of processed foods to near zero. End of story.

With Isabel, I look at baby food and am shocked and appalled as to what is made for babies to eat. I looked at some Gerber Wagon Wheels the other day and found that they were made with high fructose corn syrup. It is no wonder that over 30% of children in the United States are obese. That is a very scary number to me.

The book "Eat to Live" has some very interesting view points and some may seem a little over the top for some. However, Dr. Furhman's bottom line is this- we need to eat more fruits, vegetables and beans and less meat to be healthier individuals. I've made a conscious effort to eat more of these each day and I've been more energetic, lost a few pounds and have felt better over all. I haven't followed his diet strictly, as I don't think I really am there yet. But a few small changes have made a big difference.

As I grow older, I am seeing more and more people close to me with cancer, heart disease and other ailments. You start to wonder if people die of "old age" anymore. I saw an interesting article on Oprah's website the other day about "Blue Zones". Blue Zones are places in the world where people live to well into their 80's, 90's and 100's. Some of the common factors in the health of the people that live there are moderate exercise, legumes and a plant based diet.

You are what you eat. I don't think there could be anything more true than that.