Heather's Handmade Life

You know you’re a mom when …

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Heather Laura Clarke

Ten pounds

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Heather Laura Clarke

I was nervous when I stepped on the scale this morning.

We didn’t eat out this week at all. I didn’t have a single French fry or burger. We didn’t make bacon (to date, that’s been the biggest point-killer I’ve eaten).

I had been really good this week …

… except for the evening I made homemade brownies for the first time in my life — FYI, Little Sis is to blame for giving me the idea!

Anyway, the brownies were amazeballs. I was good about tracking everything I ate for most of the week, but didn’t log everything during those two days, SO a part of me was a little panicky that maybe brownies were a zillion points.

I was worried this might be the first week I wouldn’t lose.

But when I stepped on the scale this morning, I saw a number lower than what I was expecting.

I was down another two pounds, bringing my total weight loss to 10 lbs. since joining Weight Watchers Online six weeks ago. Happy daaaaaance!

Because it was the first goal set in the Weight Watchers system, all these lovely stars popped up and they were all HOORAY YOU REACHED YOUR GOAL NOW DON’T GO CELEBRATING WITH A CHEESEBURGER M’KAY BECAUSE A SKINNY GIRL WOULDN’T DO THAT! (Not actually, but it should have said that).

I don’t have an exact number of points I want to lose, but it’s probably another 20 — 30, if I really get my act together.

It sounds daunting when I think of that number, but then I remind myself that when I started Weight Watchers — six weeks after C was born — I had already lost 24 lbs. since her birth.

So in total, I’m 34 lbs. lighter than I was on April 25. Which means I’m more than halfway to what is PROBABLY my ideal weight — although I won’t know for sure until I’m there.

If I lose 1 lb. a week consistently, I’ll be 24 lbs. lighter on New Year’s Eve (58 lbs. lighter than I was the day I had C). I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep up that rate, but hopefully between breastfeeding, eating healthy, exercising, and keeping my Teen Burger intake to a minimum, it will be.

It is weird to think of myself as being 20 or 30 lbs. lighter than I am right now. But I am pretty freakin’ sure it will feel amazing!

In their tinyness …

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Heather Laura Clarke

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I have written before about how quickly C is growing up.

(Doesn’t every Mom lament about that, really?

But it never gets old, does it?)

I know I felt the same way with D, but it feels so much … MORE this time, you know? I’m twice as busy! I have two babies to savour instead of just one, and I feel pangs of guilt that she rarely has 100% of my attention, the way D did.

When I hold her deliciously squishy little body, I feel my brain frantically trying to memorize everything about her.

She is a nom-able squishy thing, with rolls upon rolls.

Her skin is impossibly soft, but you can see sturdy muscles beneath it.

Her hands are teeny tiny carbon copies of mine, right down to the crooked pinkies.

She is rocking a mullet and a bald patch, and her hair frizzes in the humidity.

When she widens her eyes, she looks just like me as a baby.

Every day, she gets stronger and more alert. She has been holding her head up shockingly well since we were in the hospital (whaaaa?) and already she holds her entire body upright if you hang onto her hips. I keep telling her to SLOW DOWN OMG, because REALLY? I was promised a teensy baby, and you have not been teensy nearly long enough yet!

I don’t know if it’s because C might be our last baby, or if it’s just the usual “oh-the-grow-up-so-quickly-why-can’t-time-stand-still” routine …

… but oh, how I am trying to hold onto her tinyness.

It feels like a thousand years ago that D was this small, and really it was less than two years ago. I keep thinking that in less than a year, she will be a toddler. Once they are a toddler, time seems to slow down a bit again, and I don’t get as panicky. D has changed in the last year, but NOT EVEN CLOSE to how dramatically he changed in his first year.

My mind feels like a mental camera, and I sometimes swear I can hear it snapping away, willing itself to remember it all.

I saw this collage of close-up baby photos on Pinterest today, and was overcome with the need to write this post.

It’s the perfect reminder that my brain can’t remember it all, and it won’t.

All I can do is take pictures.

And write blog posts.

And jot down the milestones.

And breathe them in every time I hug them and kiss them, in the hopes that my heart never forgets how it feels at this exact moment, to love them like this.

In their tinyness.

Easy toddler art activity

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Heather Laura Clarke

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I’ve always been a crafty girl, and I’m passionate about getting my kids to be creative, too. D and I do a lot of art projects together.

He loves to draw, colour, paint, sculpt, cut things out, glue — you name it. And he’s just barely two years old. As he gets older — and I can trust him with more items — the list of things we can craft is only going to grow. Beadwork is next on our list, but that one’s going to require a lot of concentration on my end — he still puts things in his mouth sometimes.

An easy craft we’ve been doing a lot lately is making homemade wrapping paper*. He loves it, it keeps him busy (read: quiet) for a while, and it’s practical, too. There are always presents to wrap for someone, it seems!

Homemade Wrapping Paper

Take some acrylic paint and pour it in a plastic cup. I usually add some water, too, so it’s easy to clean off his little hands.
Grab a toddler-sized paintbrush (I give him my old cruddy brushes so I don’t care what he does with them) and a paper towel
Spread out a large piece of paper (sometimes I use plain paper, sometimes it’s construction paper or solid-coloured wrapping paper)
Let your toddler go wild with the paint brush
When they slow down, make their brush “new” again by wrapping the paper towel around it and showing them how to sponge paint/stamp on the paper

*I’m a bad blogger, so excuse the lack of an “after” photo, but rest assured this paper turned into a very lovely-looking wrapped gift for one of D’s little girlfriends.

One word of caution: Don’t put a lot of paint in the cup, because at some point they WILL purposely pour the cup of paint all over the paper. Every. Single. Time. Just put enough so that when they do pour it, it’s not going to flood the paper and go everywhere. Lesson, uh, learned.

What I Ate Wednesday

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Heather Laura Clarke

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Wow, I FINALLY remembered to take pictures of everything I ate for one entire day. Doesn’t sound that hard, but I sure as heck couldn’t remember for the life of me.

Ready to see everything I ate yesterday? Of course you are! Let’s go …

Breakfast: One egg hardboiled in my neato microwave contraption, one English Muffin with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, orange juice, and de-caf tea (with skim milk) in my special mug (which was painted by Best Friend as a Christmas gift about a thousand years ago)

Lunch: Homemade pita chips, salsa, garlic hummus, and a mix of tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, and green onions. I like to put some hummus on a chip, scoop up vegetables, and the dip in salsa. It’s a messy but delicious process.

Afternoon snack: Green apple slices, four pieces of melba toast spread with two wedges of Laughing Cow Light cheese (two of my obsessions I blogged about last week)

Dinner: Quesadilas made from two small whole-wheat tortillas, chicken, corn, tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, green onion, salsa, and 20 grams of marble cheese. Served with salsa and tbsp. sour cream. Mmmmmm.